Lira opened her eyes, they were currently camped underneath a tree.  The morning sky opened up and beckoned to them.  The cool breeze blew past her naked skin, with a slight chill she snuggled up closer to Leon’s warm skin.  

She was sore, extremely sore, her hips, her thighs and yes even that down below, she felt like she had been stretched out and pushed in ways she never had before.  But if that was the worse thing she felt after something so amazing as what had happened last night, then she was willing to put up with some discomfort.

The best and worse part was she didn't have to worry about getting pregnant.  There had been many documented cases of familiars mating with others of their race, and there was no offspring from such pairings.

Familiars were infertile.

It made her happy that she didn't have to worry about contraceptives, or getting pregnant, which was the last thing she needed right now.  But it also caused her to feel some sadness, what would their future together be like?

Leon wrapped an arm around her and pulled her close, she looked up and was surprised to have found him awake.

“How long?”  she started, her cheeks blushing slightly.

“I have been watching you all morning.”  he laughed.  “You are different now.”  he said looking at her with serious eyes.

“I suppose that is what they mean when they say you become a woman.”  she laughed.

“Well that, I was referring to your horns however.”  he said, and he reached out to her forehead, his hands wrapped around something, and when he pulled her head followed the motion of his hand.

“What!?”  she shouted, sitting up and conjuring a pool of water to look at her reflection in.

She indeed had horns, they were white, and swept forward from her temples and curved around the front of her head. She softly touched them, before smiling.

“Do you know what this means?”  she asked.

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“I don't, but now we are matching,”  he said and he turned away hiding his face with a hand for a split second before turning back to her.  When he did he had those horns on his head again like when he had taken down the Lapis.  

His were slightly different, they curved back over his head from his forehead, they were also completely black, which looked quite nice over the top of his flame red hair.

“It means we truly trust each other now.”  she said. “We are truly one now, it is called merging, it happens when a familiar and a conjurer give each other there everything, they start to share some physical features, some Mages go their entire lives without ever merging.”

“Oh I have much more to give you.”  he smiled as he leaned over and gave her a kiss on the forehead in between the points of her horns.  

She blushed sweetly before pulling away. “We need to get back to camp, or they will be liable to leave us.”  she got up and shook the loose grass off of her clothes before putting them on.

“Damn shame.”  Leon sighed, “It was such a beautiful morning...”

It only took them about an hour to get to the camp, this was due to Leon carrying Lira on his back as he ran.  When they arrived the carriages were being packed and the camp was being torn down.

There was a commotion in the center of the camp, at the epicenter was krya, she was shouting and arguing with the teacher.

“I am telling you we killed a Lapis!”

“And I am telling you there are no Lapis around here.” her teacher responded with an annoyed look on her face.

“Well this one wondered far to get here then.”

“If that is so then where is the evidence? The trophy from the hunt?”  the teacher sneered at the girl infront of her.

“I-I”

“You-you don't have any because you didn't kill one, even I would have trouble killing a Lapis, and you expect me to believe you and another student were able to do something I don't know I would be able to?”

“I am sorry, it would seem my student Lira was a bad influence on young Krya here.”  The waffle witch said.  Lira shook her head, she would no longer be able to think of her by any other name no thanks to Leon. “Speaking of which where is that girl?”

“I am here.” Lira said, the teachers turned towards her and Leon, and was about to say something when her eyes fell on the horns on Lira’s head, and the ones on Leons.  Her mouth fell open in shock and the only sound that passed through the camp was the sound of the wind and the movement of the horses.

“Hey Lira, can you answer my questions in a loud enough manner that everyone can hear them?”  Leon asked a slight smile pulling up the corner of his mouth.

“Sure, what is it?”

“Is Mrs. Waffle Bitch merged with her familiar?”  he asked, and lira smiled.

“No, she is not merged with her familiar.”  she answered in a normal voice, it was clear that they were talking about her, as they were staring at her.

Mrs Waffle Bitch flushed red in anger.

“Is it normal for someone that old to not be merged?”

“No, it is not odd, most people can't do it.”  Lira said.

“Oh? Why is that?”  he asked the smile growing larger on his lips.

“Well it is mostly due to a lack of trust.”  she said simply, inside herself however she was freaking out, why was she going along with this? She had always been a person that kept her head down.  So why was she doing this now?

“Thats sad”  he said, slowly shaking his head, Lira didn't need to say anything, everyone was able to get his meaning  from the motion alone. “Let's go, we need to get our things packed and ready.”  he said, he beckoned to Krya and fluffy as he had named the large wolf, and grabbed her hand and pulled them away to the tent they had used several nights ago, leaving the humiliated and fuming waffle witch behind with the rest of the students.