As it turned out, they had bought two tents. But Kassandra had apparently only packed one. She almost managed to pull off the switch without getting caught but Rieka found enough tent stakes for two tents, stored in two separate pouches, in one of the packs. Kassandra ended up admitting to it once confronted with that evidence.

“Seriously, Kass? I can’t believe this.” Rieka huffed in irritation, glaring at her serpentine friend. I’d started setting up the lone tent we had while the girls talked. They weren’t shouting at each other and Kassandra still had her trademark sunny smile on at the moment so I wasn’t all that worried. That and we needed to have shelter ready before it got dark.

No idea what the girls have for light sources after all, they might have some kind of lantern spell or something, or we might just have to deal with a campfire for light.

The area we set the tent up in was a small clearing nestled into the edge of the ridge that we had climbed up and over initially. It kept us shielded from the rest of the valley by the hillside and trees, while also being set back from the edge of the lake by several hundred feet. It gave a good view of the lake and waterfall while still giving us plenty of shelter from wind and rain. The clouds that hung in the air above us were the fluffy, white masses that just served as a canvas for the setting sun to paint with brilliant colors, so I wasn’t worried about a storm at the moment.

“I was thinking that two tents was unnecessary for the three of us, for one. And for two, the tents are heavy enough bringing just one. Two would have been extra weight to carry that was unnecessary. Besides, having the extra space in our packs means that we can bring more supplies back with us. Thus meaning we make more on this trip. If we can get enough saved for a dimensional satchel, then we can worry about bringing extra gear…because it’s not going to be as heavy.” Kassandra answered simply as she moved around the edges of the clearing, collecting and piling fallen and dried wood to one side. “Come on, Rieka. It’s too late to change it now. I admit, I should have said something sooner, but I know you trust Liam as much as I do, so there is no reason to make a big production of it. Plus, we’ll be more secure sleeping closer to our protector. See if you can find enough big rocks to make a fire pit, but set any with a good-sized flat surface aside for wardstones. I’d rather we didn’t have to stand watch and it’s worth the mana to ward the campsite.”

Rieka continued to glare at her friend for several seconds before sighing and doing as she was asked. They continued to talk in lower voices that I had a feeling were meant to be too quiet for me to be able to hear, but I still caught snippets as I set up the circular tent on one edge of the clearing.

The tent reminded me of one of those ‘one pole’ tents that my grandfather used to be a huge fan of, but was far larger than the single person tent that he liked to use. Makes sense, Kass is big enough she wouldn’t fit in one of those one person tents. At least Kass made sure the tent was big enough for all three of us. I thought while carefully laying out the canvas flooring over top of the thick grass of the clearing. And the meadow grass will make a good mattress at least. Better than the hard ground, but still not what these two are used to. Hope they brought enough blankets to keep warm.

“It’s not that I don’t trust Liam.” I heard Rieka say as I was laying the stakes out for the tent. I glanced over to find her with an armful of fist-sized rocks talking to Kassandra. “I do trust him and you. It’s not being asked for my opinion or given a choice that bothers me. If I wanted to just be told what to do, I would have stayed in the castle.”

“Ah, I’m sorry, Rieka. I didn’t even think about that. I’m sorry.” Kassandra’s shoulders drooped and she dumped another armload of sticks on the ground.

“It’s fine, Kass. Just try to let me have some input in the future.” Rieka’s words were low enough that I almost didn’t catch them. Feeling bad for listening in, I pointedly focused my attention elsewhere and began rustling the canvas back and forth while I got the center pole set up and balanced with the guylines to support it.

“I’m thankful I remember enough of the practical survival knots Grandad taught me.” I muttered while securing the support lines. The only spot in the tent that would be high enough for me to stand would be right by the center pole, but we didn’t plan to spend time in the tent standing. It didn’t form a perfect seal either, with the top simply draping down over the edges of the circle of cloth that made up the flooring and a bit of lacing on the interior of the tent lifted the outer edges of the flooring up to tie to spots on the interior of the ceiling. It wouldn’t be enough to prevent bugs or mice getting in, but it would prevent water running into the sleeping area.

It took another fifteen minutes before I was satisfied that the tent was secured to the ground and stable enough that we wouldn’t have a problem. I unpacked the bedrolls next and got them laid out roughly equally around the center pole of the tent as well before turning back to check on the girls.

Enough time had passed that they had finished their discussion and made up as they were chatting amiably now while Rieka used a short shovel to hack a shallow pit in the dirt before making a circle of stones as a fire-ring. Kassandra had six other stones that had clean, flat faces on one side that she was using a piece of crystal to scratch symbols into. Symbols that I didn’t recognize, but she was faithfully replicating over each of the stones.

“Tent is all set up.” My statement got a smile and a ‘thank you’ from both of the girls. I glanced over at the pile of firewood that Kassandra had gathered and shook my head. She’d done a decent job collecting fallen branches and the like, but it was far too small of a stack from my experience. The thickest pieces were barely two fingers wide and all of it looked like it was from branches that had just fallen on the ground or been broken off. “We need more firewood. You always need far more firewood than you think you will when camping outdoors. I’ll grab some more while you two finish what you are doing.”

“Stay within sight of the camp, Liam.” Rieka urged as she stacked the stones in place. She glanced up at me, a look of concern on her features that made me wonder if she was expecting a reprimand for it.

“Of course. We need to look after each other and there is no saying what might be in the local forest. You two keep an eye out for each other too.” My response sent her tail whipping back and forth happily and Rieka nodded quickly. Kassandra shot me a quick thumbs-up as well before going back to focusing on what she was doing. “Once I get back with the firewood, we can go and get water from the lake and get the fire started. Shouldn’t wait too long, the sun is going down fast.”

I didn’t have to go far to find more wood. There were downed trees all around us, with nature thinning the forest through storms and the cycle of natural selection. Breaking branches off and using my bodyweight to break larger pieces off of the older, more brittle trunks, I quickly made several trips worth of larger pieces to the campsite until I was certain we’d have enough for the night as well as for part of the next day too.

Rieka had finished setting the fire ring and had used several of the longer branches to set up a simple tripod over the fire using a metal ring to hold it together and an S-hook to have a spot for a pot to hang as well. Once it was ready, she moved the tripod to the side and started piling tinder and small branches into the fire pit.

I returned with my last armload of wood just as Kassandra was slithering around the clearing and setting the stones into the grass with the flat side down to the earth. As she set each one down, she would recite an incantation and tap it with her rod before moving on to the next one.

“So, what sort of magic is our sneaky-string up to?” I asked Rieka when she stood up from arranging the tinder bed and dusted her hands off on her pants. The wolf woman smothered a snicker at how I’d referred to Kassandra while I continued my question. “I’m guessing it’s magic since she’s got her rod out.”

“Perimeter wards, as she said before. She’s priming them now and we will activate them before we go to bed. They’ll cause a loud noise and glow brightly if anything dangerous crosses them. They are only temporary though. We’ll have to re-energize them in the morning. I hadn’t thought about it until she mentioned them, but it makes sense. This way, we don’t have to have someone standing watch at night. You can make more elaborate ones if you lock them more firmly in place or use better materials. For now, these will do.” Rieka answered with a smile before picking up the small iron pot that our dinner would be being cooked in.

“Fancy. I’m sure they will be useful. Who knows, we might make a regular trip up here if we can find a good source of things to collect. How are classes going for you two anyway? You mentioned Runes before and I know you two are both taking a Summoning class but I haven’t heard about that one yet. I’ve basically only been called for missions outside of Juneau as it is.”

Rieka blushed at my question, but her ears remained perked up and her tail was still wagging slowly so I hoped she wasn’t about to deliver bad news.

“Classes are good. We needed to talk about that anyway, the class thing. We will need to summon you during the week for exercises in class as well as to prove that we are continuing to work with our contracted partner. The project itself is to ‘forge strong bonds with our companion and aid their growth’. Which I hope we are doing right?” The almost plaintive look from the blonde-haired wolf-kin girl would have melted my heart if the two of them hadn’t already won me over completely.

I plopped my hand down on her head between her ears and stroked her hair gently while I answered.

“Of course you two are. I count you and Kass as dear friends of mine and you are definitely helping me get stronger. This weekend will be enough to show that, for sure.” Rieka’s eyes went to happy slits and her tail wagged faster as I lightly stroked her hair and scrubbed at the base of her expressive, canine ears. She hummed happily and leaned into my hand, so I kept going while watching Kassandra as she set the last stone, spelled it, and then hurried back to us.

The serpentine woman saw me doling out headpats to Rieka and smirked wickedly. Her expressive brown eyes twinkled merrily behind her silver-rimmed spectacles.

“Handing out rewards already, Liam? Where’s mine?” Kassandra demanded as she immediately pressed herself into the side opposite Rieka, lifting my free arm and draping it over her shoulders.

“I don’t know, Kass. What kind of reward do you think you should get for throwing a bunch of rocks onto the ground for us to trip on in the night?” I teased back. The auburn-haired dwarf lamia pouted up at me, her bottom lip sticking out cutely.

“How could you say that, Liam? I put those wardstones into place so that you could have a full night's sleep! If you trip on them in the night, it’ll be your own fault because you are wandering off where you shouldn’t be.” Kassandra sulked, crossing her arms under her full breast to further accent her pout in a way that would have seemed childish, if it wasn’t for her overly sexual figure making it amusing and erotic instead.

Deciding not to tease her anymore, I bent over and pressed a kiss to her forehead when her eyes dove down to look away, figuring it was safer than stealing a kiss from her lips at the moment.

“Thank you, Kass. I know you were doing it out of thoughtfulness. Was just teasing.” I murmured into her hair, using the arm around her shoulders to pull her against my side. She’d already made her interest known to me before, I just needed to get the courage together to have that conversation with her soon.

“And because she doesn’t want her heat source to wander away in the night.” Chipped in Rieka, grinning from ear to ear as her tail stirred up a storm behind her.

“Rieka struggles too much when I snuggle with her.” Sulked Kassandra with a faux-frown on her face that threatened to crack in only seconds as a smile rose up behind it.

“Just don’t go doing anything weird or dirty with Liam in the tent. I don’t need to see that.” Rieka insisted, the sparkle in her eyes at getting to tease Kassandra obvious to even me.

“Don’t worry, I wouldn’t want to make a mess in the tent with you there. I’ll make sure anything like that…we do outside.” Kassandra replied with a jaunty wink that sent a blush cruising over Rieka’s face immediately. Rieka clearly believed her friend and her mind had gone off wondering.

“Okay you two, enough of that.” I cut in, hoping to spare Rieka any further embarrassment. “Let's head down to the lake and get water for dinner. I’m sure a campfire stew isn’t the height of fine dining, but I know I’m hungry and I bet the two of you would appreciate something besides trail food.”

“Oh gods, yes.” Kassandra exclaimed, throwing both her arms around my waist and hugging me close so she could bury her face in my chest with a happy laugh, rubbing her face back and forth quickly. “I have a little kettle in my bag too so we can make some hot tea once we get the fire going. Let's get the water before the sun sets.”

Trooping through the trees to the lakeside, all three of us kept watch on our surroundings. The animals I’d seen drinking from the lake had left at this point, and the walk was quiet save for birdsong and the chattering of small animals in the trees. I could see the little ripples on the surface of the lake as fish snatched bugs from the air over the water for their dinner too.

“So Liam.” Kassandra asked as we arrived on the rocky shore of the lake and I stepped out on a few of the rocks sticking out of the water to fill the kettle and the pot. “Have you camped often? You didn’t seem to have trouble with the tent at all.”

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

“Somewhat.” I answered while peering into the water. The whole lake was crystal clear and I could see the bottom quite a ways out. There was movement there, several fish in different shades of silver and blue darted back and forth as well as a larger, oval shape that made me think it had to be a turtle of some kind. The lake was several hundred feet across and the bottom dropped away quickly, so there could be quite a bit of life in it. “I used to go camping with my dad and grandfather when I was younger, but it has been a decade since granddad passed away and it hasn’t really felt the same since. I know a few tricks, but I’m not what you’d call an ‘avid camper’. With you two though? I’m happy to rough it and be out here, but I wouldn’t expect the same of two refined young women.”

“Oooh, he thinks we are refined.” Kassandra teased with a grin. Rieka just rolled her eyes at her friend and got a stuck out tongue in response from the dwarf-lamia.

“Thanks, Liam. I know that Kass and I are more comfortable knowing you are here to look after us.” Rieka added as I turned around. The platinum-blonde was peering at the far bank of the lake where the falling water continued to crash into the surface of the lake with a dull roar. She had one hand on the handle of her spell rod while she kept watch.

“How is it that you two are so comfortable around me anyway?” I asked, hefting the full containers and nodding towards the camp as the evening light continued to dim rapidly.

“Why wouldn’t we be?” Kassandra butted in, taking the kettle from my right hand so I could reach my sword if I needed to while we headed back up the slope.

“I mean…well…look you two are very attractive young women. And you seem to have absolutely no problem wandering off into the wilderness with someone who is just this side of a complete stranger. And now we are camping out in a tent…with no one around to supervise you two. Add in the fact that Kass…well you are a young noblewoman and Rieka is a princess and well…”

“Fourth princess. I might as well just be the same rank as Kass.” Rieka interrupted with a huff of irritation.

“The point still stands though, Rieka. You two are awfully trusting of me.” I sighed, lifting a branch out of the way so the two could go past me without having to deal with it. Rieka nodded to me while Kassandra shot me another saucy wink.

“Is there a reason we shouldn’t trust you?” Rieka asked after a moment of thought. “I mean to say, are you untrustworthy?”

“No, that’s not what I meant.” I sighed in exasperation. “I appreciate that you two trust me, but I worry that you will extend this same trust to someone who isn’t worthy of it.”

“We aren’t naïve, Liam.” Kassandra dropped aside the teasing and the flirting for once and answered me seriously. “Sure, you are more physically powerful than either of us, but we both have our own ways of protecting ourselves. You’ve had our backs and worked to defend us in the past, and so we trust you. Because we know you. I can speak for us both that there are precious few people like that who attend Juneau for us to extend our trust to. Even amongst the professional guards and the military that work for Rieka’s mother, there aren’t as many that I would trust alone in my chambers like I do with you.”

“How can you be sure?” I couldn’t help the question.

“Liam, when you came to rescue me, you used your own body to warm me up. I may have been not very responsive, but I knew what was happening. You did exactly what you needed and never tried to sneak a feel of me.” Kassandra murmured quietly, not looking away from me. “There are precious few who wouldn’t take advantage of that moment.”

“She’s right, Liam.” Rieka replied gently, turning to look over one shoulder while tugging on the loose braid her long hair sat in. “Just accept that we know you are a good person and trust you. That is only going to change if you do something to prove us wrong at this point, and I highly doubt you are going to do that.”

“I know you won’t.” Kassandra butted in. The serious part being done now, her face was full of mischief again. “There is no reason you would do anything that would betray that trust, it’s both endearing and frustrating because I know you aren’t missing the signals I’m throwing up. You are just being too much of a boneheaded gentleman.”

Kassandra’s blunt statement got both Rieka and I to blush while the dwarf lamia cackled in amusement, hefting the squat teapot she had over her head like it was a trophy.

“Now, come on! I want something hot to eat and drink. It’s getting colder as the sun goes down! Once that’s taken care of, you and I are going to have words, mister ‘tall, strong and toasty’!”

Sighing at the mischief maker’s continued antics, I did as I was told and followed the two young women up to the camp, keeping a careful watch on our surroundings for any threats as the light continued to dim.

<><><>

Night fell rapidly. We were able to get a fire going without much of an issue though and it provided enough light that we could see and continue to chat and plan for the next day while the fire burned down enough to get the pot boiling for a quick stew. I knew it would be better to have a strong bed of coals to cook over, but we didn’t want to be up all night so we made do. Kassandra had her kettle on a rock by the fire as soon as it was going, demanding her hot drink and immediately cuddling into my side and back to steal as much body heat as she could while we got dinner settled.

The banter between her and Rieka continued while dinner cooked and we ate. The meat and vegetable stew was rich, though the meat was still tough as it had been salted and dried to prepare it for travel without rotting. After dinner was consumed, Rieka went over the handful of notices that we were looking to fulfill over the next day or so.

“Most of tomorrow is going to be searching around for various natural herbs and plants, as well as checking the area for any of the animal types that were mentioned on the notices. Sometimes merchants will request specific types of hides or animal parts and there are two that I took notices for. One for the stingers of Vine Rays, and the other for the hide of Mountain Lynx. The stingers it is for five or more, with a bonus for more that we collect. The hide is going to be the hard part, because they want it as undamaged as possible. So I’m going to try and stun it with my lightning if we see one and let Liam get close enough to kill it. I’ve been doing some research on skinning and the like, since we had to leave behind the hides on the flame serpents the other day.” Rieka explained from her spot to my left.

We’d been able to find a pair of thick logs that I’d dragged over to use as seats by the fire. Kassandra refused to ‘sit’ on one, saying it would feel awkward with her coils. Instead, she’d just wrapped herself around me and was draped over my back to maximize the amount of surface area she had pressed against me in her bid to steal body heat.

“Fair enough. I know the basics from hunting rabbits myself. You have a good skinning knife, right?” I was sipping at the cooling tea that Kassandra had given me now that I was done with my stew. The cooking pot was scraped clean and I was planning to walk back down to the lake before we turned in to fill the pot with water to soak our dishes overnight, but that was for later. Right now I was just enjoying being off my feet after walking all day.

“Yea, I’ve got one in my pack. All three of us will need to practice when we can. The higher end missions have specific requirements for hides and trophies and the better we get at removing them, the more we can earn. A dimensional bag will help with storing them, but even then it is still better to turn in the hide rather than the whole carcass. My sisters have told me a few times about taking whole bodies back to find out that the pelts still managed to taint or go bad because they weren’t removed fast enough. A dimensional bag doesn’t freeze time after all, it just has far more space in it than it would appear to on the outside.” Rieka had her own tin mug in both hands and was sipping at the drink slowly, staring into the fire. The color thrown up by the dancing firelight painted fascinating colors in her pale hair and tail.

“I’m sure it’ll be fine.” Kassandra said with a languid yawn directly in my ear. “If you two fret over it too much, we won’t get any sleep after all.”

“What about these vine rays? Are there any locals here?”

“There should be, they tend to nest in forests like this after all. If we find them, there should be enough to fulfill the hunt request. If not, well there are others who will take the request too.” Rieka said with a shrug.

“Fair enough, we will just have to do our best, right Kass?” I directed the last part to the sleepy dwarf lamia draped over my shoulder.

“Yup. Do your best. Should sleep soon, getting chilly.” Kassandra mumbled and gave a yawn.

“Good point. I’m gonna get changed for bed. Liam, do you mind washing the pots then hanging the food bag?” Rieka shot me a questioning look, her eyes drifting to where Kassandra was draped over me and her expression fell to an amused one.

“Not at all, I was just thinking I should get the dishes soaking overnight when I finished this.” I said while brandishing my cup. Rieka nodded and stood to stretch, the movement pulling her clothes tight over her figure.

While she wasn’t as curvy as Kassandra, there was plenty to appreciate on the lithe wolf-kin. She had the softness of a woman, but the lithe confidence of someone who knew how to move her body. Her pants fit close enough to show the play of muscles in her thighs as she shifted and arched her back, throwing suggestive shadows over her form.

Finishing her stretch, Rieka set her bowl and cup into the cooking pot and dug into her pack for something. After a moment, she unwrapped a palm-sized oval of amber crystal that glowed brightly.

“Don’t stay up too late, you two. And make sure to bank the fire before leaving it. We need to be up early to start looking for our targets.” Rieka said, giving Kassandra a searching look for a moment before heading into the tent with her pack in one hand.

Kassandra waited until Rieka had ducked into the tent before she spoke, not moving from her spot pressed to my back. Her question came without warning, something that I was getting used to with Kassandra, though slowly.

“Liam? Do you really find both of us attractive?”

“Hard not to, Kass. Also, thank you for letting me finish my tea before saying that.” I had thankfully set the cup down before she asked and only choked slightly at the question.

I’d been expecting some kind of approach from the lascivious snake-woman, but I hadn’t expected it at the moment. Kassandra had been playing up the ‘sleep/snuggly’ attitude for the last hour after all.

“I’m serious, Liam. Are you attracted to Rieka and I? And I mean more than ‘boy she has a nice set of tits’ kind of attracted.” The dwarf lamia’s arms snaked over my shoulders to cross over my chest and pull me back into that same ‘nice set of tits’ that she’d just mentioned.

“Kass, you and Rieka are two of the nicest girls I’ve ever met. Any guy would be lucky to receive attention from either of you.” I answered after giving it a think. “I have a feeling I know where this is going, especially with your blunt comment earlier.”

“You aren’t dumb, Liam.” Kassandra murmured in my ear, squeezing me again with her arms and then with her coils. “I don’t know how humans normally do things like this, but I think you are a great man and very attractive. I don’t care if you are a different species, I just want to get to know you, grow with you, and see where a relationship goes. Even though I’d love to rip your clothes off right now.” The last part of her sentence was murmured so quietly that I wasn’t sure if I should have heard it, save for the fact she was pressed so close already.

“And the fact that I’m not a full time resident of this world, or even a native of it?” My left hand stroked the coil that wrapped around my waist while my right went up to cup her cheek where her head sat on my shoulder.

“Doesn’t bother me. Doesn’t bother me either that Rieka thinks the same as I do. She’s still caught up in the whole ‘princess’ thing, though she’ll be the first to hammer on the fact that she’s far down the chain of inheritance.”

“Rieka likes me too?”

“Duh. For someone so smart, you can be a little thick at times, Liam.”

“I thought you’d like them thick.” My teasing got a little giggle out of Kassandra that sent a thrill of heat down my spine and made my ears burn while images filled my mind of what sort of activities she might be getting up to while giggling like that in the future. The fact we were very different species didn’t even cross my mind.

“Oh, I very much like them thick. Thick with muscle, thick with honor, and thick with desire.” Kassandra’s soft lips against my ear as she spoke nearly made me groan out loud. “But for now, I just wanted it made quite obvious that I want to know you better, Liam. So don’t act surprised when I do things like this.”

“Things like what?” I asked, turning with the intent of eying her curiously. Kassandra met me as I turned and pressed her lips to mine in a heated kiss.

She’d stolen pecks and small kisses before, but this kiss was one filled with desire. I could feel her coils as well as her small body tightening against me, two hard points in particular digging into my back as she moaned into the kiss. I only hesitated a moment, remembering her blunt statements earlier of her desire, and decided to go with it. The worst that could happen was that it didn’t work out. I had a feeling that Kassandra was mature enough that we could remain friends even if we shared kisses and more in the future.

We parted lips with a quiet pop a moment later and Kassandra panted into my face, the sweet and bitter scent of the tea she’d been drinking wafting between us.

“Oh, I am so glad I finally got to do that. Rieka’s gonna be jealous.” Kassandra giggled again, burying her face into my neck from her position behind me.

“Don’t tease your friend too much, it’s not fair to her.” I chastised her gently, burying my right hand into her hair and running my fingers through it, tickling her scalp with just my fingertips. Kassandra moaned into my neck before mumbling something. “What was that, Kass?” She pulled back and locked eyes with me from only inches away, her slitted eyes flaring in a mixture of amusement and desire.

“How else am I going to get her to join in with us if I don’t tease her? Besides, she agreed that we should find some way to pay you back for all your hard work after all.” The emphasis she put on ‘hard’ left nothing to imagination and I swallowed thickly.

“Is that right?” I asked after several seconds of silence passed between us.

“Oh yes, I very much look forward to that, my Liam.” Kassandra purred, leaning forward to plant a kiss on just the tip of my nose. We stared into each other’s eyes from only inches away for several long seconds. I was unsure if I should move in for another kiss when Kassandra acted first and in a way I didn’t expect. She leaned back with a wry smile and winked at me. “You should get the dishes taken care of, Liam. I’ll set the wardstones so they activate shortly, so join us in the tent when you have the fire put out.” The arms draped over my chest shifted and she ran one hand down the middle of my chest and over the growing bulge in the front of my pants. As she stroked my crotch, the grin on her lips went full of desire and she winked at me again before unwinding from around me and slithering rapidly into the shadows to do as she’d said.

I sat by the fire for several seconds to think over the flirting and innuendo that the curvaceous redhead had been throwing around before deciding that was a problem for another day. This whole situation was strange enough that I just had to take it a day at a time after all, and Kassandra promised to make it an interesting trip. One thought continued to distract me as I hurried down the hill by the light of the moon to get the water though; I wonder how serious Kassandra was about Rieka being interested…and joining in too?

The dim moonlight caused shadows to flow over my body and one set of shadows drew my attention to my forearm and the black marks that had lingered on my right arm since the first time I met the girls. While I walked, I shifted the kettle and pot to my right hand so I could rub the tattoos, one at a time. The first one gave me a sense of excitement and mischief, reminding me of the roguish twinkle in Kassandra’s eyes. The second gave off a sleepy contentment. Something else to ask about…