Sanria didn't know Colin was home until the moment he slid his arm around her in bed. "How was your trip?" she asked.
"It didn't go so well..."
"I'm sorry."
"She was apparently holding out hope that I would return to her. When she found out I wasn't, she gave me an ultimatum. Either I take the child or she'd end the pregnancy. I couldn't let her end it."
"Well, at least now you can have what you wanted - permanently. You'll get to be part of this child's life, and Orn will have a brother or sister."
"I suppose it's good that it will grow up having a father and mother that are together."
"Indeed. And with that one on the way, we won't have to worry about try- ing for another. We can go to the druids tomorrow to ensure we don't have any more."
Colin gave a small smile. The couple had decided the night he left to give Orn company before he was too old. Nature would dictate when or if anything would happen. Somehow, the idea of completing their family with Arlenia's child was not satisfying to Colin, and Sanria could tell from the look on his face that he felt so. "We shouldn't have things move too fast," Sanria said.
"Yeah... I suppose so."
Moving fast, however, was exactly what nature had decided would happen. At the Druid's Grove, the very next day, when everything was supposed to be set and left to plan - Sanria and Colin discovered they would be five. The druidess chuckled and collected her herbs, leaving Sanria standing there in a swoon. Things weren't supposed to happen this way. Certainly not this fast. Suddenly she felt hurt over Arlenia, scared about her future, and worried that things wouldn't last.
"I only know now... only the past few weeks... I just haven't let myself feel hurt about things or scared of things until now. Things I can't remember or even know how to feel about... was I angry before? Did I care? I mean, I tried to get the two of you together, isn't that what you said?"
"Things were different altogether..." Colin replied.
"I just don't understand why... why didn't I feel for you then like I do right now?"
"Well... you loved... another man. It was something that never truly went away."
"But I never even married him... how could I love him that much?"
"I don't really know..." Colin said. "It's not a question I could ever quite answer myself. But we had times like this... moments like this together. But now... it doesn't have to be just moments." Colin folded Sanria and Orn into his arms.
"I'm glad it's not just moments. I'm glad it is like this... and I hope I never remember if it means I have to give this up."
"Me too," Colin replied with a squeeze.
The family headed back to the cavern with a new goal. They would be together, raising Orn, and the other two children. It was as though fate had given them exactly what they had lost before. So long as memories did not find their way back into Sanria's mind, so long as she retained her grasp on the new reality that spread out before her - nothing could go wrong. Nothing.
