Tafel looked around the wedding venue. As expected, the main event was taking place outdoors. Finding a building that could host nine dragons as guests was simply impossible unless Ed Edward had a hand in designing it. Speaking of which, a strange expression appeared on Tafel’s face as she observed the wedding staff. They were all skeletons, and all of them had hair growing directly out of the tops of their skulls: some had long and luscious locks, others had short and curly strands, even fewer had unique … hairstyles … such that Tafel was a bit reluctant to use that word to describe them. She glanced at the skeleton who was escorting her to her seat. “Excuse me, are those feathers growing out of your skull?”

The skeleton laughed and ran its bony fingers over its skull, its fingertips parting the blue feathers sprouting from it that looked similar to a peacock’s. “Yes, the Hair Hero used me as a test subject for one of his experimental serums. Now that the Hair Hero has working hair serums, I can shave my skull and grow some actual hair, but why would I want to do that? I think these feathers look quite nice on me, don’t you?”

Vur nodded and raised his hand, giving the skeleton a thumbs-up. “It looks great.” He turned towards Tafel. “Should I try polymorphing my hair to look like that?”

“I’d rather you didn’t,” Tafel said and pursed her lips. She turned towards the skeleton. “I’m not saying it looks bad; I just like how Vur looks right now.”

Vur rubbed his chin, continuing to stare at the skeleton’s skull as it led them to their seats. They were given spots near the front, and ahead of them, there was a circular platform where the vows were to be exchanged. Tafel and Vur sat down and looked around.

“There are a lot fewer seats than I thought there would be,” Tafel said, raising an eyebrow. Other than the few chairs in their area that were made of polished wood, there weren’t any other expensive-looking pieces of furniture. There were rocks and boulders of varying sizes scattered throughout the area, and it was unlike any seating arrangement Tafel had ever seen at a wedding. Granted, she hadn’t been to many, but she was sure this wasn’t how they were supposed to look like. Perhaps chairs had been removed to make space for the dragons, or the owners of the wedding venue were afraid of their furniture being destroyed.

Shortly after Tafel and Vur took their seats, thumping sounds shook the ground as the dragons were led into the area from an entrance on the side. Gloria and Ramon were looking around, their heads swiveling to take in all the new sights. Ramon blinked and pointed at a small mountain of meat in the corner of the venue. “Look at all that meat!”

Gloria’s brow furrowed. Even though the meat didn’t have any fur, she could tell from the structure that they came from bears. How many bears had to die to create a mountain of meat? Thirty? Forty? She pursed her lips but didn’t say anything. Some dragons felt bad for eating meat and ate moonlight instead. Some dragons loved meat, and she knew her family was a mixture of both. “Are there any grapes?”

Grimmy chuckled. “There’s some old grape juice over there,” he said and pointed at the bar that had been set up to the side.

Leila smacked her mate’s snout. “Don’t listen to him, Gloria,” she said and used her paw to gently redirected Gloria’s gaze away from the alcohol bottles resting on the shelves. “You can think of a wedding as a ritual. Things are taken one step at a time, and there’ll be a time for feasting. They’ll bring out all kinds of fruit for you to eat, but for now, they’re still stored away.”

The door to the building that Tafel had came out of swung open. The guests that had been kept waiting were finally let into the venue. Upon seeing the seats—read rocks and logs—they had been assigned, unnatural expressions appeared on their faces. It was barbaric enough to have them sit on unclean elements taken from the wilderness, but why were they so spaced out? Gregory followed the skeleton in front of him to his seat, which was a rock with a rough surface, and he watched as his wife was taken to the seat next to his, which was a stump located six feet away. “Excuse me,” he said to the skeleton. “Why are the seats so spread apart?”

“Social distancing,” the skeleton said and walked away.

Gregory’s brows furrowed. What kind of non-answer was that? The skeleton’s response explained nothing! He crouched down and grasped his seat with both hands. Then, he grunted as he lifted it up before slowly waddling towards his wife. He dropped his seat down and exhaled. Despite the time it had taken him to bring the rock over, his wife still hadn’t sat down yet. She was staring at the stump she had been assigned; there were still beetles wandering around on top of it. She raised her head and looked at her husband. “Why don’t we go home? It’s clear Alice doesn’t want us here.”

Gregory furrowed his brow. “We can’t,” he said and shook his head. “The more she wants us to leave, the more determined I am to stay. I won’t give her any ammunition to use against me in the future. If we left the wedding before it even began, she could hold that against us and use it as an excuse to exclude us in the future. If we stay, we can use this as an excuse to treat her poorly in the future.”

Gregory’s wife’s expression darkened. “Are you sure you two are related by blood?” She pursed her lips. She knew noble families had their peculiarities, but this wasn’t what she had expected when she married into one. “Why don’t the two of you get along?”