They came back to Greytip just in time to see him devouring a fish roughly the size of his own head whole as it wriggled and fought against him. He threw his neck back a few times making the fish sink deeper and deeper until he was able to simply push the fish down the last part of his throat. He turned his attention to them and clacked his beak a few times.“We need to head back soon. Things in the beneath come up in the dark.”“I might have something coming up as well,” said Pyotr with a frown.“I was just considering asking if there were any female winged back at the village,” replied Ollie with a wink.Michael shook his head. “We’re good to go, thank you.”Greytip nodded and they all carefully got back onto the boat. The trip back was uneventful aside from some large dark shapes in the water and a bit of surprise when a few of the glowing bugs they’d seen in the fishing village landed on the boat. Michael and Marcus were both quiet, still recovering from what Veras had brought out of them. Michael had initially expected the goddess of love to be something warm and kind, and there was some of that to how she spoke to him and how her presence touched his mind, but he’d forgotten that love has other aspects that are harder to deal with. Love can be hungry. It can be desperate. Love can eat at you and its absence can drive you mad.They arrived back at the fishing village and Marcus paid Greytip the other half of his fee for their safe return. He took the coin with a clack of his beak and quickly made it disappear into a pouch somewhere in the folds of his feathers.“Do you have a place we can rest for the night?” asked Michael, taking the lead since Marcus seemed too out of it to take the role of lead negotiator.“We have extra nests, yes yes. But they are for hatchlings. Our beds would not suit your frail forms.”“What about storage buildings? Just a place with a roof we could put our bedrolls in?” (...)