"I feel like I'm going to hurl." I leaned over the trash can. This was crazy! I can't believe this was happening! This feels too soon... But, I have to now, I can't back out at this point. Luna would be crushed. Just yesterday, I couldn't wait for today, but now that it was here, everything felt different! We hadn't even known each other for a year! Oh god, what am I doing here? All of this is so crazy.

  "Helena, relax. Stop overthinking everything. The way the two of you act, it feels like you're married already," Piper said.

  I looked up at her from where I was curled over the trash can. Piper was wearing nice slacks and a coat that looked like a suit. The black suit was vaguely reminiscent of a tuxedo and it fit her well... My eyes trailed over to the dress lying on the table. A white dress. After a lot of discussion, we finally landed on the two of us wearing matching dresses for the ceremony. We were two women proudly getting married, so we should flaunt that, Celeste had argued. Luna had liked the idea framed that way, so I went along with it. Now that it was happening though... it felt like a lot. It wasn't like I had never worn a dress before, but not a wedding dress!

  Piper came over and rested her hand on my shoulder. A wave of healing magic flowed through my body and I felt a little better. "It won't help for long, but I can keep healing you anytime your nerves get to be too much. Now get dressed, we don't have a lot of time left."

  I nodded and pulled myself away from the trash can. I walked over to the table and looked at the dress nervously. Everything felt so unreal. Less than a year ago, I had never even gone on a date, and now I was getting married! I glanced over at Piper, who had turned around facing the entrance to the tent we were in. It was one of the larger ones, temporarily set up so that I had somewhere to get ready. It felt a little weird undressing in the same room as her, but she promised not to look.

  Sighing, I slipped off my shirt, folded it up, and tossed it on a chair. I undid my bra and threw it on top. This dress was meant to be worn without one and had some support built in, so that meant forgoing my usual sports bra. I felt really awkward about it, but I cleaned myself up a little before pulling off my pants. There wasn't any air conditioning, so things could get a little sweaty...

  "How's it coming, Princess?" Piper asked.

  I grumbled at her tone. "Fine, I'm about to put on the dress."

  She nodded while facing away from me. "Don't forget the perfume!"

  Sighing, I picked up the small bottle of perfume Celeste had given me. The scent was a little odd, but not unpleasant. It mainly smelled like violets, but had a spicy undercurrent of something musky. The smell was a bit strong to me, but something about how it was made didn't bother my enhanced senses. I probably would have refused if it had, but the perfume was likely made with beastkin in mind. I put on the perfume as I had been shown and took a couple breaths before finally picking up the dress.

  Luna and I were both going to wear white today, but some of the embroidered details of the dress were changed up a little between the two of us. As I had asked, our dresses were made with the nicer white fabric as a base, with the slightly beige lacy fabric on top as decoration. I stepped into the dress and laced the back most of the way up before adjusting myself in the front.

  "Okay, I need help with the rest," I told Piper.

  She turned and smiled at me. I knew I must have been blushing, because I could feel the warmth on my face.

  "You look nice," she said as she came over. "Let's get you ready. Take a breath."

  I did as instructed as she fastened the dress the rest of the way up before pulling the laces tight in the back to tie off the built-in corset. The corset wasn't too bad, but it still felt really snug and made it a bit harder to breathe. She then opened the box that had been sitting on the table and pulled out the dark blood-red ribbon inside. She began tying it around my waist, giving the dress a splash of color. It was tied to look a bit like a sash from the front, with a large bow on the back. The color seemed a little... aggressive to me, but I was told this was a compromise to stay in line with beastkin tradition. Luna would be wearing a similar sash ribbon in a purplish blue color.

  "This looks really good on you, you know," Piper said.

  "I don't know... I think it looks a bit too... girly on me," I admitted.

  "Well, it's a good thing you're a woman then, ey?" Piper said with a laugh.

  "I don't really wear dresses much."

  Piper chuckled. "I can tell. You look really uncomfortable right now. You do look beautiful, though."

  "What do you think I should do about the blindfold?" I asked.

  "It's up to you. Nearly everyone in camp has seen your umber hound form by now, though. I don't think people would be too bothered by your eyes at this point. It's your wedding, you should only wear it if you want to." Piper continued fussing with my dress and the ribbon, trying to make everything look perfect.

  I frowned. "What do you think Luna would prefer?" I asked.

  Piper paused and walked around to face me with a smile. "She'd like to see your eyes."

  "Okay..." I put my blindfold back into my storage ring.

  "The makeup will look better without it anyway," Piper added.

  "Can I go with something light?" I asked, wavering.

  "It's your wedding, you can do whatever you want. But I personally think you should go all out. No half-measures, it's not like you get the opportunity to do things like this often. I'm even wearing makeup myself."

  I slumped as much as possible in the corset. "Fine."

  Piper laughed. "You seem quite grumpy for someone who's getting married today."

  "I'm just nervous..." I admitted.

  "It's okay. I can tell," Piper replied. "Alright! Let's move on to the makeup!"

  I sighed and sat in front of the vanity with an expensive silvered mirror.

  "Do you want help? It might be easier if someone else does it for you."

  I shook my head. "No, I'd rather do it myself. Just come tell me how everything looks while I work on it." I retrieved my purse from my storage ring and pulled out the makeup I still had from my previous world. It was mostly eye makeup and lipstick. I had lost my compact in the fight, but I had a little bit of liquid foundation left too. Just from looking, I could tell my stuff would probably be better quality than the stuff they had here. I would have to borrow some powder, but I was able to confirm with Piper before that none of it contained any harmful substances, like lead. Apparently, healers had picked up pretty quickly on some of the more dangerous additives to makeup in the past.

  Putting on makeup had never been this hard in my life. I admittedly was a bit rusty, since I hadn't used any of this stuff in a while, but I was just so nervous! I felt like a shy giggling schoolgirl. Not that I had done much of this when I was in high school either, admittedly. All the crushing I had done on the other girls had never gone well in high school.

  "This stuff seems to work really well. Maybe you should share some with Luna," Piper commented.

  "Eye makeup isn't really good to share, but maybe the lipstick. I don't have much foundation left, so I don't think there would be enough," I replied.

  Piper nodded and picked up a shade of pink. "I think this would look good on her."

  "Go ahead, not really my color," I replied. It was honestly a shame that the nearly unused pink had come with me in place of a color I liked better. It probably survived since it was stuffed in the bottom of my makeup bag. "What do you think about eyeshadow? Is it too much?"

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  She looked through my palettes and shook her head. "All of this looks too dark for a wedding."

  I nodded. "I lost most of my favorite stuff. This is just what I have left. What about a little bit of this red?"

  "Hmm... it could work. Go easy on it though," she told me.

  "Yeah, just a bit on my eyelids. I think it would go well with the ribbon."

  Piper stepped out for a moment while I finished up with my makeup. After all this preparation, I finally looked in the polished silver mirror. Honestly... I kind of looked great. I hadn't had the opportunity to bother with makeup or looking pretty since I've come here, and it felt really odd after all of this time. Even when buying clothes, I had ended up defaulting to durable and practical stuff rather than something nice looking for a date night. Our group has been so busy ever since we left Fallow that I haven't had much time for things like dates or nights out with Luna. Looking at myself all made up in the mirror, wearing a beautiful custom-made dress just made everything sink in. How much everything has changed. How different I looked and felt. I had shiny black furred ears and a swaying tail behind me. I had grown more than a foot in height and was significantly more muscular than I had ever been. The dress gave me a softer look, but you could still see the way my arms bulged when I moved. Even wearing some of the makeup I used to use, I hardly recognized myself.

  I was happy to say that all of those changes were for the better, though. I was healthier than I had ever been. Stronger than I had ever been. Despite all of the hardships, I was happier than I had ever been. With Luna, I felt more loved than I had ever been. As messed up, painful, and difficult my life has been since coming to this world, I was happy and I was in love. Everything that had happened was worth it.

  "You're smiling now," Piper said with a grin as she stepped back inside.

  I turned to her and smiled wider. "I was just thinking about how happy Luna makes me, and how much I've come to love all of you guys."

  Piper laughed. "Well, it's a good thing you feel better, because there's not much time left."

  I turned and faced the flap of the tent and took a deep breath. "One more heal for the road?"

  "Sure," Piper said with a laugh. She touched my shoulder, and I felt her magic flow through my body and settle my stomach again.

  This was happening. I was doing this. I took a deep breath and walked through the flaps of the tent, and let Piper lead me to the stage Celeste had set up for us. As far as I could tell, nearly the entire camp was mingling in the area. A pang of worry hit me as I wondered if something would happen. What if we were attacked? Were there enough guards watching the perimeter? I know they let the boss respawn recently, so they wouldn't need to worry about the crabs, but what if something else happened in the dungeon?

  Piper patted me on the back. "Relax, Helena. Nothing is going to go wrong. Everyone has things handled. Just take a deep breath."

  I nodded and took as deep a breath as I could with this fucking corset around my lungs. I shook my head. No, that wasn't bothering me. I was just antsy. Piper led me around the crowd and over to the stage. As we passed people, I got a lot of compliments on my looks, and even though I received a few strange glances at my eyes, no one said anything about it. Not to me directly, anyway. It was hard not to eavesdrop on people talking about me with my excellent hearing, but at least no one was saying anything bad.

  Celeste was standing near the stage and waved me over as soon as I came into sight. "You look beautiful, dear."

  I smiled and fidgeted. "Do you think so? Do you think Luna will like it?"

  Celeste laughed. "You could be wearing nothing but a loincloth, and I'm sure she'd love it. You look gorgeous, and I'm sure she will think you look beautiful. You clean up really well."

  "Is that supposed to be a compliment?" I asked with a grin.

  "Of course, dear," Celeste said while patting me on the shoulder.

  I glanced around. "Are you sure you want to be officiating the ceremony rather than..."

  Celeste nodded. "Unfortunately, this will have to be the way things are. I'm in charge of this expedition and this camp. It's my duty. And Luna and I aren't officially... you know."

  I nodded. "I know."

  Emi ran up and signaled to Celeste, who nodded and pulled me toward the stage. "We're ready to start. Go get in position."

  Oh man, this was happening. I took another breath and walked over to the side of the arch where the two of us are going to be married. Piper stood next to me with her arms behind her back. Already the crowd had settled down and were all standing on either side of the aisle. I was a bit surprised by how similar some things were. Walking Luna down an aisle wasn't even something I had to explain. It just happened to be something they already did. Then the music started! Unlike the aisle, the music didn't match the traditional wedding music I was used to, but that didn't matter. It was happening!

  My heart skipped a beat when I saw her.

  Luna was walking down the aisle in a dress that matched my own. Her sash was a vibrant purple-blue that had to have been incredibly expensive. It was a gift from Celeste for the occasion. Maxwell was holding her by the waist and walking her down the aisle. There were no veils, so I could see her beautiful beaming smile from here as she walked toward me and up the stairs. My heart was fluttering in my chest when she finally stopped just a handful of steps away, and it took everything in me to stop myself from sweeping her into a kiss right there. Maxwell stepped to the side opposite Piper, and Celeste stepped forward between us.

  "Thank you for coming to witness Miss Helena Miller's claim of Miss Luna's hand in marriage. Helena is a powerful warrior, likely unmatched in her tenacity. From the very moment these two met, Helena has worked tirelessly to protect Luna from dangers inside and outside of dungeons. From behind, Luna has used her equally powerful magic to strike down Helena's foes, proving that their match is not unbalanced. Miss Helena Miller will now take Miss Luna under her protection against all foes in return for her devotion. Does the bride consent to this union?"

  Luna bowed. ("Yes,") she said to the two of us.

  "Let it be known that I have received her consent through this amulet of telepathy," Celeste called out. This was met with some clapping and cheers.

  "Does the groom accept the bride's devotion?"

  "I do." Another round of cheering commenced, and my cheeks started to hurt from smiling so much.

  Celeste nodded. "Are there any last challengers who wish to test the mettle of the groom and attempt to prove her unworthy of this bride?"

  A long quiet pause passed and my stomach tied itself into knots waiting for something to go wrong. For something to ruin this day.

  "Iris, please bring the rings that signify their union according to Helena's culture."

  Iris, who had been standing nearby, walked over and lifted the lid on a box containing a pair of matching gold bands. Luna and I each took one of the rings and slipped them onto each other's ring finger. Luna coyly smiled up at me with her pretty pink painted lips and I felt my heart clench at how beautiful she looked.

  "Iris, please lace the ribbons to signify their union according to Luna's culture."

  Iris slid the box away and opened a smaller box with a pair of colored ribbons matching our sashes. She then took the shiny ribbon and threaded it through gaps in the braid, giving it an even more decorative look. Mine was the aggressive red of my sash, and Luna's was the gentle purple-blue of hers. When Iris was finished, the braids stood out even more than before, and our relationship would be visible at a glance.

  "With no challengers to this union, I, Celeste Forsythe Titannus, acknowledge Miss Helena Miller's claim of Miss Luna Miller. May your union be long and fruitful. Please profess your love."

  I pulled Luna in and kissed her, nearly before Celeste finished speaking. Luna's arms wrapped around my waist and she squeezed me tight against her. Her tail curled around my leg, and I mirrored the motion on the other side with my own tail.

  When I finally pulled away, I looked down at Luna, my wife, and beamed at her.

  "Luna, I love you."

  Luna looked up at me with her bright blue eyes and perky fox ears, smiling wider than I had ever seen her.

  "I... love... you... too... my... Helena..." she quietly said aloud in her soft scratchy voice.

  I cried as I took her lips again to the raucous cheers of everyone around us.

  Hello! It's finally happened! They're finally married! Following this chapter I wrote an explicit bonus chapter that takes place between this chapter and the next real chapter, and it should be released shortly after this one. For those not interested in explicit chapters, it's entirely optional and you won't be missing much by skipping it but it is canon to the story. I don't intend to write a lot of these scenes for this story, and I even intended to just link to it off site, but Patreon didn't like me having an open post with explicit content so that kinda threw a wrench into my plans. I figured it would be better to just post it here and add the explicit tag to the story even if I don't intend to include a lot of sexual content. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed their wedding, and I hope those of you interested enjoy the bonus chapter! Thanks for reading!

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