"I like you," she replied quietly as they walked. "Of course I'm nice to you. But you should know that I mean what I say."
They chatted on and off. Juniper told him a little about her family. She seemed closest to her next oldest brother, Finneas, but there was a distinct warmth that she used with all her siblings. She described Miller and Sage - the two babies of the family - with a sweetness that seemed almost adjacent to a mother talking about her children. She laughed when she talked about Rosalind, who Zerras would get the impression was quite a prankster.
Zerras listened with interest. He had never had such a deep familial bond. He couldn't speak much of his relatives because he hardly knew them. Even his father, who he was closest to, held a sort of distance to his son.
Discourse turned to their parents. Juniper had been close with both of her parents, but something about the way she spoke of her mother seemed a little colder. Not much, of course; it was difficult for her to talk poorly of anyone. However, he would know her well enough to sense a slight wall between them. It was especially noticeable when compared with her description of her father. From the sounds of things, Juniper and he were very similar. "I think he would've really liked you," she commented, her hand in his as she squinted at the sun on the horizon. "You would have been very interesting to him."
She laughed a little. “I doubt she’ll think that her eldest went off and stumbled upon an ancient demon warlord and then brought him home for dinner.”
She looked up at him, worry crossing her sweet face as she considered him. “Are you having second thoughts?” she asked him quietly, as if she were scared to hear his answer.
