>>126580She kind of arches her feathers up at the breath, as if it were unexpected or surprising. It comes down in less than three seconds. She moves her head to look ahead
"I kind of want to talk about it. I haven't had that many people to talk to, to be honest, since I left El Campo. I mean,
really talk to. He was a Griffin named Corazón de León. I know him as a child, occassionally seeing him on his parent's sheep farm. Once or twice I'd meet him while visiting his sister. It was when we were together in Secondary School that I really
saw him. To me at least, he really embodied the virtue in his name. A kind of fearlessness. Strength of will. I would often take a little extra time to go by the store where he was working after school to talk to him. Eventually, he noticed me too. It didn't just happen, I had to kind of position myself to it. But he did start to reciprocate. We ran together in the Minotaur race... I remember that day well. I did not follow him into the militia after we left school. I got my courier job instead. The males had to join, the females didn't. So I didn't. I didn't care for the discipline, or the time. I was young then. I suppose I still am. I figured I had plenty of time. I didn't make any haste in trying to really be with him. We liked each other... but we wren't really 'dating' in any really formal way. We didn't start dating until almost The War.
You see, in the parochial schools and the religion of Eyr, Griffins are supposed to pick a single partner to mate with for life. They weren't as stringent about it as the followers of Boreas up north, and the syndicaist saw that practice as outdated, as being a way of males keeping down females while being hypocrites. To be honest I agred more with the syndicalists. But there was something really special, romantic in that idea - one mate for life. So once we got the news that Corazon was being mobilized, we were mated. It was secret. I wasn't really bethrothed, but I was his. You know, I really thought that 'life' would be a much longer period of time...."
She stops at this point, to look off into the end of the room, either to the immediate right of the window, or out the window at the few lights still on outside. She breathes in, then out, in three compete cycles before continuing
"I don't regret losing my virginity to him at all. Not in the least. The second griffin..." She breathes in "When I lived in Midoria I was living alone. I didn't go with any friends of know many griffins there. There was this one griffin I would see sometimes around the lower floor of the office building while doing small errands like delivering drafts of papers. I talked to him once or twice. So I didn't really think of him as a stranger when he approached me at a cafe. He was confident, and forthright. I had more than a little wine. The Syndicalist had this idea that females can sleep with any griffin they like, and in that moment, I liked him... I don't know if I quite 'regret' it, but I sort of do. We talked once after that."