* * *
In order to prepare for a binding ceremony many things must be done. Gifts must be made, access to food and wine arranged (which is the easiest part), and the ceremonial blanket must be woven. All these things are to be complete in less than the eight days we have remaining.
Deep Forest promises game while Wide Net promises fish. We manage to coax Fertile Earth into providing some of their vegetables, but we have to promise to provide better tools for them in return. A good bartering system works on give and take. I had just hoped there would be more give rather than take on the part of the others. There is just so much to do and so little time to do it. I do not know how I am expected to finish all of this.
I spend time each morning working on weaving the blanket that will adorn the bed I will share with Tarok. The material has to be dyed and dried before it is woven, which takes up precious time. I have never been proficient at weaving and that makes this a large problem. I do my best to make it all work together, but I fear that this will be a hugely disappointing mistake.
Each afternoon I go to the work house in hopes of getting the chance to make a proper gift for Tarok and to take my mind off of weaving. But each afternoon I am turned away. Instead, my mother, Aunt Ruki, and Granny teach me to cook. Being the Wise Woman and being away for the past four summers, I never learned to cook a decent meal. I must learn and remember how to cook each type of meat that may be brought home and how to keep the extra meat from going bad.
Right now I think it would be much easier if I was not becoming Tarok’s bond-mate. But then I see Tarok in the evening and I cannot imagine why I would ever feel so overwhelmed. He smiles at me warmly, running his fingers down the side of my face before pressing a kiss to my lips.
“How was your day?” he asks as we walk along the row of boxes holding wares from the west. He tucks my arm into the crook of his and folds his fingers over mine.
“It would be better if I did not have to do things I did not know how to do.”
“Cooking is not so bad,” he says smiling.
“You have never cooked a meal in your life, Tarok.”
“And you have?”
“Hey! At least I can sort of make meals.”
“I can make meals all on my own. When we are out on the Hunt, there are no women to cook for us. We had to learn somehow.”
“I wish you would have told me that sooner; I would not have started learning how to cook had I known that.”
We continue walking through the village. Harod walks out from behind a hut, sees us, then turns around before I have a chance to tell him hello. Tarok does not seem fazed by the other warrior’s actions, whereas I am confused and hurt by them.
“What is wrong with Harod?” I ask Tarok.
Tarok looks to the place Harod had disappeared. “Do not worry about him, Akari,” he says in a distant voice. “Come on, let us get you home.”