Chapter 3: Green Eyes and Fate

         The seat was simple and gorgeous, nothing grandiose or ridiculous, just charming in it‘s simple beauty.  I believe this was possibly the most amazing experience I’d ever had at this point in my life (ah, the days of easy satisfaction).  The bench, itself (upon which I found myself sitting before I had known I’d even taken a step toward it), was merely a small and very well-upholstered love seat.  The upholstery was white satin with a silver lace design, similar to the one on my dress, embroidered into it.  This was very nearly the most comfortable seat I’d ever been in!  The excitement of that alone shocked me…maybe I was a bit like my mother after all.  Above me was a white canopy of the same exact lace material and design as that of my veil and beneath me was a simple wooden floor made up of very sturdy logs which had been very expertly roped and nailed together.  On either side of me, the very last log in the row was about twice the size of the rest, a quarter of each sticking out in the front and back.  These four places where the logs stuck out were not overlooked either; they were whittled beautifully into intricately designed handles.  They had been smoothed out and polished, it would be easy for four men to carry me through the woods in this; they wouldn’t even get so much as a splinter.  Nothing and no one had been overlooked in the making of this brand-new and yet ever-so-ancient transport system.

         It took me a while to realize that we were moving and even longer to realize that my breathing had become more frantic as I watched the branches of the trees pass by slowly.  We were on the widest path to the clearing, so none of the more vindictive foliage was quite close enough to snatch on my beautiful canopy or sneak through the lace and tear my dress.  Of this, at least, I could be glad.  I would look nothing short of perfect (if not, only by my mother’s standards).  I did wonder about my carriers though, surely they would be exhausted once we reached the clearing.  I knew they wouldn’t be able to sweat in this weather; it was too dry and too cool, but certainly they would be tired, right?  Maybe this wasn’t so well thought out.  I didn’t want to make them look bad for my wedding, that didn’t seem fair.  Though, I guess they must not have minded.  They didn’t complain.  They chatted away cheerily the entire way as they walked me to my fate.  The man on the front right handle was to give me away to his neighbor’s son in just 15 minutes and here we was talking to his brother about how much more unstable he believed the economy to be than it seemed…men.

         Before I even knew that we had stopped, I was being helped out of my ‘carriage’ and brought before my bride’s maids.  My mother, whom I had been ignoring as best I could whilst taking in the scenery, was getting out on the other side and locking arms with two of her brothers-in-law to be walked to her seat in the front row on the left.  The bride’s maids and groom’s men were already paired together and in a line, beginning with Raven and Patrick.  I didn’t get a chance to thank her for the fancy litter before the music began, so instead, I locked arms with my father and waited for the March.  The wait seemed to take hours as I listened to the band play, waiting for my queue.  My wedding band consisted of Mr. Fox, Mr. Green and the three uncles who carried me here in a fiddle choir.  The music was beautiful and could probably be heard for miles as it serenaded the forest.

         My queue.  My feet began to move without my telling them to.  My father and I were perfectly in sync and I could only be glad that he hadn’t noticed the rise in my heart rate.  Nala had been very careful to keep me hidden from the groom up until the Wedding March.  Between the procession of the bridal party and Kael, there hanged a large blanket that Nala had tailored from fallen leaves, pine needles and anything else, it seemed, that she could make use of.  I often wondered how she could have been considered so inferior to others in the outside world with such a sharp mind and skillful hands; every woman in the village and Patrick could knit and sew, but she made use of things rendered useless.  My darling, resourceful Nala.  One by one, the procession moved aside the curtain to find their places beside the altar.  Bride’s maids on the left and groom’s men on the right…now it was my turn.  My father reached for the curtain; my heart raced.  His hands were pulling it away now; I couldn’t look.  I wanted to run away.  For an instant, I thought to push my father aside and try.  But where would I go?  What would I do once I had run from my fear into the woods?  Would I not find more fearsome things than the security of marriage and stability?  We were past the curtain now.  The clearing had been transformed entirely.  Amazing, was all I could think.  Nala and Helena had worked day and night on this and it had certainly paid off.  From the looks of it, they had collected, cleaned and polished stones from the banks of the creek and laid them down to create an isle for the bridal party to walk down.  I was not allowed to see the clearing until today and now I could finally understand why.  I realized now the work that had gone into setting all of this up as I noticed that the wedding guests were all sitting upon pews that had apparently been cleared out of the church and carried out here.  I wandered when and how this had happened, as last night at the rehearsal dinner, everything that belonged in the church had been there and accounted for…or had it?  Maybe I was just too preoccupied with my own petty worries to notice the missing pews; as it were, I hardly remembered anything about last night aside from the dreams.  Before I could think any further on the matter, I looked up to see my groom.  The clearing melted away when I saw them…

         Kael’s eyes, oh my those eyes!  I could have gotten lost in those eyes as I walked down my own little cobblestone pathway toward them.  How could I have not noticed his eyes before?  That perfect green color was enough to catch anybody’s attention, strangely hypnotizing as they were.  His face hardly did them justice, nearly translucent in comparison; no, those eyes demanded all attention as they smiled my way.  The world around those eyes naught but existed in the background as I stopped in front of the altar.  “Who gives this woman to this man?”
         “I do,” I heard my father say and suddenly my hands were in Kael’s.  The warmth radiating from his skin contradicted directly with the chill in the air and I wanted immediately to press my body against his to ward off the cold; I hadn’t realized until now that I had been shivering this whole time.  “Be good,” those eyes told me in his soft whisper.  Those beautiful, impossibly green eyes…

         “I now pronounce you man and wife,” here it comes…“You may kiss the bride,” Really?  Already?  No!  Yes!  All at once, I felt my heart begin pounding viciously and then stop altogether as Kael, gently taking me in his warm embrace, pressed his lips upon mine.  What had possessed me to wait so long for this?  We’d spent our whole lives together!  I could have had this feeling years ago!  I wouldn’t have driven myself crazy for the past week, I wouldn’t have tried to sabotage this moment.  I never wanted this to end as the heat emanating from his muscular body provided for me a blanket, invisible and intangible to all but me.  I never wanted to lose this; I could not live without this…or rather, I didn’t want to live without this; who would?  Reluctantly, we pulled away from each other and turned to walk, hand in hand, to our awaiting litter.  Behind us followed the bridal party along with our families and, at last, the band of fiddles, playing along until my uncles had to store their instruments in their cases and load them into the manual carriage behind the seat upon which Kael and I had already settled ourselves.  My mother walked alongside my father as he and his brothers carried us to the church.  This was her favorite living theme: romance.  I couldn’t even be annoyed with her, I loved every moment of this, despite myself.

         The church had changed drastically since the night before, though the change could have been, in part, influenced by my change in attitude towards the situation at hand; however, there was more to it.  As I remembered, the pews had been there the night before and must have been moved to the clearing after the rehearsal dinner.  Why and how that had been managed would normally have been a vexing issue for me, but all the negativity I could muster would only melt away under my blanket when Kael would take me in his arms.  The walls were hung with gold and silver garlands below the colorful tapestries which told the story of the life of Christ.  The floor upon which the pews were once placed had been transformed into a dance floor and in place of Reverend Bruce’s podium was a small table holding only a record player.  Under the table, I saw several swing and jazz records and I knew instantly who had provided the music.  Raven and Nala must have gotten together on this one.  The city girl and the wannabe.  Two peas in a pod.  Lining the far left wall were several long tables placed side by side, draped with white cloth and laden from end to end with food, but what demanded all eyes was none but the cake in the very center.

         Nala had truly outdone herself.  The cake had been masterfully decorated and separated into four transcending layers of white, cylindrical heaven.  Placed along the edges at exact 3-inch intervals were beautiful and intricate frosting-roses with thin frosting-vines weaving in and out between them and swirling along the sides, interlaced in an intimate dance and frozen in time.  To even think about cutting that cake and devouring those perfect decorations should have been considered a criminal offense, but one could not resist such wanton desires in the wake of something so visually appetizing.  At last, my eyes reached the top of this magnificent structure to see the perfect last touch atop the perfect monument to my perfect union, the tiny wax bride and groom figurines were sculpted to look almost identical to their human counterparts.  They were nearly exact, right down to his eyes, but there was no fully accurate way to capture those perfect eyes by any artificial means.  I must have been standing before my cake for a good ten minutes before I realized that I was alone here.  Everyone else was congregating around the record player, trying to decide for me what song Kael and I should first dance to as man and wife.  We hadn’t even eaten yet!  This table was lined with hors d'oeuvres and fresh sliced meats from Mr. Green’s deli and even fresh tuna and crackers from the market out of town!  Someone went to all the trouble to get tuna from the ocean rather than freshwater bass from the creek.  The reasoning behind this was that my parents learned early on that tuna was the only fish I would eat…my father must have helped in the catering department.  “You look hungry,” my new husband’s deep voice startled me back into conscious thought.  “I am…but nobody else seems very interested in eating,” I said, indicating the group of people surrounding the record player.
         “Oh them?  You know how it is, Cara.  They’re not happy unless they’ve made someone else’s decision for them.  But don’t worry, it won’t be long before we’re way too far away for them to decide anything else for us.”  His whispered words topped off with that sly little smile seemed to scare and comfort me all at once.  What was behind those mischievous eyes?  Maybe I was naïve for not knowing, but did that matter when it wouldn’t be long before I could find out?

         While I was in my trance, I hadn’t noticed that Kael had walked away and reappeared with food on a plate for me.  He had probably been standing there for a good 15 seconds before he burst into laughter, nearly dropping the plate.  “How do you even do that?”  He asked through his hysteria.
         “Do what?”
         “That!  How do you just…I don’t even know if there’s a word for it.”
         “Think?”
         “It’s more than thinking.  It’s so funny though!”  At this point, I was almost annoyed.  “What is so funny?”
         “You!  It’s cute, though.  Don’t worry.  I just, I don’t know, you didn’t even notice I got you food.  It’s ok though!  You were just…it was like you were.  In a trance?  I’m sorry, I just thought it was funny.  I can’t do that.”  That much was true.  I couldn’t expect him to really understand deep thought.  Kael was a very impulsive person.  Not shallow in the least, but far too easily distracted to lose himself in thought the way I so often did.  “Anyway, here’s your food.  You weren’t helping yourself, so I thought I’d do it for you.  Wouldn’t want you to starve,” he let out a sort of chuckle here, “you’ll need your energy.”  There was that smile again, I just laughed and rolled my eyes.  I wasn’t that naïve.

         Kael stood there with me for a bit longer to watch me eat and then decided that he would like to have a say in what our first dance should be to.  That’s when it happened.  I heard the wolves getting closer to the church; closer to the town than they ever had been before.  What were they doing here?  It was the middle of the day!  Did they smell the meats in here all the way from the woods?  Doubtful, we roasted lamb over a spitfire several times a year for town festivities, usually equinox or solstice celebrations, and they never came this close before.  Of all people, I would certainly know.  At first, it seemed that nobody was fazed by this, and maybe they had little reason to be, but all at once I saw Kael, Patrick, Raven and Nala turn at the sound of one of the wolves howling.  Nala’s father was on alert as well, I noticed, along with a few others, but most everyone else just seemed content in ignoring it.  I set my plate down on the food table and hurried over to Kael.  I needed my blanket now more than ever.  “What’s going on?” I whispered.  He said nothing.  I had never seen him like this.  We had spent our entire lives together, growing up right down the street from one another.  If anyone could point out strange behavior in him, it was me.  Right now, he stood still as the grave, a six-foot statue, tense and immoveable.  I had never seen him stand still for more than a minute or so, let alone in dead silence without changing his focus to something else.  No, this was definitely more than just a bit strange.  “Kael?”  Nothing.  “Talk to me!”  With that, his eyes darted straight to me and without moving another muscle, he said, “Don’t be afraid.”  What the hell does he mean ‘don’t be afraid?’  That’s more reason to be afraid!  “What is going on, Kael?”  After a long pause, “I don’t know.”  Well that helped.  Thank god you‘re here.  I wanted to walk away from him at that moment but, despite my annoyance, I couldn’t be without my blanket.  Not right then.