I would have thought they could have just marked the reins or something, but I guess that wasn’t going to be enough for any of them. They’re all worried their picks will be taken.
Then again, it was clear as day just how taken all the women were with the new horses, and I had to hand it to the Peijins—they’d known what they were doing when they sent them, that was for sure. We couldn’t accept them and do nothing in return, and we couldn’t just return them either. Not anymore.
I guess we’re offering our support, and that’s that.
As for exactly how Baarbadal could assist the beastkin nation...well, I figured I’d talk with everyone to figure that out. For the time being though, I wanted to put the upcoming weddings first and think about all that other stuff later.
I told the onikin women they were free to get their fill of the horses, then went back to thank the lostblood brothers and all their guards for all their hard work bringing back the livestock. I set about helping them unload and sort the boxes they’d brought back so they could all take a well-deserved break.
Joe and the guys arrived from the border station a little after the lostblood brothers, and after a quick hello we all headed to the village square. All the wedding preparations were in full swing, with Alna leading the proceedings. Well, she had been leading the proceedings, but then she spotted the heshirs, at which point she only had horses on the brain.
“Wh-Wh-What?!” she exclaimed, running over. “Where did all these horses come from?! They’re so big! Such powerful legs! And thick, muscular chests! These horses are amazing!”
It wasn’t long before she noticed the onikin women hugging tight to their preferred horses, and she read between the lines. I didn’t need to explain a single thing. Alna knew then that the horses weren’t hers, and her shoulders slumped dejectedly.
“Don’t get the wrong idea!” cried one of the women, still clinging to her horse. “We don’t want all of them!”
“Pick out a good one for yourself, Alna!” cried another, also clinging to her horse. “Better do it before the others get here!”
“Lady Alna, we acquired more horses than planned,” explained Seki, “so some will most certainly become Iluk’s horses.”
She perked right back up hearing that. There was a spring in her step and a glimmer in her eye as she went around talking to the horses, patting their faces, and feeling the muscles in their legs. She was in full horse-appraisal mode, and when she found the one she liked, she wrapped her arms around it and buried her head in its fur.
I get the feeling that all the hugging and face stuff might be a cultural thing...
I wanted to say that there was no need to hurry, and that we should put the weddings first, but I didn’t want to spoil the mood. I let the onikin women enjoy the horses and went about my own preparations.
The wedding ceremony was pretty similar to Klaus and Canis’s wedding, with one notable difference: This time we had eleven couples getting married. When Alna and I had gotten engaged it had been done in the onikin style, and that was a whole affair. I remembered it being real lively. Then again, my betrothal gift had been the better part of an earth dragon, so it was no wonder Alna’s family and the onikin had all been over the moon.
There was a potato vine too, but...it all happened so suddenly that I can’t remember the exact details. I just remember that we think of weddings as quiet, solemn affairs in Sanserife, complete with prayer recitals. I guess it all comes down to cultures and customs, in the end.
Still, we had prayers ready for this wedding too, and I had to be on the ball for them. Usually, the prayers at a wedding were recited by a priest, which meant it should have been Uncle Ben’s job. Joe and all my old war buddies were a bit jealous of Klaus, however, and so they asked me to read theirs.
What this meant was that I was asked to do a priest’s duties in front of an actual priest, which was a bit crazy if you asked me. Still, the guys had been with me through thick and thin, so it wasn’t like I could just throw their request back in their faces. As such, I was pulling out all the stops.
I changed into the priest’s outfit that Alna had prepared for me back when Klaus and Canis were married, and Uncle Ben had a scepter for me that was used especially for these occasions. So, with a scepter in hand—decorated with potato vines to symbolize fertility—I was ready to go.
Fendia and the paladins arrived to help coach me through my part while I was getting ready and make sure I had things right. It was a lot of pressure.
When I finally made it out of the yurt, everything was ready to go—the village square was packed with all our residents. There were the brides- and grooms-to-be, the twins, Aymer, all the baars, the grandmas, Klaus and Canis, Mont, Hubert, Lady Darrell, a whole lot of dogkin, Sahhi and his wives, Goldia and the gang, the lostblood brothers, the goblins, and all the folks who’d come from the onikin village. Oh, and the cavekin were there, already prepping for a whole day of boozing.
The timing was as coincidental for the goblins as it was fortuitous, so naturally they all attended. The kids among them couldn’t have kept still if they’d tried. They were brimming with curiosity seeing a wedding on land for the first time, and there was a ton of food waiting to be eaten afterwards.
Yep, Iluk sure has grown a whole heap, hasn’t it? We’re officially welcoming new residents through these weddings too.
Gonna have to pick up my game, I reckon.
I did my best to lead the proceedings, and the weddings went off without a hitch... Uh, mostly. During my reciting of the holy verses I earned myself a couple of elbows from Uncle Ben for making a few mistakes, but that aside everything went swimmingly.
Once the verses were read, the attendees all took that as permission to throw the most impressive feast we’d ever known. The dogkin found a place to go through their usual wedding festivities—like all the single people among them chasing down the newly wedded men and playfully slapping them.