In Stone

30: "Who said I was mad at you?"

30: “Who said I was mad at you?”

Founding Day was one of the most important holidays for the people of Galmora. It didn't celebrate the founding of the town, but the founding of the temple itself. It was considered a holy holiday, and was celebrated with a great deal of pomp and festivity.

Added onto that, Caia and Caspian's marriage was to be held that day. It wasn't unusual for someone to wish to be wed on Founding Day, however the couple that wished for it was. The lost son of Galmora was marrying the mysterious enchantress from beyond the stones. Said like that, Caia thought their story sounded a great deal more interesting than it was. The people, however, loved the way it sounded and were eager to help prepare for the wedding.

Because of that, preparations for the festival and wedding together needed to start two days before the actual event. It started with a town wide cleansing.

Every house, shack, attic, and closet was swept out, freshened up, and cleared of anything not of use or importance. Rugs were beaten, clothes were washed, and wood was waxed as part of the ritual. The midnight of founding day would find the people all bathing so that they greeted the day as clean as their homes. That would be done separated by gender, women on one side of the lake and men on the other.

Then came the actual decorating of the town. Flowers were a popular choice, but ribbons were also wound and tied around every available surface. The once wood colored town was suddenly blooming with colors and fragrance.

The temple itself received the most treatment. The stone colored building was suddenly alive with banners and ribbons and flowers. Even the water around it was showered with petals and full flowers to make it look like something out of a dream.

For the wedding, Caia was to wear a traditional dress that all women wore at their wedding. It wasn't white like she would expect back home. Instead it was green and also decorated with all sorts of flowers. Caspian would be wearing something similar, but without the skirt. Jewelry was made out of stones, brightly colored and shimmering. It was to symbolize their connection with the forest they called home and the power of the goddess herself.

Their home, besides being ritualistically cleansed, was then decorated for the newly weds. More ribbons everywhere, in all the colors that Caia could imagine, as well as a new bed. The marriage bed, apparently, needed to be new and only to be slept on for the first time that first night together. The guest room, as it was, was transformed into a baby's room. Since they all knew she was to be expecting, it was easier to prepare for the babe's coming now.

All but for the cradle. That Caspian and Caia had to make themselves. Instead of wood though, Caspian decided that it should be made of stone. Caia, uncertain but willing, crafted the cradle. Caspian then was planning on lining it with a soft cushion that he had made and stuffed himself to protect the baby from the rock. But, he said, he wanted the baby to be comfortable with stone as his mother was so he insisted on it being made that way.

That cradle, however, would take a while to finish. Caia was still designing it because she wanted it to be perfect. It was, after all, her first child. She didn't want to just make a stone box for her baby to sleep in. She wanted it to be beautiful and perfect. Something that, maybe, the baby could pass along to their baby when it was grown.

Caspian, in the meantime, was beginning to talk with other mothers of newborns, or those with pregnant bellies themselves. Caia was confused as to why until he explained that, as a Galmoran, the baby needed to be betrothed once it was born. Depending on whether it was a boy or girl, he needed to have a selection of mothers prepared to have their babe betrothed to him or her.

It reminded her that that she was no longer at home. Things didn't work the same here, and she let Caspian deal with that. Personally, she wasn't quite ready yet to think of her unborn child marrying and moving away before it was even a bump in her belly.