Island Dolls

Chapter Two

Part I

The open space at the center of the village was full of people either sitting or standing around the outside of a cornered off circular area in the center of that space. They eyes of everyone was on Charles as he limped forward, supported on each side by two natives. Some stared at him with shock, while others hid their face as soon as they saw him. A pathway through the crowd was quickly made, people fearfully moving out of his way as he walked toward the area in the middle.

Drums beat slowly as he walked forward. In the space ahead two chairs had been set up. They had been draped with some kind of cloth, and on one of them sat a girl dressed in a short cream coloured dress with a large mask covering her face. Long strands extended from her sleeves to drape over her hands, and from the hem of her skirt to drape over her legs. The mask she wore was about twice the size of her real head, and decorated with a black stylized face with large red lips and narrow white eyes.

Standing in front of the two chairs, walking around in circles and performing some kind of acrobatic dance, was a man dressed in all kinds of ornaments and decorated with body paint. His hair was unkempt and also filled with ornamental decorations. He also wore a mask over his face, but his looked comical like a jester. As Charles looked at the scene he was being drawn into he suddenly had a dangerous premonition.

Just what were they planning to do?

"W-wait. What's going on here?"

His helpers ignored his remark, or rather couldn't understand it, and kept pulling him forward. He wanted to resist, but he had no strength to do so. Before he could help it, he had already been guided to the chair next to the masked girl and helped to sit down there. With no strength to move, the best he could do was to lean himself against the back of the chair to keep himself from falling over.

'What is this?', is what he wanted to ask, but that kind of language construct was still beyond him.

A man and woman, a crowd, decorated dress. Even without an answer, there seemed enough clues from the surrounding atmosphere to warrant a guess. Was this... a wedding?

Charles closed his eyes wearily. Surely not. It would make no sense to marry him off without even knowing who he was. Just finding someone washed up on the beach and then doing something like that. Surely it made no sense... right? But then, from the way the jester-masked man was behaving, perhaps this was some kind of religious ceremony?

At that moment the drumming stopped and the jester-masked man also stopped his dancing. He turned to face Charles and the girl next to him. Stretching himself back and raising his hands to the heavens as if calling out to God he let out a deafening cry. The drums began to beat again, louder and louder and faster and faster, and the crowd surrounding them began to cheer. Anxiety gripped Charles. Surely. Surely this wasn't what he thought it was?

The entire ceremony lasted around 20 minutes, involving various speeches, rituals and dances. All in all, Charles was unable to understand any of it. The whole time he was on alert, wondering whether he should call upon Nimbus to interrupt this gathering and escape. However Nimbus was a tool of war, and the last thing he wanted to do was use it on the people who had cared for him so well the last few days. And besides, even if he managed to escape, where would he go? In his present condition he could barely even move. If he did manage to escape, how would he get food and provide for the other necessities to recover? Truth be told, he was presently very reliant on the people in this village. Hence he held it in, bearing with the ceremony as it proceeded.