The Gauntlet

A Wedding Plan

He loathed to think about the coming day. As he rested in bed the young lordling tried to keep the image of his betrothed from his mind. He had heard of the people of Korva, barbaric and insatiable in their bloodlust but their nobility was far worse. Word of The Fat Princess spread fast throughout the court and Marq had to marry her. He could imagine her with bloated greasy skin, shoving meat down her gullet in gluttonous glee. Her name, Nara of the Boros line. She would eat through his lands crops.

With a groan Marq threw his sheets over his head. Maybe if he refused to get up, the day would not continue and princess Nara would never show. "Lord Furess, it is time to get up. Your father's orders." said his servant. Till your something was her name and she was maybe a year or two older than Marq. Her figure was slim and willowy, given she lived in poverty and lacked more than a single meal a day it was no mystery why she was thin. For a second, Marq wished he'd be marrying her but he didn't want to marry her. He didn't want to marry anyone.
"Fine I'm getting up. Draw my bath." Hurried footsteps followed his command and he pulled himself from bed.

He was not having a good day.
Nara had been missing for three days. Well not exactly missing. It's just that no one had seen her in three days. She had been told a month earlier she would be married off to Marq Furess, who would soon become the lord of Farlane. At the time she was mad and if a bit petulant but she eventually got over it since her marrying would make it so her younger sister wouldn't have to when she came of age.

Despite Korva's bad reputation in the Land of Nine, Korvan women were highly sought after. It was mostly because it they were a rarity anywhere else. Slavers often were caught at the borders, their intentions being to kidnap girls and sell them as pleasure slaves but Korva was too well protected for that to happen. Because her father had willingly married her off to a lord of the nine it meant her sister was safe.
Most did not understand how different Korva was. The mystery is what bred peace people were ignorant of how powerful they were. That ignorance bred enough fear to where they would not attack them. Them marrying off a noble woman would keep them on friendly enough terms to keep the other countries for calling a preemptive strike.

As the time for her departure grew near, Nara became less okay with the deal. So Nara fled to the forests to speak with her God. In Korva their god was Jeor, who created the world and resided in their large forests. There were people who lived in the forests, some of the upper echelons began to see them as savages but Nara's family knew better. The Teitr tribes were closest to God.

So for three days, Nara was housed by the Teitr. As young children some nobles were fostered by the Teitr, to gain an appreciation of their sacred forests and of their God. Nara took to them well, and visited often. She did very much enjoy the luxury of her noble life but she felt far too at home with the Teitr to leave them completely. So for three days she stayed with them, hunting and foraging. Sometimes she forgot she was someone else. It was hard too when she did not look like the Teitr with their dark skin and silvery hair. Nara was dark of skin, hair, and eyes. It was the look of the noble.
On the third day she returned, a large boar over her shoulder and a spear in her hand. The maids ripped off the animal skins from her body and sought to wash the Teitr paint from her face. She was sad to see the marks of a hunter go.

How she loved Korva, and it's forests. She loved her nightly feasts and her summer hunts. She would miss terribly the Teitr and the young warrior she had met the summer before. How she wished she could stay and run off into the forest to hunt and fight along side Gat. In those three days, she spent every night saying goodbye to the young warrior. The least she could do as an act of rebellion was to got to the young lord deflowered.

So scrubbed clean and dressed in the western style of the nine lands she was set inside her carriage and sent off to her new husband. The journey was long and every day spent traveling was grueling. Nara prayed to Jeor the whole way.

The morning of the day came and she would meet the lord for the first time. They passed through a forest, and Nara felt Jeor was with her. She only hoped he would still be when she arrived to Fort Furess.