Bird Wings

Chapter 2

(Part 2)

Weeks ago now, Azelle had had the first wedding of the season. Wren had been so excited for it, and not just for Azelle's sake. She was a nice girl and was to marry the boy everyone with any observational ability had expected her to marry for years now, but Wren thrilled over an opportunity to see the new blacksmith for longer than the few moments it took to casually stroll past his forge.

She woke up early on the day, snuck out of the house as quietly as she could to avoid disturbing her parents, and ran lightly down the street. A sweet dawn was just beginning and her heart swelled with excitement. There would be no rain today.

Wren was going to the riverbank. A rocky section of it had been used many years before as a place to wash laundry, until the village's irrigation system had been dug. After that it had been visited mostly as a nice place to sit or swim, and village girls often gathered there in the mornings before important events to wash their hair together and talk. This was not a tradition, yet, but Wren expected it would be someday. All her friends discussed meeting like this before their weddings as a matter of course.

A girl named Maribly joined her on her way, giggling for some reason. She took Wren's hand and swung it back and forth with so much playfulness that Wren began to giggle too. The houses they passed were so quiet, the whole village so sleepy that even their footsteps sounded impolitely loud. The two girls shushed each other between giggles and whispers as they went along. They needed to be quiet, so of course silence was almost impossible.

The other girls who had preceded them to the rocks were all acting giddy too. There was no need to hold in their laughter here in this secluded spot, and there was already some splashing and screaming in the cold water. Wren went to Azelle first, who looked sleepy.

"How was your last night?" She asked with a hug

"Eternal!" Azelle said dramatically. "We hadn't prepped anything, all my mom did was buy ingredients. It took forever and now I've barely slept."

"Are you excited?"

Azelle smiled weakly.

"Today is going to be so much worse than tomorrow. I wish it was over."

"I don't!" Maribly cried from a boulder away "I can't wait for the dancing later."

"You're the sacrifice today, offered up so all the rest of us can have a nice time." Wren told Azelle with a serious expression on her face.

"I'd be annoyed by that if I didn't know you'll be on the pyre yourself sooner or later."

"Probably sooner, right Wren? I've seen you loitering around the smithy a lot lately." Maribly interjected again.

Wren swished a foot through the water with a nervous giggle. She wondered why it was so embarrassing to like someone when nothing at all was expected of her outside of marriage and children. She shouldn't have anything to feel uncomfortable about when she was only following a path that was set out for her.

"Cobin isn't going to notice me, I bet I'll be single the longest out of all of us." she declared.

"I don't know which of those statements is the most ridiculous." Azelle exclaimed. "He'll have to give you a chance at least if he has any sense at all, and he's not the only young man in the world. Single the longest! You'll be next, I see it already."

"Who'll you have, if not Cobin?" Maribly pounced on the subject.

"Reed, maybe." Wren teased.

"No!" Maribly had been in love with Reed for over a week now.

"I'm kidding! It just feels weird to be ranking the boys."

"You just say that because you haven't liked anyone for a while." That was Azelle.

"You've only liked one person yourself. Who would you take if not Drewen?"

Azelle shuddered.

"I have no idea what I'd do without Drewen in general, let alone who I'd marry. I can't believe it's actually happening."

The gossip continued, as well as hair washing. Wren had time underneath it all to muse over how nice it was to see Azelle so happy. She really was, despite her short night and the stressful day ahead of her. Drewen had left her guessing for a long time, and in the end it was only because he'd wanted to finish his apprenticeship before he said anything to her. That misunderstanding had been the reigning drama all that past winter within Wren's group of friends, and now it was ending just the way it should.

Wren would miss Azelle at gatherings like these, where only single girls were invited. The idea of being single the longest was as bleak as it was cynical, and Wren grew anxious thinking about it. How could she manage to avoid being left behind, let alone ending up as happy as Azelle?

Cobin really was the only person she'd actually been interested in in a long while. Wren honestly didn't know what she would do if he picked someone else. She thought this might be how Azelle had felt during the winter, but then Drewen had been the only one she could think of for longer than just that season. Wren could regroup if Cobin disappointed, probably. If only she wouldn't have to! How nice it would be to have her future all settled and started.

***

We interrupt the action to bring you: Another Flashback. Also Azelle is baby.

-Laura 😘