Chapter 14 - A Wedding and a Farewell

Joseph’s wedding to Annie was a big event in the community. It was not often an outsider was available for marriage, and the promise of non-inbred children in the future was cause for great celebration. New clothes were being sewed for the bride and groom, and a home was being carved in the cliff-face for them. They were to be married by Arnold, beside a waterfall and in front of the whole community. The days leading up to the great event were filled with excitement and many meals of fish.
Joseph had no choice in the matter. He was a hero of the tribe, and thus must accept the honour of the most beautiful girl in the tribe as his wife, and live out his days protecting the tribe from Enormous Angry Things. To refuse her hand was a death sentence. But in a few days he came to accept the marriage, arriving at the realisation that this was his fate. All his life had been leading up to this marriage, this position of power. He had been destined for power, and it had come to him in a primitive community in the Eastern Reaches. Every decision he had made, every action he had performed, every thought he had thought, were all tiny steps in his path to this place. And so he would accept his fate and become a great leader.
Marriage and a life of power with the hermits was not the fate of his friends, though. Sammy and Celia found themselves turning down large numbers of proposals. They did this gently, and at last the hermits began to realise that it was not their fate to live their lives in faithful matrimony with a beautiful demigod or a curly-haired farmer’s daughter from across the sea. Barney, unsurprisingly, had no offers whatsoever. Not knowing that this was simply the result of his fate being too strong to offer tempting pathways out, his self esteem fell and he became more miserable than ever. He vowed that the moment the wedding was over he would tell Celia he loved her.
The day of the wedding arrived. Joseph stood resignedly beside his bride, who glowed in a brand new rabbit-skin tunic, made to match his new loincloth. Arnold, who was presiding over the proceedings, announced in a very exclamatory tone that they were married. The wedding was much shorter than Joseph was expecting. At no point was he given an opportunity to consent to his marriage, because the ceremony consisted solely of the sentence “You are now married!” which was said loudly and repeatedly. When the time came to kiss his bride, Joseph was taken by surprise and nearly fell over as Annie threw herself at him ferociously. The crowd cheered and the newlyweds were led to their cave, hewn roughly from the cliff-face and lined with furs.
There was much rejoicing and eating of fish.
It was during the third feast that Celia sensibly decided it was time to say good-bye to Joseph and their new friends the hermits. She alone among the company remembered the reason for their trip across the sea, and she knew that if they did not reach their destination before winter began, they could never find a shoe of the type Sammy needed. Being both the only female in the travelling party, and the most practical, she was the only one who realised that in winter the shops would sell only woolly slippers and heavy boots. They must leave in the next few days.
So the following day, the three intrepid travellers packed bags with furs and feast leftovers. They said sad good-byes to Arnold and to Joseph, and waved to an audience of fifty as they set out once more on their travels.