[Complete] Eroh has reached his seventeenth spring and has finally become a man. With manhood comes a gift: marriage to the woman he loves. But when a strange new woman from another world enters his life, he is stuck with the decision to honor his...
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Eroh's kiss remained on my mind for days after I'd left HuntLoch village. A dry, bitter taste sat on my tongue since I'd left. A taste of telling someone you love them when you don't mean it.
How could I be so foolish? I thought, sitting on my bed of hay.
We were to return to HuntLoch in the first month of summer, then travel to Hiddenhome where Eroh and I would vow our horns to each other. I dreaded that day. The five tribes would come together for the ceremony, and we'd be praised for our union. Being forced to marry somebody you don't truly love is nothing to celebrate about.
Mother came into my room, "are you still in bed? The sun has already peaked past dawn."
"How'd you do it, mother?"
She raised a brow. "Simply, by not giving myself a reason to stay in bed."
"No." I shook my head, pulling the fur blanket to my chest. "How did you marry father?"
Nasalai plucked at a bead on her hide. "It is our duty, my daughter."
"But you didn't love him ... you loved Barthrax."
Mother eyes widened with shock to my words. Many times when she and my father had disagreement she'd say that she should've married Barthrax. Nothing angered my father more than that name. He never liked the chubby little Hoff Lord.
She walked over and sat on the bed. "I was a hoofling when my feelings were strong."
"But you loved him?" I pried. "Why didn't you tell grandpa that Barthrax was the man you wished to marry?"
Mother's tone grew sharp. "Because I knew my place ... as should you." Her hand found mine. "I'm sorry I told your father about your first blood, but I thought the news would calm him. He insisted that we offered your hand to the young lord, Eroh, to gain Enoch's favor."
"I know ..."
"But you don't know, dear. There is an enemy to the south who wants to take our lands." I raised my ear to the news as if I had not already known. "They are gathering the herds into these ... camps. And are putting them into fences. Slaughtering them for meat. All they want is the meat."
"I was there when father found the iron ball." I reminded her. There was no reason to discuss things I already knew. "Do you love father?"
Mother sat straight and folded her arms. "Why do you ask?"
Why? I thought, narrowing my eyes. What does she mean, why? I was being forced into a marriage that I never accepted. I was being told to love somebody who I saw as a brother. I was being taken from the one place I called home. There were many reasons why.
"Eroh is like a brother to me. I will never love him."
My mother must've found humor in my words. Her lips raised. She pulled her hand away. "You'll learn to love him."
