Storytelling Week 10: My Romance

"My mother is crazy.  She wants me to go marry some BUTCHER, of all people.  Who does she think she is?!  Who does she think she is dealing with?!" I ranted to myself as I walked through the woods. I hated the idea of killing animals.  I would much rather spend my time in the woods or with Angelo.

Even thinking of him made me smile.  He was one of the woods people who never interacted with the village.  They had an area all to themselves in the woods and were able to provide for themselves as well, which is why they never went into the village.  Most of the people in the village didn't believe that they existed.  They all thought it was some sort of legend that was passed down from generation to generation.  But I had met them and was even in love with one of the members.  I like to spend time in the woods.  One day, I wandered a little farther than I should have.  I suddenly heard voices and went off to investigate.  I had found the woods people!  I couldn't believe it.  The first person I met there was Angelo, and the rest was history.

I went over to Angelo's hut.  He was sitting there, working on making a basket to collect plants in the forest.  When he looked up and saw my face, he automatically knew something was wrong.  I sat down and explained the horrible, horrible situation.

The horrible situation was the fact that my mother wanted me to marry the local town butcher.  Heavy set, rude, and not even caring about the animals that he slaughtered, I couldn't picture a man more unsuitable for me to marry.  Somehow my mother thought that he would be a good person to settle down with though.

Angelo listened to my woes and let me work through my tears and my ranting.  We had been together long enough that he knew I needed to get through everything first or I would just end up snapping at him.  After my tears finally stopped flowing, he had the biggest grin on his face.

"Why are you smiling?" I asked him suspiciously.

"Because, my dear, I have a brilliant idea that you are going to love," he said, his voice shining with excitement.

"Oh yeah?  And what is this great idea?"  I asked him dubiously, thinking there was no way he would be able to turn this situation around.  But as he started to whisper to me what his idea was, I started to become excited as well.  I could not wait for this plan to happen.

A few weeks later, I was getting dressed for my wedding to the butcher.  Everyone else was buzzing around with excitement but I was as calm as I could be; considering what was going to happen, I needed to be as calm as possible.  Before I knew it, I was ready to go.

(Wikipedia)

I started to walk outside when my mother made me stop short.

"Where do you think you are going?!" My mother exclaimed when she saw I was heading outside.

"To the woods.  This will probably be the last time I can go to the woods.  I need to say good bye."

"Ok go.  But don't stay out too long!  The ceremony starts in an hour!"  She yelled after me as I walked out the door.

I reached the woods and breathed a sigh of relief.  I had made it.  I started walking and didn't stop.  I kept walking and walking and walking.  Finally I found Angelo.  He almost started crying when he saw me.

"You look amazing my beautiful bride.  Let's go get married, shall we?"  And grabbing my hand, we walked into the hut that was to be our chapel.  I never looked back.

Author's Note:  I wrote this story based off of story The Fairy Bride.  I liked the story and how the story developed, but I thought that there also could be so much potential when Neen-i-zu's side of the story was taken into consideration.  I also just finished watching the Lord of the Rings trilogy for the first time recently, so hearing the story mention fairies inspired me.

American Indian Fairy Tales by W.T. Larned, with illustrations by John Rae (1921).