Page 81 of Caveman Alien's Bride

- Korr’ax -

There’s no altar this time. The shaman is dead, and Breti’ax doesn’t want to anger the Ancestors by posing as one. So this time the wedding takes place in front of our totem wall. Many fires are lit, but they are kept small for now.

“I do,” I state when Breti’ax asks nearly the same question the shaman did. It’s a better thing to say than just ’yes’, I find. It was Bryar’s suggestion, and I liked it.

Of course I like everything she suggests, but she assures me that it will pass.

“Eye doo,” Bryar says in her own alien language when it’s her turn. That also seems entirely appropriate and right. She told me before the ceremony that it doesn’t mean yes, exactly, but it’s the same thing. As long as it’s not ’no’, I’m satisfied.Muchmore than satisfied.

Breti’ax takes both our hands and puts them together, mine on top of Bryar’s. “Then I hereby state, before the Borok tribe andour esteemed Ancestors,” he nervously glances to the sky, “that you are now married. Husband and wife for the rest of your lives.”

I turn to face my wife, bend down and give her a chaste kiss on the lips.

She responds by putting her arms around my neck and returning the kiss with a ferocious passion that leaves me breathless.

“Ah,” I begin when she releases me and I try to regain my balance, “that was… nice.”

The tribesmen are so quiet you could hear a leaf drop. They don’t know what to do and are worried about breaking some kind of protocol, thus possibly condemning our marriage to unhappiness.

“All hail Bride Bryar and Groom Korr’ax!” Breti’ax yells with his best chief’s voice.

Only then does the tribe roar for us, and they clearly want to outdo the noise that the skarp made. I nearly have to cover my ears.

The drums start beating, hard and fast. Oil is poured on the fires, and theywhooshto life, illuminating the village as if it were noon.

It is a heartfelt cheer, I notice. Not that I doubted the tribe’s sincerity, but not everyone loved Bryar before. Now I think they do.

“They love you,” Bryar says, wiping a tear. “They’re truly happy for you!”

“Forus,” I correct her. “My happiness is your happiness.”

My bride is wearing the fine, white fabric that we gave her when she first arrived here. But the red skirt is in the cave, and she’s found a way to make the roll of white fabric cover all of her. More or less, anyway - her back is barely covered.

She’s carrying a great bunch of flowers, gathered by the boys of the tribe along the wide trench of dirt that the skarp left. It’s the most colorful thing I’ve seen, even outdoing our totem wall. Except the picture of Piper, of course.

I hold onto her hand as we receive the tribe’s congratulations.

As we stand there, two tribesmen come over with the chief’s headdress and robe. They place the headdress on my head and the heavy robe around my shoulders.

Wedding us was Breti’ax’s last act as chief of the Borok tribe. When I asked him to continue, he only laughed and said that I got myself into this mess and he wasn’t going to get me out.

But we both know it’s not a mess. It’s a great honor.

Breti’ax comes and grasps my wrist. “Well done, Chief Korr’ax of the Borok and Tretter tribes! Everything has worked out wonderfully, thanks to your immensely brave wife! Will you make her a member of our tribe?”

“If she wants, Grand Elder Breti’ax” I tell him. “It will be her choice.”

“Of course,” the old man says. “But I’m unfamiliar with the title you just used.”

I look down at Bryar. “Oh, it was my wife’s suggestion. She felt that ’Elder’ is not a sufficiently honorable title for someone who has done as much good for the tribe as you have. And so we shall add the honorific ’Grand’ to your title. You will be the first andonly tribesman to hold it. It entitles you to make tribal decisions on your own in my absence and to act as shaman until we can train a new one. And the use of a Lifegiver, since you still haven’t had that honor.”

Breti’ax stares at me with old, crusty eyes. “A Lifegiver? Forme?”

“For you. I don’t make the rules, Breti’ax! It is simply expected that a Grand Elder has a son.”

“But you… the Lifegiver is yours first, Korr’ax!”

I give him a grin. “I will never need a tribal Lifegiver, Grand Elder! Because I have a wife, and if you remember your old lessons, a woman can do something called ’giving birth’. Bryar and I shall see if we can’t do something like that.”

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