Proposal and marriage
Heyo booklovers! How's life? I should be updating more now that I'm on Winter Break, so… Woohoo!
6 months. Kale proposed after 6 months of us being together. Marina and Sinbad had already been married for four months and Marina was already pregnant with their first child. The crew had been fighting over who was going to be the child's godparents until Marina put her foot down and said I was going to be Godmother. That girl can be pretty dang scary, let me tell you!
The day Kale went to ask Sinbad's permission to propose to me, he was pale under his dark skin and he looked like he was going to be sick. The twins had placed bets on whether he would be sick before or after, and whether Sinbad would kill him or not. Despite being the younger twin, Sinbad had a protective streak a mile long, at least.
"Is he taking his sweet time in killing him? I'm getting worried for Kale. You know how protective Sinbad is! I thought he was going to rip that guard limb from limb when he looked at you for one second too long!" I said as I paced the deck, Marina sitting down and watching me. I was referring to our latest escapade, where we had been stealing a crib and toys for Marina's baby. Granted, we could have made a crib and toys, but Sinbad wanted only the best for his kid and with him acting like a grumpy hydra, we didn't dare to argue with him. "Would you please calm down? You're making me nervous for him. Just breathe, Ok?" Marina said, walking over to me and hugging me.
As it turned out, Sinbad had assigned Kale three tasks. Only if he did the tasks to Sinbad's satisfaction would Sinbad give Kale his permission to ask me.
Mission#1: Take a jewel from a dragon's cave without the dragon waking up. And it had to be a BIG jewel. And Sinbad preferred red. Psychotic tyrant of a captain. Kale succeeded though and he brought me and Marina one too. He's so sweet!
Mission #2: Answer the Sphinx's Riddle, something no one had answered correctly for at least a hundred years. The riddle was: What flies when it's born, lies when it's alive, and runs when it's dead?
The answer: A snowflake.
The Sphinx, her riddle solved, attempted to attack him anyway. That is, until she got a knife in her eye, and walked backwards off the cliff her cave was on, falling to her death. Sinbad wasn't happy I had interfered, let me tell you.
Mission #3: Beat Sinbad in a duel. That was pushing it and the whole "3 tasks" idea was stupid, and I told Sinbad that. Kale barely beat him and they both were had cuts from their knives. "I hope you both know how stupid and idiotic this whole thing was. Sinbad, you try something like this again and I'll break your arm myself. Kale, I expected this sort of thing from Sinbad, but I expect you to have more sense. Whatever the deal was with the 3 tasks, it's not worth it for you two to nearly kill each other!" I snapped, tying a bandage on Kale's wrist and knotting it tight enough for him to wince. "Aw man, I'm not symmetrical anymore." Sinbad whined, looking at his bandaged arm and his bandageless other arm. That was the wrong thing to say. I whipped out a knife and glowered at him. "You want to be symmetrical, you say? Give me your arm." He hastily hid his arms behind his back and rapidly shook his head "no". "That's what I thought. You two are staying in here until you sort out whatever is going on between you two." I said, closed the door and put the deadbolt over it.
I steered the Chimera to an island, still muttering darkly about boys and idiots and how thickheaded they could be. "Ummm… Nari?" Someone said tentatively. "What?" I snapped, not realizing it was Marina. "You're hurting yourself and the wheel." She said. "Marina! I'm sorry I yelled at you, I didn't mean it!" I said, hoping she wasn't mad at me. "It's fine, but look at your hands and the wheel." And I looked down. The wheel had fine cracks in it and there were splinters in my hands. "I'll steer for a while and you can take a break and get the splinters out of your hands." She said and I went to sit down and get the splinters out of my hands.
About two hours later, Kale and Sinbad broke down the door and found me sitting on a barrel, still pulling out splinters. Kale came over and pulled out the last couple and kissed the palms of my hands, causing me to shiver. "I didn't mean to scare you during the tasks. I'm sorry." He said gently, rubbing my back. "Who says I was scared for you?" I retorted, wondering how he knew. He chuckled, "I know you very well, Nari. I'm not leaving your side again" he said and I smiled. I noticed Sinbad and Marina talking, him looking like he was freaking out and Marina just shaking her head and smiling. They looked over at Kale and me and Sinbad lowered his head and started toward us, looking like he was a bull about to charge and Marina stopped him, still smiling. "Hey Nari? Can I ask you something?" Kale asked me, raising his voice so the rest of the crew could hear him, still on his knees in front of me. "Uh… sure?" I replied, not knowing was going on. "Narissa, do you remember how all the times we fought together?" he asked me. "How could I forget?" I replied, still not knowing what was going on and why Sinbad was turning red and Marina and the crewmates were grinning from ear to ear. "Fighting as partners is an incredible feeling, you watching my back and me watching yours. What I'm trying to say is…" Marina tossed him a small drawstring bag, which he opened and pulled out… a ring. Ohh! "Will you be my partner for the rest of our lives? Fighting and everything else?" He asked, holding out the ring in one hand and my hand in his other hand. Unable to speak, I nodded rapidly and drew him to me and kissed him hard. "Yes, you big idiot, yesyesyes!"I said, laughing and starting to cry as his slipped the ring on my ring finger, stood up, pulled me up and hugged me as if he would never let me go. "I love you, Kale!" I whispered into his shoulder and I felt him smile.
The wedding took place back in Syracuse a couple of months after that. It was late afternoon, Kale was wearing dark pants with gold trim along the sides and a white shirt with a dark green necktie. My dress was white and fell to the ground in waves, with a green underskirt and a green ivy neckline. My hair, usually braided down my back, was now in a bun that Marina had done for me that morning, after helping me get into my dress. As we walked to the Chapel room, we came face to face with Proteus. He narrowed his eyes at us, taking in our wedding attire, then shrugged and smiled. "Congratulations, Rissa! I'll see you at the Chapel." He said and continued walking down the hall.
And that's the end of part 1! I'll be updating some more today! R and R please!