Chapter 7: Act 1: Chapter 3

Fifteenth day, Sixth Moon, 228 AC

The sun had past the midday point quite a while ago, but I wanted to finish the painting. I had made the iconic red paint for my barn and had made the first application a few moons back. This was to be the final application before the winter hit, and by the time I had finished the sun was well into its descent, so I went for a quick dip into the river before my dinner.

Tonight, was to be the night. I was going to propose to Nyra, and I planned to take her to the nearby cliff to watch the sunset. I had a picnic basket, blanket, some food and my guitar. I had a few serious relationships back on Earth, mostly throughout college, but a proposal was new territory for me. If she accepted, I hoped to be married by the end of the month. With winter coming, there were so many tasks to do, and having another person to help would be very helpful. Not that, that was the only reason.

Pigs needed to be killed, and fences repaired. Unfortunately, these coincided, as Bofur, my male pig, was an aggressive bastard. Even worse was his latest offspring weren't quite big enough to succeed him. I was trying to breed the best pigs possible, using basic scientific breeding, but since there weren't many better pigs around me I was limited to picking the best of the bunch. Oh well, I must work with what I have and not what I want.

As it got closer to winter, my list of tasks seemed to grow by the day. I wanted to get an area setup for brick-making ready for use come spring, make my dirt path a bit wider and flatter and less prone to flooding, get my maple syrup tools ready, and the tasks multiplied each day. I keep telling myself, I am just over-preparing for my first winter, and that this all won't be necessary. I tell myself that, but I don't think it's working.

I swam around the river after giving myself a quick scrub with my homemade lye soap and thought of my winter barley. It was a new type of barley, I think, for I knew what winter planting of barley was, but this was different. I had talked to others, and they said that if you planted barley in the autumn before winter it would grow a bit throughout the winter. According to the locals, the start of the maturation of the crop would indicate that winter is almost done. The barley seemed to receive a sort of signal (or as the locals claim a message from the gods) and would begin its final maturation. I was nervous to rely on something so ambiguous and weird, for unlike regular barley it had a much shorter stalk, and the seed had to have more space before them.

Then, according the everyone else, once the final maturation process began, you plant turnips and garlic so that they will be ready to harvest at the same time once spring truly arrives. I was very interested in how these plants truly differed from the ones on Earth, but I didn't have anything to check. They seemed to be close to the Earth versions, but different somehow, possibly due to the length of winters?

Finally, I could delay no longer and got out of the river, dressed, and began to walk over to Nyra's farm to pick her up.

I was a bundle of nerves as I walked through the trees, anxiety and happiness wrestled in my stomach, but I continued to her farm. Eventually, I could see the farm through the trees and when I got closer I could see her standing in front of her house looking like I felt.

Either she guessed what was happening or someone told her. No matter, the show most go on.

I called out to her when she noticed me, but my voice cracked, "Nyra! How are you?"

She responded quietly, "Good, good. So, uh, where are we going?"

I gave her a somewhat confident smile and replied, "My favorite spot, so that we can have some food. Come on, I'll show you."

She grabbed my arm and we began walking towards the cliff. It wasn't a huge cliff, but I figured it was a good 30 or 40 ft. What it was though, was the best spot to view the sun set over the ocean. As we got closer to the cliff, she seemed to realize where we were going, and her nervousness seemed to fade away and her walking picked up speed. I let myself enjoy the moment as we approached the edge.

I laid out a blanket and started pulling out some food. She helped me set everything up, and we both sat down nervously.

For a while we said nothing, just ate and watched the sunset while enjoying each other's company.

As the sun started below the horizon, and the sky was lit in its orange glow I turned to her and cleared my throat.

"Nyra… We've known each other for three years now, and I've enjoyed every moment I've spent with you. I know you to be a smart woman, a kind woman, a beautiful woman," I paused for a moment.

Her eyes were bright with tears as the sunset lit up her face.

I continued, "You drive me to be the best I can be, you are the woman I love. Will you marry me?"

She was smiling as the tears ran down her face. She whispered, "Yes" and came forward to give me a kiss.

We sat cuddled together as the sun finally sank below the horizon, enjoying holding each other in our arms.

She turned in my arms, and asked me, "Will you play me a song my love?"

I hummed my agreement though I warned her, "I will, but that means you would need to move."

She laughed, "It might not be worth it then. But I think I can live for a moment, as long as the song is sweet."

As she scooted out of my arms, I reached over and picked up my guitar. I had prepared the perfect song for tonight. I started to strum softly as I began, "If everything could ever feel this real forever, if anything could every be this good again."

We spent the next few hours singing and laughing and enjoying life. By the time I brought her back to her farm, it was dark, and we were tired, but as I kissed her goodnight she promised to stop by tomorrow to talk about the ceremony.

I walked back underneath the cloudless night, the moon shining down on me, and it felt like I was walking on clouds.