i felt like writing a story for a change! ^ ^
believe it or not, the idea for this started off as a joke at my own wedding... anyway, this is the first bit of fiction i've ever written - i only know how to draw pictures, so this is a new one for me ^ ^;
and many many many thanks to ~Sabriel-Stock234 for her proofreading and editorial suggestions

PART 1: Bride's Maids - 1
           
           
We were sitting at one of the tables outside The Continental, the grand hotel so out of place on Port Lahi’s meandering dusty main street. I’d never been further from home than holidays in the med, so the mangroves and palms that surrounded us were as different from the greens and greys of England as I could imagine. I was still stiff and sore from three days of sitting on planes and waiting at airports followed by a slow and uncomfortable boat to The Island. I couldn’t imagine anything more remote or more beautiful, as we sat drinking coffee and listening to the whirr of the island’s only electric fan. So that morning, all I could think of was how sunny it was and how glad I was not to be travelling any further, but when your friend invites you to her wedding and absolutely insists on paying the airfare, you can hardly refuse.
 
Besides,
PART 2: Bride's Maids - 2
The groom Kaeaea arrived at the palace at the beginning of the afternoon, and his family filled their rooms to overflowing. So that Pila should not see her new husband before the ceremony, brightly covered sheeting had been hung in a line dividing the palace buildings in two, and we were carried across it with great ceremony. Evidently bridesmaids from the bride’s side were a new innovation, but they did not seem to mind – far from it, the family seemed positively overjoyed to see us. Servants were fussing around Kaeaea in one room, and we only got a glimpse of a tall young man halfway through dressing. He was sitting bare-chested in uncomfortably formal trousers while relatives and servants fanned him, tried to decorate his hair, impart important advice and all the other things I assume families do to grooms.
 
We were whisked away to a room of our own. The sun was already heading towards the horizon and the servants rushed to get
PART 3:  Bride's Maids - 3 
Outside, the wedding had begun. In the courtyard of her palace, Pila was sitting raised up on a huge chair, chin propped elegantly on one raised arm as she affected distain for everything before her. As musicians played and an approving audience looked on, the groom’s family presented her with ever bigger presents. As we watched from the background, children marched up importantly with bowls of fruit, followed by Kaeaea’s brothers and sisters carrying cloths and silks, relations bearing boxes of gold and treasure, and finally his parents approached the throne bearing (with some ostentation) Parisian jewellery boxes. But all of these Pila ignored, attempting to maintain her expression of indifference. The whole thing seemed like a pantomime, and I guessed that these gifts were some kind of dowry for Kaeaea, and that clearly Kaeaea himself would have to offer her the greatest gift to 'win' her favour.
 
It was as I was watching