April Mending

After the cold winds of winter have finally begun to die and new life has begun to push itself once again from the ground between the cobblestones, the people of Wallice celebrate the spring in peculiar way. Almost everything in Wallice is made from stones, some are stones carted in from quarries in other areas of Republik, some are stones carted in from quarries in other Duchies altogether, some are even stones shipped in from the lands across the waters and the desert, but most are stones thrown up when the fields of Wallice are plowed again for planting. After the winter's winds and cold has put cracks in more than a few walls, after the chill that chipped its slow avenues into warm homes with the patience of a corpse has gone to look for better pastures, the land has the kindness to give exactly the tools need to rebuild. While this process happens in towns across the north of Republik and The Shattered Ice Duchies, in Wallice it is a town-wide festival that begins when the first stones are brought into town and ends when the smallest pebble is placed into the farthest wall of the Higgbottoms' west pasture and it is called April Mending.

During this time everyone works towards the mending, donating what they can to the process of celebrating the end of the last winter by shoring their walls up against the coming of the next. When the days stones are collected and everyone has gathered in town after a long day's labor, the celebration begins. Tables covered with food and drink given by everyone in the town who could contribute line a light-filled town square, and in the middle of the square, the people dance to celebrate the Spring.

It was during one such time, after one of the worst winters in the history of Wallice, after a freeze that had claimed a life from nearly every family in the valley, that Mary Higgsbottom gave birth to a son. Mary and her husband John had suffered harder than most under the weather, having lost almost everything, but somehow in the air of spring, with the music from town drifting in through the bedroom window, none of that seemed to matter.

My name is April Mending, and this is my story.