The Bride and Her Young Groom

**The Bride and Her Young Groom** (乙嫁と聟花 *Otoyome to Mukobana*?) is the first chapter of the first volume and the first chapter overall of *A Bride's Story*. It was written and illustrated by Kaoru Mori.

## Overview

After being recently wedded a few days ago, Amir Halgal settles into her new family's life and home.

## Summary

Somewhere near the Caspian Sea in a provincial town, Amir settles into her new family's daily routines. In the morning, the young nephews of her husband peak at Amir from behind as she dresses up before being caught and given out to by their older sister, Tileke. Her husband, Karluk comes into the room and asks Amir whether the children were peaking yet again. Amir simply assumes that the children merely came to say good morning, to which Karluk tells her it is likely they were curious about her unusual clothes which are native Kazakh rather than the local Uzbek. Regardless, Karluk tells her that he finds her clothes beautiful. He passes to her a roll cloth from Sanira as a gift. Together, they clean the room's rugs.

In the kitchen, Amir greets her new sister-in-law, Seleke and mother-in-law, Sanira. She thanks for her mother-in-law for the new cloth and asks if they need any assistance in the kitchen. She helps them set out the dishes on the table for dinner, with nothing else to do. She sits down an observes the women work.

At dinner time, the father of the house, Akunbek asks everyone if they'd like something from the market. Everyone around the table lists what they need. Karluk asks Amir if she needs anything from to market, but says she doesn't need anything. Akunbek heads of to the market with his four grandchildren, meanwhile Karluk helps Henry with book translations.

Looking over, Karluk notices that Amir and Seleke are happily chatting while doing the dishes. He asks the women what they are talking about, Seleke informs him that where Amir comes from she made soup with rabbit meat. Amir gleefully offers to go and get rabbit meat. She leaves the dishes to Seleke and heads out to a nearby lake Lake Soma on horseback with a bow and arrow that was part of her dowry.

Hours pass and Karluk along with Henry anxiously stand outside the gates of the family home waiting for Amir to return. An elder of the village passes the two and question why they are standing around. Karluk tells him that his wife has gone off to hunt nearby a lake and has not returned yet. The elder informs him that the area is dangerous because of a pack of wolves. Alarmed, Karluk immediately heads off on horseback to look for Amir. While scanning the pastures, Karluk notices Amir in the distance chasing a wild rabbit. He observes her as she moves in to nock her arrow and fire to accurately hit the rabbit. Amir notices Karluk approach from a distance and happily holds up three rabbits she caught.

At supper, Amir cuts, cleans and cooks the rabbit meat into a soup for the whole family to eat. Everyone is shocked at the deliciousness of the soup and ask Amir if rabbit meat is often consumed where she came from. Amir teaches them that in her culture, rabbit stew is usually eaten spring to autumn and only eaten in winter if they can hunt with a falcon. She comments that it has been a while since she used a bow and her skills have gotten rusty, hence it took her much longer than she thought. Karluk states he is relieved that she is safe and was worried because he heard therewolves in the area. Mahatbek laughs at Karluk's concerns and says that Chagap mistakes dogs for wolves and sheep for tigers. Tileke, Karluk's young niece, is eager at the thought of falcon hunting. Her mother, Seleke, tells Tileke to behave and apologizes to Amir for her daughter's behavior and says that she just loves falcons despite being female. Tileke questions Amir how falcon hunting works and Amir explains that they train falcons to hunt prey and are otherwise kept as pets that can be stood on people's arms and obey their owners with proper training. Tileke is in awe of the thought of having a falcon stand on her arm.

Seleke's three sons, Chalg, Torkan and Rostem, stare at Amir's bow out of curiosity. Chalg asks her if he may touch her bow. Amir allows them to touch her bow but Tileke scolds her brothers that they are handling it improperly as Chalg struggles to nock the bow back. Amir tells Chalg to put a mark on the wall in the distance and demonstrates to the children how she nocks and shoots an arrow. The children stare at Amir in speechless amazement. Akunbek is impressed and wonders how she can do it will riding a horse. Mahatbek states that she is from an equestrian culture that retained old arts and at one point in the past, their own culture were equestrian too but have since lost it as they settled permanently. The three young boys ask their father, Yusuf for a bow. Their grandfather, Akunbek sees no issue with their requests as Karluk asks Amir if she is willing to teach them archery to which she happily nods a yes. As the night comes to a close, Karluk is drifting to sleep and peeks at Amir sewing and singing melodies nearby him before finally falling asleep.

The next day, Amir is teaching the children archery in the yard. As Karluk passes by, Amir gives him a vest embroidered in her culture's traditional patterns. Seleke and Sanira comment in admiration of the patterns of her culture. Just as Sanira admires the new vest, she notices that the vest is made out of fabric she gave to Amir. Amir is puzzled by Sanira's remark and questions if that is not the reason why she was given the fabric, to which, Sanira states that she gave her the fabric to make herself new clothes. Amir suddenly becomes embarrassed at herself and rushes to take off her clothing indoors before running out again while wearing only her undergarments. Everyone becomes red-faced as they see Amir in such little clothing. Amir apologizes to them for having dirty clothes and says she'll immediately wash them, but is frantically stopped by Sanira who says that it is not what she meant and encourages Amir to put on modest clothing again.

Far off in the distance, beyond pastures and mountains in a village located on a mountainside. An unidentified man remarks that the girl they married to the Numanji clan has died. Other men remark that the land is theirs and must not let another clan to hold it. One man suggests that they take Amir back as they married her off far away to a young man because of her age and her marriage will not be of benefit to them. The other men agree on the plan and are set to take Amir back to marry her into the Numaji clan.

## Character appearances

### Debut

* Eihon family
	+ Amir Halgal
	+ Karluk Eihon
	+ Rostem Eihon
	+ Chalg Eihon
	+ Torkan Eihon
	+ Tileke Eihon
	+ Seleke Eihon
	+ Yusuf Eihon
	+ Sanira Eihon
	+ Akunbek Eihon
	+ Balkirsh Eihon
	+ Mahatbek Eihon
* Henry Smith
* Chagap

## Locations

* Unnamed village
* Lake Soma

## References

1. ↑ A Bride's Story, Vol. 1. Yen Press. Retrieved July 31st, 2017.