They gathered supplies: breads, wines, dried fruits, carved tokens, fresh flowers. Each wife selected a gift for the mountain, a branch of lavender for healing, a braid of riverine willow for gentleness, a stone etched with their family crest, a small leather pouch filled with soil from their own hearth.
Scarlet strapped down a polished river rock, water-smooth, while Serena tucked a vine cord in her belt. Layla placed a shell by her side with the inscription Remember. Emma rolled a scroll of earthen dyes into a leather tube. Lucy bound her own braided hair into a token.
Jude chose the watcher glyph shard and a loaf of honey-bread as his offering. Grace brushed kola-nut powder onto a carved wooden heart. Together they were the mountain's pledge, tear and renewal, memory and protection.