6 Decision (1/2)

”Uuhh...”

Bobo was confused with the turn of the conversation, feeling stupid to be on the spot as he didn't understand what the young man meant with what he said.

'What were they talking about? Who has a daughter? No, my daughter, what?' Might be what he was thinking but since he usually doesn't think, maybe not.

Upon noticing that Bobo didn't continue speaking, the old shaman turned to his grandson. He was feeling slightly mortified because of what his grandson said could imply so he scolded him before anybody else spoke, ”What do you think you're saying? Is that how your parents raised you?”

The old shaman turned to Bobo next and didn't let his grandson reply, ”Bobo, forgive my grandson. As I'm sure you know by now, your daughter was the one who met my grandson outside the village and told me of our visitors.”

”Umm.. Elder, I didn't know that.” That made both the old and young man confused.

Bobo scatched his head and explained further, ”When I returned from the hunt, I heard the villagers talking about some visitors. When I asked them, they said you were also looking for me but I didn't hear anything yet about it so I just ran as fast as I could here.”

That made the people present speechless.

After a few seconds, the old man got his bearings, ”I see. As I said, my grandson visited me and he met your daughter when he was looking for the village. She left an impression of how powerful she could be on my grandson's mind and he was offering to take your daughter to the city since it has more opportunities to be an apprentice.

”Alon is only eighteen so he was not yet ready to take on an apprentice. But he can help her find a good teacher there. Even my own son. What do you think?”

Feeling that his explanation may still be too much, the old man added, ”You can go back to your home first and talk to your family about the possible opportunities for Una in the city.”

Finally understanding, Bobo sighed, ”Yes, elder, I will leave now.” And he exited the room.

The people left in the room still felt speechless with what transpired in the last few minutes.

___

Back at the chief's house, the chief entered in time for dinner. The table was set and Mahina, his wife, was about to look outside to check if her husband was already near their home.

”Welcome home, husband. You look conflicted. Is there a problem with the hunt? Una was waiting for you as she has a message from Shaman Matnaad.” After talking non-stop without letting her husband speak in between, Mahina turned to see her daughter walking to them, ”Oh, here's Una.”

When she reached the two, Una started talking, ”Father, there were visitors in the village and Shaman Matnaad wants you to join them in his house.”

With the few minutes since he entered his house, Bobo wasn't able to say that he already came from the elder's house. He was now confused on how to explain everything and tell them of the elder's news.

Used to this, the mother and daughter waited for the man to gather his thoughts, ”Uhh.. I already went to the elder's house since I heard about the visitors when we got back from the hunt.”

The two listening were not surprised and continued listening, ”So the elder has told me something about Una. Let's talk about it after dinner. I'm hungry.”

With that end statement, Bobo felt relieved and proceeded to walk to the dining table. Also used to this, the mother and daughter followed.

After the family had their dinner, the three talking a while ago went to the couple's bedroom to continue their discussion. The other siblings should be readying to sleep at that time with the twins supervising. However, we're talking about the twins here, of course they want to hear what got the three eldest in the family to confine themselves in the other room.

The five huddled themselves outside the door, trying to hear anything from the other side. Ling, meanwhile, was ignored again. Poor child. Just because he didn't know what was happening didn't mean they should exclude him.

Feeling left out again, he sat up from his should be, sleeping position and decided it was only Una that was on his side. However, he knew that his parents were confining his sister so he felt that he should cry out to get back his sister's attention. Decided, he scrunched up his face and bawled for the injustice he was suffering.

The loud crying made all the family members surprised. The three inside the main bedroom were confused since all the other children should already be asleep.

Una, speculating what was happening now, excused herself from her parents and opened the door. She saw five children scrambling to return to their rightful places with Ling still crying.

When he saw his sister, Ling stopped but still hiccuped, his eyes expressing his complaints. Then, he raised his hands to be carried and Una gave in to the child's silent request, temporarily erasing from her mind the talk she had with her parents.