Day Eight #5

The village head had remained silent for some time until he finally opened his mouth. "We have no choice but to agree for the sake of our survival. If we push forward the marriage then we can put forward our own demands to help us make up for our losses."

If they had less weapons and other needed things to protect themselves then it would be more likely that the other villages would be driven by greed or past grudges to attack the village.

Although many of the villages had to rely on each other and work together for the sake of their survival and the cooperation to maintain the villages, it was not unheard of for them to forgo their past relationships and to attack one another.

If one influence could improve their own resources and power by doing so then they would gladly do it so that they could have a better standing among the other villages or could offer everything up to someone else to gain their support and protection.

Human relationships were always complicated and the past ties could easily be broken just as they could be forged through hardships.

Depending on the circumstances presented to them, they could work together to overcome their struggles or could do cruel acts by trampling on others in order to preserve themselves and increase their own power.

The oldest way to establish a firmer bond between two influences had always been marriage and even when such old fashioned ways of marriage had died out during the past, they would truly not die out for good and would appear again in another era.

The son had been silent for a long time then spoke up. "Hmm.. but he is a cruel man. She may not survive. If she does then.. she will suffer great hardships. Can we really trust him?"

The village head shook his head. "He is the kind of person that will stab us in the back given the opportunity but he is helpful for our current situation. This is all the more important for nothing to leak out before the marriage has been finalised.

You will have to prepare my granddaughter for what is to come. We cannot have any failures or it will be the end of us all. He has a larger stock of the things we need so he would not care enough to let go of a little of it so he should agree."

The son sat silently and thought to himself. 'Can I really ask her to go through with this? I think she would rather kill herself than to agree. What do I do? Our future depends on this. Argh! Who did this to us?!'

He was feeling helpless and was filled with rage but he knew that he could not do much about it.

The thefts and destruction caused had caused great losses to the village that could not be so easily recovered over a long time unless they made a large contribution towards those they served.

The problem was that the longer they left things, the more desperate they would become and the chances of someone finding out about their weakened state would be much higher.

It was not like they could kill anyone that knew or were related to them so they had no choice but to keep them silent temporarily so they could quickly overcome the crisis.

The current head of the Stone Village was rumoured to be a cruel and abusive person towards women but he had the high position of the head of the Stone Village to support him along with his resources that were plentiful.

He inherited the position by usurping it from his father and had a couple of wives from a young age which had all died so his reputation was well known by others.

If it was not for the power he held then the other villages may have rallied against such a person who had the potential to start a war with other villages for their own pleasure or greed.

He was ten years older than the granddaughter so the marriage was a little unsuitable while others were worried about her future treatment so the marriage talks had been delayed after he had made the request upon seeing the granddaughter.

The grandfather of her had made the decision to push his granddaughter into that kind of environment for the sake of his duty as the village head and the survival of the village.

It was something that the father and grandfather had both disliked the idea of but they both had a greater responsibility towards the village.

The son had bowed towards his father and spoke in a determined tone of voice. "I will do it father."

The village head carefully looked towards him and sighed. "You have grown up.. there are times when we must make sacrifices for the greater good. I can finally pass on my position to you without worrying if I made the wrong decision."

The son looked shocked and held his father's hand. "Dad.. you are talking like you are.. stop it."

The village head let out a tired sigh. "I am not dead yet but this scare has only helped me to realise that this was a close call. If I did die like that then I may not have been able to pass onto you what I should have a long time ago.

I am too old now to handle all this responsibility so it is about time that I stopped holding on to it all. Son.. you will have to face this same dilemma with your own son one day if we can all survive this so do not let things drag on for too long."

The son squeezed the hand of his father slightly harder. "I will take your words to heart father. How should I handle the rest?"

The village head thought to himself before responding. "Do not let anyone outside of the village and everyone will be put under a curfew during this time. Any offenders will be caught and will be made an example of for going against the villages interests.

Only send those that can be absolutely trusted and that can handle themselves. Anyone hoarding personal weapons will have to temporarily contribute them to out warriors until this has been settled."

The son bowed again before leaving. "Yes father."

Once he had left the room, he had leaned back against the door that had closed behind himself for a long time before collecting himself. "Hah.."

There were a lot of complicated thoughts within him before he had finally begun to accept the situation. 'She was raised so well without having to worry about anything.. it is about time that she did something to help the family.'

He couldn't help but rationalise that way so that he would not be swayed later by his daughter who he loved and doted on.

Once his feelings were thrown away and he had greater responsibilities on his shoulders, he had to choose between his daughters happiness and livelihood against the many lives of the other villagers. "I am still healthy.. I can just have another daughter or son."

Once he had completed his transformation mentally, the new acting village head had begun to take actions which had caused many to become uneasy about their future but it was necessary for the future plans to be successful.

A small group of trusted men were sent to travel to Stone Village to send word that the marriage and alliance between the two villages was to go ahead but with some additional support in the form of a bride price that was added on top of it.

The life of a single young lady had become the sole focus between the potential alliance between two villages and for one of the villages to survive but nobody had yet to ask for her opinions since everything was rushed forward so suddenly.