Firstborn

Chapter 10 - The Barter

A/N Before I start I would like to say thank you to my lovely followers. My heart rate increased each time I received a new Wattpad follower. Thank you! It was such an exciting and Fambastic feeling. 

Chapter 10

Black lengths of cloth were wrapped diagonally across the men's bare torsos. Around their waists they wore short black kilts with bright geometric patterns in red, green and cream. Menacing, oversized headdresses with yellow billed horned beaks and long black and white feathers and cowrie shells stood erect above their heads. Rigid rings and amulets made from strands of the same materials hung round their necks.

They were intimidating and that showed in Major and Dev's body language when they nervously approached the tribesmen. Their manner towards the tribesmen looked respectful from where Una stood. If anything they were a little too humble. After embracing three of the tribesmen, they walked backwards to the steps with their hands in a 'Namaste' clasp.

Three representatives of the tribe, one noticeably a head man, ventured forward and the rest stayed just inside of the gate in a straight line across the width of Dev's property.

Una closed the curtains and quietly sat with her ear against the bolted exterior wooden veranda door.

"Good Major... so we come for.... land." Una could barely hear what was said - that is until she retrieved her glass tumbler. She had always wondered if the trick would work and now she would find out. She held the bottom of the tumbler to her ears and then the wide opening to the door.

"Payment? We paid a fair price for the land, much more than the army were going to give when they proposed to buy the land for Gorkhas accommodation." Major spoke levelly.

"They sell to you but it was not theirs to sell. We don't want money; we want proper payment - we want..."

Major was angry, "You want? You don't actually own the land you live on, you have no deeds. Sharman, where is the paperwork? "

No reply.

Major continued, "You would have nothing if it wasn't for the forestry interfering and giving you the title of indigenous tribe. They've made sure the land you live on is safeguarded – for now."

Sharman piped up, "Payment from each of your family or leave."

Dev joined in, "We paid good money to your relatives and if you had a problem you should have split monies with them. They are now townies like everyone else."

"Not relatives! They are Christians and dead to us."

Una wasn't really following the conversation. Land...Christians...payment... that wasn't money?

"Too much talk, we want payment, give us the teenagers – the girl, and the boy and our leader. Time is nearly up for boy and leader."

Dev retorted, "You can't expect us to take your payment threats seriously. We live on the right side of the path and are not a threat to you, yet you hassle us."

"What about the payment of Sid Rao who lives with his wife and two daughters on the wrong side, your side, where he could be a threat to your precious wildlife?" asked Major?

"He paid."

"No not paid, his eldest daughter is twenty and going to college and was a teenager when they moved here four years ago. She is still living on the wrong side of the path in your actual territory." Dev refuted.

"Wrong side of the path?" Una whispered in confusion to herself. She tried to work it out in her head.

If the oldest teens were payment and one each from Major and Grandad's households was expected, that meant that the boy would come from the Major's family as they didn't have any teen girls. And the girl would be her - Una.

But then if she and Avi were the girl and boy, then who was the leader?

"Whose fault is it Dev that we live on the wrong side?" A mature male voice spoke between barks from Tommy.

Oh great now he barks! She had forgotten about Tommy. He should have barked before now.

"Deflecting trouble to someone else's house, eh Dev?"

Dev grunted, "Even if what they say is true, I can't help them. I don't have a teen girl or boy, I only have a son who is in his forties and he lives abroad."

"Liar, you have a girl," the tribe's spokesman shouted, "We have seen her."

Una's heart stilled. How did they know she was here? She'd barely been out?

Could it have been... the parakeets or the crow?

A/N ...Because you guys have been so fabarooney for following my chapters I'm putting the next one on. It's the one where the strange bond between Avi and Una becomes apparent. 

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