19 Birma's heart

The Boer family didn't pay much attention to what Lufti did. The only reason was because they were sure that it was just a demonstration of power.

But in fact, Lufti wasn't interested in showing his prowess. When he dissapeared, he captured several of the people that were after him. He didn't have a lot of time to deal with them, so he let them go after asking a few things like 'Who sent you?' or 'What family do you belong to?'. Surprisingly, all of them answered the questions Lufti had prepared. The main problem wasn't if they said the truth or not, he didn't really care about that. What concerned him was the reason why they tried to do something like this? It seems like people can't give up when they're on the losing end, instead, they fight harsher and do their best to resist even if it is futile. This changed his perception of the city for the better instead than for the worse.

As Lufti entered the Boer territory, his mind was wandering away from his current task. One of the people following him, an old man said something that caught him off-guard. His message was simple yet grim, "Be careful, soon you'll try to get killed".

This was without a doubt the Kriger family's doing. What annoyed him the most was that the old man didn't say that the Lea family was going to be attacked, no, he said that he will be facing assasins, and soon. How soon? Now? In a week? All this questions started to hammer his brain as he looked for a suitable answer for each one of them.

Lina was chatting with Burma about animals and how her ideal creature would be. She told her about her brothers and their hobbies and also about how she was jealous of Leon having two tiger cubs. To all this, Burma listened with pleasure as she enjoyed this little lady's company. Meanwhile, Birma was shooting glances at Lufti, as this one was oblivious to all that happened near him.

It didn't take them long to arrive to the real entrance of the Boer territory. The first one was a wide perimeter marked with a fence that limited the territory they had in total, but it was more like the front yard. Now, the small convoy was in front of a huge door, with the Boer word written on top of it with silver letters. As the door opened and they went through it, Lina and Lufti were presented with a small replica of the main road in Kyus city. Vendors, houses and many other places were at the sides of the street. Carriages could be seen carrying different things. From live stock to grains and herbs. Other families were present as well, and all of them twisted their necks in a weird way to stare at the two members of the Lea family.

Their thoughts were: so the Boer are the first ones to be visited. That was all they could think about. For some, it was a huge dishonor not to be the first ones visited, others said that the Lea men were interested in the little lady of the Boer clan, while others said that it was because they wanted to starve people to death so they joined them. Many gossiped, and many invented different things but no one knew that the real reason was that Lufti wanted to be with animals. If they knew about this, they wouldn't believe it even if Lufti Lea himself told them.

"This road has many stalls and stores. It's pretty amazing for it to be in the territory of the Boer family" said Lufti.

"This is obviously not rehearsed Mr. Lufti, it's just our humble territory. Many people like to sell here things they produce themselves and exchange them for food. Other groups are just trying to buy food in bigger bulks so it's less expensive for the community they live in. It's all in the interest to feed the city that we let them trade without taxes involved" said Birma as she smiled. Finally her time to shine was here and she wasn't going to let it go to waste.

The only thing was that Birma's smile was something no one had seen before. Is the Boer family that desperate for the Lea family's support? Birma herself is going to smile at this bald kid all day? Men were envious of Lufti and cursed him deep in their heart. Burma knowing what they were thinking, couldn't help but smile and hold her laughter. As they approached the fields, all Burma wished was that Lufti did not reject Birma.

Birma was the next in the position of head in the Boer family. Naturally, she had many responsibilities to attend even before sitting in the most important seat. Her orders were only under Burma, and she always talked to her grandmother about her choices as they were really close. Due to the power she was gonna posses in the future, many 'suitors' appeared trying to be things that they weren't. At first, Birma being naive about wordly affairs, felt that they were all honest and that their words were the truth. Despite possesing austounding beauty and a good position, her 'cold' front made men feel intimidated.

It was nothing more than their own powerlessness. It wasn't Birma's fault at all. At first, she wasn't cold at all, she was only shy. But after learning more and more about the young men real intentions and being splashed with buckets of cold water over and over again, she started to turn cold for real. Her faith in finding a partner started to fade away at a young age, and Burma was worried about this. Burma still remembered when she fell in love with her late husband. Despite her being the next in line for the family head seat and her husband being from a family that worked a distant field, her parents supported her because they knew that it was true love. Once they got married, while Burma's husband took the family seat, he always asked Burma first about what to do. In all the meetings, Burma was at his side and they always chose everything together.

She wanted her granddaughter to experience the same thing she did, true love and was scared of Lufti rejecting her. While Lufti seemed like a nice young man and was probably a gentleman, if he wasn't in love with her he wouldn't accept her and that would be a devastating blow for Birma's heart.

Sadly, there was nothing she could do. Youngsters should resolve their issues by themselves and that is what Burma was going to do. Move out of the way and pray for the best.