Confronting the Elder
The next day, first thing he asked was a leaf underwear for himself. Seeing all bare-chested ladies going around didn't help either. Having been dragged around by Alene the whole day, Ryan couldn't observe anything at all. The lifestyle, at a glance was like a normal village's, except maybe the clothing. The houses were made of mud and some ore mixed with it, so that they were firmer than cement. The designs weren't too complex, and were generally similar to each other, meaning there were only one or two architects. The daily lifestyle included hunting, training and eating for the men; farming, cooking and cleaning for the women and the children spent their days playing around, or training themselves. Sometimes, the women too went to hunt, but after having children, it was too difficult and tiring to hunt as well as do the chores, so they generally spent there days at their homes.
Their lifestyle, was in a sense too simple. Their was a village chief, who overlooked and administered the tribe, a group of people were healers, who used a special type of magic to heal injured or sick fellows, some architects, and most of them were hunters or warriors. Warriors were needed as they were surrounded by three more tribes in different directions. The Ag tribe, with whom there relations were about to become tense. The Ja tribe, who had friendly relationship with them. In fact, one of the village elder's two wives was the Ja tribe's head, and she lived there with their son. His other wife was a runaway from the Vay tribe, who were a notorious bunch of people. There living conditions influenced their young ones too, so there was no case of redemption there, as of now.
Alene was there daughter. And now she was dragging Ryan to meets her dad and mom- a formal meeting. He was too nervous to meet the Elder, as he had forcefully proposed his daughter, and also caused the Oobe tribe a loss due the cancel of engagement with the Ag tribe. As they entered the main gate, Ryan observed that the Elder's house was bigger than anyone else's. Not in terms of size of mansion, but in terms of the land size. The boundary surrounding his house could fit five more normal houses from the village. He entered the lobby, and saw severed heads and hides of various animals on display. He had not seen any like these before. Not one creature resembled to that of the Earth. But he didn't have enough time to observe as he was pulled by Alene to the side room, which was, apparently a dining room, having a rectangle dining table with six chairs surrounding it. Whenever his other wife would visit, The wife and their offspring would sit on either side of the table, and the Elder would sit in the middle. It was according to the custom of having at most two wives, i.e. any member of the Oobe tribe can have only two wives. But mostly people only have one wife, as the women generally don't want to share their man.
Elder's case was different, though. His first wife, who had run away from the Vay tribe, was accustomed to men having as many wives they wanted. And his other wife loved him in spite of being married, so there was no problem. In fact they had become best friends and indulged with the Elder together at night too. Both of them were there and sat on either side of the table with him at the center. Both of them were mothers, but their beauty could deceive any other man. The elder was only 40 years old, but had lost his leg to a beast. Hence he used a cane. Alene went and sat beside her mom opposite to her step-brother, who was 7 years old, and signalled Ryan to sit at the other end of the table. He decided to face the elder honestly, after all, he had accepted Alene as his wife too.
"What is your name?" The Elder growled at him.
"RYAN, SIR!" Ryan shouted. Alene's mom, Ana, snickered at Ryan for his shouting, and the other wife, Atila, smiled at his nervous attitude too. He blushed after seeing those two smiling and lowered his eyes.
"Do you have any idea about what you have done!?" He growled again, this time, a bit softer.
"YES SIR! EVEN THOUGH I DID THIS WITHOUT KNOWING THE CUSTOMS BEFOREHAND, I DO KNOW NOW, AND I PROMISE THAT I WILL TAKE CARE OF ANELE WITH ALL MY POWER, SIR!"
"Hmph, at least he has some guts", the Elder muttered. "Since, you didn't know the customs, it is still ridiculous to kiss a perfect stranger. Don't you think so?
"Err...I was...I-"
"Now, now", Ana interrupted him, "Have you forgotten about how you kissed me out of nowhere after hearing my story. I haven't forgotten about it at all. You were all like- 'I would take care of you Ana, you should become my wife'. Oh! and weren't you shouting like Ryan here too, dear???"
Everyone's eyes went from her to him, dumbfounded by this sudden reveal. " A-ahem! Okay, I accept Ryan into the family, but don't you forget, you brat, I'll have my eyes on you. You'll have to prove to me that you are man enough to back your claim of taking care of my daughter. If you dare to touch her before that..." He glanced at him menacingly, while eating a chunk of what seemed like a bird's limb.
Hearing this, Alene's ears turned red, and Ryan, he choked on his food and started coughing hardly. While he was drinking water to calm his throat, he could see the two wives glancing at Alene's ears and then smiling at each other, knowingly. "Oh dear, you don't have to be that strict you know. Come let's go to the our room, the three of us, that is...", Atila beckoned the Elder and pulled him to the other room. Ana followed them after telling the son to go out and play. She winked at Ryan before entering the room, "Best of luck, Ryan!"
Both Ryan and Anele sighed, after they went away. Soon they heard moaning from the other room and blushed, averting their eyes from each other. "Ahem! Let's go somewhere else." Ryan said and pulled her out of the house. They then walked around a bit, when she asked him," So, where do you come from? I couldn't even ask this before, but now I'm curious." Ryan looked at the cloudy sky, and replied, "I don't know, I just woke up at the beach, you know, when you hit me with the rock."
"I had to do that as you were a stranger!" Alene blushed at him.
"Don't worry, haha. I won't remind you of this matter from now on, ok? Anyways, I only have some fleeting memories of having a wife, a son, then their leaving me as I didn't have the money to support them..."
"Money? What's that? And how could your wife leave you alone, that is not right at all...Come here, you poor soul...", saying that, she hugged him tightly. After a while, Ryan asked her, "Don't you mind that I'm already married and left behind?" Alene, bent back, still hugging, to look at him, and smiled before saying, "Even though its only been two days, I keep having this feeling that if I'm with you, I'll be happy, so don't worry about things like these at all, hmm?" Saying this, she leaned in and kissed him softly on the lips. Ryan had no doubt left now. He knew that he wanted to devote his new life to her and smiled brightly at her.