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GRIEF

On getting back to the village, they first kept some parts of the meat gotten albeit little for their personal use and sold off the rest to their regular buyer for eighty-five silver pieces. Andrew was still quietly following them throughout the entire process without saying or asking a thing, he was just watching everything being done by them.

After selling their goods, the warriors were about to go see the family of Jerry to deliver the bad news, just imagining the devastating faces on the wife made Michael almost hesitate but delaying it would do more harm than good, turning towards Andrew he says, "You don't have to follow us this time around, we are just going to deliver some news and you don't have to go with us". "Ehh", Andrew answers absentmindedly but continues following them.

Michael doesn't bother with him any longer as they go to pick up Jerry's body which has already been wrapped up perfectly and walk towards Jerry's home. At this moment Simeon speaks up, "Erm, I need to go do something so I won't be able to follow you down there", he couldn't muster the courage of seeing Jerry's wife devastated at the end and decided to back out. The excuse provokes a chain reaction as Joshua and even George makes up an excuse saying, "Only one can do the job of telling her. We all going would just seem like we are happy he is dead and we came to celebrate. Since the kid is following him, both of you are more than enough I guess", and they drop off Jerry's share of the frog meat and coins with Andrew as they both walk away trying to avoid being there, after all, they were all hunters with no real skill of handling women although most of them were married, the life of a married couple can sure be hard and different relationships are dealt with differently, no one can understand the heart of a woman. The life of a hunter can be so tough and unromantic that maybe that was the reason Michael was still left unmarried although handsome, strong and loved by a lot of women in the village.

Michael sneers at the excuses being made by them but doesn't bother to stop them as he watches them walk away. After seeing them walk by a fair distance, Michael takes a deep breath, then turns to look at Andrew who was still absentminded about everything before continuing the journey down Jerry's home.

In a home fairly nice in the village, a woman can be seen washing some clothes and a young girl about six to seven years dressed in a blue gown with her hair made into two buns could be seen running around playing beside the woman. The woman was fairly beautiful with blue eyes, fair skin, ample breasts and a very nice shape.

Although the sun was high and she was sweating from being under the sun, it doesn't seem to cover her beauty as each move she makes seems like a beautiful note being played even her sweating seems to make the clothes she wore more fitting and showed her curves more. Smiling with dimples squared on her face, she says to the young girl, "Marian, stop running around so you don't get yourself hurt". The girl being spoken to giggles lightly before saying, "I just can't wait for daddy to be back and see what he would bring back for me". Smiling the woman says, "Surely he would bring back something nice for his little angel". Marian was happy as she continues hopping up and down the backyard. The woman smiles then and stops bothering her, then continues washing the clothes.

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After a while, she was through with the clothes and starts hanging them on a rope to dry them and coincidentally at this moment Michael walks in from afar. The woman seeing Michael with the wrapped stuff being hefted by him feels uneasy, Marian runs in at this moment and on seeing Michael starts screaming happily. Michael drops the stuff with Andrew while telling him to wait behind, then he walks up to the woman who was shaking at this moment, Marian approaches Michael and asks him, "Uncle, where is my father? I don't see him with you". Michael forces an ugly smile on his face before saying to Marian, "He will be back soon. Can you go inside for a while? I have something important to talk to your mother about". Marian groans reluctantly, obviously not wanting to go inside until she sees her father but her mother's voice sounds out at this moment saying sweetly to her, "Baby, go inside for a while. I have prepared your favourite food inside, you can go ahead and start eating. I would join you later on". Although she says such words in a gentle tone, noticing the way her hands were gripping her garments tightly and how watery her eyes were, you did understand that it was all a false front and she understood what seems to be going on. Marian finally goes in happily thinking about her favourite meal.

After watching Marian go inside, Michael stares at the woman beside him but still couldn't say anything. Although he has replayed this scenario a lot of times in his head before getting here, he is still unable to complete the task.

Silence ensues for a while before the woman says in a sobbing tone, "Where is Jerry? Where is my husband?", Michael stammers in reply, "Annie, he is...he is", but was still unable to complete his sentence. The woman called Annie bursts out crying saying, "It can't be, he can't leave us. He promised he did come back". Michael sighs sadly before saying, "He was a brave man and one of my closest friends. Before dying he did his best, we just didn't expect it to end this way. None of us wanted it to end this way".

Andrew stood a bit away watching the scene unfolding right now, although he was quiet throughout the journey, he was still sharply observant. He just saw Michael whisper some words then the woman starts crying then they spoke for a while, seems like Michael was trying his best to console her. It took a while though but seems like he was finally able to console her as she finally stops crying and cleans her face then they both started walking down towards him, then Michael hands over Jerry's share of the hunt to her along with his body. She looks at the body and starts crying all over again while Michael and Andrew stood by her side neither of them saying anything this time around. After crying for a while longer, she tells Michael to help her bury the body at the back of the compound close to a tree.

It took a lot of shovelling, sweating and lifting before the body was finally buried and Annie went inside during this process obviously to avoid crying and since Marian was supposed to be through with her meal by now.