Ch 18- Family ties

Mirik's POV-

After the 'warm welcome' I got from the village people, I think Bala kind of redeemed the village in my eyes. We walked towards the village at a steady pace. He asked me what I wanted to do in the village and I told him that I wanted to meet a family of someone. He told me that he would appoint a meeting with the village chief as he is The person who knows the most about the families residing in the village. He sent one of the girls ahead of us to see if they can make the meeting happen as soon as possible. I told him I was a bit tight on the schedule and would like to meet with the chief as fast as possible.

"So is the person you want to meet your relative or something? You don't need to tell if you don't want to," he asked me in a way that I had to answer. I was getting affected by his friendliness.

"Yeah...my aunt," I said hesitatingly. It was a bit weird to call a person your aunt and don't even know what she looks like. I asked Adi for the information about my aunt when we were on the bus but he told me that he only knows that she died ten years ago and nothing else. It was weird that he was always on Raja uncle's neck but he says that he didn't know much about his wife. Something was fishy. Adi had also stopped his communication just before my confrontation with Bala and his team. First I thought he might have done so because him talking to me might take a lot of my precious energy but now that the fight was over he was still remaining silent.

"Hey Mirik, If you don't mind I wanted to talk to you about something." Bala suddenly asked me. He let Kiara and other girls pass us before asking this question so I knew it was important.

"Yeah, man. Sure" I replied confidently.

"Why are you so angry?" he asked this question like he knew me for a long time and was done with my antics.

"I mean you lost because of your anger. If you had kept a calm demeanor you would have won easily. You have the skills but you want to let your anger control your fighting. Why is that?" he had completely read me like an open book. I thought I could plow through everything in life if I was angry enough and even Adi told me that I will become better by the use of this same anger.

"I...I mean.." I didn't have any words in my mouth. He got me.

"I am saying this because you are just like my sister. She also gets angry very easily, even though it makes her stronger that doesn't mean she will win every fight," he said like he was a teacher giving genuine career advice to the students.

I was internally waiting for Adi to respond to me from the chain but nothing happened. Maybe Bala was right controlling myself is the right thing to do. Maybe by throwing my anger away completely I would be even stronger. I thought about this in my mind. The chain suddenly vibrated. I was about to check what was happening when I saw Kiara coming toward us.

"I heard everything. Don't compare me to this guy brother," she said while grabbing my collar. In the process, she touched my chain too. The chain started vibrating uncontrollably. I pushed Kiara away by force.

"Stop Kiara! I won't tolerate this anymore. You go to the village first and wait at the chief's house." Bala scolded Kiara and sent her away. She went unwillingly but gave me a glare before her departure.

I was sitting down holding my chest. The vibrations from the chain when Kiara touched it were terrifying. If she had touched it for a while longer my heart would have stopped because of those violent vibrations. But surprisingly the vibrations stopped when her contact was lost with the chain. Nobody else had ever touched the chain before so I didn't know if it had happened because of Kiara.

"Hey bro you alright? We are just there, If you need something we can get you." Bala asked worriedly because of her sister's actions.

"No...I'm fine." I said. We were finally at the entrance of Kala.