The Fall Of The Tribes

by Philip Read

  “You are able to travel fastest amongst us Gerard and the only Awakened, Om you organise a rear defense in case we need to retreat and keep an out out. We may be out of the forests but these grasslands aren’t the Tundra. Get that uncanny friend of yours Volvox to join the scouts again, they tell me he’s really good. Ok let’s go, let’s get to it.”

  And like that I find myself leaving most of my pack for others to carry as Gaia and I prepare to head Nort West West towards the lean, tall, dark skinned Aldermen people known as the grass hunters.

  Chapter 66

  Sachihiro

  The grasslands leading up to the Eldritch lands are mostly flat with tall yellow stalks of grass that could hide any multitude of predictors and it does but Gaia and I choose speed over stealth as we run through the grass at a respectable clip. I run with Kata in my left hand my senses questing out to feel out for potential danger.

  The grassland fox is a known hunter of anything human sized in these parts of Pangaea, I’ve studied the maps of our route and other parts of the world extensively. Gaia signals that we are being stalked from my left about 20m away, I nod and we increase our pace turning slightly to avoid the single tree we can see ahead.

  We run well around the tree and eventually he signals that we’re clear and we decrease our pace again so as to retain stamina. There are a few thick squart trees that break the monotony of the tall yellow grass but they usually house their own unique habitats that are best not to be disturbed in these parts.

  We watch a herd of giant deer 5m tall on the shoulder grazing in the distance on our stop at a relatively clear hill, they are majestic creatures with golden fur coats and uniquely painted faces. It is said the Aldermen call them Impalas and only hunt for them once a year, I’m not even sure why I read up on the Aldermen to begin with but I’ve been soaking up knowledge at the library like a dry sponge sucking up water.

  “You ready to go?” I ask Gaia after we’ve taken 30 minutes to rest and refresh ourselves whilst watching the majestic creatures that own the grasslands.

  He nods and we’re of at a jog heading into the Aldermen controlled territories. It isn’t long before we come across a stealth grass python almost immediately at the territory border and I dodge and roll as the snake’s head sails past me faster than most would have been able to follow.

  The thing is very fast and it surprised us meaning it has better stealth than we have senses as it practically disappears into the tall grass before our eyes. I turn around in a circle slowly and quietly pulling Razor from it’s sheath while Gaia unlimbers his shield from his back.

  He uses it almost immediately as the thing flashes fast towards him from his left, he has just enough time to get his shield up as the is an audible thump and the shield splinters as fangs dig deep into it even as the rest of the snaked coils quickly around him. My Kata is there in a flash as it cuts through the air and hits perfectly with a thump at the snake’s head right between it’s eyes before falling onto the grass barely having made a stretch.

  The thing is fast and resilient enough for it’s scales to deflect a direct hit by an artifact weapon but I rush in with my o-katana Razor even as I hear Gaia’s arm audible snap from the thing’s force. His aura flares up higher as he enhances himself and fortifies his body trying to buy time but by the time I get within reach he is clearly already fading from something.

  I jump up and come down with all my strength having activated afterimage using it as a force multiplier even as my katana is honed in as sharp a spirit aura as I can currently maintain. I come down on the thing like the hand of an angry deity point first with one of the sharpest blades ever designed and my strike leaves a bloody line as it rips some of the scales off the thing causing it to release Gaia as it hisses but I still don’t penetrate deeper than the scales.

  I strike at it again not even causing a scratch as it slithers into the grass and disappears, how such a big snake disappears like that I’m eager to find out. Gaia coughs up blood as he sways on one knee, both his arms hanging uselessly at his side’s. It seems some of us with soul weapons aren’t the only ones that have close to full control over when we go into the Rage.

  “You good?” I ask still circling around to check if the thing is gone or preparing another ambush.

  “I-it, it’s still here.” He manages to say from his position before closing his eyes and meditating past the pain.

  My sight, my aura sense, my feel, my hearing, my soul detect none of my senses can find the thing and by what I’ve seen of it I’m estimating it’s at least 8 to 10m long. I slowly unlimber my pack from my back then my nodachi but I don’t finish as the thing slithers out of nowhere, I spin and deflect the head with Razor as it misses me by centimeters and it’s long powerful muscle of a body follows in the head’s wake.

  I strike twice more at the body not breaking into the skin even with my afterimage and aura enhanced strength but it does hiss in pain even as it again disappears into the grass. Spirits beyond, how on Gaia do other creatures live in the same habitat with that thing?

  I think I’ve found a weakness though and I grab my sheathed nodachi sheathing Razor back onto my hip and prepare for another attack. I don’t have to wait long and I swing my heavy celestial iron and obsidian made pole-arm with everything I have at the things head directly.

  *

  “We need to get out of here,” I say to Gaia after cutting the snake’s head even as the body continues to contort like it has a mind of it’s own.

  “We can use my sword sheaths as splints and get you moving without perpetuating your injuries, I’m gonna need to bind your ribs as well. You ready?”

  Gaia nods and I get to work on his arms, pulling the bones into alignment with a snapping sound that has him shivering after before I start binding the arm with Razor’s sheath. I do the ribs next much gentler because they are already in alignment, just slightly fractured and bruised.

  “I can’t believe the thing did this much damage in the little time it had you,” I say going to his other arm twitching uselessly at his side.

  “It’s a magical bea- Ahhhhh…!” He pants as I start binding his arm on my nodachi’s sheath, my blade is conspicuously silent to my senses after this fight but I have no time to investigate now.

  “Come on, we may still need to defend ourselves come nightfall,” I say pulling him up and we walk then jog awkwardly towards the rolling hills of Eldritch.

  *

  We do need to defend ourselves again come nightfall but thankfully it isn’t from mimics, unfortunately its from sciamachy. A battle against siamachy is almost unending, but at least I can manage them alone at their current level.

  Its a long night though, but we keep moving forward even through the deluge of battle.

  Chapter 67

  Sachihiro

  “Sole’uma apho!” Someone shouts to me from the twilight of the dusk light of a new day.

  We stop and I almost sigh in relief to be in the company of human beings again until I realise I can’t see or feel anyone though I clearly heard someone speak, I tense up slightly. A human silhouette rises from the golden yellow grass stalks a few meters before me like a mud golm being raised.

  “Ingathi uyakhuva yazi.” Another says rising somewhere to my left, spear in hand.

  I’m alert but slightly confused even as I try not to seem too threatening but also maintain a ready stance in case I have to be threatening.

  “Ayiva kwanto le qha kungona isibonayo ubasikhona, k’dala siyilandela futhi, ngeyi thethe k’dala uba ibisiva.”

  “Ndithetha ngokuva ilwimi eli silithethayo mna.”

  They both shrug after the exchange and the taller of the two walks towards us, Gaia is slightly behind me with his arms and ribs still bound panting silently. It’s been a long night for both of us and the fighting off of the sciamachy is an almost never ending processe.

  “Can you feel them?” Gaia asks from behind me and I nod slightly.

  “Only the two I can see, do y
ou feel anyone else?”

  “There is are two null points on the grass behind and to the left, another to the right. I think we are surrounded, the could be more so get ready.”

  I acknowledge that with a nod as the tall silhouette turns into a lean, coco bark coloured skinned man who walks smoothly and confidently towards us. He drops a dagger and his spear on the grass as he comes forward lifting his now empty hands up.

  “Awusivha uba siyhini nhe? Jonga nd’zokuphatha soqgiba sithethe kakuhle.”

  He says walking towards me and I let him, getting my still naked and in hand nodachi out of his path. He is almost exactly my height at something like 1.9m of height, his dark coloured skinned seems rich and slightly luminous against the backdrop of the rising light. He is lean, probably half Om’s width in size but his ropey muscles seem strong.

  He places a hand on my unarm arm slowly and we almost immediately connect and he sends to me in Universal. I nod my understanding and communicate with Gaia.

  “He wants us to follow them, we are close to one of their villages, we can see the elders there and make our requests.” I say, from what I get of our exchange.

  “Great, let’s go.” He says already trudging ahead, the other one turning and leading on.

  The one touching my arm maintaining contact a while longer, they’ve apparently been watching us for a while. He thinks I am a great warrior and could take one of his daughters as a wife. I don’t even know the man’s name and already he is selling me his daughter.

  I try to express myself and decline but I’m not sure he’s getting my half of the communication, he clearly isn’t an Awakened so I’m not sure how he learnt to send at all. Where would he have learnt to send to begin with let alone able to receive mental communicate from someone who can’t yet send himself.

  The other two reveal themselves as we walk with a fifth one Gaia didn’t feel. I’m not sure how his senses are so much more acute than mine but since that python he has been very alert.

  *

  It’s another hours light jogging before we reach the low cut grass that nothing but bugs can hide amongst, there are some golden lions lying about lounging by one of the thatched huts these people use as homes. Golden lions aren’t the biggest or strongest but they are known to be great ambush hunters and of course a lion is still a lion regardless of how small it may initially seem.

  Golden lions only grow to about 1.5m at the shoulder, ideal for these tall grasslands of the Foothills. They also behave more like wolves than cats with their pack mentality communal behaviour.

  We pass the lone hut under the watchful seemingly lazy eye of the majestic creatures, none even getting up to investigate and it’s another 10 minutes of walking before we reach the village proper.

  *

  We are inside a large round hut with the floor on a lower level than the ground outside. There is a blue blazing odourless smokeless fire in the middle of the hut with black egg sized stones that seem to be catching the fire and storing it somehow. These people are not as simple as the rest of this world thinks they are.

  “What brings you to our little corner of Pangaea Sachihiro?” One of the elders projects after the introductions have been done and Gaia seen to as best they can in the short time we’ve been here. Whatever they did seems to have lessoned the pain but he is still in splints, proper splints now though.

  “We are traveling with a party of 88 people maybe a day behind us, we have injured that have been infected by a festering of the wounds inflicted by the Underworld creatures known as mimics.” I say in Common and another starts translating.

  It seems that though some of them can project in Universal they can’t gather meaning from my mind in the same way Zaraya sometimes does. All the people here are in loinskins and nothing else, even the women where nothing but paint, jewelry and loinskins. Not even sandles on their feet.

  “We are aware of the group that follows you and we are sad to say they now number 86 people instead of what you report to us.” One of the elders says.

  All of them are wizened old men with deep laugh and frown lines etched into their faces. The hut is spacious and cool even with the 22 of us occupying a lot of the space, 10 elders each with one young man sitting quietly behind them then Gaia and I.

  I nod at that statement, “we expect to have experienced loses, can your healers help purge this festering from our blood?” I ask trying to get my senses up but something in this tent has me mostly blind.

  “We have come across these mimic creatures before, they are a nomadic sort going around collecting different types of sapient creatures into their fold. We have learnt to heal this ailment from many of our own loses against these dark creatures, what then do we gain from helping your people?” Another of the old men before me asks.

  That’s a question I wasn’t prepared for, to be honest I wasn’t sure what I expected. “What is it that your people desire?” I ask instead of guess, I have no idea what these people value. Like the Tribes before the coming of the fae they don’t even have a currency as a form of exchange.

  A silence that gives away the mental conversation that mist be taking place permeates the hut for only a few moments but it’s enough for me to realise we have more bargaining power than I initially realised.

  “We have two requests and if you agree to both of them we can assure you immunity from any further affliction from the same types of Underworld mimics.” Another says, an old man seated by the door, a seating arrangement that seems to determine seniority or power or some such.

  I nod, “we are listening.”

  They nod back, “Firstly we require your assistance in the hunting and killing of a creature that has been haunting our people and these lands for the past 600 years. It is a spirit creature that takes some of our young just after their birth, feeding off of them and leaving the carcass’ for our hunters to find. Many a great warrior has pitted themselves against it but all return either maimed or don’t return at all.”

  “If your own great warriors are unable to overcome this creature how is it that you think we could?” Gaia asks pointedly.

  “You both weild spirit bound weapons, and your friend here especially weilds a soul weapon if our Seers aren’t mistake. It isn’t ability that prevents us from ridding ourselves of this scourge but it’s the tools we currently have at our disposal.

  “Your people will reach our escorts within the day and by that time you may already have slain this creature if you are willing.”

  “Will we get assistance from your hunters a d warriors?” I ask seriously, ma made sure her children could negotiate well enough not to be taken advantage off.

  “Of course, but this us a creature of soul and spirit and only our Seers are adapt at using spirit but non are warriors able to face it down and cause direct harm. The best they can do is place wards and blessing against it’s influence.”

  “And what I’d the second condition for this healing you can provide?” I ask, having kept that at the back of my mind.

  The elder before me spreads his arms wide as he smiles mischievously. “We require a pact between our peoples of no aggression, we require access to this great academy travelers speak of as they pass our lands, and we require this agreement to be sealed by marriages so our people may become one family.”

  Sneaky bastards these and they know they have us over a barrel because even if we let these few die it definitely isn’t the last time we will have to deal with mimics. I’m trying yo think on my feet here and gain the advantage for my people.

  “I cannot speak for the people that built and run the Academy as you say, I am only a student of its ways not one of the elders there. The people I can speak of are the Tribesmen of the Tundra on the continent of Sandaria, but even them I can only speak on behalf of the Norse Tribe.

  “We are a people that have never had any animosity with your people as far as I am aware and I could gladly promise a non aggression pact between our people, but even that will need to be confirme
d by my Chief and elders when I get home.”

  Okey that doesn’t leave me with much to bargain with but you always ask for less from a poor man than you do from a rich man. I may have to trade some of my jewels as well, I can see these people wear ornaments.

  “It is unfortunate that you cannot promise access to this learning of these new ways we’ve heard of but what you propose is agreeable to us. As long as you speak to the elders of this Academy on our behalf as well.

  “But because your people are so far and not likely to have been aggressive towards us anyways, we require that some of our women marry into this tribe so you return home already joined to us so your elders don’t refuse us. Some of our men will also take wives amongst your tribe.” Another well wrinkled man projects.

  “I cannot compel our people into such a bond, and amongst my people any man or woman may have as many partners as they want so long as all parties agree. And any woman may leave a man if she is unhappy with him in their marriage, is this acceptable yo you?” I ask.

  I know the Aldermen don’t have any form of divorce and I know their polygamy is only veered towards their men having multiple partners never the women. They remain quiet, their eyes shifting and their body language tense, they are definitely having a mental conversation.

  I look at Gaia, he looks back and shrugs, not his forte so he keeps his mouth shut. Not that he talks much to begin with.

  “This is acceptable to us.” One of them projects, “we will wait for the rest of your group, heal them and let you deal with the ngcukuta with only a guide from our people.

  “The ceremonies will take place after the hunt and the survivors of this Norse clan will marry into the Elder families. Should the not be 5 or more ceremonies then we will place a curse on all your traveling companions that you wiil agree to accept as Gaia as your witness.”

  I nod, I hate binding oaths but I don’t see how else to play this.

  “If we marry into the Aldermen, will we have access to the ways and the lands that have only ever been occupied by the Aldermen these past millennia?” I ask, my greed for land rearing its ugly head.