Back in the Tribe: Omake
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It's cold.
There's so much blood.
If only I was stronger. If only I was faster.
If only I was a better father.
—
A sharp breath reaches my lungs and my body jolts upright. Another dream- no nightmare. It's been two days already, and the nightmares won't stop coming. I have a feeling they won't stop for a lot longer. Not until she's back.
The soft leathers and cloth of my bed greet me, and a gentle hand reaches against my back. A warm sensation spreads from the point of contact, and my heart flutters as if I was cub again.
"Did you have another one?" A delicate voice says from beside me, and turning to my right I'm met with the familiar visage of my mate. Fluffy brown, nearly red, fur and a skull that's nearly as white as the clouds above. Just looking at her, I feel the same emotions I did during our bonding ceremony, but a sad overtone plagues the memories.
"I should have left with them." I reply curtly, already knowing what she's going to say in response.
"No you shouldn't have, the tribe needs your wisdom. Now more than ever." A deep part of me knows she's right too, but I can't help the feeling that more should have been done.
"Doesn't she need me too? Doesn't our own daughter need us." Internally I curse myself for raising my voice. Anari shouldn't have to get yelled at as soon as she wakes up, but I can't stop the anger from pouring into my words.
"I hate to say this, Thel, but the needs of the villages needs outweigh our the needs of our daughter. If our home collapses before she returns, what would she return to? If our people die, how will we protect ourselves if the Yun' Vari bastards decide to steal more of our people?" The sheer hate in her voice when she mentions the Yun' Vari reminds me, once more, of the past two days.
The raid was swift, and alarms were barely raised before they were already tying up my people. I wasn't even in the village at the time, instead I was with a scouting party looking for a path to take us away from the cold. Afterall, winter is coming soon, and we need somewhere to go, lest our young and elderly freeze. But I should have been here to protect them, I should have delayed it a day like my little sapling begged me to.
Just another point to the "bad leader" totem pole.
"Nuh-uh. No. You got that look again and I will not tolerate it." Anari speaks once more, drawing me out of my stupor.
"What look?" The confusion in my voice is evident, enough so that even I can hear it.
"The look you do when you're beating yourself up. Stop it." Wh-
"I have a look for that?"Am I that easy to read?
"You do, now stop it before I rip your antlers off." The look she's giving me tells me how serious my mate is, and I can't help but let out a light chuckle at the thought. "Don't laugh at me! I've kicked your ass more than anyone else in the village."
"That you have, but you've never won." I take the opportunity my mate presented me with to change the subject.
"Oh, do you want to go again? Because I think you've been getting rusty, and I would be more than happy to shove your ugly face into the dirt."
"Huh, the ugly face you decided was worth bonding with."
"Nah, I did it for the clout." Ouch.
"The clout? Really?"
"Yeah, I mean, have you seen the pastries people will just give to me? What other reason could there possibly be for me bonding with you?" A dirty, dirty thought comes to my mind.
"I can think of a few." My hands automatically begin to wrap around my mate, and she lets out a soft laugh, but something causes us to stop.
A horn. We collectively hold our breath, both hoping for the best and waiting for the worst. One horn means the mission was a success, and they would have my daughter back. But it seems the gods don't want me to have hope any more, and after this, swearing off the feeling completely seems like a good idea.
A second horn sounds off in the distance, signaling a defeat. I feel myself stand and start to put on the proper necklaces and head-dresses in the relatively cramped caravan. The old man is going to have a lot to explain, since he somehow lost with one hundred warriors.
"Thel, wai-" Anari is cut off, and my stomach drops. A third horn. I haven't heard a third horn in my entire time as a tribe chief, and I have to wrack my brain before the meaning comes to mind. Not only did they lose, but they utterly dominated.
Anari tries to say something to me, but before she can get it out I'm already outside of the door. The dirt is cold under my feet, as is the air, but I can't find it in myself to care much. Before even getting to the outskirts of our camp I see a group of my people gathering around. That sight alone furthers my anger, as many of them are wrapped in bandages, scars littering them like an archer's target. A few of them clipped, with makes my stomach roll in disgust. And in the middle of the crowd, stands a familiar and large set of antlers. There in the middle, stands the Elder Guardian, my father and previous chief.
A few of my people turn as they see me, throwing me questioning looks, but they move aside as I step through. There in the center, is the gray old man I can't help but loathe in this very moment. Antlers larger than anyone else, including mine, and dark black fur that's been tainted by age and scars. His skull is rigid and cracked in places, some of the cracks new. Not to mention the fact that his right arm is in a cast.
But worse than all of that, only eleven of my warriors stand behind him.
"What happened. Elder." I'm surprised the words are able to get through at all with how hard my snout is clamped, but get out they do. A few of my tribesmen flinch, and my heart aches for them momentarily before my attention is switched back to the Elder, his gray eyes piercing my hazle ones.
"What I said would happen, cub." He insults me, not surprising.
"Elder, I do not have time for games or dancing around the subject. Tell me what happened."The man who raised me straightens his posture, and sends me a look of general disinterest.
"They had help." He continues to speak as if time isn't of the essence.
"Elaborate."
"Well, we arrived as instructed, and we attacked as instructed. I personally cornered the chieftess as instructed, and then music started playing in the distance. War music."
"This is not the time for one of your fairy tales, I need to know what happened and where my people are."
"No it isn't the time for a fairy tale, but rather a lesson. One I am keen on teaching you, so if you don't believe what I am saying, ask your soldiers. Believe me when I say that I haven't even got to the insane part yet." I look to my warriors behind him, silently hoping that one of them will come out and tell me it was all a trick. Hoping that they would tell me my other ninety soldiers are behind some tree, with all of our captured people with them. My hopes were not answered, and half of them won't even meet my gaze
"Fine."
"As I was saying, war songs were playing in the distance, and while I didn't have the time to look and see them approach, I did see them land. Four metal beasts the size of homes landed, moving the dirt itself with their descent."
"You can't be-"
"Like I said, either listen and accept, or ask your warriors. They will attest and swear on everything I am saying." Looking back, their looks once again tell me everything. My heart stops for a second at the sheer absurdity of it all. Metal beasts and battle music?
"Now, as I was saying, the beasts landed, and out stepped warriors. Their fur was as hard as bronze, shined like steel, and moved like cloth." The crowd around us listens with rapt attention, nearly leaning in to hear better. "They had staffs of thunder and death, and whatever they pointed them at fell like livestock."
"Mages? They had mages?"
"Lots of them too. Twenty if I recall correctly, and that's just the half of it. They had balls of fire, that would burst into a great flame that would shred you apart. And their knives were a dark black, made out of a materiel I've never seen. I barely managed to escape, let alone with our warriors. One of their fireballs hit my arm, and ripped it apart like a scroll." The Elder's ironclad composure wavers at the mention of his, but he regains it with the grace of someone with decades of dangerous social situations behind them. I find myself tempted to taunt him for a brief second, but decide the best of it. We are in the public, surrounded by my people, and I am a damned better leader than the old man.
"How many did they kill? How many were captured?" My anger changes into worry for a moment as I get the questions out.
"Does it honestly matter? Is slavery any better than death? Our people are being clipped and treated like scum, and the Yun' Vari bastards have wizards on their side. Wizards that make our spears look like toothpicks" The Elder's smug expression cracks again, cementing how much this event actually affected him.
"I-. Damn." The panic has spread to the people surrounding us, muttering going from person to person. All of them are shaking, waiting for the ax to fall on their necks. They're afraid, and the fear sends a fury throughout my bones. I look to my people, and I am faced with what the Yun' Vari did to us.
Val. A young warrior who people said could one day replace me. Now he sits broken, his father helping him move around in his crutches. Once vibrant eyes full of life now dead and nipped at the bud, just like his antlers. He was clipped in the skirmish, his honor being taken from him as if it was gold. A prize for the Yun' Vari bastards.
Alon. A scholar who wanted to learn of our tribes history. Clipped, and her arms broken so she couldn't fight back. Her fur is tarnished and matted, and her honor was desecrated by the slavers. She wasn't the only one who faced the degeneracy of the Yun' Vari, but she will be the last if I have anything to say about it.
And then there's Ulor. He's ten, and his right arm was cut off at the shoulder. A child, who looked up to the village, looked up to me, now won't be able to move a crate, let alone a hammer. He wanted to be a smith, and now his dreams have been crushed.
A righteous fury bubbles whiten me, as I recall my daughters face when I left for the scouting party.
My daughter, my little sapling. Taken from me before I could even say goodbye. Her and so many others, alone and thinking that they won't ever be able to see their family again. She's probably frightened, held in a cold dungeon with no light. Rusted metal bars the only thing separating her from freedom.
"No." The word is grainy in my mouth, but I relish in it's company. It's the denial of fate, the denial of death. "We can't lose like this. I won't accept it."
"Then what do you suggest we do?" The smug voice of the Elder speaks, and I can't help myself from hating the sound of his voice more and more. The only thing he despairs was the loss of his arm, which just shows why I took his title from him. A plan starts to take form in my head, and while it's crude yes, my people need hope now more than ever. Standing straight, and making my voice louder than normal, the basis of a plan is announced.
"We need to plan, and recover. We should establish contact with the other tribes and trade for more warriors, we might even have to enact a few of the treaties. See if they have any mages of their own. The Yun' Vari bastards want to recruit wizards to their side when they know they're fated to lose? Fine, let's do the same."
—
Hovering above them in the air, out of sight from where the Yun' Gon could see them, stays a drone. The drone's job is to learn, transcribe, and translate. It doesn't like what it's found out.
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BAM- it's done. Hope y'all enjoyed it. Tell me where I messed up, and I'll try to improve it!
