Chapter 82: Chapter 74 – The first war meeting

“One thousand?” Charlie muttered. How was that possible?

 

“Five hundred a day,” Pycleia said, her arms crossed as she sat on a red feather pillow. Two women sat either side of her. One of Klipesia’s sisters, a potential replacement as clan heir, and the other woman was her best Huntress.

 

“That’s unbelievable,” Nolkonoe muttered, sitting herself on a white and red dotted feather pillow. By her sides she had two of her daughters. Like Klipesia, one daughter was her best Vulture, and the other was the potential next heir to the Vulture clan.

 

In silence, Ases and Cluupyte sat with their respected clan heirs and right hand women. Upon a throne of animal bones and fur the Chiefess sat. Out to her sides her four wives sat, while Charlie stood by her side.

 

“Are you sure?” Cluupyte asked.

 

“Absolutely,” Pycleia said, her eyes narrow and her ears dropped to the sides, “based off what Charlie said in his report, those large wagons have about one hundred to five hundred men depending on the wagon size and type. We saw at leas five knew ones. We took the Desert Claimer and rode around for a while, he found wagon tacks that lead off into the Desert. These are new soldiers,”

 

“Mercenaries,” Charlie muttered, “Mercenaries from the north, the same kind we met when we went to the Region Lord’s outpost. He is most likely preparing for an all-out assault, either on us, or he is getting ready for us to assault them,”

 

“Then we attack! We skin them and sacrifice them!” the right hand of Cluupyte barked.

“Calm yourself,” Ases said, turning and glaring at the woman.

 

“Oh, come on! Your clan was one of the worst affected by his tricks! How are you not outraged!” Ases did her best to hide her anger at the woman’s retaliation, but Charlie kept close attention to her tail, and he could see the hairs beginning to stand on end, “do you not care for your people!”

 

A crack of stone filled the hut. Silence hung over them. Ases dusted the stone of her fist. The entire floor of the thirty-by-thirty meter room was cracked in half. Her ears were pointed skyward, while the hairs on her tail stood at attention.

 

“Don’t even go there mutt,” the second in command to the warriors winced, but went to speak despite her fear. 

 

“How dar!” Before she could finish her sentence, she noticed the glare of Cluupyte.

 

“Quite. I have seen the destruction caused by the weapons they carry. Ases has suffered far more than any of us, but she understands that we must slowly wait for our plan to unfold,” Cluupyte said, glancing to Charlie as she spoke the last part.

 

“But master!” The woman stubbornly tired to argue. Noticing the visible anger of Xasuyle, Charlie knew the situation was tensing. Since she was only arms reach from him, he placed a hand onto her shoulder to calm her.

 

“A gun ignores armour,” Charlie spoke, turning all attention onto him as he stepped forward.

 

“You can make strong armour, but then they make higher calibres to break that armour. Your people do not have armour,” Charlie muttered as he locked eyes with the woman.

 

“But we can heal far faster than humans! I know you have seen it yourself, Phukomeia,”

 

“I survived because the shooter didn’t know how to use a gun, and they missed any parts of me that could instantly kill me,” Phukomeia interrupted, not wanting her name to be used in an argument against Charlie.

 

“What about an artillery shell?” Charlie continued as he knelt in front of the woman. Raising his voice, he continued.

 

“The average imperial artillery shell can explode out to about forty to forty meters! An explosive round can come out to one hundred by one hundred! Can you regenerate or heal when you are nothing but smouldering ash?” Charlie said, picking up some sand from the floor. Putting his hand out, he allowed the sand to slowly drip down onto the ground.

 

“Sand is like time, its hard to count every grain, every second, every moment,” dropping the sand onto the floor, it splashed onto her legs.

 

“But it can be gone in an instant, an instant that you can not count or predict, an instant that you cannot stop. The more you speak of irrational attack, the faster that instant approaches,” Charlie stood up, wiping the sand from his legs before returning to the side of the Chiefess.

 

“Thanks,” Xasuyle mouthed to him.

 

“It’s true,” Cluupyte said, “and the other elders where know it as well. The humans are fast at inventing, and the last artillery cannon we saw years ago was terrifying, so just think what of the horrors the humans could have invented now?” Cluupyte glanced back to her second in command. She was quite, not daring to make a sound to anger anyone further.

 

“We need guns,” Charlie said bluntly, “I have tactics, but for these tactics to work we need gunpowder, bullets, and guns. There is a near by town in the fifth region. We can take some of the tribe’s money and go there,”

 

“But he noise of the guns, it damages our ears!” Pycleia said in a mixture of frustration and panic. Raising a hand, Charlie tired to signal for her to calm.

 

“I have plans, just place some faith into me. It would also be a good chance to give some Vultures a chance to learn some merchant skills and documentation skills,” Charlie said, no usual smile coming to his lips as he stared towards the cracked ground.

 

If one Forger could do that… he could only wonder what Cluupyte could do if she was serious. The reason she had trouble with the Goblin Lord was because she was rusty, but now she was refreshed, how strong could she be? Or how powerful were the twin tails? All were questions he wanted to find out for himself.

 

Simply asking them could bring a slanted response from religious bias at the strength of the twin tailed, or there could also be bias towards one clan reporting on their strength to try and show off. Their pride was something they would relinquish, if necessary, but since they were gathering moral and support for the war, they couldn’t reveal any weaknesses.

 

Bitting his bottom lip, Charlie began to plough his mind for ways to try and secretly test the different clans in their ability. Shaking his head and placing the thought to one side, he zoned back into the conversation.            

 

“Can we even trust people from the other Regions? We are an independent tribe now, we can not be certain if they are or aren’t our enemy,” Felkouyope said, doing her best find a point of reason without causing conflict with Charlie’s plan.  

 

“What about the room of goods?” Nolkonoe said, turning to look at the Chiefess. Phukomeia translated her words to her. For a moment the Chiefess thought, before picking up her translating book and beginning to give her response.

 

“Take Charlie to room, see if he finds value in rubbish. If do, maybe bribe guards?” The Chiefess’s broken words brought smiles to the women. A plan was set, now all they had to do was execute it.

 

“What is the room of goods?” Charlie questioned.

 

“We have great salt mines here in our tribe, and for some reason the outsiders love salt. They try to marry the Chiefess so that they can have the salt. They give our tribe many gifts, but to us they have no value,” Nolkonoe explained.

 

“I see… so I need to find treasure in trash,” Charlie muttered, “Can you take me there now?” Charlie questioned. The women looked around to room, trying to see if there was anyone who wanted to make a last comment before they left.

 

With no words uttered, all rose to leave the hut and go to the ‘room of goods.’ The Chiefess gladly led the way, Charlie close behind her followed by the Chiefess’s concubines. For a while they walked, until they reached the steps that led up to the Chiefess’s house. Turning to them, the Chiefess spoke. For the sake of Charlie, Nolkonoe translated.

 

“From here on only myself, my husband, and the clan leaders shall go,” the four clan leaders stepped forward to follow the Chiefess.

 

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With the Chiefess again leading the group, they began to climb up the steps and towards her home. A mixture of fear and anxiousness hung over the group, and it was obvious to all. Every ten or twenty steps, one clan leader would look to another and give them a nod or smile of reassurance. Glancing to the tails of the women, Charlie knew that this was the best way of telling their true feelings.

 

Each woman’s tail was dipped down, showing their obvious depression. Glancing back to the Chiefess ahead of him, he saw her tail in a relaxed, but slightly curled passion against her back. She seemed nervous but confident. Smirking, he knew this was probably due to her placing more faith into him than the others.   

 

Reaching the top of the steps, they hurriedly entered the hut. Several servant women jumped and gave a few words of worry as they saw the Chiefess. Waving a hand, she excused them to carry on their work. Doing their best to ignore the six most important people in the tribe being so close to them, they tried their best to continue with their cleaning of the house.

Glancing to the wooden door, Charlie remembered seeing it earlier that day but thinking nothing much of it. Moving to the door, the Chiefess pulled the curved iron handle and opened the door. A strong scent of wine and native flowers. Crunching his face, Charlie tried to act as if he was not faceted by the smell.

 

Noticing the others wincing at the scent, he relaxed and allowed his disgust to spread across his face. The hairs on the end of the Chiefess’s tail stood ridged. Entering the room, she glanced back. Knowing that was his signal to follow, Charlie took a step into the room. Cold hair flooded him, immediately stunning him in his tracks.

 

A gentle hand pressed against his back. Turning, he saw Nolkonoe. Muttering a few soft words, the small flicker of a flame appeared in her hand. Walking ahead of him, she lit the way for Charlie. Entering the room after he, he stocked close to her side in attempt to try and stay closes to the heat. A couple cold steps later, and again they stopped.

 

Looking to the side, Nolkonoe placed her hand down into an iron bowl of wood. Lighting the wood, she again carried on. Still standing still, Charlie stared down at the artefacts of gold, diamond and all kinds of jewels and metals that he wasn’t familiar with. A hand prodded his shoulder.

 

“Keep going, you can stare all you want once Nolkonoe lights the fires, and we reach the end of the line,” Ases said. Nodding to her, Charlie complied and moved forward.

 

For a bout a minute they walked, Nolkonoe lighting the flames as they moved. Once they reached the end, they turned to gaze upon the piles of jewels and valuable items.

 

“Amazing…” Charlie muttered as he stared upon scared artefacts, items of glory, decor and riches, clothes and candles, all kinds of luxury items that A merchant would be a fool to not see value in.

 

“Why didn’t you just sell these? Merchants would buy this room for far more money than we got from the Merchant Union!” Charlie roared as he began to pant around the room, his eyes flickering from side to side as he tried to take in and study any item. Nolkonoe giggled, while the Chiefess and the rest stood baffled by his excitement.

 

“But these are useless? The wine taste horrible, the weapons break easily, and the gold is not money?” Cluupyte said. Squatting down, Charlie placed his head into his hands.

 

“Oh my god,” he muttered to himself, realising just now how much of a hunter gather tribe these people were.

 

Unless they could: eat or drink; fight with or use to fight; See some kind of value in it that was given due to it being an item that meant something to their tribe, their culture, or their religion; then they saw no value in it! This gold and items of luxury held no culture or practical important to them, so they simply threw them into this room, knowing they meant something to the outsiders, but completely underestimating the value of these items.

 

“And anyway, if we had sold it, the Region Lord would probably have taken the majority of the money as ‘tax’. Thieving bastard!” Ases growled.

 

“How much is the shit worth?” Pycleia asked, her hands on her hips as she saw this entire situation as being a simple waste of otherwise valuable time.

 

“This ‘shit’ is worth more than you could possibly imagine,” Charlie snapped as he picked up a sword of gold. Its blade was blunt and bent.

 

“Alright,” he said, turning with a scowl to the women, “which of you idiots did this?”

 

Cluupyte slowly raised her hand, his glare for some reason she couldn’t name terrifying her into obedience.

 

“Do you understand how valuable this is?” He said, no longer being able to hold back his tone of increasing anger.

 

“But it broke so easily… how can it be valuable,” his hypothesis was correct, these people had no idea of the world or culture outside of their realm.

 

“These swords are not meant for battle,” Charlie said, doing his best not to yell as he noticed the looks of bewilderment across the faces of the women.

 

“Why have sword, if not battle?” The Chiefess said, her tail almost forming into a question mark with how baffled she was. Rubbing his forehead, he stared at the women.

 

“Alright, sit down, we are having a talk about some dumb merchant shit,” he said, now knowing he was going to have to speak their ‘language’ if he was to get across the value of these items.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Also. I looked at the vote about if I should make chapters longer. I am thinking that since the average chapter is about 2,000 words, I might try and lift it to about 2,500. Hope that is alright, thanks for reading! 

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