Chapter 13

Two Bears and Broken Stick sat and listened as members of the Northern delegation spoke of the misery that had overtaken their lands, and brought devastation to their people. The delegation was made up of four hunters, all from different villages that were located far to the north of Two Bears' village. There was a new type of warfare that they were speaking of. Large parties of hunters attacking villages without warning, or any provocation, taking whatever they pleased, after first subduing any resistance by means of surprise and their superior forces. Villages were being stripped bare of all of the provisions that had been stored away for the coming of winter. People that tried to resist, or even some who simply spoke out against the invading forces, were being badly hurt, sometimes even killed by the oppressors. As the village tribal council listened to the tales being told to them, a chill settled on each council members heart.

"We come to you with the hope that you will take heed of the many injustices being done to us, and will agree to come to our aid. While it is our turn to suffer now, do not doubt that, unless they can somehow be stopped, your turn will eventually come as well. Three cycles of seasons before now, hunters came to our villages, like we come to yours now, and pleaded with us to come and assist them. It was decided then that we shouldn't risk our own peace and our manner of living to become involved with matters that didn't directly concern us. We were wrong. Each one of us here today has suffered for having been wrong. My son, having barely fifteen summers, was killed when he tried to run and warn the other villages. Jogg's woman and his daughter were both taken away and are now being used as servants, or maybe worse than servants. Kilil's brother is dead and his lodge is no more. His woman now stays in Kilil's lodge, and eats at his cooking fire. Trooma's village is no more. It has been burnt, and the ashes have blown everywhere in the winds that come. In only half of a full cycle, more than fifty of our people have been killed, and there is no end of it in sight. We ask for your assistance, to stop the killings, and to restore peace to our lands."

Cletil, the hunter who had been speaking, looked at every face, trying to see whether his words had made an impact on the tribal council, and then, resigned, he sat back down. All of the hunters spoke of their personal trials, and of the losses that they had suffered and observed. When they were done, they thanked the council members for giving them a chance to speak, and then left the council fire to return to their guest lodge to await the decision of the village. This was at least the tenth such presentation they had made to tribal councils, and none had resulted in anything more than offers of shelter for themselves and some of their people, and expressions of sorrow for what they and their people had thus far endured. Cletil wasn't hopeful that this presentation would have a different result.

"We have heard these stories before. Rumors of war, and of something more shameful than war. Taking the provisions of another village rather than hunting and gathering your own, that is truly shameful. Killing people who speak out against this, and taking people captive, to use them against their will, are even more shameful acts. My first thought, as we were listening today, was that I was happy that it wasn't being done anywhere nearer to us. That thought was shameful as well. From what we are being told, it sounds like all of this is being done by a group no larger than a single village. We should have a meeting of all the tribal councils and then try to find enough hunters to travel North to return things to the way they once were. Even if these terrible people were never to travel down here to do us any direct harm, it would be hard for me to rest easy at night, always wondering if one day they might." Rising Waters, the Chief, looked very troubled as he spoke those words. He had been forced to fight a war right after he became the Chief. He appreciated, maybe more than most Chief's, the value of being at peace. He was also a husband and father though, and he knew that protecting the future of his loved ones was even more valuable and more important than living in peace. Two Bears stood after Rising Waters had sat back down.

"I will go if such a war party is formed. I would hope that other villages would send help to us if we were in need. As little as I want to leave the village, Willow and my children, I will not leave it to others to protect what needs protecting." Two Bears sat down again and was surprised that no one else rose to announce a similar commitment. There was more discussion, having mostly to do with sending out runners to call for a larger gathering of tribal councils. When the council disbanded, Two walked back to his lodge. He worried about how Willow would accept his decision to go North to help those people, strangers, that he didn't even know.

"You stood up in council and told them all that you would go? Most hunters would have taken time to think about their decision before announcing it to everyone like that." He and Willow were at their cook fire and Two had just finished telling her of the council meeting, and the greater meeting that would soon take place. He had waited to the last before telling her of what he had decided. He had known that Willow would share her thoughts with him as soon as he finished telling her what he'd done.

"I could make no other choice. Would you have me stand by and wait for them to come here and take you and Path away from our village? I am not a hunter who would trust and depend on others for the safety of my own family. It is my own lodge, and those that shelter in it, that I felt the need to protect. I hate the thought of leaving all of you, but not as much as I'd hate to one day need to travel to other villages explaining why I was coming to ask for their help." Willow turned towards him and placed her hand upon his chest. She felt the beating of his heart for a moment, saying nothing as she kept her contact with him.