Ok. So the council decided to help the poor bastards. Thought it would go to B for a while, but cooler heads prevailed. Onwards!
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The debate ran fierce through the night, positions in the council switching between the more belligerant hunter approach and the pacific yet pragmatic position of the keepers of fire. What was clear though was that this new, weakened tribe could not, would not be ignored.
With the rising sun, the greatest fire, the position of the keepers finally prevailed. Hurriedly an aid expedition was formed, comprised of hunters with their meat, tamers with their sheep and zebras, scavengers with their roots, keepers with their warm fires.
The column left the camp by mid day, preceded by a scouting party who had the orders to amicably approach the escaping tribe and make them understand help would be on the way.
The column came back fifteen days later, marching slowly, accompanied by a small fleet of rafts and canoes (those were the names of the floating logs, we learned later) on the river.
The elder council convened again to meet the strangers. It was quickly established that the new tribe worked much like our own, a council of the elders taking all decisions of import.
Then the tale of their eldest began...
'We thank you for the help you provided, free of obligations, to the remnants of our tribe. We don't know the ways of the open plains and would have faced terrible hardships in the next years, but when we spotted your tribe we were scared. We are weak, we are few, we are on the run. We could not risk making contact with someone who might have attacked us for our few goods or just for sport.'
'Our tribe, in past years, lived past the hills downriver. There is a great body of water there. For generations, we lived on its shores, in peace, harvesting the bounty of the water and exploring along its shores. We found several tribes much like us, establishing peaceful relationships and trading fish for fish.'
'We had just one great problem. A great flying beast, monstrous, raided us every few years, taking its tolls in lives to sate its hunger – he produces a small figurine of the beast. It resembles one of the lizards that we sometimes saw scurrying underfoot, but winged, and horned – but the losses were always bearable, we could afford to live there even with those raids.'
'Behind our backs, where the sun rises, a great, dark forest lay. For many years we thought nothing of it, but then ominous things started happening. First, we lost contact with the tribes further along the shores than us. First the farthest, then nearer and nearer, until we were the last.'
He sighs: 'We should have been wiser. We should have been frightened. We should have moved. But then they came, and it was too late. A great tribe, more numerous than the pebbles on the shore, attacked us. They were men like us and you, yet they weren't like us and you. They were beasts, roaring their hunger and hatred. They had warriors, moving as fast as the gazelle, as strong as lions. They fought dressed in animal pelts, bare-handed, fearless, impervious to all but the most grievous wounds. Our spears could not save us, the valor of our best fishers and hunters as nothing in front of the bestial rage they had to face. In a day, we were vanquished. We took to the waters and fled far, far away, for many moons, until we crossed the hills and arrived here. We left our ancestral lands and our ancestral enemy behind, the rest of the tale, you know'.
A deep, worried silence accompanied the end of the tale.
A. The hunters spoke first:
'Although this great enemy waits far beyond our lands, beyond the hills, we can't afford to ignore them. Until now, all we had to fight were beasts. Cunning, strong, yes, but always unorganized. We must prepare for this new menace and train our strongest, healtiest men in the art of killing. We have no other choice.'
B. A keeper of fire shook his head:
'This man's tale is indeed distressing and should not be ignored. But our priority right now is to make our tribe stronger and more numerous. We should focus on welcoming these refugees into our tribe, learn their customs and their water-wisdom. Only then can we move our gaze to the hills and beyond.'
C. Some of the elders, frightened, said:
'This enemy is far away, yes. But not far enough. It is enough for them to follow the river to find us. This place is not safe. We should start sending exploration parties in all other directions, to find an hidden stronghold, and start anew.'
