Before the Storm: Act 4, Chapter 3

Before the Storm: Act 4, Chapter 3

Chapter 3

“...they left,” Xoc said.

“They did,” Winter Moon agreed.

As the last of the Council’s ships disappeared over the horizon, a lifetime’s worth of tension ebbed out of Xoc. Her legs gave out and she fell back onto a nearby tree root, content to lie limply looking up at the jungle canopy.

After speaking with Vogroth nar Ki’ra, the Nar and his retinue turned back to the crowd to resume their recruitment. Xoc could almost feel the frustration rising from the warriors as they assessed the combat prowess of the city’s hopefuls. She wouldn’t have been surprised if someone claimed that half of Ghrkhor’storof’hekheralhr had shown up, but the biggest surprise was that the Council’s representatives didn’t approach her party at all.

By the time the Council’s representatives were done, about twenty thousand of the largest, healthiest citizens boarded the ships and departed on their journey upriver. Xoc headed straight back to her clanhold to discuss what they had seen and heard once the disappointed remainder started to dissipate.

“That messenger said ‘no exceptions’,” Xoc said, “so I thought they would try to grab some of us for sure.”

“It’s good to know people,” Master Leeds said. “That being said, there were probably other reasons for it.”

“Such as?”

“Well, you mentioned that they weren’t happy about the quality of the people trying to join,” the Guildmaster said. “They might have come in like a guy looking to buy pieces of artwork, but they left like a guy who bought a load of grain.”

“I’m sorry, I don’t understand what that means.”

“It means that they figured that the quality of available soldiers in the city wasn’t going to get much better than what they saw,” Master Leeds said, “so they just picked as quickly as they could to save time. Since your clan is so new it isn’t even a clan yet, they must’ve figured it’d be more of the same.”

“Vogroth nar Ki’ra may have been doing us a favour, as well,” Xoc’s father said. “Rather than disrupt our work, he’s hoping that allowing us to grow as a warrior clan will net him allies in the future.”

From the top of the wide stairs to her court, Xoc looked out over the activity of her reborn clan. Both Master Leeds and her father voiced valid points.

“So they expect us to provide better warriors than what the city normally would in the future,” Xoc said. “I guess that makes sense as an idea, but aren’t we being invaded right now?”

“He did say that we’re being invaded,” her father said, “but did he say that our armies are lost?”

“No...”

“Then the warrior clans will continue to fight. Everyone will fight. Rol’en’gorek is our one and only home. It may take generations for the Commonwealth to make it to Ghrkhor’storof’hekheralhr, assuming that we don’t turn things around before then.”

“So he’s buying us time under that reasoning,” Xoc murmured. “They’re sending the citizens to war, too...”

Xoc snapped her mouth, leaving the last, miserable, thought unspoken. There wasn’t any reason why the Council wouldn’t be aware of the impending famine. Every person that they sent to fight not only helped slow down the Jorgulan advance, but eventually became one less mouth to feed. In a morbid way, the invasion was a fortuitous event.

“How should we proceed, Enxoc?” Elder Patli asked.

“We already figured out what we’re doing, right?” Xoc replied, “Oh, I thought of a few more things. First, we should include the tribes on the city’s northern borders in this fodder exchange.”

The aforementioned tribes were situated on the banks of the Rol’en’gorek, so they were undoubtedly being affected by the flooding.

“That makes sense,” Master Leeds nodded. “We won’t have to secure additional ships for that, either. Speaking of which, are we clear to secure more vessels for the river trade?”

“What about that idea we discussed the other day?” Itzal asked.

“Idea...? Ah, you’re right. We should just do that instead. It's a long-term project, though.”

“What are you talking about?” Xoc asked.

“We were bouncing around the idea of building a shipyard on our lake,” Master Leeds said. “The flooding in the basin’s probably destroyed most of the shipyards in Rol’en’gorek, so a good paddle boat is going to be harder and harder to come across. Don’t even get me started on big maintenance jobs. Our dam will protect us from the flooding, but getting ships out of the new shipyard would involve building a lock.”

“What’s that?”

“Er...basically, it’s a spot on the river where we can control the water level to allow ships to pass sections of a river with large differences in elevation. It’s like filling or emptying a container depending on how high you want the water level inside to be, then you open up the side you want to come out of when you reach the same water level.”

“Heh...” Xoc gazed at the Guildmaster in wonderment, “You know so many things.”

“I’m a Master of the Merchant Guild. Good infrastructure is essential for strong trade. Of course, I don’t know how to build what we’re talking about, but our tradesmen will.”

Everything that he spoke of may as well have been magic to her. As long as it worked, however, she didn’t really care.

“What else did you wish to add, Enxoc?” Elder Patli asked.

“Um...this is sort of related to the first thing,” Xoc said, “but we should reach out to our neighbours. So many people being taken away by the clans helps a little, but so long as the flooding continues, so will the problems that it brings.”

“What would be the goal of this outreach?” Her father asked.

“Stability,” Xoc said. “Instead of trying to guard against our neighbours from every direction, we should become friends with them.”

Eventually, she wanted to involve the entire city, but she wanted to know if her ideas would work first.

“Buffer territories, huh...” Master Leeds nodded slowly, “A prudent move.”

“What’s a buffer territory?” Xoc asked.

“Putting other people between yourself and potential threats,” Winter Moon supplied. “That way, they get hurt instead of you.”

“Eh?” Xoc blinked, “Th-That’s not what I meant! Well, it might become that way if something bad happens, but I just want to keep everyone from suffering! Really, I do!”

Winter Moon answered her protests with silence. Xoc tearfully looked up at her until Master Leeds cleared his throat.

“How things are arranged is up to you,” he said. “Usually, there is some degree of mutual benefit to such an arrangement. For instance, many tribes in Rol’en’gorek rely on the local warrior clan for security and offer some form of tribute in exchange – usually food. Since it’s a familiar concept in your culture, you could start from there and adjust things to your liking.”

“I see,” Xoc said. “It doesn’t sound so bad when you put it that way, but we don’t have any warriors to send right now.”

“That may be the traditional approach,” the Guildmaster said, “but we’re not bound to it. What’s important for now is that we establish ties with the neighbours and we’re doing that with trade. The rest can come when trouble does.”

“I’d rather it didn’t,” Xoc said. “Trouble, I mean.”

The Guildmaster showed his teeth.

“No one wants trouble to come knocking, of course. From what I’ve seen of Rol’en’gorek on the way here, however, the warrior clans still provide security in peacetime. Rather than you imposing yourself on the tribes, the tribes may demand your protection instead.”

“That’s just as bad,” Xoc said. “I just told you we don’t have warriors to spare.”

A chuckle rippled around her court. She didn’t think it was very funny. They weren’t in any position to be relied upon, but not being able to help made her feel terrible nonetheless.

Her court finished making arrangements and it took a day for her people to prepare for their visit to the northern tribes. Jute sacks filled with Blood Antlers were loaded onto a litter along with a variety of other goods that the Merchants figured would capture the interest of their prospective trading partners.

“Are you ready for this, Chimali?” Xoc asked.

“Doesn’t matter if I’m ready or not, yeah?” Chimali replied, “Just gotta do it. It’ll be just like my work before.”

She shifted slightly as the group of Nar scrutinised her. In the end, none of them voiced whatever it was that they thought. One of the ranchers handed his pack to another.

“I am Gaara,” he said. “The main village is a day’s walk from here. I will lead you there.”

Her party picked up their cargo litters and followed Gaara north along the stream. They occasionally came across other groups of ranchers with their modest herds and none of them seemed to be in a much better situation than the others.

“Everyone is on edge,” Xoc noted. “Is it only because of the lack of grazing, or has something else happened?”

“Half of our land is underwater,” Gaara replied. “The remaining villages are filled to bursting. To make it worse, people from the city have been trespassing on our lands.”

“Not our people, I hope,” Xoc said.

“If your people are well-fed, then I doubt it. We’ve been supplying the city with meat for as long as anyone can remember. Unfortunately, it appears that this fact has turned our herds into a target for hungry cityfolk. This has happened on occasion in the past, but it is becoming more frequent as the days pass.”

We’re not ready for this.

The scope of the city’s problems threatened to overwhelm her once again. It felt like her clan was too far behind to address them and the situation only got further ahead of them as time passed.

“Just to be clear,” Chimali said, “Nar Tamal isn’t under any of the warrior clans, right?”

“Our tribe has always been affiliated with the city,” Gaara told them, “and the city is not ruled by any one clan. Or any clans, for that matter. Tell me, how is it that you have formed one? Is it because of the troubling times that we find ourselves in?”

“Believe it or not,” Elder Patli said, “Enxoc has always had the makings of a lord. Long after ocelo Pa’chan and its lands were absorbed by Ghrkhor’storof’hekheralhr and the members of our tribe transformed into its citizens, Enxoc came into the world and did what she could to improve our lot. We have naturally come to look to her for leadership, and I suspect it would have happened even if these ‘troubling times’ hadn’t come.”

Xoc wished they would stop talking about her like that. There was already enough to deal with without adding their expectations on top of everything.

Before noon the next day, they arrived at the main village of nar Tamal. It had a ramshackle appearance, making it look like a dense collection of hastily constructed hovels.

“Did something happen to the village?” Xoc asked, “I don’t see anything that looks permanent.”

“What was the main village is now underwater,” Gaara said. “It used to be our port on the river. With the floodwaters still rising, we’ve had to move once every few days.”

“Ah...”

She should have realised that. Every tribe had their main settlement on a navigable river for trade if it was possible. Normally, most of the food shipments from nar Tamal would come by water, not by land.

Gaara brought them straight to the village’s central fire before going to retrieve the village elders. Among them was a chief who was probably thrice Xoc’s age. He didn’t have the air of a warrior, but, as a Nar, he was still pretty huge. The elders arranged themselves in a line behind their chief as he stepped up to speak.

“Welcome, Enxoc,” he said. “I am Agrar, chieftain of nar Tamal. Gaara claims that you have an important proposal for us.”

Eh? Wasn’t Chimali supposed to do the talking?

It made sense that she would have to, given how things had played out, but she wasn’t sure what she should say.

“Yes, that’s right,” Xoc replied. “We have some extra fodder to sell, plus a few other things.”

“Gaara said as much,” Agrar said. “Our mystics would inspect this fodder before we proceed with any negotiations.”

Wait a minute, these guys have experience exporting Nug. Doesn’t that mean I’m at a disadvantage here?

Xoc sent a pointed look at Chimali. He misinterpreted her intent, however, and called for a bag of Blood Antlers to be brought forward.

“This is Chimali,” Xoc still tried to make the best of it. “He’s supposed to represent ocelo Pa’chan in these trade negotiations...”

The chief and his elders were more interested in the Blood Antlers than Chimali. When they returned to speak, they addressed Xoc despite her attempts to direct them to Chimali.

“Our mystics say that your fodder is safe for our herds,” Chief Agrar said. “How much do you have and what do you want for it?”

“What we had in mind is more complicated than a simple trade,” Xoc said.

“Explain.”

Xoc took a deep breath, taking a moment to gather her thoughts.

“This flooding is creating long-term issues,” Xoc said. “Ones that cannot simply be fixed by trading for some fodder. Across Rol’en’gorek, the tribes are culling their herds so that at least a few of their animals may survive.”

“We were going to do that ourselves,” Chief Agrar said. “The lands are being stripped bare to no good end.”

“Which will cause a food shortage. One that will last for years to come even if the flooding recedes in a month.”

“That much, we understand,” the Nar Chief grated. “We did not arrive at the decision easily. Do your words mean that you do not have enough fodder to save our herds from being culled?”

“What I meant is that I intend to save as many people as I can,” Xoc replied. “To do that, we must do things that have never before been done in Rol’en’gorek.”

“I’m listening...”

“First of all,” Xoc said, “it’s only fair that we cover what part nar Tamal will play in all of this and how it will secure the well-being of its people. For now, we must relieve the strain on your land by not only exporting food to your tribe, but also importing Nug from it. Once the trade route between nar Tamal and ocelo Pa’chan is established and made reliable, we can export enough food for nar Tamal to breed its Nug population back to its former numbers.”

“Breed them back?” Chief Agrar said, “Would we not take back the animals that were transferred to your lands?”

“Um, no. We’re buying them to increase our own herds. According to Elder Patli here, our methods of Blood Antler cultivation will allow ten times the number of Nug to be fed on the same amount of land.”

Behind the chief, the tribal elders exchanged looks and low discussion broke out among the bystanders listening to their meeting.

“ ...and you want us to do that?” The chief asked, “Raise ten times the number of Nug as before?”

“No,” Xoc answered. “Elder Patli says that would be bad for the land. Maybe twice the number is fine.”

“You should also know that providing fodder will alter the growth of your herds,” Elder Patli added. “Since they won’t need to move from pasture to pasture, the energy saved will go towards growth. Adult Nug in ocelo Pa’chan give half again as much meat as they did when we practised the traditional ways of ranching.”

“You’re not giving us much room to argue here,” Chief Agrar crossed his arms. “What’s the catch?”

“I’m not sure that there is one,” Xoc replied. “As I said, I want to save as many people from the coming famine as I can. If you want to know what you need to do, the first is that you should move your main village to a place near the border with ocelo Pa’chan so we can trade with you more easily. It will also make it easier for you to distribute the fodder to your ranchers and keep your people safe from the floodwaters. The second thing I need you to do is export your excess meat to the city as you always have.”

“It still sounds like this arrangement has nothing but advantages for us.”

“Well, the flooding is affecting everyone. By exclusively providing food to the city, you may get attacked by hungry tribes and clans from the river instead. If you give us a bit of time, we can help with that as well.”

Chief Agrar turned to discuss her proposal with his elders. It didn’t take them long to render a response.

“Very well,” the Chief said. “It seems that you intended to renew the ancient accord, and so shall it be.”

“The ancient accord?” Xoc furrowed her brow, “What’s that?”

The chief seemed amused at her question.

“Didn’t you know? Long before Ghrkhor’storof’hekheralhr grew to its current size, nar Tamal was a tributary of ocelo Pa’chan. We’re stuck between you and the river, after all.”

“Oh,” Xoc said. “I guess that makes sense.”