All things come to an end, and Nokuthula bid goodbyes and left. All the more surprising when he went to the porch and found another dark elf.
"Trust me, sir, the Zulus' cannot be trusted. There are a group of warmongering peoples. And they will bring ruin. The Mfecane killed 1 to 2 million of our peoples."
This time Jan did not even bother to sneak and just walked to the porch.
'Feels like Groundhog day,' He thought to himself.
"Ahh… Jan, this is Mncedisi. She's a representative of the Gaza Kingdom."
"Sawabona." Jan stretched out his hand, copying what the Zulu representative did.
"Yebo, Sawabona." Mncedisi caught his hand and wrapped her fingers around his thumb. He did likewise and their hands left one another.
Her expression was much brighter considering he followed the customs of the Nguni elves, unlike his father who did not give a rat shit.
"What brings you here?" He asked.
"I seek to build relationships with the Boer peoples. I hope you do not mind that I intrude on your presence."
"It is no problem."
"Looks like you can handle everything, Jan." His father remarked, and he dumped everything on him once again.
He decided against bringing her to the shooting range. Now that he thought about it, doing so could be perceived as an act of intimidation, and that was why the Zulu representative had to reassert her place as equals through her demonstration. So, he did something simpler, he brought her to the farms and fields.
Feeling that it was awkward just walking about silently he spoke out. He pointed at a cow and said," That is a cow."
He pointed at a sheep and said, "That is a sheep.".
He pointed at the sugarcane and said," That is sugarcane.".
He got bored and decided to stop, considering the lack of response.
"I find it interesting how the way our people live is not too different," Mncedisi spoke out as they watched people farm.
"How are we similar?"
"Most of the men deal with the cattle. While women mostly deal with crop cultivation. That is how our society is organized."
"Interesting."
With nothing else to do, they went to the shooting range, and did the same thing with Nokuthula, except he let Mncedisi let out a few shots. She was not as good as Nokuthula.
And soon they bid farewell, and he went to the porch.
His father sat there smoking, his lips curling up.
"Your eyes seem expectant boy. Want another elf to be here?"
"…"
"Anyway, I have something serious to discuss. Pretorius is looking to get men to help Princess Mpande in her revolt against her half-sister Queen Dingane. Now I don't think there will be much to loot. You might be able to get some slaves, but I don't think the new Queen will let you leave alive."
Jan frowned, and his father smirked.
"I understand you're an abolitionist, and you think I'm some kind of devil. But understand that everything you have, even the college education was paid for by me, and by the slaves working in the fields. So don't get all high and mighty."
Jan sighed and shook his head.
'To be able to influence Pretorius, I have to go and gain a bit of reputation on the battlefield. Likewise, I'll be able to gain the respect of my father's subordinates.'
"I'm interested."
"Great, my son becoming a true trekker. This is dream come true for me. Your mother would probably kill me, grumble grumble. Grab a horse and meet up with General Pretorius. Understand that he is your commander, and you will obey his every order."
Jan nodded his head and set out to prepare for the trek.
Restocking cartridges from his father's armoury, he cleaned his trusty musket before setting out to Pietermaritzburg, the capital of the fledging Natal Republic, to meet up with Pretorius.
An hour later, the town was bustling with the sounds of excitement. And he could see men sitting about the town, and in the centre of the group of men, was the general himself. He was on horseback, and he looked directly West.
He was making a speech, prepping the hundreds of men preparing for the trek.
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"Soos ons almal weet, is Port Natal stewig in beheer van die Britte. Ons sal 'n seehawe in St. Luciabaai nodig hê, wat prinses Mpande bereid was om ons aan te bied, om te help om die leuenagtige koningin Dingane te onttroon. Ons sal dan in staat wees om ons goedere te verkoop, sonder om onderworpe te wees aan belasting van die oproerige Britte." (As we all know, Port Natal is firmly in control of the British. We will need a sea-harbour in St. Lucia Bay, that Princess Mpande was willing to offer us, help dethrone the lying Queen Dingane. We'll then be able to sell our goods, without being subjected to taxes of the conniving British.)
"Ons sal met ons Zoeloe-bondgenote ontmoet voordat ons na Zoeloeland oorsteek." (We'll meet with our Zulu allies before crossing into Zululand.)
With a simple speech outlying their military actions, he stayed silent, and the men whispered into himself. Intermixed within the groups of men were servants of eleven origins. The pointy ears were not hidden, for it was blasted in full display, signifying their status within the military. Masculine elves hefted the various belongings, shifting them from wagon to wagon.
Someone came up to him with a group of men. It was that helpful secretary in the Volksraad, Joren Hoenderman.
"Jan? I see you're joining us for the campaign."
"Joren? Aangename Kennis, (Nice to meet you)" Jan looked at the men around Joren, and their blank faces told him how much they comprehended their conversation.
"Sorry to cut the conversation short, Jan. I'll have to attend to my servants," Joren apologized and turned to attend to the various elven servants.
And that was war, mostly sitting about, waiting about for action. So he went to the public library to read.
When he heard that the commotion outside increased, he shelved the book, dashed out to the stable, hopped onto his horse and followed the trio of men marching to the front. Wagons with horses' tide to the front rode in formation. They rode single-filed at first, with men sitting in the wagons, while horsemen like him on horseback rode forth alongside the 50 wagons. Quite some distance from town, Pretorius reorganized the wagons, so they did not travel in single file, minimising the damage from an ambush.
Eventually, the group arrived, and 5000 Zulu Impi stood across the group. Tensions were high, as men grabbed onto their guns and the Impi lowered their shields, ready to charge when necessary. Looking over the hundreds of men in the party, Jan shuddered.
A small group consisting of Andries Pretorius as well as a small group of Zulu warriors met between the parties. And as usual, for some reason, a female elf was flanked by Zulu warriors. This world truly is messed up, if it was in his original history, he was pretty sure the commander would be a male. But the creator of the world had to gender-bent the important characters.
The two had their discussions, before returning to their various camps. The two trekked to Zululand, with the Zulu warriors leading the way. Jan and the horsemen slowed the paces of their horses, to keep up with the marching speed. At some point, the group split, and the Zulus advanced across the coast, while the Boers went along Blood River.
An enemy Zulu party led by Queen Dingane sat across the river. All three parties watched one another, waiting to see who would ford the river first.
At some point, the two war parties' movement stopped, and the men set up camp. Envoys from Queen Dingane arrived to greet both parties.
The envoy introduced themselves as Dambusa and was on behalf of the Zulu Queen. Considering what happened to the previous Boers who made deals with Queen Dingane, Pretorius had him executed. The cacophony of gunfire accompanied by the swears made by the bounded-up elf was a sight to see.
The young Voortrekker didn't know what happened to the other envoy that went to Princess Mpande's war camp, but he didn't hear gunfire.
Seeing the hostility, Dingane's troops began withdrawing into some mountainous regions on the horizon and took up position on some hills.
Using Elven magic, no bright lights were appearing like in the games, Allied Elven party began fording the river and chased the retreating Queen's troops. They ran across the water with simple taps, quickly arriving on the other side.
The Boers grumbled as they were left behind, and the very kind elves did not consider them. They slowly forded the river, carefully crossing it, seeing no point in rushing it. The two allied parties were about 100 miles away from one another.
Eventually, Princess Mpande's Zulu warriors caught up with Queen Dingane's troops. And the two parties squared off, without even bothering to wait for the Boers. Both sides adopted the famous Zulu Chest and Horns strategy. The chest, consisting of a group of men bearing shields, charged at one another, seeking to knock each other to the ground. As elves fell, the horn of the formation, consisting of men mopped up the fallen Zulu men and began encircling the Zulu formation. The flankers for both parties stabbed at one another, with neither gaining ground on one other. Fresh elves in the rear filled the chest, and the whole thing was repeated.
The only non-historical thing that stood out was the female elves standing behind the Zulu horn formation, stretching their hands before the formations. The ferocity of the fighting increased with their intervention. And he could see elves that quickly fell, and got back on their feet to dodge the oncoming spears. They were probably healing them?
Jan could only watch as the men fought hard, as his horse slowly forded the river with the other wagons.
Hours went by, and his party trotted at a leisurely pace. Men were casually talking amongst themselves, entertaining themselves as their elf servants urged the horses on.
At some point, Mpande's magic-using elves placed their hands on the ground, and dirt began shooting out from the ground. As if an artillery shell landed on the ground. At that point, Dingane's troops began deserting, running to join Mpande's party. The Queen's forces began deserting en masse. At some point, the Queen's forces began withdrawing, and the Princess' forces advanced to cut down any of the fleeing survivors.
As Jan's party caught up to the elves, the elves were victorious. And they didn't even have to participate in the fight. The mood was ambivalent, and the Boers happily got to work plundering what remained of the Queen's war camp. Cattle were the most notable of prizes, for the slavery of the new queen's subjects would be considered, quite rude. But there was no one to enslave, for any survivors were all slaughtered by the Princess' forces.
So as Jan took In a breath at the slaughtered elves in front of him. He took a couple of deep breaths, noting that it was not as bad in the video games. It was a gruesome sight to see. But as he looked at the handsome elven men butchered as well, he instinctively thought, 'What a pity. He was no homosexual, but he can appreciate masculine beauty.'
So, the men were mostly rushing about grabbing onto cattle, saying, "This is mine. I touched it. Hey, that's mine, fuck off," in various flavours of Elfrikaans. The servants were assigned the task of herding the cattle together.
Pretorius and the Allied elves had a meeting, and the men most noticeably relaxed as they claimed more heads of cattle. Rumours spread in the camp about what happened to the Queen. Apparently, a Boer had his servant ask the Zulu camp. And the Zulu had nothing to hide, so they told him everything.
All of the handsome elves he saw were the husbands of the Queen. Also, her commander was strangled to death upon seeing her army deserting them. The Queen left with the most loyal of followers into Swaziland but was immediately murdered upon entry.
Now the Zulu Kingdom was Queenless, and so the Boers celebrated their victory, especially the new heads of cattle that they could land their hands on. Servantless, he could only blankly stare at the men touching as many cattle as possible. Pretorius joined the festivities, saying that there were much more cattle to be donated from the new Queen, as per the agreement of involving the Boers in the war. The men cheered Pretorius's name, yelling his name to the high heavens, praising God for giving them this almighty bounty.
As Jan walked around the camp, feeling extremely alienated. For he could not comprehend the preciousness of cattle that his fellow trekkers saw in the cow. Someone decided to speak with him.
"Jan?"
Turning around to face the feminine speaker, he found a dark elf studying him from head to toe. Forgive Jan for his following rude remarks, but for the life of him, he could not tell the dark elf apart.
"Umm… hi?"
"It's Nokuthula. We met a few days ago."
Racking his brain for the name, his brain pulled out the two elves he met the other day. Considering that they were in Zulu territory, it was probably the Zulu representative.
"Ahh… Nokuthula, nice to see you again," Jan studied the woman, who wore a tiny circle of cheetah skin across her forehead in addition to her Western wear. Looks like she kept up her attire, while the other Zulu women showed more skin. However, she wrapped her hand.
"What can I say? I like the attire." Nokuthula caught Jan's eyes and frowned. She touched the back of her shoulder, feeling the barrel on her back. A musket was slung behind her. It seems she was a progressive amongst her brethren.
"How you got that gun?" Jan pointed at her firearm.
"Oh, this? I killed a Boer and stole the gun from him. These clothes were similarly obtained from other Boers!"
"…"
"I'm just messing with you. The Neighbouring Portuguese do hawk their wares from time to time. And the Chieftess I'm representing obtained a rifle and some Western clothing and gave me them so I can fit into Western society. I'm not some uncivilized savage, am I?" That last bit was said in a harsh tone.
"Of course not." Jan looked at his fellow Boers trying to loot as much cattle as they can off the Zulu. The warriors can only stand there uncomfortably, as the humans looted them. It put into perspective who were the true uncivilized savages.
With nothing more to say to one another, the two bid goodbye and went off their separate ways.
The new Queen's Warband headed for the Zulu Kingdom's capital for her coronation. Another group, in her place, was dispatched to fetch thousands of heads of cattle to reward the Boers for their assistance. Most notably was the confirmation of the previous agreement made by the two parties. In it, the bay of St. Lucia, an English coastal settlement, was given to the Boers, so that they could construct their very own sea harbour. This is so all of their goods could go through their very own ports instead of being subject to British laws as the British insisted. As the Brits insisted that the Trekkers who fled from Cape Colony, were very much British citizens.
A joyful occasion it was as the men trekked back to Pietermaritzburg, with the addition of thousands of head of cattle. A proclamation was being prepared by Pretorius, as he prepared to address his people, as the Prime Minister of the Natalia Republic.