757 AHL
“Ganbar! Get those bundles on the back wagon, and check to see if we have enough water til we reach Shangu.”,
“Got it Naran!”,
Noise fills the air as people are preparing for a long journey. A large merchant caravan and mercenary group are taking account of cargo and gear. Provisions are being rationed carefully to ensure there is enough for the journey til the first city.
As for Ganbar, this is his first journey outside of Ledvic territory. The Ledvic merchant, Naran, is greatly excited as well since this will be his first time taking the caravan so far. His brother, Derden, recently became Cekhno-Hon, the increase in strength meant more warriors joined their mercenary troop and since the troop was perpetually joined with the caravan, it meant better security.
Ganbar takes a moment to rest after reporting the water ration to Naran. He reminisces slightly of the first time he had joined the caravan.
Suren had been vehemently against it. Another Barr-Hon had risen in the tribe and as such Suren was intending to take the two of them into the wilds and live as Anchin, wild-men. Ganbar was against the idea entirely, opting instead to join a Ledvic merchant caravan that had been staying with the tribe over that particular winter. The argument had been shorter than Ganbar expected, partway through Suren's face twisted into a strange mix of regret and futility. After that Suren simply said nothing and allowed Ganbar to sign up with the caravan. Being a young teenager Ganbar had been assigned as an assistant, despite his protests to be taken seriously as a mercenary. The past few years had been spent by Ganbar studying languages and fighting. He'd argue and pout repeatedly with Suren til the large man could only sigh and agree to his son's passions. He taught the boy some simple swordsmanship and archery whilst properly teaching the boy New Age Ledvic. After joining the caravan Ganbar would often converse with foreign merchants who would travel with the caravan, displaying a thirst for knowledge that the foreigners were all too pleased to indulge, after all who would note take pride in their mother tongue.
“Brat!”, a gruff bark shakes Ganbar out of his internal journey. He sees the heavily armoured silhouette of Derden, the mercenary leader, approaching. The aura of strength exuded by the man has changed noticeably since he became Cekhno-Hon. Ganbar still didn't quite understand what it meant to be Cekhno-Hon, he heard many times that his father was Barr-Hon and always thought it was a nickname. The way the men spoke made him realise it was some kind of title.
“Yes Derden what do you need.”,
“Come with me, I need you to help me sort the new-blood into their patrol groups and watch schedules. Naran was supposed to do this but I can't find the idiot.”, Derden holds a slight scowl on his face that Ganbar can't quite tell if it's an actual emotion or just Derden. The man always scowls.
“Derden?”, Ganbar strikes up conversation whilst the two walk to the back of the caravan.
“What is it brat.”, Derden scowls back. “Naran said you recently became Cekhno-Hon. What does that mean? People said my father was Barr-Hon but I thought it was just a nickname until I heard about you.”
Derden's face twists into an even uglier scowl, it may be that he is pondering. “Cekhno-Hon and Barr-Hon are Ledvic for the warrior ranks. Barr-Hon are monsters of themselves, said to have the strength of ten men and they live for much longer than ordinary men.”, a look of admiration crosses Derden's perpetual scowl as he talks about the warrior ranks. “Luu-Hon are beyond that, dragons among men. They are the ones who command great regiments of the Ledvic armies, almost a thousand men under one person. That level of command requires great strength. Then we have those at the peak, the inheritors of the divine will. I'm pretty sure each language has their own words for the different ranks but the Tsaash-Hon, men who are beyond, have a universal term amongst all people.”, Derden turns to look at Ganbar with a strange fanatic glint in his eye. “Heavenripper, people who have torn away divine will. They are beyond huamn. Legends. At the bleakest moments they tear away the fate of the heavens themselves and manifest it for their own strength. Some even say that the heavenrippers are the true will of the mandate of heaven. That class of strength only began emerging after the heavenloss.”
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Derden finally looks down, after he being lost in his own fantasy, to see Ganbar gazing at him with awe and sparkling eyes. Seemingly getting embarrassed the man clouts the boy over the head before turning to direct the new warriors to Ganbar. After being brought quickly back to earth Ganbar begins showing the warriors around the caravan and bringing them to their assigned patrol groups. With a final warning about sticky fingers, especially near the rations, he walks off to find Naran, leaving a slightly bemused group of mercenaries who contemplate over the fact they just got lectured by a boy of fourteen summers.
Ganbar finds Naran walking away from a Senari man with a slightly troubled look on his face. After asking what is wrong Naran simply waves it off as strange nonsense from the Senari traveller. The group begins to head out on their journey as everything is finalised.
Three rather uneventful days pass which Ganbar spends simply helping with provision rationing and reading in his spare time. It seems that his ability to read is a note of surprise amongst the caravan as reading and writing were considered odd traits amongst the Ledvic people. Although the boy is an assistant to a merchant that didn't necessarily mean that he would learn to read, and especially not multiple languages. Merchants had only started to rise as a profession around thirty years ago, and it was for this that the Ledvic had hastily adopted Senari and Qin letterings to work with their own language. Being a merchant's assistant was something Ledvic youths would accept for the sake of seeing the world, not to actually practice things such as literacy. The boy, mostly unaware of his strange habits, continues to spend the time reading and practicing his Qin.
Two weeks into the journey something slightly eventful occurs. A large group of Ledvic bandits attempt to ambush the caravan leading to a slight skirmish. If not for Derden being Cekhno-Hon and having keener senses, the ambush may have succeeded. As it had been, the bandit scouts were spotted by Derden and he had discreetly informed his men ahead of time, giving them the preparation they needed before the attack was sprung. In the ambush a wagon had however been damaged which meant Ganbar had to give his literacy passions for a while until the wagon was repaired.
Entering the third week, the caravan finally finds itself out of Ledvic territory and into Qin border territories. “Only a few days now till we reach the glittering city.” “Naran, why do the Qin call it Shangu, glittering. Does the city actually sparkle like midday river-water?”
Naran bursts into laughter at Ganbar's limited scope of things that sparkle. “Ganbar, once you see it you will understand. Shangu is the richest of the Qin border territories and the city reflects that. Literally.”, Ganbar continues to ponder upon how much something could glitter compared to noon river-water when one of the mercenary's exclaims in shock.
There are dead bodies on the roadside, the sight of which turns Ganbar pale as his stomach threatens to betray his morning rations. “Milk-blood you never seen a body before?”, one of the older warriors smirks at the new-blood that yelled out in shock before he freezes as they get closer to the bodies, and certain details are evident. “Those are Qin arrows, and those uniforms.”, another mercenary exclaims in shock.
Ganbar, being a Kothkor nomad, does not recognise the finer details of the gory situation in front of him. Instead he turns to Naran for clarification, one hand over his mouth. Shaking, Naran mutters under his breath, “It's..It's not possible. He was right?”. Derden rides over to Naran and overhears his muttering. “You knew about this brother?""I thought it was just nonsense, t-the Senari often spout strange things and all he said was 'beware of Qin greed', how the hell am I supposed to understand that!""Why didn't you tell us! And how the hell isn't this widespread already, why in the mother's name are we finding out about this only now! You'd think the border patrols would have warned us as we came through”, Derden appears panicked and frantic. The warriors also shift their weight about uneasily with obvious worry on their faces. "Derden, I don't think this has been going on for long. The skirmishes must've only started a week or so ago, else why would a diplomatic party even be risked like this."
Feeling like the only idiot amongst the group, Ganbar asks Derden for clarification. “Why is everyone looking so worried, it's just a couple of unlucky travellers. Probably bandits isn't it?”
Derden faces towards Ganbar with a serious look on his face, “Qin military arrows, which means the attackers were a Qin patrol. And those uniforms...are only worn by Ledvic diplomats.”. Military patrols attacking a diplomatic party, a rash action with very little thought for consequences. An independent action brought about by patriotic rage, not a coordinated and calculated process. Such actions only occur as prelude to one thing. War!