Em'brel fidgeted while waiting for everyone to gather. She suspected she already knew the answer to the question of who'd sent the assassin, but now the question was, what could they do about it? For all Jack's knowledge and power, declaring war seemed like taking things too far. As biased as she might be, Em'brel didn't think her life was worth that much death.

Jack squeezed her hand. When Em'brel turned to look at him, he smiled at her. "Hey, don't look so glum! You know we're all going to work together to find a solution. Have a little hope! After all, we've made it this far, despite everything."

Em'brel smiled weakly at him, but her heart wasn't really in it. Still, it seemed to mollify Jack that she put in the effort.

S'haar was seated, her face switching between concern for Em'brel, rage directed off into the distance, and exhaustion. The cycle seemed to be starting over when Lon'thul barged in with his usual lack of subtly. Em'brel often wondered how someone so loud and brash could be such a good hunter.

The hunter in question sat down and grinned at her. "Well, you'll be happy to know you've got one less problem! I'm pretty sure our would-be assassin couldn't harm a churlish pup in his current state!"

Em'brel looked down. She wasn't particularly comforted. It wasn't the specific threat of the assassin in question that troubled her. Instead, it was the uncertainty of where her life was headed at the moment. Would there be more assassins? Were there already some waiting for their chance to strike? What could they do to protect her? Just lock her away behind iron walls for the rest of her life? What kind of life would that be?

Sare'en seemed to have her own thoughts on the subject as she placed a drink in front of the hunter. "Um... that's all well and good...but I don't think that's what's troubling Em'brel."

Lon'thul accepted the refreshment with a smile that was probably meant to be charming. But, instead, it seemed to send the herder girl scurrying away, leaving the hunter looking confused a moment before shaking his head and returning his attention to Em'brel. His grin turned truly predatory as he spoke. "Don't worry! We'll find a way to deal with that uncle of yours!"

S'haar glared at the hunter in such a way as to shut him up while Em'brel looked down at the table in front of her. She'd been right. It was obvious who'd been behind it. He was the only one with the motive to go after Em'brel this hard. After all, as the last remaining heir to her father's legacy, she was the only real threat to her uncle's newfound power.

Arranging for the small band of raiders to kill Em'brel and her father the first time and even the assassin was well within her uncle's power, though she had no idea how he'd orchestrated the raid on the Outpost, or rather, convinced those with more power and influence to do so. To her knowledge, her old village simply hadn't had the resources to pull that one off...

Her thoughts were interrupted by the arrival of Ger'ron and Fea'en, who had been a little slower arriving than the ever-energetic Lon'thul. As they walked in and sat down, all attention shifted to S'haar.

For her part, S'haar sighed and straightened up a little before speaking. "Ok, to get the first bit out of the way, Em'brel's uncle, Don'brel, is behind the attempts to kill or enslave Em'brel. What isn't clear is how he funded the significant raider assault into our land mid-winter, meaning he must have had some additional help. While we have some suspicions, our prisoner didn't know any more about that subject, so we'll set that aside for now."

S'haar shook her head as if refocusing her thoughts. "Regardless of how he did it, Don'brel was the driving force behind the attacks, so we'll deal with our immediate problem if we deal with him."

Ger'ron looked concerned. "I get what yer sayin, but how exactly do we 'deal with him'?"

S'haar looked a little tired at that. "I don't honestly know. That's what I called all of you in for. Short of going to war and/or closing our gates to the outside world, I don't know what we can or should do. This is too big a call to make on my own, so I was hoping you'd each be able to provide some opinions or insight."

Lon'thul looked thoughtful a moment before brightening and speaking up. "How bout we return the favor and assassinate him?"

The looks Lon'thul received ranged from horrified to contemplative. It was S'haar who first responded. "That's definitely an option, and not one I'll rule out just yet, but it does come with its share of complications. Getting in and out without being seen being the least of those."

The hunter grinned. "That would be the least of your problems with me around!" Em'brel felt a little uplifted by Lon'thul's display of bravado. If he felt relaxed enough to be boastful, maybe it wasn't the end of the world.

To everyone's surprise, Jack nodded in agreement, despite his apparent hesitancy to support the idea of assassination. "I'll agree it's not a great option, but what other options do we have? Short of just picking up and moving our entire operation or shutting our doors, how else do we deal with this situation?"

Everyone looked at each other uncertainly. S'haar took back over the direction of the meeting with a shrug. "I was hoping you'd have some human trick we could use to deal with the situation."

Jack shook his head. "Oh, humanity has many ways to deal with situations like this, but most of them are as bad or worse than assassination. Unless we could get some leverage on him somehow..."

Em'brel looked confused. "What do levers have to do with anything?"

Remembering that just because they understood his words didn't mean they comprehended the meanings, Jack explained. "Similar word, but a very different meaning. In this case, it means having something to hold over his head to force him into submission. Maybe some information he didn't want to reveal to his people or possibly other villages, or even some object he holds precious and wouldn't endanger by picking a fight with us again. Though it's hard to imagine anything that could fit that description..."

Everyone turned their attention to Em'brel. If anyone knew of anything like that, it would be her. She wilted a little under the attention, then spoke up thoughtfully. "Well, the village itself isn't doing very well, but that's common knowledge, and I don't know of any objects that he couldn't easily replace..."

The last bit she drew out as though she did have something in mind but was hesitant to voice it. Fae'en spoke up. "Go on. No one here is going to judge what you're saying. We're all just looking into possibilities here and need any information you might have."

This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

Em'brel nodded and took a breath before continuing. "But there is his son... To'brel..."

Everyone was quiet a moment before Angela's voice spoke up from the device in the middle of the table. "Wow. Quite a leap to go from simple blackmail to kidnapping!"

Em'brel pushed back from the table and shook her head. "Oh, he's not really a kid. To'brel is actually a little older than me. We grew up together and often played together as kids. We haven't talked as much recently, but I always enjoyed the time we spent together before..."

Everyone knew what Em'brel was referring to but let the thought pass as they focused on the subject at hand. Lon'thul broke the silence. "So that's it then. Our options are assassination or kidnapping? Anyone else got any thoughts or ideas?"

Jack shook his head. "Well, since doing nothing isn't an option, I guess it's a question of the lesser of two evils. Though I am hesitant to involve some innocent kid..."

S'haar shook her head and crossed her arms. "Kidnapping isn't uncommon in this world, especially among rival powers. And, knowing you and Angela, he wouldn't even have that bad a life here. So the real question is how to pull it off and get back here safely."

Angela spoke up from the table again. "Well, it would be easy enough to whip up something to render an argu'n unconscious, and with additional doses, keep him under for a couple days in relative safety."

Lon'thul grinned. "And like I said, getting around unnoticed is my specialty!"

Jack looked around, uncertain. "Well, I'm sure I could come up with an idea or two to help pull something like this off, but before we get too invested in how we pull this off, we should also decide what to do if we pull this off. Would this kid have to be under lock and key or guarded his whole life? What's to keep him here without us devoting some considerable resources to the matter?"

Ger'ron looked amused as the old guard spoke up. "Well, that's the easy part. We simply make him swear a blood oath in return for some relative freedom. You'd want to work out the particulars in advance, though. When making someone take an oath against their will, you'd best be specific to avoid any misunderstandings, intentional or otherwise."

Jack looked confused at this. "Wait, so you're telling me a blood oath is binding, even if made under duress?"

S'haar shook her head. "You've got it wrong. They're binding, especially if made under duress. Their origins are lost to myth and tale, but they are most commonly employed in the case of conflict so that the victors can be ensured their spoils without fear of further conflict. If not for blood oaths, pretty much every village would be at perpetual war with its neighbors."

It was Angela's turn to speak up from the table again. "It makes sense, if you think about it. The argu'n fight or flight response is weighted much more heavily toward fight. Without something to temper their natural aggression, it would be hard for them to form communities at all... This is probably one of the reasons they spent so much of their history in hunter-gatherer packs rather than forming up into villages earlier than they did..."

Lon'thul grinned, looking like he was going to cause some trouble. "Isn't this one of those three people situations you said was so rude back in winter?"

Everyone looked confused until Jack's face switched from confusion to surprise. "Oh, I think he means third person!"

Angela laughed from her speakers on the table. "Ok, ok, fair enough. I guess talking about your species in front of you like that was a bit rude. My apologies."

S'haar shook her head with a grin. "Alright, now if that's settled, what say we plan this out a little further? How will we pull this off, and who needs to be involved."

-

After the meeting, Lon'thul wanted to practice his bow to blow off some pent-up energy. Jack came along to observe in a more controlled setting than fighting wolgen.

Jack watched as Lon'thul tired while using his bow. The hunter was quickly losing steam while continuously firing, and Jack frowned slightly as he considered the implications. Originally he'd meant to mass-produce the bow for the Outpost's craftsmen to be able to use in a pinch, but if Lon'thul, who was in excellent shape even for an argu'n, could barely fire a half dozen arrows before getting winded, how would the woodworkers fare?

Still, the hunter had a huge grin as he turned to Jack. "What do you think? Am I a real-life Legolas out of that movie of yours or what?"

Jack had to admit that the hunter's shots were grouped pretty tightly. He was sure competitive archers back on earth could put him to shame, but given the short time the hunter had been practicing and the intense forces involved in that particular bow, his performance was quite impressive.

Shaking his head, Jack sighed. "Yeah, but right now, I'm more worried about continual use by some of our less physically fit residents over a more extended period.

The hunter took a moment to replyt. Then he grinned and drew back another arrow, his aim perceptibly wavering from the strain, causing his latest arrow to deviate slightly from the rest.

Lon'thul sighed and nodded. "Yeah, for all the strength Tel'ron might have from working with metal, this kind of sustained firing uses an entirely different set of muscles that he probably rarely uses. Then you've got people like Em'brel or Sare'en who would barely be able to draw the bow once! Not to mention the amount of practice I've put into being this good a shot. Most workers wouldn't have the time to dedicate to the bow like this!"

Angela spoke up over the headsets. "You could make something like a crossbow. that would remove much of the stamina requirements for continual firing, and they are much easier to learn to fire than a bow but would still take advantage of the argu'n's greater draw strength."

Jack nodded, still frowning. "Yeah, that might be the best solution, but there's an awful lot of precise mechanical parts that would take a while to manufacture. I was hoping for something we could mass-produce a bit easier..."

Lon'thul spoke up as he gathered his practice arrows from the target stumps. "What's to stop you from making an all-wood version of this 'crossbow?' Seems like there's your solution."

Jack shook his head. "Well, yeah, that'd be nice. The problem is that the crank has to withstand immense pressure to draw the bowstring far enough to impart proper force, and you need as much draw strength as possible. Given the shorter length of the bow on a crossbow, the bolt is in contact with the string for significantly less time, meaning less force is imparted into the bolt. Also, crossbow bolts are usually shorter due to the shorter bow length, which further reduces impact forces. A three-hundred-pound crossbow will hit with force similar to a one-hundred-fifty-pound bow, which would make it less likely to penetrat through argu’n bone armor..."

The hunter shook his head with a forlorn grin. "Not much of that makes sense to me, but what's to stop you from putting a longer bow on this crossbow to make it work?"

Jack sighed. "It's not that easy. That would significantly increase the already considerable reload time for a crossbow. If we made the bow longer and got rid of the metal parts, we'd have to completely revamp the entire draw mechanism..."

Jack blinked a few times and tilted his head as he thought. "Wait... It can't be that easy, can it? The Greeks did it before crossbows were a thing, and with the far greater argu'n mass..."

Angela spoke up again. "Oh, that's brilliant! I'll throw together a few schematics for you and Fea'en to look over for viability. We can probably have a few of them put together this time tomorrow for testing purposes!"

Jack was already on his way to the woodworker hut when Lon'thul looked up from his last stubborn arrow retrieval. "Hey, hey! Hold on! I'm not supposed to let you out of my sight until someone else takes over as your bodyguard!"

More quietly to himself, he muttered as he closed the gap. "How can such a small man with a limp wander off quickly and easily? I swear, it's like trying to keep a cub out of the fire pit!"

Angela laughed over his headset. "Now you know what S'haar and I feel like all the time!"