The Eternity Games: Chapter 3: Gornag Tribe’s New Home
Learning how to swim was a pain but I got a small part of it for the time being. It felt like being in full on scuba gear, without the discomfort of wearing it and I could control my momentum using my muscles. Essentially, I haven't learned how to actually swim, just glide around the water at a reasonable pace.
Zarhan was pleased that it didn’t take long to get me moving and inquires me about my plan. “Kin Gherman, what is your plan for our people.”
Slowly turning around in order to not shift my momentum too much I reply. “Do you see the floor below us? Notice how its rising. We are moving closer to the coasts in order to find a place for us.”
“But why the coasts kin? Wouldn’t it be better to find an area around here?”
“Zarhan, the area around here is barren and unusable. The coast may have caves, reefs and other points of interest. Also, I'm looking for a river. It would be important to be close to a river so we can exploit the continent to an extent and its surroundings.”
Surprise spills all over his face. “You are wise kin Gherman. I would never think of that.”
“Thank you Zarhan but it would be best if I teach you about this so listen up. There is another reason we need the river. You see I'm very sure we would meet a new kind of people on the mainland, we can establish a connection with them and trade our precious sea treasures with what they have on the mainland.”
Zarhan nods in understanding. “Then wouldn’t it be better to rebuild on the entrance of the river?”
He is sharp but didn’t see the issue from doing that. “No Zarhan, we would be too close to the mainland, if we do find different people and they covet our things, we would be in danger from an attack.”
Zarhan understands quickly and nods again. “I can see the coast rising up much faster kin Gherman, should I send out some people to scout out things you told us about?”
I nod.
Zarhan turns back to our people and calls out. “I need Forboga, Meena, and Stalra to come forward!”
Forboga seems to be Zarhans trusted aid but who are the other two? Looking at Meena I recall she was the spokeswoman from before when Zarhan introduced me as a co-chieftain. This lets me compare the males and the females and frankly, they are not too different from Earth men and women. Breasts and hips are a very noticeable difference to males but what is also different is that although the men have fins on their arms and back, females have extra fins on their legs and are generally taller than the men. Although they seem to be superior, they still are protected by the males. Why? Looking at Meena glide over makes me realize that she is slower than Forboga and Stalra. Nothing comes to mind to explain that, I'll ask Zarhan later.
Finally, Stalra is much smaller than Forboga in size, however his legs are much beefier than anyone else in this tribe, including me. Must be the scout division leader as those legs probably give him the speed and agility to travel quickly.
Zarhan turns around to look at me, I give him a nod of approval and he relays my instructions. “Saardgent Pain says we need to scout out the area, Forboga look for any natural landmarks like caves and reefs around the coast area, I want Stalra to do the same but deeper in the ocean but don’t go too far. Meena I want you to look for a river entrance near the coast, make sure to remember it and if there is no danger, explore it and see how far it goes.”
“Yes, my Chieftains!” They announce in unison.
Maybe I didn’t need to announce my temporary name as Sergeant Pain as now they’re butchering the word Sergeant and it’s killing me. I would rather they stop. “Hold on, my true name is Gherman Jalek.”
Meena is pleasantly surprised and smiles while Forboga and Stalra nod.
“We shall go on then my chieftains, it’s good that you won't hide your name from us for too long.” Says Meena.
“I need to get on that don’t I...” I mutter. Names are a pretty big deal here, she hinted that if I keep it hidden, this moment of glory in defeating Zarhan is going to fade away.
I glide over to our people and announce. “Greetings again my people, given circumstance I didn’t disclose my real name but now that I have observed you and your interactions, I will tell you it now. My true name is Gherman Jalek. Your co-chieftain and champion of the goddess Moruna. I was sent here to rebuild the Gornag tribe and bring us as a race into glory over Orinah!”
The people listed with caution but mentioning my true name, goals, and origins seemed to have calmed their suspicions for now. They begin to cheer.
“Thank you Chieftan Gherman!”
“We properly welcome you!”
“He’s so dreamy.”
One of the cheers was not like the other. Feeling adoration never gets old, makes me kindoff miss my company. I smile and continue. “Right now, three of us are scouting out the area for our new home. When we get there, I need everyone to form a line and give me your name and skills!”
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The group begins to murmur between themselves in anticipation of their new home and what I have planned.
I forgot that I need to ask what they were fleeing from. I turn to Zarhan. “What happened before I appeared? what were you fleeing from?”
Zarhan’s expression turns grim. “Kin Gherman, we were defeated and scattered by the Zekriken, a behemoth of a beast that roams the oceans and eats indiscriminately, it found our home by chance and attacked, killing many of our warriors and... my father.”
“Apologies Zarhan didn’t mean to make you recall that.”
“No matter kin Gherman, my father passed his position to me and was given the highest honor by us, he stayed back and fought the Zekriken with a handful of his friends to let us escape. If possible kin Gherman, may I and the rest of the tribe build memorials for these honorable warriors that sacrificed themselves?” The sadness of losing his father shocked him after I mentioned it again. He is mournful and tries not to cry. I pat him on the back. “Zarhan, I promise that everyone will have the chance to mourn and honor the dead, they will be remembered as heroes with the highest honor!”
Zarhan softens from his mournful state slightly and says “Many thanks kin Gherman.”
After disarming that landmine of emotions makes me re-evaluate this tribe. Although they were chased out of their home, had family killed by a beast in order to save them they all have that look. The look where they are sad and mournful but hold the deceased with the highest of honor. Similar to not wanting to disappoint your now passed on grandpa who taught you and protected you. It gives them the motivation to stride onwards to achieve the greatest honor.
This honorable trait is perfect to build an empire from. It would be difficult to corrupt them from outer sources when they hold people’s honor over anything else. Truly great people.
I need to make a to-do-list. Many things are piling up right now.
* Move into a new home
* Find out about the tribe’s people
* Have something to eat
* Try out my new ability when I get settle down
* Build monuments for the heroes
* ????
* Profit.
A nice list if I say so myself.
I hear Zarhan call for me. “Kin Gherman. Forboga and Meena have returned.”
That was quick. Way too quick, did they find the best spot in the world?
I turn around a wait for them to report.
Meena goes first. “My chieftains, I have found two rivers not too far away, in the direction we were traveling before we stopped. One of the rivers is large and deep with a plentiful amount of small fish. I didn’t go too far, however. The second river is much smaller and ends fairly quickly but there is something there that I cannot explain.” This peaks my interest. “As I swam closer to the end of the river, I noticed the floor was shining in a myriad of colors and on closer inspection they were stones of sorts.” So, gems? “However, when I tried to take one back to show my founding's it swam away at an incredible speed, I’m afraid I will not be able to catch one without some help so I returned to report.” Hmm. Maybe they are shells of crabs or mollusks? Floating gems that can move?
“Good work Meena. Now Forboga what do you have?” says Zarhan.
“My chieftains, I have found a nice clearing to the right of the bigger river and away from the coast. The area is flat with a large area to settle on, the land then dips into multiple smaller cleanings with caves in the sides of the rock, I would say we should settle there as other than that the rest of the area is jagged rocks, mud, and sand. In addition to that, I have similarly found something weird. When I was swimming near the coast to find Meena, I and her stumbled upon a blazing heat of white just to the left of the bigger river, I tried getting close and I managed to but I couldn’t stay for long as the heat seeped into me. I too couldn’t bring anything back.”
Do they mean fire? Underwater? Well, this isn’t Earth and I'm now a shark-man so anything is possible I guess.
“Meena and Zarhan stay here to meet Stalra and come over when he arrives, Forboga lead the way!”
I announce to our tribe. “Attention tribesmen, Forboga has found where we shall settle, follow us and keep a lookout for anything strange!”
Forboga leads us to the clearings as he called them and his explanation doesn’t disappoint. The main clearing where we will settle for now is massive, roughly 500 by 500 meters if I look with the naked eye. The land dips slightly from the center of the clearing into smaller clearings. Looks like mountains with circular tops that have been sliced off by something. The main mountain itself has many caves dotted about its sides.
We land on the clearing and begin settling down the people and the things they escaped with. Looking around we don’t have much in flora, even down below near the smaller clearings. Next, I need to figure out how to build them homes, the caves seem to be good for living at the moment.
I drop down to one of them, looking inside its spacious enough to hold a small family in this one. It’s also empty, so no fish use this as a home.
Jumping back up I tell the tribespeople. “Right now, we have no homes and I just checked one of the caves and it’s big enough for a small family to live in, check the rest carefully before moving in and rest, Zarhan, Meena, Forboga, Stalra and I would investigate the area one more time before returning.”
The tribespeople split up and look around for the caves to move in. I keep an eye out for anything dangerous while they search for hostiles in the caves. My watch was unhindered and all of the caves were empty aside from a few small fish.
“HEEEY! CHIEFTAN GHERMAN!” I hear a feminine voice call out. Turning around I see Zarhan, Meena, and Stalra carrying a massive fuck-off fish about 50 m in length and 20 m in height. Granted we ourselves are 3 meters tall on average and a meter in length but still what the fuck. I notice that Stalra is slightly bleeding from his right arm, multiple bite marks all over his arm and one on his shoulder.
I don’t want to lose anyone before I even started. “What happened and why are you bleeding?!”
Stalra says with a hoarse voice but with an undeniable grin. “Chieftain I have found a forest of Steery Wood not too far away and as I was going to return this little prey ambushed me.” Little prey? What are you a moron? From the looks of the bite marks, you almost got minced by it. “I took it down and brought it over to feast!”
I sigh, and massage the bridge of my nose, at least he is capable. “Alright then, let me help you, Meena go tell the tribespeople that we are going to feast!”
Meena announces the catch and they all huddle around the fish that we threw onto the clearing. They don’t start eating it though.
Some of them eye me and I quickly catch on. “Don’t worry about me, I still need to keep watch while you eat, just keep some for me.” I give them a toothy grin.
They understood me and instantly started tearing up the fish. Feels like I'm in a horror movie and they are all zombies.
A good, long start for today.