“B-b-b-but we agreed that you can marry me if you win! I won’t marry you if I beat you!”

Hook, line, and sinker. Two can play this game, setting traps for each other girl, I’m way more experienced than you and this is a battle is your doing!

She tries to come up with something but I go in for the kill.

“It won't be fair if I beat you up and then marry you straight after now, would it? I’m just being courteous, little girl.”

Suddenly I feel get the foreboding feeling that I just said something I shouldn’t have. Turning my head to look at Panara I witness something I will never forget. The devil incarnate just spawned behind me, eyes glowing white and her figure dancing in the water as if she is made from black flames. A cold sweat goes down my back.

Pushing myself down to the ground as quickly as possible to set the bowl down I hear Panara scream out.

“OI, OI, OI YOU BASTARD YOU THINK YOU CAN LOOK DOWN ON ME BECAUSE I'M A GIRL? SO, WHAT IF YOU ARE MY CHIEFTAIN, COME HERE SO I CAN BEAT YOU UP!” Her love-struck teenager personality just flipped into a raging older sister.

“I didn’t look down on you girl, I'm stating facts!” I plea by using logic.

“THAT'S IT! IF I WIN YOU TELL ME YOUR SECRET AND I GET TO USE YOU AS A PUNCHING BAG FOR A BIT. IF YOU WIN YOU CAN DO WHATEVER!” She hands me an ultimatum. Damn it.

“Fine then! Come hither.” I motion her over while getting into a defensive stance.

A rage induced scream escapes her as she dashes at me.

Oh, shit she is fast.

She closes the distance in a few seconds, leg first.

I jump backward.

Her kick breaks the ground slightly and raises dust. Anticipating her next move, I jump back again.

A fist flies through the dust and hits my previous position.

A momentary pause as we gaze upon each other. She dashes back in, left arm jabbing forward and aiming for my chest.

Redirecting her arm outwards with my right elbow, I prepare to kick her in the stomach.

*BAM*

I’m sent flying from a kick of her own. She used the sideward momentum of my redirection to twist her body for a kick.

This is bad. Her powerful kick hit my chest and I think some ribs cracked. Looking back at her she is smiling, probably happy about exploiting my defensive fighting style.

I open my mouth and make my gills inactive and drink some water to circulate in my body. If this works like I think it would, I will still have a chance at beating her. She is way too powerful at the moment and she already came up with countermeasures to my fighting style during my two-strike duel with Zarhan.

Guess I'll have to get serious for this. I pretend to fool her that the kick was weak and say again. “Come hither Panara!”

Momentary surprise appears on her face which is replaced with a grin. She’s enjoying this.

I shift my stance slowly to prepare for a kick of my own. I do it ever so slightly so she wouldn’t notice the shift.

She charges again this time going for a right jab. I pretend to go for another redirection but as she is about to hit me, I shift my torso to dodge the attack and compress my muscles to twist myself for the kick straight into her side.

The kick lands and sends her sprawling. I follow up with a jab towards her head in the attempt to knock her out.

She kicks my hand away and I use my muscles to jump backward.

Standoff.

She is in the water and I'm standing back on the rock.

We both charge at each other again. I go for a right-handed jab, she responds with a left-handed one.

Knowing I can’t take the hit she expects me to dodge so she prepares herself to follow up with her right arm. However, my jab was a feint and instead of moving away from her jab I duck down and uppercut her straight into the jaw.

My fist connects and sends her upwards but not before her leg smacks me across the face.

Another standoff.

“You sure are tough Chieftan, I haven’t gotten this fired up before.”

“Why thank you Panara but this fight Is going nowhere, what do you say if I propose a draw?”

This downtime is important to me. My plan to drinking water has paid off and I feel my insides heal slightly from the damage her first kick made. The previous exchanges were tough on me since I still had to pretend that her train-ton of damage is doing nothing to me while still recovering.

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“Trying to escape the duel Chieftan?” She doesn’t agree nor does she deny my proposal.

“No, just our hits are doing nothing to each other and we still need to get our people settled in.”

I hope my bluff works because this war of attrition leads to me losing.

“Heeh, you are so dreamy sometimes you know that Chieftan, acting all responsible and mighty. Fine, I agree to a draw but what about our conditions?” Her raging older sister vibe drops off and back to the Panara, I knew before. Hold up. She was the one who cheered that I was dreamy. Wait, I just got caught by her ploy again. She wants me to marry her if I win but gets to make force me into it if she wins. Women are scary beings.

She continues smiling. “Do we both win or we both lose Chieftan? Although it seems you already figured out what I had in store for you so you better make us both win if you don’t want this to continue!”

“Fine you cheeky girl, we both win but since you won't leave me alone I promise I will marry you.” I pause for a moment and she starts to jitter from knowing I will be accepting her as a wife. Not so fast girl. “On one condition. We get to know each other first and only then do we marry.”

“I can accept that future husband, or should I start calling you honey?”

“Nope, none of that, Chieftain or Gherman is fine for now. Also, why are you so hellbent on marrying me?”

“My parents always taught me to snatch up the first man I fall in love with. When you crashed from the sky I may have fallen in love with you at first sight.” She hugs her face with her hands and starts dreaming. “I imagined us marrying, our intense first night of never ending sex and then when I spawn children, oooooh you made me dream of a life I always wanted honey!” She is very blunt that’s for sure, I don’t think I ever met a woman that serious about love.

She swims over and hugs me. “Now spill your secret, I finally got you so you won’t be escaping your duty as the new tribe Chieftain.”

She is so pushy, but that makes her pretty charming, can’t believe I fell for that ploy though.

“Fine, let's get the Inferno Stalk we got and I'll tell you.”

I swim down to the bowl and notice the lid was knocked off. I peer inside and notice that the plant was pretty dim and didn’t generate much heat. I move my hand close and pick it up. Just warm, like a hand warmer. When I brought it close to my face to examine it I notice it got some color back and grew hotter. Maybe contained areas make it generate less heat? Putting it back quickly I look at Panara.

She happily skipping about with her eyes closed. Bloody loon.

“Alright, Panara let’s go.”

We start drifting back to our new home.

“So where to begin? Alright listen Panara, I want you to never reveal this to anyone, is that clear?”

“Yes, I get it, get on with it honey.” She quips back with excitement.

“No promise me properly that you under no circumstance will reveal what I’m about to tell you.”

“Fine, I promise that I will never reveal under no circumstance what you are about to tell me. Good enough.”

“Splendid. Now listen, I am not from here and I mean that I'm not from Orinah but a different planet called Earth.” She visibly recoils from that statement, completely not expecting that. I continue. “My being was copied and I was sent to be a champion for a goddess called Moruna. The cause itself was to participate in what they called is The Eternity Games and be the dominant authority in the whole world.”

She goes quiet for a moment then asks. “So, there are other Mrentoni on other planets?”

“No Panara, I was a Human. Basically, a Mrentoni without the teeth, gills or fins. We are also generally much smaller in size and are pretty weak.”

“But why would a goddess need a champion? Why bother with the games?”

“I don’t know myself Panara.”

She doesn’t ask anything else and we quietly finish swimming over to the clearing.

On the clearing itself, I see 3 of the same fuck-off fish that we had eaten before. Stalra and his group must’ve hunted some more of these bastards. One of the fishes is already half eaten with its boney tail sticking out. I look around to find Zarhan but instead see a half build hut near the center of the clearing. Bones sticking out with rough mud patchwork to fill in the gaps. A very basic bone hut.

Panara and I land near the entrance of the hut and I see Zarhan inside with Meena discussing something. We walk in and Zarhan greets us. “Welcome back kin Gherman, what did you find out about that oddity?”

“Greetings Zarhan, we found out that the blazing heat is being created by a plant and I named it the Inferno Stalk. I also have a use for it and have brought a sample.” I hand over the bowl to Zarhan. “We only managed to find out that any form of confinement makes the plant grow dimmer and the heat is dependent on how bright it glows. What do you have on your end?”

Zarhan puts the bowl down over to a stone looking bench and picks up another bowl beside it. “Take a look kin Gherman, Meena and her group said that the glowing stones are shells of little Suzzys. The ones we use to capture never had these shells before so we kept them, usually we eat them and throw them away.” He hands me the bowl and I see about 10 palm-sized shells shimmering inside. This can be used for trading.

“Keep them Zarhan, we can use them later. What about Stalra and his group?”

“Stalra was sent with the younger kin to teach them about hunting and they brought back one tree of Steery Wood and three of the fish found in the forest. I have also gone and managed the food supply and what we had left to be put into this storage hut.”

“Good job Zarhan, I shall continue to burden you with this for the time being. Follow me, I'm going to teach you cooking!” I jump towards the Inferno Stalk bowl and take it with me.

Confused but interested Panara, Zarhan, and Meena follow me out as I lead them to the half-eaten fish.

“Cut up some pieces of meat Zarhan,” I order him like he is my assistant.

He grabs his spear and with a few swipes, we have ourselves some chunks.

“Watch and learn, this will blow your minds. Also, give me a stick.”

Skewering the meat after Panara tossed me a small Steery branch I take of the lid from the bowl and put the fish meat over it. The temperature grows slightly around the top. Now we wait.

For about 3 minutes they were patient but since nothing was happening they questioned me.

“Sorry Chieftain but what are we looking out for exactly?” Meena was the first to inquire.

I answer. “Slowly the heat with cook the fish-meat and the meat will become tastier, you should be expecting the fish to start taking a light brown color like here.” I point to its underside after flipping the fish-meat over. “When the outsides and partially the insides are cooked then we can start eating.”

While teaching her about cooking, her eyes gleam with a flash as she nods her head in understanding.

Roughly 10 minutes later and I present the cooked fish to them.

“So, who wants to have the first bite of cooked fish?” Before anyone could answer, Meena already snatched the stick from me and calls out. “ME!”

She bites down, rips a part off and starts chewing.

“Deeeeeeee-liiiiii-cous!!!” She moans excitedly.

I smile, cooking is now going to spread like wildfire and they will all love me now. I can now convince the other tribes to join me with this!