12 The first village

Erwin looked at Athala for a long time. She kept staring back at him and even I could feel her stubbornness. But... why would she feel that way? She was born here and her family lives here too, right?

"Fine."

Erwin finally broke the silence and his face spoke louder than any words how serious that topic was for him.

"As you all know we are in a war with those little people. A few decades ago they suddenly appeared barking and eventually attacking us when we ignored them."

Yeah, so we don´t speak the same language. How shocking... and we ignored them and they didn´t find that funny and so attacked us? There seems something missing, but you know it is human nature to make bad decisions so I can understand that.

"So we beat them up."

Erwin flexed his muscles and threw an imaginary punch.

As I said it is in human nature to make bad decisions... although... getting attacked is a very good reason to defend oneself... I wasn´t there and don´t know the details... I better not judge or else I might be judged... Actually! I remembered something about the decalog! In the ten commandments, there was the one where it said: You shall not kill! But in Hebrew - if I remember correctly - it says: You shall not murder! Meaning killing is allowed as long as it is not murder! Makes more sense especially if you think about the cruel times the people back then lived in... it is the same thing with the sabbat or the mandatory holiday once a week. If you are in a war you don´t need to keep to those traditions. In the new testament Jesus did expand on that a bit more and so any job that is for the common good is allowed. Like farmers that tend to their animals, doctors that tend to human lifes, and so on. Doesn´t matter really I just like to go on halfinformed rants sometimes... now where were we?

"I was told that they weren´t a threat and they even needed about twenty people to kill one bear."

Erwin and the other let out an amused laugh and some of them were glancing at me. I can kill a bear alone! ... surely... maybe. You know what, let´s not test that, okay?

"So whenever we met them we would beat them. But they always kept coming and soon enough one village alone wasn´t enough to beat them up anymore. That´s when we began to team up to beat them up and it worked great. They are no threat to us, or so we thought."

His face became sad as he continued.

"Of course some of us died during those beat-ups, but one of us made up for more than fifty of them."

That´s nice and all, but there is no information, that would interest me nor is it new information except that they managed to destroy one village... Wait how many villages like ours are there even? Fifty? Hundred? I don´t think it is that many since... well it is primitive... our culture and technology is. How is theirs? They destroyed a village even though we are essentially what ancient people in my old world would call giants... except for me... yeah I get it ok?

"How did they attack?"

Erwin looked at me and tilted his head, furrowing his brows. Don´t keep me in suspense! Is their technology further advanced? I mean yeah probably, but by how much?

"They attacked and we beat them down. What exactly do you want to know more?"

He seemed really confused and I couldn´t help but sigh unintentionally.

"What I want to know is which..."

Damn! I don´t know the word for tactics... How can this be? I am relatively smart am I not? So why do I not know such a word? It´s simple really... Because such a concept does not exist and as such the word doesn´t either. Even if it did it probably got forgotten since I didn´t see any writings either.

"What I want to know is... how they attacked... did they use... things... or did they fight with fists?"

Argh! That sounds so stupid! But how do I ask about military tactics and weaponry without the words for them? Limited vocabulary be damned! Reminds me... in this world, I am actually illiterate! I cannot read or write! Does a concept of written communication even exist? It must be right? ... right? ... oh god!

Erwin seemed to have thought of something as he opened his mouth to once again.

"Hmph! They bring things to hide behind, but nothing a good punch or kick cannot solve!"

Yeah I get it by now... Everything is solveable by punching... It is not wrong, but also not right...

"They also bring sticks with strange ends and some strange short sticks... they actually hurt quite a bit! But not as much as a well aimed punch!"

Okay... we are getting somewhere! So they have something like shields and spears and probably swords. No guns! That is quite a relief... Do they have bows? What about cavalry?

As I wanted to throw some more strangely formulated questions at him he clapped two times.

"We will stop here for today! Remember in two days is the next tournament and all of you should try win as many battles as you can. We need to be strong and powerful since we never know when the little people will come here."

But I wanna ask more! I look at him, but he simply stood up and left. Hmph! If he can´t answer perhaps the oldest of our little tribe can! Let´s go to Elder Healing! He should be more aware of what is happening, right? I mean he lifed through a lot of this...

I stood up and tried to leave when Zawit built himself up before me. Did I mention that they are now at least a head taller than me? And did I mention that Zawit is the tallest of them? No? Well he is enourmous! And well built! A mass of muscles that is looking at me condescendingly.