Wolves and War

It's been a week since Luca was forced to fend for himself, unlike his first attempt he hadn't died while hunting. He made sure to prioritise making hide trousers and sandals to prevent being bitten by a snake again. The snakes around these lands were quite small and while they produced a lot of deadly venom, their fangs weren't large or sharp enough to pierce through hide. Which was a boon as he'd been saved by his new "Squirrel" trousers a few times already. He fashioned them in a way reminiscent of jeans, they had small pouches where the pockets would be and the seams ran in a similar manner that modern clothing would. This wasn't easy to do however as knitting with a shard of bone and string made from nettle fibres was incredibly difficult to do. It took him most of his time when he wasn't hunting to finally complete the trousers, he hadn't made any upper body clothes yet but he didn't feel a need to as his bear skin kept him warm and protected... The original owner of the string had fended off an entire village of spears so he felt it would be durable enough for now, if he wanted something stronger he'd have to start looking for steel or bronze armour, which wasn't likely to be around here as the only metal he'd actually seen in this area was his own necklace.

His hunting tactics hadn't changed as leaving bait for birds and trapping mammals seem to be effective. Today was his lucky day however, he'd caught two foxes and four average sized birds. This was more than enough for himself to eat... In-fact he didn't think he could eat it all himself. The thought of sharing it didn't even cross his mind as he carried the skinned and gutted carcasses on the end of his spear that rested on his shoulder. A few tribesman watched as he strolled back into the village, their focus primarily on the prey he'd brought back. Luca decides to store the food he won't be able to eat in his hut for breakfast tomorrow, as he's heading to his hut he glances around the village and examines the changes that'd slowly been happening.

Throughout the week the amount of food gathered by the hunters had steadily been reduced, from what he could gather the Karaskir tribe was patrolling the land surrounding their territory, never entering it but hunting all animals on the border which was essentially reducing the prey population that's available for them to hunt. Usually everyone in the tribe would get more than enough food for their needs, celebrations and get together's were common amongst friends and family but all of this seemed to stop. Most weren't aware of the danger to the tribe yet as Sarr'vuln hadn't made their relationship with the Karaskir public yet, however Luca could see some already figuring it out for themselves.

As he's about to enter his hut a young boy calls him, "Lu'ka? Look over here!" they shout while waving their hands in the air erratically.

The boy was named Ke'du and he'd been greeting Luca everyday when he made it back to the village. For those that asked he'd tell them the boy was annoying, however the small instances of friendship that weren't strictly limited to Sarr'ina really brightened his day... He'd occasionally skip stones with the kid when Sarr'ina was busy or he had time off and while he could get over excited it was normal for a young child.

Ke'du smiles at him, Luca notes that one of his front teeth are missing. "Uhm, Sorry to ask you this Lu'ka but... Could you share some food? Mama is not feeling well and the Shaman is too busy with the hunters. I am not sure if she will be ok with the food she is getting" he asks almost pleadingly. Luca eyes the boy up and down and can see that he's slightly skinnier than he usually looks, maybe the food shortage is a bigger problem than he first suspected...

"Here." he says laying his spear on the floor and tosses the boy a bird and a fox, they are both relatively large for their species and should feed him and his mother well... If every tribesman in the village was like that then they'd probably have to start slaughtering the herd of Sheep to feed themselves... Which wouldn't be a good idea as wool is one of the only exclusive things the tribe sells, like how the Gutizia tribe sells salt, Olmnar sells fish, Karaskir leather and the Tomnal tribe clay.

Ke'du cheers happily and jumps at him while hugging him as tight as his little arms can manage. "Thank you so much! When I grow up I will be a great hunter like you, believe it!" he shouts, making Luca remember a cartoon character who had a similar catch phrase... Shaking his head he takes the remaining food inside, he intended to rest his legs for a while before using one of the fires around the tribe to cook his food.

Sarr'vuln who was watching this from afar wasn't really sure what to make of what'd just happened. Luca was clearly going to keep the food to himself before the child requested his help, it wasn't an act of loyalty to the tribe but pity for the child. "Not good enough." he mutters before ducking back into his hut.

Cuth'lu looks at him "Done watching Sarr'ina's pet?" he says sarcastically.

Sarr'vuln growls at him, "Quiet. Tell me some good news or I might break something."

Cuth'lu shakes his head solemnly, "Despite not even fighting the Karaskir yet, they are hunting down all the prey around our land. If this continues we will starve."

"So we must fight, they are forcing our hands. Did our traps do nothing?" Sarr'vuln asks, wondering if they'd had even a small victory.

Cuth'lu nods, "Gil'ga spoke of blood in many of the spike traps, from the amount the victims were human... This is unfortunate as it is the Wolves causing the most problems."

"Not even the traps work well enough for us..." he says in a dull voice. "Is Aki'li going to survive? The bites on his ankle look like they're from a wolf, clearly a warning from the Karaskir, or maybe a show of force as they did not kill him."

"The bites were healed by your daughter but the attack to his head will take longer to heal, I am not sure how they threw a rock so small so fast but it is clearly dangerous." says Cuth'lu

...

Sarr'vuln tosses a flint dagger in the air idly while grabbing skilfully in a repetitive manner. Eventually he fails and it pierces the floor of the hut, standing upright. He sighs with a look of resignation, "I.. I want you to take some of our young hunters and create an ambush."

"This will mean war." Cuth'lu states seriously after raising an eyebrow at the sudden command.

"War is inevitable, I am only starting it on our own terms."

Cuth'lu nods, "I will gather them tomorrow before sunrise. The Karaskir send their hunting parties at dawn, it will give us enough time to prepare." he says as he gets up and leaves.

Sarr'vuln groans as he gets up, his back cracking as he does so. He exits his hut and prepares himself to inform the tribe.

"Sua'jiki!" he shouts to get their attention, "Listen to my words clearly as I will not repeat myself! The Karaskir have decided to try and destroy us, take our lands, kill our sons and rape our daughters!" his words echo throughout the clearing and enraged voices starts to grumble, "As your leader I will not allow this to happen, we will fight them off. From this point on we are at war with the Karaskir! If you see a wolf you will skin and eat it, if you see one of their men you will fight and kill them!" he shouts with a few people cheering, while others seem disturbed by the fact they were about to enter a large scale conflict with another tribe.

Luca stands in his hut's entrance deep in thought after hearing the brief speech from Sarr'vuln. He wanted to hear Sarr'ina's thoughts on everything but knew she was probably still treating the injured hunter.