Disarming

The next day, Tritus woke up well before dawn to go into the forest and forage for what would become breakfast. Even in the darkness of early morning, he discovered nest after nest and helped himself to the eggs inside. After a few hours of work, he had collected enough to feed the entirety of the village, as well as several guests. Now that he was satisfied, he rapidly made his way out of the forest toward the other villages. Within a short thirty minutes, he was within eyesight of his first destination. This village was noticeably better off than the other villages, especially the one led by Tu that he had stayed in the night before. While in many of the other villages the citizens were wearing little better than rags, here they were wearing what could actually be called clothing. Their grasp of the basics of stitching and measurement was generations ahead of what Tritus had witnessed just hours previously. As he was about to enter the village, he stopped at the entrance where two men held makeshift spears. Upon recognizing him, they unhesitatingly dropped their defensive stance and took a knee.

This village in particular had given Tritus a few problems, so he had to be a little more strict with them than some of the others. Because they were originally better off than all of their neighbors, they developed a superiority complex. When Tritus arrived at this village for the first time, it was his first interaction of this sort in this world. He tried to be kind to them and somewhat naively expected a fair response, but they refused his offer and tried to outright kill him at the suggestion that they serve under him. The aura that made so many others fear him seemed to have the opposite effect here. The leadership were more than willing to challenge a stranger to a fight even if the chance of victory seemed slim. They had forced Tritus to kill four of their leaders before they finally agreed to follow him. Unlike the other village that he had been to, this village was led by a woman, and it was named after her: Palm. After Tritus had killed her, her sister, her wife, and her brother, the villagers had passed the burden of chief on to her daughter, Penn. When Penn became chief, she immediately chose to follow him. Even offering herself up as Tritus's mate as long as he wouldn't kill anyone else in the village. He agreed to immediately end the slaughter with her surrender while shooting down her offer of betrothal. Tritus could tell that Penn was a lot smarter than her mother and the others around her, and that she suspected that he wouldn't take her offer, but he didn't have any proof.

When he arrived at Palm village the sun had just hit the horizon. "Go and wake Penn, I need to speak to her immediately." he commanded the guard standing to his right. He jumped up and took off toward a house in the middle of the village. It only took a few minutes for the man to come back and report to him that she was on her way. Tritus thanked the man, then he sat cross legged on the ground. "Man, I need to invent chairs." he said to himself while he waited. The guards didn't say a single word the entire time. In fact, they wouldn't even look in his direction. "Yeah, I'm going to have to work on that. I can't have them fearing me so blatantly." he thought to himself while he waited. From his seated position, he began to take a hard look at the village before him. He was mildly surprised at the drastic difference between Palm and all of the other villages. He had been here before, but he didn't really take in the details. They didn't have any longhouses; rather, they had individual family dwellings. Many seemed to be made with wood that was harvested from healthy, robust trees, and were constructed extremely well. They had even, rectangular foundations with a roof that finished in a pyramid that seemed to be held together by vines and some form of adhesive. There wasn't ungroomed grass everywhere trying to take over the village, and the villagers had formed some sort of walking path in between the village buildings. All of it had a rough feel to it for sure, like the wood and the grass being obviously uneven in some spots, but it was still nice to see some natural progress somewhere on Earth, no matter how trivial it was.

After several more minutes, Penn finally made her way over to Tritus. When she arrived she immediately bowed. "Lord," she said with a rich, bright voice. Not only was her intelligence and disposition different from most of the others, her appearance was notable as well. While most of the people in the village had dark mocha colored skin, Penn had fairer, caramel colored skin. While most people had a muscular build that came from working all day and lifting heavy objects, her build was slimmer and well-toned. She had deep emerald eyes and long and curly hair. She really did look out of place here, with her natural beauty obvious even to Tritus. "No need for bowing. We don't have time for formalities like that." he said while motioning her to walk with him. "Today, I am gathering the leaders of the villages that are under me together so that I can talk about the changes that we will soon be making. I came here to retrieve you." he said while they walked. Penn was uneasy at the idea of leaving so suddenly. "I do not think that it would be good for me to leave the village right now. If I do, I am sure that I will not be chief when I return. I have already been challenged six times for my spot since taking on the role." she told Tritus who just shrugged. "Trust me. I really don't think that it will be a problem." he replied lazily. She looked like she wanted to protest but didn't say anything. "I have to travel to two other villages to get their leaders for the meeting, so we need to hurry. Do you think that you can keep up with me?" Tritus asked while walking. Penn smirked at him. "Of course I can keep up with you, I'm a pretty fast runner." Tritus didn't say a word and just started jogging at his own pace. After less than 10 seconds of "light" jogging, he could barely hear Penn shouting at him to slow down. Tritus turned around and headed back to her. "I knew this was going to happen." he thought to himself. When he got to her, without saying a word he picked her up and threw her over his shoulders. Penn protested and squirmed until she realized there was no getting down from there. "Sorry about this, but you are just way too slow for me to have you jog at your own pace. I have things to do and can't wait on you." Tritus said while trying to get her settled on his shoulder. When she seemed comfortable enough, he took off at a sprint for Tu's village. "I really need to come up with names for other villages." he muttered unrelatedly to himself while Penn gripped him as tightly as she could like her life depended on it.

When Tritus returned to Tu's village he sat Penn on her feet. She immediately fell to her hands and knees and started vomiting like she'd just been spun around on a theme park ride. Tritus didn't even acknowledge it. He just turned back around and got ready to leave again. "Penn, go into the village and ask for Tu. Tell him to build me a fire and take the white flesh from the Megateus and put it on the thin rock that we used yesterday. We need to prepare food for tonight's meeting, so I want this started immediately." And with that, Tritus took off back into the forest. He came back two more times each time with a person on his shoulder who threw up as soon as their feet hit the ground. On the final trip, the man he was carrying passed out to the great annoyance of Tritus. He dropped the unconscious man on the ground with little concern. Tritus ignored the awkward silliness of what he'd just done and focused on the task at hand. He turned towards the plumes of smoke and embers that he saw in the distance ahead of him. Tritus could smell the fat of the Megateus cooking and was pleased. Tritus went to the pile of eggs he had left on one of the pelts of the Megateus and carried it towards the welcoming smells of the cooking meat.

When he got there, he didn't say a word to anyone. He just started placing the large assortment of eggs into the giant pan shaped rock until he couldn't fit anymore. Then, he called Tu to get the makeshift leaf plate they had created last night and gather all of the villagers. Right as the last few villagers had arrived, Tritus started handing out plates of eggs and Megateus meat. "No one eat until everyone is served and I have had the chance to speak." Tritus said this even though everyone was on their best behavior without him saying so. Everyone seemed slightly on edge. They were all unsure about the pile of yellow stuff that Tritus was trying to serve them. The only thing they did know was that, regardless of the sketchy appearance, it was the single greatest thing that they had ever smelled in their entire lives. Even Penn seemed shocked. The village here had discovered fire cooking just before Tritus had engaged them, so this was expanding on something that was already new to them.

When everyone seemed to have a plate, and was seated, Tritus started speaking. "Today we have a few guests. They are leaders from the other villages that are under me. We will be having a talk about the future and my plans. These will be called conferences, and we will be having one from time to time. But as for now, I just want everyone to enjoy the food that I made. This will be the greatest thing that you have ever tasted, I can promise you that. So, let's eat." Tritus said and shoved a bunch of eggs into his mouth. "I've got to create chopsticks until we can find some proper metal for cutlery." he thought to himself. For a time, everyone just stared at the food on their plate until a little girl hesitantly grabbed a small clump of eggs off of her plate and placed them into her mouth. As soon as she did, her eyes lit up and a smile stretched across her face. "Its good! It's really good!" she said, then started scarfing down her entire plate. Slowly but surely everyone picked up a piece of egg and put it in their mouths. You could see the expression on everyone of their faces change from hesitant to delight. To Tritus, Penn had the funniest expression out of everyone. Her eyes bogged comically out of her head, then she started scarfing down her food like she hadn't eaten in years. When she was done, she got up and basically ran toward Tritus to demand more. He just laughed and gave her more eggs. The genuine, innocent smiles on everyone's faces as they ate made Tritus smile. "I'll do anything to make these people live better." he swore to himself.

For a time, he just watched the children eat and laugh until Penn came up beside him and started speaking. "Just who are you? And what are you?" She had a strange look on her face that Tritus couldn't quite understand. "First, you weren't surprised by the state of the village despite it looking better than any other village anyone has ever seen. You didn't even blink when you found out that the village was led by a woman instead of a man. When my mother would submit to you, you fought her and killed her as a warrior and not a simple woman. And on top of that, you know fire cooking and how to do it in a way that my people would have never thought of. So, who are you exactly, or what are you?" she stared directly into Tritus's eyes. This amount of forethought threw Tritus off. He knew that Penn was intelligent, probably the most brilliant mind on the entire planet, but he was not expecting this level of curiosity from her. She must truly be a genius in every sense of the word. He stared back into her eyes with the same intensity she was giving him. For a time, they just stood there, staring at each other until Tritus finally broke and started smiling. "You know what, I like you. You are a lot smarter than I thought you were and that says something." Then he broke into gut busting laughter. Being caught so off guard by a human genuinely tickled him, like when your toddler says something profound without realizing it. He was laughing so hard tears started to come out of his eyes. "I'll tell you what. Sometime in the future, I'll tell you more about my past and my intentions, but for right now, let's just say I am someone who wants to build something great for the people here." he choked out in between fits of laughter. When he finally stopped laughing, he found himself on the ground rolling around. He looked up to see the annoyed face of Penn who obviously didn't like his answer, and this made him bust into another fit of laughter. "I should be careful around her; she is way too smart for her own good." he thought to himself while he was still on the ground.

When everyone was done eating, he started to assign the villagers with different tasks like gathering material, hunting, and pulling grass. Penn was following him around the entire time staring him down as he gave orders. She was still seething with embarrassment at having her serious question downplayed the way it was. When Tritus finished handing out assignments, he gathered all of the leaders to the edge of the village so they could have their conference. When they were all together and far enough from the village that no one else could hear them, Tritus started to speak. "Now before we get started, I would like each of you to introduce yourselves. Let's start with you." Tritus motioned to a man sitting next to Tu. The man looked around for a second then started speaking. "I am Nash chief of the village towards the setting sun." The man looked at Tritus as if asking him whether he had said enough. Nash was a bigger man, almost the same size as Tu and had a slightly darker complexion. He didn't have the disposition of a warrior but still looked like he could handle himself if he had to. Tritus nodded at the man who then sighed with relief at finishing his introduction without any issues. Then, Tritus motioned for Tu to speak: "I am Tu, leader of the village that we are in now. It is truly an honor to be selected to meet with you and represent my people." Immediately after Tu had finished speaking, Penn started to introduce herself without needing to be told to do so. "I am Penn, chief of Palm village on the other side of this forest." she said with confidence as she pointed in the direction she spoke of. A man who was a little way from the group stared at Penn with distaste in his eyes. Tritus noticed but didn't say anything. He motioned for the man to speak. The man stared at Penn for a few more seconds, then he puffed out his chest and started speaking. "I am Mon chief of Mon village towards the rising sun." he said strongly. Tritus noticed that he impulsively added a name to his village just now, but decided not to say anything. Tritus already didn't like this man, but he wanted to give him a chance since he led the largest village here.

With the introductions done, Tritus started speaking. "I have a plan to connect all of your villages together to create one big village." he began. Penn and Mon seemed like they wanted to object but didn't say anything. "This is not up for debate. This is the necessary next step for all of your people. I need all of you together on this, so I can guide and supervise to start you down a better path." Penn seemed to ease a little at this, but Mon seemed more outraged than he was before. Tritus noticed this, but forced himself from saying anything about it. "Now, a lot of what I am about to say will go over your heads, but don't be discouraged. You will understand more as time goes on." Tritus said while making eye contact with each and every one of the chiefs, including Mon. "We will be building a massive empire, and uniting every single village on Pangaea. While I could do it myself, it would be better if I passed that responsibility to all of you. The reason for this, you don't need to know. Regardless, as you are right now, you will get destroyed. So I am going to introduce you to some technology so you will have the edge. Any question so far?" he asked. They all immediately started speaking at once, talking over each other. Tritus rolled his eyes, then clapped forcefully once. This made all of them freeze up and stop speaking at the loud sound. Then Tritus pointed at Penn to start speaking, but she was immediately cut off by Mon, who spoke over her. "We can't just connect all of our villages. And how do you expect us to fight other villages, most villages have at least fifty warriors, you can't expect us to beat them." He blurted right over Penn who looked annoyed but didn't say anything. Tritus was annoyed too, but with all his strength he forced himself not to say anything and just listened to the man till he was done. Mon wasn't like the other village leaders here. All of them had seen combat at some level and carried themselves as such, while Mon looked like he hadn't broken a sweat in years. He was an obese man with a level of arrogance that far surpassed his actual capabilities for combat and leadership. He immediately chose to follow Tritus at the first mention of battle. It was so quick that Tritus didn't even need to stay in his village for more than thirty minutes. Tritus just stared at the man with distaste for interrupting Penn. The man flinched under Tritus's gaze and curled into himself and didn't say another word. With Mon properly chastised, Tritus motioned for Penn to speak. She gave him a bright smile and did so. "I'm pretty sure you have all of this thought out, so there is not need for me to ask any stupid questions." She stopped and glared at Mon who glared back. Tritus put his hand over his mouth to stifle a laugh. Penn noticed and grinned at Tritus and continued to speak. "So I only have to say this. I have seen what you can do so far, and I can tell there is more you can do that you're not telling us, but I trust you regardless. I have a feeling that what you are saying is true and that you really think that we can do this. Therefore, if you continue to protect our people as already agreed to, Palm village will stand behind you in this." Tu and Nash didn't say anything at her words; they just looked at each other. After a pause, they both nodded to one another, then to Tritus. "We agree to what Penn has said." Tu spoke for both of them. "That's interesting. I didn't know that they knew each other. I'll have to asked them about that later." Tritus thought to himself as he nodded to their words. "I will abide by the promise I made to each of you, and protect your people, I promise. At this, all of the village chiefs smiled at him. Everyone but Mon, who just glared at the other two men.

"Lastly, I will need one of you to step up and be the leader of the chiefs and lead when I am away. They would not make any major decisions without the other chiefs or my approval, but they will be in charge. They will also have to travel with me when I go to meet with another village, so they will need a second in command themselves. Who would like the position?" Tritus asked them. Tu and Nash immediately shook their heads. "I wouldn't mind being the second to your right hand, but I don't want to be that main person. I didn't even want to be chief of this village, it just kind of happen that way." Tu said while shaking his head. Nash nodded his head to agree to what Tu was saying. At the same time that Tu and Nash had shook their heads no, Mon had nodded his head. Penn on the other hand just stared at Tritus blankly as if saying, "Really dude?" with her eyes. "I wouldn't mind if Penn was in charge." Tu continued to speak. "I mean, I couldn't say for sure, since we just met, but as far as I can tell she seems to be a good chief. So, I wouldn't mind." Nash continued to nod at Tu's words. "Her heart seems good." Nash said. Mon looked as if he was going to pop the vein on the side of his neck. "I really don't think that I…" Penn began but was cut off by Mon. "I do not agree with them! I think that I would be a better leader than she will!" he shouted over her. To Penn's credit, she didn't say anything; she just looked at Tritus, who just sighed. "I have to agree with Tu on this. As far as I can tell, between the two of you, I believe that she has the best head on her shoulders and she was actually the one I would have picked. So that decides it." Tritus said to the great dismay of Penn and Mon. "I do not believe that some woman can lead a village, much less several villages. It's not possible. I will not take orders from a woman." Mon objected. When he realized that Tritus took no interest in his point, all the fear that he had for Tritus vanished in an instance and he started to rage. "Of course, you won't listen to me! You're probably mating with the whore! A woman is only good for mating and nothing. They can't…" Tritus immediately sharpened his gaze at the man. Tritus didn't notice at the time, but he was emitting so much malice that it felt like physical pressure was actually being placed on Tu and the others. Mon got it worse. He actually wet himself under the full force of the pressure. "Now Mon. I want you to choose your next words very carefully. First, I want you to apologize to Penn. Then, you will step down as your village chief. I don't require you anymore." Tritus said quietly and sharply. Despite the extreme amount of malice that he was under, and the fact that he had just wet himself, he still had some defiance in him as he stared back defiant at Tritus. "I don't take orders from women. I never have and I never will!" he said hotly. "And I will not step down from being chief. In fact, I don't take orders from you either. I'm leaving." Mon began to stand. "I have way more villagers than any of your sorry villages, I'll get my people to destroy all of you. My people will agree with me too, because men don't take orders from women that's just how it is! It's an insult to think any other way." he spoke as he stood straight up. With that, the atmosphere shifted completely. Tritus no longer gave of the sense that he was angry, but something far more malicious: indifference. This feeling was even more terrifying than the malice that everyone had been feeling before. Nash, Tu, and Penn fled a couple of meters back, not wanting to be anywhere near Tritus when whatever happened happened. Mon didn't seem to notice the change in Tritus at first. Tritus raised his arm and pointed at Mon. "Are you my enemy?" Tritus asked with no emotion behind it. Mon bounced his head from side to side as if pondering the question that he was just asked. After a few seconds, he gave the only answer you would expect a man as unaware and stubborn as him could give: "Why not? I'll be your enemy and crush you flat." He smiled at Tritus who didn't say a word, move a muscle, or even blink for a few seconds. "I understand." Tritus said as he took a step towards Mon. Mon, finally noticing the atmosphere around him, slowly started to back up. "I'm sorry I didn't mean…" Mon forced out as he continued to move backward. Tritus raised his hand, palm facing out, with his shoulder at an angle. Mon's life flashed before his eyes as his knees started to buckle. "I-I- really didn't mean...! NO!" Mon screamed as Tritus brought his hand down across his shoulder. His hand sliced clean through the flesh and bone of Mon's body like a cleaver in a butcher's shop. With a heavy plop, his arm hit the ground. The cut was so clean that it felt like a lifetime before the blood actually started leaking from the wound. Even then, the blood that started to trickle out quickly stopped. Mon screamed with a mixture of agony, embarrassment, and outrage. On Tritus's part, he didn't even seem to be fazed a little bit. He just turned away and said a few words: "don't threaten my people, ever."