Chapter 35

As the preparation for the southern expedition was finishing up, the Chieftans and Shamans from the tribes participating in the expedition were called to the Chief Shaman's tent for a briefing.

As more people gathered in the tent, there was a general buzz of chatter as the chieftains and shamans were waiting for the briefing to start, after accounting for all the tribes that were taking part in the expedition, Chieftain Dhun stepped forward.

"Alright, quiet down, quiet down." after the chatter petered out, Dhun continued "I am sure you all know why we are here today, I will be briefing you all on the plan for the southern expedition. Our main goals in this expedition is to cull the numbers of predators while escorting the southern tribes back to their own tribe grounds, after which we will travel further south to see what we suspect is a powerful beast or beasts that is most likely chasing the other predators north."

"Due to the large number of non-combatants we are bringing along and how spread out the tribe grounds are, we do not know how long this expedition will take, but it will most likely be more than two months of travel due to the number of people traveling the unknown distance beyond the unexplored areas beyond. Now I will show you all how we are planning to move, please take a few steps back from the middle."

After the center of the tent was cleared, Dhun took a tree branch with the leaves still attached and sweep away the footprints on the ground, then he took a long stick and started making a few rudimentary sketches on the ground, which the astute among the chieftains and shamans watching quickly realized was a rough sketch of Spirit Moon tribe, prominent landmarks and with the input of the chieftains and shamans around, locations of the other tribes they will be escorting the other tribe members to.

After Dhun was done populating the rough map, he scratched his beard while thinking about something then continued after a minute to ponder, "From the locations of the tribes shown, I think it will be better to split into seven groups to escort the tribes home along these paths."

Dhun then drew seven lines going roughly in the same direction south, each line connecting to each of the marked down different tribes' home grounds along the way, "After splitting into groups according to the tribes that are along the seven paths, the hunters will start the journey half a day earlier than the main bulk of the tribes following in their wake. Now, Stone Stag tribe, Sharp Tooth tribe, Hard Shell tribe…."

Dhun started listing off the name of the tribes in accordance with the seven routes that the tribes will be traveling along, after the tribes had been grouped up, Dhun pointed to a blob drawn at the far end of the map.

"This lake is the most prominent landmark as far as we have discovered so far in the south. After all seven groups are done with the escort, we will meet up at the lake and move south together. Any questions?"

After answering and discussing a few topics about the expedition, mostly logistic matters, the briefing came to an end and the chieftains and shamans went off to prepare their tribes for the journey. The only people left in the tent were the leadership of the Spirit Moon tribe.

A few seconds after the last of the other tribes' chieftains and shamans left the tent, the voice of Chief Shaman Zargall came from behind Dhun, "How many of our people are going along with the expedition?"

Dhun looked back to Zargall and said, "Just over sixty, more may decide to join closer to the start of the expedition." Zargall replied with a hum of acknowledgment and asked, "Which route will you be taking?"

Dhun looked at the sketches on the ground and said, "I will be taking the center one… hmm… this route will be the same route your new student correct? What was his name again?"

Zargall replied, "He is Grud from the Rock Skull tribe. He should be one of the border tribes to the unexplored areas… could you do me a favor?"

After Dhun nodded, Zargall continued "Grud was born in times of peace, and if he is a Champion in the making as we suspect he is, he is going to need to learn to fight people. I ask if you will be able to teach the young man how to fight, you are by far the best fighter we have and I fear times of strife are on the horizon, sadly for the second time in my lifetime. We will need to prepare new blood for the hard times to come."

After hearing that, a frown formed on Dhun's face. Memories he was not fond of flooded back into his mind. Dhun may have been born at the tail end of the times of strife, but it was still a time of instability, where many tribes were whittled down in number from a great war.

Back in the time of strife, the Spirit Moon tribe was not the only power block that it was today, there was another power block that had grown in the North, the Blood Claw tribe. The Blood Claw tribe started an aggressive expansion South toward the Spirit Moon tribe, killing or assimilating conquered tribes along the way.

The Spirit Moon tribe and its allies managed to win the war and pushed the Blood Claw tribe back into the cold far north but at a great cost. After the Blood Claw tribe lost the war and their leaders were hunted down, the original tribes that allied themselves with the Blood Claw tribe by choice, splintered, and for a few years after the war, the remnants of those splintered tribes struck out on their own trying to conquer some of the smaller tribes and establish themselves until the Spirit Moon tribe and its allies finally managed to either kill those remnants or chase them far north.

In fact, Dhun did not originally belong to the Spirit Moon tribe. He originally belonged to one of the small tribes that were attacked by the remnants of the Blood Claw tribe, the few years of his childhood were spent defending his tribe until there were too few of his tribe to be even called a tribe. Fortunately what was left of his tribe was rescued by a Spirit Moon war party and absorbed into the Spirit Moon tribe.

After Dhun was done with his memory of harder times, he looked back at Zargall and nodded "I can do that, I will teach him what I can while on the expedition. From what I heard of his performance during the Great Hunt, he shows great promise."

—

Grud was sitting in front of a pebble and with deep concentration on his face, slowly reached out his hand, and after a few seconds, a mana tendril slowly crept its way towards the pebble, stopped in front of the pebble and after a few more seconds, slowly and carefully engulfed it.

After engulfing the pebble, with an act of will, lifted the pebble with the mana tendril moved it in a circle, and put it down gently. "Good, an improvement." the voice of Zargall came from behind Grud.

Grud smiled at his own accomplishment, he had worked hard to get this far. But before he could pat his own back further, Zargall's voice cut his sele-congratulations short, "Tomorrow is the expedition, and I think this is as much as I can teach you in this short amount of time, the rest of your training will be you practicing on your own. It is still early in the day, go spend it with your family before you depart tomorrow."

From his seated position, Grud bowed to Zargall, "Thank you for your teaching and guidance this past few weeks" Zargall accepted Grud's thanks with a grunt, "Go on now, don't waste any more time."

As Grud was about to leave the tent, Zargall called out, "Wait, almost forgot to tell you something. Did your chieftain brief you on what to do on the expedition and the route your group will be taking?"

Grud nodded his head, "Chieftan Froll has already briefed me and the hunters that are going."

Zargall nodded, "Good, during the expedition, Chieftan Dhun will be in your group. And he will be teaching the younger hunters how to fight, you should join in too."

At this, Grud snorted, "I already know how to fight, I can take down a Dire Bear on my own, no offense to Chieftan Dhun, but do I really need this?"

Zargall could only sigh when hearing Grud, "Boy, sure, you are strong. But that's when facing mindless beasts, when fighting other people, that is a lot more dangerous." sensing Grud not taking his words seriously, Zargall sighed once more and said, "Clearly you are having trouble believing me. Tell you what, attend his first lesson when Dhun calls, if you find you learn nothing from it, we will say nothing of it."

"Fine, I will go to Chieftan Dhun's lesson." Grud said reluctantly as he left the Chief Shaman's tent, being well and truly done with lessons, 'At least this will be a lesson about fighting where I will be able to move around and not just sit and stare at a pebble all day.'

As Grud made his way back to his tribe, he thought to himself, 'This is the first time in weeks that my mind has not been stressed out until the end of the day. Better take advantage to get together with my wives for the rest of the day. This is going to be a hard few months, I am going to have to masturbate behind a lot of trees to calm myself down during this expedition, too bad I can't take my wives along.'

When Grud reached his tribe, it was almost lunchtime. So he headed to the cooking fire where he found Nita with her mothers minding the cooking of the food. When he reached Nita, he gave her a kiss "Hi dear, mothers." and greeted his wife and in-laws.

"Where are the rest of the wives?" Grud asked, Nita kissed him back and said, "They are doing some weaving and packing to prepare for our travel back home. You be leaving very early in the morning right?"

Grud nodded, "Yes the main bulk of the hunters will be moving out ahead while the moon is still high in the sky, the main bulk of the tribes will be leaving at first light" Then Grud leaned closer to Nita's ear.

"After lunch, gather the wives and with some food and water, I am going to run all of you through properly in all your holes before I go on this long journey." At this statement, Grud saw Nita blush heavily and with his enhanced sense of smell, he could pick up the scent of her pussy juice leaking out. He was going to stuff as much cum as he could before his long stint of abstinence, he will have to rely on his old hand friends to comfort himself after this.