Logan discovered that each of the seven members of his group had a tribal warrior striding close behind them, as they traveled in a loose column through the woods. The implications were clear enough. The seven might well be considered guests, but their escorts were taking no chances.
He was not about to do anything to provoke the black and red painted warriors. He had already espied some grisly mementos being carried by a few of them. Bloodied swathes of skin, with locks of hair still attached, hung from the hide belts of those that bore them along.
Logan had a fairly good idea of what it meant to be considered as an enemy of the tribal warriors.
JANUS
The leader of the band of warriors gradually eased into open conversation with Janus and the others as they continued forth through the sprawling forest. Janus listened with great interest to Ayenwatha’s words, hoping to learn a little bit more about the lands within the new world around him.
Their new host, Ayenwatha, was a war leader within his Onan tribe, referred to among his people as a war sachem. The Onan, in turn, were part of a broader alliance of five great tribes.
That alliance, called the Five Realms, had come together for common protection and fellowship long ago, under the guidance of a very wise individual, named Deganawida, who was deeply revered by all the tribes.
Ayenwatha also informed them that he was of the Firaken clan, reflecting no small amount of pride in his expression and voice. Though Janus did not have the first idea as to what a Firaken was, or what it meant to be in such a clan, he could sense that clan affiliation was a very important element of the tribal society.
Janus was also able to glean more about the enigmatic figure known as the Unifier. Ayenwatha’s tone was little different than that of the old wanderer when he was speaking of the highly mysterious Unifier.
There was no mistaking the bitter hatred that Ayenwatha felt towards the Unifier, an animosity that clearly reflected the feelings of all the tribal warriors. To Ayenwatha’s knowledge, the Five Realms were one of the few civilizations remaining in the whole known world that still remained openly opposed to the Unifier.
Ayenwatha related that a state of war had recently arisen between the Five Realms and the followers of the Unifier, who would accept nothing less than the utter submission of his people. The Five Realms had long before rejected the Unifier’s overtures to seek the tribes’ loyalty to Him, which Ayenwatha described as a tacit demand to submit fully to the Unifier’s authority.
A stark, more overtly worded demand recently delivered to the tribes had been refused outright by their Grand Council. It was a fateful rejection, which the tribal sachems had known would likely conjure up a violent, raging storm upon their own people.
As luck would have it, Janus and his companions had come into the tribal lands just as those storm clouds were building to the verge of bursting. That fully explained the extreme caution displayed by the warriors when they had emerged to confront Janus’ group.
Ayenwatha informed Janus and the others that his Onan war party had been shadowing the army that they had witnessed from the edge of the forest.
The large force’s appearance along their borders, Ayenwatha believed, was the sign that an invasion was imminent. Ayenwatha surmised that the force was making its way towards a position central to the westernmost borders of the tribal lands, a place that also afforded access to ample amounts of fresh water in the forms of a sizeable lake and attendant streams.
According to Ayenwatha, it was an ideal locale for a massive number of warriors and animals, putting the enemy force in an advantageous position where they were well-poised to cleave through the heart of the tribal lands.
Janus learned that the bordering kingdom where this force had mustered and come from was called Gallea. According to Ayenwatha, it was just one of many strong kingdoms that had implicitly submitted their authority to the Unifier.
Janus could tell that Ayenwatha greatly lamented the impending conflict. The war sachem remarked that Gallea had not always shown such outward hostility to his people. Ayenwatha spoke with a very conspicuous sense of wonder about a great Gallean city called Carcasse, which he had once been to in earlier, and more peaceful, times. He described with unmistakable admiration how the city was surrounded with high stone walls, and many prominent towers, filled with traders and guests from all over the Gallean realm and far beyond.
The tribes had until fairly recently enjoyed a steady trade with the Galleans, as there was evidently a large demand in the Gallean markets for beaver furs. In return, the tribes had regularly obtained many iron implements, such as cooking pots, axe, arrow, and spear heads, and knife blades.
Ayenwatha spoke with outright fascination of other massive, stone-walled fortresses that he had seen on his journeys into the Gallean lands. These were not cities, he explained, but rather where the Gallean sachems, as he called the Gallean leaders, resided with their families.
Ayenwatha held a high and very respectful regard for his tribe’s powerful neighbor. It was obviously a point of considerable distress that Gallea had fully enjoined with the Unifier, enough such that it was gathering its military might to threaten and beset Ayenwatha’s woodland people.
Derek had then interjected into the discussion, querying Ayenwatha regarding the non-humans that he, Logan, Erika, and Mershad had seen marching with the great enemy force.
The presence of non-human races had been an incredible revelation, one that greatly intrigued Janus, as he had remained behind in the camp when the others had gone forth to investigate the source of the tremors. He too wanted to learn a little more about the strange beasts that Derek, Logan, Mershad, and Erika had seen and described.
From the snippets of their descriptions and other comments, Janus had been able to cobble together a rough mental image of the unusual denizens of this new, mystifying world. As Ayenwatha elaborated in response to Derek’s inquiry, that picture became much more clear.
The non-humans that Derek and the three others had seen amongst the marching forces were not from Gallea, but had been summoned from other, faraway lands. Like the Galleans, they were each just another part of the enormous coalition being gathered under the Unifier’s dominion.
The rat-like beings were called Atagar, from a distant land called Yanith. They were reputed to be nimble, formidable fighters, highly-suited to a forest environment as they occupied one themselves back in their native lands. With their natural abilities, it had come as little surprise to Ayenwatha that they had been brought in for an attack upon the woodland tribes.
The cat-like creatures with the extensive canines that accompanied the Atagar also came from Yanith. Not unlike war dogs used by humans, these creatures, called Licanthers, were raised and trained by the Atagar to serve as guardians, companions, and living weapons of war.
Hearing about the fearsome Licanthers, Janus was not sure that he ever wanted to see one within any short distance of himself. It was disconcerting enough just to know that such fantastical entities truly existed, and were not simply beasts of myth or legend.
The massive, brutish creatures witnessed by Janus’ companions were called Gigans. Ayenwatha explained that they were native to the north-central regions along the borders of a very large realm called Kiruva, a place that Ayenwatha claimed he knew little about. As a whole, the Gigans were still fairly unfamiliar to the tribal people, but Janus could tell that Ayenwatha was not eager to discover all of the attributes of the hulking race.
It was hard for Janus to envision these weapon-wielding behemoths, but he could tell that Derek had been entirely awed by them. That was enough to daunt Janus, as Derek was not one to be easily impressed.