War Council

Timestamp: Deep in the mountains of Fang

Winters were hard for Fang's mountain tribes. But hard winters shaped hard people, the saying went. This was the time where it was harder to keep the peace between the tribes. Raids and attacks became frequent due to scarce resources during the cold season.
White virgin snow covered every slope, every cliff, every plateau. The herds of mountain goats were kept close to home and the tribes huddled around fires wishing for the Spring and the warmth of to bring life once again to the land.

They wrapped their bodies in leather and strips of fur, wore necklaces of teeth, and adorned their hair with bird-bones, fetishes to keep Noraura, the Winter Goddess from blowing out their hearths and freeze to death.

Koshnem, War Chieftain of the Odonine and leader of the Aghul clan stroke his long black beard with his calloused hand, listening to his lieutenants report in the light of his hut's firepit.

" The Tsunta, Kazbek and Charoda, have all bent the knee." The man said proudly. "They can bring close to 50 fighting men when called upon. Tribute will come after the snows melt."

"What about the Gunib and Andalal?" The War Chieftain of the Odonine asked. " They will not join the Alliance. But the Tsumada and Avir will in exchange for steel swords. They have asked for thirty. Along with tweenty goats."

The leader grunted. "Offer them twenty swords and thirty goats. Send their chieftains each two slaves. Women of child bearing age." He instructed.

Next to him an old man with long gray hair and wrinkles so deep that his face looked like a map, shook his fist with a rattling sound, and casted some bleached bones into the pelts in front the assembled men.

The Odonine shamans were known as Bonecasters, and claimed they could communicate over great distances, using stone blades to draw out their own blood for ritualistic purposes.

"The Gunib and Andalal must be destroyed." He declared. "Their hearthstones upturned and their fires extinguished. They will be made an example of what happens if they refuse you, Koshnem." He pointed at the bones and cackled. "Take their women for your warriors and let the men face the wrath of Noraura upon the mountains. Let Her cold fingers snag their lives..."

Everyone around the hut listened to the man's words.
The leader of the Aghul pondered the counsel and grinned.
"Why leave their fates up to Noraura when we have Shalia Nix in our midst?"

The other men looked at the woman sitting in the shadows wrapped around the furs of a white mountain bear. Her black curly hair and green eyes marking her as an outsider. Not just an outsider but a foreigner to this continent. The men looked at her in a little bit of awe and fear. Except for the Bonecaster who visibly shook at the insult to their traditions of having a woman present will discussing war among men.

But he bit his tongue in silent range. Shalia Nix elemental command of air and water was something he had never witnessed before. None of them had. Shalia Nix was a weapon. A weapon that served at the pleasure of their War Chieftain...