บท 5: Battle Preparation

All the heads were bowed down before me and the head piece of leader was offered to me. Uncomfortable feelings and nervousness came spiraling down my body. I made them stand up, even though they were keen and still kept their heads wlow. I understood their sense of gratification. The way they looked for hope in my eyes, the way the respected look was enough for me to offer them a smile. Tonight, the campfire was a huge one and everyone sat together cherishing every moment of it. Though they knew no language of mine, happiness is what flooded through their faces with smiles and laughs. Some of them even started to sing and even without any words the song was strangely melodic, others used the sticks as a drum and added more beauty to already exquisite voice. The dinner was grand, and everyone eyes glittered when I took the food out. Their mouths watered with the scent of it and stomach growled hard. I had used some herbs I got from forest to make it a little spicy and add that taste however it still lacked the salt. The people weren't bothered by it and munched on it heartily. After we were done the leader poked me in the back to grab my attention as I was busy watching others eat. He took a stiff and started to draw something. At first it looked like some human stick figures, he circled all the figures and pointed at the figures then pointed towards the people. So this were his people. Then he drew another set of stick human figures but these were a little different from them. He drew at least two dozens of them before stopping and and each figure had a line drawn next to their hand. Maybe those were weapons. An arrow was drawn from the figure set to the people that had weapons to the set of figure that were his people, he then divided his set and into a small section and a large section, and wiped the large one with his hand. He then made an arrow from the small section, to wards the direction of people that were eating. He lowered his head and I could swear I heard his grind against each other. If I understood everything correct, another big group of people attacked them. Since the number of the group far outweigh theirs they couldn't fight back and ran with whoever escaped from that incident. That explains those cut in his side abdomen and the signs of exhaustion they showed when we first met. He still had his head lowered and I knew he had been frustrated thinking all about it. I placed my hand on his shoulders, and after he raised his head to look at me, I gave him a determined look and gave him a nod. I took the stick from his hand and pointed and arrow from his people figures to the huge group and I handed each figures oh the small section a stick. The leader looked at my eyes with a surprise, but I knew that deep inside his heart he would want a revenge. He looked back at the drawings and then back at me. His a soft nod he shared my determine face now. "I don't think you can understand me, but listen, I promise you we'll get you your revenge." I spoke to him. "Now I must call you with something shouldn't I? We have become a team, it's only normal to know each other." He bent his head sideways with the same confused look and I couldn't help but laugh at this, seeing this laugh he also smiled a little. "Hmmm let's see." I pondered about his new name. "Oh! Yes! I shall call you Tahari." I pointed a finger towards him and repeated the words a few times. He mimicked the words and spoke up. "Ta-Ha-Ri..." "Yep that's correct, that's gonna be your name." That night everyone was fast asleep near the campfire, but I was still wide awake. We were going to face a huge amount of people, and the fire of revenge that is inside the people will be the fuel for the fight. The fire alone cannot lead us to the win, I knew that too. We would need the power of science. If there are a lot, we'll have to attack at night, and all this had to be done while we are still sneaking in stealthily. We will need long range weapons for protection and short ranges too if things goes bad. My mind wandered into all sorts of strategies and plans, until my eyes were too heavy to not shut. Tomorrow was going to be a tough day for these people. The next morning I woke up a little early started to wake up everyone else. After everyone gathered near me I took out two stones and started to beat down one against the another. They looked with utmost curiosity when I got the sharp flint stone after crushing the stone. I grind-ed it against another flat stone till it took the shape of an axe blade. I handed each of them two stones each, expecting everyone to do the same. It sure took time for them to complete but after we were done I gathered them in the forest and showed them the way to cut the forest tress with the help of battle axe. When the sun was about to set I was amazed at the amount of tress they managed to cut down. This would be more than enough for the preparation. With the thick branches of the trees I showed them how to tie their axe blade with this to the branch to get a proper axe. A short range weapon for everyone was constructed and everyone was excited to get their new weapon especially Tahari, who had already got a hang of keeping it in his hand and working with it. I don't think I might be in the stone age yet. Maybe I have arrived few years before stone age. It didn't mattered much though. The next day was easier that last day, I just had to show the way to construct a bow and after they they were done observing from their curious gaze, they started to make their own one. We made some arrows too but this time, the arrows were not pointed by cutting the tip into a pointy object rather after we tied the tip with a sharp flint stone, it was deadlier than ever. The next day, we constricted knife. It was same as making axe blade but this time it took more time to shape the blade than anything other. With this we were done making weapons not the part came which even I have no knowledge about: Fighting. If we remained stealthy we won't need to fight but nobody could see the future. Our goal was not to end lives that, I decided, but rather to save anyone present from this tribe who were trapped there, but there's no one to tell if they're even alive. No. No. They are alive. I'll have to be optimistic. They were alive, I consoled. This was Tahari's tribe and I was his team, so they were my tribe too. I will hold down to the last thread of hope even if the chance of it being true is most improbable. We packed all the food we had to take. I took food for at least of 7 days for everyone. Whatever faces I saw all had either a serious or gloomy look. They were scared but still followed us. When we were off the forest I realized that this will been my first time going this far from my shelter. I was afraid to move very far from the shelter due to animals but now that there's a whole tribe that looked my back, I grew comfortable with this idea. In the initial day we tried to climb a whole mountain, the rest of them while looked frail stored a lot of energy which would be many times over mine, I tried to keep up to them but somehow I just turn up the last in the trail. Once somewhere near the cliff of the mountain I lost my balance after being exhausted to my bones, I was about to fall when the hand of Tahari grabbed my hand and saved me from the mouth of death. I felt bad for slowing them down, and with all my resolve tried my best to keep up with them. Even though I was exhausted I would show no sign of it in-front of them. We had been walking for 3 days and Tahari only stopped the tribe for eating. When I looked at my leg it was full of blisters and every part of it ached with pain. Then Tahari called me through a grunt and showed me their previous village from the a good height of the mountain. I could see the houses made from hay and but I didn't expected to see so many people. The forest was cleared in a huge area and there were more than 20 hay houses present there. In one corner I saw six pillars of tree trunk on whom people hands were tied from. Somehow this made me feel a little comforted, the people were alive, and we were prepare to save them.