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Winter came and went, but for Grud's household, specifically the team researching the "World Language", which they finally agreed to call it, there was a lot to celebrate because they discovered a new symbol of the World's Language. According to Mita's translation, the closest word she could come up with to name the concept was "Cold."
But this discovery came at a cost. Hearing two of five of their brothers say that "they felt something different from their usual meditation" motivated more of Grud's children, who were involved in the project, to join their brothers in meditating in the freezing wind and snow with little to no clothes.
This resulted in some of Grud's sons and daughters losing some fingers and toes to frostbite, but it was all worth it in the end. Most of Grud's children pulled out or were pulled out of their meditation when things were getting bad for them, but a committed few of them refused to be pulled out from the freezing snow, even on the brink of freezing to death.
It was then that they saw it in a vision, a frozen world.
Two of Grud's sons and one of his daughters were the ones to see the vision. One of them saw the symbol formed from the snow blowing in the wind. Another described his vision as floating over the sea and seeing huge icebergs coming together to form the symbol. The last described her vision as walking through a forest of ice trees, and each and every leaf dangling from the branches was in the shape of that new symbol.
Three different visions, but all envisioned the same symbol, stroke for stroke, line for line. The price of this knowledge was a few fingers and toes lost to frostbite and being bedridden for a couple of weeks.
***
A couple of weeks after the snow started melting, Grud started getting reports of activity along the Alliance border. Most of the activity was along the old Thunder Strider borders as the Alliance's border tribes restarted their land grab into old Thunder Strider lands, but more worryingly was the recent activities of the Frozen Fang tribe and Rising Horn tribe power blocs.
Ever since the snow melted, they had not only been active in the old Thunder Strider lands, trying to grab land, but they had also been applying pressure on Alliance territory by posturing bands of armed men near the border tribes or performing small raids on them.
But that wasn't what worried Grud the most. What troubled him most was the border tribes not just using the name of the Rock Claw tribe to ward off attacks, but specifically throwing Grud's name around as a threat, like he was some sort of monster they would release upon the other tribes.
This, Grud did not like… he did not like this at all.
To nip this problem in the bud, Grud sent some of his sons, along with a few hundred men, all armed, armored, and on horseback, to pay a visit to the tribes who had been using his name in vain.
***
Over the next couple of months, tribe after tribe at the Alliance border would find an army of Rock Claw tribesmen on horseback at their gate, requesting to be invited in to have a friendly chat with their chieftain.
And since all of the border tribes were either small or on the smaller side of medium-sized tribes, they were in no position to turn away an army or armed horsemen at their gate, especially because they technically belonged to a powerful ally.
Some of the chieftains who got a visit were smart enough to figure out what the visit was for the moment they saw the army, but most did not. All the same, Grud's sons would ask to be invited to a more private setting with the chieftain and their elders to give them a friendly warning and let them know of their father's displeasure at his name being thrown around in vain.
This round of "friendly visits" stopped Grud's name from being thrown around as a threat, but unfortunately, as private as Grud's emiceries tried to make their talk with the border tribes' chieftains and elders, the tribes from the other two power blocs caught wind of Grud's chastisement of the other tribes and took it as a sign of discord within the Alliance power block, causing the other two power blocs to step up pressure on the Alliance, thus taking Alliance pressure off their conquest of the old Thunder Strider lands, allowing the other two power blocs to push in, conquering more land.
And with all the antagonization going on at the border, it did not take long before skirmishes started taking place between the Frozen Fang, Rising Horn, and Alliance factions.
This had a knock-on effect of getting the tribes from deeper within the respective territories involved, which led to the scene before Grud right now.
Before Grud and his tribe's elders were emissaries from a few border tribes that had banded together to try and claim a resource-rich section of the old Thunder Strider's territory. The only problem was that it was hotly contested by the other two power blocs, and the only reason they were here before Grud was because, while their chieftains and fellow tribe warriors were holding off the competition, they knew they did not have the numbers, strength, or equipment to completely fight off the competition. And the only allied tribes known for their fighting strength and currently available were the Rock Claw tribe.
"So, you want my tribe you spill their blood so you can get land. Why should we? We may be allies, but what do we get out of this?" Grud asked the emissaries who were either sons or elders of their respective tribe.
The oldest of the emissaries, who was acting as a voice for the group, replied, "Of course not, Chieftain Grud. We understand that all your warriors are powerful and thus precious. But that is why we come to you prepared to offer terms for you to assist us in battle."
"And what terms do you offer?" Grud asked as he rested his head on his fist.
"We can give you three hundred silver coins, along with part of the conquered land, and first pick of slaves and loot after the battles." the emissary said.
Hearing the lowball offer that was on the verge of being an insult, Grud raised a questioning eyebrow. "While coin is always appreciated, what use would I have for land that is far away from my tribe?" Grud said as he slowly shook his head, "No, that would not do at all, especially because I know what is in that territory you are aiming for. I already know that you are aiming for the three copper mines in the area, so if my men are to bleed, I want a cut of those copper mines."
Hearing Grud's counteroffer, the emissaries paled. They did not expect that Grud, whose tribe was so far away, would know what was in the territory they were aiming for. Little did they know that his wife, Ida, who was handling the family's mercantile ventures, had always kept an ear to the ground about resources and their locations long before the Long Winter, so she knew about the mines and a few other resources.
Seeing that Grud knew what cards they were holding, the emissaries felt negotiating power had just taken a plunge and started negotiating with whatever leverage they had, and eventually came to an agreement.
In exchange for the Rock Claw tribe's help in pushing back the other two power blocs, the Rock Claw tribe would receive mining rights for one of the three copper mines, the three hundred silver coins originally offered, and a child from each of their chieftain's families to be married into Grud's family, to his children. This ensured Grud would be profiting financially, materially, and politically from this deal.
After everything was agreed upon, Grud got one of his men to lead the emissaries away to some guest rooms. Grud had to hold back a chuckle when he saw the grumpy emissaries' faces look like they sucked on a lemon because his assistance very likely cose them more than they were willing to pay.
***
At this point in time, there was no such thing as professional armies, so everyone who was going to return with the emissaries was a willing volunteer who signed up for this fight seeking glory, to prove themselves in some way, but it was mainly for the promised loot the fighters were promised first pick of. At the end of the day, the only thing that Grud, or more specifically, the Rock Claw tribe, would be providing was supply wagons for the fighting men.
Within minutes of an agreement being made with the emissaries, criers were making their way through the chiefdom, spreading word of the upcoming battle and where to meet. Within two hours, all the men interested in participating in the battle were gathered in an open area near the main gate.
As Grud made his way up to the stage to address those gathered, he was followed by fourteen of his sons who requested to join the battle. Technically, it was twelve of them who requested. The other two sons were the older and more experienced of Grud's sons, whom he requested to look after their younger brothers.
On stage, Grud introduced the emissaries, gave a short briefing of their objectives, and put two of his sons in charge of the army, the two who were already in charge of keeping their younger brothers alive.
His briefing was finished, and he left the rest of the organization in the capable hands of his sons and started walking off stage. Before taking the first step down, one of the younger emissaries called out to Grud, "Chieftain Grud, I apologize if I am misunderstanding something, but from the briefing you just gave, it sounds like you will not be participating in this battle at all."
In response, Grud just nodded, "You are correct."
This stunned the emissaries for a few seconds before they burst out in argument and accusations of reneging on their deal, but Grud raised his hand to silence them. "You all made a deal for the help of the Rock Claw tribe, and so, here before you is an army. Nowhere in our negotiations was it said that I specifically needed to go and fight."