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Since the farms were established and all the big projects were delegated, Grud found himself with a lot of free time. So, besides doing the administrative work needed to run his chiefdom and the tribal alliance, Grud had nothing to do. So, he turned his attention to what would benefit his tribe, which was farming. Despite being the chieftain of a chiefdom, Grud found time to join his fellow tribe's men and women in farming the fields that were just outside their walls.
He would have preferred hunting, but there was nothing worth hunting. Besides the plant life that had seeds robust enough to stay dormant for fifteen years, the only life that had returned to the land were small critters that hid underground and birds that migrated back.
So, while waiting for his scouting teams to return, Grud spent his days holding petition sessions along with some elders of this tribe in the mornings until noon to hear the requests and grievances of the people in his tribe and spent the rest of the day plowing the fields and his wives.
Eventually, his scout teams came back one by one. The first teams to come back were those who went to the Newlands. It turns out that the Newlands were not hit as hard by the long winter as we were. Sure, they experienced constant winter, but it was not total whiteout snowstorms with multiple feet of snow like those he experienced further inland on this continent. It was mild to the point that there was still some form of huntable wildlife that could provide food.
As for the teams that were on Grud's side of the pond, things did not fair that well in the slightest.
After exploring and asking around, the scouts discovered that many of the tribes either died out, were absorbed into other tribes, or straight-up conquered other tribes with a food source unaffected by the long winter.
This meant that during this long winter, while the overall number of tribes dropped drastically, dozens of power blocks, such as Grud's tribal alliance, rose to power. Any tribe that possessed a lake, pond, or cave with access to underground waterways inhabited by fish became a power block, whether through alliance or conquest.
But as different as the reports from the Newlands or Grud's continent were, there was one common sentiment among all the reports. Everyone has become a lot more territorial and aggressive. Most of my scout teams had to run for their lives a number of times.
This change in behavior, compared to before the long winter, worried Grud. Despite his concern, he understood why it happened. They had just endured fifteen years of survival, and Grud realized he was extremely lucky to be near the sea, which could possibly be the biggest food source in the world. He also knew how easily multiple incidents like the Blood Ascendant could occur far beyond his borders.
With huntable wildlife still not available anywhere, almost everyone would still be mainly dependent on food sources from the long winter until the first harvest… if they even saved any seeds to plant, as Grud's tribe did.
Grud just hoped that the return of the seasons would soon provide enough bounty to avoid bloodshed.
***
Time passed, and things were mostly quiet on the home front. Things were going well in Grud's chiefdom as they just had their first harvest. But despite the harvest being a bountiful one, Grud had to make a hard and unpopular decision.
The majority of the alliance tribes had consumed their seeds to survive the long winter, which meant that they had no seeds to plant crops. A few weeks before harvest, chieftains or representatives of many tribes in the alliance came to Grud requesting seeds from the new crops and maybe selling them some of the crops.
After discussing the matter with the tribe's elders and his wives, especially Ida, they decided that it would be better to spread the seeds among alliance tribes. Firstly, this will earn the Rock Claw Chiefdom a lot of goodwill among their neighbors, and secondly, if they could grow their own crops, they would have more for themselves. It was not like they had enough manpower to open up any more farming plots, and even if they opened more farming plots enough to supply the other tribes with food, they would mean more deforestation, which would mean their hunters would need to travel further just to hunt. That… Grud was not willing to do it.
But even if they shared their crop seeds, that did not mean their tribe was giving them away for free. Grud, backed up by Ida and the tribe elders, negotiated trade and payment for the seeds they were giving out.
After hours of negotiations, a deal was hammered out. Crop seeds in exchange for coin, ore, or timber. And even though the natural laws of supply and demand demanded the crop seeds be traded at an absorbent exchange rate compared to what they were worth pre-long winter, Grud knew that everyone was dirt poor at the moment, and against the advice of his tribe elders, traded a portion of the crop seed at a heavily discounted price, just enough to break even.
The elders were grumpy about the deal, but Grud had to assure them that this was a one-time thing and that it was the better long-term decision.
***
The second harvest came and went, and now it was winter. Things were peaceful… mostly… at least for the alliance tribes closer to the coast. As for the not-so-peaceful events, there had been reports from the alliance tribes at the border of alliance lands.
In autumn, when harvest time was near. There were quite a number of cases of whole fields being raided in the middle of the night. This led to some tribe-on-tribe action against nearby tribes that were not in the alliance.
Casualties occurred on both sides, and things escalated when the raiders called on their friendly neighboring tribes, so the alliance tribes also called on their neighboring tribes. This became a stand-off that ended when the chieftains from both sides met and decided that the stolen crop was not worth the potential amount of blood that would be spilled. So, they grudgingly called a truce.
But that did not mean the alliance trusted that things were over and doubled the patrols along alliance borders.
But Grud knew that if some tribes conducted this kind of raid in autumn when food could still be foraged, things would become desperate in winter.
***
A month and a half since the first snow, Grud received the news. His prediction had come to pass. An alliance border tribe got raided. From what the survivors that escaped reported, all the men were killed while all the women and children were taken, along with their food stores and whatever valuables they could grab.
However, contrary to Grud's expectations, the tribes they had a conflict with in autumn were not the same ones that attacked the border tribe this time. This attack came from another power block.
Grud unfurled a hide with a rudimentary map drawn with rough lines demarcating the different power blocks. To his alliance's north were three power blocks right next to each other, all three bordering his alliance territory. To the top left was a power block controlled by the Frozen Fang tribe, the Rising Horn tribe controlled the middle, and lastly, to his top right was the Thunder Stride tribe.
The ones who antagonized them in autumn were from the Frozen Fang power block. Besides our patrols running into each other, there were no further problems with them. But this time's blatant attack came from the Thunder Stride power block.
Grud and everyone in the alliance knew that they had to strike back, if not, they would look weak and open themselves to more blatant attacks. They knew that they had to give them a bloody nose by hitting back at one of their borer tribes.
But Grud had other plans. He did not like killing his fellow man, but he knew that in some cases, he had no choice. That did not mean he could not keep the deaths to a minimum. So Grud sent fast riders ahead to stall the attacks and ask them to wait for him. He was not going to play a tit-for-tat game. Grud's plan was to get to the heart of the problem and rip it out before things escalated further.
Grud called for volunteers, but there were some conditions. He wanted to move quickly, so everyone coming with him would have to be on horseback. Since not everyone could afford a horse, he lent out fifty horses from the tribe's stables for this mission.
That meant fifty spots for men who did not have any horses. As for those who were fortunate enough to be able to afford their own horses, they were welcome to tag along.
Not wanting to waste the fifty horses, Grud held an impromptu tournament to get the fifty best fighters.
By the time everyone was gathered to move out, the number of riders had surpassed a hundred. In addition to the fifty men who borrowed horses, around thirty men had their own personal horses, while the remaining men were some of Grud's many sons. As for their horses, let's just say they had no trouble getting them because, firstly, their father was the chieftain, and secondly, the person in charge of the stables was one of their mothers, Sonu.
As for Grud, he decided to ride in comfort. He had a four-horse enclosed wagon with seats that could be collapsed to form a bed and enough room to comfortably store his weapons, armor, and other travel essentials.
One of those essentials happened to be his wife, Mita. Grud was fortunate to catch her when she was not holding a baby in her belly. That meant that he could take her along to empty his balls on the regular while not needing to worry about her safety. If she was ever in danger, Mita could easily turn into her wisp form and either fly up in the air or phrase into the ground.
Grud sat in the driver's seat with Mita beside him, her arms wrapped around his. "This takes me back to years ago when I went with you on the Newlands expedition." Mita said as she reminisced with a sigh.
Gerd hummed in agreement, "Exciting times. I just wished that this journey was not such a grim one."
Mita leaned her head on Grud's shoulder, "It matters not, as long as I am with you, I am happy."
Just as Mita said that a shout came from behind, signaling that everyone was ready to move out. Grud nodded and whipped the reins. As Grud's lead carriage trotted forward, he and Mita waved goodbye to the rest of the family, who came to see them off.