Primordial Sage: Plight of Immortality

"Oh yeah! I almost forgot about this problem!" Urchin's silly words resounded in the tent as the other 3 people looked straight at him with blank faces.

"...."

"...."

"...."

"What? All that stuff about ancestors and the primordial beings made this thing seem kinda irrelevant..." Suddenly Urchin felt a little shy under their eyes as he held the back of his head while laughing awkwardly.

People would wonder why someone silly like this boy even had the privilege to sit in the Grand Shaman's tent listening to information that shouldn't be accessible to most in the tribe. Of course 14 years old can effectively be considered an adult so tribe members do not see him as a boy but young adult. In the Bakur Tribe, you would be a man or woman once you undergo the baptism no matter your age. After that, the training gets more intensive and soon they are taught how to contribute tribe.

But still not many get to know and talk about such important things. For example, Stone was a student of Kaoran and could be considered to be the inheritor of his position by many so it was obvious why would Kaoran let him listen to whatever the tribe discussed.

On the other hand, Urchin albeit mischievous was always a smart and reliable boy. If the fact that he is only second to Stone in combat in his age category is included then he is the best candidate for being the next Chief of the tribe. Of course that is knowledge known only to a few and Urchin himself and the entire younger generation don't know anything.

Degres sighed as he noted to himself to whack this little brat. He would love to train him like Stone but unfortunately, normal people would die under such intensity and teaching separately seemed like pain so Degres didn't teach this brat that much. But it seemed that he needed to teach him some valuable lessons about life. After sighing for the second time he turned to Kaoran and asked him the serious question.

"Old man, are you sure? I know that you wouldn't lie during this situation but it is hard to believe that such creatures can exist."

'Creatures ?' Stone wondered what the divination was about as he listened to this conversation.

"Yes. Some creatures of winter awakened in the north creating havoc there. I don't know how or from where but I saw them destroying some tribes and animals around. Most of the animals already escaped as their instinct warned them beforehand. That would explain why so many animals left much before the tribes. This way they managed to escape before the calamity. On the other hand, those tribes in the north suffered a great loss. They probably had to travel for weeks here without a rest. And since the game had escaped before them they didn't have enough food which made them starving. The north is even worse than this place. Without hunting or rearing the animals there is no chance of survival. But rearing animals are hard to move and they probably perished under the jaws of those creatures." concluded Kaoran.

"Hmm, that makes sense. But what kind of creatures are those ?" Urchin nodded to himself and asked Kaoran another question.

"Well, I am not sure. Divination isn't such a handy ability. I saw those things vaguely. The only thing I saw for sure was because of its distinct features. And that was something known in this land. A Frozen Worm." said Kaoran.

Urchin opened his eyes wide. "Frozen what? That's a myth! Do you want to tell me that Frozen Worm is real? They are said to be a hundred meters long!"

"That's right. The creature feeds on ice and meat that can regenerate from anything and can hibernate for millennials. While it didn't seem to be as long as in the legends, it was definitively gigantic and its shell made from ice was really spectacular. There were other beings but I didn't recognize any."

Degres hearing this shook his head. He didn't want to believe this. He knew that there were many unexplainable things in this world and that there may exist some mysterious creatures. But creature so big? It's just scary to imagine.

"If this is true then life will get rough. There is no way to say if those beings will stay in the north or not. Should we leave too? Our time here is also coming to an end so we could try to escape somewhere." suggested Degres.

"Where to? We are surrounded by the Cold Sea. This is a peninsula that is connected to bigger land only in the south. But the Valaras Kingdom and Frozen Valas Tundra are separated by the Blood Crow Forest which is the territory of..."

"Those lunatics!" growled Degres. "Couldn't we just force our way if we wanted? We are stronger than those skinny bastards!"

Stone who listened realized that they talked about those guys who put him on the stake to sacrifice. His face was still expressionless but the sudden rush of anger arose in his heart. But nobody noticed his hidden emotions during the conversation.

"Maybe individually. But they have numerical superiority since they are an alliance of over 50 tribes dispersed in the Blood Crow Forest. If it were the small team we sent then it would be fine but the entire tribe wouldn't be able to pass the forest without big casualties. And that is when not considering the casualties we suffered yesterday. Over a hundred warriors passed away and twice as much is injured and would be burdened in this kind of travel."

Unfortunately, Kaoran denied Degres' words with several facts that made it impossible to move through the Blood Crow Forest in bigger groups. Even when it comes to individuals those maniacs were hunting anyone who tried to travel through that place and either eat them or sacrifice them. The fact that they were almost as strong as someone from the Bakur Tribe who was baptized made it simply impossible for normal people to pass.

This going on for many generations made the boundary more and more prominent and the contact between those places got lesser and lesser isolating this barren land.

Stone suddenly realized something as he asked: " Wait, doesn't that mean that those tribes running to the south are running to the death ?"
"Yes, while there are several of the tribes they won't be able to get through. So in the end they will stop or will die trying." nodded Kaoran.

But nobody cared about them. After all, they killed so many of their own and probably ate the bodies that the tribe couldn't retrieve.

In truth, many tribes in the Frozen Valas Tundra practiced cannibalism so this was normal. Bakur Tribe is different and it was probably because of their ancestors who came from more progressive civilizations.

"Then what? Do we wait for our death or what? We can't rely on luck that those sealed creatures will miss us or won't come at all."

"I thought about going through the west sea which will freeze soon but... It's too risky now when we have so many injured. Another idea was using the escaping tribes as the tip of the spear to pierce through the Blood Crow Alliance. But they are not strong enough. They lost most of their strength by not being able to eat for weeks during their travel and their mental states must be inferior. So the only feasible thing for us is to stay here and hide." concluded Kaoran with a heavy heart."

"But this place freezes over during the winter! And now it will be even worse!"

"That is exactly the point. This place freezes over the valley and will get more hidden and safer that way. With the Totem we can somehow sustain the warmth so we won't freeze until its energy depletes itself. When that happens we would need to find the solution to this and the lack of food. One of the solutions would be to try to farm more of the herbs and other edible plants we can grow in the boundary of the Totem but that will be hard too. But this seems to be the best thing we could do in our current situation."

*Sigh*

Degres hearing all that just sighed as he gave up trying to think of any other idea. In the first place, he wasn't a great thinker but a warrior.

He was selected as Chief mainly for his strength and his prestige. The only reason why he was agonizing over all this was simply because this was the biggest tragedy that happened in his lifetime and that in the end turned into an emergency that could jeopardize the entire tribe.

The biggest problem during this time would be obviously food. The animals will be gone and while there will be definitively some of those sealed creatures edible each of them will be probably strong since a lot of them are from myths forgotten by most. So another source will be plants they could find or grow themselves.

Unfortunately, their tribe, which always traveled, didn't have their livestock but only wolves... But those wouldn't be eaten unless their owners were starving to death. And even so, some would not do it. Of course, those were a minority.

"Hmph, I guess it paid off to carry that fat moose all the way here despite that ambush." Urchin's words sounded smugly as he boasted. It's meat won't feed the entire tribe but every bite counts....

"Good job. That's very helpful since most of the prey hunted this time was taken away by those tribes." nodded Kaoran.

"What about those tribes, old man? Once they find out they won't be left through south they will either make a suicide attack at Blood Crow forest or scatter in this area which will hinder our tribe even more." Degres, who already stopped thinking about the creatures he couldn't even imagine, started to talk about the imminent problem that would eventually happen.

Kaoran's eyes, at the mention of this, turned cold as he said with a chilling tone.

"Eye for eye and tooth for tooth. Since they attacked so many of our people they should be prepared for us to do the same. Once their attack on the forest fails they will be at their weakest. That will be a time when we will strike. Once we take care of the first wave, we will start to attack the late waves too. They caught us off this time but not anymore. This time we will be the hunters."

After saying that his brows relaxed as he smiled once again. But others, who still had the impression of his cold gaze, felt their blood boil.

Especially Urchin and Degres, who were battle maniacs with patriotic hearts. Of course, Stone also felt anger at those bastards.

As such they talked for a few minutes about what to do. In the end, they stopped as just thinking wouldn't help. Kaoran and Degres already had meetings with other elders. Now the tribe just needed to prepare. No matter if the divination about those creatures were true or not.

They will prepare the same way regardless of what the danger might be.

Thus after this, they came out of the tent and dispersed. Degres went to deal with the preparation while Urchin went back to his tent.

Despite a light injury, he won't be able to hunt or fight in the next few weeks. Kaoran scolded him for even getting up but he just stuck out his tongue as he ran away in haste.

"That rascal." Kaoran kneaded his brows once again.

"Stone, I would appreciate your help. Back there they are building a bonfire." Kaoran showed to the back of the camp where a big pile of compiled logs of wood created a big structure. " We need to carry the deceased ones to it and give them the rightful burial. Some of them died for some time already and need to be purified. I will teach you how to do that. In fact, I will need to speed up my teaching because of all of this. First is the death purification."

After saying that Kaoran went to Okere who was still watching over the patients and told him to prepare people, who would carry the dead ones to the bonfire. Then he went to those who were completely covered up in furs and took one of them on his shoulder as he went towards the unlit bonfire. Stone did the same.

A few hours later Kaoran taught him how to purify the dead. He couldn't do it with his spiritual energy but could use mediums like grinder herbs for that. With that, their soul finally dissipated and merged with nature.

But even without that, the simple funeral by fire was enough to purify the most. But it was the most crude method. In the end, all of this was for no one to do any nefarious things to the bodies and their soul could proceed in whatever they do after dissipating. Some believe they are gone just like that. Some believe in an afterlife, while others in reincarnation.

Whatever the truth may be their bodies will disappear and no one needs to fear that they will get up for the second time. Stone, after doing his part, sat down before the bonfire watching those bodies being devoured by the greedy flame. Kaoran was standing next to it giving a speech while many of the tribe members were sad and started grieving for the dead.

But Stone just watched the fire which reflected in his blood-red eyes. The same fire that almost devoured his own indestructible body. He also thought about his parents. In the village, the firewood was too important to the living so nobody would spare any to cremate the corpses of their neighbours or family members. Instead, the burial was common practice. But that way the body was not purified. That's why there were big stones on every grave. So the dead ones stay dead and won't ever rise...