Unto the Ages

AN: Check out my other novel, "Of Arms and Arcane" https://www.scribblehub.com/series/872408/of-arms-and-arcane/

As Grud left toward the rallying point, the hunters from his tribe followed him, and behind them were even more men and some of the women of the Rock Claw tribe, all of whom were carrying baskets full of tools on their backs.

 

When they arrived at the rallying point, Grud and his fellow tribesmen mingled with the other expedition members from other tribes until they noticed Chieftain Dhun of the Spirit Moon tribe climb on top of a nearby rock and address the assembled people.

 

“Today is the second time in recent memory that we are launching an expedition. All of you here have answered the call and heard many things about this expedition, so before we go, I will clarify what we know and what we expect to find.

 

Beyond the edge of our lands, there are twenty-three islands connected together by the same landbridges that will soon appear here.” Dhun said as he pointed to the seashore that they were next to.

 

Dhun continued, “Beyond those islands, are new lands, with new dangers.”

 

When Dhun said that, four men carrying the skull of the Great Maw Lizard, which belonged to Grud, out from behind the rock Dhun was standing on, and lifted the skull up for those present to see.

 

Dhun pointed and said, “Just five of these beasts caused havoc in the south five years ago, displacing both beasts and monsters alike, causing the deaths of many of our brothers and sisters that were living in the south.

 

That is why we rushed to set up so many new tribes to the edge of our lands to stop these beasts if they came again. On these new lands, we are expecting to find beasts like this and even bigger.”

 

At the mention of such fearsome beasts, the crowd broke out in hushed whispers.

 

After giving the crowd a few seconds to chatter among themselves, Dhun raised his hand to silence the crowd before speaking again.

 

“Fearsome beasts are not the only things we are expecting to find. There are also new plants and resources, which is why we will be bringing along a lot more crafters this time and even some of the shamans and medicine men compared to the last expedition. And lastly…”

 

Dhun took out the arrow and raised it up for everyone to see, “We suspect that there are lost tribes on these new lands.”

 

This declaration caused an uproar as those who were not in the know turned to their neighbors to start speculating on the implications of that statement.

 

After giving the crowd even more time to get it out of their system, Dhun shouted for silence before continuing.

 

“So now that you know all this, here is the plan. Out of the twenty-three islands, six have been deemed by the scouts to be big enough to set up self-sustaining outposts, these island outposts will be used as rest points between our land and the new land, and also act as fallback points in case we need to retreat. The ultimate goal of this expedition is to set up an outpost on the new land and search for the lost tribes.”

 

After briefing on some other details, the expedition moved out. A total of around five hundred men and some women crossed the first land bridge towards new lands.

 

As they crossed, all the crafters and workers were laden with their tools and materials because they could not load them on carts, the ground of the land bridge was too soft for the carts and would sink. Fortunately, there were many hunters around to help lighten the load and the load would get lighter with more outposts being built.

 

The island hopping went rather smoothly, the expedition could cover three to four islands each day, the only exception being the outpost islands, which managed to be built in a day due to the sheer amount of manpower at hand.

 

Other than that, the only other exciting thing that happened was the expedition catching sight of a family of whales jumping and splashing out in the distance when they were on the thirteenth island.

 

After seeing the size of the sea beasts playing, Grud and many of the other hunters swore that they would never enter the sea beyond their waist.

 

—

 

The days went by, the six island outposts were built, and the expedition was now standing on the shore of the twenty-third island, waiting for the low tide to reveal the path that led to the land beyond that was covered in the early morning mist.

 

The moment the tide was low enough, Dhun gave the command and the hunters moved forward in a column with Grud in the lead.

 

As Grud took the first step on the beach of the new land, he breathed in the air deeply and smelt the scent of death.

 

“There have been a few deaths here recently, pass down the message to to pick up the pace and get the hunters in a defensive formation.” Grud said to the men behind him as he moved forward.

 

Within ten minutes, more than four hundred expedition members made it to the mainland. When they built the outpost, the expedition left behind some families to maintain those outposts.

 

When Dhun reached Grud, he asked, “What is this I hear about some recent deaths?”

 

Grud just nodded his head and replied, “I smell the blood of multiple beasts in the area, that means either multiple beasts fought and bled, or one beast killed multiple beasts. In the latter situation, that may mean something powerful and confident enough to take on multiple opponents is nearby, and from the reports the scouts gave, we are on the smaller size of things around here.”

 

Hearing that, instead of shouting out orders like he usually does, he quietly passed out orders to send out scouts to look out for danger and a suitable place for an outpost. Dhun preferred to keep Grud around in case Grud’s hypothetical beast came and tried to make a snack of the main body of the expedition.

 

After some time, the scouts came back and drew in the sand a rough drawing of the area. There was not any good choice for a defensible area with a freshwater supply nearby, and the area seemed a bit deserted. Which was to be expected if the other beasts in the area were smelling the same thing Grud did.

 

The scouts also found the site of a recent fight. There they found the carcasses of a rather large herbivore and three small carnivores, they described as looking like the Great Maw Lizard but only slightly bigger than a man. Other than that, there were big foot print tracks going further inland.

 

After hearing the information and studying the sketch of the area, they decided that with their advantage of numbers, they could claim the freshwater source and hold it.

 

When they reached the freshwater source, they found that it was a small lake. From there, the hunters were spread out to guard the perimeter and escort work details to gather materials for a man-made defensible position, which meant dirt ramparts and log walls needed to be raised.

 

Even Grud and the hunters had to get into the building action. If possible, they wanted a somewhat defensible place to sleep tonight, otherwise, they would have to retreat to the twenty-third island to have a secure place to sleep, which was not actually a bad idea.

 

Grud and the shamans decided to make themselves useful in the department of lumberjacking. By now, the knowledge of monster parts being turned into equipment that shamans could use was ubiquitous among all the shamans, and they were using their monster bone weapons to quickly fell trees in a couple of strikes. In this endeavor, Grud was a tree-slaying machine.

 

If the trees were close enough, Grud would swing his empowered spear in a full circle, felling multiple trees in a single swing, he was chopping down trees faster than the men could carry them off.

 

And after the quota for the amount of trees needed was met, Grud proceeded to help transport the logs, and with his strength was easily doing the job of ten men as he transported a log on each shoulder.

 

By the time the sun was setting, they managed to build a basic wooden wall large enough to accommodate the whole expedition and their gathered supplies. The only thing they could do for guard towers when building in such a rush was wooden scaffolding that allowed the sentries to peek over the wall.

 

That night, none of the expedition slept easily, they were in unfamiliar lands that had equally unfamiliar night sounds.

 

While others were trying to sleep, Grud snuck away to hide behind the stacked up supplies. Once he made sure there was no one around, Mita exited his body and he christened this new land with his seed that leaked out of Mita after he was done relieving the pressure on his balls inside of her.

 

The next morning, just as the expedition was getting up, loud roars and the sounds of two beasts easily snapping trees had put everyone on high alert. They had not seen any truly big beast yet, but just the sounds of fighting in the distance did not strike confidence in any of them.