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As Grud stepped into the chieftain's house, he could pick up the vibrations of the people inside scrambling to safety or to hide. But all of that was mostly on the upper floors, and Grud did not care about that. What caught his interest instead was the basement at the back of what could only be described as a throne room.
From the vibration feedback, he sensed a lot of loose metal in multiple chests, and someone being caged way in the back of the basement.
After killing two men who tried to ambush him on the way inside, Grud stepped up to the wooden throne, toppled it to the side, and kicked away the rug covering a trapdoor.
After grabbing a lit torch, he made his way into the basement. The moment he cleared the stairs, Grud was flanked by many chests lining the walls. As he opened each one, they were filled with coins, jewelry, uncut precious stones, and fine bone work. Besides getting rid of an enemy power block, the haul from these chests alone was enough for him and his men to consider this campaign worth the trouble.
Grud then turned his attention to the small room at the end of the basement with a copper-barred door, barring the person inside any way out. As he got closer to the barred door, Grud noticed the floor, walls, and ceiling were covered in scorch marks, all seeming to come from the barred room.
"Have you come to see if I have broken from being kept in the dark?" a feminine raspy voice spoke from beyond the barred door. "If so, you are wasting both our time. I will not give you what you want."
Grud could not see with his eyes who was talking, but he could feel from the vibrations that the woman who was talking was sitting just out of his sight at the side of the room.
After some silence, Grud said as he walked closer, "I assume you think you are talking to Ba'Rak? Sorry to inform you, I am not him."
"Ah, one of his new trusted men then, did Ba'Rak tell you what happened to the last man he sent to torment me for my father's secret?" the woman asked.
Curious about what the woman was talking about, Grud played along. "I can't say he has."
"Then, let me show you," the woman said as she flopped out of cover and stretched both her hands towards Grud. From those hands, mana manifested, and a few inches away from her palms, the mana did something Grud had never seen before.
The mana from the woman's hands rapidly turned into a burning crimson red gout of fire that washed over Grud, but instead of the screams of pain and terror of being burned alive, the only thing the woman heard was Grud saying, "Hmm… interesting."
With a slight pulse of mana, Grud blew the flames away, and the woman dispelled her fire before the wave of flame repulsed back at her.
Grud leisurely walked to the barred door and looked down on the woman curiously, "Is this why Ba'Rak imprisoned you? Because you can turn mana into fire?"
Hearing Grud's question, the woman immediately clammed up as she looked upon Grud's imposing form.
As Grud got a better look at the woman, he noticed that the left side of her face was disfigured by what looked like long-healed burn scars.
"You… You are a shaman… a powerful shaman. One I do not recognize. Did Ba'Rak hire you to hex the answers he wants out of me?" the woman asked fearfully.
Grud just shook his head as he reached over to the wall beside the barred door and undid a bolt that was recessed into the wall and opened the gate. "Nothing of the sort. Quite the opposite, actually. I am Grud of the Rock Claw tribe, and my men and I are currently attacking the Thunder Strider tribe. Would you like to join me and take some revenge?"
In response, all the woman could do was nod as Grud helped the woman to her feet. "By the way, what is your name?"
"Tavora" the woman replied.
***
~Tavora POV~
Tavora was not sure if she was dreaming or hallucinating from the lack of food and water while being kept in the dark.
But if she was dreaming, it was one hell of a dream. The legendary Chieftain Grud of the Rock Claw chiefdom had personally come to rescue her and offered her a chance of revenge against the scum who butchered her tribe and family, and tortured her to get the secrets of the Spirit Flame her father came up with to keep their tribe warm during the long winter. If she did not immolate the first few men who tried to rape her, she did not know how much worse the torcher wold have been.
And to think she almost immolated her savior, it made Tavora blush with embarrassment at her blunder. Thankfully, Chieftain Grud lived up to his reputation and pushed aside her Spirit Flame like it was child's play.
As she was helped to her feet, her weakened body betrayed her, and she stumbled, only to be caught by Grud, making her blush as such a strong, handsome man was helping her walk. She also noted that Grud smelled nice. As the blood rushed to her head, she was suddenly very self-conscious not only about her burned face but her smell, she had been imprisoned in this basement for what felt like weeks, and only being given enough food and water to keep her alive. She had lost so much weight that she could feel her own ribs.
Her only thoughts were, 'He would never pick a wreck like me.' But even as she had such negative thoughts, she took the opportunity to lean into Grud as much as she could.
As they walked to the basement entrance, Tavora saw the chests filled with treasure and asked while gesturing to the chests, "Are you not taking the spoils of war?"
In the flickering lights of the torch, she could see Grud's soft smile. "It is underground, so it is safe and not going anywhere."
When they left the basement, Tavora saw Grud looking at different parts of the ceiling as if he were searching for something on the second floor. He then turned to Tavora and said, "I think this is a good place to start your revenge. Can you do that fire thing and burn the wooden structures in here? You can then burn everything else on the way out."
Tavora grinned wildly at Grud's suggestion and stretched out her hand. The first thing she lit on fire was the toppled-over throne. When she was sure that it caught fire, she turned her attention and fire on the wooden beams supporting the roof.
When Grud and Tavora made their way to the entrance, smoke was bellowing out of any cracks and openings of the house, and tongues of flames were starting to sprout from the roof and windows. All of which was accompanied by the screams for help from the Ba'Rak's bed warmers.
She always hated those women. Whenever Ba'Rak came around to torment her with his presence, he always had one or two of his bedwarmers in his arms, always sneering at Tavora and making snide remarks. So now, as those useless bedwarmers burned, Tavora felt no sympathy for them.
As Tavora started at the burning pyre of a building, she was surprised when she was suddenly picked up by Grud in a princess carry.
"This place isn't safe. I'll take you to a safe place while the battle rages on," Grud said before leaping to a nearby roof, causing Tavora to scream in surprise and cling harder to him.
After a few seconds of panic screaming, her already taxed body did not allow her to keep screaming in panic, eventually forcing herself to calm down as she saw the ground fly past her.
A few minutes of roof jumping later, the two of them arrived at the entrance of the Thunder Strider tribe. Armored men sat or lay around as shamans and medicine men tended to the injured. Grud handed Tavora off to one of the medicine men and said, "Take care of her. She will be a guest of the Rock Claw tribe."
The smitten Tavora watched Grud's wide back as he walked back towards the ongoing battle.
***
By the time the sun was setting, the sound of battle had become almost nonexistent. Throughout the day, Grud had been busy calling out enemy moves and pointing out high-value targets, and in some cases, where a group of his men were about to be ambushed or overrun, Grud stepped in.
But he could not be everywhere at once. As his men double-checked every building for survivors, Grud assisted with treating the injured, and he was not in a good mood. Besides the usual casualties, one would expect from a battle, this time, his children were among the casualties.
One of his younger sons, Sorek, got careless and disregarded his older brother's warnings to pull back, and he paid for that carelessness when he was flanked with a spear to his neck.
Grud knew the most fundamental rule of battle: If you are prepared to kill, you must be prepared to be killed. But as much as Grud understood this, as a father, he could not see his son die and do nothing. So Grud flew into a rage and pounced from the roof onto the enemy who killed his son and ripped him and any other enemy apart.
As for his other sons among the casualties, five of them sustained injuries that they would make full recoveries from, but two of them would be crippled for life. One of them had his hand hacked off, while the other had his leg cut off below the knee. Both their fighting days were over, but now that society had evolved beyond just hunting and gathering, Grud knew that they could still lead fulfilling lives.
***
After Grud's men were done with their sweep for survivors, Grud told his men to loot the place for anything valuable and went to make a sweep of his own.
On his sweep, he found a few hideouts by feeling them through the vibrations in the ground. Most of them were children, some of them too young to know anything. Grud had them rounded up.
Grud had promised that every man, woman, and child from the Thunder Strider would perish. However, as much as Grud wanted to honor his promise, he couldn't bring himself to strike down defenseless children. Fighting an enemy in battle was one thing, but this was a step too far. Every time he tried to bring himself to do it, he would see his own children.
His men saw the conflict Grud was going through, and one of the older men walked up to Grud and patted him on the shoulder. "Chieften, let me take this burden from you."
Grud turned to the man named Togan, if memory served correctly. "No, I cannot ask this of you. What kind of chieftain would I be if I did not honor my word?"
Togan shook his head, "I am more worried about what kind of chieftain you would become if you followed through with this. Let me carry this burden and rid this tribe from living memory."
Grud knew it was hypocritical and felt disgusted with himself for making a promise he could not bring himself to act upon. Even if indirectly, many more children had died today, what made these children before him so special?
In his time of inner conflict, Mita spoke to him [Why do you make this so complicated for yourself, my love? The answer to your conflicted thoughts are simple. In my centuries of existence, I have watched the rivers carve the mountains, the wolf cull the herd, the storm fell the ancient trees, and I have seen the first steps of beasts that would rule their territory.
The law of nature is simple: the strong rule, the weak perish. It is not cruelty, nor kindness… it is just the way of all things. Only the strong are free. Free to take, free to protect. Free to destroy… or to show mercy. And you are without doubt strong. If you were to show mercy and spare these children, who would object, and if they do object, what are they going to do about it? Attack you? If they do, you just need to remind them that they are weak.]
After a few seconds of digesting what Mita said, he patted Togan's hand, "Neither would I offload this burden on you. These children would come under my care."
When Grud said that, he could see relief in Togan's and the surrounding men's eyes.
[Enough blood has been spilled this day. I am going to need your help to relieve my stress. I apologize in advance because I am going to be rough with you.] Grud telepathically said to Mita.
[There is nothing to apologize for, my love, I am here to share your burden.] Mita replied lovingly.