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Unto the Ages: Chapter 149
🕑 Added 2025-01-27 16:38:23 +0000 UTCAfter the arrangements for the alliance were hammered out, it took another two months before any long-range patrolling was done, and now, with more eyes on the general area, more news got back to Grud’s ears, and things were worse than he thought.
They were close to six years into this long winter, and from the latest reports Grud got, a third of the tribes within the new alliance’s territory were gone. The only thing remaining were either signs of combat from both man and beast or frozen, emaciated corpses huddling together in their homes. Granted, a huge majority of the tribes that had died out were all small tribes that had set up in obscure areas or away from the paths that many of the tribes used, essentially making permanent dirt paths, but a third of the tribes in his area of influence were thousands of people that did not survive. And knowing that statistic did not sit well with Grud.
To resolve this problem, he had to expand his fleet of fishing ships beyond what he already had. However, doing so in this weather was not an option because the wood could not dry properly. They had tried making boats out of freshly chopped trees before and faced many problems within a few months of using them.
The problem was that dry wood was currently at a premium, so Grud had to find a way to get more boats into the water due to the increased demand for food.
As Grud was pondering these problems he needed to address, he leaned back in his chair. The moment he did that, there was a dull thud and a woman’s squeak from under his table. Grud quickly looked under the table.
“Sorry, Sline, are you ok?” Grud asked Sline, who was rubbing the top of her head. She was one of his short-stack wives who had been servicing him under the table.
“I’m fine, dear, just remember to stay still next time, when you moved with your penis in my mouth, it pushed my head to hit your desk.” Sline complained.
“What are you thinking about anyway? You got that face on when you are trying to solve a problem.” she asked while climbing into her husband’s lap and caressing his face.
Grud tapped a few sheets of wood with charcoal used to write the report. “This is the problem. This long winter has taken the lives of thousands of our people, mainly due to starvation. We have access to the sea, which is mostly unaffected by the cold and is an unlimited food source. The only problem is that we do not have the proper wood to make boats to increase the fishing fleet.”
Sline looked up at Grud, away from the reports she was reading, and asked, “Is there a certain kind of tree we need to make boats? I thought it did not matter.”
“It is not about the type of tree, but the dryness of the wood, and the problem is that we will not be able to dry any wood anytime soon in this weather.” Grud explained to her.
“Hmm… that is a problem…” Sline said as she once again glanced over the reports. After a few seconds of holding up the report to read with one hand and slowly jerking Grud’s dick with the other, she stopped jerking Grud as she got an idea when she came upon the part of the report of the dead tribes.
“Grud, I think I got an idea!” Sline said excitedly as she pointed at the report. “You need dry wood, and here it is! Most of the dead tribes still have buildings and walls, aren’t they made out of dry wood?”
Grud thought about it, “In general, yes… and even if they did not, the wood would most likely be dried by now! You are a genius, Sline!” Grud said as he wrapped her in a hug and rained kisses down on her until she put a finger on Grud’s lips. “If you want to thank me, I am sure you can do it in other ways.” Sline said as she opened her legs and spread her pussy lips.
Half an hour later, Grud rushed out of his office to start issuing instructions, leaving behind a dazed and cumflated Sline resting in his chair.
***
A couple of months later, carts carrying the wooden remains of dead villages were being wheeled into Grud’s chiefdom, straight to his shipwrites’ workshops, where they would be inspected.
If the wood passed inspection, the person who brought it would be referred to a warehouse next door and given frozen fish, kelp, and other seafood. The amount they were given depended on the amount of good-sized dried wood they brought in. Whole logs were the most valuable, and the value decreased depending on the size of the dried wood as it got smaller.
As for what people were trading dried wood for food? It was because Grud pretty much put out a bounty for any and all dried wood that would be paid with food, the bigger and more whole the piece of wood, the more food you got.
Grud did not explicitly tell people to dismantle the dead tribes, but a rumor planted here and there quickly got the ball rolling. After all, the dead could not use walls or houses, and the most enterprising among the tribes' people jumped at the opportunity.
Back at the shipwright workshops, it was an all-hands-on-deck situation. The shipwrights were working day and night to pump out more fishing boats with the influx of materials they got. It got so busy that even all the carpenters from the chiefdom and the neighboring villages were called in to lend a hand.
Within a month, many of the existing fishermen had gotten a boat of their own and had a job to get a crew of their own and train them. But there was one small problem, almost everyone in Grud’s chiefdom already had their own job or family business, so these new fishing boat captains had to look for manpower outside the tribe, which turned out to be very easy when each of the crew is paid by a cut of the day’s catch that can be sent back home by using the traveling traders that are now more busy than ever with the newly formed alliance.
After a few more months of running around to put out the metaphorical fires, deal with the growing pains of expanding the fishing fleet, and stabilize the alliance, things finally started to run smoothly. This allowed Grud to return to his usual routine of managing mostly local politics within his tribe and breeding his many wives throughout the day.
***
Way up north, far from where any man lived, a massive herd of close to two hundred truly gigantic four-legged creatures lumbered south, seemingly unaffected by the strong blizzard winds crashing against their massive bodies that were covered in shaggy hair.
As these four-legged lumbered south, the trunks that sprouted from their face reached out to grab the frozen evergreen leaves and branches, plucked them off the tree with laughable ease, and shoved them into their mouths.
These giants, with their trunks and massive tusks, were the kings of the winter. Where other animals merely survived, they thrived. These gigantic beasts were Mammoths, and with all their natural predators gone, their population boomed.
As for how much did the population boom? Let's just say that a large herd used to have barely a hundred members. This current herd is one among many that is moving south due to depleting all the food in their previous territory.
As they passed into the territories of man and their many tribes, the mammoths faced the only predators that somehow survived in this frozen wasteland, the mammoths faced the starving hunters of the tribes, each one ready and willing to trade their lives to bring home food for the tribe and their families.
But this did not deter the herds of mammoths, for they too needed to eat, and with their greatly bolstered numbers, came the courage of numbers.
As the mammoths continued ever south on their leafy buffet of evergreen trees, they constantly ended off human hunters to great effect.
However, despite successfully fending off every attack and killing many hunters, the mammoths could not stop the desperate hunters from killing the weakest and slowest members of their herd. Such was the harshness of nature.
The mammoths were chased ever south by the humans for months until the desperate hunters gave up the chase, only to find more humans.
But unlike the humans who chased them here, these humans did not charge them with reckless abandon and ravenous hunger in their eyes. Instead, these humans just watched from afar, and as long as the humans stayed that way, the mammoths were more than happy to mind their own business as they munched on leaves.
***
Grud was in his office, going through some reports while receiving some under-the-table entertainment from two of his wives, when Grud's assistant, Zuka, came bursting in. “Chieftain! Big news! Mammoths have been spotted in alliance territory! And from the reports, this is the biggest herd ever seen!”
Hearing this report caused Grud to quickly sit up in his chair, causing something to bump the bottom of his table, releasing a surprised squeak.
“Really?! How far out are they?” Grud asked excitedly. He had always wanted to hunt a mammoth, but there was always something or another that came up. Now, the prey he had always wanted to hunt was coming to him. This was a chance he could not miss.
