Chapter 9: Aftermath

 Sees More was numb as he wandered around the battlefield, looking at the carnage. Split and caved in heads. Distorted limbs. Spilled intestines. The stink of blood, urine, and feces was something he knew he would never get used to.

But he heard someone moaning in pain, and saw a young boy grinding the butt of his spear into the back of maimed enemy's hand.

The wounded enemy had been trying to crawl somewhere, and was helpless.

Before he knew it, Sees More had knocked the young torturer down.

He recognized him now.  He was one of those freed from the Enemy encampment, and brought here because he spoke the Enemy's language. He had been here mainly to make sure all the slaves understood "Turn on your masters", "we are here to free you", etc.

The boy scrambled up off the ground, with an indescribably vicious, hateful expression on his face, but seemed unable to speak.

"We don't torture.", Sees More growled. He turned, and brained the torture victim with his exotic war-club.

"He was a monster, and YOU people killed my brother!", the boy shouted.

Sees More back-handed the boy's red face without thinking, and snarled at the fallen boy: "MY brother was killed here, because we wanted to save the slaves! We could have killed ALL of these from a distance, you ungrateful selfish idiot!"

"That doesn't mean you didn't--"  The boy's retort was interrupted by the clubbed butt end of Log Pusher's spear, which caved in his skull and snapped his spine.

Log Pusher glared at Spinner and Sees More defiantly. Both merely nodded their approval.

“I'm carrying that monster's child! I was beaten and raped, and now I'm supposed to swell up and deliver his spawn?", the young woman raged (quietly, but vehemently, to Medicine Woman and Discovers Things, out of the hearing of men)

"The child is innocent.", Medicine Woman replied. "You can form him or her as you will."

" It's not a child yet, and I don't want it! How can I look at this baby without remembering the monster who put it in my womb? Get this thing out of me!"

This was the young woman who had asked Spinner "what took you so long?"

She had seen her father murdered, along with uncles and cousins, and then been "assigned" to  War Chief's harem.

She had been raped well before her first bleeding, and was now in the early stages of pregnancy.

Medicine Woman embraced the girl, then pushed her to arms' length:

"We can't safely kill a fetus. My mother and hers, and others, studied dead animals and humans, and we think we know how it works, and how to abort a pregnancy, but the mother is more likely than not to die."

"So I must bear this evil spawn, or die?"

"Stop being dramatic. We can have you beaten,  which is much safer for you. We try to kill the fetus through violence, but...isn't this child yours? 

"What does it matter? This was forced on me! These men ram into us and walk away, leaving us to raise the child! Why must I do this? What man would have me, with a sagging belly and a monster’s child?”

Tears flooded the girls’ eyes, and Discovers Things and Medicine Woman looked at eachother, even as Medicine Woman comforted the young woman.

Everything she had said was true.

After awhile, Medicine Woman said “the man’s evil is not carried by his seed. A child is as it is taught, nurtured, and raised.

“You have seen this. Some of your own young men were fine as boys, but turned into masters, while others fought them. Some of your sisters resisted, while others used their sex to gain what power they could.

“A baby is mindless. Innocent. We fill that emptiness with love and knowlege, and grows into what we make of it. This child is yours...ours. Not his...”

“I hear you. But I don’t want this. Please...can you get this out of me?”

Medicine Woman sighed. “As I said, we can beat your womb. We can use tools to reach inside you and try to scrape the fetus loose, but that could easily kill you. Either way could ruin your chances for bearing children in the future, if you survive.

“We’ve tried herbs to inhibit fertility or abort fetusses, but none of it has worked. I’m sorry, little sister. This is all I have for you.”

The young woman moaned into Medicine Woman’s shoulder, and she and Discovers Things felt her pain.

Discovers Things spoke up:

“The men of these tribes aren’t like the monsters who took you. It is dishonorable for a man to abuse a woman here.”

“Even if she belongs to him? If she refuses him sex?”

Discovers Things and Medicine Woman looked at eachother.  There were no rules about this. A wife couldn’t refuse a husband. It was assumed.

“I thought so.”, the young woman murmered. “We’re slaves here, too.”

“It’s nothing like what you went through!”, Discovers Things insisted, defensively. 

Medicine Woman silenced her with a look and head-shake, as the young woman moaned and wept anew.

(Earlier): Sees More came to Medicine Woman, and she knew what he was going to tell her by the look in his eyes, let alone the absence of Goes Alone.

Fighting tears, she stood tall, and prepared herself.

“He saved Sees Far.”, Goes Alone said. “He killed at least three. He was fearless...to the end.”

Medicine Woman picked up her sleeping daughter and sat down, rocking slowly, weeping silently.

Sees More stood there, feeling awkward. He wanted to hold her, but knew he shouldn't.  He couldn't tell her what Goes Alone had said at the last...not yet.

He whispered "I'm so sorry. I'm here for you.", and turned to go.

"Give me time, my friend.", she said to his back, as if reading his mind. Sees More kept walking.

Misery and joy mixed in the new encampment near the village of the Sea People, for as many slaves had been liberated, relatives and freinds had learned of the deaths and betrayals.

Goes Alone was not the only warrior who had fallen, and others would never fully recover from their injuries.

Most of the warriors seemed dazed, now that it was over, but the leaders had to lead.

A council was convened, including the leaders of the Sea and Wolf Peoples, and those the former slaves had chosen to speak for them.

Many of the newest group were naturally adopted by relatives or groups of freinds who welcomed them into their own tribes, but most chose to remain together as a new tribe.

The three groups remained together for most of a moon cycle. New freindships and marriages formed, and the bonds between the three groups strengthened.

The Wolf People, having no real choice, showed the new ones all their technologies, and taught them their use.  They also gave some more of their puppies to the new group.

Log Pusher had grumbled at this: What if they became enemies?

But all of these advantages were already owned by the Sea People, had been used in front of the slaves, and were known to several people of both tribes who were joining the new tribe.

Most of the freed slaves were grateful to the Sea and Wolf People, but some seemed to have adopted something like the Slaver’s “religeon”, and credited the Sun and/or Moon (or something else) for their liberation.

A few others, like the hateful boy Log Pusher had killed, actually blamed them for the deaths of loved ones.

Sees More, Medicine Woman, and Spinner had forbidden the adoption of some of the ex-slaves because of their attitudes and/or beliefs, which they saw as poisonous.

They had been accused of trying to protect their own power, being closed-minded and backward, and even cowardly.

Spinner had lost his patience with one young man, and challenged him (after preventing Log Pusher from killing him).

The boy had backed down, but others had called Spinner a bully.

Fortunately, these were isolated cases, and more than one of these “crazy people” had mysteriously disappeared, and others were found beaten and unconscious.

The leaders of all three groups had refused to punish anyone.

By the time the Wolf People packed up and headed back north, the Wolf leaders were eager to go.

The conquering slavers and their religeon were gone, but their legacy had taken root.

They had tried to keep it away from the Wolf People, but Sees More and Medicine Woman had warned Spinner:

“It’s in the children we adopted. They think reason is deception, by the ‘evil one’. We will turn most, but some will remain irrational, because they believe rationality itself is evil.”

“I know, but they’re children. They believe what they are taught, and the older they get, the more stubborn they become.”

Spinner wanted to give someone else his responsibilities, but Sees More and Finds Tracks wanted none of it, and no one else could replace him.

For the moment, he was happy to be moving north again. Hopefully, he would die before those new children grew up...