Clear Spirit Tribe. It is a middle sized tribe with only a few mud walls surrounding two directions, west and east, as the south was facing a giant cave system, and at the north the exits to the surface, although blocked glittered with light.
The mud walls were full of weeds, as the ground paved with gravel trembled. Loud sounds of footsteps echoed across the tribe as 100 warriors with spears approached, they were covered with hides of foul beasts. The group consisted of close and long range spear users. In front of them was a man with a giant body and a powerful aura, he was the head of the warriors.
They were moving towards the tribal temple, which was located in the back of the tribe facing the entrance and leaning on the underground walls. In the middle of the temple presided a giant cauldron, the material it was made of seems to be magical, as its shadow looked like it was morphing into different shapes. Once a ship, other times a giant castle, but it settled as a shadowy figure.
As they got to the temple they saw that their king was already there and waiting for them, this made them hurry.
"King, the offerings are ready." The head warrior said to the Tribal King as he pointed at the warriors behind him. They carried hide sacks with them, on the upper parts you could see light coming out of them.
The king nodded to show his acceptance and had a stern look on his face."Well done brave warriors and special thanks to you Leo, hopefully the trial gave you all something good."
"King, these "brave warriors" sure were a handful but at last we have returned with all the goods."
Leo ordered the warriors to put down their sacks and checked their contents. They were full of miscellaneous rocks with weird colorful streaks. These rock were from their ancestral ground, although it may sound grand it was only a stone hill with an entrance underneath, its location unknown to most inhabitants of the tribe.
He arranged them on the alter, which presided before the cauldron. The rocks streaks looked like patterns when placed carefully. Those patterns resembled ore veins.
The head warrior tilted his head to look at his kings restlessness, he always revered his king, but recently due to the decline of food and ores, the king look rather worried.
"Good, what about the next generation, are they ready for war?" Asked the king, while watching the Leo arrange the rocks.
"Not yet sir, they are getting ready for the great survival exam." replied Leo, he was the authority who will lead the younger generation through the giant cave system.
The exam was a competition of battles, survival skills and cutthroat maneuvers. In which the younger generation competed for resources, titles and masters.
The king suddenly changed the subject. "Sigh, it has been a long time since we offered anything to the great cauldron. The heavens truly are merciless to make us live in such conditions." As Leo finished sorting the rocks, the king called for the head priest.
With the head priest arriving, many elders of the tribe looked onward as they conversed.
" I heard that the fields are running dry, but I didn't expect for the king to take such dire measures." Said a elder of the tribe, as he ended with a sigh.
"Yes, such measures should be reserved for tribe destroying disasters, this is, at most, a drought and nothing more." Chipped in another elder. He was unsatisfied with taking out such priceless treasures.
Another elder looked worried. "I tried to persuade him, but in the end he still order for to take the Founding Soul Rocks from the grounds-..."
As he said that another voice interrupted him. "Hmph, for the treasure guardian to be unable to guard our ancestral fortunes is truly pathetic." The one who said that was surprisingly, a young man.
The elder was actually the treasure guardian of the ancestral ground, but since he became old, he retired his position to his disciples. He looked towards the direction of the voice, as he saw a young man leisurely walking towards them.
He looked visibly surprised. "Pipe down junior Kreht, the ancestral land belongs to us all, if the king orders the treasure guardian to take out a treasure, his command will be fulfilled." the elder spoke with a heavy tone.
All other elders looked at the owner of the voice. It was Sir Kreht who was in charge of the survival exam, he was a bit of a reckless brat, but he gets the job done. But most importantly, he was in charge of the annual survival exam. His aura looked brute and without equal in front of the elders, his looks were quite ugly as he had several wounds inflicted on his face and neck.
"Even though you stepped down from your position, you should have at least told your disciples to watch the grounds carefully, but it seems they are just slacking off!" He was very unwilling to give up since only the chosen should undergo the ancestral trial. And some lousy warriors weren't good enough.