"You're such a nuisance!" complained Vaien, scratching his hands through his hair.
Kalla fixed her ponytail with an odd kind of vehemence, as though venting on it rather than Vaien.
"Yeah fine, I know I'm a nuisance. But I only followed you guys because...things are that bad. You'll regret it if you give up on everybody back at our tribe," she warned. "When you want a place to go home to, you'll really have nowhere left. "
For the first time, Vaien hesitated to retort. He stared down at his feet with a stiff expression, reluctance written all over. Then he just puffed out a breath in exasperation, leaning his back against a cocoon with who-knows-what in it.
These two are so stubborn.
Previously, Zhang Han had no intentions to get involved in this spat between the two. He was pretty much like Vaien's accessory, wherever he went, he'd follow, so there was no point in expressing his opinions over these matters. Or at least that's what he'd been thinking until now.
Now he felt the slightest motivation in helping the two dummies figure things out.
He politely interjected into silence, "Kalla, perhaps you could elaborate on what's happening to your tribe? Why is the situation so urgent? I remembered that you mentioned food shortages and the threat of another tribe."
Kalla just gave a wince, lowering her pupils, then sullenly said, "What's the point? Vaien's not gonna listen to me anyway..."
"Who said I won't listen?!" Vaien snapped. "Aren't I listening right now? You're the one who barged in and kept demanding I 'come back right now' instead of explaining. Then when I refused you trashed my place, it's a wonder Zhang Han and I saved your ass from this spider-"
Zhang Han gave him a side-eye, and it was enough for Vaien to understand, stopping the next complaints from rolling out his mouth. He only grumbled something and was silent again.
Kalla seemed slightly hopeful at this turn of her events. "I was wrong about all that! So just hear me out, alright?"
Zhang Han nodded. "Sure, but let's walk as you explain."
Russel and Fatty were still left behind, tied to trees. He didn't want anything to happen to them while they made themselves at home in this spider den. Which, there was really nothing comforting about the place, it was just dark and spooky. The only places to sit included the ground which was covered in spider blood or on a cocoon, and Zhang Han didn't prefer either of those.
"Yup, I'll listen, so let's just head back," agreed Vaien. He was particularly eager to get back to their supplies so he could bandage Zhang Han's palms. He kept smelling blood from them, stirring up the insides of him with a mix of concern and wildness.
So the group of three began walking through the dark woods. They first gathered up Russel who was only a minute or two away, and Zhang Han was able to sit upon the snoufle to ride again.
"So…" started Kalla. "There are a lotta tribes around us, but usually nobody fights too often. This year thing have been different, everyone's on edge. You can tell from the brown grass that there hasn't been enough rain. It's not as plentiful as other years, and we need salt to preserve what we do manage to catch."
Vaien kindly explained, "Salt, those are the little grains I sprinkle on meat, Zhang Han."
Zhang Han nodded. Of course, the usage of preservations with intergalactic travel was extensive, but what ingredients made it up was more unclear. So salt was an important commodity...
"Anyway," Kalla continued, somewhat annoyed by the interruption. "The Boris Tribe have been awfully keen on our tribe lately."
"So it's those dumb boars," said Vaien, tone saturated with disdain.
"First they raided salt from the wandering tribe that comes up from the sea, so we can't get any more this year and the amount of meat we can preserve before the barren season is limited. Then it gets worse--suddenly our grain storage gets broken into by an animal and over half of it is gone. We won't have enough to eat, nothing left to trade but a few pelts....do you think this crisis is a coincidence?"
Vaien had a somewhat unhappy expression and swore under his breath.
Zhang Han glanced between the two. He could understand the slight underhandedness between the two tribes and clearly understand that Vaien's tribe was being pressured.
But the question was why?
On Gaojun, doing things like limiting food and creating periods of starvation was for colonized planets that were still rebellious. Or for those smaller planets that could be conquered with these methods alone.
The logic behind it was simple. The smaller a civilization is, the less bulk and diversity of goods they can produce and provide for trading. For example, a small planet might only have a few resources like metals, or perhaps a kind of crop, but not much else to offer. Once they lost the ability to produce those and were cut off from other trade, they were in dire straits.
After all, how could the royalty there continue to rule when all their people had no trade coming from other planets and would all starve to death? Those in power would have to cede to Gaojun.
"Why is the Boris tribe against yours?" asked Zhang Han.
Kalla balled her hands into fists, chewing her bottom lip. Whatever it was, she loathed admitting.
Vaien unhappily drawled, "Women. Our tribe, Red Mane...that's what we're called 'cause of our hair color, has a larger number of women. At least two-thirds."
Zhang Han was stunned but rapidly suppressed his expression. Within the expanse of a galaxy filled with billions of people, a shortage of women was never an issue. It was certainly...something he was unfamiliar with, and a little disgusted by. At this point, wanting more women for sex or childbearing was a much more primal behavior than he was used to.
"To be honest," continued Vaien, "I always knew some of the tribes around us were shitty, but I didn't think that Boris Tribe would stoop this low."
Kalla blurted, "Not until their leader got replaced with this shameless upstart! He's spouting stuff about uniting the tribes and is trying to grow his tribe's population, that's why they're targeting us. Of course Red Mane would never give in easily...but. You know, our tribe is smaller and established more recently, while Boris Tribe has been around a century longer than us, so all the bastards there are more experienced."
Kalla spent a lot of time thinking about it, because pride in one's strength was important and valued highly, so she never wanted to admit that her own tribe might lose to another. So what if there were more women in Red Mane, many of them could right just as fiercely as men! Yet, being part of the governing side of the tribe, she also needed to be realistic and admit that the chances of her tribe driving off Boris Tribe if they were attacked right now was low.
It was dangerous for all of them. What worse fate could there be than to see her brothers slaughtered, and sisters dragged off and raped?
Even if she hated admitting weakness, she hated imagining that more. So that's why she slunk around like a dog following her brother and pleading for his help.