The traveling companions camped outside the town. A mile away they built a fire and prepared all the blood. They collected a total of forty three vials of blood. Icca was fed as much of the Lava Lizard fresh as it could eat.
Braxton explained what he was trying to do to make his mount stronger. The both drank a vail of blood before bedtime. After the relaxing day and getting to really know each other. The laid down to sleep again. The two rolled around for a couple hours before settling down.
The next morning they went into town. Braxton talked with the chief. This village and the one to the north weren't on the best terms. They had females of marrying age abundantly and lacked males. They didn't have an abundance of meat so they wanted all the meat they could get. The chief of this tribe was a woman. This was the first time Braxton had seen that among these people. The village was called Three Moons.
Braxton dumped the nine bodies of creatures they collected the day before. "I'm looking for blood vials and whiskey. If you happen to have trained mounts, I could really use one of those. This is what I have to trade right now." He stated his business plainly.
"We don't have any mounts. The aggressive monsters have been over populating because we have to few hunters. The passive creatures have been over hunted by them. Whiskey is made by the women, we have a lot of it. We already traded our blood vials for food. I can give you twenty pitchers of whiskey for this meat." The chief told him.
"I'll take the pitchers of whiskey. We can consider that a fair trade. I have a possible solution on the problem you are facing. Take ten of your women and travel with me. We can escort you safely there and back. My idea is the ten girls find ten men. They can pick each other. Then they can draw straws to see who stays here and who returns to this tribe. Both tribes will benefit from this and the young peoples will be happy." Braxton offered.
"We could try this. We haven't been able to settle our differences on these matters in the past. Their chief doesn't want to give up any of his warriors." The chief replied.
"Neither of your tribes will survive if this doesn't get resolved. You are in a better position than he is. Your daughters could mate with the males you still have. You would have to share the males between several women. I don't know enough to be sure if that is viewed negatively among your peoples. On the flip side, they have a stronger force. They could easily raid your settlement, kill the men and take the women. This tribe would cease to exist. The worst that can happen if we go there and try my theory is, it doesn't work. We bring you back here then go on our merry way." Braxton responded.
"Your points are valid. Can we leave today?" The chief requested.
"As soon as you collect your women." Braxton replied.
Braxton and Vixen left the chief's hut. They went to the gate to wait for the townsfolk to get ready to travel. "Why are you getting involved in this? It doesn't matter to us." Vixen inquired.
"Oh but it does. If I can broker the deal, that chief has promised me at least one hundred vials of blood." Braxton said wistfully.
"You really think this can work?" Vixen queried.
"It can't hurt anything. If it works, I get my blood vials. I also make two new potential business partners. It can also increase the availability of mounts. If this place goes public, mounts will translate into real money. If I'm rich, you can be my girl." Braxton grinned broadly.
"I thought after last night I already was." Vixen said.
"Well outside this place, I might need the money to protect your cradle-robbing ass." He said with a smile.
He wasn't fast enough to avoid the smack upside the back of his head though. "What if I beat your ass and take all the blood for myself?" Vixen said playfully.
"I guess, I'll just make more trades for it. Then I'll figure out what makes me stronger than you. After that you can't bully me anymore." Braxton retorted.
"You like it."
"Lava lizard blood absorbed strength +1." Alpha announced.
The party of eleven women arrived a few minutes later. Braxton blew his whistle, Icca dutifully returned and Vixen climbed on again. On the trip north, Braxton asked the chief a million questions about the local area. He wanted to know about villages nearby and what was further south of her village.
He learned there was another village of her people about a hundred miles south. There was a blood lizard man village between them. They guarded the narrow passage across the desert there. It was less dangerous than going to the northern passage guarded by the Tritops.
The next three days went pretty much exactly how Braxton planned. There was very little issue once he talked to the male chief. He explained that him having no females, would end up losing him warriors. He wouldn't be able to replace any of them after they died either. It didn't take much tweaking of his language and making the situation look dire. Then when he was presenting his solution. He made it look like it was the chief's idea to randomly select who stayed and who left. Allowing them to chose their own mates was Braxton's idea.
After that whole mess was settled he got the stockpile of blood vials. It ended up being one hundred and twenty six vials. They stacked in storage because they were in a bag which was very handy.
They didn't really need to escort the party back. The tribe now had five new warriors eager to show off for their young brides. They followed along until the village was in sight. Braxton and Vixen said their farewells. Then they continued east around the place. They left both tribes with a solution to carry them forward in the future.
They hugged the desert as they traveled south. With the possibility of having to fight lizard men in unknown quantities, the couple decided to try and minimize ammo depleting kills. Icca's appearance changed a little after eating the last of the Lava Lizard. His scales thickened and his head developed an armor plate. It was confirmation that it might be able to adapt further. He needed to talk with Celious to confirm his wasn't normal for the species. It was however promising.
They made it to the blood lizard area two days later. The village was visible in the distance. The couple waited and scouted the sight. Braxton pointed out the difference in the cloud coverage over the desert area. How the clouds were visible on the other side indicating the passage.
There were a lot of the lizard men in the camp. They had a tower too. While he wanted to assault the place it was too powerful. That didn't mean he had no options. "Head north Vixen. I'll mount up and follow you. Then we will cross. I'm going to bring that tower down. Then we can cross tonight. The temps drop drastically at night." Braxton told her.
"How the hell do you plan on bring that tower down?"