The competition before winter hunting was newly finished. The tribesmen and women were getting ready for the upcoming hunting period for several days. They wouldn't eat many foods, since the forest was full of them. They were making sure that weapons were in good condition and wouldn't leave them halfway through hunting.
His father was also leaving the villages. The tribe had two vice-chief and one of them had to go hunting every year and the other one had to stay to defend the village with a chief. This year it was Bjorn's turn to leave the village. As for the chief, he, like a shamaness, rarely would leave the village. Most likely because those two were pillars of the tribe's safety. If the need did not demand it, then the chief would not go out.
It was the usual procedure for his family to see their father out of the village.
Ulf found out in the past that there were 34 hunting groups in the village and each group had at least 15-20 members. As for the vice-chief's team, it was a combination of three hunting groups, so had more people. However, they weren't going out of the village together. Even if there were hunting to prepare for the winter, a larger part of the teams must stay in the village to ensure the safety of the tribe.
This time, 14 groups were going out and others were staying in. Approximately 500 hunters were going. It was a quite huge number for the village. It was also logical, that they weren't going all in one direction, but in separate ways. From the various conversations among the villagers, Ulf had realized that almost every side of the tribe was the hunting grounds. However, they had differences in the level of danger.
In the south, there was a forest, it was a hunting ground for several tribes, so was also less dangerous. The animals there weren't that strong to threaten the existence of the whole team. The strong ones must have been killed by the tribes in the past. The weakest groups of the tribe were going there. Nevertheless, it didn't mean that the central part of the forest was easy to run around.
The west and east sides had a little more danger. It was kind of a starting point for the really strong beasts to appear. Ulf couldn't even imagine the power of those beasts when even the leader rank hunting group head felt little uneasiness talking about them.
North-east, north-west and north sides of the village contained more dangers. Especially north, which was almost untouchable. Only the vice-chief's group or the teams with two or three leader ranks and other very experienced warriors would dare to go there. The huge monsters that resided there, weren't easy to provoke even for captain rank hunters.
It was a sunny day, when the hunters were leaving, Bjorn was leading them out of the village. After that, he would point other teams to scatter around. As they departed from the tribe, the surroundings became quieter. The villagers were used to sending their family members out, but also always were afraid that they wouldn't come back. Every large campaign had some casualties, mainly in the north, even if the warriors were very experienced.
Ulf was standing on the six-meter-high wall of the village. He was watching the north and several waves of mountains there. The farthest mountains were so distant that could hardly be seen. Even so, it was easy to imagine how high they were, as they had reached the sky and the peak of them couldn't be seen. Others said that nobody had even explored these places. Most people wouldn't dare to go near and others were killed on the way.
Ulf was wondering when he would be able to visit these mountains, but he will surely do it one day.
The week went by after the departure.
The part of hunting groups has already come back. The Groups which had left for the southern part came back three days ago without any troubles. Their harvest wasn't great, but also not bad. The teams from the east and west sides also came back one day ago, when the sun was setting. As for other teams they have reached the village today. Only Bjorn's team hasn't appeared. However, it was also logical, as they had left for the most dangerous, northern part of the hunting grounds.
Three days had passed and there wasn't any news about the vice-chief's team. Some villagers, especially family members of those who were part of Bjorn's team became a little bit worried.
Ulf could see that Inga was the same. However, she didn't let others see it and was trying to restrain herself, as she had children around her.
The village chief must have been also worried. If something happened to the vice-chief's team, the whole village would be damaged. First of all, that team had one of the most experienced warriors in the tribes. Bjorn himself was one out of three captain rank members of the village. If a major incident occurred to that group, the power of the village would be greatly declined. The hadda tribe, which was already in the process of survival, would have a tougher situation.
As everyone was waiting for how the chief would react, the letter one told them today that he would send the strongest and fastest team in the north tomorrow to check the situation there. The part of the village was reassured, after hearing the chief's speech.
The next day, early in the morning, from the main entrance of the village, someone started shouting as loud as he could.
"CHIEEFF, CHIEEEFFF! IT"S AN EMERGENCY SITUATION!!!"
Almost everyone from the tribe could hear the man's crying. As Ulf came out of the house, he headed toward the main way, which was going through the southern and central part of the village and was connected to the central building of the tribe in the north part, on a hill.
Ulf saw the man with many wounds on the body, running as fast as he could toward the central building and continuing to yell.
'If gatekeepers let him inside he must be our tribesman. Is he a hunter? And if so, why doesn't he have any weapon?' thought Ulf.
Bit by bit villagers moved out of their houses and went to the central part of the village - the training ground. Everyone was wondering why newly came tribesman would cause such commotion. As they were anxious, all were waiting for the chief to come and give them a description of the situation.
Soon the chief really came, but instead of telling them what was happening, he started giving others around the orders. Though, for Ulf, it was clear that something major must have happened, because the bearded village head had a very pale face at that moment.
"Harald, Gobron and Njal. prepare your groups as fast as you can to go out of the village! Hurry up, there isn't time to spare!!"
As the chief had called out those three, they moved right away. They were also confused, but didn't ask anything. Ulf looked at and recognized three of them right away. They were leaders of the three strongest teams except for vice-chiefs' groups in the tribe.
" Dorgon, you will stay here to ensure safety here. I will follow them out and leave the village for some time!" The chief told the man on his right side.
"Yes, chief."
Dorgon, like Ulf's father, was also the vice-chief. He was a man with a calm character and had almost the same age as Bjorn. As one of the strongest in the tribe, he had a big reputation among the tribesmen. However, when villagers heard the chief words, everyone was astonished.
"What?"
"Chief is going outside the village?"
"What has happened?"
"Chief, tell us too."
Some numerous tribesmen and women wanted to know the real situation. As Ulf looked at the mother on his side, saw that she was very depressed and nervous. It seems, she understood something or had just a bad premonition.
"There isn't time for speaking and discussing right now. We need to act as fast as possible. Wait for me to come back and you will know everything. Till then no need to panic. If there will be some problem, Dorgon and the Shamaness will deal with it together."
After that, He left hurriedly toward the main gate with the huge club on his shoulder. This weapon has a wooden shaft and head made of stone?! It doesn't look much like a stone. It seemed to be much harder than any normal stone. At that point, it was more similar to the mace.
The villagers followed a chief behind. Nothing more could be said. They were curious, but the chief had absolute power. He was the one who had defended them for more than just one or two decades. Three teams were already prepared and waiting for the chief in front of the gate.