The man who brought the news of a dangerous new land soon passed out after telling his story. Grud tried to save him, but it was too late, he had lost too much blood and infection had taken to the stump of his right arm. He died an hour later, the man did not even have time to give his name and the tribe he belonged to.
Grud gave the man his last rites, then gathered Old Crot and a few of the elder hunters for a talk.
When they were seated, Grud started, "My fellow hunters, I call upon you today with grave news. Recently, a wounded hunter stumbled upon our patrol, his life hanging by a hair. We know little about him, except that he comes from one of our neighboring tribes. He passed away before revealing his name or which tribe he hailed from, but in his final moments, he spoke of new lands, unknown to us until now."
Elder Hunter 1: "I saw his wounds, What kind of beasts could have inflicted such wounds on this hunter? Are these new lands safe for our people?"
"The hunter said there were creatures like Hunter Lizards but bigger, and Great Maw Lizards of different types, it is unlike any we have encountered before."
Grud then pointed to the skull of one of the adult Great Maw Lizards mounted above his hut "If what he said is true, their ferocity and power are beyond anything we've seen. As for the new lands, we cannot be certain of their safety, but they offer new opportunities and resources we may need as our tribe grows."
Another one of the hunters who was listening while tapping his chin spoke up,
Elder Hunter 2: "What if these lands are inhabited by other tribes, perhaps from lost tribes like in legend? Could they pose a threat or be potential allies?"
Grud thought about it, 'Those were stories from uncountable generations back, at this point, I do not even think it is real, but with the news of new lands, who knows.'
"Indeed, we have no knowledge of any lost tribes beyond the new beasts in that region. We must consider the possibility that other tribes, perhaps similar to our own, inhabit these lands. We should approach these new lands cautiously, prepared for both friendship and conflict."
Elder Hunter 3: "Our tribe is still young. Should we risk more lives exploring these unknown lands?"
Grud nodded and replied, "Your concern is valid, and we must be cautious. I will send a scouting party, our best trackers and scouts, to gather information. They will assess the safety of these new lands and report back before we make any decisions."
Elder Hunter 1: "That sounds wise, Chieftain. We need information before we can make any choices. The unknown hunter's sacrifice should not be in vain."
"Very well. Let it be decided. We will assemble a scouting party, and they will venture to these new lands. But remember, our priority is the safety and prosperity of our tribe." Grud said as he stood up
Grud selected five of the sneakest hunters in his tribe and sent them forth with the relevant information that he had. After that, he doubled the patrol near the land bridge to the island.
—
Two and a half months passed, and Grud had been contemplating sending another team to search for the scouts he sent, when one early morning, he heard shouting coming from the outskirts of his tribe.
Three of the five scouts he sent had returned covered in wounds and looking malnourished. Grud called for his wives to gather some herbs and for the women on cooking duty for the day to make something easy on the stomach.
The three men were brought to a hut dedicated to treating the injured. They tried to tell Grud what they saw on their scouting mission, but after a few sentences, Grud noticed how fatigued they were and asked them to eat, rest, and report when they were feeling better.
That night after dinner, the three men came before Grud and the hunters of the tribe to tell their tale.
The first thing they did was confirm the reports of the dead unknown hunter from more than two months earlier.
The vegetation was a lot taller and denser and there were a lot of beasts that outsized the beasts of their land. The majority of the beasts were covered in leathery skin, and the only furred beasts were on the smaller side, those who lived in burrows and trees.
As for the reason they were so malnourished, it was because most of the flora in this new land were unknown to them, and when they sampled some of them, they fell ill.
This leads to why two of their fellows died, after they decided that the local flora was too dangerous for them to gamble on, they decided they couldn't go wrong with meat. That is where they met disaster.
After they recovered, they were still somewhat weak. So they decided to stay low and look for a herbivore to hunt. After sneaking around for a few hours, they came upon a beast that had at first glance, looked like the Great Maw Lizard, if not for it having a particularly domed skullcap, lack of fangs, and most importantly, eating leaves of a low hanging branch.
They tried to hunt the beast which was obviously a herbivore, by using the normal scare and ambush tactic. The problem was that the scare part did not work, instead of running away toward the other hunters waiting to ambush, the beast charged the two hunters doing the scaring and rammed one hunter head-first, killing the hunter on the spot, then it turned to the second hunter, chased him down and trample him to death.
The other three hunters managed to rush and kill the beast, but it cost them almost half of their party. From there, food was scarce due to the inability to hunt bigger prey and the small mammal creatures were rare or hid well.
Most of their time was spent hiding and getting kills of opportunity whenever they could.
Halfway through their scouting, they found something embedded in some trees when they went further inland.
The hunters showed Grud a stick with a greenish-brown head and a feather at the bottom. "We found these tiny spears embedded in some trees, from the color of the wood, we think it was left there for quite a long time. No beast could have made it, which means there may be lost tribes in that land."
Grud examined what we would know as an arrow. Half of the arrowhead that was embedded in the tree was the rich and earthy reddish-brown of copper, while the back half of the arrowhead was greenish-blue due to the metal oxidizing.
Grud flicked the arrowhead with his fingernail and felt a similar feeling he felt when doing the same to his old spear that was made from the "Sky Rock".
Grud nodded, thanked them for their service, and gathered the tribe to perform the last rites for the two men who died on foreign lands so that their souls may find their way to their ancestors.
The next day, Grud gathered ten hunters and made their way to the Spirit Moon tribe which was now more than double the distance from when he was still part of the Rock Skull tribe.
When he finally arrived he requested a meeting with the leaders of the Spirit Moon tribe, told them of his findings, and showed them the copper head arrow.
When he was done talking, the whole room was in silence.
After a good minute of pondering faces, Chief Shaman Zargall spoke up while thumbing the edge of the arrowhead, "These lost tribes, if they are still around, may be our kin from legend. If what is reported to you is true, we must seek them out in this land of giants. Chieftain Dhun, I am sorry old friend, I must trouble you again for another expedition. Chieftain Grud of the Rock Claw tribe, your tribe will be the staging ground for the expedition, and the Spirit Moon tribe will provide extra manpower and resources to assist you in setting up the staging area."
After discussing and ironing out a few more details, Chieftain Dhun rounded up volunteers from the Spirit Moon tribe who would go on the expedition and double as manpower to set up the staging area, then sent runners in all directions with news of the new expedition and where to meet in three months time.
Before Grud left the tent, Chief Shaman Zargall called out to Grud, "Grud, I know I cannot force you to go on this expedition, and you have a family and tribe to take care of, but I hope you will consider going along on this expedition. As the most powerful hunter, your presence will save the lives of a lot of people."
Grud looked back, smiled, and nodded, "I was planning on going anyway, all these years being chieftain may have made me unpracticed with my fighting skills."
'And also all the new powers from the beasts in new lands, I hope I can find something there that can bridge that power I feel is being held back.'