As for Dan's village in the high mountains, precisely as Father Reda had foretold. The village elders stopped the killing operation and returned the grandmother to her cave, hardly believing it. That night, they lit a candle above Dan's bed, and his mother sat beside it crying, while the grandmother comforted her.
Winter was approaching rapidly. With it, the mountain would freeze, and heavy black clouds would gather at the top, turning daylight into an inky darkness, making visibility difficult even in the light of lanterns and torches.
People would bump into each other in the narrow alleyways, food and firewood would become scarce, and the people of the upper villages would descend like wild wolves to raid the lower villages, seizing their food, livestock, and brides.
Real slaughters occurred during these raids. The victors wouldn't usually take prisoners, as was the case on the plains, to use them as slaves or concubines, here captives were seen as mouths to feed... and food was scarce!
The warriors from higher settlements, undeterred by death or bloodshed, struck fear into the hearts of the people from the lower villages, who began preparing for their attacks when the black clouds descended on the peak, building high walls around their villages. But the attackers overcame them with ladders, ropes, iron hooks, and bamboo poles they used to leap over the walls, descending onto the rooftops to fight...
Some wise men from the lower villages devised a way to repel the invaders, asking the villagers to provide them with enough food and fuel for the ice and darkness season.
It happened that an army of fierce fighters from the upper villages led by their leader "Dalas" descended on the largest village, surrounded it, and began to prepare to storm it.
The village chief oversaw them from above the walls, giving a speech to them, saying that they didn't need to fight because they would find everything they needed for winter, food, fuel, and fur, at the village gate.
That winter passed without a fight. However, the following winter, they demanded more, and their supplies were doubled. Every winter, they demanded more until the people of the lower villages were worn out, and they slipped slow-acting poison into their wine, causing several fighters to die.
At that point, the elders of the upper villages gathered and agreed to attack the lower villages intending to conquer and subjugate their inhabitants.