Chapter 4: mountain clans
In the Wolfswood, Elijah had his rifle in position; he found solace in the hunt, his father had always taken him to hunt. It was one of the moments they had together, a bonding moment between father and son. He hunted not for the thrill of the kill, but for the peace of mind, it offered. His father was a man who loved to drop wisdom on him every once in a while, and he would go to town and bring back some books to read. "No son of mine would be a fool; you are going to be someone in this life." Said.
They called him half-breed when he went to his mother's tribe, but he was better than all of them when it came to speaking to the ancestor and putting on small spells. And runes. They hated him because of the environment he was born in. All those unpleasant memories came back with a bitter taste in his mouth like bile at the back of his throat burning with unpleasantness and a burning sensation in the heart.
He had been perched in this position for a while now. He had covered himself. With leaves and dirt, as he looked through the scope, he saw the treasure of the forest—a moose, a large thing that was like a bull almost blind. You had to get close to it for it to see you.
Looking over in Elijah's direction, it twisted its head. Sensing him and smelling him. Squeezing the trigger. He only needs two pounds of pressure. The bullet exited the chamber and entered the moose, hitting the heart. The beast fell there. But as he looked through the scope, there was an arrow that flew and hit the moose just before it fell. There was someone out there. A hunter that hid himself well. Elijah stood up and placed the. Rifle on his back. He began to walk forward. Small figs of dried leaves and snow crunching and breaking under his pressure.
"You can come out now," Elijah said. his voice calm, and he had no sense of danger; it had completely dulled when he learned of his condition. There was the same crunching sound, but it was not one, but two, three, four, and five. Men who wore brown grabs of pelts and hide. They looked more like wildlings beyond the walls. However, there was something different about them.
"Easy stranger, I don't want to start shooting you all down. Now do I?" he said. They all had been observing this man with the long stick until the stick shot fire. They raised their hands in surrender. They did not understand this man, and he was an enigma. To hunt in the Wolfswood was a right the Starks had given the mountain clans. And they helped in killing bandits who set base in there.
"What is that thing behind you on your back." Asked one of the men. He was a tall man well above Elijah, big and broad, his arms thick like his thighs. And he had long hair embroidered with the finger bones of his enemies. "Yeah, it's a good weapon to hunt with; it kills faster, too, so be careful where you step." He had been watching them as they watched him, and one or two of them had moved positions.
"We will trade; you give me the weapon, and I give you the meat." He said, pointing to the moose. A smile came to Elijah. He knew the kind of man this person was, an unreasonable man. "let me ask you a question before this goes any further." he said. "Are you wildlings?" the man before him stepped forward and spat at the ground.
"You insult us by calling us wildlings we are not those cold fuckers." He said. Elijah raised his hand, feigning as if in surrender. "Then you are mountain clan members." He said.
"That we are, and like we said, we will trade you." The man said, looking over to the moose. "No, you won't. You have nothing to trade, and even if you intended to kill me, none of you would walk out of here alive. Believe me, I have been through this more than once, and I always win." The man thought back to the sound and then to the falling of the animal. And understood.
"We have gold; we will give you the metal.. if you give us the magic weapon." The word gold made Elijah, but he began to think he needed gold, and he heard rumors claiming the Mountain clans had it. except there was not just one clan but multiple clans in the mountains and cave dwellers. Those who practiced the old way and lived it.
He needed the gold he could steal from the other great houses, but that would make him enemies with everyone, and he intended to become a respectable man. "As you have said, you are the mountain clans. And you come here not for the leisure of the hunt but for food; I am guessing your clan is in need of it." it was winter, and the rebellion had just ended. However, the food stocks had run dry. And the Starks could not help the clans for many good years.
"What do you know of it? Will you offer the meat?" The man said. it seemed as though he was not intentionally trying to pressure Elijah, but his voice made it seem so, or perhaps that is how leaders naturally are; his father was like that. He was a man who wasted very little time, but he was kind.
"Take it. I have no need of it," he admitted. "Unlike you, I hunt for leisure; how much of this gold do you have?" He asked.
"Much too much; we do not understand its value," he said. "But I do; you give me the gold, and I will bring you food, but I need to know exactly how much you have before we make a deal." He said. Today was a day full of surprises. They met a man who claimed he could help them with food.
"We have a mountain full of it," he said, and Elijah's eyes widened. A smile came to him; he could think of all the possibilities that would be coming his way. "Good, good. I will go to the reach, and I will make a deal: I will buy the food with gold you give me. You give me my portions, and I will continue to supply you with food."
"Or we could just do it ourselves," the man was the leader of the group. He was the only one who spoke; the others listened, protecting him from the corners. "You could," Elijah admitted, but can your man do this?" Elijah jumped behind him.
Teleporting from one place to another. The leader turned around in surprise. "Magic," he said. Backing up, his men surrounded him to protect him. "This should also explain why I was confident in killing you earlier, but I won't. I am a civilized man. And I would do no such thing to my neighbors in the mountains; I want a partnership, one made in friendship. And the animal before me, I offer it as a sign of friendship. You will prosper, as will I." he said. He held out his hand in a shake. And the man took it, squeezing hard, and so too did Elijah, pushing back in strength.