Chapter 4: New Order

Gray cleared his throat. "With that decided, I recommend we move onto the next part of this meeting, law voting." Gray said.

"Agreed, after all, there are various things that we need to decide on." Katak said. Gray nodded.

"The first thing I want to mention is emergency voting laws. If the federal head dies while in office, we should institute an emergency vote, after which, whoever is voted in will serve out the rest of the original term." Gray recommended.

"Why not a new term?" Sinast asked.

"Two primary reasons. It keeps votes consistent, so every year that ends with either five or zero there is a vote, but also, it means that assassination amongst the council will be less likely as the amount of power gained is for a much shorter period of time." Gray explained.

A few members of the council seemed taken aback for a moment upon hearing the word assassination but didn't argue against the possibility.

"I would also like to offer the law of impeachment. Should eight members of the council vote in favor of having the current head leave their position, they will be forced to do so and an emergency vote will take place." Gray said.

Everybody looked at each other, unsure of what to do.

"This is when we vote on the new laws to see if they are put into action. I vote for the emergency voting laws to be enacted." Gray said. Ah's and Okay's could be heard around the table.

Several hours and votes later, the meeting shifted to the topic of trade.

"Iron-Tail has been without large furs for a while, ever since trade with Steel-Claw shut down..." Jatt stated reluctantly.

"What caused the trade to come to a halt?" Katak asked.

"The fish we got in return began to lessen." Haka responded.

"And why did that happen?" Katak asked Jatt.

"Our usual fishing areas have been less fruitful as of late... For whatever reason, we have been getting fewer and fewer fish." Jatt explained.

"Have you tried changing your fishing areas?" Gray asked. Jatt shook his head.

"Our current fishing grounds are ancestral, to abandon them would mean abandoning our ancestors." Jatt explained.

"You aren't abandoning them, you're just no longer fishing there. I think your ancestors would prefer you eat and be warm over maintaining fruitless fishing grounds." Gray said in response. 'It sounds to me like they overfished the area and there are far less fish there now...' He thought to himself. Jatt seemed hesitant to speak.

"I'm not sure..." He said reluctantly.

"You can repurpose the grounds for something else if you're so worried about forgetting about them. The only reason they were ancestral grounds is that the fish were plentiful, now that they aren't, there's no reason to continue fishing there, right?" Gray asked.

"You know nothing of the other tribes' history and tradition, so you should keep your mouth shut, child." Sinast said blandly as she glanced at him.

"Then tell me, is it tradition to starve?" Gray asked.

"It's not as if fish is our onl-" Jatt began speaking.

"I know, but what happens if your usual hunting grounds begin to empty in a similar manner? Will you keep hunting there despite there being practically nothing? Will you let your people starve because you want to protect your tradition?" Gray asked. "I wouldn't. My people that are alive now are more important than anything else." Gray stated.

"Asana thinks it's not fair to say it like that..." Asana said quietly with her ears and tail down.

"No... He has a point..." Jatt said. "We'll repurpose the old grounds and find new ones with more fish, until then, the amount of fish is likely to continue at the amount it has been." Jatt said. Haka nodded.

"I'll accept this answer. In return for the lessened fish, we will provide lessened furs, when trade picks back up, we will provide more with each shipment." Haka stated.

"I agree to these conditions." Jatt said. Katak nodded approvingly, then glanced at Gray.

The council spoke about many more matters, then concluded the meeting and prepared to leave.

"Grayson, may I speak with you?" Katak asked as most of the chiefs exited.

"Sure." Gray said as he sat back down at the table, his mother behind him.

"Privately..." Katak said as he cleared his throat. Yina looked at Gray. Gray glanced at her, then nodded. Yina bowed slightly, then left the room.

"So, what is it?" Gray asked as Katak went to the head seat.

"I'm curious about something." Katak said as he rested his hand on the table and began to lightly tap the table with his index finger. Gray looked at him curiously. "What made you want to form this council? Really." Katak said.

"As a form of protection agai-" Gray was interrupted.

"I know that part. I'm talking about your other motives." Katak said. Gray seemed confused for a moment.

"I'm not quite sure I know what you mean. I just saw a likely outcome that could occur sometime soon and decided it'd be a good idea to plan against it. I didn't plan any further than that, well, aside from a few topics at today's meeting, such as the voting laws, but those are important for any council." Gray said rather matter of factly.

"Really? So you didn't plan to absorb the other tribes? Take them over and rule with an iron fist?" Katak asked.

"First of all, nice pun there, second of all, not particularly. I mean, it'd be cool if we could bring all beast tribes together under one banner, but that seems like a far-off dream more than a realistic possibility." Gray said. Katak sighed.

"I see..." Katak said.

"Have you ever heard of strategy games?" Gray asked. Katak nodded.

"Things like reversi and such." He responded.

"When I play games like that, I'll think three moves ahead at most. It's hard for me to think any further, so when I say I really had nothing further planned, I mean it. My predictive abilities aren't good enough to plan any further." Gray said lightly. He stood up. "Thank you for the time, council leader." Gray said as he left.

Katak nodded. A few minutes after Gray left, Sinast opened the door and poked her head in. "So?" She asked.

"He's a kid that just wants the best for the tribes. That's what I could tell." Katak said. Sinast nodded.

"Alright." She said, then left.