Life with Alkenny Tribe

Chapter 8

Life with the Alkenny Tribe

3 years 10 Months Later

It has been a little less than 5 years since I arrived here in this world.

Much has changed in all this time.

The first and most visible change is, I now lived in a tribe with other people instead of surviving alone.

I joined the Alkennys after traveling for 3 months in total as I got a little lost.

The instructions I got from the other tribes were not much helpful. They didn't have a concept of the direction. They instructed by following some landmarks that blind people could sense like 'Follow the river upstream until you come across a stone shaped like a bear, then turn in its head's direction', or follow the river until it splits, and walk for 100 steps, etc. Their instructions are good enough when you have to travel near but very bad for traveling a long distance.

Moreover, I didn't advertise that I was going to Alkenny Tribe so I had to be sneaky. Even while asking about them from the first tribe, I was careful so they don't figure out my wish to go there. It was one of the reasons it took me so long to reach here.

One month's journey thus became a 3-month journey.

Thankfully, the Alkennys took me in despite the winter on their doorstep. They were truly good people. After all, the other tribes refused me around the same time a year before.

The second thing that has changed is I have become taller.

At the age of 14-15 years, I was quite tall. It seems that the days I spent in starvation didn't affect my body too much. By my estimate, I was already 5'8 - 5'9 at the very least. I don't know the exact height as I didn't have proper measuring tools but I was even taller than some people older than me. Only a few adults in the tribe were taller than me. I am sure by the time I reach my full height, I might be the tallest person in the tribe.

The third change is that I have become stronger, a lot stronger.

I had a lean body but I was packed with hard muscles. The result of all the hard work in the last half-decade really paid off though ironically, no one could actually see and admire the result of that hard work.

After about 5 years of continuous exercising schedule, I could do 20 sets of 50 of each exercise.

And that is not exactly a small accomplishment. And I was still growing. I would only grow stronger as I get older. I think by the time I would turn adult, I could probably arm wrestle a bear, not that I would try. I like living very much, thank you.

Similarly, my attire, my housing, and a few other things have also changed in the last decade.

While I lived alone, I wore the furs from half a dozen animals sewn together by the Thenn tribe during my first trading but they were not properly tanned as the tanning method of Thenns tribe was inferior to that of the Alkenny tribe. Some of them were not even tanned as I didn't know the method to tan them during the first month of my arrival. And since the underground tribe never saw the use of upper body wear, I didn't have the summer clothes.

At least now, I don't look like a wildling while wearing my winter clothes/furs. My furs are a lot smoother and shinier. They also last longer due to the proper tanning. Instead of a wildling, I now looked like those warriors that generated terror in their enemies. Not only that but I now have gloves, socks, etc to warm my body in the winter instead of persevering through the cold.

And I even have some second-hand clothes for the summer season that I got from the tribe members who outgrew them.

I really liked the 'no wastage' policy of this era. Most of the things are never discarded. People wear used clothes until they are all tattered and even after that they are used in other things like teaching thread language to the children, using them to soften the beds, etc

I also really appreciated all the healthy food provided to me by the tribe. Without them, I would have required more time to reach here. I could only eat meat for the 1st year excluding some times when I would find any berries and fruit. I have come to appreciate the extra foodstuff like baked foods, even milk sometimes, after living with them.

I have also started living my life instead of just surviving. I didn't realize it before but I was definitely not happy when I was living alone. Humans are not meant to be alone. We are social creatures and require at least some social interactions. I really would have gone insane if I had continued to live in that cave alone.

I have come to realize a lot of things about this tribe after all these years.

The Alkenny Tribe is a small, isolated tribe that live at a high elevation. The population is 66 people (including me). While it might look like a small tribe, it is actually one of the largest tribes, I have encountered. Most don't get past the 50 member mark.

We live in rectangular wood shelters, that also utilize fur and woven grasses, local materials that are similarly be found in their clothing though I used furs too. The houses are not much good. Still, they are quite good once you consider that blind people made them.

The Alkenny tribe's people believe in something other than what you can touch and hear and smell, so govern with a combination of mysticism and extreme democracy, where everyone has a vote.

It was a majority vote with which they decided to take me in. It wasn't even a close call as only a few were against letting a stranger join the tribe.

I made sure to remember every face that voted against me to be wary of them in the future. I also tried to make friends with them after a while to alleviate the distrust. Some accepted the hand of friendship after a while but some didn't. I didn't make many efforts on the latter, as I didn't want to come off as desperate. And truthfully, I wasn't worried about them as they were in a minority.

Though the Alkennys took me in, they asked questions that were already expected by me.

Some, I was able to answer and for others, I told them the half-truths.

I told them the things I could do (like hunt animals and fish) and that I was willing to learn everything.

They were especially interested in hearing about my skill in fishing.

Despite being near a river, they couldn't fish for obvious reasons. My addition obviously gave them something they lacked. It was one of the reasons why I was welcomed in the tribe with a majority vote. And I have kept my promise. I have brought at least half a dozen fish every day since then except when the winter is at its peak as the river gets frozen. During the summers, I usually bring a dozen due to their abundance.

When the topic of family and tribe came, I totally refused to speak about my previous tribe. Still, I told them that I was an orphan but that's it. It seems that they at least have some decency so they didn't ask about it further and that was my goal.

It took some time adjusting to the new tribe and its dynamics, but after some time I became accustomed to it.

As I was quite old and mature, they couldn't just give me to any widowed or barren women or any other couple who didn't have children. It was what I assumed but I later got to know that no older couple was without any child.

In any case, I was given a small empty hut at one of the corners though Paris was assigned to me as my caretaker. I later got to know that it was the house of Paris and her mom.

When I first saw Paris, I was surprised to see the hot woman in front of me instead of a slightly overweight middle-aged woman. I knew a young Alfre would be hot but I didn't realize she would be this hot. Paris was in her late teens when I first saw her. She had black hair and a slim waist with bountiful assets.

Her mother, on the other hand, had recently passed away though she did not appear to be distraught over her death. I later learned that her mother was a drug and alcohol addict so no love was lost between Paris and her mother.

Anyway, living with Paris was quite good. She did not mother me or restricted me in any form. She was just there to provide knowledge of the working of the Tribe and solutions to my problems if I was encountering any. She also helped me understand the rules of the tribe, with which the people lived by.

Due to seeing her every day, she became my first crush.

After a while, I found out that Illun, Arca, Souter Bax were still toddlers, quite a bit younger than me. Bow lion, Matal, and Gether Bax were not even born yet.

The dreamer was in her late 20's or early 30's though I later found out that she became pregnant in my second year here with Bow Lion. At that time, I couldn't even be sure of that. It might have been that she is not pregnant with Bow lion as she had a miscarriage before too. I also found out that Souter Bax's sister was also pregnant in my second year.

Thus, I was sure that I was quite some years older than even Jeremeral and Baba Voss. I would say around the age of Tamacti Jun, maybe even older. I already had a hunch after getting to know Sheila's age but couldn't be sure. But this cleared that.

I later learned that I once again dodged the witch-finders, as they took the tributes a few weeks before I arrived from the Alkenny tribe. I really was lucky as I remembered that they took the tribute from the Oppayol and the Thenns around the same time last year so they probably went in the direction of their tribes. It was really good that I somehow got lost with which I was able to dodge them by chance.

Though the Alkennys were an isolated tribe, it did pay tax to the Kane Kingdom so that they leave them alone.

I was particularly stressed for the first time when the witch-finders came at the start of the season of the fall, to collect the taxes. Thankfully the collection was done at the base of the mountain, near the river, so I didn't have to actually be there. Of course, I later kicked myself for forgetting that the witch-finders didn't know the defenses during their 1st battle in the 1st episode of season 1, so they couldn't have come here before.

But still, I was scared that the witch-finders would demand to take me in after hearing some rumors. I even prepared my sword, spear, bow, and arrows just in case that turned out to be a disaster. Thankfully nothing happened, other than Paris looking weirdly at me, probably sensing my panic. Fortunately, she didn't say or even ask a thing and for that I was grateful.

They have come for the tax 3 times in total since I started living here. Every time they come, I prepare my weapons and don them until they go away. Thankfully, nobody could see me so they don't even know about it.

I also discovered that I was quite powerful after spending some time in the tribe. The other people were also powerful. Maybe it was because of their lifestyle or maybe some mutation. The thing is, I was even powerful than them. I could lift about the same weight as grown men at that time.

I didn't realize it sooner as I was alone before for a long time and couldn't compare. Still, I kicked myself for not questioning why I could carry all those wolves and all the things on me while also wearing heavy furs. Or why I could do so many sets of exercises.

I couldn't see who was faster considering they couldn't run but I was sure that my reaction time was even faster than them.

Once, I realized this, I limited myself quite a bit in front of others. I didn't want them to doubt me as a witch as that would be disastrous for me. In this age, people labeled everything abnormal as a witch. And I was the definition of abnormal. Still, I didn't limit much as I didn't want to come off as incompetent.

Little by little, a routine was set for the last four years.

After waking up, I would go to the river.

I would actually run to the river. Initially, I walked to the river as the Scentiers and Ayuras could tell otherwise. I didn't want to take any chances with them. But a year later, when I was sure that they were starting to trust me, I started running as it saved me a lot of time.

Once I was there, I would do the morning rituals. I would also do my workout before bathing in the river. I couldn't do that in the winters.

Thankfully, I hid my bathing-pot near the river when I first came to the Alkenny tribe. I also left some other things there just in case the talks went poorly and only brought my weapons with me. After all, I didn't want to be weighted if I had to fight my way out. Thankfully, the worst-case scenario never occurred.

When I came back to collect them later, I realized the problem and left the bathing pot so that I didn't have to bring it with me every day.

The people of the tribe thought that the time I spend there is for swimming and hunting fish but they don't know that I spend the time working on my body.

My traps would always catch some fish as I put half a dozen traps after the first few days of my arrival back then to catch more fish. Since then, I have increased them to a full dozen.

I would take whatever they caught to the tribe. By the time, I would come back; the people would have made breakfast. I ate more than what the children would eat as all the running and exercising made me hungry. I also suspected that my mutation required more food due to my fast metabolism.

The fish, I caught, were used in lunch or breakfast. There were cooks that made the food for the whole tribe so there wasn't any type of favoritism. Well, other than the tribe leader and his family who got the best parts.

After breakfast, was time to learn anything and everything.

There I learned so many things that I would have never thought I would have to learn.

I learned everything that they could offer me. At first, I was kept away from learning the martial arts and those superpowers. I didn't have any problem with the restriction. I could even understand their logic. After all, I was the new guy and couldn't be trusted. I would have thought them to be stupid if they hadn't done it.

So I spent my time learning other things.

I learned so many things daily that I almost forgot about my restriction. Only when other children talked about, I remembered my situation and restrictions.

Instead of learning martial knowledge, I helped the cooks for lunch and dinner. From them, I learned to cook. I learned to identify which plants were to eat and which were to be avoided. I also learned how to preserve food by salting and smoking them. I really could have spent the winter with a little more ease if I had known only some of the stuff.

Sometimes, I also hunted for food with the hunters. I already knew many things but even then I learned new ways of making traps. I couldn't use my bow and arrows, but, it didn't mean that I didn't take them. After all, I didn't want to get caught unprepared, ever.

I learned to sew and make clothes out of natural materials. That was by far the difficult thing to learn. I also didn't like it much so I wasn't much good at it but still, I could pass by.

I learned to build from the builder of the tribe. With my eyes, it was a piece of cake.

I even helped Paris and learned some healing. I knew first aid in my last life so I didn't have any problem learning more though I was kept away from the birthing chamber. I did not want to go there. The first reason was, I did not want to see women giving birth, period. Sure, the blood and gore didn't nauseate me but it doesn't mean that I have to go through it.

And the second and more important reason was, I didn't want anyone to blame me for some complications in their baby's birth and labeling me as a witch. I was especially paranoid about that. Its like people like to label any person that is a little different to be a witch.

After a while, I knew which plants to use in healing. I also got to know some of the plants for different poisons.

Once I discovered the plants which were poisonous, I started on my endurance of poison. I knew from my past life that people could become immune to poisons if they take it in a small dosage regularly. So I did that. Initially, it was a very minuscule amount, even less than a drop. It did give me some stomach ache but I was ready to feel some pain every day instead of dying by a poisoned blade.

I also kept it secret from the others.

After so much time, my immunity has increased. I am sure there are people who use poisons in their weapons like me and I am sure I am more immune to them than other people. By my estimation, I could even live after getting bitten by a snake. And my immunity would only increase with time.

I also started learning their language. Initially, I thought about not learning it as I could get someone else to decipher it but I later realized that someone might not be in my nearby vicinity at that time. I didn't want to leave it at the chance. So I learned the thread language.

It was quite difficult and more than a little tedious. Thankfully, Paris helped me in her free time which also made us quite good friends. She also taught me their Sign language that is shown through touch.