A golden palace
It was the golden age of the tribe. Things changed quickly after Zaelia took power.
At first, she changed the priorities of the tribe, her project was to build the Golden Palace of Archanium. Having no resources at all she needed to gather information. In the first weeks, she sent countless scouts to the areas around and outside the desert to watch and observe the world. She made a map thanks to this, to list all the possible resources of the towns and villages around.
She classified them by risk and difficulty of access. Then she decided to reorganize the groups of raids. If the elders didn't pay attention to the groups, she did.
Her objective was to build a magnificent palace and to do it she had to increase the strength of all the tribe to lead precise raids. To do this, she organized the teams, regrouping them by experience and talent. She asked the actual raid leaders for their opinion and she implemented the concept of common work.
In the previous system, the elders were deciding everything by themselves. Zaelia transformed the Elder's tent into a council place where everyone could have something to say. She listened to others and took their advice.
In a short time, groups were changed and they had the idea to place one veteran in the groups of the young ones to teach them how to avoid issues instead of pushing the oldest ones to continue the hardest raids until they were too old. Zaelia believed in intelligence, she believed in the power of knowledge and she wanted all the savages of her tribe to have equal access to information.
She changed the priorities of the tribe to favor education, evolution, and improvement. When the elders before her were only thinking short about collecting as many resources as possible, she was planning on the long run of what they would need.
And then, the first stones of the palace were placed on the sand. The little raids around were not meant to bring food anymore, they were bringing construction materials and tools. The population around them noticed this change of behavior and that was an era of terror. Nobody knew why they were stealing their houses in the most literal sense of the term. A few weeks later, Zaelia noticed that the construction of the most beautiful palace in the mortal realm was knowledge they didn't have. The foundations didn't stand on the sand.
The scout came back from a town in the west, he reported that beautiful houses were found there and the architecture was different from the traditional buildings they had seen until then. She joined her hands in front of her mouth, sitting in the central place of the tent. She had a large smile and her voice echoed in the place.
"Ask Xzander to come, we are going to visit this city."
The man was laughing a bit, her golden eyes were shining in the sun and she was magnificent. Her confidence was pushing everyone to follow her without doubting any of her words and until now, it was a good thing that she killed an elder and took the power.
The number of human losses dropped a lot and their quality of life improved. Most of the people were content with the situation and if the oldest member didn't approve of the fact that she came there after a coup, they had to admit that she was a great leader.
Xzander entered the tent. His teeth were all visible with his large smile. He was a massive man and he was constantly laughing in front of death. He knew no fears and no doubts, Xzander was a pure product of their tribe. A solid runner who kills anything or anyone if needed to access what he wants. He spoke with a particularly joyful voice.
"The scout told me you need my team. Are we going together into a pillage in the west, Zaelia?!"
She watched him as he spoke and she showed more and more excitement.
"We do. We are going to search for something very special"
Xzander was particularly thrilled by the situation. He knew following Zaelia was risky but this is exactly what he loved so much about her. She would always try to find new paths and new ideas. Xzander went out of the tent yelling to call for the forty-two, the group was well prepared for such expeditions. They were the first group, they were the reason why she took the power that night.
They set off into the wilds with nothing but the supplies on their back, following the map she made. They had no idea what would await them in the desert, but they had a strong desire to succeed. On the horizon, Zaelia could see Archanium's palace taking shape in front of her. She would have very soon all the elements she needed to do it.
They walked in the dunes and Xzander had so many questions. Zaelia seemed to be in a good mood and so he dared to come closer to her and ask what was confusing him.
"Zaelia, we didn't take a lot of bags to collect resources, what is this thing you want to take in this town?"
She smiled with a light of excitement in her eyes.
"I want to bring an architect."
Xzander opened his eyes in shock. That was new! Zaelia and the tribe always did a lot of things, cruel things, but they never had such ideas. He laughed.
"You will always surprise me, you know. How do you plan to force him to work for us?"
She looked Xzander in the eyes and seemed surprised by his question. It truly seemed like it was obvious.
"We need to find a man with a family. This is why we couldn't take bags of things with us. We need to be free of moves to be able to bring back more than one person alive to the camp."
Her steps were light on the sand and she felt like flying. Xzander watched her walking after her explanation with a dropped jaw. That was a crazy idea, they both knew it but nothing was too much if it was for their beloved God. To put a word on it, she wanted to capture a slave. The first one of the tribe. Xzander didn't even know if he should consider this a good or a bad idea.