Chp.3: Endless discussions

"And who is this lord to follow? Do we know him?" Tzegorn asked suddenly, looking at Haku with an intense and hostile gaze. "Perhaps we should fear him?"

Silence fell in the room. The other members of the Council said nothing, but from the looks some of them got it was clear they had the same thought. However, they were careful not to say it aloud: Haku's eyes had in fact narrowed to two slits and a growl was coming out of his throat. His fingers curled slightly and his claws scraped the floor. Tzegorn's fur bristled in fear, but the tigerman managed to maintain his composure.

It was Zamor's voice that broke the silence: "Haku, I think you should answer the question"

Haku looked from Tzegorn to Zamor, and saw that the lizardman was glaring at him sternly. That brief glance was enough to let him know what he meant: he was asking him to hurry up to resolve the situation with words, not waste time growling despite the offense just suffered. And indeed he was right. So Haku looked at Tzegorn again with eyes of fire and replied: "If you are wondering if this lord to follow could walk on four legs, have teeth and claws, have silver scales and a head full of horns, and maybe have a name which starts with the letter H and ends with the letter U, then no, you're completely off track. If I wanted to destroy this community or take it over by force I certainly wouldn't need a pathetic mob of thugs. I perhaps need to remind you I defeated and killed a legendary level and captured a spirit? It would take me an instant to take the lead, but I won't because that's not what I want. I've invested too much effort in building this community to destroy it with my own hands. So no, I'm not sure you know this lord to follow". He let out a deep snort that underlined his anger very clearly, and he could not blame Tzegorn who recoiled slightly in his chair. "But what I'm sure of is that if we continue to allow these people to act freely, the community will be in danger. If this situation persists, only one group of rioters will be enough, and all the others will follow suit. We have to do something, and we have to do it now. The best option is to take these problematic subjects and put them behind bars. I can fabricate enough false evidence to indict them for the next ten years in a day if you want it"

"We've already determined that we won't do that!" Zamor exclaimed. "Haku, on behalf of everyone, I ask you to stop proposing such solutions. We won't take action against any member of our people unless he or she breaks the law first. We aren't tyrants and we don't want to be. We have already seen what fabricating false evidence brings and we don't want such events to happen again"

Haku grumbled in annoyance. "Carrion was a crazy fanatic. What he did can't affect..."

"What Carrion did was to falsify the reports he sent to his king in order to be able to carry out his distorted ideal undisturbed at the expense of thousands of innocents. What you propose to us to do is to create false evidence to arrest innocents and carry out undisturbed our ideal. It's the same thing, only in two different contexts" Zamor said. "If we act like this now, we are no different from him. And above all, we will set a bad example. Based on our actions, someone in the future may decide that the ends justify the means and become a new Carrion. If we are to avoid this fate, we have to do it differently"

Haku shook his head in disappointment. From her point of view, worrying about such things was silly. Perhaps it was because he himself had no morals and acted purely out of self-interest, but he felt that sometimes everyone who ruled had to get their hands dirty. "Okay" he grumbled. "We won't do that. But the problem remains. If we don't deal with it, there will be big problems"

"That's true" Leuce spoke suddenly. "Even if we did as Haku proposes, or did anything else to silence the rumours, we would still only be delaying the inevitable. If we are to make people trust us, we have to act. We have to show them that food isn't and it will never be a problem"

"I agree" Brenno grumbled speaking for the first time. "We should have started building that canal a week ago. Let's stop wasting time and get to work"

"We haven't deliberated yet on where to grow!" Yuko exclaimed. "And I keep repeating that this idea of the canal is idiotic! Nothing will ever grow outside the oasis, this is a fucking desert!"

"That's not true! It can work!" Zamor intervened. "Once we have water, everything else will fall into place. If the desert is not fertile enough we will extract silt from the lake and use it to feed the plants, and fertilize it all using cattle droppings or even our own excrements if necessary. We can build poles to hold up roofs that block out the sunlight and create protections against sandstorms..."

"What you're saying may work, but we don't know for sure. There's also a good chance it will fail. What are we going to do in that case?" Simus asked.

"If we fail, we'll try again!" Zamor replied. "And if the desert proves impossible for farming, then we'll use the underground caverns! We're not short of options!"

"The problem isn't the options. The problem is that if we don't succeed the first time, people's morale will drop dangerously. People don't like to go by trial and error" Tzegorn pointed out. "Let's say we build a canal and try to farm in the desert. People are enthusiastic and everyone puts their effort into it, because we assure them it can work. And then, it doesn't work. The project fails. At that point, people they won't care that it was only the first attempt - all they'll understand is that we don't really know what we're doing and they'll be furious. Not only that, but they'll be afraid because they'll be convinced that we can't produce our food, and that soon everyone will die of hunger. Fear and distrust, a lethal combination. At this point, wouldn't it be much better to use an option that guarantees success on the first try? We can farm in the forest, where the soil is suitable for plant growth We don't need to do it all the time, we can do it while we're building the canal and trying to grow crops in the desert, but by doing this people won't worry if that project fails, because they'll be sure they have a lot of food growing under the trees. It would be enough for us to act like this until we can make the desert fertile, and then we can move all our crops there and restore the ecosystem as it was originally"

Tzegorn's arguments were absolutely valid: anyone would have considered them understandable, but unfortunately the situation they were in at the moment was very precarious. "This ecosystem is too fragile!" Gord opined. "Even farming in the forest for just a few years, that will be enough to bring everything down! If the ecosystem collapses, this place will be no different from the rest of the desert! We won't be able to leave the house during the day without risking sunstroke and the heat will be unbearable!"

"We can keep the ecosystem stable" Simus said. "We have a good understanding of how natural processes work here. If we substitute for them, we can keep this place from becoming a desert. We can't do this forever, of course, but for a few months or even a few years it might work..."

A loud growl echoed through the room. Everyone turned around and saw that the source of that sound was Haku himself. "See? That's exactly the problem!" he exclaimed. "We can argue all day long, but each of us will always have valid arguments, or at least believe they are. And so we will never settle anything! This isn't the time to talk, it's the time to act! We can't use the voting system for such decisions, we need a faster method!"

Even if they were nineteen and therefore odd, according to the rules of the Council a decision was approved only if it received at least two thirds of the votes; the majority wasn't enough. And given that the Council was split in half, this minimum number of votes wasn't reached by either side. "Either we change the rules and establish that for certain decisions a majority of votes is enough, or we elect a leader! There are no other options! We need someone who has the support of the people and who we all trust! We need someone who coordinates this Council, we cannot waste time and energy every time on meaningless discussions!"

"We've already talked about it, Haku. We don't intend to give all power to one person" Thora said. "That's not our way of doing things. Our community is built on the assumption that all races here are equal and independent, so we can't be led by a member of another race, whatever that may be"

Haku let out a snort. Even if the logic behind that system made sense, it was still a failing system, especially in a situation like this. They needed a person who acted and whose decision would bind everyone, they couldn't argue endlessly.

Suddenly Yuko giggled. "Funny, isn't it? You complain that we are slow and you wish we agreed to elect a leader and obey their every order... but tell me, would you obey their orders?"

Halu looked at him confused. "What do you mean?"

"You got it right" Yuko replied. "Let's say we elect a leader. Everyone in this Council should obey them and abide by their decisions... and how about you? Would you agree to do that? You're also a part of this Council. What if this leader made a decision that you didn't approve? Maybe a decision that goes against your interests? Would you continue to respect it? Or would you refuse to carry it out?"

Haku snorted. He didn't like the direction the conversation was taking. "I am not part of your community. I am an ally"

"And yet you sit on this Council, you have the right to vote, and you and your siblings can roam the city freely without any restrictions. That makes you a member of the community, doesn't it?" Yuko said, then his tone and expression hardened. "Don't take us for fools, dragon. You want us to elect a leader because you're sure that leader will be someone who listens to you and who you can control. But I'm willing to bet that if you were sure otherwise, that a leader who will make decisions contrary to your expectations, then you would strongly oppose this election. You don't want to be controlled by anyone, just like we don't; a leader is fine... as long as they do as you want. So why ask us to do something you don't want to do yourself?"

The dragon narrowed his eyes furiously, but for the first time in a long time he couldn't find a reason to argue. In fact, Yuko's allegations were all true. However, he certainly could not admit it, or he would have lost his face. "I would be willing to follow his decisions, IF this leader was worthy of trust. The certain thing is that if we continue like this we will not get anywhere" he said, then he stood up and walked towards the door.

"Where are you going? The meeting isn't over!" Zamor called him back.

"We both know that this meeting will end as usual, meaning without deciding anything" Haku replied. "As to where I'm going, well, I'm going to do what you guys aren't doing, which is get people food so they stop spreading rumors! I'm going to catch a sand worm, like I was supposed to do weeks ago. I'll leave it tied to the edge of the forest for you, so you can make as much food out of it as you like. It won't be a vegetable-based dish, but at least it will fill the stomach and those idiots will stop endangering everything that we, no, that I have built in the first place!" and having said this, he went out and closed the door behind him.