Chapter 1331: Chapter 1331

"The Ancestors originated at the river... the tribes gathered at the riverbank... we passed down the legacy along the river! ... Waters of all sizes... people of all sizes... finally reached the sea’s edge! ..."

In the village of Krasop by the river, the tribal elder, River, is singing a ballad in front of the tribe’s central hearth. This is a very small tribe known as the Swamp Tribe, even if you add up all the elders and young people around the hearth, there are only about a hundred people. Meanwhile, on the other side, the exploration fleet, consisting of armored Samurai and sailors, is nearly double in number.

The appearance of the exploration longship brought great shock and terror to this small tribe that migrated from upstream. Especially when about a hundred to two hundred armored and bow-wielding Samurai "with ill intentions" landed on the shore, surrounding the Swamp Tribe, the faces of many tribespeople all showed horror.

The tribal elder, River, trembling, stepped forward. She personally lit the tribe’s bonfire to welcome this sea-born tribal army. The Krasop people are a matriarchal clan migrating along the river, where a tribe is a large family. And the tribal elder, who is the Chieftain, is also the tribal grandmother.

As the tribe’s Chieftain, the elder River led the Swamp Tribe from over two hundred miles upstream on the Columbia River to the downstream estuary, arriving just over two years ago. New ɴᴏᴠᴇʟ ᴄhapters are published on novel·fiɾe·net

In the past few decades, in the upstream Willamette Valley region, later known as the Portland area, the "powerful" Kalapuya people have been gradually rising, expanding step by step. They occupied the warm, arable river valleys, annexing many small tribes of a hundred to two hundred people along the Long River, gradually tending to form a Tribal Alliance. And all the tribes downstream of the Columbia River have felt the pressure of this new Tribal Alliance’s rise!

Several tribal groups on the north bank of the Columbia River, including the Chinook Tribe, Cathlamet Tribe, Wahkiakum Tribe, are moving towards unity. They would become the predecessors of the Chinookan Confederacy, fighting against the Kalapuya Alliance for hundreds of years. In the mid-19th century, under the fearful westward wave of the Yankees, the two rival alliances even came together, uniting the tribes along several hundred miles of the river for a heroic fight and sacrifice...

Currently, the Rivermouth Alliance has just emerged on the north bank of the Great River, while the Krasop Tribe on the south bank has yet to join. The elder River, watching the well-equipped elite Hunters before her, looked at their gigantic, unseen bows and arrows, with deep fear on her face. She knew that with the strength of the tribe, there was no way to resist, and extinction could come overnight!

The rise of a Tribal Alliance always has a huge ripple effect on the surrounding tribes for hundreds of miles. These years, all tribes up and down the Great River began migrating, and conflicts were gradually intensifying. In their continuous migration, the Swamp Tribe also encountered many hostile tribe attacks along the long Columbia River. Their population dwindled from around two to three hundred to just over one hundred, struggling to reach this peaceful yet barren estuary.

Yet, the peaceful days lasted only two years. The tribe had just birthed children when so many elite Hunters launched an attack on them! It should be known that the "powerful" Kalapuya tribes, even if tens of thousands were united, could only choose about two hundred armored and bow-wielding elite Hunters!

"Where on earth does this tribal army come from? Is it from the powerful Kalapuya to the east? Or the united Rivermouth tribes to the north? Or, have the people from the southern Tila also risen to prominence? ..."

Thinking of this, the elder River showed bitterness. She carefully examined the Kingdom’s Warriors before her, staring at the gleaming sharp weapons in their hands, secretly alarmed. She pursed her lips, deeply lowering her head, welcoming the two Leaders coming down from the longship, singing the ballad once more.

"The sea is the harbor of the river’s water... the sea is the boundless Great River! ... By the Great River where the Ancestors never came, we met the people by the river... the powerful tribe by the river! Where do you come from? Where do you intend to flow? ... You are a vast Great River meeting a stream like us, what will be the outcome? ..."

Exploration Captain Zuwaro glanced at Scholar Mikki, and Mikki looked at Zuwaro. Their eyes were filled with both surprise and confusion. This tribe on the southern bank of the Great River, seeing the fleet dock, reacted so passionately! They seem to have met "kin", lighting bonfires, gathering everyone, singing and dancing, yet their intentions remain unknown. Most critically, the loud ballads the other party sang were in Kwak’wala, belonging to the rare Wakashan language family, of which they didn’t understand a word.

"Oh my (t’ɫána)! Oh my! Oh my! ... Oh dear (Tsíst)! Oh dear! Oh dear! ... Uh? ... What’s this? ..."

Mikki the Sage tilted his head to listen, only hearing two repeated phrases, his mind filled with question marks.

The Krasop people revered rivers, and in their language and culture, the most important word was "river"! A larger river was called "t’ɫána", a smaller one "Tsíst", and "river" was also a highly polysemous word. It could mean "source of life, life", "gathered tribe, group", "ancestral legacy", or even "tribal fusion"... Thus, these two words, differing in size, were not just various nouns but could be verbs or represent a complete meaning, changing with context...

"T’ɫána! Tsíst! Tsíst! ... Tsíst! T’ɫána! T’ɫána! ... Hunters from the Great River, what do you want? ... The tribe is left only with a shallow stream, what source of water is there for such a Great River as you to rush fiercely upon? ..."

The elder River first showed anger in her eyes, then filled with sorrow. She widened her aged, clouded eyes, staring at the silent Hunter Leaders. Then she saw Scholar Mikki, holding a sharp axe, approach step by step, place the axe on the ground, then pointed at the tribespeople, displaying a "fierce" smile.

"The leader of the Tribal Huntsmen... do you want us to surrender?"

The elder River was silent for a moment, glanced at over a hundred tribespeople behind her, both young and old. Among them, only about thirty able-bodied men could fight, clearly not opponents for these elite Hunters. Most of these elite Hunters specialized in running and tracking, meaning attempting to flee wasn’t an option either.

"Oh my! ... Oh dear! ... Ah oh! ... The tribe’s streams flowing downstream finally got engulfed by larger Great Rivers... This is an inescapable fate, determined by the End of the river! ..."

Singing up to here, the elder River wore a bleak expression. She turned to her tribespeople behind her, tearfully announcing.

"Lay down your weapons! ... The tribe surrenders to them!"

"Chief Divine bless us! We come with good intentions! ..."

Scholar Mikki offered gifts with a gentle smile, observing the tearful and exuberant tribe before them, pondering the significance of these peculiar rituals. But soon, his smile froze, turning into complete shock and bewilderment!

"Ah? Chief Divine! This... this is... uh?!"

Before him, the tribal elder River slowly knelt, bowing in a gesture of submission. A few breaths later, over a hundred tribal people also laid everything down, kneeling and prostrating. The campfire behind them cast orange-red silhouettes, resembling a breathtaking mural in a myth, with the tribe being moved by the Chief Divine...

"Uh! ... Is this... the call of the Chief Divine? Proactively submitting to the brilliance of the Divine from across ten thousand miles in the Northern Land!"

Scholar Mikki, murmuring, watched the prostrate Swamp Tribe, eyes gradually shining with divinity. At this moment, his usually wise mind inexplicably swelled with a floating thought.

"Or perhaps... I walk in the Chief Divine’s will, basking in the Divine’s glory, gaining divine dignity! ... Letting these riverine tribespeople admire and worship, willingly prostrating themselves? ... Haha!"