As the argument between the young and the old continued inside the central tent, little Levis was being taken to a part of the encampment where his villagers, the younger generation of the Down River, had become the oldest generation, as of the deaths of their seniors.

And as little Levis was following the appointed guard while passing through the numerous tents made of various quality and materials. He was observing in intrigue the large number of people moving as the day was starting. As his own village was no more numerous than fifty people, as marriages were mostly done between the villages, and as this was his first time seeing such a large number of people, more numerous than even the exchange of goods in between the villages every six months.

As he and the guard moved towards the outer part of the walled encampment, close to the north watching tower, as young and old, familiar faces could be seen.

Only for a moment of happiness to pass as guilt, shame and fear to meet the rest of the villagers. But as he and the guard were approaching closer, a middle-aged man seeing to the villagers noticed them as they were closing toward him, and as he was looking at the boy that was hiding behind the guard, a tinge of surprise appeared on his stern face.

"Down River village chief?"

"Yes."

"This is a boy that the vice-captain has brought back. Is he from your village?"

"Yes, he is."

"Then I'll leave him with you."

The guard kept a brief interaction with the chief and left little Levis. While little Levis he was trying to avoid the chief's eyes by looking down. Words came out of the chief after a slight pause of silence between them.

"Where have you been?"

"In the woods."

"Why?"

"I was trying to find good softwood trees for my grandpa to make a congratulatory statue for sister's marriage."

"Do you mean the daughter of Aunt Hel's apprentice?"

"Yes."

As the conversation continued and little Levis caught some courage, all of it got drained as the next question made his face pale in distress.

"So, you've seen uncle Ato and my father?"

"That---They---are--- ."

"What?"

But as the chief asked the boy in front of him about the seniors of his village, his stuttering did not help his anxiety about them. Still, his role as the village chief did not allow him to show his emotions openly as his rational mind made him speak in the most reasonable way possible as trying to get out an answer would prove difficult.

"If it's something you don't know or want to say, you don't need to force yourself."

But that did not help little Levis as shame even greater than fear and anxiety from not saying anything fell on him as his face became even paler as words came without any regard whatsoever.

"I hid, and they died! They were being killed, and I ran away!"

As the words flew out of little Levis and tears flowed down his cheek, the eyes of the chief widened involuntarily as his stern expressions almost broke. But a sigh of understanding followed not long after, as a face of depression and relief followed.

"Alright, I understand. No need to say anything. You're probably tired. Let's provide you with a tent to sleep in. There is an empty tent near the watchtower. It was supposed to-- never mind, go there. It already has a layer of material to sleep on. Go and sleep, will talk after.

But the chief's words seemed to ease the boy even though it was impossible to say who he was trying to comfort.

As little Levis took to the tent that the chief had pointed at, the fists of the middle-aged man clenched as a heavy look took him before being approached by another middle-aged man with scars on his face and arms as he was wearing a sleeveless top made of animal fur.

"Was that Ato's boy? When did he come?"

"The guards brought him. The elders are dead."

"What?"

As little Levis was moving towards the tent that the village chief had pointed at while being greeted by the surprised villagers, he was still processing his emotions as he entered the tent near the north guard tower, as the insides were nothing more than two tall, sturdy sticks were holding the cover and a thick mattress to sleep on. Only for his face to fall on the bed and go into a deep sleep again.

"Why am I so sleepy--?"

But as he was asleep, a strange thing happened as the noise of the world was still flowing through his dormant subconscious as only a short time seemed to pass into an awakened sleep as he was awakened again to feel his body more relaxed and energetic as the sun was already past midday with clouds coming their way.

But by the time that little Levis fell into another conscious sleep, orders for the chiefs to gather had been coming from the captain, as walking villagers could be seen going toward the central part of the encampment.

And As midday was gone and dark blue clouds were covering the sky, as though night was coming, many villagers were close to the captain's tent as the chiefs were having an important meeting with the captain.

"I've called you for nothing else but what you probably have guessed."

"You have taken us here and still can not protect us?"

"Shut your mouth, you brat."

"Were are but villagers, not warriors. We do not know how to fight. This is something that the county should resolve."

"Do you think the bandits care about the county when they rob and kill you?"

"And what do you want us to fight with?"

As the chiefs were arguing with the captain and with one another, the captain could only smile wryly as he could not make the villager angry with the guards. However he still slapped the table to take their attention as he was still having a ridiculous grin on his forced smiling face.

"I don't think that I have to tell you your own situation, but since you want me to give you an overview of the situation, I'll do it. So where do I start yes, the snow two and a half months ago was the reason why you have lost the little grown crops that you had and everything that you could gather from the forest, if my reports are accurate, the wildlife that you were usually hunting had retreated, making the meat even harder to search and hunt. The bandits that had usually just extorted money and done some robberies of no big notorious fame had been put in the same situation as you. However, they had done something stupid as they had started to kill the surrounding villagers in a sloppy manner instead of just robbing them. As the county's main city is far from here, it took close to two months for the news to arrive and for us to come here. Fortunately for you, the bandits are lazy and stupid. Otherwise, we would probably have no one to protect right now. That being said, the number they had killed and or kidnaped is over four hundred, and with you to protect, we can not even try a rescue mission. And this leads us to our arrival as we had you all gather here to focus on our defense and take the bandits on as you do not want to leave this place--now I have to give you the sad news of the dead seniors of every village that had people left-back, my vice-captain had buried them as he had passed thru your villages."

As the captain's torrent of words filled the tent, the last part of his speech hit every chief present at the tragic news. Only some more of the old ones, like the chief of Down River, did not have a significant change in their expression. As silence out of shock took the tent, the only ones to act typically were the captain and old Wan, who seemed to be a statue as he stood left to the captain.

"Now you understand? They do not care if you are old or young. Your fate won't be anything good. So, old Wan, can you remind me how many villagers we have right now?"

"Yes, Captain. We are now hosting roughly one thousand villagers from a dozen villages."

"A thousand, and how many of us are here?"

"In total, we should be fifty with the loss of one of ours."

"Fifty protecting a thousand, that is a lot of people to protect, and how many bandits do we have to take on?"

"Around three hundred, captain."

"Fifty against three hundred, to protect a thousand, that is a lot of bandits to take on and villagers to protect. Even if we take two for each, we still have two hundred. If we could have two hundred able men to give us time to take care of the first hundred before moving to the other bandits?"

"But captain, we have about two-three hundred men available in our encampment."

"True, only if we could--."

"Enough, we get it. We'll take all the able men."

As the back and forward between the captain and old Wan continued and the faces of the chiefs darkened, and as they could not take it anymore before the most senior of them spoke before the more hot-headed ones could make things problematic.

"Wonderful, no need to worry about gears as we have prepared wooden shields and spears. As for the training, I have appointed ten guards to explain the basic defense and retreat strategies."

"Alright."

"Ok, then we are expecting them outside the gate, in two hours. You can go."