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The chief of the last Pastoralists, Kraxka Zaku, the son of the former chief that got killed by a Leader of a Sect Disciple gang had been troubled with many problems lately, although his tribe was pushed away from the grasslands back to the jungles before he was even born, the problem with his father dying wasn't that old, and it could be even considered a recent event that ended becoming the turning point of the separation of the Pastoralists.
The warmonger and vengeful members of the tribe, obsessed with wanting revenge but realizing their weaknesses decided to go into the depths of the jungle where the other stronger tribes ruled, deciding to join hem and ask for their aid in attacking the Kingdom of Frost Tear, this caused the original tribe to end with a smaller group of people, which had continued to go down as the elders began to die like flies one by one, all while the reproduction rates decreased.
Now that they were barely hanging on at 84 people, the Pastoralists seemed to be troubled about many new things, although they had tried to live in peace, several things had begun to torment their daily lives. One of such things were news coming from the depths of the jungle, where it was said that a powerful "Scaled God" had been found, who was guiding the lizardman and giving them his blood to make them stronger and awaken new and magical powers.
This has caused that the tribes benefitted by the "Scaled God" had begun a frenetic expansion of bloodshed where they forced other lesser tribes to join them… or die. Although the Pastoralists were at the border of the jungle and therefore most of the internal conflicts would never reach them, it was still a worrisome thing that what was happening might one day trigger a full-on war against the Frost Tear Kingdom which had driven them off and discriminated their race for hundreds of years.
And now, aside from this danger, there was now the strange and invisible forcefield that had suddenly take over a large area of the forest's border, which only began to worry the tribe's people even more as they began to wonder what this could be all about. Many of the people thought of this as a bad omen, some said that it could be the spirits of the jungle that were unwelcoming of them.
As the chief of this tribe, Kraxka Zaku had to deal with all of this. The adult and strong green-scaled lizardmen had a sharp mind and a natural leadership ability. He was capable of guiding the people, but now the people itself was not listening to him as much, and the younger generations were growing more and more rebellious as well, forming a gang that began to steal from the nearby village, which was dangerous by itself, as the children could get caught and killed cold-bloodedly by those people that had once killed his father.
He had a duty to accomplish, and this was the reason why he didn't let himself get consumed by the desire of revenge, but even until this point, he had been thinking about his father and of his deceased mother that had died a few years before his father out of a strange disease she had caught in this forest.
Over time the pastoralists had adapted to live in the grasslands, and they were not prepared for the diseases of the jungle again, and many of the old lizardmen ended dying out of catching diseases more than by the hands of those that pushed them away.
At this moment the chief was meditating, often using this time to think about what to do next and how to properly communicate better with his people. Sometimes he would mediate for entire days, skipping meals so his wife and daughter could eat instead of him, he was a big man that could easily surviving without eating for entire weeks, so he often skipped meals without a doubt.
However, interrupting his thoughts, the door of his home suddenly opened, as a beautiful lizardman girl entered. Her appearance was similar to her father, but she was more delicate-looking, smaller, and slimmer, while having a more agile and slender body.
"Father…"
This lizardmen girl was nobody else than the chief's daughter.
"Miminga Zu, what is happening? I told you that I was going to meditate today…" sighed her father, reprimanding the girl that often did whatever she wanted around the place just because she was the chief's daughter.
"But father! You were meditating yesterday as well, your tail is growing less fat as well, you need to eat." Said his daughter, worried about her father's health. "We can think about the other things together, you don't have to hole yourself to think about a solution for everything, especially because our current problems are way beyond our grasp aside from the gang kids… How about we discuss this issue together at the very least?"
"Hmmm… I cannot really fight with that logic." Sighed Kraxka Zaku, as he looked at his daughter with a smile. "Let's go…"
He walked behind his daughter as the two moved to their house, where an old lizardman woman, with a frame similar to her daughter but way taller appeared. Her body had slimmer scales and she seemed to be busy grilling big fishes she had caught, while cooking a large amount of soup using algae from the shallow swamp and other things such as edible mushrooms and herbs, alongside the bones of the monsters they raised.
"Oh, dear! You're back… I am making grilled salted fish with some bone soup, your favorite, I made sure to add a lot of algae, so you get all the boost you need in your head." Said the woman. The lizardmen believed that the green algae were good for thinking, although it was just a way to convince children to eat it, saying that if they didn't, they would grow into wild lizard monsters and not intelligent people.
"Sorry for being late…"
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