#nesostribe

Éar and Orthós have long had trouble with children, and the harsh change in climate has not improved their chances. Yet, as if through a miracle, eight years after their oldest son Húdros, little Opheléo has struggled his way out of infancy.

On a personal side note, Éar and Orthós make the cutest children.

Orthós decided that since they'd had much luck defending their small family with the help of dogs, more dogs = less danger. He was, of course, completely correct in his assumptions.

As the endless winter dragged on, the small tribe made various and valorous attempts at constructing shelters that might be a lot more permanent than anything they'd built before.

Orthós, while out of his depth with building a permanent residence for their family, still took time out of his day to be a father. Éar wasn't a great help with the construction work, since she only has one arm, but she took up her old duties of showering all her children with attention, may the be with or without fur.

She chose the best place to go into labour. The very best. Somehow, she managed to eventually clamber down the ladder into the hut, but it was a struggle.

She gave birth to a little girl she ended up naming Éos Aiodé, but her day was still about to get a lot worse better.

For then, she gave birth to another girl she named Éar Agathé. Judging by the look on her face, she was aware that the gods were having a little laugh with her.

Orektós: "So. Orthós."

Orthós: "I'm a little busy with the twins, can we make this quick?"

Orektós: "I've been meaning to train Oûlos here to be a stallion worthy of the chief, give him to Méns, and discuss the possibility of us moving on while he's happy."

Orthós: "And?"

Orektós: "It's a stubborn mule, it won't work. So I've thought up another solution."

Orthós: "..."

Orektós: "You do it."

Orthós: "Do I get the stubborn mule?"

Orektós: "Yes."

Orthós: "Done."

They traveled a long time. Sometimes by boat, sometimes by horse, sometimes making small shelters, sometimes seeking out natural caves. Eventually, however, they found a place where the fish were a lot more abundant. Here, they decided, they might stay for a few weeks, at least.

Idu and her little patchwork-family lead a rather peaceful life, after her rebellious brother Yissharu has abandoned them.

Her son out of her first marriage, Rusa, has grown into a healthy and rather carefree boy despite the circumstances, and her mother Poira spends her days weaving baskets and making pots.

Idu: "This is the last of the fish. We'll try to get more tomorrow, but fishing in these conditions is ... hard."

Orektós: "And how. The shores are half-frozen, the boys and I will catch our death standing by it all day. If the weather doesn't clear up soon ..."

Poira: "It won't. My bones tell me that it won't. Tell that to that stubborn chieftain of yours."

Orektós, sighing: "I'll try, mother. Uhm. Tomorrow. Or the day after. I'll think of something."

Soon after Orektós told his daughter Kheîma that he could sooner fly to the moon than convince their chief of the wisdom of listening to his mother-in-law's bones, their trusty mare Néphe gave birth to a foal they ended up naming Psará.

Orektós decided that this was a good omen, and a good thing, instead of one more hungry maw. This meant that they had a horse to spare. It was time to train Oûlos.

When Yissharu, his mother Poira, his sister Idu and her son Rusa had first joined the tribe on the island of Nêsos, they had been sick, and grateful for the aid. But eventually, Yissharu could no longer pretend to feel welcome, or at home here. He was unhappy with pretty much all of the decisions that the chief had made in regards to the recent changes in their situations, and finally, Yissharu had enough.

Unplanned hiatusses isn't a word breaks are basically just something I have come to accept, because no way will my ADHD let me post in an orderly and regular schedule. I will skip through these next few posts a little bit, instead of doing really detailed storytelling for absolutely everything, because I have managed to completely creatively block myself. Also, I have progressed to Round 6 in game, and my posts are FAR behind.

Anyway, what happened with Oréktos, after he took in some mysterious strangers? First, he went to the chieftain Méns, and gave him a horse, while Idu's younger brother Yissharu tried - and largely failed - to befriend the chief's sons. A language barrier alone would have made that hard, but that AND a rather significant age gap proved too much of an obstacle.

Afterwards, it was mostly just the newcomers settling in, and Néphe the mare having another foal by one of the many, many wild horses of the island. Also, more births happened, but frankly, so many of the babies die offscreen that I only bother to remember them if they've made it to toddlerhood.

And then there was the small matter of Idu and Oréktos speedrunning their romance. This was not my idea, but entirely guided by the wishes they rolled.

Oréktos felt a little guilty because of his status as a widower who found love again, and became very emotional upon their first kiss, so Idu comforted him, understanding at least some of his inner turmoil.

Poira, in true motherly fashion, butted in at the worst moment possible and wasted no time disapproving.

Not far from the shelter and campsite of Khión's and Hédomai's family, Har-sef had set up a small camp. He was rather cold, all the time, and somewhat missed his village. Then he remembered that he and Usi had accidentally burned said village to the ground and, horrified, stopped missing it.

And there were good things, too. The sea had started calling to him.

"Yes. You'll do." It said, to be precise.

Har-sef was very unsure why the sea would say such a thing, but it was vaguely threatening. It also didn't stop, and he felt very aware of the sea all the time. Or maybe ... something in it?

He also felt comfortable inside the cool waters. He realized the danger of this the first time he almost froze to death and battled frostbite for days after this exercise. During his fevered dreams, Har-sef was rewarded with the triumphant certainty that the king of the ocean was also king of the underworld. People had worshipped him for generations. Har-sef saw them giving their dead to his stormy waters, saw them calling to him to spare them when he gave them earthquakes and storms. They had given him many names, but the one he would speak to his fellow tribesmen was Poseidaon.

For Poseidaon demanded worship.

Puppy break! Have some wolves in vegetation while I go on a nerdy tangent. Since I very much write historical fantasy, I'm often free to explore some things from history and myth that are just ... weird. For example, the origins of Poseidon suggest that historically, he used to be the "king of the gods"-type of character that Zeus eventually became. It appears that he's also one of the oldest Greek gods to exist. From my research (I am no historian, I just have ADHD and access to the internet) some scholars hypothesize that he's got his origin in a Indo-European god of rivers, oceans and the dead. The water-death-connection is a thing that pops up in a lot of Indo-European cultures and myths, so I'm willing to bet that there's some truth to that. Since we're still firmly before the Bronze Age, no Hades-cult has yet emerged, thus, I went with "Poseidon is also the god of the dead" at this point.

As the long winter passed, the families started thinking about moving on. However, the signs weren't great, there were too many small children and not enough food. The island was, if nothing else, relatively protected. Not many hungry, desperate wandering tribes had found them on these shores. Khión painted little murals on their shelter's walls and dreamt of easier times. Doríphoné was her first girl to make it out of her first year, which would normally have been a cause for celebration. Now, it only seemed like disaster simply hadn't struck yet, but wouldn't take too much longer to show it's ugly face.

Dôron had different worries. Boys were no longer blessed by Atemito, virgin goddess of the hunt, if they started to leave childhood behind. This was known. Dôron had the body of a boy. This was also known. Dôron had been blessed by Atemito. This had been known for years and Dôron very much felt that it was still true. Something didn't add up. Something seemed like a lie.