His saber still red, dyed with the blood of the late Khan of the Olkhunut, Temujin quietly addressed the people of his tribe, “For years Woyela sullied the name of the Olkhunut, forgoing the ways of our people and giving up the hunt while he was Khan. Letting his warriors prey on innocents, and letting them kill the husband of his niece. He dragged the name of the Olkhunut through the dirt and yet you persevered. Where lesser people fled the tribe and ran, you stayed because honor is earned by one’s actions not by their title or by their standing. Follow me and I promise to never make those mistakes, to treat you as I would my blood, and to live and die with the tribe.” While Temujin had started out speaking quietly, his voice had grown firmer as he kept on talking, instilling confidence in the Olkhunut. I’d already stopped paying attention because Jasmeen and Tom had just told me something that would need me to speed up some of my plans. As Temujin finished his address the other Khans had already assembled to greet him and assess his intentions concerning the Borjigin. “The ancestors' blessings upon your blade Temujin Khan, come walk with us. We have much to discuss with the coming of The Borjigin now that you have taken over as Khan.”.
I headed back to my ger, I had just heard from Tomás that a herd of khirs which had undergone some dangerous changes were headed towards Karakorum. The khirs were the name the centaurs had given rhinoceroses, the herd of khir like basically all of their kind on Earth had thick hides but now they could also charge up pure magic energy when they ran at you which made for a very painful headbutt. “Jasmeen you go ahead and teach Temujin and the Olkhunut about traps and trapping in general, Tomás you go and teach one of the Borjigin about javelins and how to use them.”, I instructed the two of them scratching my head wondering how to solve the even bigger issue of the two tribes' conflicting faiths. Holding a mental conversation was weird, it made me feel like a madman from time to time. “ Hey Tomás you got any ideas on how to solve the problem between the two tribes?” I asked positively stumped. “Ahhhh, about that I forgot to mention it earlier but the Realm Lord is by default also the God of Creation, so you could always just get the two of us to mention that while we are Gods, we didn't create the centaurs. That way we could slowly indirectly send them in your direction when they begin to pray to a creator it would solve a lot of the problems as then they would have to accept your supremacy as a God.”, Tomás mentioned looking rather sheepish. I was speechless, wondering if a God could die from being strangled. “Ah, it's fine I suppose. Let's just go with what you suggested .”, I grudgingly gave in. Now that the problem of the religious tension was solved, Tomás asked me something that had me troubled, “Are you sure he’s the one Zaide? Temujin’s undoubtedly charismatic and a survivor, but he’s not exactly the kind and noble type of leader. Temujin is ruthless and hard, a genuine product of the times.”. That had me thinking for a while, was I rushing this? Why was I so insistent on Temjuin being the leader? “You’re right Tomás, thanks. I was about to rush it for no reason. I’m just scared, I guess. All my life I’ve had bad things happen whenever things are looking up, so I just wanted this to work out so badly I was going to force it.”, I let out a deep breath and headed off to sleep. There wasn’t much I could do about the herd of khirs right away, so I figured I might as well get some rest, the Borjigin would reach by tomorrow as well.
I was up before the break of dawn along with my father, we had to start preparing for the arrival of the Borjigin. While we didn’t know for sure that they would be welcomed back peacefully, as the hosts of the Kurultai we had to prepare for their arrival regardless. My father and I arranged for a large space to be cleared for the Borjigin, from what little we knew about their return from wanderers to the south, the Borjigin had grown in number, they now had over 400-450 centaurs in their tribe. As we checked the food supplies to ensure that there was enough food to feed everyone. All the tribes had mobilized their warriors, afraid of the power the Borjigin now had as well as the fact that the entire tribe was now headed in the direction of Karakorum. There were around 200 warriors from the Kerait and a 100 each from the rest except for the Olkhunut who didn’t know they had a new Khan just yet. Thus the tribal alliance had 600 warriors amassed set up outside Karakorum, the problem was that no one knew how strong the Borjigin were. There hadn’t been any major wars between tribes yet, so while everyone acknowledged the strength of the Borjigin warriors, none knew how many warriors it would take to defeat them. It was about to be noon when the Borjigin convoy first came into sight. The warriors were leading, at the flanks and bringing up the rear of the convoy. The Khan’s of the alliance had already brought their warriors up to the entrance of Karakorum with the Khan’s all at the fore of the troops. As the convoy was about to reach within bowshot range, they stopped and Houtla Khan escorted by his warriors walked forward and the Khans of the alliance mirrored his actions, about to discuss the Borjigin’s intentions. “What do you think will happen?”, I asked my father. Normally being at such a huge number disadvantage would deter most people from attacking but most of the smaller tribes believed the Borjigin warriors to be invincible as the Borjigin warriors had won all of the individual competitions held at the Kurultai for the last 20 or so years. It was a mental block at this point and so no one was sure how this would go over. So there we stood for what seemed like an eternity until finally all of the Khan’s broke off heading back to their positions. Togrul Khan being the head of the alliance loudly announced “The Borjigin have returned after 7 years to Karakorum to pay their respects to the ancestors, they bring tales of new fertile lands and a great venture that lies before us. They are welcome within the walls of Karakorum.”, a loud cheer went up as Togrul Khan trotted back in after giving the head warrior instructions to head back to the tribes leaving only a small amount of people there. It did seem to be a foolish action at first to let the Borjigin with their warriors inside Karakorum but it’s important to realize that Karakorum was considered a sacred place by all centaurs, and so when Togrul invited the Borjigin in they would follow the rules to the letter. While they may still plan to fight the tribes, later on, they wouldn’t do so in Karakorum. So, for the time being, we were fine.
My father and I had already stockpiled a lot of food for the warriors not knowing what would happen, but since the entire Borjigin tribe was here the food didn’t go to waste. I showed the Borjigin to the place we had left for their gers and gave them spots to trade any goods they may have while my father went to find out what had happened between the tribes from my uncle. While I waited for my father to return I looked through the goods the Borjigin had bought to trade this time around and as it turned out they had come across a small family of rhinoceroses which they had managed to successfully hunt as these rhinos hadn't evolved in any way. It had still been a hard fight and the Borjigin had lost a couple of warriors to the female but eventually, the rhinos had succumbed to greater numbers of the Borjigin who now had rhino hide to trade. Rhino hide was considered once of the best materials for armor at the moment, simply because metal armor wasn’t a thing yet. They even had reindeer skins to use to make gers as well as cypress branches, cones, and oil which they said could be used to treat colds, coughs, and headaches. My father finally returned as I bartered for some rhino hide and he looked to be bursting with excitement.
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