Two days later as the Kurultai was coming to a close the effects of the instructions I had given both Tomás and Jasmeen had begun to take effect, a not so small number of people from both the Borjigin and the Olkhunut had begun to mention that while they had spoken to their Gods who had granted them even more knowledge they had said that they were not lone supreme beings, hinting at the possibility of more Gods or Goddesses? I’d also spoken with Tomás about the khir herd towards the north and it seemed as if they had for now at least gone further north, headed towards a water source which turned out to be Lake Baikal. That removed some of the immediate worries I had regarding the Centaurs and ensured that I could instead focus on more immediate stuff, like my uncle wanting me dead. Ahhhhh, this was so annoying! All I wanted was to experience at least one relaxed and normal life. I guess I was just going to have to play it by ear. So far from what I had understood from the Borjigins travels they had barely crossed the Gobi once, and it had been a long and arduous undertaking. The Desert was no place for the weak, it preyed on those that were caught unaware of its dangers. Sandstorms and mirages had bought the Borjigin close to starvation multiple times before they found their haven.

I walked out of my ger going about my usual routine, checking up on the needs of all the tribes for the day and ensuring everyone had ample supplies for the journey back. Each Tribe had already decided on 50 warriors from all of the small tribes and a 100 each from the Kerait and the Borjigin for the expedition while also managing to recruit around 40 wanderers. Now, it was time to decide on which Khan’s would be going along for the expedition. My uncle would not be coming, nor would Hotula, the bigger tribes had a much more serious need of their Khan’s. Temujin was too new a Khan to come along, as he needed to assert his authority upon reaching the Olkhunut first. I figured it would be the Naiman Khan and one of the others as Chanai Khan was believed to be a talented leader of warriors. The Uyghur Khan declined from leading, understandably so, the Uyghur people were scholars and record keepers primarily and had been keeping records at all the Kurultai’s for years now. They had been chosen by Tomás as the tribe to further continue developing a script for the Centaurs which they had already started with, in secret. That left the Qongirat and the Oirat Tribes. Neither of those tribes had any particular specialties and in the end the Qongirat Khan, Jelme ended up being second in command of the expedition. We would be assembling over here in little over a week with all the expedition members, some of the Kerait that were already here would remain behind to begin hunting for supplies to carry with us, the rest we would hunt as we went. We would be crossing the Gobi desert to the south and as the Uyghurs who lived there told us, it would be a harsh crossing. The Uyghurs were a weak people and had yet to be conquered and defeated by any of the other tribes, this went against all common sense in a society that prioritized survival and the reason for it was rather simple. The Uyghurs had the worst lands amongst all the tribes. The only good thing the Yghurs had going for them were the salt pans to the North-East of the Gobi where the Uyghurs lived. It was the reason why they were left alone despite their obvious weaknesses. While Shirüün as the Centaurs called it was a harsh land, at least there was food and water to go around. The Uyghurs had it far worse and had survived, while they weren’t warriors they were still clearly like all the other Centaurs, a hardy folk. They told us whatever they knew of the desert and warned us to carry as much water as possible because, in the desert, only the well prepared would survive. The Borjigin members had already begun to make javelins for the journey and in the same vein, the Olkhunut with their newfound knowledge of traps had offered to help with the hunting. We hunted the herds of wapiti and laid traps for marmots in preparation for the expedition and those of the Borjigin and Olkhunut that stayed behind, helped train the wanderers. Numbers alone would not be enough.

Slowly as we approached a week since the Kurultai had ended, warriors from each of the tribes began to reach Karakorum, The Kerait warriors to supplement those of us that were already present as well as the Oirat were the first to reach, the Olkhunut and Naiman followed in the next couple of days. Finally, the Qongirat and Borjigin representatives had arrived and a meeting was called by Chanai Khan and Jelme Khan to discuss the route we would take. As we assembled at the ger of Chanai Khan, the two khan’s got straight to the point. “We will be starting the expedition with the Uyghur scouts leading the way until we reach the sands of the Gobi, to do that Barchuk will explain our route in detail”, Chanai explained briskly before gesturing to Barchuk, the Uyghur representative “We will begin our journey by traveling by the eastern foothills of the Khangai. Once the range ends which should take no more than a couple of days we will travel towards the southwest for a week, over the steppes until we reach Gurvan Saikhan mountains.” Barchuk went over the route detailing the journey further and what to expect in terms of the weather. It was late by the time the meeting ended. We had decided on the Uyghur’s leading and the Borjigin watching the flanks while the Kerait and Olkhunut would bring up the middle. The remaining tribes would be in the rear and the wanderers would be our reserve.

As I walked out and back to the Kerait camp, I saw my cousin Kaidu and one of my uncle’s men talking to a centaur, not of our tribe. He certainly didn’t seem to be up to anything good. I hid behind one of the trees hoping to overhear something, “So is Hotula willing to help? Or does he want his position as Khan usurped by the young wolf of the Olkhunut”, I heard Kaidu ask the centaur I hadn’t recognized who was as it now turned out from the Borjigin. The young wolf was what many of the people at the Kurultai had taken to calling Temujin, his glare reminiscent of the eyes of a hungry wolf looking to hunt its prey. “Hotula Khan has agreed to your terms we will have more time to discuss this further in places where we are less likely to be disturbed”, the Borjigin warrior responded before walking off into the direction of the Borjigin camp. “ Is it safe to let him know our intentions?”, asked Ketboge, my uncle’s bondsman. “You know what the best-kept secret is Ketboge? It’s the kind of secret that’s taken to the grave! We will use him for our purposes and have him eliminated. That way, there will be no trace left once we are done.", with that chilling remark my cousin returned to the camp followed by Ketboge. It seemed I had underestimated my uncle and cousin, they had already seen the potential that lay in Temujin and the danger he posed to the powermonger that was my uncle.

Jakotheshadows

Initally most of the Centaur culture and names were taken from the Mongols. Their instruments, their traditions and a lot of other things were used as the baseline for the centaurs. Temujin son of Yesugei had 5 brothers and a sister, and while he did become Khan of the Olkhunut it wasn't exactly through a duel. To this point, I used his story as an inspiration for my character. However, from this point on there will be basically no similarity whatsoever to my character as Temujin fought against a different nomad tribe known as the Tatars before becoming the man who later became known as Chinggis Khan or Genghis if you prefer and then proceeding to conquer around half of China and then all of Central Asia. Because I chose to double the size of the world there will be no interaction between races in this arc so this is going to be purely an exploratory arc with elements of the political tension within tribes I hinted at earlier.