Dash’s Journal

Day one

Our first day heading north. Or, east and south. Tracker has lead us into the heart of old city. The tribe doesn’t come here. There is no hunting here but Tracker maintains there are other reasons to venture into the ruins. Tracker is sullen, angry about what happened back at camp. I’m pretty sure he blames me for our predicament, our new status of outcast.

I didn’t see much choice, Tracker was before the council for attacking a hunter, it didn’t matter what the circumstances were, the council was always going to come down hard on him. The council also took the opportunity to completely destroy the Cropus’ credibility. They went over old ground, questioning his story, his background. Then they went further, seeking to debunk everything about him before the tribe. I’d seen them do this to others, they’d even tried it on me! If you don’t have the arguments ready, if you don’t have the proof to throw in their face, they’ll destroy you. No one in the tribe will have anything to do with you after such a showdown, if the council has been victorious.

Tracker had already been dealt with by this time. He was being sent north on a quest. He had to find a great knowledge, of pack and self and return renewed as a better member of the pack with knowledge of place and respect for his betters. An interesting choice I thought, either he leaves never to return, knowing that the pack will continue on without him. Or he sucks it up and eventually comes back with a story of how sorry he is for what happened and how he’ll never question a superior ever again. Knowing Tracker, he’d swallow his pride for the good of his people, maybe even take the time to find a place for them, come back and remove them from the tribe. I know they’d go, too many superiors have treated the lupus with disdain. The times coming when it won’t take much for conflict within the tribe to break out.

Anyway, Tracker’s fate had been decided, then the council turned on the Cropus. They’d gone through his backstory, his reason for being here, what he hoped to achieve with his mission. Then they’d gone about destroying his story and everything about it. There is no metal in the forest, but that doesn’t mean we don’t know about it. The felis live by the water, they hunt and fish and use a mix of metal, wood, stone and vine with how they live their lives. For the council to tell the cropus that there is no metal, that it doesn’t exist in the forest and that he had brought lies before the council was just anathema to me! I had to do something!

Seek, a council prospect currently in the role of scribe, had recently come down to a felis village with me. He had seen the metal in the water, under the waves. He had even touched it, held it in his hands! I knew he wouldn’t step forward and speak out against the council elders, but I don’t have any such qualms. I’d taken some of the metal ropes from the water and kept it in my satchel. I had a rush of blood to the head, I don’t know quite what I was hoping to achieve, but I stepped into the council arena and declared the council wrong. I wanted to show them what they were denying, that metal did exist, even in the forest, that there was enough grounds for the council to take on what the cropus had said and at least investigate. I didn’t figure that the metal in my satchel had decayed to such an extent that there was only some scrap left. Needless to say it didn’t impress the council, and even though I had come prepared with an impassioned plea to their better natures. I should have known they don’t have such a nature.

The cropus was sent packing back to the west. Given enough supplies to see him back to his people. I was given a quest of my own, to go with Tracker, learn from him and chronicle his exploits.

I think Tracker hated that part the most. He can hack it out of the wilderness fine by himself, but to have me tagging along? He didn’t want anything to do with it and has gone to great lengths to express his displeasure…