"Wuzhu! You wooden-headed fool! What are you doing? ..."
"Huh? Aguda! I'm cutting horse meat! The one I beat to death... This tribe's poor as poor can be. Aside from people and dogs, they don't have a thing... By the rules, this dead horse is my battle spoil! I've got to carry more meat back and eat well for a couple days..."
"Damn it! Damn it! Wuzhu, a perfectly good horse, and you hammered it dead with one blow! And now you're grinning about eating meat? ... Get over here and help tie up these captives! Look at how these Ship-User tribesmen bind them! They do it well, much better than you and Qimai! ..."
"Uh... Aguda, this many captives, we're taking them all back? We're not following the rules and killing the old ones and the badly wounded? If we bring them back, there won't be enough food for winter, right? ..."
"Ha ha! The stupid Ship-User Headman wants them! The old and the wounded too! They promised to take out good things and trade for more captives... Let them take them back! It's not as if we have to feed them anyway..."
"Ah! This Ship-User headman always has strange ideas... Is he some half-mad 'forest Shaman,' able to foretell his tribe's future? These armored Ship-User warriors really can fight, every one of them, and they can take a beating too. They have such good armor, it makes my mouth water just looking at it! ... So many warriors following a leader who can't fight—I've thought it over and over, and Shaman is the only possibility! ..."
"...Shut up. Come tie the captives! ..."
"...Yes, Aguda! ..."
Snow fell in the forest, covering the corpses of the dead. The Maha Tribe and the Kingdom Warriors together had used a