Earths Eulogy #1-100
Author: CJ Fielding
Date: 2021-04-14T00:00:00+00:00
Publisher: anonymous

Table Of Contents

- Table Of Contents -
Prologue
Chapter 1 March AD 70 Texas
Chapter 2 November AD 70 Mozambique Africa
Chapter 3 April AD 71 Africa
Chapter 4 April AD 71 African Villagers
Chapter 5 May AD 71 Texas Homestead
Chapter 6 June AD 71 African Villagers
Chapter 7 June AD 71 Africa Paul’s Shelter
Chapter 8 June AD 71 African Village
Chapter 9 June AD 71 African Bride
Chapter 10 June AD 71 Marriage at first sight
Chapter 11 September AD 71 African Family
Chapter 12 October AD 71 Guest in Texas
Chapter 13 October AD 71 Indian Raid
Chapter 14 October AD 71 Indian Chief
Chapter 15 November AD 71 Abilio Returns
Chapter 16 November AD 71 The Village
Chapter 17 November AD 71 Planting Festival
Chapter 18 November AD 71 Responsibility
Chapter 19 March AD 72 Capturing Bison
Chapter 20 April 72 AD Chief and Witch Doctor
Chapter 21 April AD 72 FURY!
Chapter 22 April AD 72 Becoming Chief
Chapter 23 April AD 72 Leader

Chapter 24 October AD 72 Family Problems in Texas

Chapter 25 November AD 72 A Good Dry Season in Africa

Chapter 26 November 72 AD Planting Festival
Chapter 27 January 73 AD African Raid
Chapter 28 January AD 73 First Conquest
Chapter 29 February AD 73 School
Chapter 30 March AD 73 Extra Large Canoe
Chapter 31 April AD 73 Watchtower
Chapter 32 August AD 73 Officer Training

Chapter 33 November AD 73 Planting festival for four villages

Chapter 34 February 74 AD Finished Boat
Chapter 35 March AD 74 Uniform
Chapter 36 April 74 AD Boot Camp
Chapter 37 May AD 74 Wart Hog
Chapter 38 May AD 74 Trade
Chapter 39 June AD 74 A Soldiers Day
Chapter 40 November AD 74 Planting festival
Chapter 41 November AD 74 Paul’s Story
Chapter 42 February AD 75 Nana
Chapter 43 March AD 75 Growing Pains
Chapter 44 April AD 75 Walls
Chapter 45 March AD 75 Witch Doctors Actions
Book II Prologue
Chapter 1 June AD 75 WAR!
Chapter 2 June AD 75 Aftermath
Chapter 3 June AD 75 Prisoner
Chapter 4 June AD 75 A Month as a Captive
Chapter 5 July AD 75 Robbery
Chapter 6 August AD 75 Pay
Chapter 7 November AD 75 Planting festival
Chapter 8 November AD 75 Beast

Chapter 9 December 75 AD Texas First Christmas

Chapter 10 January AD 76 Elephants
Chapter 11 January AD 76 Africa- Workers
Chapter 12 March AD 76 The Sea
Chapter 13 March AD 76 Salt
Chapter 14 April AD 76 Ivory Throne
Chapter 15 May AD 76 Old World Politics

Chapter 16 May AD 76 Training My Husbands Fiancée

Chapter 17 June AD 76 Pay Day

Chapter 18 November AD 76 Africa-Planting Festival

Chapter 19 December AD 76 Second Christmas
Chapter 20 February AD 77 Twins
Chapter 21 April AD 77 Africa- Badru Grows Up

Chapter 22 May AD 77 Texas- Someone Else’s Fight

Chapter 23 May AD 77 Texas- Negotiating With Disgusting Men

Chapter 24 June AD 77 Change
Chapter 25 November AD 77 Alexander Paulson
Chapter 26 December AD 77 Trevor’s Boat
Chapter 27 February AD 78 Tolls

Chapter 28 February AD 78 Taxation without representation

Chapter 29 February AD 78 Fighting like Vikings

Chapter 30 April AD 78 A Brief stop

Chapter 31 April AD 78 Texas-Fighting a prepared enemy

Chapter 32 May AD 78 Stone Tower
Chapter 33 July AD 78 Creating Congress
Chapter 34 November AD 78 Decentralization
Chapter 35 February AD 79 Father

Chapter 36 January AD 79 Congresses first secession

Chapter 37 May AD 79 Texas- Lock and Dam
Chapter 38 June AD 79 Africa-Hippos
Chapter 39 July AD 79 Badru’s Promotion

Chapter 40 August 79 AD Africa-Lieutenant Badru

Chapter 41 November AD 79 Researcher

Chapter 42 December 79 AD Bitter Sweet Christmas

Chapter 43 January 80 AD Texas- Written Law
Chapter 44 March AD 80 Texas- Docile Buffalo
Chapter 45 April AD 80 Africa- Murder
Chapter 46 April AD 80 Traitor
Book 3 Prologue
Book 3 Chapter 1 April AD 80 Africa- Escape!
Chapter 2 April AD 80 Avoiding Capture
Chapter 3 May AD 40 Texas Rangers
Chapter 4 June AD 80 Africa- Elzo’s Army
Chapter 5 July AD 80 Step Sons
Chapter 6 November AD 80 Africa- Lenses

Chapter 7 February AD 81 Africa- Political wedding

Prologue

July AD 2057

Gandore sighed. His AI just informed him the Wixors had just destroyed 99.999% of the life on Earth.

He touched his com unit, and his boss answered, “Gandore, what do you need?”

“Boss the Wixors just destroyed most of the life on earth, there are a few creatures that have developed language left.”

“Who?”

“Wixors, the group of animals from sector 13,495,325. A few centuries ago they sent out dozens of probes with the hopes of those probes terraforming planets before their species sends colonists and the Earthians, from the same sector who have launched objects into space for almost a hundred years now. One of the Wixors probes spent a couple of hundred years maneuvering asteroids, meteors, and other space junk toward Earth, and they all hit Earth within the same five-minute window because the probe couldn’t figure out that Earth was already a living planet.”

“WHAT! Those careless, stupid Wixors, I wish animals like that would show more sense. It's rare for two species to be space-faring that close to each other. Without another close species nearby, it will take them tens of thousands or more years to get to the place where they could be considered a trading partner for us. Stupid waste.

“Sir, I think there may be a chance to do a eulogy for the people of earth.”

Gandore’s boss paused for a minute and then said, “Are you sure?”

“Yes sir, despite the utter devastation that probe caused, there are two Earthians who survived in a seed vault, besides you know those guys in the eulogy department rarely get a new planet to try their experiments on.”

“Go ahead and do it then. A loss for our trade department will be a victory for the eulogy department.”

Gandore immediately did something with his com device, and at that moment, a hologram of Gandore appeared on a little Island on Earth called Svalbard, Earth's largest seed vault.

Gandore appeared before two humans. One jumped 4 feet away and screamed, the other balled his hands into a fist and put them in front of his face and put his feet into some sort of fighting stance.

Paul, the one who had his hands up, dropped his hands and breathed hard and said: “You scared the crap out of me, and I almost hit you, sorry about that.”

John, the one who jumped 4 feet, said, “How in the world did you get the vault door open after the earthquake? I figured we would be stuck down here for days.”

Gandore said, “That wasn’t an earthquake, and I didn’t open up the vault door.”

John said, “Then how did you get in here, and why are you wearing that mask?”

Gandore said, “This isn’t a mask; this is my face. I am not actually in here with you. This is a hologram being transmitted from thousands of light-years away. Although we are talking in real-time, with my AI implant translating for us, and giving me relevant information about your culture. If you don’t believe me feel free to wave your hand through me.”

Paul boldly walked up to him and slapped him in the back of the head, but his hand went right through it. In shock, he began to wave his hands through the rest of the hologram. Paul yelled out, “What’s going on!”

Gandore said, “You did not experience an earthquake. What happened is that tens, if not hundreds of thousands of asteroids, meteors, and other space debris hit all over your planet in five minutes. Now you two are the only Earthians left alive.”

John’s face went white as he said: “You must be joking, I have a wife and kids back home in Texas, they can’t be dead I just talked with them last night.”

Gandore not wanting to waste time convincing these Earthians of what happened just showed a hologram showing the destruction of Earth and said, “Do you need to see the death of your family to believe me? If its any consolation, they would have died instantly.”

John just collapsed and started weeping. Paul ran over to him and held him. Paul lost both his parents years ago and knew that there are no words that can help a grieving person, but human contact can help. Unlike John, Paul, wasn’t married and he didn’t have any kids or close family members, he had a degree in biochemical engineering, and his job was to travel all over the world and develop pesticides for local conditions. He never had the chance to get close to anyone. He was numb from watching Earth get flattened in Gandor’s hologram, but John was broken.

Gandore knew this was going to take a while, so he began to play a game on his AI interface, at least he was getting overtime. He wasn’t sure if he was happy about the overtime or irritated that the grief these animals were showing was going to keep him at work for much longer than usual. He finally decided he needed the overtime and to let them take as much time as they needed, and perhaps drag his feet a little bit.

When John finally fell asleep, Paul asked Gandore, “Why are you here?”

Gandore said, “I am here for Earth’s eulogy.”

“Eulogy?”

“Yes, Earth’s story. What are the things that led to Earthians being able to develop space flight? You didn’t do that in a generation, Earth has a story, and you have a story, I would like to hear it.”

“Is this going into Earth’s eulogy?”

Gandore answered, “Yes, everything is. I would love to hear more about you and why you are here on this desolate island.”

Paul said, “I am a biochemist. That’s what I majored in in college, and I minored in agriculture. Pretty much everyone involved in the world seed bank project is involved in agriculture in some way. My specialty in biochemistry is finding plants that are insect resistant and using them to develop better pesticides. That’s why I am here, this is the world’s largest seed bank, and I wanted to get my hands on some very hard to find seed samples to see if any of them have insect repellent or insect destroying properties not already in use in other products.”

Paul Continued, “My job has meant that I travel the world a lot, and I rarely live in a place more than a year. Traveling all over the world has led me to master my real love, martial arts. I have taken eight distinct styles and am a black belt in 3 of them. I started martial arts training when I was 8.” With that, Paul began to tell Gandore his life story. Paul just figured that if there was going to be a record of humanity on some alien planet, it might as well include him and his life.

A few hours later, Paul finished telling his story and went to sleep, and John woke up. Gandore went to him and asked, “Would you please tell me about your wife and kids.”

John needed to talk, so he spent the day telling Gandore how he met his wife how she was so wonderful and amazing. John told Gandore all about his daughter and son, and how he and his wife chose to build a homestead to raise their children like John was raised. This way, they could be free and do what they wanted to do. John was on this island specifically to deposit some special hybrids he had developed, and he figured that since they were helping him by storing his seeds, he ought to help them with maintaining the seed vault. He then began to tell Gandore about how he had always loved to work with his hands and build things and that on a farm, it was important to be able to use your hands because a lot of tools and equipment were necessary to grow crops.

About this time, Paul woke up and Gandore asked the men to tell him about their world as a whole and the history of it. They figured that this would end up on some alien database and may be taught in some alien school somewhere, so they figured they might as well tell him the most detailed history of the world that they could.

After several more days, Paul said, “Gandore I think that’s everything we know about the history of our world, thank you for listening, I hope that’s everything you need to give your people a eulogy for Earth.”

Gandore said, “I am not taking anything you said back to my people, I listened because the longer I stay on Earth, the more over time I get. The more overtime I get, the sooner I get promoted. I am grateful to you two for prattling on and on about your insignificant backwater world, but that has nothing to do with the Eulogy. The Eulogy is where a decimated planet has few survivors, and we send them back in time to see what changes take place. We call it a Eulogy because you are taking all the history, beliefs, and knowledge with you back to your people.”

Gandore continued, “For the last few thousand years we have been experimenting with time travel, as several high order races can affect time. We have learned enough to defend our race against someone going back and time and changing things, but time travel is extremely difficult and energy-consuming in most instances unless the world is dead. It turns out that if you go back in time, it will change the present, and thus the further you go back in time, the more things you change, and thus if you go back far enough, everything living in the present will die and be replaced. For some reason, the life energy on a world will interfere with the ability to time travel. Before your world died, the energy it would take to send you back in time is an equivalent of half the suns in the galaxy going supernova. But since your world is dead now, it only takes the equivalent of about half a supernova to send you back in time.”

John and Paul began to realize how little this alien cared about them and their world, and John asked, “So you are sending us back in time just as an experiment?”

Gandore answered, “Oh, no. I do not work for the eulogy research department. I work for the resource department. Simply put, there is a race much more powerful than us that no longer allows us to make stars go supernova to get to their cores, so we must interact with younger races and trade with them when they do so until that race makes them stop. Your race is extremely close to another race in a very similar position as you, only 25 light-years away. You are both in the space age. If the other race had not wiped you out, you two would have become rivals, and your two races would have likely forced each other to develop more quickly, thus getting to faster than light speed travel and supernova weapons that much sooner. But since they wiped you out, they will likely go at a snail’s pace, and we want trading partners as soon as possible. My hope is to send you two back in time so that your race can get to space sooner so your two races can compete with one another.”

Paul thought about what Gandore said for a moment and then said, “If we get to space and develop supernova weapons, won't one of our species still be wiped out?”

Gandore said, “Who cares, it’s not like either one of your races is intelligent. All that matters is that we get the resources we desire more quickly.”

Paul got upset with that and said, “What do you mean we are not intelligent, we build skyscrapers, planes, spacecraft, and we can talk and communicate with each other and with you.”

Gandore looked bored and said, “The only races that are considered intelligent are races who have faster than light travel. I am sure you have bugs that build things, many creatures that can fly, and pets you talk to who follow your commands. Until your race has faster than light travel, you are little more than a pet grade animal.”

Paul's eyes started turning red and yelled: “If that is true, then why hasn’t another race colonized our world yet!?”

Gandore said, “Why would they?”

Paul looked confused for a second and said with uncertainty, “Our world is pristine, it is full of life, and minerals a great place to live.”

Gandore laughed at that “Planets are dirty mud balls that like to surprise you, and kill you with random things like weather, floods, earthquakes, and so many uncontrolled variables. Only youths are foolish enough to try having an adventure on a planet, and only for a short while. Planets are so large it’s hard to make it pristine for your species. Unlike a spaceship that can have the optimal temperature, gravity, air mix, and many other things your species problem does not even realize is valuable for life. “

Gandore continued explaining, “Heck, the Wixors destroyed your world because several hundred years ago they thought they were going to colonize it. But as their space habitats got better and better, they forgot about the probes they sent to terraform worlds around other stars. One of these days, if the Eulogy does not stop this planet from being destroyed some Wixor will ignore the signal from the probe that destroyed your world that says it completed its job of sending space debris to try to terraform it.”

“As for resources, planets are awful places to find resources unless you crack it open and mine its core, until then asteroids, and meteors are much better places to mine. Well, until you find out how to make a star go supernova, then your race will be able to mine that for hundreds of thousands of years. Well, until you find out how to use the really great stuff in the middle that there is a very limited amount of.”

“The reality is that until your race has faster than light speed travel, wiping you out is very easy. It is not uncommon for a race to colonize several stars, grow complacent and die on poorly managed space stations and ships. That doesn’t happen to races with FTL as they can very quickly come to each other’s aid. A race without FTL can die from infighting. But if a race has FTL it is very easy for the losing party to get very far away, even if the other party is much stronger, it’s only a loss of resources to the weaker species, not an extinction event. A race without FTL can die by ticking off a race that does have FTL. “

Paul and John were stunned silent and looked bitter, and Gandore realized he said too much and continued by saying, “Look, I don’t want to see your species die like this. I have a vested interest in your success, so I am going to send you back in time so that you can change the history of your world so that the Wixor’s probe doesn’t kill everything on the planet again.”

John asked, “Can you send me back in time to be with my family? I should be there when the end comes.”

Gandore knew he could do that, but it didn’t help his plan, so he lied. “The earliest I can send you back to is 100 years ago, and if your family was born after you arrive, they will never be born because you showed up.”

John started to weep again, and bitterly ask, “Does it even matter where you send us back to?”

Gandore honestly said, “To a certain extent no. Let’s say I send you back 100 years. Then Immediately, you're killed by tripping over something and falling on a sharp stick. As your body rots, a bug that was going to irritate someone doesn’t because it's attracted to your corpse. That man goes home has sex with his wife. He releases several million sperm into her. That one change, that bug not irritating him leads to a different sperm fertilizing an egg, leading to a new human being conceived and born than was conceived in your previous lifetime. Each person that change effects will lead to a new person being conceived from that point on. That effect will engulf the entire world in a few years. Simply put, sending nearly anything back in time will kill everyone who ever lived from that point onward, by making sure different people are conceived and born, but that doesn’t matter at this point since they are already dead.”

John said, “If my children are going to be killed by me going back in time, then why should I go?”

“I need you two to understand this, everyone who has ever lived on planet earth is dead beside you two. This process is called a eulogy because you are bringing the history, knowledge, and beliefs of the dead to new people. Going back in time does not bring the dead back to life. Going back in time starts a new generation of people.”

Gandore continued, “My AI says that your people have a saying, that you stand on the shoulder of giants. Paul, John, you are standing on the shoulders of Isaac Newton, Henry Ford, Jesus Christ, Your parents, grandparents, teachers, and strangers whom you have never met or heard of but have effected your knowledge, your beliefs, and how you act. When you are sent back in time, your job is to help the new generation that is born to stand on the shoulder of those giants. Perhaps, just perhaps, if you do a good job of helping people stand on the shoulder of giants, a generation will save Earth from the Wixors. But one thing is for sure; the dead are dead, so help the next generation stand on the shoulders of your giants.”

Paul and John were stunned, and after a very long pause, Paul asked John, “So where do you think we should go back to?”

John said, “I don’t know. Gandore, can you only send us back in time, or can you also send us to different places on the planet to.”

Gandore “Time travel requires moving in time and space, as everything in space moves. If I sent you back in time, say one hour in this exact spot you would be in space somewhere. As time travel requires moving in time and space, I can send you back in time anywhere on planet earth you want to go”.

John then asked Gandore, “What needs to happen for Earth to be saved?”

Gandore “Honestly, you were probably really close to saving Earth with your current tech. All you needed to do was be out in space capturing and mining asteroids, and you would have noticed all the stuff the Wixors sent your way. The chances are that nobody on Earth noticed the swarm of debris because the Wixor probe spent a couple of hundred years sending space debris to Earth with the intent of all the debris hitting Earth within a one-minute window. But the dumb thing messed up and had everything hit over 5 minutes instead. I think the biggest issue is that because its sending stuff over such a long-time frame that the debris is coming from well everywhere. Unless you are actively capturing and mining asteroids, you will not be able to survive, but if you are survival will be pretty easy.”

Paul said, “John we were pretty close to being able to mine asteroids, Nasa has even landed drones on some, what if we went back to the start of the U.S. in 1776, do you think we could speed things up enough to save everyone?”

John said, “What could we contribute? I am a homesteader, sure I can make hybrid crops, that’s what brought me here in the first place, but how does that help bring about asteroid mining fast enough to save Earth? Do you have the necessary engineering experience?”

Paul said, “No, I make bug spray for a living. But maybe we could change things if we talked with Isaac Newton. Much of our understanding of orbits and planetary bodies comes from the math he did, do you think we know enough to help move science along?”

John said, “It’s the same problem; what can we add that would help things. Honestly, giving the British government more knowledge might completely stop the space race, it was the American culture versus something in the Russian culture that pushed the space race. The British, although fascinated by space, never had much of a space presence. Honestly, I think we have to stop the dark ages from happening if we are to save Earth.”

Paul said, “what do you mean?”

John said, “During the roman empire you have trade, people are growing in knowledge, the world is connected. Years ago, they even found an extremely complicated timepiece in a Roman wreck, which is a mechanical computer, even more, complicated than the windup watches that were popular during the 19th century. Rome had sailing ships that were easily on par with anything the British Empire ever built. China invented the movable type printing press around the time of Christ, but it never took off in China. Then Europe and Asia get into a dark age and go backward in everything. The people couldn’t even keep the aqueducts maintained. There is no telling how much knowledge was lost. The reality is that without the dark ages, we would likely have several planets in the solar system colonized.”

Paul said, “So, do you think we need to go back to Rome or China?”

John said, “Do you speak Latin or whatever form of Chinese the Chinese people spoke 2000 years ago?”

Paul said, “No.”

John said, “Then I would suggest we avoid going back to Rome or China. I don’t know much history about China, but the problem with China is that it has always been too inward-focused. We are both white men, so we would likely not do well in ancient china. Rome, on the other hand, was utterly and completely corrupt and destined to fall apart. When we go there, we could immediately be made slaves just because we can’t speak the language, and even if they don’t enslave us, Rome had a history of supporting Romans above anyone else. For instance, one time, they destroyed a region's vineyard because it was causing the wine coming from Italy to lose value. What hope do we have of changing a corrupt Rome for the better?”

Paul said, “Well, what do you think we ought to do.”

John said, “I will be honest with you; I am a homesteader by nature. The idea of spending my life in the middle of a great civilization does not appeal to me. Furthermore, it’s like Gandore said, Rome, China, and the other civilizations had their chance, and it ended up with dead Earth. Why not help out the guys who never had a chance. In 1492 Europe is going to arrive in the Americas, and they will decimate the Native Americans who do not have steel or mounts. The native Americans never had a chance to contribute to science. The Christians, the Muslims, The Chinese contributed a lot to science, but the Native Americans never did, so I think I would like to go back to my beloved Texas and help out the Indians.”

Paul asked, “How does that stop the dark ages from happening?”

“It doesn’t, but we know the renaissance happens before 1492, perhaps if the Indians have a real civilization with manufacturing and science and writing perhaps their knowledge will get things to where they need to be at so our descendants can survive this extinction event. Even if they don’t add knowledge at the time of the renaissance, they would be in a position to send people to learn what the Europeans know at the time of the renaissance, and the more science guys, the better. What do you say, would you come with me to America and help the Native Americans?

Paul said, “I agree the Native Americans got dealt a bad hand. But if you don’t want to deal with Rome or China, why not deal with Sub Sahara Africa? There are untold riches there. The problem is that the land has always done its best to kill the people there. They are not that far from Rome or china. They could learn a lot from both nations if they had a chance. Perhaps we could go back to Sub Sahara Africa somewhere and begin nation-building. Give those folks a shot.”

John responded, “But Paul Africa is a death trap.”

Paul countered, “Not as much as you think. Look at the history books, Africa did not start having civilizations in sub-Sahara Africa until after Islam made its way down there. The reason is that Islam demanded extreme modesty. Before Islam, many Africans were mostly naked. It made sense to them. It’s very hot in Africa, but it left their skin exposed to every mosquito and tsetse fly on the continent. With Extreme modesty, the very deadly bugs could not kill them as easily as they had for thousands of years before. Heck, it's one of the reasons why the Europeans had a much easier time in Africa than a lot of the Africans, they covered up, protecting themselves against bugs.”

Paul continued, “Besides ever since I read George Washington Carvers biography in school, I thought Africans got a real bad deal in the history books. Guy did as much for the U.S. as Henry Ford or Thomas Edison, but nobody talks about him, even during black history month. How many brilliant folks died in Africa because of a bug bite in the last 2 or 3 thousand years?”

John asked, “Is there anywhere else you would like to go?”

Paul answered, “Not unless you want somewhere else to go. I think it’s a toss-up between America and Africa.”

Gandore chimed in, “I can send each of you to a different place assuming you go back to the same time period, and I can also send you back with any materials you can lift. Feel free to strip this seed vault bare and bring any supplies you can find back with you.”

John and Paul’s mouths dropped open. Paul spoke first, “If we can bring the stuff in here back then that changes things. The seed vault used too only hold food seeds, but eventually, they realized if a cataclysm ever happened on Earth, they might need a little of everything. They have a lot of plants that have bug repellent or bug killing properties, not to mention more industrial things like seeds for rubber trees. That’s not even considering how much better these seeds will be compared to what was grown even a hundred years ago, much less before the dark ages.”

John said, “Not just that, but the steel and plastic, and tools that this vault holds are lightyears of anything we would find in the wilderness of America or Africa. How about we split what we have and get going. It will be fun to see what kind of homestead I can make in ancient America.”

Paul said, “Screw your homestead, imagine the lives that can be saved just by having insect repellent plants, clothing, and clean water.”

John asked, “How are you going to make clean water?”

Paul said, “They should have many types of teas and coffees ready to be grown here. Grow it, and give it to people to drink, because you must boil it, it will kill the germs, making the water safe to drink. In a nation with tea and coffee, dysentery could be a bad memory, as long as they drink hot tea and coffee exclusively.”

Gandore interrupted before John could respond, “That’s all well and good, but what year do you think you should go back to?”

Paul said, “Why not 3,000 years ago, it will give us more time to change the world.”

John said, “No, the reality is that people’s beliefs affect science greatly. China had printing presses during the time of Christ, but it never took off in China because the Chinese believe in hiding discoveries so nobody can profit off them but the guy who found them. Christians, on the other hand, wanted to convince people of their beliefs, so they published things like the Bible, their tracts, and their thoughts on various issues. People who grew up in countries with Christian traditions published their ideas because of their Christian heritage. Christianity, in all its forms, is very public about its beliefs, thoughts, and motives, which leads to people who make discoveries being open about their findings and discoveries, which lets people learn from them and improve on the ideas.”

John continued, “Think about it. China invents the printing press, the compass, gun powder, and all sorts of really neat inventions. Eighteen hundred years later, the British, who only had the printing press for 1/6 the time the Chinese did, easily makes all of China submit to them, even though the British are a tiny fraction of the size of china. Christianity brings about open debate, which is necessary for science to flourish, so we have to go back to a time after the death of Christ.”

Paul thought about it for a second and said: “What about 50 AD?”

Gandore said, “If you want, I can show you the various areas and weather patterns so you can pick the best year to go back.”

They smiled and said, “Thank you, that will be wonderful.”

With that, they watched the weather patterns, and both agreed that 70 AD would be the best year for them to go back. John would go to Iron Mountain near the Colorado River in Texas because it has a good concentration of iron ore.  Paul, on the other hand, would go to where the modern nation of Mozambique is located. Several miles away from the Zambezi river. In the area, there is a good concentration of many different ores, its also relatively near several villages.

Texas and Mozambique have different growing seasons, but for Gandore that wasn’t any trouble, he would drop John off in Texas in March, and Paul in Mozambique in November.

Before they left, Gandore said that as long as something was not connected to the floor wall or ceiling, it would be no trouble to send it back in time with them. They began to gather everything that was not nailed down. Before long, they had piles and piles of plastic totes, wooden crates, steel containers, all filled with various seeds. They gathered every tool they could find, which the seed vault had a large store of. They tore the shelves that once held the seeds. They gathered all the stored food which the seed vault was stocked with. They would not have to worry about going hungry for a long time. The last thing they found was two guitars.

They moved everything in two different rooms. One room was what was going back with John the other with Paul, the final thing they did was move a mattress in each room so they could have one more good night’s sleep. In the morning, they said goodbye and entered a new, no an old world.

Chapter 1 March AD 70 Texas

John asked Gandore to send him back to his home state of Texas, 1987, years earlier. He appeared in an instant with all the equipment and supplies he had gathered from the seed vault.

It looked so familiar. It was home, and yet without his wife, kids, family, and friends, it wasn’t home. He grew up in a Texas that was covered in cattle farms, oil rigs, cotton fields, barbed wire fences, roads, cities, and now he is in a Texas filled with buffalo, baron wilderness, and sporadic Indian villages. At 28 years old John was getting the newest start anyone had ever had, but John knew the ground, he knew he could grow crops in this ground that was the best crops the ground had ever seen. And with the tools and supplies he had, it would be easy to make a great homestead.

But before John got started on anything, he had to protect himself. John had always been a hunter. He shot his first deer when he was seven and when he was old enough began bowhunting. As a teen in the boy scouts, he decided to do a project where he made a longbow and hunted with it, compared to a compound bow it was pathetic, but he did bag a doe with it.

John spent a day turning an ash tree into a bow. He had found a string he could use for his bow in the seed vault. Considering Texas was back to its untamed state, a lone man with a longbow wouldn’t cut it. Some folks might be surprised, but even though John was the outdoorsy homesteader type, he loved YouTube. Some really awesome projects can be found there, and years ago, he came across the slingshot channel, where a German designed a magazine for longbows turning it into a semiautomatic bow. The German made it so simple that it could have been built in the middle ages. The German called it his instant Legolas bow.

When John saw this on YouTube, he made his own semiautomatic bow. The game warden didn’t know what to think when he caught John with it. Since John had made one in the modern world, it was simple for John to make it in this wilderness, especially with all the tools he had. It only took two days for John to make a seven-shot bow. Honestly, the most complicated part was that it required a metal spring, but with all the supplies he brought from the seed vault, this was not a problem. In 70 AD, John introduced Semiautomatic weapons to the world.

John didn’t do this for deer hunting, but because he suspected that it would be fairly effective against wolves or charging bears. This Semiautomatic bow, or as John called it, the fast-firing bow, looked very much like a crossbow at a distance. John strapped the but end of it to the top of his shirt, it was a bit unwieldy to walk around with the fast fire bow strapped to his chest, but he would rather deal with a slightly awkward walk, than becoming some animals lunch.

John decided that cold nights would not bother him for a while since he still had his Parka, and ski-bib from his time in Norway’s seed vault. It was time to start plowing fields and planting seeds. The problem was he had to make a plow first because he was not going to hoe entire fields.

John started by cutting a large tree down with an ax he found in a large red box on a wall in the seed vault. John thinks it was a fire ax. Then he cut a disk off the end of the log and shaped it roughly into a wheel. He then connected two poles to the side of the wheel, making what looked like a wheel barrel without the tub on top. Then to the ends of the poles, he added two more poles going down to the ground where he attached a steal plow head made by beating the lid of a steel barrel into the plow head. It was a wheel barrel with a plow going down instead of a tub on top. John decided to call this a wheeled plow. Then he found himself a nice field and began walking and keeping the plow head pressed firmly into the ground.

With so much work to do, he was too busy to think about his grief. His way of coping with loss is to work so much he doesn’t have to think about it. His goal during the day is to work his body so hard that he collapses at night, so he doesn’t have to think about the loss, and is too tired to dream.

Over the coming weeks, he first planted his hybrid seeds. Then he planted a little of everything else, from grains to vegetables, to spices, to fruit trees. He made a point to plant coffee all over, increasing the chances it would grow and flourish. He knew it would be a couple of years at the earliest before the coffee produced anything, but what little coffee he had brought with him from the seed vault was gone.

John believed in hedging his bets, so he also planted tea trees so he could get some caffeine in him in a couple of years.

After a few weeks of plowing and planting, John needed a hot bath. John felt he needed a hot bath more than he needed a roof over his head. To a certain degree, he liked sleeping under the stars, although the bugs were starting to irritate him greatly.

He decided to kill two birds with one stone. His fields needed irrigation, and he needed a consistent water supply for his hot bath. He dammed up a small creek near his field. On one side of his dam, he cut a ditch to his fields. On the other side, he cut a ditch to where he would build his bathhouse. First, he built a strange fireplace. The fireplace was twenty feet long, where an ordinary fireplace in a house was only about two feet long. This was so he could build his bathtub on top of the fireplace. At the back end of it, he built the chimney. This would let him start a fire and let it heat all along the brick, warming up the tub. The tub had a way to let the water in and drain the water.

The dam has three spillways, one to the fields, one to his bath, and one to the creek for when the water is not needed for the other two purposes. As soon as the water was high enough, he opened the spillway to his bath and started a fire, before long it was good and Hot! In no time flat, he had his first hot bath in months! He should have done this sooner.

As soon as the crucial matters of building a bath was over, he began building his home. He has made log cabins before, and since they are relatively simple to make, he chose to make one for his new home. Once that was done, he made an outhouse and a shed for his equipment. Then he made a granary for each of the grains he had growing in the fields. He also made a root cellar for the fruits and vegetables, hoping it would help preserve them.

March had rolled into April, and April into May. At this point, the bugs were making their presence known! Its one thing to be irritated by bugs when your working in your field, but it is another thing to try to sleep at night and choking on a bug. It’s too hot to shut the windows at night, so John needed screens for his house. But to make screens, John needed to make string.

Fortunately, John was intimately familiar with how to make string. When John was eleven, he had gotten a hole in a shirt, and his mom sowed it up. He wanted a new shirt, not a patched shirt, so right in front of his mom, he ripped open the patch and made the hole worse, totally ruining the shirt. After his mom got done tanning his hide, she was still upset with him, so he was grounded until he made a new shirt from scratch.

He got to go into the woods, find flax, break it down, and spin flax into string, then weave that string into a shirt. IT TOOK AN ENTIRE MONTH! There was no tv, video games, books, or anything else until he made a new shirt from scratch! John never showed either of his parents a hint of a bad attitude after that.

John began looking for flax and found a good amount and began breaking it down. Next, he had to build a spinning wheel to turn the flax into string. He would power the spinning wheel with peddles just like the one his mom made him use, this gave him the excuse to go ahead and make a chair for himself, so he could sit down and peddle the spinning wheel. He only invented the spinning wheel a thousand years early, in America instead of the middle east.

Finally, once he had enough string, he made a nice window frame, put tons of nails around it, and made his first screen. It worked perfectly. He got the cool night breeze without the insects! Only eighteen hundred years early.

At this point, John started doing long term planning. Many of his fruits and vegetables are going to rot because the only way he knows how to preserve them is through canning. Sure the root cellar might help some, but canning is a long term solution. Canning isn’t that hard, just put whatever you want to preserve in a glass jar, put a lid on it and pressure cook it until no microbes could survive. But making glass is hard.

He will need to get sand up to an ungodly high temperature. He doesn’t know what temperature because he never made glass. He has turned iron ore into iron before as a science project. But he did the science project with a ready-made kiln that used electricity for its power. The only fuel available to him at this point is wood, and he knows he can make wood pellets into coal by hanging them over a fire, and turning them into pure carbon, but that will take time.

Furthermore, he will need to make a furnace that can withstand the heat of the fire, which means he will have to make a furnace out of the various clays and rocks in the area and hope they can handle the heat.

But to get the furnace hot enough, he must make bellows. To make bellows, he will need around twelve deer hides, but John is unwilling to slaughter deer just for their hides, which will lead carnivores to his area, and he doesn’t think he could deal with a bunch of them. At this point, he has been here for three months and has killed two deer. He stripped and tanned their hide, smoked their meat, and used their organs to chum some of the water in the area. Until all the smoked meat is eaten or rotten, there is no point in going hunting again. At this rate, it will take another year to have enough tanned hide to make the type of bellows he thinks he needs.

As for the buffalo in the area, he is unwilling to kill a thousand-pound animal that he would never be able to move. Killing and transporting a sixty-pound deer is easy, but killing a thousand-pound buffalo with his longbow is iffy, and there is no way he would be able to move it.

Over the next year, he plans to build several furnaces and figure out which one is the best once he has the bellows. Make lots and lots of coal, go through the iron mountain and bring back lots of iron ore, farm, and add a screened off deck to his log house.

Chapter 2 November AD 70 Mozambique Africa

Paul appeared on a hill in Africa with all the supplies he collected from the seed vault. His priority was making himself a shelter. He had spent a year in Mozambique when he first got his job as a biochemist designing pesticide for this region six years ago when he was 24. The rainy season was no joke.

He had chosen to be placed on top of a hill because he did not want to get drowned by a nearby runoff. He took out a fire ax he found at the vault and began cutting down the trees he would make for his shelter and dragging them to the top of the hill.

Paul had practiced martial arts since he was small, and he had black belts in three different styles. Each black belt test was more than six hours long. He thought he was in shape until the second hour of cutting down trees. Swinging the ax was wearing him out, so he decided to rest by dragging the logs up to where he planned to build his shelter, and when was worn out from that, he dug holes for the frame of the shelter.

His shelter consisted of digging holes for several pairs of skinny logs to stick straight out of the ground. These pairs of logs were what he called his frame. He cut down more skinny trees, placed them between the two logs, and then stacking the logs on one another kind of like a log house. Once he had all the logs high enough that it was over his head, he cut out a door, between two pairs of logs, and used a couple of steel barrels as barricades because he could not bother with a door at this point.

Then he built his roof with sticks, then took the lids off a lot of the plastic containers and used them for his shingles. Paul had no illusions about himself, he knew he did not have the knowledge that he needed to make a waterproof roof out of wood or thatch, so why not use the supplies he brought with him from the seed vault?

Once he looked at the strange-looking shelter, he had to admit he could never call such a weird building a house, but he had to admit it would fit right in a fallout game. That said, it was plenty sturdy enough to survive the rainy season, and just as importantly, it could protect him from lions and other carnivores. He just had to avoid upsetting elephants, and his shelter should be okay.

Now that he was protected from carnivores in the ugliest shelter in the world, he had to protect himself against all the nasty bugs in Africa. Paul made a makeshift hoe with some of the scraps from the seed vault and a long sturdy stick, hoed himself out a respectful size plot around his shelter, and began planting his herb garden.

He found out years ago that sometimes the pesticide business was as much about repelling insects as killing insects, so he planted himself a herb garden of basil, lemongrass, lemon thyme, mint, rosemary, and sage.

Then he took his hoe to the outside of his new herb garden and hoed out several plots for insect repelling flower garden. He planted Lavender, Alliums, Chrysanthemums, Marigolds, Nasturtiums, Petunias, Geraniums, and floss flowers.

Just in case those didn't work, he also planted Pitcher plants all around his shelter. Paul did not want to die from an insect bite, which is a real problem in Africa.

Once he was done with his bug repellent garden, which would take several weeks before it began protecting him, he started preparing the fields. He took out his makeshift hoe and began swinging.

He had been in the agriculture industry for a few years now, albeit as a pesticide guy, and he knew that it took about half an acre of land to feed one person a year assuming that half-acre produced a good amount of food. He had no idea what would grow well in this area. Unlike John, who had grown food in Texas all his life, Paul left the job of growing food to the experts, and now he had to become the expert. Paul was grateful that many of the totes, barrels, and wooden crates holding seeds said where they came from, so it did give Paul a big clue on what he should start growing.

To hedge his bet, Paul figured it would be best to grow on about five acres of land. An acre of land is 43,560 square feet. So he needed to hoe about 200,000 square feet of ground, or about four football fields worth of land, which he got to hoe by hand. One thing is for sure; Paul was going to get strong.

Paul hoed until he could not swing the hoe anymore, and then planted the various seeds. He made sure to plant in more insect-repelling herbs and flowers alongside the fruits, vegetables, and grains he was planting. More so to protect his tender flesh than to protect the plants, although he was very aware that it was good for his plants to have bugs repelled.

As December came, the rains came. Although he wanted to plant five acres of land, he only had time for four. Thankfully even though it rains a lot during the rainy season, it's not like it rains nonstop for months. When he had a chance, between the rain, he planted tea trees and rubber trees. Paul knew it would take a couple of years before he could harvest anything, but both sets of trees were critical. The tea to force people to boil water before they drink, and the rubber as a necessary industrial material.

Paul couldn't lay about just because of the constant rain, so he built himself a smithy alongside his shelter. He felt uncomfortable walking around Africa with a makeshift hoe, and a fire ax for protection. The hoe is rather weak, and the fire ax is unwieldy. The smithy also gave him a ready-made place to boil water as his bottled water supply from the seed vault was starting to get low, and he could also use the hot water to be used in a shower he had made.

Now he just had to make plenty of coal. He spent three days chopping down a tree, making it into smaller and smaller chunks, dragging it up the hill, cooking it in pots. As far as he could tell, he was cooking the water out of the wood, although he thought there was more to it than that.

He also knew enough from watching a couple of coal fire episodes of forged in fire that there has to be a way to force air into the furnace, or you will never get the coals hot enough, so he turned his parka into a bellows.

Paul had watched several episodes of forged in fire and was going to try to copy them in turning scrap metal into weapons. If there is one thing, Paul has plenty of it is scrap metal and metal kitchenware.

Paul took a small pot, and he crammed it full of screws, nails, and other small pieces of metal that he had collected all over the seed vault. When it was as full as he could get it, he took a hammer and pounded the metal together tight and added more until the pan was full with little to no air pockets.

Then Paul got a fire going in the furnace with the charcoal, and as the fire started getting hot, he started forcing air in the furnace with his bellows. When he figured it was hot enough, and honestly, he had no idea, he put the pan filled with scrap metal in the furnace. He kept watch until it turned from red to white, then he took it out with a pair of tongs and began beating on it with one of the many hammers he took from the seed vault.

From watching the show, he knew that air pockets were bad, so he planned to flatten it out and fold the metal over several times.

Eventually, he got a piece of metal he thought wouldn't have any air pockets in it, and he split it in half and began making two ax heads. In and out of the furnace, they went until he had the shape he wanted and had the hole in the ax head to put a handle through. He then covered everything but the edge in clay… or perhaps mud, well whatever it was, its what he had to work with, Then he heated the edge in the furnace one last time until it was white-hot and then quenched it in water for only a split second.

He lucked out there were not any cracks. He then took out a file and found that the blade on the ax head was harder than the file. SUCCESS!!!

The next thing he did was make a couple of ax handles and put some wedges into the water for a few hours. He put the ax heads on the handles with the wedges and waited for the wedges to swell up overnight. The next day he found out that his ax heads were solidly in place on his ax handles, and with a couple strikes to nearby trees was pleased to find out that his ax heads did not crumble.

Paul had his first set of weapons, two short axes, that would easily go through skull and bone if he had to defend himself. In all honesty, Paul was more worried about lions and hippos than people, and the axes might give him the power he needed to take one down if necessary.

The next thing he made was spearheads from the metal frames of the shelving units that held all the seed containers back at the seed vault. The frames were straightforward to work with as they all fit together. Paul imagined that these frames were designed that way, so when they were boxed up and shipped out, they took up less room in the box, but for his purpose that meant they were easier to forge together, and within a couple of weeks he had a couple of dozen spearheads.

It was time to go out between the rain, dig a couple of pits and see if he could trap any meat, as Paul had no idea how to shoot a bow. Oh, sure he had seen them in movies, but Paul had never been a hunter. As far as Paul was concerned, why hunt when you had grocery stores? Turns out when your planet gets wiped out by an alien probe, and you get sent back in time so that you can change history to stop that probe from killing everyone on the planet, it is best if you knew how to bow hunt. Paul laughed at that thought, bitterly.

Chapter 3 April AD 71 Africa

Paul spent the last several months of the rainy season practicing martial arts with his new weapons. The twin axes were not too different in function from Kamas, so he adjusted twin Kama fighting technique for the axes, and worked on some new katas for them. As for the spears, he learned basic spearman ship when he was in China.

The problem with all his practice was that he did not have an opponent to spar. It is easy to win a fight against air, but once a target can hit back, it's a different world.

As the crops grew and had ripe fruits, vegetables, and grains, he harvested. It is very clear to Paul that four acres of crops were way too much, and that he needed to make granaries during the dry season. Fortunately, there was plenty of room in the seed containers to put his harvest, at least as much as he needed to eat. The problem is that most still went to waste.

The good news about all this was that everything he planted grew well in the soil. The two thousand years people had spent breeding crops was not in vain. The crops not only survived but thrived in this part of the world, so even if he were to die, in a few generations of crops, there should be a large surplus of food.

At this point, Paul knows that he is a terrible hunter. It has been months since he has eaten meat, and that was in the last can of tuna he took from the seed vault. None of the pit traps worked. Maybe that was because they kept filling up with water due to the rainy season, and maybe that's because he's a terrible trapper. Paul hopes it's the former and not the later.

The thing is that whatever Paul does, he knows that pretty soon he is going to need more metal. He chose this spot in Africa because it is close to both iron and copper deposits. For Paul, this is the beginning of the dry season, he has plenty of food, although he misses meat at the moment, and he has more than enough seed for a thousand people. Why not go search for some iron deposits nearby?

Paul tucks his two axes into his belt loops, puts his shovel and one of his spears on his back, and carries his other spear. Then he goes to his herb and flower garden and grabs several of his best insect repellents and makes a corsage out of them, to keep the bugs away. Then he begins a survey of the local area.

Paul honestly has no idea where he is and does not want to get lost. If he got lost, there is a good chance he would never be able to find his way back. The problem is that an African forest surrounds the hill where he planted everything. Its not a rain forest, just Africa's version of what a forest is.  So as Paul travels, he has to be careful to recognize what direction he is heading in.

Furthermore, this is Africa. Lions, snakes, elephants, hippos, and probably things he never heard of can kill him, so he has to be very aware of his surroundings. He is at the bottom of the food chain here, and he is traveling far from his shelter.

As he travels through the woods, hoping that he is not getting lost, he hears the chatter of what he thinks is monkeys, and the whistles of what he thinks are birds. He is clearly in what would be called an old-growth forest, and although it is not noon yet, it's rather dark in this forest.

As Paul moves through the woods, he occasionally uses his spear as a spade and digs up dirt. Most of the time, it is just that dirt, but as he travels, he comes across a stream that will likely be bone dry in a few days and digs into its temporary banks when he discovers pyrite.

Paul lifts up his hands and shouts, "YES!"

He digs a bit more with his spear, and it looks like there is plenty of pyrite in this area. Ironically throughout history, people have been happy to find pyrite because they thought it was gold, but Paul was happy to find pyrite because Paul is a chemist.

Pyrite is made up of one molecule of iron, and two molecules of sulfur. With enough pyrite, you can have a good iron industry, but to a degree, the sulfur was more important in the modern world that Paul came from than the iron that it is attached too. Sulfur was often turned into sulfuric acid, which built the 20 and 21st-century chemical industry. Granted right now, Paul is generations from having that type of use for sulfur. But sulfur is required to make rubber last a long time, in a process called vulcanization. As soon as his rubber trees mature, he will be able to start the rubber industry 1800 years early!

"ROAR"!

As soon as Paul heard the noise, he jumped to the side, turned his head to the roar, and pointed his spear at the creature with a two-handed grip. It was a lion.

Paul thought, "Crap, this is bad; lions rarely hunt alone." And Paul began looking around, always keeping his spear pointed at the lion roaring at him.

There it was, a bush moved, without hesitation, Paul held onto his spear with his right hand, but his left hand let go of the spear, reached for his ax, and he lifted to throw, as he did so a lion leaped from the bush that moved, as the lion was leaping through the air to end his life, Paul through the ax, bowing down his body to give the throw more force, and to roll under the lion's leap. The ax struck the lion's forehead and lodged there, but the lion was not dead yet, just stunned!

The other lion hesitated, but Paul didn't. When Paul rolled under the leaping lion, he did a roll called a shoulder roll, where at the end of the roll, you end up back on your feet. When Paul was back on his feet without hesitation, Paul took his spear and rammed it through the wounded lion's ribs, and took out his other ax, waiting for the roaring lion to make its move.

The lion was not intimidated. This lion decided to begin pacing around Paul, all three hundred pounds of it.

If the lion was going to give Paul time, he would take it. He reached for the spear still strapped to his back, and that is when the lion leaped, but Paul had trained for years in the martial arts world. In that world, when you are attacked, you do not step back, but you step forward and to the side. This lion had never been a fight like this. Either prey ran away, or prey fought it head-on. It was confused when, with one step, Paul was next to the lion, but the confusion did not last long, as Paul brought his ax down on the lion's spinal cord.

Paul was not done fighting, though. The ax got stuck in the lion, so Paul leaped to the side, did a shoulder roll, and took two seconds to get his second spear off the strap on his back into a fighting position. Paul was surprised to see there were no more lions, but relieved because if there were any more, he would have likely died.

But since Paul survived, he had to talk trash "That's right, I am Paul, a black belt in three different styles, a wielder of the spear and the ax. I didn't slay a lion. I slew two who ambushed me. Who is the badest man in Africa? Paul is!"

Paul finally had meat! He didn't get it as a hunter but as a martial artist, which stoked his pride. With that, he stripped the hides of the lions, took the meat, and threw their guts into the stream. He did not want other predators around his pyrite mine!

Chapter 4 April AD 71 African Villagers

Abilio was on the trail of two young male lions that killed a child from his village. The six-year-old wasn’t much of a loss, just means one less child begging for food, but if the lions were bad enough hunters to attack a child, then it wouldn’t be long before they attacked the men in the village.

Every couple of years, this happened. Some adolescent male lions got forced out of their pride by the alpha male, but they are not skilled hunters, so they go after humans instead. Usually, they are fortunate enough that its only one male, but this year it's two.

The worthless chief and his men stayed back to “protect” the village. The chief knows that at least one man will die fighting these lions, and we will likely have several permanently injured. Why should the chief risk his life or the lives of his most loyal followers? Abilio is considering leaving and starting a village of his own, but the worthless chief makes sure to guard the grain, and nobody is a good enough hunter to start a village without seed grain.

Worse yet, the chief has the witch doctor backing him up, so most of the warriors are too scared to stand up to the chief. Abilio hoped that someday soon, the chief would get sick so he could take his spot. Nobody stays chief for more than a couple of years anyway.

One of the hunters motioned for Abilio and showed him still warm lion dung. They were very close, and the men were at high alert when he heard a yell.

“YES!”

Abilio had no idea what the yell meant, but the next thing he heard was “ROAR”!

Abilio and his men looked through the bush to see the strangest man they had ever seen. He had black feet with no toes, blue legs, a green torso and arms, white hands, white face, and the top of his head was green. He held a spear that had some sort of shiny tip. Perhaps it was the fabled iron he had heard about.

Well, either way, Abilio waved for his men to get ready to ambush the lions. Once the lions killed this strange man, Abilio’s men would be able to surprise the lions during their meals. Maybe they would be able to kill the lions without any of his men dying.

Abilio saw a bush move, and one of the lions getting ready to pounce. The strange man noticed too and pulled a shiny weapon from his waist. Abilio had never seen anything like it, and it appeared that the man was reacting to the other lion. What could a man do against one lion, much less two?

As the lion pounced, the man threw the weapon so hard he practically bowed at the lion that pounced at him, the man did not stop with bowing he rolled under the lion, and WHAT! He stunned the lion! How?! When did the man get back on his feet? Abilio was sure the man fell under the lion when he threw the weapon. And then the man shoved his spear into the lion’s ribs.

Abilio was shocked. This is the greatest warrior he has ever seen. But there is no way this warrior will be able to survive the attack of the next lion. The warrior pulled out another short weapon from his waist, and he and the lion circle each other. The warrior has another spear attached to his back somehow and something else, maybe a super broad spear, but how can you pierce something with a spear that broad?

The strange warrior touched the spear on his back when the lion pounced. Abilio watched as the strange warrior did not cringe from death, but stepped into certain death… wait, what? The warrior stepped toward a pouncing lion, and the lion is now lying dead at his feet. How did that happen? Now the warrior is on the ground and bouncing up again, somehow, and taking his time grabbing his spear.

Honestly, Abilio has no idea how the strange warrior pulled off his amazing feats. Perhaps it's magic?

What!? The strange warrior is yelling stuff. Abilio thought maybe the strange warrior was yelling at him and his men, and they didn’t want any part of it, so he waved them to sneak off. If only he knew that Paul had no idea that his warriors were there. Paul was not a good enough hunter to notice the subtle movements of these men.

Once Abilio and his men had gotten away a bit, they talked. One of his men asked him, “Was that a spirit?”

Abilio said, “I do not know, perhaps. Twice he moved toward the lions, and both times it appeared that he went into the earth, and the earth rejected him. But I think its more likely he is a great warrior. Did you see the weapons he had on him? Only the greatest of warriors could have weapons like that. It looked like they were weapons of the fabled iron.”

One of his men asked, “What should we do?”

Abilio said, “Wait till tomorrow and then see if you can follow his trail back to where he lives. If there is no trail, then he is likely a spirit, and we will need to talk to the witch doctor about it.”

“No not the witch doctor, last time we had questions about spirits several warriors died, as did his apprentice.”

“Well, that’s why we need to follow this great warrior and hope he is not a spirit. We know better than to get the witch doctor unless the need is dire, his magics are strange and always cost lives. If he is a living warrior and not a spirit, hopefully, he is a warrior with a friendly village. If he is a warrior with an enemy village, we will need to make peace with them.”

The next day one of the men followed Paul’s obvious trail, which frightened these hardened warriors greatly. Who but the greatest warrior would leave such an obvious trail to their home? And this warrior lived on a hill that the witch doctor had called off-limits years ago because of all the spirits that were there.

Considering the strange-looking man, who lived in a strange-looking home, which also smelled strange, Abilio and his men did not know what to do. They decided to go back to the village and talk about it for a few days, and if things got worse in their village, they might have no choice but to talk to the great warrior who they hoped wasn’t a spirit.

Chapter 5 May AD 71 Texas Homestead

John had a very productive year. The root cellar he set up kept him fed with fruits till December, and vegetables until February. He was up to his neck in grains, though. No need to go back through the seed vaults containers to get more seed he had plenty and then some.

Over the winter, he made an astounding fast-firing bow. This bow had a draw weight of eighty pounds, but that's not what's astounding. John made it so that you could quickly remove and add magazines to the bow. John had five magazines that could fit into the special quiver on his back, so in about forty seconds, he could launch thirty-five arrows.

Furthermore, drawing a bow like that had given John arms and chest like Hercules. He wished his wife could see him now, but thoughts like that only left him grieving. So, he started focusing on the big projects he had to do, like making glass.

It turns out the hard part of making glass isn't melting sand. Once John got his furnace set up with the bellows and the coal, he found it pretty easy to melt sand. But shaping melted sand into something usable was a difficult task for his amateur hands.

That wouldn't have been such a problem except when he ran out of coal; he had to go chop down a tree, chop it into chunks, and then cook those chunks until they were pure carbon, so it was 2 or 3 weeks between attempts. Which meant learning was SLOW.

John had seen the videos of men taking a hollow metal tube and taking a glob of melted sand and blowing into it, and making amazing glass art. That's wonderful unless you have a coal-fired furnace with the coal touching your sand. Then the coal gets all up in your glass, making it useless.

That isn't a problem with iron. Heck, the carbon from the coal increases the strength of iron!

Eventually, John found a material that had a higher melting temperature than sand. Then shaped it into a bowl, the sand melted and went into the bowl and John had an easy time getting a blob of pure glass, and he blew into it and blew into it, and he found he either blew to much air into the glass or too little, and he was clueless on the correct way to get the glass off his blowpipe.

After a few weeks, he figured it out! Glass blowing requires more tools than you would think. What you do is melt the sand, get a blob of glass, blow it up until it vaguely resembles a jar, then get a tool to take the glass off your blowpipe, and shape the lips of the jar.

Well, now he had glass, but no way to make a seal. So, John made several jars with flat tops and made several pieces of glass that were flat lids. Then he took some of the deer meat he had, packed it tightly into the glass, put the glass lid on it, sealed it with clay, and baked it in an oven for about an hour, and after a few weeks broke off the clay seal, and found that the meat was still good. John had invented canning 1800 years before the last timeline invented it.

Now all he had to do was make some strawberry preserves.

Planting went well in March and April, had to do some crop rotation, and now some of the strawberries are starting to get ripe. John was excited. He has been able to make homemade bread for a while, but without preserves or butter, the bread is just lacking.

John grabbed a bag and went through his strawberry patch and was picking berries when he heard a growl. He looked up, and a 60-pound grey wolf was staring at him. Without hesitation, one hand grabbed the fast fire bow, and the next hand grabbed the string, he pointed the bow at the wolf, pulled back the string, and just that fast the bow was notched, and he let an arrow fly. The wolf got drilled right in the chest, whimpered, and ran.

John looked up and was shocked to see that wolves had snuck up on him. He was surrounded by at least a dozen wolves in his strawberry patched. John knew better than to run. With canines, you stand your ground. They want to chase you. So, John pulled back the string again and let loose another arrow, it was followed by a thud and a whimper, as another wolf scurried off.

John pulled back on the string again, and another wolf went down. Three shots in three seconds, Then four, five, six, and seven. His magazine was empty. He disconnected his magazine from his bow, reached back, grabbed another from his quiver, connected it to his bow, pulled the string for the eighth arrow. In ten seconds, he had fired eight arrows, and eight wolves had been shot in the chest and retreated.

The alpha male was at least a ninety-pound animal, and it did not like how things were going, so it charged straight at John from just twenty feet away. John shot one arrow, it hit the alpha in the chest on its left side, but it kept coming hardly slowing. John shot his tenth arrow right in the beast open mouth and into its brainpan. It stumbled and rolled to a stop.

The unwounded wolves decided to run when they saw their alpha fall, but John was not in a mood to show mercy, he fired arrow eleven, twelve, thirteen, and fourteen. There were two wolves left, and in two and a half seconds, he changed magazines and pierced both.

In twenty seconds, he had shot sixteen wolves with arrows, thanks to his fast-firing bow. Now it was time to follow this pack home and make sure they never bothered anybody ever again.

Some of the wolves did not make it out of his garden patch, others didn't make it much further, but two made it back to their den where there were about twelve puppies. These were small guys, just a few weeks old, just starting to get weaned off their mothers' milk. As John approached the den, the two full-grown wolves that made it back to growled at him, and without remorse, he shot them. This, of course, frightened the puppies who ran back into the den. John didn't care. He went in, grabbed those he could reach, and took them home with him. He had companions, and he was alpha.

He managed to grab three dogs. Two males and a female. As for the rest, it's their bad luck that they didn't let him catch them.

He called the males Patton, and General Lee, as for the female he called her Xena. Their fear of him subsided as soon as he started feeding them smoked deer meat. That said, John had a responsibility to train these dogs. The next was very busy for John as he trained his dogs, and started canning his food, making strawberry preserves, and making a knife. As a faithful son of Texas, there was only one knife for him, a Bowie knife.

Chapter 6 June AD 71 African Villagers

Abilio was not happy. The chief was claiming that they did not have enough grain to give everyone bread every day. They had enough bread for the chief, his family, his enforcer's families, but the rest of the village only got bread every other day.

The chief told the hunters that if they wanted their wives and children to eat every day, they would have to bring back meat every day. And of course, the chief and his people would get to eat from their kill every day, even though the chief would not let them eat bread from the grain that everyone in the village toiled for.

His men were still too scared of the witch doctor to stand up to the chief, but Abilio had to make a change and soon. His men and their families needed to be fed, or he would lose their loyalty. Who would follow a leader that doesn’t see his people fed?

Abilio had his men watching the strange warrior for some time now, and they were sure he was not a member of any of the other villages. They also discovered he was very wealthy. They watched him eat THREE times a day.

He also made music, not with drums, or at least drums like they had. The nearest they could figure it was a wide, flat drum with a long stick sticking out of it, and it made music after he stroked the drum, not drum thing.

He was a very strange man, though. Every day he had blue legs, but most days, his torso had a different color. Then he kept going to the stream near where he killed the two lions and filling up tubs with dirt and bringing them back to his hut. Dirt is dirt. Why would anyone do that?

They saw that he dug out some pits near his home, with spears in them, but they were not well hidden enough to be pit traps, so they wondered what the real purpose of them was? Perhaps they served the same purpose as the dirt he is digging by the stream?

The scary thing was that he would spend time every day attacking the air with his hands, feet, and weapons. Perhaps the witch doctor was right, and there were spirits here, and he was fighting them?

His men talked about it and decided the best time to approach him was when he was playing music, as that’s when he seemed most relaxed and the least fierce. They killed an antelope, field dressed it, and brought it as a gift; he was a fierce warrior after all. But they had to wait until the right time to approach.

They watched him carefully that day as he went got more dirt, then put it near where he makes a fire. Then he ate his noonday meal.

After his midday meal, he went to a log that he was cutting up into chunks. The first time they saw this, they thought he was making a canoe, but no, he just cut the log into tiny chunks. Then he cooked them and put them in a pile. Initially, they thought he might eat the wood chunks; then they saw him make a fire out of it. Why would you cook wood and then make a fire out of it?

Then he started fighting the air. They hoped that if he was fighting spirits, those spirits would not come their way. They couldn’t help but back off while he was doing that.

Finally, after waiting most of the day, he took out his well, not drum, and began to play. They watched until they saw him relax, and they slowly came out of the woods with Abilio carrying the antelope on his shoulders. The warrior stopped playing when he saw them, but he gave them a real big smile! This was good.

Abilio walked up the hill to the warrior and dropped the antelope at his feet. And Abilio said, “Hello, I am Abilio from the Jiwi Mkuki tribe.” Then the great warrior said something in a language Abilio did not know. They tried to communicate for a few minutes before the warrior gave up and inspected his gift.

Then the warrior took out a shiny knife, nothing like the flint knives Abilio and his people used. Perhaps its an iron knife. This warrior is so rich. Then the warrior began to slice through the meat easily and then grabbed the pieces and waved for him and his men to follow him. He took the pieces of meat and put them into a METAL POT.

Up to this point, Abilio hadn’t talked, but he was so surprised he turned to the two men that were with him and said, “This warrior is rich! I have heard of iron weapons, but he has an iron pot.”

One of his hunters said, “Maybe that’s why he is so strong, the iron seeps into his food and increases his strength.”

Then they saw the warrior gather vegetables, fruits, and herbs and put it into the pot with the meat and add water.

His other hunter said, “What’s he doing?”

Abilio said, “I don’t know, but maybe it's like what the witchdoctor does, and he is making medicine with it?”

The first hunter said, “You don’t think he is going to curse us.”

The second hunter said, “No, didn’t you see him fight two lions, why would someone so strong need to curse anyone. Perhaps he is rewarding us for our bravery and giving us something that will increase our strength.”

Once the warrior had the pot full, he put it on his furnace. Then he waved at the men to follow him, at least that’s what they thought his wave meant. He came to the far side of the building and started doing a strange thing. He gathered clay and started building something. Once he finished building some sort of strange bowl, he put the wood he had cooked previously in the center. Then he took the dirt, that he dug up near where he killed the lions and put it on top of the cooked wood. Then took clay and made the bowl bigger and added more cooked wood and dirt. Once it was a few feet tall, he covered the top in clay.

Abilio and his hunters chatted the entire time he was doing this. Was this some sort of ritual to keep spirits at bay? Was this a way to trap their spirit? They had no clue. Then he went back to his furnace. The water was boiling! They had never seen anything like that before! The strange warrior took the pot off the furnace and put it on a strange piece of wood that was long and wide, then got a burning piece of wood out of the furnace with two pieces of iron and brought it back to his clay thing, and used the burning coal to set the center of the clay thing on fire.

The hunters decided that it must be some type of enchantment. Maybe this warrior could be their new witchdoctor?

Afterward, the great warrior signaled for the hunters to follow him back to where the pot was. On both sides of the long wooden thing where smaller wooden things, and the great warrior sat on it, and motioned for the hunters to sit next to him. They were confused. They had never sat on anything but the ground in their lives. But they copied what the great warrior did, and they sat on a piece of wood at a piece of wood. Very strange.

The great warrior then took out pieces of clay and a metal thing and took pieces of meat, fruit, and vegetables out of the pot and put it on the pieces of clay and put it in front of each of the hunters, and then handed them a little wooden thing with three pointy things. The hunters had never seen anything like it.

Then the great warrior began to use the pointy thing to pick up his food and put it in his mouth, and the hunters copied him. It was the most delicious thing they had ever eaten! Then the most amazing thing happened, when their clay piece had no more food on it, the warrior took the clay piece and put more food on it.

Abilio didn’t know what to think. This great warrior was given a gift and immediately took that gift and shared it with them. Not just a little but a lot. There was something different about him.

Every time they finished the food on the clay piece, the warrior put more food on it, until they stopped eating. None of them had ever been that full in their life. They always had to give most of their food to the village since they stepped into adulthood.

Then the warrior waved at them to follow him, and he had a strange smile on his face. The hunters were nervous. Perhaps he just fattened them up for the slaughter? They did not like the smile on his face. As they followed the warrior, they saw him grab a metal instrument and walk to the clay thing he had built earlier. It had collapsed on itself, and the warrior began digging through it. And then he used the metal things to pick it something from the collapsed clay. When they noticed what he picked up, they were shocked.”

They screamed and pointed and said, “Its iron! ITS IRON! HE MADE IRON!”

One of the hunters yelled out, “Abilio, this man knows the secret of iron. We must bring him to our village!”

Abilio said, “How? It's not like we can force him to come. He killed two lions.”

The other hunter said, “We have to get him a wife, once he has a wife, he will be connected to our village, and the wife can teach him our language.”

Abilio said, “But the chief hates us; there is no way he will let us give this warrior a girl.”

“If the chief doesn’t give you a girl, why don’t you give your sister to the warrior.”

“You know my sister has three children. What man would want to take care of three children that are not his? Best to get a young wife, have your fun until death takes you. When you are gone, she can take care of your kids until she dies. Hopefully, by then, the kids are old enough to do something for the village.”

They were so enthralled by their conversation that it took a while for the warrior to get their attention, he motioned for them to follow him and took them back to his furnace, and then put the iron in it. He threw coal in the furnace with the iron and started lifting and pushing this weird thing, and it sounded like it was blowing. The great warrior periodically checked on the iron, and then took it out when it was mostly red, but it had yellow and white in some spots. He always hammered on the white spot. When it stopped being white, he put it back in the furnace.

One of the hunters said “Abilio what do you think he is doing”

Abilio said, “Be quiet! Let’s watch and see what he is doing”.

When the warrior had first put the piece of iron in the furnace, it was already dark, and it was getting later and later, but as the night went on, they saw the piece of iron take shape. It was the biggest knife the hunters had ever seen, and the end had a wicked curve.

Then they saw the warrior put clay on the back of the knife, only exposing its blade, he then heated it up one last time in the furnace and dipped it in water. The warrior checked the blade and was pleased.

He then took out some wood, shaped it for the handle, and put it on the back of the knife. Then he took leather wraps and wrapped it up.

But he wasn’t done; he then took a stone out and began sharpening the knife. Abilio was fully entranced by the process when his fellow hunters snoring broke him out of the enchantment. It was getting really late, but he continued to watch by the light of a fire.

As the sun started to rise, the warrior took the knife out, and when Abilio thought he could be surprised no more, the warrior rolled up the purple skin on his arm, and underneath his purple skin he had white skin with hair on it, this skin was the same color as his hand or face, only more pale. How did this man have two skins?

The warrior then cut his hair off with the knife. Once he did that, he smiled and handled the knife to Abilio. Abilio was shocked by such a gift. This gift made him a rich man. But it also made his need to move against the chief more urgent as he would want to take this knife.

With that, Abilio said, “Thank you” and bowed down on the ground with gratitude to the warrior. Afterward, he woke up his two companion hunters and went back to his village. He had to find a wife for the warrior. That warrior could make everyone in his village rich, even if the chief got most of the benefits.

Chapter 7 June AD 71 Africa Paul’s Shelter

Paul had taken up the habit of picking the “Devil went down to Georgia” on his guitar because it was true, he is now the best there ever was… at least for guitar. Paul did not want to get too focused on the details, because it was pretty funny that his playing is now the best in history.

He figured he would play a little and have some bread and vegetables. As he was playing his guitar trying not to think about the old joke, vegetarian is Indian for bad hunter, three young men walk into his field carrying, what looked like a field dressed antelope.

Paul was so glad they brought meat that it took him a little while to consider the young men. When he did, he was somewhat heartbroken that they were walking around in loincloths. It could be worse, but not much worse. These guys are wide open to get bit by the tsetse fly and then its game over. They were wide open to get bit by mosquitos that had all sorts of random diseases to ruin these young men’s lives.

As they came closer, Paul started noticing that these young men would not be considered young men in his time. They looked fourteen, maybe fifteen years old. Perhaps malnutrition made them look younger then they were. Or perhaps they are just adolescents that stumbled on his shelter while they were hunting in the woods. Later they would tell their parents, who would want to meet their new neighbor. Better treat the neighbor’s kids very well.

The young men… no adolescents came up to him, and Paul said, “Hello, how are you doing today? I am Paul.”

They answered back in gibberish and then dropped the carcass at his feet. Clearly, it was meant for Paul, so Paul pulled out his knife and began cutting chunks of meat off of it. When he had plenty, he went back to his forge because it worked well as an oven. It also meant he didn’t have to make an oven. Win, Win.

When Paul got there, he pulled out a pot that he had taken from the seed bank and put the meat in it. When he looked back, the adolescents looked like they had never seen a pot before and thought the pot was the most impressive thing they had ever seen before. They clearly began to chat about the metal pot. Paul thought that if he was given half a chance, they would see wonders in their lifetime that they never imagined.

Then Paul took out a couple of onions, tomatoes, carrots, potatoes, corn, some spices, and began making a stew. When Paul looked back, he saw that they looked uncomfortable, but Paul was not worried, he knew what it was like to be a picky eater. The trick is to recognize that all food is good food when prepared correctly, and a stew is just the thing.

Paul tossed some coals in the furnace and got it going. The stew was going to take a while, so why not give these boys a show? Paul thought to himself, “They got a kick out of seeing an iron pot, I bet they will get a bigger kick out of seeing iron made.”

Paul had a lot of pyrite, coal, and clay built up. Why not make a small bloomery real quick and make some iron? He waved for them to follow him to the far side of the building where he had been storing his materials, and he started by taking his clay and building the base and walls of the furnace, of course, the bottom had to have a large hole for the air to flow through. Then he made something akin to a pot with the clay with several layers of wood coals and pyrite. By the standards of the time, he came from, it wasn’t going to produce a lot of iron, but it would produce enough for a knife or two, which is all he needed at the moment.

Paul listened to them chatter in gibberish and hoped he wasn’t boring them. They should be suitably impressed by the next part. He went back to his furnace, where his stew was boiling over! Paul hoped he didn’t overcook it. Nobody wanted to eat flavorless, or burnt stew. He took it off and put it on the table he had prepared for guests. And then went back to the furnace, grabbed tongs, and used them to grab a lump of burning coal out of the oven, and then brought it over to the bloomery and put it next to the other coals… Success! They are on fire. After supper, its work should be done, and he should have iron and sulfur separated and melted all over the ground under the furnace.

Time for supper. Paul was going to eat MEAT! He called out to them, “Hey y’all suppers ready” and waved for them to follow him. Paul hadn’t said much yet since he didn’t want to appear crazy, but it shouldn’t look too crazy for someone to speak in their native language to get your attention to call you to supper, right?

They followed him to the table, and Paul grabbed some plates made from clay and some wooden forks made by Paul and sat at the bench in front of the table. They looked confused and just stood there. It was clear they had no idea what to do. Paul breathed out to calm himself. This is not their fault; they have probably never seen furniture before of any kind. It’s kind of like that time when some 18th-century ambassador went to Thailand… no, it was Siam then, and when he got there, he went to the English consul, and the first thing the English consul told him was that there were two chairs in the country, the one he was sitting in and the throne the king of Siam sat in. Lots of places in the world didn’t do furniture.

Paul patted the bench he was sitting on and motioned for them to sit. Then they all sat on the bench on his side of the table. Paul thought to himself, “really, there is a bench on the other side, you don’t all have to sit by me… oh well, can’t move now; they will be insulted”.

Paul grabbed the plates and took the ladle, and started putting the stew on the plates and handing them out. Then when they looked confused, he handed them forks and showed them how it worked. He stabbed a carrot and plopped it in his mouth. They followed suit, and Paul took joy at the look of delight on their faces. Paul watched carefully, and as their plates got empty, he took the ladle and added more food, until they could not eat anymore.

Paul was happy that he made these boys happy with a good meal. He wished he had time to plant sugar, then he could have made some cakes, or perhaps even some donuts, but that will come in time. By now, the bloomery should be done with its work, and Paul bet they would get a kick out of seeing the iron come out of it.

Paul grabbed his pair of tongs and waved at them to follow him with a big stupid grin on his face, and they seemed hesitant to follow him. Paul figured that it was dark, so perhaps they were worried about what their parents think, but they ought to stay here until morning because it isn’t safe to walk around in the dark anyway.

They reluctantly followed Paul to the bloomery that had burned all its fuel up, and Paul started digging through the clay with his tongue because it was still pretty hot. And there it was right at the bottom, iron. It wasn’t red hot or anything like that, but it was hot enough to burn you If you touched it. He picked it up with his tongs, and those kids behind him started yelling, screaming, and pointing. They were excited. They kept yelling out the same word over and over again. Paul figured out chuma meant iron. Good to know.

Then Paul started walking back to his forge, carrying the hot iron with his tongs, and motioned with his head for those excited kids to follow him. They were so excited and yelling at each other they forgot all about him, so he yelled, “Hey Guys! Follow me.” They didn’t hear him. So, he yelled a couple of more times before they noticed, and then he motioned with his head for them to follow him. Once he saw they were following him, he went back to the forge. He wanted them to see this.

He put the iron in the furnace and started putting coals in there. He needed to get the iron white-hot. He started pumping the bellows, forcing air into the furnace, after a few minutes he checked on his iron, it wasn’t hot enough, so he added more coals, and pumped more air in there. After a while, he finally got enough of the iron white-hot to be able to start forging with it.

The first thing Paul needed to do was fold it several times, and that took him a few hours, but in that few hours, he turned a mishappened piece of iron into a rectangle with a couple of dozen layers.

Once he was sure all the metal was welded together, he began beating it into a bowie knife with a full tang. It was probably midnight when the metal was welded together well enough to begin the forging process. He had the full attention of the kids, and it felt good to be noticed. It has been months since he had seen a human, and even if it was just kids, he was going to set up good relations with them.

Once it was shaped and had its full tang, it was time to quench it. Unlike the modern world, he didn’t have oil to quench it in; he only had water. Water could destroy a knife during the quench. To prevent that, he covered the back end of the blade in clay and only exposed the edge, Then he got it white-hot and quenched it for a second and a half. IT WORKED! No cracks.

With the most dangerous part of the process done, he needed to give the knife a hilt. He sawed a piece of wood into two pieces and then took a piece of leather he had made from one of the lion skins and wrapped the handle with the leather strap… Paul felt terrible about this since he used his pee to make leather out of the lion hides. It’s one of the things he learned in biochemistry, the human body produces ammonia and sends it out in your pee, and pee is needed to make leather. Pee is just a significant part of ancient tanning. That said, Paul made sure to wash the leather really well after it got done tanning. But he did feel bad about it.

Paul noticed that two of the kids were passing out, but the third one was still wide awake watching everything he did. Perhaps if this boy was not apprenticed to anybody, his parents might let him be Paul’s apprentice. Paul started sharpening the bowie knife, and well, it took the rest of the night with the whetstone, but Paul got the knife razor-sharp, just after the sun started coming up.

How to prove its razor-sharp? Paul didn’t have any paper, so he decided to shave off some hair on his arm, but to do that, Paul had to roll up his sleeves. Paul was convinced that even though it was hot, the bugs were far more dangerous than the heat, so he always wore a hat, long sleeve shirts, and blue jeans.

When Paul rolled up his sleeves, he missed the shocked look on Abilio’s face. Paul tested the razor edge of the knife by shaving the hairs on his arm. When he was done, he looked right at the boy and handed him the knife. Paul figured since he tripped out when he saw the iron, he would really appreciate his own iron knife.

The young man stood staring in disbelief at the knife, then he said something in his language that Paul assumed meant, thank you, and he bowed down on the floor, in apparent thanks.

With that, the sun was up, and he woke his friends and the left. Paul figured that he would be getting more visitors anywhere from a few hours to a few days, so he decided to take a nap. But it was the best sleep he had in a while. He was truly delighted to make those boys happy.

Chapter 8 June AD 71 African Village

Abilio was elated! He had an iron knife. His fellow hunters were envious and kept asking to hold his treasure, but he didn’t trust them. As they made their way back to the village, Abilio was amazed at how well his knife cut through the brush, and it was so tough. His flint knives were so fragile they often had to be replaced after field dressing a kill, this knife could hack into a tree and not have a single crack! And it was huge! And that great warrior knew how to make them.

Abilio didn’t think the chief would be happy to see Abilio walking around with an iron knife, but the prospect of getting more of them would probably restrain the chief.

After most of a day walking, they made it to their village and walked right in. Some of the children ran up to them with an expecting look in their eyes, but when they saw that Abilio didn’t have a kill, they scurried off. They had all learned that hunters occasionally took out their frustration of not having a kill on the children.

Abilio walked straight to the grain storage. He knew that’s where the chief and his men liked to hang out. They claimed they were guarding the food, but nobody believed them. They were just being lazy and getting fat while the rest of the village suffered because nobody could stand up to the chief yet.

When Abilio saw the chief, the chief was talking with one of his men, but Abilio had important news, so he yelled out, “Chief, I have met with the great warrior I told you about, and I think we can make him a part of our village.”

The chief ignored him for a minute and continued his conversation with his man. So Abilio came straight to the chief and said, “Chief, I found the great warrior, and I think he would be willing to be part of our village.”

The chief looked annoyed and said “Where is your kill O great hunter? If you don’t have meat to bring to the village why even come back here?”

Abilio was frustrated “Chief listen to me the Great Warrior that killed the two lions is living on a hill a few miles from here and he is living alone we should make him part of our village.”

The chief spit on the ground at Abilio’s feet and said “You and your men keep talking about a great warrior who killed two lions to cover up your incompetence of not being able to track down those lions. Now you found this imaginary man on a hill a few miles from here conveniently on a day your hunters did not bring back anything from your hunt.”

“But I did bring back something. Something that is better than meat.”

“Your story of a great warrior is not better than meat, it does not fill my belly.”

Abilio pulled out his iron knife and said, “I brought back this.”

The chief was stunned and said “Where did you get this”

Abilio said, “You won’t believe it, but I watched the Great Warrior magically turn dirt into iron and shape it into this knife.”

The chief looked at him closely, and examined him and said, “I don’t believe it.”

“You can ask the men that went with me.”

“The ones that lied about him killing two lions all by himself. They are not the most trustworthy people.”

“Then how do you explain this knife?”

“You stole it or found it somewhere.”

“No! Me and my men went to where the great warrior lives, and he turned dirt into iron, inside this clay thing, with fire. Then he made this knife.”

“I believe that you found a man or a village where they had iron, tell me where it is, and we will raid it.”

“The great warrior lives on the hill of vengeful spirits. You know the hill where generations of witchdoctors have said we should not go.”

The chiefs face distorted as he said, “Your lying.”

“Send your men and see if I am lying. Its one of the reasons why I keep telling you we need to make this great warrior a part of our village. He is stronger than the spirits on that hill.”

“How do you plan on making him a part of our village?”

Abilio said “Just give him one of the girls to marry.” Like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

The chief grew furious and yelled, “No!”

“What? Why not? Don’t you understand what this would mean for our village if we could add this great warrior to our strength and the riches his iron would bring to us?”

“I think you just want to make yourself chief and you are trying to bring in an outsider to make it happen.”

Abilio was growing frustrated and said with fury in his voice, “Fine, if I cannot bring one of the village girls to be his wife, I will try to see if he is willing to marry my sister!”

The chief began to laugh at that. “If this warrior is so great, why would you insult him with your sister? She has three children already if he married her, then he would be responsible for those children when she died. Unless you think he would want to marry your niece.”

“I think I will bring them all and see what the warrior chooses.”

“You can’t do that!”

“She is my sister. She will do what I tell her. You know it is my right as her brother.”

The chief looked unhappy, but then he said, “Fine, at least that way we get rid of three more useless mouths. And maybe just maybe this warrior will be insulted enough to kill you.

………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

Abilio found his sister and said, “Chazia, I met with the great warrior.”

His sister smiled at him and said, “That’s wonderful, Abilio, what did he say?”

“He didn’t speak our language, and I didn’t speak his language, but look at what he gave me?” Abilio showed Chazia his knife.

Chazia said, “IS THAT IRON?!”

Abilio Proudly said, “Yes, yes, it is. Not only that, but I watched the great warrior turn dirt into this iron and shape it into this knife.”

“Are you sure he is a warrior then? If he can turn dirt into iron, maybe he is a witchdoctor.”

“Maybe, I don’t know I couldn’t talk to him. But he didn’t act like any witchdoctor I have ever seen. Granted, I have only seen a few.”

“What do you mean?”

“Most of the time, witchdoctors chant strange things, and yes, even though he talked in a strange language, he rarely said anything. Witch doctors usually have smoke around them. The great warrior did not, although he always has flowers on him, that give off a strange scent. Witchdoctors always have blood smeared on their bodies. The Great Warrior was clean. Witchdoctors always carry a symbol of death, showing their connection to the afterlife. This man carried iron. Witch doctors always have people going about serving them. This man lived alone, although he seemed happy to have people around.”

“If he lived alone, do you think he belongs to a village?”

“No, I do not, and I would like to marry him into our village?”

“With who?”

“You.”

“Me? But I already have three kids? Do you think he would accept me?”

“I don’t know, but the chief won’t let me offer him any other girl to be his wife. Besides, you are very beautiful. It has happened twice in our lifetime where a warrior married a woman with children because of their beauty. I will bring you and your children to the great warrior.”

Chazia thought about his last statement for a second and gasped, “Are you bringing me just because you know Eulalia, will be forced to come along?”

“No, Eulalia is probably still a little too young to be married, but if he wants her as his wife, she will be well cared for. The great warrior is rich and can be as rich as he wants to be as long as he is able to turn dirt into iron.”

Chazia thought about it for a minute “The chief will not allow us to eat again for two more days, let us wait for our meal, and then we will go with you to meet this warrior. If he is pleased with me I will marry him and make him part of our village if he is pleased with Eulalia then at least I will be there to see my daughter wed. She is young, but almost no one lives long enough to see their child wed.

Chapter 9 June AD 71 African Bride

Chazia woke up not knowing what her or her family’s fate would be at the end of the day. She would get her family's share of grain, fix bread, wake her children, eat, and then follow her brother to his Great Warrior. Either she would be his bride… or her daughter would be.

Chazia’s husband died four years ago while she was still pregnant with their third child. He had gotten the sleeping sickness, like so many others, and never woke up. They had married right after he had gone on his first successful hunt when he was twelve. It was two, no three, chiefs ago that had her marry him. She was ten, a little old for a bride but there were more girls born than boys for a couple of years, so she got a late start in marriage.

She had her daughter the next year, then two years later, her oldest son, Badru, then the next year after her husband died, she had her youngest son Dashiell. Chazia feels like she was luckier than some as her husband was around for four years! Although the current chief’s first wife had been married for nine years. All the women are jealous of her. It's rare for a couple to live that long.

Abilio got married when he was thirteen, and the next year his wife died giving birth to their child. Since then, the chief has not allowed him to marry again as its clear to everyone Abilio is a contender for the chief’s job. Now that Abilio has the iron knife, the chief will become even more hostile to Abilio. Maybe the chief will get the sleeping sickness, although it’s just as likely that Abilio will get it.

Chazia went to the granary and was given her family's share of grain for the day. Then she went back, and ground it into flour, put some water into it, kneaded it, and put it on a rock near the fire. She was glad to see the smell of bread was causing her children to stir. It was a good day when they got fed, although recently, that meant that every other day was a bad day.

If things continued like this, it would not be long before the chief was challenged, and a new chief would take his place. The men, the women, and the older children worked hard for their bread, and they didn’t even get it every day, but the chief and his loyal followers were starting to get fat. The problem was they became stronger while the rest of the tribe became weaker.

Her oldest son Badru was up, and he said, “Mom, I am hungry, do we get to eat today?”

She said, “Yes, we have enough today for everyone to eat, so wake your brother and sister.”

Badru went to his little brother and kicked him and yelled: “Get up, lazy head, we have food today.”

Dashiell, her youngest shot straight up and said, “Food!”

With all the commotion, her daughter woke up. Chazia’s heart broke as today would decide if her daughter would have a new father or a new husband. Perhaps her family would be sent back to the village in shame… or if the warrior was angry, die by his hand.

While Chazia and her children ate their bread, her brother Abilio showed up. When he came into their hut, he asked, “Are you ready?”

Chazia said, “Almost; let the children finish eating, then we will grab our stuff.”

Badru said, “Why are we grabbing our stuff?”

Abilio said, “We are going to go meet a Great Warrior, and you and your mom might live with him for a while.”

Badru and Dashiell said at the same time, “A great warrior?”

Abilio answered, “Yes, when we were out hunting a lion that killed a child a couple of moons ago, we came across this warrior, and he single-handedly killed both lions.”

All three children were impressed by this. All three were old enough to have seen groups of hunters go after lions, and one or more in the group not return after they slew the lion. With that, they quickly finished breakfast; they were excited to see this warrior.

Chazia and the children grabbed their meager possessions and followed Abilio the several miles to the great warrior’s hill. All the hunters knew they were supposed to stay away from this hill because the shamans told them there were bad spirits here. But the women didn’t usually leave the village, so his sister didn’t know about that aspect. Since he didn’t want to frighten her or the children, he didn’t tell them. They chatted until they got to the clearing.

When they got there it was nearly evening, and as they stepped into the clearing, they heard a sound. “ting” a moment later they heard another “ting,” then they heard it several more times “Ting, ting, ting.”

Chazia and the children had no idea what this noise was, but Abilio knew what it was, it was the noise made when the Great Warrior was shaping his iron knife. Abilio started leading his sister and her children toward the noise, and their uncertain fate. He was grateful when the children started asking questions because it meant they were not aware they should be afraid in this situation.

Eulalia's face twisted up, and she asked, “What’s that noise?”

Abilio told her, “That’s the noise the Great Warrior makes when he turns dirt into iron.”

Badru asked, “Like your knife?”

Abilio said, “Yes, exactly like my knife. In fact, the reason why I know that noise is how he turns dirt into iron is because I watched him make this knife, and that’s the noise that was made as he swung his hammer.”

Dashiell pointed at the shelter with a multicolored plastic roof, and walls made out of logs and mud and asked, “Why does his hut look so weird?”

Abilio said, “I don’t know I couldn’t speak to him, and he couldn’t speak with me. If you learn his language, ask him, and tell me.”

Dashiell said, “Okay, uncle Abilio.”

Right then and there, the ting sound stopped, and the great warrior came out of the forge built next to his shelter. The children’s mouths dropped open.

Badru was the first to speak “Uncle Abilio why does he have blue legs, and a green stomach, chest and arms, and white hands and face, and black feet… where are his toes? Uncle, how can such a strange-looking person be a great warrior?”

Abilio said, “I don’t know; maybe he is a great warrior because he looks like that.”

What Abilio and the children didn’t notice because of their conversation was that the man was shocked to see them. Specifically, he had a shocked look on his face when he saw Chazia walking across his fields and up to his hill. But Chazia noticed when he looked toward them, squinted at her specifically, and his eyes widened in shock, and then averted his eyes, and went into his shelter.

Abilio looked up and asked, “Where did he go?”

Chazia said, “He saw me and turned away and went into his shelter. I do not think he is pleased me being here.”

“Sister, don’t worry, you are very beautiful. Maybe it’s just been a really long time since he saw a woman.”

As he said that the warrior came out with a weird piece of purple cloth, and came right up to them, opened the piece of cloth, and covered Chazia with it. They were bewildered. What did he want?

The children asked, “What’s he doing?”

Chazia said, “I don’t know, but I will figure it out.”

Then the warrior took his green skin off straight down the middle of his torso, and the children shrieked and ran away. How can a person take their skin off like that?

Chazia and Abilio were scarred too, but they were there for business. They stood watching him trying to figure out what in the world was going on. Then he pointed at his green skin and then pointed at the purple cloth. They looked the same. Was the purple cloth his skin… no, he wore cloth like a second set of skin.

With that, he put the green cloth over himself and motioned for Chazia to put on the purple cloth, so she did so, and it seemed to please the man.

Abilio said, “He must be very pleased with you to give you a second skin like his. I wonder if that means you are married in his tribe?

“I don’t know?”

“Well, let’s make our intentions very clear.” With that, Abilio took Chazia’s hand and put it in the strange warrior’s hand. He looked confused for a second, so Abilio pointed at both of them, then pointed at the hut, and back at them, and back at the hut. When Abilio figured the warrior understood that they were a couple, Abilio left without another word.

Chazia figured that since they were now married, she might as well kiss the man. He was shocked. But as soon as she kissed the man, her kids came back and said, “Mom, why are you kissing him?”

Chazia said, “He is my new husband and your new father.”

The two boys had never had a father. They had always envied the few boys who did, so when she said that, their faces beamed with a smile, and they said, “Really?”

She said, “Yes.”

They didn’t care how weird he looked, they ran up to him and gave him a big hug. He was stunned, but he immediately softened up and hugged them back. That’s when they noticed his skin was loose, and they can get their arms under his green skin. Then they started staring and touching his white skin, his green skin, his blue skin, and his black skin.

They noticed the black skin on his feet moved around a lot. The warrior lifted his foot, letting Dashiell mess with the entire foot. Dashiell started tugging on his black skin, and he was shocked when he tugged the great warrior’s foot off his body. Dashiell screamed and started crying. When his brother, sister, and mother saw that Dashiell was holding the great warrior’s foot, they all started screaming and pointing. And then the great warrior started laughing.

He was laughing so hard he fell and started rolling on the ground. Dashiell looked back, and the warrior had another foot on his leg. Only this time, it looked like a regular foot, with toes and everything, but white. Dashiell felt better when the warrior took his black foot away from him and put it over his white foot. Apparently, he hadn’t hurt anything, but Dashiell and his siblings were still nervous, so they stopped poking the great warrior.

When the warrior noticed that they were done touching him, he had a big happy smile on his face, and he took them to the room with his furnace. When they got in there, the Great Warrior sat down on a piece of wood and motioned for them to sit down, when they did so he got up and began cooking.

Honestly, they had never seen anything like it. He took out an iron pot, put water in it, and then began cutting up fruits and vegetables. Then he rolled his dough together, made it long, folded it in half and made it long over and over again, then cut it, then he put all the food in the pot.

The kids were entertained watching him cook. While he was waiting for the food to cook, he pointed at himself and said, “Paul.” They didn’t know what he meant. Then he pointed at himself again and said, “Paul.” Eventually, Chazia figured out that it was his name and said, “Paul?”

He got real excited and nodded. When he did that, Chazia pointed at herself and said, “Chazia.”

He repeated, “Chazia.”

Then they went down the line, and he learned the name of all the kids and went down the bench, pointed at them individually, and said, “Eulalia, Badru, Dashiell.”

The kids were thrilled that an adult had called them by their name. Usually, only an adult family member did that. This Great Warrior was really nice.

After he learned their names, he pointed to himself and said Paul, and then he would point at something else, or pick something up as if to say what’s this? And they began helping him learn the name of stuff in their language.

When the food was done, the kids were surprised when he gave them food in clay things. Eulalia said, “Mom, I don’t ever remember eating twice in the same day.”

Her mother said, “Honey, this is probably just the time of day he eats, and because we are his new family, he is feeding us as an act of kindness.”

Eulalia said, “Your probably right, mom.”

He then took the boiled water and poured it into several cups and put it in front of the children, and Chazia. He blew on his, which the children copied, then he drank his, and the kids drank theirs, and this was the most delicious water they ever drank.

He showed them how to use forks and eat out of a bowl, and they had a wonderful meal. Everyone thought it was the best meal they ever had.

After their bellies were full and the sun started falling, the kids started getting sleepy. The man brought them back to his hut, and let the kids lay on a really soft floor and took out his musical instrument and played songs till the kids fell asleep. After they fell asleep, the Paul and their mother got to know each other better.

Chapter 10 June AD 71 Marriage at first sight

Paul was expecting a return visit from the African tribe sooner rather than later, so he wasn't willing to go very far. As excited as those boys had been about seeing his iron, Paul figured he best go ahead and turn all his pyrite into iron, and then turn that iron into bars. It would save him a lot of time once he figured out what the people wanted him to forge it into.

It took him an entire day to turn all the pyrite he had into iron, and he had a lot of unsightly lumps of iron, so three days after those boys came, he had the furnace going, and he was banging away on the iron.

All-day, all you heard from his hill was "ting, ting, ting" Paul thought that with all this hammer swinging, he would have some pretty big arms soon… then realized that without meat, it was going to be hard. Thankfully he grew a lot of beans; otherwise, his lack of protein would really be hurting him at this point. Maybe one of those kids who brought him that antelope could show him how to hunt.

With all the excitement about those young villagers, he had forgotten all about the antelope carcass until it started smelling yesterday. Well, it's not like he had a good way to preserve the meat. If Paul remembered right, smoking meat only allowed meat to be preserved for a few days, although you could salt meat and have it last a lot longer. If only Paul had access to more salt.

Paul just kept hammering until late in the day, when between his hammer swings, he heard voices. Paul figured its time to meet more of the neighbors and walked out. He stepped out and saw a couple of adults, and of all things, three children. As his eyes adjusted, he noticed that it was one of the adolescent boys he met three days prior and a… naked girl.

Paul averted his gaze and thought to himself, "not a girl, she is definitely grown, but still pretty young. If her parents catch me with her, when she is clearly naked they will not be happy with me. Well, not totally naked, she has a grass skirt or the like on, but nearly naked."

At that moment, Paul went into his shelter and grabbed a purple shirt for the girl. It was the closest thing to a girl's color he had. He kept his gaze somewhat averted as he came out to greet them. He opened up the purple shirt and delicately put it over her torso. Everyone in their party looked confused. Paul decided to show them how a shirt worked. But he had to unbutton his shirt and take it off first.

That's when the children started screaming and ran away. Paul was dumbfounded. What is so scary about taking a shirt off? Paul thought, "Y'all run around nearly naked, why is seeing my chest so scary?" But at least the two older ones were not screaming and running away.

Paul lifted up his shirt and pointed at the purple shirt and hoped they would see the shirts are the same. Then he slowly started putting his arm through the hole and motioned for the girl to do the same. She started coping him, and before long, they both hade their shirts on.

That's when Paul realized that he was experiencing culture shock. In his time being seen with a girl like that might get him arrested, although she was likely a lot older than she looked since improper diet tended to make people small and tiny. But Paul didn't feel bad getting the girl in a shirt, considering all the bugs, in Africa, that can kill you with a bite. He probably just added years to that girl's life.

While Paul was contemplating that, he noticed the girl and boy started talking. Paul thought to himself, "Aww they are boyfriend and girlfriend, isn't that cute." Then he saw the boy take the girls hand. Paul smirked at that and thought, "Public display of affection. don't let daddy see that." Then the boy took the girl's hand and put it in his his……"

Paul thought, "What?"

Then the boy pointed at them then pointed at Paul's shelter. Then he pointed at them and at the shelter, a couple of more times. And slowly, Paul thought, "Did I just get married?" and as soon as that thought hit his brain, the adolescent boy walked off. And then she kissed him.

And then it hit him again. Paul was no longer in America or even in the twenty-first century. Then a memory of Lewis and Clark came across his brain. On their expedition, they couldn't speak to the Indians, but one of the men married an Indian woman who translated for them, even though they could not talk to each other when they first got married or something like that. They must want to be able to talk to him because he made iron! That has to be it, and this girl he married will teach him the language. But why her?

Then those kids came back. Paul thought to himself, "They were not with the boy; they were with this girl. No wonder the village gave her to me, she had to take care of her siblings. I bet her parents died, and none of the villagers are willing to marry her because they would have to take care of her siblings."

That's when the kids hugged him out of now where. And then they noticed they could get their hands under his shirt, and they started feeling under there and looking at his skin and touching him. They were fascinated. Paul smiled, he bet these kids have never seen a white man before. To a certain degree, Paul was happy those adolescents didn't act the same way. It would be really weird to have twelve to fourteen-year old's touching your skin just cause they never saw that skin color before.

One of them started touching his shoe, so Paul lifted his foot off the ground, and as the kid played with it more, Paul's shoe came off. And then everyone started screaming. They were terrified. Paul couldn't help it; he started laughing. Who would ever think a shoe was terrifying, but it scarred these people so much!

Paul fell on the ground, laughing and started rolling. He couldn't help himself. They were all screaming because of a shoe. Oh, the looks on their faces!

After a little while, Paul stopped laughing, and they calmed down. He grabbed his shoe, put it back on his feet, and after that, the kids seemed awfully nervous. But Paul was in a great mood now. Its been too long since he laughed like that.

Paul took them up to his smithy and had them sit on the bench. He had to show them how to sit on the bench like the other boys who came a few days ago, but at least they were fast learners.

He put his pot on the furnace and began boiling water. Then he got out his tomatoes, herbs, a couple of vegetables, and chapped them up. Paul didn't have enough tomatoes or experience yet to make a great sauce, but he could probably do something that would work well enough tonight.

Then Paul made his dough and put on a show for them. He started swinging the dough around, elongating it, then he twisted it together, and elongated it, and twisted over and over again until he had a bunch of noodles. Paul learned this trick when he was on a long project in china. Once the noodles were thin enough, he cut them in half and put everything in the pot that was now filled with boiling water.

Since they had time to kill until supper was ready, Paul decided to start his language lesson by pointing at himself and saying, "Paul." It took a couple of tries, but they figured out what he was doing pretty quickly.

Paul found out his wife's name is Chazia, and the children's names are Eulalia (which turned out to be a girl to Paul's surprise, girls that age look just like boys), Badru, and Dashiell. Paul figured out what a couple of more words meant before the food was ready. He was glad once the food was prepared, as he didn't think he would be able to remember any of their words.

He took out some bowls he made and put food in it and set it before everyone. Then he took the water that was still in the pot and poured it into some cups. It was still hot, but that just met the microbes were dead and not going to give them dysentery. He blew onto the hot drink until it was cool and took a sip showing them how to drink hot… well, broth. Then Paul showed them how to use a fork, and they had a nice quiet supper.

Afterward, he took them into his shelter and put the kids on the mattress and started playing Silent Night on his guitar because it was the most lullaby-like song he knew off the top of his head. Once they were asleep, he got to know his wife better.

Chapter 11 September AD 71 African Family

Since June, Paul had been working hard. His new family's health was his first concern, so at the bottom of the hill, he made a simple bathhouse. He had three kids, so he figured they could carry water from a nearby stream to the tub to fill it up. Afterwards, he had a cork at the bottom of the tub that could be taken out and let the water seep into the ground. To get the water hot, he chose to do what the Japanese do. Put rocks in a fire, and when they get hot, add them to your bath. The new bathhouse only took a week to build, and after showing his wife how the bath worked, he bathed with the boys, and she bathed with the girl.

Drinking clean water is necessary for health. Without wells or water treatment faculties, the only way to get clean water is to boil it. To encourage that he started raiding the tea trees that were basically sprouts at this point. He had dozens of them, but he hoped none died, as you are not supposed to start harvesting from tea trees until they are two years old, but a tea leaf here and there shouldn't hurt too much. Paul required his family to only drink water after it boiled in the tea, or in a broth when he cooked. They liked the tea, but at times he caught the children being too lazy to go and get the boiled water, and he spanked them and made them get boiled water.

After a few weeks of marriage, he learned the language well enough to tell his wife that you can not get sick from boiled water, as long as the water was still hot, but unboiled water or water that was cooled off, sometimes had bad things in it that gave you diarrhea. During the conversation, Chazia said she had noticed that neither she nor the children had had stomach issues since they came. She thought it was his magic but was surprised it was the boiled water.

It took about two weeks for Paul to toilet train his wife, and a month or so on the children. Truth be told, it only took that long due to the language barrier and the reality that they had never done anything remotely like defecate in a specific spot away from their home. It took a while to get to the place where he could explain that the body was releasing stuff that could make you sick, and so they needed to keep it away from their home and keep from touching it.

Paul was pleasantly surprised to learn that his wife made thread and knew how to weave it. She made the thread by twisting fibrous plants together and wrapped them around a stick. Paul had a faint recollection that this was called a distaff. She was making thread because she was unhappy with the metal barrel Paul had used as a door. She was making a cloth to hang in the doorway as a cloth was easier to move than a metal barrel.

After she put it up, he saw the need to clothe the children, so he cut it in half and made a shirt for the girl. Chazia was not happy that her door hanging was used to make a shirt, but by now, Paul had enough grasp of the language to explain that it was more important to cloth the children than have the door hanging as many bugs could make them sick. Chazia was still not happy, but Paul would explain more in time as he better understood the language.

With a family landing in his lap, he had to have a bigger and nicer place to live. He built a log cabin. Chazia was a hard worker and helped a lot, although most of the work fell squarely on Paul's shoulders. Paul figured this would be a long-term home, so he did his best to build this right, unlike his shelter at the top of the hill. He dug several holes, built a wheelbarrow because it allowed him to move large rocks to those holes, then he put logs straight up out of those holes, making his foundation. Where the foundation logs where vertical, Paul put horizontal logs as his frame, built a floor on top of that, and then built the walls, some rooms, and finally a roof. The roof was made with a layer of logs, and then a layer of clay tiles put on top of the logs.

The log cabin ended up being twelve hundred square feet, with a fireplace for cooking. Paul's family was astonished by how large it was. And the kids were amazed they got their own rooms. Paul still had some ropes from the seed vault, and so he made some hanging beds for the children. The kids thought they were way more comfortable than the ground, but Paul was just happy they were sleeping off the floor and out of reach of bugs and snakes.

Chazia was irritated when Paul started raiding her thread until he showed her a small screen. It was about half a foot by half afoot. He stuck a bunch of those together to make a window that the bugs could not get through. Paul decided to make the screens small so that they were stronger in the center of the screen, and if one broke, it would be easier to replace a small one than a large one. The screens were awesome; they let in light and breezes while keeping bugs and critters out.

Paul even made a couple of hinges with the iron. Then he made a screen door out of 72 of the little screens. Chazia was thrilled! A screen door was far better than any hanging cloth.

During the last few months, Paul made a point to teach his family the most important song in the world, the ABC song. At first, they didn't get it, but he sang it enough that the kids started following along with him, and eventually, his wife did too. As he learned the language, he learned that there were no words to express what reading was in their language, but he did his best to show them.

When they got the song down pat Paul made a game where he would draw out the letters and asking for them to find the letters. He still had a lot of things from the seed vault, and nearly everything had letters on it. They would search all over for something with that letter and whoever found the letter first won the round! Pretty soon, they remembered what the letters looked like, so he didn't have to draw them anymore, just had to say the name of the letter, and off they went and found something with the letter on it.

Then he started the process of teaching them what noises the letters made. That took a bit longer as they had no concept of reading at all, much less phonics. The first word he got Eulalia to sound out was mkate, which means bread. He would have done girl, but it's a super long word in their language. She was so excited once she discovered the secret! With the boys, he got them to sound out the word mtu, or man. Once they figured it out, they were stoked. His wife figured out the trick last.

The kids needed things to read, and he had a lot of paper and notebooks leftover from the seed vault so after the kids went to sleep he stayed up late telling his wife stories of his homeland, like the boy who cried wolf, David and Goliath, the turtle and the hair, and she helped him put it into their language. Then he drew pictures alongside the words. Paul didn't have many books, so he made them sound out the words and figure out the story themselves.

As Paul and his wife got closer, Paul finally found out her story. She wasn't the children's older sister. She was their mother. Paul broke down crying when she told him that she had her daughter at eleven. When she told him lots of girls have children even younger than her, Paul's heart broke. Paul asked her how many girls die giving birth, and Chazia said about a third of girls die giving birth to their first child, but it's a lot less after that.

She told Paul how her first husband had died of the sleeping sickness, and Paul told her the sleeping sickness comes from a fly that lands on people. Paul decided to tell her it poisoned them, although Paul was sure the fly let in a type of parasite. Paul didn't tell her about a parasite because that might have made her think a parasite was a spirit.

Paul told her that he had them wearing clothing because the fly could only poison them where their skin was exposed, which prompted Chazia to make more clothes for everyone. Paul instructed her on how to make a set of gi pants like martial artists wore in karate classes. That type of pants had an extra layer of cloth so you could have a full range of motion with your legs. She made shirts with long sleeves and even made a type of hat for everyone. She was so worried about their feet being exposed to this fly that Paul went ahead and harvested from his rubber tree way early, killing the tree, but he harvested enough rubber for shoes. Then Paul used sulfur, from his large stockpile, to make vulcanized rubber 1800 years earlier than they did in the last timeline so he could make rubber-soled shoes for the children, and Chazia.

One day it was extra hot outside, and the boys decided to take their shirts off, and Chazia saw them. She grabbed a stick and started beating those boys until they got their shirts back on. Paul had spanked them before, but Chazia beat them with the zeal of a mama trying to save her kid's lives. After getting caught without shirts a couple of more times and getting double the beating each time, they decided the heat was not as bad as mom's switch. They made sure to be dressed whenever they were not in the house or the bathhouse.

After a few months of getting three meals a day, Paul learning their language, getting the house built, and teaching them important things like how to read, it was time to start the family's formal education in arithmetic and martial arts. The math at this stage wasn't hard, just counting, what single digit, double-digit, triple-digit number was, and what the numbers 1-10 looked like. Paul didn't realize it, but he introduced the number zero about twelve hundred years earlier than Europe did.

The martial arts, though, that was something special to Paul. He had been practicing since he was 8, and now Chazia's kids were 8, 6, and 5. He had taught martial arts to those age groups many times before, but that had always been in hobby form not in necessity. These kids needed to know how to defend themselves and how to strike and strike hard. If not against other humans, then against beast and animals, if nothing else, the martial arts teaches people how to pay attention to their surroundings.

Unlike the modern world, that Paul came from, these kids would never face someone who wielded a firearm. This meant that learning to use bladed or blunt weapons was mandatory. But 5, 6, and 8-year olds are not ready to hold weapons yet. To prepare them for the weapons, they will have to learn punches, kicks, and proper stances.

Because they are just as likely to face a lion, or a warthog, as a man, Paul decided that the boys would need to wield a short sword and a pig spear.

A pig spearhead is a spearhead with a normal spear point on the front, and behind the spear point, it has some kind of wings because boars are known to get so mad that they will continue charging you even after a spear goes all the way through its body. The wings behind the spear point stop it from getting any further. After a lot of thought, Paul decided to make the wings on the pig spear blades, since they were just as likely to fight men as warthogs.

Paul decided that the boys would use short swords for in close fighting, as it was the mainstay of the armies of the day. The chances are that if something is used, 99% of the time, it's because it worked well.

Since Paul was going to train them in the short sword and the spear, that meant Paul needed to train them in thrusting as those were thrusting weapons. Granted, you can slash with those weapons, but thrusting is the main job, and so Paul began developing a thrusting art for the boys out of his 22 years of experience.

As for the girls, they were a lot lighter than boys and would grow up to be weaker than the boys, but they needed to defend themselves. Paul decided that they would fight with small axes like the Vikings had, and naginata. Paul's thought was that in close-in fighting, the weight of the ax head would allow them to do damage that they could not do with a lighter weapon.

As for the Naginata, it was a purely slicing weapons, and it was traditionally used by women in japan for hundreds of years. It would be easy to cut a throat or disembowel a person or animal with it. The difference between the Naginata and a spear is that the Naginata often kills by several debilitating cuts. In contrast, the spear pierces through bone to get to vital organs. Paul did not think women could both pierce the bone and pull it out quickly in a battle situation. Paul began planning out an art for the women, which lent itself to moving side to side and slicing. More open-handed strikes in this art.

The day came for training, and his wife and kids discovered that counting was not always fun.

Chapter 12 October AD 71 Guest in Texas

John had been very busy over the last few months. He planted his crops, harvested them, and got around to smelting iron. The first thing he did with his new iron was make himself a nice bowie knife with a saw on the back. It took him a while to file it down like he wanted, but it was worth it.

John had brought in his harvest a week ago and was wondering what he would do with his winter. He had already planted the cold weather plants and was thinking about going searching for other villages. The problem was he didn't know where they were and was unsure if they were all nomadic in nature or not. Certainly, by the time Europeans settled here, most of the Indians in this region were nomadic, but the horses the Europeans brought made that lifestyle much easier.

But horses, or oxen, or camels, made a lot of lifestyles a lot easier. Sure, the American Indian had dogs, but dogs only went so far. John was grateful for the dogs he had captured earlier in the year. They were good dogs, a little more challenging to train than most, but worth it. That said, dogs couldn't pull wagons, couldn't plow fields, couldn't be ridden. What they could do was carry about thirty pounds of weight in bags he made for them, and they could protect John very well.

Back in July, his dogs had warned him of a mountain lion stalking him, and he had taken his bow out and shot it three times in three seconds. It died quickly, and he had a very nice rug for his deck.

John decided to take a day off to contemplate his next move. A while back, he made a bunch of hooks with his iron, but his attempts to make a reel failed miserably so far, so he hasn't made his way to fishing yet. In fact, with so much food, he felt bad thinking about fishing. He has more food than he could eat in years.

As John thought about these things, he grabbed his guitar and decided to play "Remember when." He knew it was a bad idea, and before long, he was crying as he thought about his wife and children. It was almost two years since he talked with another person, and then it was that stupid alien and a guy named Paul, who he barely knew but was also an American. He had been playing "Remember when" for a couple of hours, over and over again, when his dogs started barking like crazy.

John set his guitar down and lifted his bow. He carefully exited his screened-in porch that he was so proud of. He got his screens up to the size of three feet by three feet. Even kept out gnats. As he headed to where his dogs were going, he was shocked to see people.

This group was just a group of five men all dressed in furs and what looked like quivers at their waist. All of them carried bows, although they did not have arrows notched. They had fur shirts, and fir pants and looked curious. John was just happy to see people after two years.

He immediately called out, "Xena, General Lee, Patton!" His dogs ran to him, and he yelled out, "Guard." When he said that Xena and Patton went to his right side and general Lee went to his left, John trained them to guard him that way because he held his bow in his left hand, so there was a little bit of a delay to move his bow in that direction. As his dogs reached him, he pointed his fast fire bow down and hooked the back of its magazine to his chest. He figured he best not point a weapon at his guest, although he wasn't trustful enough to send his dogs inside yet.

John yelled out, "Hello," and waved his hands with a big smile. In all honesty, John had no idea how Indians of the first century greeted each other. Sure, the movies showed them waving and such, but that only happened after Hollywood got a hold of them. Perhaps they were confused by his waving. John stopped waving and just tried to keep a big smile on his face.

The men came closer to John, clearly wary of his dogs, and John said, "Y'all don't have to worry about them, they won't bite unless I tell them. Even then, you don't have much to worry about since I haven't had other people to help me train them. They probably won't do anything awful like rip your throat out. Probably."

The men clearly had no idea what John said. The one John assumed to be the leader started talking to John in his language, but John had no clue what he said. Once the man realized that John had no clue what he was saying, he got quiet and looked flustered.

John then got an idea. He pointed at himself and said, "John," over and over till the leader said, "John," John put on a big smile and nodded and got quiet. Then the man pointed at himself and said, "Kuruk." John smiled real big and said, "Kuruk." Then John pointed at himself and said, "John," then he pointed at the man and said, "Kuruk." The man smiled and shook his head at his men. Then John reached over to the man's hand and shook it with a smile on his face, and the man got a kick out of that.

After the vigorous handshake was over, John waved for the men to follow him. John brought the men to the deck of his log house. The deck was surrounded with screens to let the breezes in but keep the bugs out. John led them to his screen door and opened it, and waved for the men to come in. They looked puzzled, but they complied. John had a table set out with benches at the table, and he also had benches all the way around his house. He motioned for the men to sit down, and he went into the log house, got some bread and preserves. He put the bread on the preserves and fed it to the men.

The look of excitement that went all over their face did John good. John said, "I know y'all can't understand me, but my mama taught me how to make preserves. Hardest part of the recipe is making glass from scratch. After that, everything else is a breeze."

The men talked with each other for a minute, and one of the men got up to leave, but he was unsure how to get out, so John went over and helped him. The man came back a few minutes later with what looked like an entire village. Men, women, and children. Maybe 60 adults with a bunch of kids and all the adults had stuff in their hands. They looked to be in a hurry. John thought that was weird, but he figured in this time and place he was probably the weird one.

The women were all in fur dresses, and they all wore different types of stone and bone jewelry. They had necklaces, bracelets, anklets, and things in their hair. John thought that many of them were fairly attractive, especially considering what they had to work with, but then again, they would probably come through and go out just as quickly.

Most of the adults were carrying around some type of fur. Maybe bison fur John couldn't tell. John let them on his deck. It was a big deck but with so many it started getting cramped. It didn't take long for John to figure out what they wanted, they kept pointing at the bread, and perhaps the preserves on top, and then holding up the furs. They wanted to make a trade.

It's not like trading grain is a hardship for him; he has plenty of all kinds. In fact, John wondered if he could get more out of this deal if he traded them different types of grain.

John yelled out, "If y'all want to trade for grain, follow me." John didn't have to say anything for them to follow him; they were bound and determined to do it. Perhaps they were getting hungry? But that didn't make sense to John as a hunter-gather tribe should be good at hunting and gathering.

John started looking a little closer at them and noticed they had a lot of older men. John counted eleven. Then John counted twenty gray-haired women. Then John only counted Five men in the prime of their life, between twenty and forty years of age.

He counted twenty women between twenty and forty, and then a few teens, although there were a bunch of kids. Either most of the men in this tribe were back at camp, or they were hunting, or the tribe was in real trouble. Too many grey-haired folks, not enough young men to support them. Women are wonderful, but in a hunter-gathering society, they could only gather so much. Then again, they did seem to have a lot of furs.

As John counted he led them to one of his granaries, he took out a basket, filled it with grain, and the gray-haired lady that was in front of the line happily traded her fur for his grain. John was floored, were these people in desperate need? What's going on?

Next thing John knew people started screaming and men started shouting.

Chapter 13 October AD 71 Indian Raid

John turned toward the shouts and saw arrows flying! Someone was shooting arrows into his camp! And his guest were shooting back!

John was Furious! These are mostly women and children, and they were at his home. How dare anyone starts shooting arrows at women and kids! Especially at John's house!

John ran until he had a clear line of sight on… well, the bad guys. They were very easy to find. They were the thugs that were shooting at his guest. Two of them were standing together, shooting into the crowd. John knew how to cure the problem. He simply lifted his bow and started shooting, one, two, three. Three shots in three seconds each have an arrow in their chest, and one also has an arrow in his shoulder. Dead now. John ran toward where those men were standing to get a better view of the chaos.

With his new vantage point, he saw a group of the bad guys shooting at a group of his new friends. He shot four more arrows their way, only three hit. Then he changed his magazine out and shot seven more that way. Altogether five in that group were taken down before they noticed him. There were ten in that group left! John only had twenty-eight arrows left.

He changed out magazines and shot all seven at the group of men taking out five. His Indian buddies took out three more when the bad guys switched their focus to John. Twenty-one arrows left.

Johns' dogs had done exactly what they were trained to do up until this point. They stayed at his side, two on his right, one on his left. But once he saw that the bad guys were yelling and pointing at him and he had enemies on two sides, he pointed at one group and yelled, "Sic 'em!" and his dogs bounded off after those men.

On the other side, five men were notching their arrows to shoot at John. John started to run sideways to his left, and when they let their arrows loose, John zigged back the other way, dodging the projectiles. As they went to notch their next arrow, John fired three arrows before they could shoot again, taking out two of the men. John kept zig-zagging. The last three men shot at the zig-zagging John and missed again. John launched the last four arrows in his magazine before they could shoot again. Two men were hit in the chest and one in the shoulder. The two with chest wounds fell, but the one with the shoulder wound ran off.

John changed magazines, but at this point, most of the bad guys were getting a healthy fear of John, and they started to run. John was about to shoot the cowards in the back when he heard "Yip, ar ar ar." One of those scumbags had hurt his dog! John got so mad he turned around and ran at them, and called for his dogs, he simply yelled: "COME!"

His dogs bounded toward him. His dogs had attacked a group of six, and they managed to take out four before some prick hurt his dog with tiny flint knives. Those knives couldn't be more than five inches. Apparently, these bad guys had not seen him shoot his bow because they had no fear of him. They grinned at him and waved their itty-bitty knives in the air. John accepted the challenge by pulling out his foot-long bowie knife. Their eyes opened in fear, and they turned to run, but it was too late for the prick who stabbed John's dog. John plunged the entire length of the knife up to the hilt into the man's gut, and then pulled it out.

John meant to hit the guy in the chest, but John was never a knife fighter and missed. It didn't matter. The man was a dead man with that wound. John didn't notice till later, but the prick had cut him with his itty-bitty knife, but John was so filled with adrenaline and rage he didn't notice at the time.

John's bow was still latched to his chest, so he picked it up and shot the runner in the back. By the time he fell, all the other bad guys had fallen or ran.

John could hear people crying and screaming, and now was the time for the real work to begin. Killing people is easy; it's no more difficult than killing an animal and only takes seconds. Healing people takes knowledge, skill, and time. All of which John lacked compared to modern-day doctors, but perhaps he had enough knowledge to help these people.

John did not know how many people were injured, but he could tell where the wounded were. They were surrounded by crying, screaming people. He ran to the first group, pushed them away, and found a young man with an arrow in his arm. It was bleeding a lot, so John took his shirt off, wrapped it around the man's arm, grabbed a stick, and tightened it until the blood flow stopped. Then he grabbed one of the people; he didn't even know if they were a man or a woman and had them hold the stick. They were so shocked they just did what he forced them to do.

He ran to the next group, and it was an older woman who was already dead.

Then he ran to the next group. It was an older man with an arrow in his upper chest, nearly to his shoulder. John ran back to his house, where he had a lot of cloth and grabbed it, and brought it out before thinking. Then he ran back in and started boiling water on the stove over the fireplace in his house. And then went back and put a piece of the cloth over the older man's wounds.

That night John went from man to woman to child staunching wounds as best as he could. John even came across the man named Kuruk, who was passed out from blood loss, with an arrow in his shoulder, and another in his leg. John had to put a tourniquet around both wounds and have whoever was nearby hold the tourniquet tight.

Then John made a stretcher and had the men who were not wounded help him move the wounded to his deck. The screen would at least keep the bugs off the injured. Afterward, he grabbed a needle and a thread and started sewing up wounds.

To a certain extent, John was amazed. It appeared this group of people had no idea how to administer any first aid, but then again, what can you do when all you have is furs, bows, and arrows?

John could not help but notice the awe the people had for him. He stopped bleeding, stitched up wounds, and the people started noticing that there were not many bugs behind the screen on the deck, which was amazing to them when the smell of blood was so strong.

John just wished he could talk with the people. Ask them for help. Explain to them how to sew the wound shut. That they couldn't do much worse than him because it was the first time he put in stitches. But he was doing it because they were not, and he had to do something.

He wished he could explain that he was trying to disinfect the cloth by boiling it before he cleaned the wounds the best he could, so they didn't get sick, but he couldn't.

He wished he could get their permission before he pulled an arrow out and explain to them he had to pull the arrow out because if he didn't, it would rot and kill them. John wished he had disinfectant, or even alcohol, or pain killers. But as he began to pull arrows out of men and women, he saw tough people who did not scream when the arrow came out of their bodies.

He saw people scared when he pulled out a small iron knife so that he could cut them open enough so he could sew arteries and veins together inside their wounds. John didn't do it because he was a doctor, but because it was bleeding too much internally and he had to do something.

That night a lot of people bleed to death, but more lived because of what he did

John began to get hungry, and so he motioned for the women to follow him, and he went to his granary, opened it up, and began to give it to the women. They needed to feed the wounded, or they would start to die.

After that, John knew they needed a lot of clean water, so he went to his bath, diverted a lot of water into it, and got the fireplace under it roaring hot. It took about an hour, but it started boiling. Then he got buckets and started bringing the water for the sick to drink. John wanted to explain to them to give anyone, not just the injured, boiled water to drink, but since he couldn't tell them, he showed them.

Eventually, John found a place to sleep and crashed. Some in more need than him had his bed, and John was fine with that. He killed a few thugs tonight and saved a group of women and children.

Chapter 14 October AD 71 Indian Chief

Kuruk awoke in a dark room with pain in his arm and leg. He cried out, and one of the villagers came to him and said: “Chief Kuruk don’t move. You have been badly injured.”

The Chief said, “What happened? How am I still alive?”

“Don’t panic; you have been sleeping for two days. You are probably very thirsty, drink this, and I will answer your questions.”

The villager held a cup to Kuruk’s mouth, and he started drinking it. Kuruk did not know what was in the cup, but it was delicious.

As Kuruk was drinking, the villager said, “Yesterday, when we stumbled on this, I guess you would call it a village, the entire tribe of raiders decided to encircle us. They changed their tactics. Over the last few months, they have attacked our hunting parties sporadically, but I guess since we are down to a few men, they decided to encircle us and kill the rest of the men and take the women.”

Kuruk nodded and said, “It's one thing to raid a tribe and take a few women for wives, especially if your tribe doesn’t have enough women, but to try to wipe out a tribe completely is just insanity.”

The villager asked, “Do you think they are a farming tribe?”

Kuruk answered, “No. They stalked us too well. A farming tribe would never have followed us as we followed the bison herd. They would have had to go back to their village. This was a hunting tribe, and I hate to admit it they are better hunters than we are. But you haven’t answered my question, how am I still alive? That tribe is bigger and stronger than us, I should be dead, and so should you.”

The villager answered, “It's because of that pale man with the dogs, the one called John. I think he must be a powerful medicine man. He saved your life, both by fighting off the raiding tribe and by healing you.”

Kuruk asked, “How did one man, even if he was a medicine man, fight off the raiding tribe?”

The villager said, “He had a magic bow.” Kuruk shot him a look of disbelief when the villager said, “I would not believe it if I hadn’t seen it, but he never notched an arrow on his bow. Every time he pulled the string and let go, an arrow flew. He shot out arrows very quickly. There were five of us fighting with a group of at least fifteen raiders. We shot arrows at them, they shot arrows at us, and next thing you know, out of nowhere, arrow after arrow starts hitting them. They turn to shoot at the group shooting at them, and they were surprised that it was one guy. They launched a volley at him, they missed, and he took out a bunch of them. Chief, you can ask the other men that were there. He shot more arrows than fifteen men! How could he do that if his bow wasn’t magic?”

The Chief was taken out very early on in the fight and didn’t see John fighting, so he asked, “What happened next?”

“The raiders had encircled us. When he started fighting so effectively, two groups of the raiders decided to attack him from both sides. He sent his dogs out at one group, and they started ripping the throats out of those men like that’s all they have ever been trained to do. Meanwhile, he started shooting at another group of men, and he shot twice as many arrows as that group of men. He killed most of them and dodged their shots. When they were dead or running away, one of his dogs cried out, and he started running toward them and called out to his dogs. The dogs disengaged from the group of raiders they were fighting. That group only had two men left. They took their flint knives out because the dogs were at their throats. When John approached them, they brandished their flint knives at John. John pulled out a knife as long as my arm and stabbed one of the men down to the hilt and pulled it out. The knife was completely undamaged.”

The Chief said, “That’s not possible; flint and bone knives are too fragile to stab a man and be undamaged, not to mention too fragile to make a knife that big.”

“Chief, I do not think this was a flint or bone knife.”

The Chief said, “Then what was it?”

The villager said, “I have no idea, I have never heard or seen anything like it. In all honesty, it reflected light like still water does, so maybe its magic.”

The Chief knew to move on when someone started to talk about magic and asked: “Then what happened.”

“The raiders ran away, saying they angered a god. I don’t think we will see them again. Then John started going around and stopping people from bleeding. I know how to hold a wound closed, but I have never seen someone take a piece of leather, wrap it above a wound, put a stick in it, and twist it till it was tight. This stopped the bleeding. He did that for many, then had whoever was standing around hold it in place. Once he got everyone’s bleeding under control, he made a stretcher and had us carry them into his strange building. That’s when we noticed it.” The man paused to brath

The Chief was impatient and asked, “Noticed what!”

“Bugs were not inside his house. Haven’t you noticed, even though you have two wounds, you do not have bugs trying to feed off your blood?”

The Chief hadn’t noticed until he said something “Now that you mention it, you’re right, I don’t have bugs crawling over me trying to get to my wound.”

“The warrior made water boil like near a hot spring by putting water in a strange shiny material over a fire. Then for some reason, he put cloth and thread in it and took it out a few minutes later. Then he cleaned wounds with the cloth. Once the cloth had blood on it, he put it back in the boiling water. He took the thread after it had boiled and used it to sew up wounds. There were times where he cut open wounds, and sewed them from the inside, then sewed on the outside to stop the bleeding. I don’t think I would have ever considered that. As I watched him, I could not help but wish we had needles sharp enough to sew wounds. Our bone needles could not have done what his needles did.”

The Chief asked, “How many died?”

The villager said, “Twelve, so far. John has done his best to help, but there are still twenty-three wounded, and I don’t think everyone will make it. Six people are still asleep, and I fear they will not wake up.”

As he heard the news, the Chief’s entire demeanor dropped, “How will we survive as a village? With over half the adults in our village wounded or dead, how can we feed our children much less ourselves?”

The tribesman answered, “John is how our village is surviving. John has a lot of grain stored away, and he is feeding our village. Not just with grain but with a lot of foods I have never heard of before. Earlier today, John grabbed a lot of string, a bunch of shiny… I don’t know what to call them and all of our 8 to 10-year old’s. Then they took off toward the river. I think he plans on catching enough fish for everyone.”

The Chief said, “So John protected us, healed us, and is now feeding us?”

The tribesman said, “Yes.”

“Why?”

“I don’t know, Chief.”

The Chief thought for a while. The tribesman had not been dismissed, so he waited for his Chief's next words. Finally, he said, “Go find my youngest daughter and bring her here.”

A few minutes later, the Chief daughter showed up with a bright smile on her face and said, “DAD! You are awake? How are you feeling!”

He said, “I am wounded, but I will recover. More importantly, Onawa were you hurt?”

Onawa said, “No. I was with the other young women, and it appeared that the raiders intentionally avoided sending arrows our way.” Onawa unintentionally shuddered at the thought of what those men had in store for them.

Kuruk said, “Good, I am so glad you’re weren't hurt. Since the attack, how has everything been?”

Onawa answered, “Great! John has been very kind to everyone, for the most part. I mean, he is kind in that he has fed us and protected us, and healed the wounded, but he has also been very stern. Yesterday when he woke up, he went to that building by the dam in the stream, and filled it with water, and started a fire under the building. Then he went around and made all the men go into the building, whether they were young or old. When they came out, they were CLEAN! Then he forced the women in the building, and one of the men explained to the women that he had them undress and clean their bodies. I don’t know why this seemed so important to him, but after our baths, we saw him taking hot pieces of cloth and cleaning all the wounded. When he saw us, women show up, he showed us how to boil water and made us clean the wounded. Honestly, I wish I could talk with him; he has shown us so much kindness there must be a reason why he had us bath in hot water. Although I have to admit, it felt good to bath in hot water, and it's nice to feel clean.”

Kuruk asked, “Why do you think he is being so kind to us?

Onawa said, “I don’t know father.”

Kuruk asked, “I only met the man briefly before the attack, and in all honesty, I have no idea why he is feeding our people. I can understand a man protecting his home when outsiders attack, but afterward, he healed our people and then fed them. Do you have any clue about his motivation?

Onawa said, “No father, he has shown us great kindness, and it's costing him a lot. It's just not just food and medicine. He fixes us hot drinks, and he looks very displeased when we drink straight water. I would think it would be the other way around. Why would he want us taking his supplies, to drink whatever this stuff is?”

Kuruk said, “Honestly, this is why I called you here. I have no idea what the man’s motivation is, so I want to give him a motivation to help us that I can understand.”

Onawa was curious, “What motivation could you give him?”

Kuruk said, “You.”

Onawa jumped back in surprise. In a thousand years, she would never have considered that, but the implication was clear. “Father, you want me to marry this man?”

Kuruk said, “Yes. As you become part of his tribe, so do we. Make no mistake about it. He can protect us, heal us, and provide for us when we, as a tribe, can not do these things for ourselves. I do not understand his current motivation, but I will understand his motivation when you two are wed. You will join his tribe, and we will join his tribe with you. You are twenty years old, never been with a man. Being a daughter of a chief, your marriage would always be for political reasons. You know that’s why you didn’t marry three or four years ago like most women.”

At this moment, Onawa dismissed every dream she had for marriage and accepted reality. She was marrying John. Onawa said, “I understand my duty. When will this marriage take place?”

Kuruk said, “today. I understand that John took many of the children to the river, presumably to catch fish.”

Onawa, still somewhat emotionally shocked and steeling herself for this sudden marriage, said: “Yes, father.”

Kuruk saw that his daughter was struggling to come to terms with reality, so he called out “Tribesmen, tribesmen!” With that, one of the tribesmen came into his room. Then Kuruk said, “I have joyous news; my daughter is getting married to John when he gets back from the river today. So I need the women to get my daughter ready for the wedding, and the children to pick flowers, and we have to figure out a way to tell John that Onawa is his wife!”

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

A few hours later, John came back with the kids. They were all excited. They had all caught fish with his trout lines! Boy, He can remember when he was a kid, and the first time he used a trout line. He was so excited to catch so many fish until the game warden showed up. He got a lot more sneaky about trout lines after that.

He showed the kids how to find worms, put the worms on the hooks and how to set up trout lines up and down the bank of the river. They went up and down the river, checking the trout lines all day. The kids were so excited to see how well they worked. Everyone was going to have fresh fish tonight, especially the wounded they needed the protein! And now that the kids knew how to use the trout lines, they could probably provide the fish without any more help.

As John got closer to his cabin, he noticed everyone was standing in front of the cabin in a semicircle. That was odd. John wondered, “What is going on?” Then he noticed that the Chief, Kuruk, was up, and on the deck. John thought, “Its great to see he’s up. He lost a lot of blood. Hopefully he will heal well.”

John noticed that everyone appeared super happy, and John just figured it was because their Chief, was healed. At least John thought that Kuruk was their Chief. John wasn’t sure.

As he got closer, he noticed there was a really pretty young woman standing in the center of the semicircle, and she was all decked out. And everyone was holding flowers, and they yelled stuff at the kids, and they got very excited. John was starting to get uncomfortable with all the excitement, and he didn’t understand why. Then as he stepped into the semicircle, a man took the hand of the attractive young woman in the center, and they walked toward John, then he brought her hand to his, and She latched on to John, then everyone threw flowers and cheered…

…

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…

It took about half a minute for John to realize he was now married; by now, the young woman was holding John by both hands.

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…

John's brain was not working too well right now. John's mind kept going back and forth between, “I am now married, and I smell like fish.” And all the cheering and flower throwing and girl holding on made it hard for him to think.

Finally, after a couple of minutes, he pointed at himself, held his nose, and said, “I Stink. I need to take a bath.” And he pointed to the bathhouse.

When he pointed to the bathhouse, the people cheered more, which made John and his new bride blush. But since John stank, he went to the bathhouse. With his new bride holding on to him the entire way. This started the tradition of spending your wedding night in a bathhouse in the Americas, which ensured bathhouses spread across the continent.

Chapter 15 November AD 71 Abilio Returns

One day while Paul and his family were preparing their fields for the rainy season, Abilio showed up. When Chazia saw her brother, she squealed in delight and ran to him and yelled out, “Abilio, it has been too long! Where have you been?”

Abilio was very confused as to why his sister was wearing clothes, but he answered her question, “The chief has kept my friends and me very busy. He was furious when I came back without you. He picks on us and has us doing the hardest jobs. Earlier this year, one of the tribes attached our village, and he put me on the front of the counterattack. I am lucky I didn’t get killed, but not everyone was so lucky.”

Chazia said, “I am glad you are okay. I have a gift for you.” With that, she ran to the log cabin, and Abilio followed her. When he saw the log cabin, he was shocked at its size. When he reached it, Chazia came out with clothes.

Abilio didn’t even look at what was in her hand, he pointed at the log cabin and said, “What’s this?”

Chazia said, “It is our home. Paul made it!”

Abilio said, “But it’s so big!”

Chazia said, “Yes, but its really nice. Paul made special tools to work on the wood, and it's amazing. He made something called rope beds for the children to sleep in, and he made something else called screens to keep the bugs out. Speaking of which I made clothes for you.” When she said that she handed him the clothes she made.

Abilio said, “Why did you make clothing for me, and why are you in clothing? You have to be hot in that.”

Chazia said, “Paul explained to me where the sleep sickness comes from. You know my last husband died from it. He said that there are some flies that fly around with poison, and when they sting you, the poison makes you sleepy, and then you die. But the fly can not poison you unless it lands on your skin and stings you. As long as you wear clothes, you are protected! If my previous husband covered up his body, he would probably still be alive.”

Abilio thought about this, and it made sense and asked, “How do you put this on?”

Chazia showed him.

While Abilio was getting dressed, Paul finally made his way across the fields to them. Paul came up to Abilio and said, “Abilio, I just wanted to say thank you for bringing your sister to me to marry. It was way more sudden than my culture does things, but thank you none the less.”

Abilio said, “Great warrior I am glad I could please you. Considering you could not speak our language at all a few moons ago, my sister has done a fantastic job of teaching you our language.”

Paul said, “Why are you calling me a great warrior?”

Abilio said, “I saw you kill two lions by yourself.”

Paul was surprised and said, “You were there? I had no idea. Fighting those lions was so dangerous and scary, I am lucky I escaped alive.” Then Paul gestured towards Abilio’s bowie knife and said, “In fact, I used leather from one of the lions to make the wrap on your hilt.”

Abilio was surprised and said, “Then this gift honors me more than I thought, thank you.” Then Abilio turned toward his sister and said, “Why didn’t you tell him that I knew about the two lions?”

Chazia said, “Look around; we have been busy.”

Abilio said, “You couldn’t be that busy; it’s the dry season.”

Chazia shot back and said, “Well, if you’re not that busy during the dry season, why didn’t you ever come by and visit. You took the kids and me away from the village, then have me marry a complete stranger, the first time I see him, and then you don’t even care enough to come visit.”

Abilio got mad and said, “You should be grateful I am here at all.”

Chazia said, “Why?”

Abilio said, “Tomorrow night, the village will have their feast for the planting festival.”

Paul asked, “Planting festival?”

Abilio answered, “We consider the time we put seeds in the ground to be the new year. So, the day before we plant seeds we have a big festival where bread and meat are cooked, we play games and sing songs. The day after the festival, we start tilling the ground and planting seeds.”

Paul perked up when he heard that the village would be planting seeds in two days, and he asked, “I have a lot of good seed, If I brought it would they plant it?”

Abilio thought about it and said, “I don’t know why they wouldn’t. But before we go to the festival, we have an important job to do.”

Paul asked, “What?”

Abilio put a big smile on his face and yelled, “HUNTING!”

Paul looked down and said, “I don’t know how to hunt.”

Abilio started laughing and said, “That’s funny!”

Paul said, “No, really, I don’t have a clue.”

Abilio smirked and said, “You’re not going to trick me. You are a great warrior, and all great warriors are great hunters!”

Chazia said, “Brother, me and my children have eaten well, but my husband is not a hunter, he is a great farmer, though. In all these months, we haven’t had any meat.”

Abilio started to believe them, but he still had doubt and asked, “Are you serious?”

Paul said, “I never even learned how to use a bow.”

Abilio took his bow off his shoulders and handed it to Paul, and gave him an arrow, “Sure, you don’t know-how. Show me how bad you are.” Abilio was pretty sure they were playing a joke on him.

Paul easily drew the bow back, it was easy as it only had a draw weight of thirty or forty pounds, but Paul did not know how to notch the arrow correctly, aim correctly, hold the arrow to the bow correctly, or release the string correctly. When Paul shot the arrow, it looked like a bird was having a seizure.

Abilio was shocked. He wanted to laugh at Paul, but he saw Paul kill two lions and did not want Paul to beat him up. Abilio said, “You’re not kidding. You couldn’t kill anything shooting like that. How in the world did you become a great warrior when you can’t hunt?”

Paul told him, “What does hunting have to do with fighting? I spent twenty-two years learning martial arts from men that spent sixty or more years practicing it. I fought men from all over the world and developed skills and reflexes. I studied anatomy to I better understood what to hit, and what not to hit.”

Abilio was shocked, “You learned to fight from someone who was 60?”

“One of my masters was 60, another was 72, and another was 83.”

Abilio said, “That’s not possible, nobody could live that long… How old are you?”

Paul said, “31 now”

Abilio and Chazia both gasped, and Abilio said, “How did you get that old? The oldest person in the village is the witch doctor, and he is twenty-four. The oldest person I ever knew was the last witchdoctor, and he lived to be twenty-six.”

Paul said, “People where I come from, and most people in the world live a lot longer than you do here in Africa. We drink clean water, eat every day, put on clothes to reduce the chance of being poisoned by bugs, don’t fight with our neighbors, or kill each other trying to seize power in the village. And yes, Chazia told me how you fight other villages throughout the year, and how the last few chiefs were killed by their replacement.” Then Paul got very angry and said,” And girls don’t get married or have sex at ten years old. They are much older, so a woman dying in childbirth is incredibly rare. Most people where I come from die after they are 70 years old from old age.”

Abilio asked, “Can you help me live a long time? I am sixteen now, going on seventeen soon. Nobody expects to live past 20 and count each day after 20 to be a blessing.”

Paul’s heart broke. Here this young man was looking at death in the face every day, and Paul thought of him as a kid. Paul said, “Yeah, I can help you.” Abilio looked relieved, then Paul asked, “Can you teach me how to hunt?”

Abilio said, “Yes! In fact, we can start your first lesson by showing you how to shoot the bow.”

Chapter 16 November AD 71 The Village

The next day Abilio, Paul, and Paul’s family made their way to the village for the seed planting festival. Paul went through the seeds he brought from the seed vault, and he put some of the best grain for this part of Africa in a clear plastic container, and then put it in the wheelbarrow. It wasn’t hard to figure out what seeds went where since most of the seed containers had a sticker with a world map and an arrow pointing to where the seed grew on that world map.

Under the seed container, Paul put a couple of iron knives and three pig spearheads. Paul intended to make a good first impression and bribery… I mean, gifts go a long way for making good impressions.

Paul had also gotten a bunch of seeds for the bug-repelling flowers, and herbs for Chazia to give to the village women. Paul hoped they saved a lot of lives.

Before they left, Paul made sure everyone was wearing some of the flowers and herbs that repelled bugs, like the lavender flower, as a corsage. Paul told the children if he saw them without their little corsage, they would be getting a good spanking, and Chazia said that once Paul got through spanking them, she would give them a real beating. Chazia thought that Paul was too soft when it came to beating the children, especially when the children did something that could potentially get themselves killed. Paul believed that Chazia was a little hard, but a sore butt, or the way Chazia spanked the children, bruised legs, were better than a dead child.

Abilio was a legitimately good hunter, and so on the way to the village, he brought down an antelope. The antelope went on top of the seed container in the wheelbarrow. Paul refused to let Abilio carry it on his back as it would attract flies, and possibly the tsetse fly. It was best to have the raw meat a few feet in front of them.

There was no road from Paul’s home to the village, and they had to cross through woods, fields, over creeks, and broken countryside to get there. When Paul asked Abilio about it, Abilio had never heard of anything like a road. Just another problem, Paul hoped to be able to fix one day.

Once they made it to the village, Paul couldn’t help but notice the poverty. These people had nothing. The pathways between their huts were covered in human filth, the people as a whole were small and scrawny, and as Paul looked closer, there wasn’t a grey hair among them. They were all young people doing their best.

Then the people saw them, and screamed, and shouted warnings. Young men ran to grab their bows, but Abilo started shouting, “It’s me, Abilio and my sister Chazia.” A lot of the villagers couldn’t hear them, so Abilo quickly took off his shirt.

Once Abilo was shirtless, one of the villagers yelled out, “Abilo is that you.”

Abilo said, “Yes, and this is Paul, my sister, and her family.”

Several of the warriors came forward and looked closer at them and smiled and said, “Chazia, its been months. Its good to see you again. Abilo, why do you and your sister look so different?”

Abilo said, “You know how we hang of cloth hangings in the doorway of our huts?”

Several warriors nodded their heads in agreement

Abilo said, “Well, my sister made a cloth hanging with holes for me and made me wear it.”

One of them looked to Chazia and asked, “Why?”

Chazia said, “My husband Paul said that the sleeping sickness comes from flies. We must do our best to keep them away, part of keeping the flies away is wearing clothing.”

As she said that they got a good look at Paul. Paul was HUGE; he was five feet, five inches tall. A whole half a head taller than the tallest man in the village. And his skin was white, and he had a weird thing he was pushing.

One of the young warriors looked at Paul and asked, “How did you get so big?”

Paul said, “Big? Most of the guys I grew up with were taller than me.”

When Paul said that, their eyes grew big. There were more men like this out there except they were all bigger? Best, be nice to the big man.

Paul asked, “Where is your Chief? I have a gift for him.”

The warriors said, “Follow us.”

Paul started to take the wheelbarrow with them when he realized the antelope was in there, alongside the seeds for the insect-repelling flowers and herbs. Paul turned to Chazia and said, “You take the wheelbarrow and give the gifts to the women, and later I will come back for it and give the rest of the gifts to the chief.”

Chazia said, “You can’t go to the chief empty-handed.”

Paul said, “I will let the chief have my bowie knife as something of a starter gift.”

With that, Paul went to see the Chief and Chazia started going to the women of the village and giving them gifts.

On the way to the Chief, Paul was shocked to see cattle in the middle of the village, and to Paul’s irritation adding more waste to the village. He asked the warriors, “What are those?”

The warrior said, “Those are our cattle, we use them for milk, meat, and sometimes we put heavy loads on their back for them to carry.”

Paul stopped and said, “Can you give me a minute to write something down.” Granted, Paul had to say written in English, as their language did not have that word yet. Paul took out a notepad and jotted down “Chazia, do not tell anyone we have more gifts for the chief, I am going to try to trade those gifts for one of his animals, and don’t tell anyone what this note says.” Paul didn’t know the word for cattle in his wife’s tongue, so he used the word animal. Then he told one of the warriors, “Would you please take this to my wife she will understand what it means.”

The warrior looked confused, but he did what he was asked.

When Paul was brought before the Chief, Paul was shocked by how young he was. He couldn’t be more than twenty years old.

When the Chief saw him, he looked surprised and said, “Who are you?”

Paul was a little irritated that nobody informed the Chief he was coming; this just shows bad management on the Chief’s part, but he was a young man with a lot to learn. Paul answered, “I am Paul. I married Chazia.”

The Chief’s eyes went wide, and he said, “Abilio told me you were a great warrior, and that you killed two lions all by yourself.”

Paul’s face went red. He was a little bashful about the story and said, “Well, you see, I was out in the woods looking for pyrite when I stumbled across the two lions. One started roaring, but I knew lions had a habit of trying to distract their prey with their roars, so I looked for his buddy. When he came out, he pounced at me. I threw my ax at him while he was in the air, rolled under his leaping body, and, well, my ax stunned that one. I turned with my spear and plunged it through his ribs. Then the other one attacked me. By attack, I mean he lept at me. When he did that, I stepped toward the lion and to the side,” Paul showed them what he was talking about.” Then when he shot past me, I brought my ax town on its spinal cord, killing it.”

Paul continued and brought out his bowie knife, “In fact chief, the bindings on the hilt of this knife are made with leather I made from one of those lions, and I wish to gift it to you?’

The Chief was very happy to receive the knife, but since he was the Chief, he was too proud to say thank you, instead he said, “I accept your gift.”

Paul said, “If you like that gift, I have some more iron products I would like to trade with you.”

The Chief said, “Trade?”

“Yes, sir. Trade.”

The Chief's face became indignant, and he said, “I am the chief I do not bargain.”

Paul realized he was going to have to be diplomatic and said, “Of course you do not have to bargain. But I can only produce so much iron as I am now. If you would give me one of your cattle, then I could produce much more iron.”

The Chief said, “Abilio told me you turn dirt into iron, how would cattle help you with that?”

Paul said, “Chief, I can not turn all dirt into iron, only certain types. In fact, I only know of one type of dirt that I can turn into iron, although there are many others. The dirt is called pyrite. If I had one of your cattle to carry more of the pyrite from its source, then I could make much more iron for you.”

The Chief did not have to think very long about this deal. If Paul wanted to make him rich, he would let him. The Chief said, “You may take one of the cattle, but not any of the full-grown ones. Take one of the calves.”

The way the Chief said it, it was clear that the Chief thought that he was putting Paul in his place. But Paul preferred one of the younger cattle, as they were easier to train. As long as Paul got one who was weaned, he didn’t care.

The Chief said, “Wait until after the feast before you chose one of the young cattle. Until then, why don’t you join in some of the festivities? Why don’t you compete in warriors rock?”

Paul said, “What is warrior rock?”

The Chief got up and said, “I will show you. Guards, call the men, its time to see which warrior will take the rock this year.”

The Chief took Paul just outside of the village to a large boulder, a boulder so large it could easily hold a hundred men, and said, “All the warriors get on this rock, and when I say begin, all the warriors begin fighting. When only one warrior is left on the rock, he wins! If a warrior falls off the rock, then he can get back on it. This game goes until there is only one left. No weapons are allowed, but everything else is.”

Paul thought to himself, “yep, this is a game teenagers would come up with; violent, brutal, and with only one clear winner.” Paul told the Chief, “Sounds like fun. It's been more than a year since I have been in a good sparing situation.” With that, Paul went on the giant boulder

As the warriors came and started getting on the rocks, Paul began to see just how small the village was. Around thirty young men were getting on the rock. There were twice as many young women around their age, and maybe twice their number in children. This village had no more than three hundred people in it, and most of them looked malnourished.

Over to the side, Paul saw a strange man, who had a beard with something sticking out of it and smoking. Maybe an incense stick, or something like that. Paul was guessing that this man was the witch doctor. Considering the strangeness of the man, Paul could see how people would associate him with spirits and magic.

While Paul was taking his first real good look at the people of the village, the Chief yelled out, “Begin!”

Chapter 17 November AD 71 Planting Festival

As the Chief yelled, "Begin!" it became clear that this game was used to settle old grudges. Abilio and some of his friends directly charged some of the Chief's guards. Other villagers were throwing wild haymakers, one man fell, and another began kicking him on the ground. Paul thought to himself, "If any of these boys knew how to fight somebody could get hurt."

About the time he was thinking how badly these villagers fought, one of them ran over to him and threw a huge haymaker punch. As the punch was coming at Paul, Paul was shocked at how slow the man punched. Chazia's children had faster punches than this supposed warrior. As Paul was thinking this, he almost forgot to block, but at the last moment, he did an outside block. The warrior threw another slow punch with his other hand, and Paul was again surprised at how slow the punch was and blocked it at the last second again.

At this point, Paul started thinking, "How do I get this guy off this rock without hurting him?" It would be pretty easy if the guy was wearing clothing, as clothing is great to grab and pull, but this guy was naked except a loincloth. As he threw another punch, Paul decided to trap it, and then judo throw the guy off the rock. Nobody on the rock noticed, they were too busy trying to hurt their enemies, but off the rock, the Chief, the witch doctor, the women, and children all noticed one of the young warriors flying off the rock in an arc. It wasn't that hard to trace that arc back to the great warrior.

Paul had everyone's attention.

A few seconds later, the warrior, poorly stomping on his enemy, decided to charge Paul. Like he was going to tackle him. Paul couldn't help but think of how poor of a decision this was simply because Paul was a lot bigger than the guy. Then again, considering how most of the warriors were more concerned with not getting hit, instead of hitting their opponent, a tackle would work well against an opponent who was constantly moving backward.

Paul decided to do something fancy, and mean because the youth had irritated Paul in the way he stomped on his opponent. A classic self-defense move against someone who was charging you was to grab their shirt, fall back in such a way that you do a backward shoulder role once your butt hits the ground, and once the roll is done, you are back on your feet. During your roll back you are holding on to their shirt, and you put your foot near their chest. Once your role is 75% done, you kick them and let go. Sending them flying in the direction they were charging. Simple. It's a lot of fun to try in class with pads. But this guy didn't have a shirt, so Paul was going to have to pull on his hair, and they didn't have pads, just dirt, and rock.

As the warrior charged, he was shocked when Paul grabbed his hair and pulled his face into Paul's chest. Then the warrior was very confused when there was a lot of movement, and he went flying off the rock. All he could think as he headed toward the ground was, "What's happening." Most of the warriors were too busy settling scores to notice the move, but everyone else watched, and to their eyes, what happened was unreal.

A group of three warriors that just dispatched their rival saw what happened, and they charged over to Paul. Paul thought, "These guys may be buddies, but they don't have a clue how to fight in groups."

Paul simply moved around so that he could fight them one at a time. He swept one of the warriors off his feet. The second one stepped on his foot to stop Paul from moving. Paul grabbed the warriors arm and lifted the foot that had the other guys foot on it and easily threw him off the rock. By now, he had maneuvered the third guy so that the edge of the rock was behind him. Paul did a simple front kick, kicking him off the rock. Well, the first guy was a little faster getting off the ground, after the sweep, than Paul thought he would be. As Paul just finished his kick, the warrior wrapped his arm around Paul's neck, and Paul did a simple shoulder throw, and the guy went off the rock.

At this point, the first guy he threw off the rock was back up there and charging Paul. Paul was annoyed that he had to fight the same crappy warrior again, and so he punched him right in the solar plexus and then had to dodge as the guy started throwing up.

Paul was just glad that these guys were not up to gladiator standards or fighting with weapons. If Paul had chosen to go to Rome, he may very well have been put in the Colosseum and been forced to face opponents who knew how to fight as well as he did.

During the fights on warriors rock Paul never sought out an opponent. He just waited for others to find him. Throughout the contest, everyone got kicked off the rock multiple times except Paul. Everyone fought Paul at least once, and after being badly defeated by Paul a couple of times, they either stopped fighting him or got some friends to help them, and Paul easily beat them.

The problem was that all of his opponents were scared to get hit. When they fought, they leaned back, which made their punches weak and made them predictable. To a certain extent, if you had no idea what you were looking at, it looked impressive. If you knew what you were looking at it was simple to step on a foot, to hold them in place, and do a center blow, or bump a knee, or sweep a leg, or do all sorts of maneuvers because you knew they were going to lean back and step back.

To make matters worse, Paul was at least one hundred and eighty pounds, and the largest warrior of the tribe was at best one hundred and forty. All the warriors were clearly malnourished. It is easy to defeat a starving foe.

In the end, after a couple of hours of fighting, all the warriors were worn out, and Paul wasn't even breathing hard. It's just that Paul had fought and trained longer than these adolescents have been alive. He had been trained by men who have taught fighting for over half a century. Paul had fought and spared with people who had much more experience than he had. Furthermore, his last belt test was ten hours long, and at the end of it, he spared fresh opponents for an hour. He had been taught since he was eleven that if you cannot fight when you're tired, you cannot fight. In all honesty, Paul did not consider what he did this day fighting, more like assessing poor students.

On the ground, what the people saw was that Paul was easily winning, and he looked bored doing it. This fight made the chief nervous. Paul could easily challenge the Chief for the Chief's spot. If the Chief knew that Paul could not shoot a bow, he would have been planning to hunt him down after he left, but Paul's life was spared due to the Chief's ignorance.

The Chief came out on the boulder and stood next to Paul and declared, "Paul is the victory of this planting festival. He will sit next to me and the witch doctor at the feast!"

With that, they went down to where the food was waiting, the Chief, the witchdoctor, and Paul grabbed their food first, then they sat on what Paul would consider a blanket or a rug on the ground and began to eat.

It was then that his wife brought the wheel barrel over, and Paul got up and told her, "Chazia, disregard what I said in the note." Paul had to use the English word for note since the tribe's language had no words for anything to do with writing.

Then Paul said, "Chief, I have some gifts for the village."

Paul could never have said a worse thing at that moment. If Paul had said this simply in front of the Chief's guards, it would have been one thing, but Paul had said this in front of the entire village. Now the villagers were not getting things from their Chief, but this astoundingly great warrior.

The first thing Paul pulled out was a forty-pound bag of grain seed. Paul said, "These seeds will survive better than any seed you ever put into the ground and will grow at least ten times as much food. If you plant this seed tomorrow, you will not go so many days without eating next year."

Then Paul pulled out three pig spearheads, and said, "I noticed that many of your men carry spears with stone heads. I made these spearheads out of iron. Pick the men you want to carry these spears, and I will show them how to attach the head to rods. Oh, and thank you for your generosity of one of your cattle I will be able to produce more iron with it. Probably enough for everyone to have their own iron weapon."

The Chief was getting more furious. Paul had shown his warriors that their greatest strength, the iron, came from Paul, not the Chief. Because Paul mentioned their deal about the cattle in front of the entire village the Chief couldn't take it back. Considering Paul pointed out, giving him one of the cattle would allow Paul to give everyone their own iron weapon, they might kill the Chief if he didn't give Paul one of his cattle.

Then finally, Paul brought out another bowie knife and said, "Chief, please give this knife to whomever you think is the most worthy of it."

At this moment, the Chief knew Paul was after his job. You become Chief by taking the job from the last guy, but you stay Chief by making the strongest warriors in your village happy. Whoever he doesn't give this knife too will be unhappy with him.

The Chief would never believe it if Paul told the Chief he didn't mean to undermine the Chief's authority on purpose. That said Paul did not come from a totalitarian country, and the tribes in sub-Sahara Africa at this point were totalitarian. The Chief owned everything until someone killed him and became the new owner. When Paul showed that good things came from him and not the Chief, Paul undercut the tribal government. Worse yet, the Chief couldn't do anything about it.

The last thing Paul did was say, "I have one last gift for the village. This is called a wheelbarrow, you can put heavy loads in it, and it will make it far easier to move around."

All the Chief could think about now was how he would have to put a stop between all the people fighting over this new toy. He hated Paul at this moment. In his fury, he told one of his guards, "Go find the most spirited calf in the herd and give that to Paul." The guard left to do so.

As the night went on and the people feasted, Paul noticed something. The men ate, the women ate, some children sat by their parents and ate, but a lot of children didn't have anything to eat. Paul asked the Chief, "Why are there people not eating anything, isn't this feast for all?"

The Chief said, "What people?"

Paul said, "The children, not sitting by adults. They looked famished, but only those by adults have food."

The Chief said, "Oh, don't worry about those; they are orphans. They are too young to work, and their parents are dead. Nobody cares if they live or die. Once the feast is over, they can have the scrapes. Most die, but some persevere and survive."

Paul was shocked, "What do you mean nobody cares if they live or die?"

The Chief said, "They can't do much to help the village, and it's hard enough to feed ourselves and our own children. Why should we care about someone else's child? If they get to the place where they can help us, great they will get a share of food. If not, who cares?"

Paul said, "I care. I will take those children back with me to my hill."

The Chief said, "Go ahead and take as many orphans as you want." The Chief was actually very happy about this. He did not like how the orphans begged, but he didn't have the heart to kill them most of the time since they were from the same village. If nothing else, they would be a strain on Paul's resources. Perhaps they would all starve together, getting rid of a bunch of the Chief's irritations.

With that, Paul grabbed food and went to one of the orphans and the orphan started to turn and run, but Paul called out, "My name is Paul, what's your name?"

The boy stopped and answered, "My name is Xadreque."

Paul said, "Wow that's a strong name. Well now that I know your name and you know my name we can be friends. Do you want to be my friend?"

The boy nodded his head.

Paul said, "I have eaten so much at the feast. I can no longer eat anything else, and I have all this food leftover do you want some?"

The boy nodded, and Paul handed him some food, and the boy started inhaling the food. When that happened, a bunch of the orphans ran over. Paul gave each of them a little bit of food. No more than a mouthful for most. In all honesty, if Paul knew that these children were not going to join in the feast, Paul would not have eaten but given all his food to them.

With that, Paul said, "If you do not have a parent, I would like to take you to my home and feed you every single day. If you want to come and get fed every day, meet me at my brother in law's hut in the morning. My brother in law is Abilio do you know who he is?"

The kids nodded their heads, yes.

With that, Paul went to talk with his wife. She said, "Paul why were you feeding the orphans?"

Paul said, "Because nobody else was. Furthermore, I told the orphans to meet us at your brother's hut in the morning, and that we would take, as many came home with us, and we would feed them from now on."

Chazia was upset, "WHY!? You have a responsibility to my kids because you married me. And I was going to wait to tell you, but I am pregnant and have your child on the way now. You have a responsibility to our family first!"

Paul was shocked that he was going to be a father, but he said, "How could I look my child in the face if I let these other children starve to death? What would happen to your children, or our child if we were both to die? You don't think I hadn't noticed that when Abilio came to bring us to this festival, your children don't have any affection for their uncle? He would not take care of them. But if we teach people to take care of the orphans, then if our children become orphans, they will be taken care of!"

Chazia was shocked by his statement. She had never thought about that. If they treated orphans well, then perhaps others would do the same for her kids if they were put in that position. Their culture never allowed that type of thinking.

At that moment, Abilio came over and, with a huff, asked, "Are you trying to become the chief?"

Paul was shocked and said, "No, why!?"

Abilio said, "In front of the entire village, you basically showed you could do the chief's job better than the chief could."

Paul said, "Well I could, but I don't want his job, I think I would rather grow my crops, and build stuff rather than govern a village."

Abilio was shocked and covered up Paul's mouth when he said that and said, "Don't let anyone hear you say that! My life has been contentious here for some time, along with those hunters who follow me. After your little show the Chief is furious, and he will take it out on me and my fellow hunters. We have already talked about it; we are going to follow you to your hill tomorrow and let the chief cool off. Now come to my hut before you do anything else to make the Chief want to murder us all."

With that, Paul followed Abilio to his hut. They were both shocked to find that every orphan in the village was sitting in front of the door of Abilio's house. Twenty-three children from the ages of one to ten.

Paul's heart broke when he saw the orphans. They were so desperate that they all came here as soon as Paul left them. Some of the very young were clearly with an older sibling. Paul didn't want to think about what happened to those who became orphaned before they were weaned.

Then Abilio screamed out, "What are you useless orphans doing here?"

Then Paul grabbed Abilio by the shoulders and screamed in his face, "They are here by MY invitation. They are also coming to my home tomorrow, along with you and your men!"

Abilio was terrified, he saw Paul kill two lions, and he was calm when he did that. What could he do if he got angry?

Then in a very calm voice, Paul said, "In fact, Children, please stay inside the hut tonight, you will be better protected, and when you get to my home tomorrow, you will get to find out what a hot bath is!"

Abilio was too scared to protest.

Chapter 18 November AD 71 Responsibility

Paul ended up bringing twenty-three orphans back to his home. Abilio and four of his hunters and their families came too. Three of the hunters were married and brought their wives and children. The one that wasn’t married had a child who was two. His wife died a year ago of the sleeping sickness.

Paul was the oldest in their community at thirty-one. Chazia was the second oldest at eighteen. Abilio was the third oldest at sixteen. Three of Abilio’s hunters were fifteen, and one was fourteen. All of the hunters were at least a year older than their wives.

As Paul realized the age group of the supposed adults in the village, he realized why the orphans were neglected so badly. The adults were basically children themselves. To make the situation more awkward, although Abilio was the leader of the four hunters, he was also the only one who was not a parent.

Paul now had a lot of work to do. Early in the morning, Paul made breakfast for everyone, and everyone but his wife and her kids were surprised. None of the new people in his home were used to eating every day, and Paul was going to change that. After breakfast was over, Paul needed to have a meeting with the adults to discuss his plan for the children. The children were sent out to play, and Chazia to watch them. Chazia was sent out to watch the children because Paul already told her his plan the night before, and Chazia knew what the children should not play with, and Chazia had no problem making children mind.

As Paul looked at the adults, he needed to give direction too; he couldn’t help but accept his situation. It was a hard thing to bear, but in this world, Paul should be happy that his youngest adult was thirteen years old. All too often, eleven-year-old children are considered adults. Fortunately, all his very young adults knew what farming was, and that will make his job easier.

Paul held up a seed and asked, “What is this?”

Several of them said, “A seed.”

Paul said, “If I toss it into the forest or savannah, will it grow?”

They thought about it for a second and said, “Probably not.”

Then Paul asked, “What if I till the ground, put this seed in the soil, water it, keep the weeds away from it, and watch over it?

Again, several of them said, “It will almost certainly grow then.”

Paul said, “You and the children, including the orphans, are my seeds. My goal is to help all of you to be the best you can be. Like how a farmer tills ground and waters the seed. Now I have a question, how old do you think I am?”

One said, “19.”

Another said, “22.”

And one more said, “25.”

When he said 25, the rest looked at him and started saying, “The only people who get to be 25 are the witch doctors, there is no way he is that old.”

Paul said, “You are all wrong. I am thirty-one years old.” Paul’s announcement ended in stunned silence. Paul continued by saying, “The oldest man I ever learned under was ninety-three years old.” Paul wasn’t going to tell them the 93-year-old practiced martial arts all his life, but he only gave Paul advice once. Even then, he was so eaten up with arthritis he sat in a chair and watched Paul practice his martial arts, only to give advice. But Paul did learn under him.

Abilio was the first to speak, “How did he live so long?”

Paul said, “Well, this is why I am calling you my seeds. He lived a long time because he was properly cultivated by those who went before him. I have lived this long, and have many years ahead of me because I have been properly cultivated. Now I will cultivate you and the children, which will grant you a long life, as long as you do what you are told. As you learn, it will be your responsibility to cultivate those younger than you, or under your leadership, as I cultivate you. Do you accept this responsibility, or do you want to head back to the village?”

Paul might as well said, do you want to live or die? Because they all cried out, “We accept this responsibility! We will do whatever you say!”

Paul said, “Good! The first thing we are going to do is have everyone eat every day and multiple times a day. I hope that most days you will eat three times a day. Although there may be days where you only eat twice a day.”

Someone said, “How?”

Paul said, “Good question. I know techniques to keep bugs away from crops and techniques to keep food lasting much longer. One of those techniques is called canning. Although I will have to figure out a way to make glass jars to do this, once we have it done, we will be able to store fruits, vegetables, and meat for years easily.” Paul was using the word technique to get started moving their mindset away from spirits and magic.

They all nodded their heads in agreement. They were happy that Paul was going to show them magic techniques.

Paul continued, “Furthermore, later today, I will turn the bull given to us by the chief into an ox by castrating it. Then over the next few days with your help, I will make something called a plow which we will hook to the ox, which will allow us to till many times the amount of land than we would be able to hand tilling the land.”

“Between the canning and the plowing in a couple of years, you should never have to deal with famine in your lifetime again.” With those words, Paul won the loyalty of these people forever… as long as he could deliver.

Paul said, “For the food situation, I will need all the men in this room to help me and follow my directions. It will take a little experimentation, but I think within the week, the plow should be finished, and we should be producing glass jars within a month or two.” The men nodded in agreement because they had no clue what Paul was talking about, but it sounded good.

Paul continued, “Ladies, I need your help in another area. I need you to make clothes like the ones I am wearing for everyone.”

The ladies protested, “Do you know how long it will take to make clothes for everyone?”

Paul was a bit miffed at their protest and answered their question, “For the rest of your life. As the clothes get old, worn out, and torn, they will need new ones. Your job will be showing every girl how to make thread with the distaff, weave it into a sheet, and cut it and sew it so that it can be worn. Oh, and because the clothes will get dirty and stinky, everyone will need at least two sets of clothes. The extra set so they can wear one pair when the other one is getting washed.”

The ladies in the room looked unhappy. Paul addressed it, “Do you want to live a long time?” The women nodded their heads, “Do you want your husbands to live a long time?” Again, they nodded their heads, “Do you want your children to live a long time?” and again, they nodded their heads.

“How many of you know someone who has died of the sleeping sickness?” All of them raised their hand. Paul said, “The sleeping sickness is caused by a fly, poisoning people. The fly cannot poison people through clothing. If you wear a lot of clothing, it is unlikely that the fly will be able to poison you. Furthermore, there are a lot of different types of bugs that can poison you and kill you. Wearing cloth can protect you from all of them. Ladies, if you want, your husbands, and your children to have a long life, then you will spend some time every day making thread and cloth. And starting today, you need to be teaching all the girls old enough to make cloth how to do it.”

All the ladies were shocked, but they nodded their heads in agreement.

Paul continued, “The next thing we need to address is cleanliness. Everyone will take a bath in the bathhouse every single day. The boys will have their bath time first. They will carry the water in with buckets. The girls will go second, and after they are done, they will drain the water and clean the tub of dirt and grime. Ladies and gentlemen, you will make sure the children are clean. We will also make sure that everyone knows how to make soap out of lavender; this will be one of the first lessons I teach.”

“I should have mentioned this earlier, but from now on we will only drink tea. Please follow me to the kitchen.”

Paul led the group to the kitchen and showed them how to make tea and explained, “The reason why I am having you make tea is because to make tea, the water has to boil. If you drink dirty water, it can make you have diarrhea, which can kill you. In fact, how many of you know someone who has died from diarrhea?”

All of them nodded; it was a normal thing.

Paul said, “Let’s say you go to the stream, and for whatever reason, today the stream is contaminated. If you drink the water, it will make you sick, BUT if you boil it, it will cure the contamination. Since you have to boil water to make tea, none of you are allowed to drink anything but tea or broth. That also goes for all the kids. If they are thirsty, make them drink tea or broth.”

Paul didn’t realize it, but in their mind, Paul just told them how to do magic. If they were not sure before they were now, Paul was at least as powerful as a witch doctor. Maybe more so, and Paul was teaching them his magic.

Paul continued, “Finally everyone needs to be educated, in reading, writing, arithmetic, martial arts, and hunting. I can teach everything but the last one, but I will need you guys to show me how to shoot bows, find and kill prey. I want to be clear here; education goes both ways. You know things I don’t, I know things you don’t. I will do my best to teach you and the orphans what I know, and I hope you will also, in turn, teach me, and the orphans what you know.”

Honestly, the hunters thought it was fair. Paul was teaching them magic. Usually, that was only reserved for the witchdoctor’s apprentice. All the kids learned how to hunt; that’s how they became men. Paul was teaching them the secrets of magic, whereas they would only be teaching Paul what all men needed to know.

“All of you will be leaders and teachers, and as such, you will need to discipline the children. But you are going to discipline them my way. I was in the village. I saw how the children were treated. When someone got mad, they beat a child until they cooled off. That’s not okay. But if they were not mad, they let the child do whatever they wanted to do. That’s not going to work either. Discipline demands that someone only gets punished when they do something wrong, but if they do something wrong, they get punished every time. We are going to show these children consistency.

We will teach the children the rules. If they break it, they will get a spanking, on the butt, and nowhere else. They will get five lashes on the butt with a rod, no more, no less. When you tell them to do something, they will do it the first time, and immediately, if they do not, you will immediately chastise them. The purpose of this discipline is so they learn how to be self-disciplined. You will be consistent. If you get mad and beat up one of the children I will beat you up, if you are lazy and let the child run wild, I will beat you up. You are older, and you will have the discipline to chastise the children properly.”

Paul hated allowing these young people to discipline the children, but he had no choice. Without the threat of force, none of these children would ever listen. Grounding only worked in the 21st century because they had so much stuff that it hurt them when they had to live without it. Grounding only worked because if they disobeyed, they were still safe. In the first century AD, if a child disobeys, it may cost them their life. It was a hard thing, but at this point in history, children had to be physically chastised for their own protection. Paul only hoped that he could train his young adults to do the physical chastisement the right way.

Finally, Paul asked, “Are there any questions?” Of course, there were many.

Chapter 19 March AD 72 Capturing Bison

The winter of AD 72 was bitterly cold in Texas, but for John and his new tribe, it was also very busy. John helped his people build their own homes. Although John wanted everyone to spread out and start their own homestead, no one was willing to do so because the raid was still very recent to them. So John helped all his new neighbors make log homes near his, like a little village.

To a certain extent, this was a boon for John as he had lots of help making iron and glass. All the men and all the older boys learned how to find ore, melt it into iron, and turn it into various products. They also learned the entire process of making glass, from melting sand to blowing the glass, to take it off the blowing tube. They also learned to can with the glass bottles they made by putting boiling food in the bottle and sealing it properly. John's favorite part was where they made the coal for the iron and glass because it meant he didn't have to.

John also showed the ladies how to make string with a spinning wheel, and how to weave, cloth, and screens. It was fascinating to John how the women were all expert leather makers, but the idea of weaving cloth was foreign to them.

This led to John showing all the men how to make some mechanical tools. First, the spinning wheels so the ladies could make cloth, and then how to make the fast-firing bow and its magazines. Then finally, what John decided to call, a wheeled plow in preparation for planting in spring. A wheeled plow was just like a wheelbarrow except instead of having a barrel at the top it had a plow at the bottom at the opposite end from the wheel.

As winter came to an end and spring started, it came time for a project John had talked with the men all winter long about. They were going to capture some baby Bison. The men were not fully on board with John on this as Bison were HUGE, up to 2,000 pounds, but John had all winter to get ready for this project.

The first thing John did was train his dogs to separate bison from the pack. When the tribe saw how effective that was, they began to believe John, but they needed a way to contain the bison. This was not as big of a problem as the men thought. Before Gandore sent John back in time, Gandore allowed John to take a long look and chose where he was going. One of the reasons why John had chosen this place was that there was a valley that was three miles long and half a mile wide at its widest, but the entrance and exit to the valley was only fifty feet. It was covered in sod most the year, and it had a small stream right down the center. It would make a perfect coral for wild bison as soon as they set up the proper gates.

John and the men made log walls and gates. They made the walls with three layers of logs. Then set up two gates of logs. One on the outer wall, one on the inner wall. They opened out and in respectively. They made massive hinges for the log gates, and they worked better than John expected. They were ready for bison now! They just had to get them.

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

John followed Ulhas as they stalked a heard of bison. Ulhas was the most senior and experienced of the men left in the tribe still able to hunt.

As they stalked the herd, John asked, "What are we waiting for?'

Ulhas said, "If you want young bison, then we wait for the mothers to separate from the heard. For whatever reason bison mothers leave the heard to give birth and keep separated from it for a few days. This is better for our purposes as it means we can bring bison to your valley two at a time, mother and child."

John was impatient, but he nodded in agreement since he needed to trust Ulhas's expertise. They spent a few hours trailing the herd until one of the bison separated from the herd. John said, "Wait for it to give birth before we start herding toward the valley."

They followed that bison for about two miles. When the bison stopped, all the men spread out, and John's dogs stayed near John, waiting for their master's orders. They watched as the bison started having little hooves come out of its backside, at that time, the most vulnerable time for the bison mother, wolves came up its trail, and started howling, and charging it.

John yelled out, "SAVE THE BISON!"

All the men were carrying fast fire bows, and in about ten seconds, they unleashed three dozen arrows. The wolves were surprised and overwhelmed. That pack didn't last ten seconds against the new weapons.

While they were dispatching the wolves, the bison's mother was spooked and started trying to move during the birth of its calf. John was worried; he did not want the mother or the calf injured during this time. If he was going to breed a domesticated bison, he needed a mama to give the calf milk, and he needed calves to be a new generation.

John watched as the bison went a few hundred feet then laid down until the calf was born. The mother was back on her feet, and before long, the baby bison made its way out of the sack it was in and stood up. They watched as the bison bonded and watched as the calf drank its mother's milk, and once it was done, they moved.

They were lucky they were only about three miles away from one of the entrances to their valley, and thus the spread-out men started beating on drums and moving toward the bison. All the men were about a hundred or so yards from the bison, in a U-shaped formation, with the top of the U pointing toward the valley.

The bison calf drew close to its mother, and the mother very warily started moving away from the men slowly, toward the valley.

They did not want the bison to bolt, which might mean it abandoning its calf, so as it moved toward the valley, the men backed off and stopped beating their drums. This would calm the bison down, and it would calmly walk toward the valley. When it stopped walking, or it started going in a different direction, the men would start beating their drums and moving in a U shaped formation, herding the bison to where they wanted it to be at.

As they got to within a hundred yards of the gate, the most dangerous part of the capture came up. First of all, one of the men had to open the outer and inner gates, which clued in the bison that maybe it did not want to go between the strange-looking log structure.

John realized how dangerous this part of the capture was going to be. At any time, this thousand-pound bison could charge the men hurting or killing one of them. Its why they made a point to stay so far away from the bison. But staying a hundred yards back, and beating drums wasn't going to convince the bison and its calf to go into the gate. But John's dogs could.

Ever since They had built the gate, John had trained his dogs to herd an animal into the gate, when he yelled out "HERD!" He did this by having the men he was with stand before the gate, and training his dogs to bark and growl at them until they went into the gate. It only took a couple of weeks before the dogs were working as a team.

Since John really wanted his project to go well, he found out which of the young people were giving their moms a lot of attitude and brought them out to his gate for a test of manhood. The dog chased a bunch of crying twelve to fourteen-year-old boys into his valley, and their attitudes were much improved. When they started getting out of line, asking them if they needed their manhood tested again brought them in line.

So when John called out, "HERD!" for the first time it really mattered, he was grateful to see his dogs jump right into action. The bison had already turned away from the gate along with its calf and was giving signs that it was going to charge. Then the dogs came at it with all the zeal excited dogs have. They barked, howled, growled, and showed their fangs as they raced to that calf, and its mama.

The mama bison nudged its calf toward the right of the gate when the dogs caught up with them. They started nipping and growling at them, without ever biting them. Just like they were trained to do. And it wasn't too long before they had the bison and calf headed straight toward the gate. Once the bison and its calf crossed through the outer and inner gate, the dogs stopped and went back outside the gate, and the men closed the gates.

Then John and the men cheered. Ulhas told John, "I am surprised your plan worked so well. Congratulations. I still have no idea what you want these bison for, but I am glad you got them."

John said, "One of these days you will understand when you are riding these bison around and using them as pack beast, but we are several generations from having the bison tame enough to do that. But once the bison are tame, your world will change."

Ulhas said, "We shall see."

Over the next month, they caught seven more pairs of bison. Three of the bison calves were male. The tribesmen did not understand why John said over the next year to keep an eye on the male bison and mark whichever one is the most docile, but its something they all paid attention to for John's sake.

Chapter 20 April 72 AD Chief and Witch Doctor

The witch doctor was furious. He needed to talk with the chief, and he knew the chief stayed by the granary. The chief liked to control the people by controlling their food. As long as the chief supported the witch doctor, the witch doctor supported the chief, and now he needed the chiefs support!

When he found the chief, he yelled, "DID YOU HEar WHAT PAUL DID!"

The chief was shocked that the witch doctor was yelling at him, and truth be told, the chief was afraid of the witchdoctor. Trembling, the chief said, "No, what did Paul do?"

At this moment, the witch doctor looked around and realized that there were a lot of ears listening and so he yelled out, "Anyone who listens to this conversation will be cursed, and spirits will kill you horribly in the night!"

With that proclamation, all the villagers started running away, including the chief's guards. The villagers had been around long enough to have heard that curse spoken before. And Usually, within a couple of weeks of being spoken, someone in the village got the sleeping sickness, or died of diarrhea, or mauled by an animal, and the witch doctor told the people that it was the spirits cursing them for disobeying the witch doctor. None of the villagers wanted to be the one taken out by the spirits.

Now that everyone was out of earshot, the witch doctor said, "Paul is teaching his people magic! He showed them how to make meat stay fresh for days at a time! I only found out today. One of the girls in the village has a sick child, and she wanted me to ward off the spirits before they kill the child. She offered me a glass jar filled with meat. I asked her what it was, and she explained that when the last load of iron weapons came in from Paul's hill that her brother gave her several jars of meat. He said that the meat would stay good until you opened the jar. She has had the jar for more than three weeks, and when I opened it, it was still just as good as if it had been cooked yesterday. She told me her brother made it for her and that Paul showed him how. How dare Paul teach anyone magic without my permission. We have to let me teach Paul a lesson!"

The chief was mad now and said, "How dare Paul go behind my back and give people meat! I will have my guards go through their belongings and take what they find. All food has to come to me first and then to the people. I am the chief. Everything in the village belongs to me. That's the way its always been! These new ways of Paul are dangerous."

The witch doctor was happy that the chief was as mad at Paul as he was, and decided to stir the pot and said, "It's even worse than when he told the entire village he was giving them iron weapons. It's clear that Paul is trying to take the village away from you."

The chief was furious and young, but you do not get to be a chief for very long if you can't read people, and he said, "You are not worried about whether he takes my spot as chief. You are worried that he will take your spot as witchdoctor. You have been witchdoctor for much longer than I have been chief, and you are planning on being witchdoctor for whoever takes the job from me. Considering all the magic, Paul is doing, he could easily take your job from you, and then my position would be safe."

The chief was right. This is why the witch doctor came to the chief. He was fearful that Paul would kill him for his job, or worse yet when everyone saw how effective Paul was at keeping them healthy, they would ignore him and make Paul the new witchdoctor. If that happened, he would starve without their offerings. The witchdoctor said, "You are mistaken chief I am only here for your good."

The chief said, "You don't fool me. Over the rainy season, twelve villagers died from fever, four from diarrhea, and five from the sleeping sickness. Yes, most of them were children, but the people have noticed that only two people died under Paul's care. And that was within two weeks of arriving at his hill. Paul said they were so malnourished that he couldn't save them, in effect blaming me for their deaths! I would almost think he is after my job, but then he made a grave for those children, and put up rocks to mark their graves, and told the people they were resting peaceably. Paul claims that everyone is so healthy because they are staying clean, they drink his potion called tea, that they have clothes, and screens. Worse of all, he is doing it on the hill you said was full of deadly spirits. It seems like he is a better witchdoctor than you. I heard one of my guards ask if Paul can keep his people so healthy on a hill filled with evil spirits how healthy could Paul keep us in this village if he became the new witch doctor?"

The witch doctor knew that everything the chief said was true, but the witch doctor did not come unprepared. The witch doctor said, "Come now chief, I think your job is in far more of a perilous position than mine. Your job as chief is to provide protection and food for your people. Everyone saw how easily Paul defeated every man in this village at the same time. Let's be honest back in your day; you were a good warrior, but Paul did not stop at being a good warrior. Every time one of his hunters makes a delivery to the village, they talk about how Paul is teaching everyone how to fight as well as he does. When have you ever taught anyone to be a better warrior? If this keeps up, your guards who used to be the best in the village will be the worst."

The chief new the witch doctor spoke the truth, but what could the chief do about it?

Then the witch doctor continued speaking, "Worse yet, Paul's people, including the women and children, are eating three times a day. Your personal guards don't even eat that much. You know what's really funny, I am told that he used that calf you gave him to plow his fields, so now even though Paul's hill has a fraction of the people as we do, he actually grew as much food as we did! How long until you are murdered by your own guards because of a hungry belly and replaced by Paul? Did you even plant the seed Paul gave you?"

The chief said, "No! That seed must have been some sort of trick. I had it turned into bread for my guards."

The witchdoctor said, "Does the village know?"

The chief said, "Of course! I had to show I didn't need Paul."

The witchdoctor asked one more question, "Did you grow more food than last year?"

The chief thought about his question for a second and was horrified when he realized how that would look, "No, we grew less this year, and now Paul can say that the people are eating less because I didn't use his gift. How can I get rid of him?"

The witchdoctor said, "If a curse or spirit could get rid of him, he would already be dead! I have used every spell I know on him. I have even tried to poison his drink, but he won't drink anything in the village when he visits! When I handed the poisoned drink to him, he acted like he knew I put poison in there. I think he could see death in the cup. The only thing I can think of doing is showing your authority."

The chief said, "What do you mean show my authority?"

The witchdoctor said, "His stepdaughter and several of the orphan girls are old enough to be purified but have not been purified yet. Perhaps he wishes to purify them himself, but I will go to his hill and tell him that you told me that I have the responsibility to purify all the girls."

The chief said, "Yes, that's a great idea! Go to his hill and make sure everyone on the hill knows that I sent you to purify all the girls there! That way, everyone knows I am in charge!"

Chapter 21 April AD 72 FURY!

Paul was busy training with his hunters. It was their turn to teach him, and Paul was getting to be a pretty good hunter in his own right. Months ago, he was struggling to shoot a bow because when he pulled the string back, he made his hand into a fist which twisted the bowstring. Paul was a martial artist; he had trained for more than two decades to hold his hand as a fist when it is close to his body. He had to break that habit while holding the bow because when pulling the bowstring, your hand needs to stay as flat as possible, so it doesn’t twist. Ever since the hunters figured out that was his problem, Paul has improved steadily.

Once Paul learned how to pull the bowstring correctly, it wasn’t long before it was easy. Not that Paul had mastered it, but that the bows only had about a thirty-pound draw weight. In contrast, Paul knew if he went up north to Rome, they currently had ballistas that could shoot bolts that weighed more than a hundred pounds. The bows that the hunters had were little more than a stick on a string. It was time to give them an upgrade.

Between everything else, Paul was doing, Paul cut down several different kinds of trees and started making longbows out of them. He used his ax and knives to make the bows from the heart of the tree instead of its branches. It wasn’t long before he had a bow with at least a sixty-pound draw weight. The hunters were not too sure about the bow when they pulled the string, but once they saw how deep the arrow pierced the target, they were sold on the sixty-pound bow. When Paul had more time, he would have to experiment with a laminated bow, where you glue different pieces of wood together to increase the draw weight.

One of the things Paul noticed was that when they fired the arrows, the arrows struggled to fly straight. He asked them why they didn’t add feathers to the back of the arrows? They had never heard of adding feathers to the back of arrows. So the hunters killed some bird, and Paul cut a couple of feathers in half and added three of them to the back of the arrow like in all the movies. The hunters notched these new arrows and used them. They were shocked and excited with the accuracy of these new arrows.

These hunters had been hunting for years, and they were impressed that the new bows and arrows meant instant improvement. Paul had a long way to go when it came to hunting, but at least he could hit a target now. He even got an antelope that was grazing in their fields during the rainy season.

Paul wasn’t the only one training; several of the nine and ten-year old’s were starting to practice with the thirty-pound bows. The hunters were following Paul’s example and learning to enjoy teaching the kids. It wouldn’t be long before the children were protecting the fields from the various animals that liked their grains, fruits, and vegetables.

As they were happily shooting at targets, the witchdoctor showed up unexpectedly for the first time ever and started yelling out, “Everyone come to me, I have a ceremony I must practice to protect you from evil spirits.”

Paul put down his bow and thought to himself, “What is this idiot doing here? I wonder if I can politely run him off or if I am going to have to put up with some idiotic song and dance. I can’t be too harsh with the guy because he has all the people around here scared half to death. They think he is going to put some curse on them if they offend him.”

Abilio was the one teaching them how to shoot better. Paul asked him in a weary voice, “Why is the witchdoctor here?”

Abilio said, “I don’t know.”

“Then, do you have any idea about which ceremony he is going to perform?”

“No.”

“If I think his ceremony is dangerous, I will send him back.”

Abilio face changed to fear and frantically said, “You can’t do that. Let him do what he wants to. If you don’t, spirits will come after us. Maybe he will be the one to send them.”

Paul could tell Abilio was frightened, and Abilio was a leader of these people. If he is this frightened, Paul will have to give this witchdoctor much more leeway than he wanted to.

Paul came and said, “Good evening, witchdoctor, what brings you here?”

The witchdoctor said, “I have an essential ceremony to perform that the chief sent me to perform as quickly as possible, is everyone present?”

Paul thought to himself, “Oh, great, some self-important 20-year-old sent you on important business. Great.” But Paul said in a very diplomatic voice, “Yes, this is everyone.”

The witchdoctor looked around and said, “The chief does not trust you to perform the purification ritual, so he sent me out here to purify all the girls from age eight and up, including your stepdaughter.”

This sounded super fishy to Paul. Why would he need to purify girls specifically, and not boys? And so, Paul asked, “What is the purification ritual?”

The witchdoctor was surprised that Paul had never heard of the purification ritual, but he said, “In order to protect everyone from evil spirits, and to teach girls to please their husbands, once they are eight years old, or they become widows, I have sex with them, and that purifies their body and protects the community from evil spirits.”

Paul’s blood pressure rose 50 points, and he said with disbelief and anger, “What did you say?”

The witchdoctor thought, good he is angry, I will perform this ritual instead of him, and the witch doctor smirked as he said, “In order to protect everyone here from evil spirits, I need to have sex with every girl above the age of eight.”

Once the man confirmed his evil intent, Paul grabbed his axes off his belt and began slamming them into the witchdoctor’s head. The evil man was so smug he never saw it coming. As his body fell, Paul continued to slam his axes into the corpse. When Paul was done, he gave the corpse the most hateful look anybody standing around had ever seen and spit on the corpse.

The execution of the witchdoctor happened so suddenly that it was unreal and took moments for the people to react, but when they did, they cried out in fear. One yelled out, “He killed the witchdoctor now his spirit will haunt us.”

When Paul heard that, he screamed out, “I HOPE HIS SPIRIT HAUNTS ME! WHEN IT COMES BY, I WILL CAPTURE AND TORTURE IT FOR ETERNITY. IN FACT, LETS LOOK FOR HIS SPIRIT NOW!” With that statement Paul took his axes and began striking the witchdoctors corpse and broke open his chest, then he put his axes back on his belt, tore open the chest and cried out, “I DO NOT SEE HIS SPIRIT HERE” then he tore out the heart and lungs, and cried out, “I DO NOT SEE HIS SPIRIT HERE EITHER.”

Then he took out his axes once again and began cutting through his guts, and when the corpse was mincemeat twenty minutes later, Paul called out and said, “Unfortunately, his spirit is gone, or maybe he didn’t have one, to begin with. I wish I could catch it and kill it over and over again. How dare he even desire to do that to any of the girls under my protection. I swear to you today, any witchdoctor I come across will die, and my desire is their spirit attacks me so I can capture and kill it again and again.”

That day two things happened. Paul began the process of stopping the ritual of purification that, unfortunately, lasted in Africa in the previous timeline until the Wixors destroyed the world. In this timeline, ritualized rape called purification did not last another two thousand years, but it would end in nearly two hundred years in Africa, thanks to Paul’s fury.

The second thing that happened is that among his people, the people began to believe that Paul had power over spirits, and so they become far more loyal to him. This would have a lasting impact in his lifetime.

While his people were contemplating the new reality where spirits could not do a thing to Paul, Paul told his men, “Tomorrow we are going to head back to the village, and I am going to kill the chief. Tonight, I am going to take a bath, and afterward have a long conversation with my wife, and probably cry with her.

Paul went off and had the boys get his bath ready, got it warm, and cleaned the blood, guts, brains, and bile of the witchdoctor off his body. Afterward, he went and talked with his wife alone.

“Chazia, did the witchdoctor,” Paul said the word with venom, “purify you?”

Chazia started to tear up and said, “Yes. When I was a child, it was a different witchdoctor who purified me. After my husband died, it was that witchdoctor who purified me. He said I had to do it, or spirits would destroy the village. I didn’t like it and didn’t want it for my daughter. None of the women do, and a lot of the men don’t like it, but what are we to do? We do not want to be destroyed by spirits.”

Paul said, “I am so sorry that happened to you, I am so sorry that happened to all the girls in the village, but I promise you, that as long as I am alive the ritual of purification will never happen again, and anyone who has ever practiced it will die horribly.”

With that, Paul and Chazia simply held each other until they fell asleep.

Chapter 22 April AD 72 Becoming Chief

The next morning Paul and his five men made their way to the village. Paul was furious, but his men were excited! They were finally going to get rid of the chief who had persecuted them.

On their journey, Paul told his men, "Cover me with your bows."

The men had never heard that phrase before and asked, "What does cover you with our bows mean?"

Paul explained, "I will go talk with the chief. I am probably going to kill him for sending that witchdoctor. When I do that, his guards might take up weapons against me if they do shoot them with arrows. If they back down, leave them alone."

When they got to the village, they made their way to the granary where the chief and his men were once again guarding the granary. Paul was clearly furious as he walked to the chief, but the chief had his pride and said, "Why are you here?"

Paul asked, "Did you send the witchdoctor to perform the "Paul said the word with pure venom, "purification ritual?'

The chief smirked and said, "Yes, you must respect…"

Whatever else he was going to say was lost as Paul pulled out his ax and cleaved off the chief's head in one motion.

All the guards ran away except for two, who foolishly drew weapons. Paul's men put two arrows in one, and three in the other.

Then Abilio ran up to the head of the previous chief, grabbed it, and started running around the village with it screaming, "The Chief is dead, Paul is the new Chief."

That's when all the people of the village gathered round. The oldest was perhaps in their early twenties, to the youngest that was a newborn held by a mother that was far younger than what Paul wanted to consider. This was when Paul realized he was chief, and his people were waiting for him to guide them. Including the wives and children of the men he just killed.

It was one thing to kill a man who sent another man to rape your stepdaughter. But it was something else to see his children weep, and look at you with hate in their eyes, and their mothers covering their children's mouth with their hand, so the child doesn't say anything to get them killed. His fury left him, and he realized he just created widows and orphans that he was now in charge of feeding.

Paul told the people, "I have to check the grain stock. Please come back when the sun goes down for your ration of grain, and then I will tell you my plan." Paul did this mostly to give him time to think. He was now responsible for feeding several hundred people because tribalism puts the burden on the chief to feed the people.

Paul checked the granaries and did the math. He realized that there was not enough grain to feed everyone every day until the next grain harvest eleven months away. Paul was confused because the grain he gave the chief should have helped him to have more grain than last year. Paul had one of the chief's old guards brought to him. This guard was maybe 18 years old and one of the older people in the village.

Paul said, "Do not fear for your life, the old chief is dead and now your one of my people. Do you understand."

The guard was trembling, he was terrified, but he nodded in agreement and said, "Yes sir chief, I am one of your people, I am loyal to you alone, thank you."

Before he could ramble on about how grateful and loyal he was, Paul asked, "What happened to the grain I gave the chief at the festival of planting?"

The guard went pale and said, "The chief made it into bread, and he forced the other guards and me to eat it. We did not want to because we knew how powerful you were, but we had to follow the previous chief's order no matter how foolish and evil they were. We would never try to offend you." By the time he was done speaking, he was almost crying.

Paul was irritated when he found out what the chief did. The idiot ate the most valuable grain in the world instead of using it as seed. Then as the guard rambled on, Paul faced palmed. Maybe the previous chief liked his men groveling and brown-nosing him, but to Paul it was annoying, so Paul said, "Please go and inform the people that the previous chief ate the seed I gave as a gift for the village, and because of that they will struggle this year." Paul figured it is best to let bad news come from subordinates, and good news come from Paul. At least for now.

The guard was grateful he wasn't getting beat or killed, so he excitedly said, "Yes chief, Yes chief." And then ran off happy to be away from the man who casually killed the last chief.

As the time for the evening approached, Paul considered how he could lead a group that was made up of nearly 30 teenage boys, around 60 or 70 teenage girls, and their 150 to 200 children. The answer was simple lead the guys and have them lead their wives and children. Now he just had to figure out how to lead the guys.

As Paul thought about it, he decided he would lead them by showing them respect on an individual level, feeding them, showing them new things that they would find cool, using peer pressure, and competition. Paul was going to manipulate these young men like crazy, and it started with his speech today.

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As the people were gathering, and Paul was getting his thoughts together for his speech, someone started making a commotion. It was a bearded man who looked weird but not as weird as the last witch doctor. He yelled out, "Where is the witchdoctor! You can not be made chief without the witchdoctor's approval; otherwise, spirits will consume you."

Paul was very irritated with this man and asked, "Who are you?"

The man said, "I am the witchdoctors apprentice. I will carry on our ways, rituals, and traditions when he is dead."

Paul's face went from irritation to a deathly coldness, and he said, "That was the wrong answer. Yesterday evening I killed the witchdoctor because of his ritual, and now you are going to die because of that ritual." The man was stunned but reacted as Paul pulled his axes by turning to run. But all that happened was that Paul's ax found the back of the man's head. Paul would never allow the purification ritual to happen again in his land, and he would kill anyone who has ever performed it or told him to his face they intended to perform it.

In a sense, that man's outburst and death made Paul's speech easier. He said, "Apparently, many of you have not heard that yesterday evening I killed the witchdoctor because he was going to perform an evil ritual on the girls under my protection, including my stepdaughter. The chief sent him to my hill to perform this ritual, and so the chief had to die. I protect my people period. Now I just killed the witchdoctors apprentice because he said that he would carry on the rituals he was taught. I wish it to be known now; nobody will ever be allowed to perform an evil ritual on my people as long as I live because I protect my people."

The people in the village felt relief and fear. They were terrified of the witchdoctor's magical powers that they did not understand. The witchdoctors held them in fear of curses and deaths that the people believed the witchdoctor and his apprentice could deliver. The people were relieved when they were dead and gone. But the people also felt fear because the witchdoctors told the people often that the witchdoctors protected the people from evil spirits. Now their protector was gone. They wondered if Paul could protect them from the evil spirits. They would ask his men about it.

Paul continued his speech and dropped a bombshell on the people, "From now on, no girl under 14 will be allowed to marry, unless she is a widow with a child."

The men were upset with this, including the men he brought with him. Abilio was 17 years old now, and he was looking forward to getting married again now that Paul was chief, so Abilio said, "But Chief, how am I supposed to find a wife if I have to wait till the girl is 14."

Paul said, "Look around. There are a lot of widows with kids, feel free to marry them, and take care of them and their children."

Another man whom Paul was not familiar with said, "A real warrior would never marry a woman who already had children. A real warrior raises his children, and that's it." And there were some shouts of agreement.

Then Paul took out one of his axes and tossed it to the man, "Since you do not think I am a real warrior attack me with that ax. I am unarmed, but I promise you that if you attack me with that ax, I will break you and kill you."

The warrior was stunned, and stuttered, "But, I didn't mean anything, but what kind of warrior would raise another man's children."

Paul was furious, that man just insulted Paul, and his wife and Paul yelled, "ME! Chazia is my wife! She has three wonderful children from a man I never met, and she is now carrying my child. Furthermore, I am raising 21 orphans on my hill. This is the act of a real warrior, a real man."

As Paul told this man off, Paul stomped toward him. As the man saw Paul approaching, he wisely dropped the ax, and when Paul got to him, he punched him in his face, and the man went down and curled into a ball.

Paul yelled out, "Anybody else think they are a better warrior than me? Let me tell you about what real men are. Real men take care of those who can not take care of themselves. You see a child or an infant; you take care of that child and infant before you take care of yourself. You marry a girl, and you take care of the girl before you take care of yourself. Being a man means you are stronger and more capable than women and children." Paul was under no illusion until the industrial revolution; women are very dependent on men, and the men needed to step up. Paul continued, "If you are a man, then you have the most ability, and you use your ability to help others."

One of the men asked, "But the last chief didn't do that."

Paul pointed out, "Under the last chief you didn't eat every day, did you?"

The man said, "No."

Paul said, "Do you want me to be like the last chief where you only get to eat every other day?"

Several of the people Shouted, "NO!"

Paul said, "The people at my hill, every man, woman, and child are eating three times a day." When Paul said that there were gasp and whispers, then Paul continued, "The last chief was an idiot who did not know how to raise crops, so this year I will try to do my best to have everyone eat at least twice a day, until the crops come in next year."

With that, there was cheering. The people never hoped to eat that much. It was a rare thing to eat twice a day, much less do it every day, but Paul continued, "The problem is that your chief really didn't know how to farm, so there is only enough food in the granary for one meal a day until the next harvest." This announcement killed the people's enthusiasm.

Then Paul put a smile on his face and said, "So I will have to share my food stores with you from the hill to make sure everyone has enough to eat."

Now the people really cheered. Paul was giving them his food.

Paul continued, "Here's the thing. In order to get that food from my hill to this village we are going to need to build a road, do you know what a road is?"

Nobody said yes, so Paul continued, "A road is like a path, but it goes to specific places. We will make a road by digging a path from the granary at my hill to the granary in this village. Then we will fill the path up with gravel and then put rocks on top of the gravel."

With the thought of long hard work, Paul could see the faces of the men fall, so he continued, "I will only need strong men for this job. Which of you men are strong?" Every male that understood what Paul said raised their hand.

That's when Paul called over the five men who helped him kill the chief, and said, "I want all the strong men to keep their hands up. Now each one of these men will choose five of the strongest men in the village to be on their team."

It didn't take long for his five loyal followers to choose five men each. Now Paul had every male teenager in the village getting ready to work on his road project. Why break them up into five teams if all you are going to do is, have a road project? Because It was now time to start developing the loyalty of ALL the men, not just some of the men.

Paul called out and said, "Does everyone know what team they are on?"

They all said, "Yes!"

Paul said, "The leaders of your team are the leaders right now because they followed me. But maybe you think they are leaders only because they followed me. If you think you can defeat your leader in unarmed combat, challenge them now or hold your peace."

Every one of Paul's leaders was challenged except Abilio. His men knew that if Paul hadn't become chief, then it's likely Abilio would have. Paul spent the last few months training the rest of the leaders in martial arts every day, including sparring with them. Although Paul would only consider them adequate martial artists, they easily won each of their battles. Although ironically, they hit a lot harder than Paul did when Paul fought the men on warrior's rock because the leaders did not have the same level of control as Paul did.

The men who were beaten were shocked by how badly they were defeated. They had all fought Paul's leaders on warriors rock over the years, and they were not good unarmed fighters then. Times have changed; they had become amazing compared to how they used to be.

Paul's final words for the night were these, "When we go back to my hill, not only will you be making a road to the village, you will also be learning how to fight from me."

Chapter 23 April AD 72 Leader

The next day they left the village for Paul’s hill. Although it was only three to four miles away, by the way, the crow flies, due to the broken terrain, it was an all-day trip. It reminded Paul of the stories he heard about South America when planes were first introduced. Before airplanes, men traveled a month or more to get to a tribe or mountain or somewhere in the jungles of South America. Then the plane was invented and made its way to South America. The trip that took a month on foot only took fifteen minutes in an aircraft.

Paul was bringing along thirty men, in five groups, and he had each group bring two cattle. One male and one female. Four of the male cattle were going to be castrated and turned into oxen for the men to work with. The best-behaved one on the trip was going to become a daddy. These ten cattle represented half the cattle the village owned. Paul told those left in the village that he wanted all the female cattle left to get pregnant and give birth. Cattle was a precious commodity that they were barely using.

As they made their trip, Paul was irritated by how they had to go the long way around everything because logs, streams, and hills were in the way. With his thirty men, they would make a nice road, and some bridges in the next month or two and turn this day hike into an hour walk.

As they made their way across the wilderness, the men were talking, and one of the new men asked, “Why do the leaders wear shirts and pants while the rest of us walk around in loin clothes?”

Abilio, Paul’s most senior leader at 17 years old, said, “Because we are better than you. If you ever become as valuable as us, you will get shirts and pants too.”

Paul could have kissed Abilio. One of the things Paul had been trying to figure out is how to get these thirty teenagers to wear clothes. Paul was the leader, and he could just beat them into submission, but then they would only do what he wanted out of fear, not out of desire. Abilio just fixed that situation and gave Paul an idea.

Paul said, “I want to see the Jiwi Mkuki tribe become the greatest tribe in the land, and I will show everyone how great the tribe is by having our best and brightest wear shirts and pants. “

“In fact, the only time someone who has shirts and pants can take them off is when they are in their hut or the bathhouse.” All the new guys looked at Paul with a blank expression when he said bathhouse, so Paul said, “When we get to the hill, I will show you what a bathhouse is, and why we can take our shirts and pants off there. If you ever see a guy who normally has shirts and pants walking around without them, you should go to them and ask them how they failed so miserably to lose them. To lose your clothing would make you a bigger loser than anyone who never had them at all.”

Paul continued and said, “I know wearing shirts and pants are hot, but only real warriors can deal with the heat. If someone is not strong enough to stand the heat, they cannot be a great warrior.”

With that little conversation, Paul just made dead sure his leaders didn’t take their clothes off, and that all his new guys would want to show everyone how they were true men by getting shirts and pants. The conversations that his men had after that little speech pleased Paul to no end.

As they continued their trip, they came to a stream they had to cross, and some of the men started drinking the water when Paul yelled, “STOP DRINKING THE WATER!” the men were startled, that Paul yelled at them and stopped immediately

Paul began to explain, “I want all of you to become strong warriors, and you can not become strong warriors if you drink plain water. If you want to be weak, go ahead, and drink water. If you want to be a weak man for the rest of your life, raise your hand right now, and I will let you go back to your village to be with the women and children.” There was no way any of these men; these teens would raise their hand. They all wanted to be the strongest there was.

Paul then took an Iron Pan out of his pack and filled it with water, and told his men, “Get me firewood.” Then he looked to his leaders and said, “Get out your pans. We are going to make tea for all the men.” With thirty men, they quickly got the firewood, and Paul easily set a fire with some flint and sulfur. Once the water was boiling, Paul had men take out cups and added some tea leaves to the bottom and then poured in the boiling water.

Paul said, “Tea leaves will make a man strong, but only if he drinks it with boiling water. Regular water makes a man weak. If you want to be strong, the only thing you will drink is hot tea.” With that, Paul drank his tea, and the men followed suit, and they were determined not only to drink tea exclusively from now on but to drink tea often. If it makes a man strong, the more, the better right? If water makes a man weak, they were determined never to drink it again.

While they were drinking the tea, Paul took out a jar of boiled antelope, he opened it, took a piece and passed it around, and asked, “How long ago do you think we cooked that antelope?”

One of the men said, “Three days ago.”

Paul shook his head and said, “Longer.”

Another said, “Five days ago.”

Paul said, “longer.” Paul’s leaders had big grins on their faces because they knew the answer.

Another one that had heard about the jar of food said, “A month ago.”

One of the men answered before Paul and said, “That’s not possible. It would be rotten by now.”

But then Paul said, “We cooked this antelope three months ago.” The men gasped when Paul continued and said, “One of the things I am going to teach you guys is how to make glass jars and cook food in them, so they last for months or even years.”

The men were dumbstruck by that, and after a few seconds of silence, one of the men said, “Why would you teach us your secrets?”

Paul was surprised by the question and said, “Why would I keep this secret?”

He answered, “So you can profit off it without anyone else profiting off it.”

Paul said, “If you are better at making glass than me, I want you making glass, and I will go do something I am better at. Besides, if I am the only one making glass jars, then there will never be enough glass jars for our village. And I am not going to stop there. I am going to show you how to find pyrite so you can make iron on your own, I am going to show you how to turn iron into products, I am going to show you how to fight, I am going to show you how to farm, I am going to show you how to woodwork, basically everything I know how to do I am going to show you how to do. “

Paul continued, “Not only that, but I am going to do things far differently than the last chief. At the beginning of the rainy season, whose crop did you plant?”

The men said, “We planted the village's crops.”

Paul asked, “Did any of you plant your own crops?”

The men shook their heads and said, “No.”

Paul said, “I am going to give each man a piece of land before the rainy season begins, and I am going to give each man plenty of seed to grow his crop, and out of everything that’s grown the village will only keep ten percent, and you will keep 90%.”

The men were floored if Paul did that all of them would be rich. But then Paul continued and said, “Some of you will be amazing farmers, but some of you will struggle with farming. What will you do if you are a terrible farmer?” The men gave him a blank stare, and Paul said, “If you are a terrible farmer, then perhaps you are a good smith, or a good glassmaker, or a good carpenter, or good at something else, and so you will focus on what you are good at. Then trade your goods and services to the guys who farm for food, so everyone gets ahead.”

When the men looked uncertain about the new way of doing things, Paul just stroked their sense of competition by saying, “We will find out who the best farmer is, who the best smith is, who the best glassmaker is, who the best carpenter is.” Of course, all these men, teenagers really, thought they were the best, even at jobs they had never heard of till today.

That’s when Paul said one last line that got them hooked, “We will find out who is best with the new tools and techniques I will show you.” Although the village had not changed in generations, these young people were excited about new things.

Chapter 24 October AD 72 Family Problems in Texas

John was extremely nervous. His wife, Onawa, was giving birth to their first child. John had already lost his wife and children to the Wixor attack two and a half years ago in John's timeline, and now his wife was having her first child at the tender age of twenty-one.

Birth was an extremely dangerous time for both mother and child. Many children have died from having their umbilical cord wrapped around their neck. At times mothers lose strength while giving birth to their child, and they both die. In the modern world, a woman could go to a hospital and have a c-section and save both the child and mother in most cases, but John was in a homestead 2000 years away from a modern hospital.

John's father in law stood next to him and said, "John don't be nervous. Women have babies all the time. If having babies was too dangerous, none of us would be here."

John thought, "That's logical, but it does nothing to help me." But said, "Thank you for that." It was the polite thing to do.

Over the last few months, John had trained the women on using boiling water to disinfect anything that came into contact with a wound, including cloth bandages and stitches. John really wanted to find some copper so he could make a still that could produce alcohol strong enough to act as a disinfectant, but at this point, boiling water would do.

John wanted to be in there with his wife when she gave birth, but the women kicked him out. He tried to argue that if  anything happened, they might need him to sew a wound, but all the women pointed out that even though they just learned to sew last year, albeit from John, they were already much better seamstresses than him. The only thing he would do if he stayed in there would be to make his wife both embarrassed and even more nervous than she was.

John spent the day pacing, praying, sitting, sweating, and, most of all, worrying. Eventually, he heard a little babe cry to let the world know it had entered, and the ladies opened the door to his cabin and let him in. His wife was holding the baby and said with a bright smile, "It's a boy. What are you going to name him?"

Back in his time, it would be totally unacceptable for a man to name a child without his wife's impute, but here it was considered bad luck for men and women to talk about the name of the child before they saw them. When John saw the baby, only one name came to mind, "Trevor. We will call him Trevor."

The tribe had never heard that name before, but they happily accepted it.

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A week after Trever was born, several of the women in the village came to talk to John and said, "John, we are happy for you and Onawa, but we are also a bit jealous. We need to find husbands, but the other tribe killed nearly all our men, can you go to some of the tribes in the area and talk to them on our behalf?"

John was blown away that they would ask this, but he understood and said, "I am so sorry I hadn't even thought about it. I will talk to Kuruk about it. Can you girls ever forgive me?"

The young ladies said, "There is nothing to forgive. You have been there for us when you had no tribal or family bonds. We appreciate what you have done for us, and the only reason why we are asking for your help is that we feel bad that you and the other men are taking care of us when we are not married to you. At our age, we need husbands taking care of us, not random men in the tribe."

Later that day, John went and talked with Kuruk about the women's concerns, and Kuruk said, "I was hoping this problem would solve itself, but apparently none of the villages in the area know about our village yet. We haven't even had a hunter stumble across us. There are bound to be villages along the river near us. Here's what we will do, you take one of the men upriver, and I will take one downriver. We will take some of the iron knives you made and trade for furs or something. They will know it's a pretense for something else, and we can casually mention that you have too many brides and not enough grooms. Between the girls and the iron, we will have plenty of visitors."

That night John talked with Onawa. She didn't want to see her husband go, but the girls needed husbands. Why should she deny them the blessing she already had? John told her he was going to leave his dogs to protect her and the baby and encouraged her to treat them well.

The next day John grabbed one of the young men and started heading upriver along the bank. Considering all the trees, the winding nature of the river, and the streams meeting up with the river, it was pretty slow going. But after a couple of days, they saw the smoke, and they followed it to a village.

They made their way in, and they got a lot of attention. Several men came out to meet them, and John said, "We are here to trade. We have some items you will love to have."

One of the men said, "You will have to talk to our Chief about it. Follow me."

As they followed him, the man led them to a gray-haired man. John said, "good afternoon, we came here to trade."

The Chief asked, "Are you men from a hunting tribe?"

John said, "We used to be, but last year the tribe settled downriver from here, about a two-day walk, maybe one once we figure the route out better. One of the tribal elders suggested that since we have the harvest in, we ought to meet the neighboring tribes. I agreed and thought that our neighbors might like a gift." With that, John pulled out one of his bowie knives and gave it to the Chief of the tribe.

The Chief looked at it with a look of wonder and took it. He began playing with it, testing out the sharpness and strength, and he said, "What is this?"

John said, "This is a knife made out of iron. I know how to take different types of rock and make them into iron, and then the iron into things like this knife, pots, or a wheeled plow, or parts for a spinning wheel."

The Chief said, "The only thing I understood in that sentence was a knife, but the other things sound impressive. I take it iron is required to make them."

John said, "Yes, and if you want, we have a few more knives we can trade you, perhaps for some hides."

The Chief could see that they were there for something other than trade, and he said, "How about one hide per knife."

John said, "Yes, we can do that. And perhaps you can help me out in some other matter."

The Chief asked, "What?"

John said, "Well, you see, we have a lot more of the rock that makes iron than we can process. I would love for you to send some of your young men to come and help me make iron and learn how to make these iron knives. And while they are there, they might find some young ladies to marry and bring back to the tribe."

The Chief now knew why he had come. Too many women, not enough men to marry them. The Chief said, "We have some young men who do not have family obligations who could come and learn from you, and perhaps they will take a shine to some of your young ladies and bring them back. We might lose a man or two, but I suspect we will gain a few daughters and men with some amazing skills. Besides, we already got the harvest in and won't need the men again until planting season. Stay tonight, and tomorrow I will send some of the men with you."

That night John got to know the villagers a bit better. The villagers were impressed with the iron but were shocked fascinated by Johns's fast-firing bow. John couldn't help but show off his things to his neighbors.

The next day John and his companion left with four unmarried, unattached young men. If John hadn't made it so clear that his trip was more about finding husbands for brides, he would have had a lot more men join him.

They made it back to their village safely. A day later, Kuruk showed up with six young men. John was thrilled, he had ten more strong backs to put to work all winter, and they would work hard every single day because all the men were there to impress young ladies.

Chapter 25 November AD 72 A Good Dry Season in Africa

Paul's people were excited about all the changes he had made over the dry season. From their perspective, eating twice a day was a welcome change that they never expected in their lifetime. Exclusively drinking tea meant that only a couple of people in the village suffered from dysentery the entire dry season. Because of canning in glass jars, they were able to have meat at least once a week. Paul even introduced butter. The people knew how to milk the cows they had, but they had no clue on how to churn the milk into butter. Before Paul showed them butter, they rarely milked their cattle since milk doesn't have that long of a shelf life in hot Africa. But the butter was amazing as it lasted a long time in the heat, and it helped flavor their life.

When Paul took the young men back to his hill to build the road, the young men had no idea how easy and fascinating the job would be. First of all, Paul had an ox plow up the ground before them to make it easier to dig the dirt. You can imagine the excitement of 14-17-year old's getting to take turns riding that plow, especially when they had never seen anything like it before. Then Paul gave them iron shovels and picks, which were better at digging than anything they ever imagined using before. With those tools, the different teams made it a competition to see who could dig out the most dirt.

During the competition, they started giving their teams names. Abilio was the lion team. The next team was ox, then elephant, crocodile, and finally hippo. Since they were competing, Paul made a point to keep score. It made his job a lot easier.

When the young men heard that they were going to be bringing in rocks and gravel from the stream to fill the roadbed they never imagined Paul would have them using the oxen with buckets strapped to it to carry the rocks and gravel. They envisioned a long grueling affair of carrying rocks over long distances. Instead, it wasn't too bad going down a creek bed and digging out the gravel, filling up the buckets, and bringing the ox to where the other group was digging up the roadbed.

When they started this project, the young men figured they were making a path, but they had no idea that they would be given what Paul called machetes to cut through the brush and vines. The iron machetes cut through the brush and vines like, well, honestly, they had no reference, it was like magic to them. In their lifetime, if you make a path, you have to do it around all the brush and vines and trees, but with Paul's tools, you make the path through everything.

One of the things they loved were the axes. With axes, they could cut down the biggest and meanest trees out there and make the path as straight as they needed. Then they didn't let the tree go to waste. They cut up the tree into chunks to later be turned into coal for the furnace.

As they made their way to the first stream in their path, they asked Paul what they should do. Paul had them cut down several trees and build a bridge over the stream. It might seem simple to those who grew up in the modern world, but a wide bridge was a new idea to them. They had seen trees crossing streams before, but binding several of them together to connect two roads was a revolutionary idea to these young ignorant people. Paul showed them how to cut and bind the logs together to make the bridge sturdy. Since the gap wasn't that wide, it only needed logs that were nailed together and smoothed out.

The process of making the road was going to take months. The men were finding and preparing paths. They prepared the paths by clearing brush, cutting down trees and digging out a roadbed. Other men were finding gravel in creek beds and bringing it to the roadbed and pouring out the gravel for at least a two-foot thick layer of gravel. Then they were setting thick rocks on top of the gravel, with a layer of clay in between the big rocks that were on top of the gravel. Paul even remembered to make sure the middle of the road was higher than the sides and to leave ditches on both sides.

In May, when the men were about halfway done making the road, Chazia gave birth to a healthy son, that Paul named Alexander. The people wondered why Paul named his son such a weird name but didn't say anything. Paul didn't worry at all about his sons' birth because nobody told him about his wife being in labor until after the child was born.

In the midst of construction and becoming a father, Paul was doing what was necessary to make his men follow his orders. He was showing them how to fight. He took his thirty men and started doing standard karate class stuff with them. He showed them how to stand, how to hold themselves, how you look men in the face, how to punch and kick, and, most importantly, how to follow his commands.

It worried Paul that his men were becoming okay individual fighters. The reality of martial arts is that most martial arts can trace their roots back to the military. Some martial arts go back to a military that fought with spears, or swords, or different types of weapons. Whatever weapon they had is reflected in the stances, strikes, and movements of the art. But the reality of martial arts is that martial arts train individuals, whereas militaries train groups of men to fight together. Paul was turning out okay individual fighters, but they had no clue how to fight together, and Paul was hoping that didn't blow up in his face.

That worry aside, Paul got all his men interested in reading. One day he wrote a message on a piece of wood and had some of the new guys deliver the messages to his leaders that spent the last rainy season with him. Paul had taught them how to read some. Imagine the new guy's surprise when Paul was able to talk to his other men with a piece of wood. They did not have the nerve to ask Paul to teach them his magic as that was taboo, but when Paul saw how excited they were, he offered, and they gladly accepted. Paul wondered what would have happened in the modern world if someone had seen teenagers digging out roadbeds while singing the ABC song.

Paul was also busy teaching them how to blacksmith, make glass, and be carpenters. There was a lot of work being done, and some men shined in one area, and others shined in another. What was important was that right now, the men were learning.

Over the course of time, Chazia and the other leaders' wives were able to make more shirts and pants. Paul rewarded the men for good work with them as they became available. They were proud to wear clothing. That said, Paul was worried about how the rest of the village women would see clothing, so he sat down with Chazia and figured out how to dye the thread, and they started making really colorful cloth for the women. When the road was completed, and the women saw the clothes their men had, they were confused, but when Paul and Chazia gave them pretty cloth to make into their own clothes, they were excited, especially as Chazia showed them how to sew. Paul may have brought in the idea of sewing, but he wasn't very good as he never sewed before he was sent back in time. Chazia was pretty good at it, and it wasn't long before the women were making pretty clothes for them and their children after all clothes were a status symbol now.

In time the road was completed. The people were amazed that what used to be an all-day trip was now only about a forty-minute walk. When you get all the brush and trees out of the way and build bridges over the streams and ravines, you realize the world is not as big as you thought it was, although some of the more superstitious men thought Paul had used magic to make the world a smaller place.

Afterward, Paul sent out the men to decide where they wanted to build their farms. Paul was clear they needed to farm at least five acres of land so that they and their family could continue eating as well as they had all dry season. Before this, when the village of three hundred people farmed, they were only farming about fifty acres, way less than they should have for the number of people they had. The chief didn't care as long as he ate every day, and the people were not motivated to work since they were only going to get the crumbs from the chief. Why work hard when someone else is going to get all the benefits?

As the men were looking for good places to farm, Paul started working on another project. Paul began building a wheeled cart for the oxen to pull. When he finished it, Paul hooked up an ox to it, loaded it with supplies, and started the walk to the village. As he walked, he passed men looking for the best places to build their farms, and when they saw the cart, they ran out and started hollering and cheering. To them, it was a fantastic site. An ox cart could carry what it took thirty men to carry. Of course, they all wanted to ride, and Paul let them. If the cart broke, he could always build a better one now that he had a little experience.

This year they were holding the planting festival early so the men would have plenty of time to chose their fields, plow them and plant the new grains Paul was providing.

What a difference one year makes.

Chapter 26 November 72 AD Planting Festival

This year's planting festival was totally different than the one they had last year. For one thing, the festival started with breakfast. The people have gotten used to eating twice a day, and they were beginning to fill out some, and as a whole, they look healthy instead of anemic. Paul suspected that within a year or two, he would no longer be the tallest person in the village now that malnutrition was becoming a memory.

Another change was that everyone was sitting at tables. The men had gotten used to Paul's table back at Paul's hill, and they liked it well enough that they made large tables for the village. It was almost like the village had its own picnic area filled with wooden tables. The men were getting better at making chairs, but most people were sitting at benches for today's breakfast.

Last year Paul and his family were the only people wearing clothes. This year everyone was wearing clothes. Last year people drank water this year they drank tea. Last year the widows had no future. This year many of the widows had been married to men… well, teenagers. Last year the ten-year-old girls were looking to be married within the year, now the girls were in new territory because they were not allowed to be married until they were fourteen.

They have come a long way in a year, and if they were going to keep going in that direction, Paul needed to do this reward ceremony right. Paul spoke in as loud of a voice as he could with yelling, "I trust everyone enjoyed their breakfast!"

Everyone cheered.

"Is everyone excited to hear the results for who built the road the fastest?"

Everyone started yelling, shouting, and cheering. Paul did not have a microphone (it wasn't invented yet, maybe in a few hundred years someone would make one), so he had to wait for them to calm down.

"In first place was team OX!"

Several different families started cheering; they were related to the people in team ox.

Paul said, "Because your team won you guys get to pick which land you want to farm first, your leader will get to choose in what order you get to pick out your land. And no, you cannot take my farmland. I already have it plowed, and the person who gets to use that first will be determined in another competition later today."

The people laughed, and Paul continued, "Team Crocodile won second place! The same rules apply to you" More cheering.

Paul continued, "Abilio my brother in law, the man who brought my wife to me, and the uncle of my son, your team, team lion came in third!" There was a lot of cheering for this. Before Paul came, Abilio was the chief's rival and very well may have been the next chief. The people were pretty happy to see that Abilio was third when it came to building the road because it meant they could compete with him.

Then Paul said, "Finally fourth place goes to team HIPPO!" There was cheering and mumbling at that announcement. Paul didn't feel the need to say team Elephant came in last.

Paul started his speech, "Look, everyone is a winner today. Everyone is going to get their own property in the next couple of days. Every one of you are going to get your own crops to grow. And everyone is far richer than they were last year." People started cheering.

Then Paul continued, "Now, as you know, we only have six oxen, and we have thirty men that need to plow their fields. No, we are not going to castrate the two bulls we have left because we need them to help the cows to make more calves. So how are we going to chose who gets to use the oxen to plow their fields first?" The people got really quiet, waiting for Paul's answer. Paul screamed out, "WARRIORS ROCK!"

All the young men lifted up their hands and screamed! They were going to fight for the right to use the oxen! All the young men ran to the rock and climbed up. They were excited to fight each other again.

When things calmed down, Paul and the rest of the noncombatants walked to the rock, and when they got there, Paul said, "I am going to keep track of who quits first, and if you are to slow to get back on the rock you are out since everyone is trying to get a prize. Oh, by the way, for those of you who win and get to plow first, you will only get the plow and oxen for two days before you have to give it to the next in line. Now for the last warrior standing on the rock, you will get a special prize, awarded to you at dinner tonight!"

The young men perked up with that announcement. Paul had brought a lot of good things to their village, so if he said they were getting a special prize, it must be good. With that thought running through their heads, Paul shouted, "Begin!"

Paul was expecting one of his leaders to get the special prize as he had been working with them for about a year in martial arts. The rest he had only been working with for about half a year. It's certainly possible to overcome that kind of gap, but Paul thought it was unlikely.

As Paul watched, he was pleased that none of the men leaned back to dodge. Most of them were still stepping back to dodge, but they stopped leaning back. Almost all the men were throwing proper punches and kicks, and there were certainly some that were taking advantage of fighters who were too focused on their opponents. The nature of warrior's rock was everybody vs. everybody, so if you were fighting one guy, its very possible for someone else to sneak up on you and hurt you.

Paul was very disappointed by two things. First of all, he was disappointed that none of the men teamed up to fight others. Last year there had been a couple of teams, but since then, Paul had taught them to fight as individual fighters, and it showed. Paul was going to have to figure out how to do things differently. Secondly, Paul was disappointed by how many guys were falling off the rock because they backed up to dodge a punch or kick. They really needed to pay better attention to their surroundings, or better yet learn to step up and to the side of their attacker. You cannot see what's behind you. You can see what's in front of you, so dodge to the front where you can see where you are dodging too.

Paul was going to figure out some very uncomfortable drills to teach these guys some needed lessons!

As the fight went on, Paul's expectations were dashed. Every time his leaders got into a fight with someone, someone else snuck up behind them and started wailing on them. It wasn't long before one by one they were beaten off the rock, or in one case, knocked flat out and tossed off the rock. As Paul saw this, Paul was devising some painful lessons so his leaders would learn teamwork. Didn't the seals have to carry a log around with them to learn teamwork? What a good lesson for these guys to learn.

This year the men were much better at fighting, so warriors rock was a much shorter affair this year than last year. Once only one man was standing, the winner was announced. Then Paul made an announcement, "Men, you did a great job; it is clear you are much better fighters this year than last year." There were cheers. Paul waited for them to calm down and then continued." My wife and I have been showing the ladies how to fight. I won't ask them to do warriors rock, but they will be asked to fight each other individually in what is called a tournament. Once one person loses their fight, they are out of the tournament. They will continue fighting until we have one winner, and I will give them a special prize!"

As the women got organized and started their various fights, many of them chose to forfeit. Paul had no problem with that. It wasn't long before the ladies had some outstanding battles. In all honesty, all the women who fought were good enough to beat any of the men before Paul had taught hem how to fight. Paul was surprised to hear the men acknowledge that the women could have beaten them before they learned to fight from Paul. Paul was so happy to hear that his technique beats strength speeches were reaching their brains.

As time passed, one lady won, and Paul thought that she had real talent. She wasn't as good as the leaders were on an individual level, but in a one, on one fight, she could give most of the guys a run for their money for now. As they started learning weapons, she may always be able to give the men a run for their money, only time would tell.

It was getting time for dinner, and before dinner started, Paul wanted to give his winners their prizes. Paul called them over to his table, and on the table, he had a couple of things hidden under a cloth. Paul announced, "For winning the warriors rock I give you," And Paul took out from under the cloth," A short sword." The man very carefully took his short sword. It was sharp on both sides all the way to the hilt, it had a fuller in the middle, it was a straight sword meant for stabbing, but that's how Paul had been training his men. In time they would all carry around short swords. They all already had Pig spears.

The women all had axes and knives. It was certainly something else to see women go about their day with a knife on one hip and an ax on the other. The knife was far too practical for the women to give it up for duel axes, but if the village should be raided, the ax was a far better weapon for the women to wield than a knife. But Paul wanted the women to have a bit more reach than what a knife or a small ax could give. Paul removed the cloth over the next prize and said, "For the lady, we have a Naginata." In time all the women would have one. They needed to be able to protect the village if all the men were gone.

The young lady took it and was not sure what to do with it, so he pointed at a log that had a four-inch diameter and said, "Take that Naginata and slice it like this." Paul motioned like he was holding the Naginata and swung his harms and turned his hips, then he backed off and said, "Your turn."

The young lady did what he said to do and, with one motion, cut all the way through the log. Everyone cheered!

Paul said, "Its only appropriate that the best fighters for the men and women be the first to get the new weapons. In the next few months, all the men will get a short sword, and since the Naginata takes more time to make, hopefully by next year, every woman will have one."

Paul's people were getting well-armed, but he still felt uncomfortable for some reason.

Chapter 27 January 73 AD African Raid

Everything had been going very well since the planting festival. Most of the men had plowed more than the five acres they needed to in the hopes of beating out everyone else for growing the most crops. With the road in place, it was easy for Paul to teach nearly every day, and whenever he taught, everyone showed up. His leaders were getting a crash course in teamwork, his son alexander was growing by leaps and bounds, and in general, everything was looking up, until that fateful night.

At this point Paul was so busy he had to spend every other night in the village. On that night, Paul happened to be in the village. Paul woke up to shouting, his first thought was, “Who’s making that noise?” then it hit him, “Someone’s attacking!” and he was instantly awake. Paul grabbed his axes and quickly went outside.

Although it was the rainy season, that night it was clear with a full moon. Even though it was dark, Paul could tell who was on his side by the weapons they wielded. His side wielded pig spears and longbows. Their side wielded spears with very short stone spearheads and fairly short bows.

It was chaos outside. There were battles between groups of me. Men were getting wounded all over. Paul watched as the lady who won the Naginata stepped out of her hut and sliced the head clean off one of the raiders. She had the good sense to hide in her hut until the man’s back was to her. Once the man’s head was separated from his body, she stepped back inside her hut and waited like a spider waiting for a fly.

As Paul looked around, he saw a group of three men, fight one of his villagers. His villager managed to spear one of the men, but then the other two speared him. Paul was furious at this, not at the men, but himself. He should have gotten his people better ready for a raid, and so in his fury, he ran at those to men, screaming.

As Paul ran at the men, Paul’s mind was searching for some experience that would help him in this fight. Paul’s mind went to the movies he watched as a kid. In the movies, whenever there was a nighttime raid, it was by a group of disciplined soldiers trying to wipe out a group of freedom fighters, or good guys. And the bad guys fought to the last man.

But the men, or more likely the teenagers raiding his village, were not disciplined soldiers. They were raiders. They were trying to steal in the night without being noticed, and now that the alarm had been raised, they were panicking. When Paul started screaming, he got their attention, and what did they see? They saw a white man for the first time in their entire life who was more than a head taller than them with big broad shoulders and axes gleaming in the night running at them. Logic said they outnumbered Paul. But logic never entered the equation. They ran from the big scary white man who had weapons that shined moonlight.

Since Paul was mad at himself and not them, he looked for opportunities to help his men. The reality was that this group of men were there to raid and not fight. As more and more villagers came to battle, the robbers ran off. But the thing was that Paul led men were hunters first. They ran out of their huts with their bows, not their pig spears. As the raiders fled, Paul’s villagers launched arrow after arrow at those men.

As Paul’s men started chasing after the men, Paul yelled, “STOP!” After a year of training with Paul in martial arts nearly every day, those men knew to stop when Paul said stop. Paul then called out, “Come to me.”

The men came when Paul called and said, “We have to go after them. We have to get revenge!”

Paul said, “Is your revenge worth the lives of your friends? The enemy is gone for now, and we have wounded men here. If we chase after them, then our men will die. We will save our men’s life right now and go after those men in the morning. Check to see if any of the men we fought are still alive. Don’t kill them! Bring them to me. We will learn who we need to get revenge on through them.” It never crossed anyone’s mind that perhaps none of the enemies survived and that they would not be able to find out who they need to get revenge on.

Paul’s men faithfully followed orders. Out of the thirty fighting men in the village, two were dead, and four were wounded.

The women were all old hands at stitching wounds together, but Paul was nervous and made them boil everything. They cleaned the wounds with hot water and a clean cloth, then stitched it over, and Paul had them put a bandage over it.

Paul was very unhappy about the situation. Yes, he was a biochemist by training, but making penicillin out in the jungle with no supplies just wasn’t possible. Paul couldn’t even be sure the blue mold he found was penicillin until he could make a microscope! But even if he knew he had the right mold, the process of making penicillin concentrated enough to help people was unknown to Paul as better antibiotics displaced penicillin by the time Paul learned to be a biochemist.

The best thing Paul could do would be to make a still and make very strong alcohol. But Paul needed copper for that. Paul knew there were copper deposits in the area somewhere but had no idea where they were, and he did not have the manpower to mine it even if he knew. Then again, if he could find copper or silver, he could have them used as staples to replace stitching, as copper and silver were antimicrobial by nature.

To make matters worse, the only cutting tools they had were rocks and iron. The rust on iron could give someone tetanus. Paul was the leader here, and all he could do for his wounded was to make sure they boiled the string and bandages. Paul punched the wall in frustration and was determined to make things better. As far as Paul was concerned, everything was on his shoulders.

As Paul was falling into self-pity, Abilio found Paul and said, “We killed five of those worthless dogs, and as we spread out our search, we found one hiding just past the tree line. As he ran, someone managed to hit him in the leg with an arrow.” Abilio smiled as he said, “It went all the way through his leg and is sticking out the front.”

Paul said, “Bring me to him.”

Abilio led Paul to where the man was, still lying right behind the tree line, with Paul’s men poking him with spears and kicking him while he was down. Paul yelled out, “STOP THAT NOW.”

The men were surprised and said, “We have to get our revenge!”

Paul said, “You will, but not here and not like this, take him to my hut.”

Another one of the men said, “Your right, beating him to death is to good for him; we should skin him alive.” All the men cheered at this, and the man went pale and started struggling.

Paul followed as they dragged the man to the hut and didn’t say anything until his men got out their knives and were coming close to skin the man alive. They were mad, and they did not make an idle threat.

Right as they were grabbing the struggling man to make his last few minutes of life terrible, Paul called out and said, “STOP. Do you really want to take revenge on this man?”

The men looked strangely at Paul and said, “YES!”

Paul looked at the man and said, “I know you understand what I am saying, I saw your reaction when they said they were going to skin you alive unless you want a very painful death answer my questions truthfully.”

The man looked at Paul and nodded and said, “Yes, sir, yes, sir. Anything you want I will give you, just please save my life.”

Paul said, “Are you the chief of your village?”

The man said, “No.”

Paul said, “Did the Chief of your village order this attack.”

The man started looking confused and said, “Yes.”

Paul looked to his men and said, “What good does it to get revenge on this man? Its the chief that ordered the attack. If we kill this man, the chief who ordered his people to attack our village will still be out there. They could attack us at any time unless we kill the chief.”

Then Paul looked at their captive and asked, “Do you like your chief.”

The man was relieved that he could blame everything on the chief and said, “NO! Our chief is an evil man. He attacks villages all the time. But he is a strong man, and even though I told him not to attack your village, he made everyone do it. You should skin him alive.”

Paul’s men were rather gullible, and one of them said, “If he made you attack us, then we should skin him alive.”

Paul hoped their fury would calm down by the time they attacked the other village, but regardless of whether it did or not, he asked, “What is your name?”

The man said, “Zefanias “

Paul then asked, “What is the name of your Tribe.”

Zefanias said,” We are the Nguvu Simba tribe.”

Despite the raid that just happened, Paul had to admit he was always weirded out that Simba meant lion in their language, but Paul continued the interrogation and asked, “Zefanias Can you take me to your chief.” Paul carefully didn’t ask if Zefanias could take them to his village. He might be loyal to his village, but he clearly didn’t like his chief.

Zefanias answered, “Yes, but I will need you to fix my leg first.”

Paul said, “no problem.” and had the women come in and fix the man’s leg. Paul was not concerned about the man running off as the man would now have a limp for weeks, or more likely, the rest of his life.

But now Paul called all the men in the village to his house, and said, “I know several of you have gone on raids before, but when the women close up Zefanias wound he is going to lead us to his village, and we are not going to raid the village. We are going to conquer it!”

Chapter 28 January AD 73 First Conquest

Paul and twenty-three men headed toward the Nguvu Simba tribe. They were following Zefanias, who slowly limped along, showing them the way. This trip had taken them two days so far due to the broken wilderness and their injured guide, but Zefanias promised that they were getting close.

Paul was very concerned about the lack of manpower, but he had to work with what he had. Several of the children had turned twelve in the last few months, but by their tradition, they were not considered adults until the rainy season was over. Once they were, Paul would have another six men, according to the customs of the tribe, but training to be what Paul needed them to be would be no easy task.

When they were about an hour away, according to Zefanias, Paul had his men stop and wait to attack until the next morning. The next morning, they rose before dawn and made their way into the village. It was dark and quiet. Paul asked Zefanias which huts held the leaders and best warriors, Zefanias pointed them out, and Paul sent his men into those huts, and there were screams and yells, and his men told their men to surrender. It didn’t take long for the leadership to surrender.

When the screams started, several huts had men, women, and children run out and escape into the jungle. Very few actually came out to fight.

Paul was standing back with some of his warriors until he saw that happened and told them, “Open fire on anyone with a weapon.” They did so, and the warriors with the most fight in them died right then and there. Men were woken out of a deep sleep, running toward the sounds of battle never even looked in the opposite direction where Paul and his men waited with bows and arrows notched.

The battle if you could call it that didn’t last two minutes. Anyone that didn’t run was brought to the center of the village with a pig spear pointed at them. Men, women, and children. Paul was angry when he recognized some of the men. They had visited the village over the last few months. As tribesmen hunted, they occasionally came across different villages and got to know each other. Although Paul was furious that people who had supposedly befriended his people attacked them, Paul needed to focus on what is important. Paul wanted all of them to hear his speech, and Paul wanted them to tell whoever had run off what he said.

Paul was about to play a very dangerous game that was called politics in his time, and the part of the game he was going to play now was called propaganda. Paul stood before the people and loudly said, “I am Chief Paul, leader of the Jiwi Mkuki, and three nights ago, your people came to my village and killed and wounded my men. We are here for revenge.”

When the people of the village heard that the women began to weep, and the men’s faces grew pale, and the children seeing the fear of the adults began to cry out in fear. It was normal for one tribe to try to exterminate a tribe to get its revenge.

Paul continued and said, “Zefanias told me that it was not the people in the village who wanted to attack us, but it was the chief who forced you to attack.” When Paul said that you could see the demeanor of the people change. Most of the people began to hope that today would not be the day they would die, and the chief went from fearful to angry.

The people cried out, saying various versions of, “The chief is strong and powerful, he made us attack your village, we didn’t want to do it, but he made us.”

The chief was angry that his people would betray him and yelled out, “I didn’t want to raid their village, you made me. And every one of you should die.”

When the chief blamed his people and said they should die, the people went from fearful to angry and started yelling out, “NO! The chief is a fool, a powerful fool but a fool who made us attack a powerful village.”

With that, the chief and his village started arguing back and forth, yelling at each other about how they should die. Finally, they forgot all about the armed men around them, and the chief struck one of the men, and the man struck back. Then there was a fight and a brawl as several men began to strike the chief, but to his credit, the chief was a good enough fighter to hold his own for a few seconds. Eventually, they had the chief on the ground kicking him.

That was when Paul yelled, “STOP!” The people were so embroiled in what they were doing; they ignored him. So, Paul told his men, “Beat them with the flat of your blades until they stop.”

A few strikes later, and the men of the village became well behaved.

Paul said, “It is clear to me that this whole mess is the chief’s fault. Not only did my village suffer due to his actions, but your village suffered due to his actions. If you want to make it right, “At that moment, Paul pulled out a couple of knives and said, “Skin the chief alive.”

The men were so mad at the chief for telling Paul that Paul should kill them that they happily took the knives and began skinning him alive. This quenched the anger of Paul’s men, who were not sure about only killing the chief for the crimes of the village. This also meant that the people of this village were not upset with Paul or his men for killing their chief as they were the ones to kill their chief with their own hands. In all honesty, the chief had to die the way he did so that there could be peace between the villages. One died so that many could be saved.

Truth be told, the man who was most into skinning the chief alive was a strange-looking man that Paul assumed was the witchdoctor. After the chief had died in agony, Paul asked the people, “Who is your witchdoctor?”

The witchdoctor said, “I am.”

Paul asked, “where is your apprentice?”

The witchdoctor said, “He went on the raid and never came back, I have not chosen a new one yet.”

Paul said, “Do you perform the purification ritual?”

The witchdoctor said, “Of course all witchdoctors perform the ritual when the women need it.”

Paul very calmly old his men, “Tie up the witchdoctor.”

Paul’s voice was so calm that the witchdoctor knew there was a problem and asked, “What’s the problem?” As soon as the words came out of his mouth, Paul’s men were already on him, tying his hands and feet.

Paul said, “Where I am from, we do not have witchdoctors. Many of the things you do are very evil, and I have already killed a witchdoctor and his apprentice. I could not find a spirit in either man. Witchdoctors say many things about spirits, but I think the reason is that witchdoctors do not have spirits and suck the spirits out of the village they are in.”

Paul let his accusation of the witch doctor seep into the people’s ears. Then Paul said:” I am thirty-three years old.” With those words, the people gasped. The chief they just skinned alive was twenty-one and one of the oldest men in the village. Paul continued, “I had a teacher that lived into his nineties, and yet since I came to this land, I have yet to hear of anyone else who made it into their thirties. Perhaps the problem is that witchdoctors have no spirit and suck the spirit out of the people around them.”

Paul didn’t believe a thing he was saying. Paul was just upset that witchdoctors raped women and said they did it to protect the village from spirits. If the people were going to believe in spirits, Paul could not stop them. But he would use those beliefs against the rapist.

Paul took out his knife and began cutting deeply through the man’s naval up to his chest. He did not survive long, although Paul wished the rapist death was far slower. When Paul was done, he said, “Again, another witchdoctor with no spirit. No wonder you people die so young your witchdoctor was sucking the life out of you.”

One of the people in the village said, “Who will protect us from the spirits now?”

Paul was playing a political game now, so he said, “I will.”

Another person asked, “How?”

Paul said, “For me to protect your village, I will need you to build a road to my village. Just ask my warriors how much better things have gotten since the road was built.”

At this point, the people began asking them questions about what a road was and how it made things better. Paul’s undisciplined men forgot they were guarding a village who was enemies only an hour ago and put their spears in a ready stance. That’s where they held them straight up, but the but of the spear rested on their foot. Paul was pleased they got that part right, at least.

As the villagers heard about how Paul used cattle to plow up dirt, and carry rocks, then heard about how bridges were made and how roads made the entire world smaller, they got excited. It wasn’t long before these young men wanted Paul to hurry up and build a plow so they could ride one like Paul’s men had.

It did not escape Paul’s notice that these men had killed their chief horrifically early that morning, and now they were excited about riding a plow. They had seen far too much death in their lifetime.

While they were busy chatting away, Paul said, “To build you a plow, I will have to get some iron for the plow head and bring it back. But when I do so, I will need you to have all your never-married children from the age of 7 and up ready to follow me back to our village so that I can teach them my ways.

The people unanimously agreed because when Paul said to teach them my ways, they were thinking he meant how to protect against spirits. Paul knew exactly what he was implying, and it got him the results he wanted. More than half the children that old were orphans anyway, so it was no loss to the village.

Paul said, “In order to get this all together, I think we should make Zefanias the new chief.”

The men in the village were not happy about that, and several different men shouted something to the effect of, “Zefanias is a terrible warrior, and now he has a limp! How can he be chief?”

Paul asked, “Why did your last chief attack our village?”

The people answered, “We are running out of food.”

Paul asked, “Do you want to have a chief who is good at feeding you or a chief who is good at beating you up?”

That made them think. After a few seconds, the people said, “We want a chief that’s good at feeding us.”

Paul said, “Here’s what I will do. If you allow Zefanias to be your chief, and you build the road to my village, I will feed your entire village out of my grain stocks, and when the road is finished I will talk to Zefanias about a new way to do farming where you will grow so much food you will be able to eat every day!”

The villagers were excited to hear that they might be able to eat every day, so they agreed.

Paul continued and said, “When we pick up your children for their education, I will also take all the orphans with me, our village will take care of them. Make sure your orphans are fed until we pick them up; if they are not fed, we may just stop feeding the adults also.”

The people were shocked, but if feeding the orphans kept them fed, they would do it.

Chapter 29 February AD 73 School

Paul was well aware that the Nguvu Simba tribe was not loyal to him at all. Worse yet, he didn’t think they knew how to be loyal. Paul watched them skin their own chief alive without an ounce of remorse, then laugh about it later. It’s part of the reason why he had Zefanias become chief. If one of the tribesmen murdered the chief to become chief, better they do it to Zefanias than one of Paul’s people. Besides, Zefanias was his canary. If they killed Zefanias, they were coming after Paul and his people next.

Paul had no plans to build up the loyalty of the adults in the Nguvu Simba tribe. He wanted their apathy, not their nonexistent loyalty. But the children were a different matter. The 20th century was marked, in part, by governments learning to use schools to make children loyal citizens for life. Before the public school systems in the west, the governments funded churches so that churches would teach people to be loyal to the government. They taught things like the divine right to rule. Paul was uncomfortable and unqualified to go that route. Besides, there would always be those religious groups that refused government funding and taught something else. Schools were far better for teaching loyalty to the government or rebellion from the government than churches ever were.

Compare the Hitler youth, to the Lutheran church in Germany. The Hitler youth made citizens much more loyal to Germany’s government than Lutheran teaching ever did. Why else would Germans turn in the neighbors that they befriended for a government that terrorized them? It was the influence of their schools. Or consider the Christian teachings in China to communist education in China. Christians changed the mind of many people, but the communist took over because they radicalized the youth in the school system. Religion will never build or topple governments like a school system can.

Paul was well aware that once nations started running public school systems, civil wars in those nations practically stopped. But countries too cheap or corrupt to have public school systems had endless waves of civil wars.

Right now, all the children were loyal to their tribe. Paul was going to make them rebel from their tribe and be loyal to his new nation. But the school wasn’t going to just teach loyalty to his new nation. He was going to teach them reading, writing, arithmetic, basic sciences, trades, martial arts, and how to be an individual.

It might be strange to use tactics the revolutionist utilized to control a group of people to make them individuals. But so far in the two tribes Paul interacted with here in the past, and the times he spent in Africa when he was in the modern world, he noticed that everyone’s identity was totally associated with their tribe. It didn’t matter what nation they were in, or what religious beliefs they held; their identity was totally about the tribe. Whatever tribe they were in always screwed their people for the “good” of the tribe. If your tribe was successful, you were successful; if your tribe failed, you failed.

More often than not, tribes failed because everyone’s effort went into the same pot. You farm, well, everyone gets the grain you farmed. You hunted, well everyone gets a part of your kill. It doesn’t take too long for people to realize their reward is the same, whether they work hard or not. And once they realize that it is natural for them to choose not to work hard.

If you invent something new, then the tribe can take it from you. It doesn’t take long to figure out better not to make anything new. Otherwise, you will get no reward for your labor. Once you are big and strong enough to be chief, you get to take other people’s labor and things for the good of the tribe. So, everyone strives to be chief, but nobody tries to excel. Paul was determined to break that attitude. It’s the same thing that killed the USSR, and it’s the same attitude that kept Africa down until the Wixor attack wiped everyone out.

Paul would teach them respect, self-discipline, understanding, loyalty, and the harder you work, the better the reward you earn. Once it took off, it wouldn’t be long before he turned the dark continent of Africa into the enlightened continent of Africa.

Paul would also teach them compassion and empathy. It’s one of the reasons why he was bringing the orphans back with the kids to be educated. He would have the children take care of the babies, both the boys and the girls, although it would be more the girl’s job. In all honesty, it really bothered Paul how much apathy the people as a whole had toward small children. If the child wasn’t theirs, even if it was their nephew or niece, they had no qualms about letting them die. It was usually the children who had enough compassion to watch out for a sibling when they became orphans. Paul was going to make compassion for the orphans a major subject in his school, although to a degree, it already was, but more so now as all the kids had to stay in dorms.

Paul spent a few weeks with his people building two buildings in Jiwi Mkuki village. They needed more room for the influx of students and orphans, so they built a new dorm for the boys and another one for the girls. While they were building the dorms, Paul sent food to the Nguvu Simba tribe once a week letting them know he was still working on the iron for their plow head. When it was done, he would build their plow so they could begin working on their road, and then pick up the children so he could teach them his knowledge.

Once the dorms were finished, Paul gathered the material for making a plow and headed toward Nguvu Simba village. The route to the village was terrible, and it took about a day and a half to get there. If you clear everything and make bridges, the route is probably only eight or nine miles, but there is so much brush, trees, and streams, that the route they took ended closer to thirty miles

Paul refused to spend the night in that village. He did not trust those villagers at all, but Zefanias was still alive, so Paul quickly built a plow, and left several of his men there to instruct them on how to build the road and determine the best route to their village. The Nguvu Simba tribe was ecstatic about their new toys.

The children were delighted to go so far from home, especially as Paul had brought canned meat and canned fruit for them to eat on the way to their new home. With the slow children in tow, it took two days to get back to Paul’s village. When they got close, Paul sent a man ahead to have the village children prepared to greet them.

As they stepped out of the tree line, all the village children were lined up in several rows like martial artists ready to do drills. Paul was proud that the kids got their lines so straight. Up till now, traveling with the children of Nguvu Simba was an adventure, at least for the kids, but it was time for them to start learning.

Paul said, “Children of Nguvu Simba welcome to the village of Jiwi Mkuki, The first thing we will do is find clothes for you like the children of my tribe are wearing and then I will show you how to line up with them and give you your first lesson on how to fight.”

One of the boys from the Nguvu Simba tribe said, “I don’t want to do that. They look stupid wearing clothes and being lined up like that.

Paul wanted to beat that boy half to death for being disrespectful, but he thought it best to be somewhat patient and said, “One of the things you will learn at this school is how to fight well, and part of that is wearing clothes and getting in line.”

The boy said, “But your tribe doesn’t know how to fight. If you did, you wouldn’t have ambushed our tribe at sun up. If you knew how to fight, you would have let our men arm up and fight you fairly.”

Paul said, “Young man, how old are you?”

The boy said, “Ten.”

The boy even said his age with a bad attitude. Paul really wanted to start beating the boy, but it wouldn’t do any good since these kids were used to getting beat every time one of the adults in the tribe got mad and decided to take their anger out on the kids. Paul chose to go a different route.

Paul called out, “Eulalia step forward.” Eulalia stepped forward out of her line, then Paul turned toward the boy and said, “This is Eulalia she is my stepdaughter, and she is nine years old. You two are going to fight. The fight is over when you surrender.”

Then Paul turned toward his stepdaughter and said, “Eulalia beat him as hard as you can until I tell you to stop.”

Eulalia said, “Okay, dad.”

It did Paul’s heart good to hear his stepdaughter call him dad. That’s when Paul yelled out, “Start fighting.” He yelled it out even though the kids were about twenty feet away from each other.

The boy had a smirk on his face that said no girl was ever going to beat him. The boy with that big smirk on his face walked toward Eulalia. Eulalia was in a fighting stance, and she was slowly sliding toward him. Her back food slid to her front foot, and then her front foot slid forward. She was always careful to keep her center of gravity.

The boy with that big smirk didn’t even put his hands up. When they got close enough, Eulalia slightly out of reach of the boy feinted with a jab punch. The boy was shocked at how fast it was and in panic raised his hands to cover his face, as soon as his hands went up Eulalia kicked him in the groin. The boy’s smirk was gone as he fell over, holding his crotch.

Eulalia mounted him and started punching him in the face, head, arms, chest, and everywhere else she could.

After about a minute, Paul realized that this boy was pretty used to being beaten. Even though he had a bloody nose, split lip, swollen eye, and little cuts and bruises all over, the boy was a little too proud to surrender. Paul pointed out, “Boy, you are getting beat by a girl. It takes days sometimes weeks for bruises to go away, the sooner you say you surrender, the sooner the bruises, that girl gives you, goes away.” That did not convince the stubborn boy to give up, so Paul said, “How many weeks do you want to tell people that you got those bruises from a girl.”

That thought convinced the boy to scream out, “I Surrender.”

Paul told Eulalia to, “get off him and get back in line.” Now that the boy had been badly beaten by a girl who was younger than him, he would be much more malleable to discipline. As soon a Eulalia was off the boy, Paul felt regret the boy was not wearing clothes, as Paul only had one thing to grab on the boy. Paul grabbed the

boy’s hair and picked him up. Disrespect had to be addressed.

Paul screamed in the boy’s face, “How dare you question the ability of my warriors when you got beaten blue by a girl a year younger than you!” With that, Paul took out a switch and began beating the boy’s butt. The boy tried to run, but Paul had his hair in hand

Then Paul yelled out, “How dare you disrespect me when you can not even fight a girl that I have trained.” Paul continued to use the stick to tan the boys hide. Careful to make sure it stayed on the boy’s gluteus maximus.

Paul continued to yell in the boy’s ear, “How dare you disrespect the men I trained when you can not even beat a girl.” And Paul continued to use the stick on the boy. The boy finally figured out he couldn’t run, so tried hitting Paul, but Paul had the boys hair, and with a twist here, and tug there made the swings very ineffective.

Paul then said, “How dare you disrespect…” the stick broke as Paul said disrespect, and Paul stopped and said, “See my stick broke on you because of your disrespect, that’s okay we will go get another one.” With that, Paul dragged the boy with him to the woods and grabbed another stick. None of the other children dared to move.

When Paul had another stick, he started spanking the boy again and said, “How dare you disrespect me when I offer to teach you how to fight, especially when you cannot beat a girl.” After all that, the boy finally started to cry. Paul hated doing this. But these kids have been hardened by constant abuse, and they needed to listen to him. Now that the boy was finally crying, Paul stopped beating him and started talking with him.

Paul said, “You will follow my instructions from now on, do you understand.”

The boy finally wailing said, “Yes, sir.”

Paul said, “You will do it with a good attitude.”

The boy crying said, “Yes, sir.”

Paul said, “You will obey all the instructors I put over you.”

The boy started getting the suck backs sucked in air and said, “Yes..” Sucked in air, “Sir.”

Paul brought the boy back to the group and said, “Does anyone else have anything else they want to say to me.” The rest of the kids were dead silent. With that, Paul sent them to get dressed and start their first day of school.

Chapter 30 March AD 73 Extra Large Canoe

John’s winter was great. He had a lot of help making new iron ingots and teaching his new students how to turn them into really useful things like nails, plows, knives, fast fire bows, axes, and spinning wheels. Every man who came found a wife. Most of the bachelors went back home to their villages, but a few stayed. John was delighted to have more men coming alongside him and help him longterm.

On a personal level, John was happy to see Xena give birth to puppies. He was going to teach the men how to train the puppies to be guard dogs for the village. John’s son was growing up fast, and John was happy to spend time with the boy. Truth be told in his past life, John felt guilty that he didn’t spend enough time with his children, and in this life, he did not want to make that mistake again.

John also made a lot of people believers in his Bison domestication project, as they had fresh meat all winter long. John started the winter off with three juvenile male bison, but by this point, it was clear which bison was the most docile. The other two became rather good steaks. There were eight adult female bison, and one was clearly more aggressive than the rest, and it also made some delicious steaks.

The tribe that John was very quickly turning into homesteaders was prospering in grain and goods, although other supplies were starting to dwindle. One day John called a meeting of the tribe to address the problem.

When everyone was gathered, John said, “Right now we have plenty of iron ingots, we have enough grain stored for two years, we have enough meat, fruit, and vegetables canned for a year, we have plenty of cloth. But we are getting low on furs and lumber. I don’t think the lack of fur is a critical issue yet, as everyone has been switching to cloth. But the lumber issue could be a problem in the near future as we use a lot of lumber keeping the forges going.”

One of the men said, “Lumber isn’t an issue. We just have to go further away from the village to get more, and if we start really hurting for hides, we can always use the hides off the bison you keep in the valley.”

John answered, “First of all, no, you are not going to use the bison in the valley for your hides. I am very carefully culling them so that one day we will be able to ride bison. When that happens, it will change our world.” John did not believe that they would be resistant at all to riding the bison when they became domesticated. The Previous timeline showed that as soon as horses made its way to this area that the people very quickly started riding them.

John continued. “As for the lumber, we do not have the manpower to go further and further away from our village to get it. What I propose is that for now, we stop making more iron ingots, and we focus on making a dock and boat so we can travel upriver and trade with tribes who have more manpower, let them build log rafts, and we will take those to our docks, which will then meet our need for more lumber.”

All the people looked confused, and someone said, “I do not understand anything you said after iron ingots.”

John frowned and said, “Do you mean dock, boat, or log raft.”

The man said, “Yes to all of them.”

John thought about it for a few seconds and said, “A dock is a wooden structure you build on the river connected to the bank of the river. You build it there so that it is easy to get into a boat.”

The man said, “If a dock is built for a boat, maybe you should explain what a boat is, so I can understand what a dock is.”

John said, “Good point. A boat is a wooden structure that floats on water and can be used to carry people and products up and down a waterway.”

The man said, “OH, you mean a canoe.”

John said, “I don’t think I mean a canoe. A boat and a canoe are similar but different. When you say canoe, what do you mean?”

The man said, “A canoe is where you take a log, then burn or dig out the inside, then sit in the place you hollowed out and take it up and down a waterway.”

John said, “That’s similar to a boat but not exactly the same. A boat is a lot bigger than a canoe. To make a boat, you cut down a tree or several trees for larger boats. Then cut the trees into flat boards, and then shape the boards and nail them together in order to make what we could call an extra-large canoe.”

The man said, “What’s a board?”

Growing up in America, John went to Lowes and Home Depot as a child. When you are a little boy going to those places, you are fascinated by all the different boards they had. But its easy to forget he is with a group of people who have never heard of a board. In his past timeline, This area would not see a saw for another fourteen hundred years. He is in a place where a rock head ax is rare, and it is more common to use fire to burn a tree down, and fire to shape the tree than to use a tool to cut a tree down and shape it.

John said, “You know what, this is my fault. I forgot that all of you have never seen this stuff. Let me take out a stick and show you what I mean.”

With the stick, John started drawing on the ground as he talked. First, John drew a badly drawn log, then he drew slices in it, and next to it, he drew a badly drawn boards. John said, “What we are doing with the log is cutting it in slices like this.” He pointed to his badly drawn log. “When they are sliced up, they will look like this.” Then John pointed at his badly drawn board.

Then John started drawing a boat on the ground and drew little rectangles that were meant to represent boards and said, “This is kind of what a boat is supposed to look like. To make the boat, you put all these boards together, and it will basically work like an extra-large canoe. With this extra-large canoe, we will be able to carry a lot of grain, jars of food, and iron products up and down the river for trade. The boat will be able to carry what it would take several dozen men to carry, but it would only take a few men to paddle or pole it up and down the river.”

The man said, “I have never heard of anything like this. Do you think it will work?”

John said, “If we work together, it will.”

The man said, “You haven’t let us down yet. What do we do first?”

With that, the village began the long process of making saws, cutting down trees, sawing them into boards, learning to shape wood, and so much more. There was a lot more to boat making than John thought. With all of Johns’s other responsibilities boat making, or more precisely making the tools to make the boat, took up the rest of Johns’s year.

Chapter 31 April AD 73 Watchtower

Since the last attack in January, Paul and his people have been very busy. They built dorms, started teaching a brand-new group of kids everything from ABC, to how to use an outhouse, and had to guide the Nguvu Simba tribe on how to build a road. Since his people would get to keep their own grain, they had to build their own granaries at their own homes. Paul himself stayed busy with a very special glass project.

Then it was time for harvest. The villagers harvested more grain than they ever had before, and with all the young people staying in the dorms, it was easy to put them to work helping with the harvest. It was truly a new experience for the men to get to keep 90% of their labor. Paul, as chief, had the village take 10%. The people didn’t understand what Paul meant when he said that the village kept 10%. They were just floored that for the next year, every time they wanted grain, they could go to their own granary. The village 10% tax meant that the village granary had almost ten times the amount of any family in the village and twice as much grain as it had the year before.

That was not including what Paul harvested from his own fields. Paul used his fields to teach the children things like plowing, fertilizing, watering, crop rotation, and various types of harvesting. Paul also taught them how to create and use pesticides, both on the crops and on themselves. Paul easily harvested five times as much food as the next guy, but then again, Paul had an army of children helping him out. If Paul focused solely on farming instead of teaching and creating new innovations, he would likely have had twenty times as much food as any other villager because of his army of workers.

On top of harvesting grain, they harvested fruits, vegetables, and canned them in jars. At this point, Paul wondered why canning wasn’t called jarring, but it wouldn’t be too long before the people just called the process jarring.

By all accounts, his people would eat well this year and have plenty of seed for next year. It didn’t hurt that the seed Paul had given them was many times better than what they had previously.

Sadly, there had been two other raids since the last one, but the raiders were so skittish nobody died on either side from those raids. In all honesty, the reason why so many died on the first raid was Paul’s fault. Paul had trained his men to be aggressive individual fighters. When the raid happened, the men did what they were trained to do; they went and fought. They died because they bolted into a situation where they were outnumbered. But Paul had been the one to teach them to be that aggressive. After the raid, Paul trained his people to form a group of at least three before they went to fight. In the next two raids, while his people were forming up and screaming, the raiders ran away before they could form a counterattack.

To Paul, the raids were unacceptable. To his people, they were a normal part of life. In fact, if their crops had not done so well, they would have went on raids during the rainy season also. To be honest, there had been years where their crops did so badly they did raids during the dry season. If they had not raided, they would have starved. The truth was that it wasn’t uncommon for a village to be wiped out from hunger.

Paul wanted better for his people, and Paul believed that if he could just give them time and food security, his people would be a great one. But its hard to have food security when people are constantly trying to steal it from you.

To deal with the problem, Paul called his men to him and said, “Men, if the raids keep happening, more of our people are going to get killed.”

One of the men said, “Raids are a part of life.”

Paul said, “Not where I come from, and I want to put a stop to it as quickly as possible. Step one of that process is building a watchtower.”

Abilio said, “What’s a watchtower?”

Paul said, “A watchtower is a tall building with a platform on top so that you can see enemies coming from a long way away. We build it by cutting down four tall thin trees and bringing them to the center of the village, and we stand them straight up, and build a platform on top.”

Another man said,” Chief, that sounds like a lot of trouble. You know we worked hard to bring in the harvest, and we got plenty of food for the dry season, and it’s really hot. Why don’t you let us rest and have fun until its time for planting again?”

Paul thought to himself, “Great, my people are fed, and now they want to be lazy.” Then Paul said, “During those years when you didn’t have food for the dry season, and you went on raids, did you run away when you were caught or did you fight for the food?”

One of the men said, “We were starving, so we fought for the food, and lost a lot of good men doing it.”

Paul said, “You know that there are a lot of hunters in the area that goes from village to village. In fact, we have had a lot more hunters come our way because they saw the road and followed it to our village. When they got here, they saw our prosperity. After seeing our prosperity, do you think the desperate villages will be more or less likely to raid us?”

Several of the men said, “More likely to raid us.”

Paul said, “When they raid us, and they are desperate, do you want to be ready for them, or do you want to die?”

They were all quiet because they wanted to be lazy until Abilio said, “I would want to be ready.”

Paul said, “Alright, men grab your axes we are going to go find some wood for the watchtower.”

The men grabbed their axes, and Paul grabbed an ox, and they went searching for trees. It wasn’t long before they found several trees that worked. They cut them down, hooked them up to the ox, drug them to the village, and put four poles into the ground. To a real extent to the young men, this was boring work. And the young men were dragging their feet and trying to quit the job before it was done.

With all their complaining, Paul said, “Well, the next part involves nailing crossbeams to connect the trees and building a platform on top. If you are too scared to climb up the poles, feel free to go back.”

At this point, he had all the help he needed, and any whiner was accused of being scared. After the accusation, they immediately volunteered for the most dangerous job available. With more than 20 men, it wasn’t long before the watchtower had crossbeams added, a platform built, and of course, ladders all the way up each pole.

Once it was done, all the women and children came out and told the men how amazing the tower was and how good of a job they did, and of course, the men bragged on their excellent work.

Paul waited to tell them this last part after they built the tower; otherwise, they would never have built the tower. Paul said, “Now that the watchman tower is built, we need to set up rotating watchmen to watch for raiders at night.”

Several of the men looked like they wanted to kill Paul right then and there, which was very disconcerting for Paul, and one said, “What do you mean you want us to watch for raiders at night?”

Paul said, “Every night we put a man up there, and he watches over the village, if raiders come, then he starts shooting arrows at them, and lets the rest of the village know that they are under attack.”

Abilio said, “So you want a man to stay up all night?”

Paul said, “Your right, it would be tough to have a man stay up all night.” The men relaxed when they heard Paul say that, but then Paul continued, “So we will have a man stay up half the night watching for raiders, then have another man replace him halfway through the night.”

The men were looking for a way to wheedle out of this uncomfortable sounding duty and said, “How can a man tell if half the night has passed?”

Paul smiled and said, “I am glad that you asked, I need you to come with me, and” Paul pointed at three more men, “You three come to.”

They followed Paul to his home, and inside there was a very large hourglass surrounded by a wooden cradle. Paul had the men take hold of it and bring it to the front of the watchtower. Paul said, “This is known as an hourglass.” Then Paul flipped over the glass part of the device, although the outside frame of the device did not move. The sand started falling from one side to the other. That’s when Paul said, “When all the sand falls from one end of the device to the other then half a night has passed, and then the person who has watch duty goes and finds the next guy and wakes him up, and he watches until the sun comes up.”

The men had mixed feelings. On one hand, the hourglass was really neat and intriguing. On the other hand, watchman duty sounded boring. But Paul had thought of that and said, “Since the role of the watchman is to shoot raiders, then you will need lots of archery practice. The watchman will have to shoot targets at night. Once a month, we will have an archery contest from the tower, and whoever the best half is, gets to choose whether they do first watch or second watch, the losing half doesn’t get a choice.”

Paul smiled and said, “In fact, everyone grab your bows. I will put out the targets, and we will determine the winners and losers.”

The men ran to grab their bows, and Paul began putting many targets all around the outside of the village. At this point, all the children wanted to be like the men and be watchmen. All the men were trying to win the right to chose whether they would have first shift or second shift and get some bragging rights, and Paul was just happy that he was getting a bit of safety put inside of their village.

Chapter 32 August AD 73 Officer Training

The watchtower was tremendously useful. There were two raids on Jiwi Mkuki village during the dry season. Both happened on nights with full moons, and the watchmen in the tower were able to kill and wound several men with their longbows. By now, most men were able to use a bow with a hundred pounds of strength.

These raiders were much more desperate than the groups that attacked during the rainy season. When they were caught they didn’t run, they fought. But even in this, the watchtower proved its worth because the warning given by the watchmen in the tower allowed men to form up in groups before the raiders reached the village.

In the first battle, three men were injured, but none were killed. In the second battle, three men were wounded, and one died. Paul still didn’t know how to make penicillin, but in his attempts to make a potent enough alcohol to help his people, he ended up making potent vinegar, which can be used as a disinfectant. This would save a lot of lives.

What happened afterward was a repeat of what happened to the Nguvu Simba tribe. Paul interrogated, the wounded men and had them take him back to their village. Paul’s men captured the village leadership and most of the men.

Paul was surprised, though, when the men of Jiwi Mkuki village asked who the witchdoctor and his apprentice were. He was even more surprised when they killed them. Then the men of Jiwi Mkuki village told the villagers that the witchdoctor had no spirit and sucked out the spirit of the people around them.

No wonder why his men wanted to kill the witchdoctor and his apprentice so badly they believed the nonsense he said about the witchdoctors being soulless.Paul was unsure if this was a good thing or not; either way, the witchdoctors were dead, and that put a smile on his face.

After the death of the witchdoctors in both tribes, Paul blamed the raid on the chief. Paul explained that his village was looking for revenge, and that village could fix the enmity by killing their own chief. Both villages took delight in torturing their chief to death. In seeing this, Paul began to realize how precarious his situation was.

Paul then told the new villages that if they would build a road to his village the Jiwi Mkuki village, from their granary to his granary, then he would feed them for their work and next rainy season he would give them grain seed to put in the ground. He only asked that the wounded men that led him to their tribe be made chief and that they would allow their unmarried children from the age of seven up to come and be educated by Paul. They had no choice but to agree.

Paul smiled as he thought of the idiot boys that challenged his authority from all three villages. Each time he called Eulalia out to show those boys that, a girl trained by Paul could easily beat them. And then he beat respect into them. He was going to call the Eulalia method from now on.

One day Paul found Abilio and said, “I need your help for a project I will be doing next year.”

Abilio looked confused and said, “If the project is next year, why worry about it now?”

Paul said, “I have children from four different villages coming to my school. The children from Jiwi Mkuki village are experiencing the changes I have made alongside their parents. But the kids from the other villages will go home in the planting season to help their parents, and they will be clothed, but their parents will still be mostly naked. They will be used to all the canned fruit, vegetables, and meat that we feed them, and yet most of their parents will only be able to feed them coarse bread. They are getting very used to eating three meals a day, and yet when they help their parents, their parents will only be able to give them one meal a day.”

Paul continued, “In school, they will have learned many things their parents can not imagine, they will think their parents are stupid, and when they inevitably slip up and say something about it, their parents will beat them. These kids will fight back, and some of them will be able to beat their parents instead. At this point, they will have no respect for their parents, but they will have great respect for me and for the men and women that has taught them.”

Paul said, “Next year, many of these kids who have great respect for me, and you will be twelve and in this culture, old enough to be considered men. Because of school, they will be too different to go home. I would like to train them to be full time, “Paul paused to think about what word to use,” watchmen, or what were called soldiers back in my homeland. For two years, they would work as watchmen or soldiers, keeping the villages protected from raiders, and when a group of raiders attacks the villages, they will conquer the villages of the raiders. At the end of their two years, they would be given the tools they need to do whatever trade they want to do and be sent off. Some of the ones with better leadership skills would stay to help train the next group and lead them.”

Abilio said, “That’s a nice vision and all, but why do you need me.”

Paul said, “I need leaders, men to train them.”

Abilio said, “Like a teacher?”

Paul said, “No, when you train soldiers, you do not train them like a teacher. You train them to follow orders no matter what, and you train them to fight as a unit. Right now, the kids are so young I just teach them to fight as individuals, but later on, when they are being trained to be soldiers, I will train them to do everything as a team. They will either succeed as a unit or fail as a unit.” Paul also thought to himself, “I will also teach them that manhood demands that you put the team ahead of yourself.”

Abilio said, “I can help you with that next year.”

Paul said, “Well, here’s the thing, I have to train you and the rest of the men to fight differently, to fight as a unit, and that’s going to take months. When you understand how to fight as a unit, then next year, when we put these boys in soldier camp, perhaps manhood camp, or whatever we call it, you will have to know exactly what’s going on. If you are going to be a leader next year, I need you to put in the work this year.” Paul said that because he knew how much Abilio wanted to be a leader. When Paul showed up, he took away Abilio’s chance at being chief, and to be honest, Paul was nervous about Abilio, but if Paul was going to survive and thrive, he had to trust the man.

Abilio said, “You know I want to lead. If hard work is demanded so that I can lead, I will do it.”

Paul said, “Thank you, I think for the rest of your life, you will boast of this experience to others.”

Over the coming months, Paul made shields for himself and Abilio. Then they trained together in how to fight with sword and shield. The sword was a short sword. The shield was a four-foot-tall one, made out of wood. In time Paul would add leather to it, but he didn’t have the time or expertise at this point.

When they better understood how to do it, Paul and Abilio made two teams of six to spar each other. What they found worked best was three men with shields and swords out front. Two men with Pig spears standing behind them, and an archer in the back. They, of course, took the tips off arrows and spears for the mock fights and used wooden swords.

When they were far from each other, they would have the men upfront raise their shields to protect from arrows. The spearmen would use their spears to give the archer a raised platform to shoot over the shields. As they got close, the archer would get back on the ground, and the spearmen would stick their spears through the gaps in the shields and try to tag the other guys. Then when they got close enough for swords, the real fun happened. By fun, I mean Chaos.

The swordsmen were blocking with both sword and shield while trying to tag the other side with their weapon, while the spearman was attempting to tag the other side with their poles, and the archer was trying to tag someone with their tipless arrow. Paul was a good enough fighter that his side usually won, but not always.

Before the planting festival came Paul had four teams of six able to fight in this way, and all the kids begged Paul to play, but Paul was firm, “Only men can use these weapons, so you will have to wait until you are older.”

It wasn’t long before those kids were promising to do anything to be like the men that Paul called soldiers.

Chapter 33 November AD 73 Planting festival for four villages

The months leading up to the planting festival had been profitable, all three of the conquered villages built a road leading to Jiwi Mkuki village, and they discovered two more sources of pyrite along the route.

After they finished the roads, they were allowed to select land for farming along the roads they had built. All of them decided to select land near their villages. After seeing the success of Jiwi Mkuki villagers, they were excited to own their own land and keep 90% of what they farmed. The chiefs were happy that once they collected the ten percent from the people that Paul only required ten percent of the village’s grain, the rest was to be used for the maintenance of the village.

As the time for the planting festival came, Paul called all of his men who were still unmarried who were over the age of fourteen. Paul figured if the girls couldn’t get married until they were fourteen, then the boys shouldn’t either. When they came, Abilio was the oldest.

Paul asked his men, “Why haven’t you gotten married yet?”

Abilio said, “You said we couldn’t marry until the girl was fourteen years old.”

Paul said, “No, I said you couldn’t marry a girl who has never been married until she is fourteen years old. There are lots of women in the village you could marry who are widows.”

Abilio said, “I think I speak for all the men here when I say they are unacceptable.”

Paul said, “I am married to a widow, your sister, do you think it is unacceptable for me to be married to her, especially as I am the chief?”

Abilio said, “I am not saying that. It’s just that I grew up with all these girls, and well, I don’t really like them. Some are very attractive, but I don’t want to talk with them every day. Imagine you grew up with this widow’s husband, and every time she is upset, she compares you to someone you knew very well. If I had to put up with that with any of the widows in the village, I think I would either make her be quiet or kill myself. We all knew men who, in the past, married a widow and beat her to death because she kept belittling her current husband by comparing him to her perfect dead husband. If we have to marry a widow, make it someone we don’t know.”

The other men nodded in agreement or said, “Yeah.”

Paul looked at the men and said, “So you are not averse to marrying widows, you just don’t want to marry any of the ones in this village.”

All the men shouted, “YES!”

Paul smiled and said, “You guys actually really helped me out with a decision I have been putting off. I am going to write a decree, and I need you, men, to take it to the three villages we conquered, wait a minute.”

Paul took out a piece of shaved wood he used for writing. When Paul was in Japan, he watched traditional carpenters use a very simple device to shape wood. It worked by shaving a layer of wood off of the timber. Paul recreated it and used the long wood shavings as paper and used coal to write on it. It wasn’t great, but it worked.

Paul wrote on the wood shaving, “Your village is invited to Jiwi Mkuki villages planting festival. At the planting festival, the people will be given the seed for this year’s planting, and they will also be allowed to take their children back for one month to help them with their planting. If someone does not come, they will not get their seed. Make sure the widows and their children also come.”

Paul might as well have written, come to the planting festival, or starve. The men read the message and asked, “What does this have to do us marrying widows.”

Paul smiled and said, “You are unwilling to marry any widow from this village, but we have conquered three more villages, and they have lots of widows for you to choose from. I expect all of you to find one you are happy with and marry them. In all four villages, there probably isn’t a widow over the age of twenty-three, so you shouldn’t have to much trouble.”

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

On the day of the festival, everyone from the other villages began arriving. Previously most of the men from those three villages had come to the Jiwi Mkuki village in the night attempting to raid, but coming to the Jiwi Mkuki village in the day was something else. Many of the huts had been upgraded to log cabins, and there was a tall tower in the center of the village. With the stone road going through the village, everything looked impressive. Look down, and there is an impressive road. Look around, and there are impressive houses. Look up, and there is an impressive tower. By no means was the Jiwi Mkuki village Rome, but it was plenty impressive to this group of villagers.

Many of the visitors took note that every home had large granaries, and they all said to themselves that next dry season, that would be them. They wouldn’t have to go to the village’s granary for their bread. They would go to their own.

Paul’s older bachelors were looking for a widow to marry. They were meeting the various groups as they arrived. Being fourteen and up in a very blunt culture, these young men went around saying, “Chief Paul told us that we have to marry one of the widows who shows up today. Which one of the pretty girls knows how to be quiet?”

Paul was embarrassed when he saw one of the visitors point to some poor girl, and his man said, “Not her, she’s ugly.” Then he pointed at another girl and said, “What about her, she’s pretty. Did she give her dead husband any lip?”

In Paul’s day, these guys would have learned some manners, but considering that they were rich by the local standards, the poor widowed girls would likely be open for marrying them, even if they were uncouth.

On a positive note, the women who came to the village were envious of the clothes the women of Jiwi Mkuki village were wearing. Paul had spent time with Chazia figuring out how to dye the threads, and then let the women figure out how to weave them together in amazing patterns. Now all the visiting women were flocking to his village’s women to learn how to make beautiful clothes. Chazia was enjoying the attention and compliments.

An hour before midday, everyone had arrived. Paul got up and explained the rules of warrior rock, and everyone over the age of 12 got on the rock and fought. The three villages that they had conquered got on the rock looking for payback from their embarrassing loss, only to find out that the Jiwi Mkuki warriors were all fantastic. In comparison, their warriors looked like five-year-olds trying to fight adults.

The children from those villages had spent the last couple of months learning to fight and was embarrassed at how badly the men of their villages did. Those who still had a living father or living brothers who fought were ashamed. They had spent the last few months telling each other how that if the fights between the villages had been fair, they would have been able to fight off the Jiwi Mkuki tribe, now they realized how merciful Paul was.

It didn’t take long for the men from the other villages to learn that warriors rock was going to be decided by those in the Jiwi Mkuki Tribe, and they had the bruises to prove they learned that lesson the hard way.

Paul was pleased to see his men form up into actual teams and fight each other in hand to hand combat. With the teams fighting one another, it actually took more than an hour for them to determine a winner. Paul was happy to see his brother in law Abilio won. But Paul was also worried that his brother in law Abilio won. It still bothered Paul how happy the conquered villagers were to kill their chief. Paul hoped that would not be his fate, but he still needed Abilio’s leadership.

Paul started clapping, and yelled out, “Congratulations, champion of this year’s warriors rock. Now it is time for the women’s tournament”. Paul wasn’t surprised to see the confusion on the guest’s face and said, “I see our guests are confused. I have made a point to train the women to fight, and they fight in a more civilized manner than the men do, they only fight one on one. If any women from any village know how to fight, please join our women in the tournament.”

Of course, the other villages never showed their women how to fight. They didn’t even show their men how to fight; the only thing they showed the men was how to hunt. During the tournament, the kids who were embarrassed when their village lost, grew great respect for the Jiwi Mkuki village when they realized that the women who fought in the tournament could easily have beaten the men of their villages. Its like chief Paul always says, “Technique always beats strength.”

At this point, any thought of attacking the Jiwi Mkuki tribe fled the minds of the surrounding villages. They realized they were insane to try to steal from the Jiwi Mkuki tribe all those months ago and began to really appreciate and fear chief Paul.

Paul, on the other hand, had a different thought. He was thinking that with all their training and ability, they could still be easily killed by a stray arrow, or spear, especially when there was a battle of dozens of people and several people attacked one warrior at a time. It is one of the reasons why Paul was so determined to train soldiers. A group of people who knew how to fight together so the enemy could not gang up on their fellow soldier. It would seriously decrease the chance of his men dying or being wounded.

After the women’s tournament was over, Paul said, “Congratulations to this year’s champion! Jujiann. This year for the first time ever, we will have an archery contest!” Paul pointed at a line and said, “All the men will stand behind this line and fire the arrow at that target!” The target Paul pointed at was about one hundred yards away.

The men from the other villages cried out and said, “There’s no way an arrow can reach that far!”

Paul smiled and struggled to pull back the string on this bow. He had finally gotten strong enough to be able to shoot a bow with a 120-pound pull weight. The target had a five-foot diameter, and when Paul let loose the string, he was pleased to see it hit the target. It was two feet from the center, but the arrow struck the target and struck it hard!

The men of the other village cried out and said, “How did he do that?” and others said, “What kind of bow is that?”

When Paul said, “Alright, guest, you get to go first.”

The men from the other villages were ashamed when none of them could pull back the string on the bow, and they were figuring out quickly that Paul had them there to show them that he and his people were better than them. Paul didn’t leave them any face, especially when every man in the Jiwi Mkuki village over the age of fourteen could pull the string and launch an arrow. Nearly every one of them hit the target, and one even got a bull’s eye.

Paul did not do this to embarrass their guest. Paul did this to show the kids that they should look up to his villagers. Paul wanted the children’s loyalty because he didn’t think he would ever have the adult’s loyalty, even from those adults from his own village.

As time passed, only one man got the bull’s eye, so Paul called him up and said, “Congratulations Ikbal! This is the first one-hundred-and-twenty-pound bow I have made, and for winning this tournament with a bullseye, no less, you have won it.”

The man fondled the bow like it was his first-born child.

Finally, Paul brought all the people to a dining area they set up with tables and benches, and Paul made an announcement. The announcement that he had planned since he decided to invite all the tribes to this festival, “Now that everyone is here, I think that its essential to set up just laws that bind all the people closer together. One law I set up is to protect the girls, and our future generations is that nobody either male or female is allowed to be married until after the age of fourteen, and your chastity is to be preserved until after you are married. “

Paul continued, “But today I have a new law, nobody is allowed to marry someone from the village they grew up in. They must marry someone from another village.” Gasps could be heard. Every person in attendance grew up knowing that they would marry someone in their village. Sure, there were the times where a woman was dragged off in a raid, but that almost never happened and was not expected. This new law changed how they viewed their future. They went from being certain that they would have to marry one of the people they grew up with, too, that not being an option, to let me look around and see what’s available. They were teenagers and somewhat adaptable in this regard.

Paul said, “In order to show Jiwi Mkuki villages commitment to this my second in command, Abilio will be looking to marry a widow from another tribe, and as many of you noticed this morning several of my Bachler warriors were looking for a widow to marry this morning. Honestly, I hope all of you that are unmarried can find marriage partners at this gathering or future gatherings. Now that I have made my announcements eat and mingle.”

Chapter 34 February 74 AD Finished Boat

Making a boat was much harder and more complicated than John thought it would be. Part of the problem was that every technology that went into the boat was new to AD 74 Texas, so John wasn’t inventing one thing; he was inventing everything.

John invented boards, and the saw to cut the boards, a steam box to shape the boards, several tools to shape the boards while they were being steamed, several tools to shape the boards after they were steamed, rivets so that the boards would be waterproof where they were connected together, and a clinker style boat. A clinker style boat is where the boards on the boat are so solidly put together that there is no way for the water to leak through. John had to build the boat this way because he couldn’t find good enough sealant.

John was getting frustrated after his first three boats sank right away due to leaks, but John was sure it would work this time. The only problem now was that there was no way for him to build a forty-foot-long boat by himself.

John paid Nana with tools, food, and supplies to help with the boat building project. Nana was one of the Indian bachelors that John brought to the village who went on to marry one of John’s villagers. Nana decided to stay. John suspected that Nana felt extra welcome because every time John saw him, John smiled really big. Nana probably thinks this is because John really likes him, but truth be told John thinks its funny that this tribal warrior’s name means grandma where John comes from.

It was finally time for launch, and Nana said, “John, you realize its still winter, right? You are going to die if you sink in those cold waters.”

John glared back at him and said, “I had never built a boat before last year. I am sure I did it right this time. I have told you ever since my first failure that if a failure is not fatal, it is not final.”

Nana said, “But if it sinks in this cold water with you in it, it will be fatal.”

John said, “Look, we need more lumber, building log rafts upriver, and bringing them downriver is the easiest solution.”

Nana looked at John and said, “If it were so easy, it wouldn’t take us a whole year to start.”

John shot back and said, “It has not been a whole year. We started this process last spring, and it’s not spring yet.”

Nana rolled his eyes and said, “Alright, John, just hurry up and finish your boat, and I will help you push it in the river. The sooner you drown, the sooner I can get by my warm fire.”

John decided to ignore Nana, and they got to work. They put on the last few boards and riveted them into the boat. The last bit of work John had to do only took about two hours. In all honesty, if there was someone who sold all the things John needed, he would have been able to build all four boats in about two months, but since John had to make everything himself, it took eleven months. John wished Gandore would have sent a Lowes or Home Depot back in time with them.

It was time to launch the boat in the water, and John really hoped it wasn’t the last time they launched this boat into the water. Although John was chief, in truth, the elders were in charge, and they were questioning his sanity after so many failures. The first time it failed, the people were surprised at his failure because so far, John hadn’t failed, but they started mocking him after the second time, and the third time they figured out that John was a dreamer. Well yeah, John is a homesteader. All homesteaders are dreamers. But this time, the boat would work, and they would see how great his dream was.

As they pushed John’s baby into the water, John was nervous and excited, and Nana was just in a hurry to go back to a warm fireplace. Once the boat was in the water, John jumped in and started jumping for joy! It wasn’t leaking!

When Nana saw the boat was working, he asked, “Does this mean I am not going to get to sit by a warm fire anytime soon?”

John Said, “Grab a paddle, exercise will warm you right up!”

They paddled across the river, and then when they started paddling back across, they noticed the current was pushing them downriver. They couldn’t paddle back to where they began due to the current, and Nana said, “We can’t paddle upriver in this thing, so how are we going to get upriver?”

John said, “I forgot that they had to pole these boats upriver. Let’s go downriver till we find a couple of nice long thin trees.” Once they found them, they were cut down, and they stripped the limbs off. After a little experimenting with their poles, they were going right up the river. It was slow going, but it wasn’t bad.

Finally, once John was satisfied, he said, “We have to get the rest of the village to see our boat. Nana, you go get them.”

Nana said, “You’re only sending me because you are tired of them teasing you about the boat.”

Nana was right, but John ignored it and said, “Nana, go get them.”

Nana left, and it wasn’t long before the entire village was out. After seeing three failures, they were shocked at John’s success. How did he get something so big and with so many pieces to float?

John called out, “Hey, kids who wants to ride on the new boat?”

All the kid’s faces lit up with joy and excitement, and all the mother’s faces had a split second of fear, and just as quickly they grabbed their babies, and their faces twisted into an angry look and yelled, “Our children are not going on that rickety boat. Its WINTER! The last three boats you built sank, and if this one sinks this time of year, they will catch their death of cold!”

John yelled back, “If the mamas won’t let the babies go, then I guess the men will want to go.”

The women in the village shot a nasty look toward their husbands, and they said, “Sorry, John, we will have to wait till spring.” It was clear riding the boat was not worth living with an angry wife.

The elders, of course, were not going to try anything new. So, John gave up for now and said, “Okay, y’all, we will go trading after the spring planting.”

The women looked relieved, the kids looked excited, and the men looked whipped.

Chapter 35 March AD 74 Uniform

Paul was correct about what would happen during the planting season. He sent excited kids home with their parents. Paul had given the children seeds of their favorite fruits and vegetables to give to their parents, but their parents were upset due to their humiliation at the planting festival. Short-tempered parents and excited children do not mix.

It wasn’t long before the children were upset with their parents and thinking how much better they had it at their school, and how much smarter and kinder Paul was. Paul was winning the children’s loyalty, while their tribe was losing it. When the kids came back after planting season, they were relieved to be away from their parents.

On a happier note, Chazia told Paul that she was pregnant with their second child shortly after the planting festival.

Paul and his wife were not the only ones who would be growing the population of the village. It wasn’t long after Paul’s announcement saying that people could not marry someone in their own village before the young men were wooing widows in other villages and getting married. The villages were starting to grow closer due to marriage bonds.

When Paul was growing up and going to school, it always amazed him how the U.K. could have an empire so vast the sun never set on it. Then lose it in one or two generations. But the reality was when the British went and conquered the various countries they never intermarried, and so the people they conquered never integrated into English culture. On the other hand, Alexander the Great, the man Paul’s son is named after had all his officers marry women of the people he conquered, and after his death, there were four relatively stable empires made. If you want to build a nation, history shows the best way to do it is through marriage.

It has been an interesting rainy season, as the widows his men married are striving hard to learn the ways of the Jiwi Mkuki tribe, but the men who married women from the Jiwi Mkuki tribe and brought them back to their village are somewhat unwilling to change their ways. The women as a whole consider the Jiwi Mkuki women stylish and are learning to make and dye cloth like the Jiwi Mkuki women. The men, on the other hand, were dragging their feet on change. It didn’t matter to Paul because, in ten years, they would be vastly outnumbered by the children he is training.

It is currently harvest season, and so Paul sent all the kids over age eight back to help their village harvest their crops, and they were only to return once all the crops were harvested. It is sad to say, but none of the twelve-year old’s, those about to go through the right of passage to become men, had either of their parents left alive. Only one eleven-year-old still had a mother that was alive. War, hunger, disease, sleeping sickness, and animal attacks take a massive toll on the people, more so here than anywhere else in the world. Paul prayed that he could change the destiny of this people.

Before Paul sent off the children to help with their various villages harvest, Paul used them to help the Jiwi Mkuki village finish their harvest first. This allowed the men to hunt while the kids were away.

Currently, Paul had twenty-five men, and with four villages of twelve years old’s he has thirty-four kids ready to step into manhood by the standards of the tribes. The reason why Paul sent all the kids home to help harvest with their parents is so that Paul and his people can do some hunting. Paul wants his soldiers to have uniforms, and the best uniform Paul can think of is Crocodile leather armor.

Paul was a huge fan of History Channel’s swamp people, and what he learned from that show was that you can hunt crocodiles with rope, hooks, and very stinky meat. That to kill a crocodile meant piercing its brain. Although on the tv show they usually used guns, there were a few times they used knives. Paul’s men had knives, axes, swords, and pig spears. They shouldn’t have any problems, especially as the pig spears wings were knives themselves, it would be nothing to use them to bash down on the crocodile’s brainpan like a hammer to kill them.

Now Paul just had to tell his men the last thing they had to do before they became officers and trained the boys into men.

Paul called the men to him and said, “In just a few weeks, we are going to train our boys to become men, and it is more than just hunting. It’s working together in a team to fight together. Over the last few months, I have been showing you how to become soldiers, how to fight together, and now I will take you through the last exercise to be those soldiers. After our boys have finished their training, they will also do this exercise in order to become men. We have twenty-six men here today, including me. As a team, we are going to go into the jungle and kill twenty-six crocodiles and turn them into chest armor.”

The men gasped, and one said, “But killing crocodiles is dangerous, and they are hard to find.”

Paul smiled and said, “I know the secret to hunt crocodiles, both how to find them, and to kill them.”

Abilio said, “If you know this secret, why haven’t you kill crocodiles on your own already?”

Paul said, “Being a soldier demands that you fight as a unit. One man on his own can not easily hunt crocodiles, but a team of men can easily hunt and kill as many as they want. If they know the secret, which I will share with you.”

One of the men said, “What’s the secret?”

Paul said, “Grab your weapons and follow me!” As the men grabbed their weapons, Paul grabbed two oxen to carry his hooks, ropes, and jars carefully filled with raw meat a few days ago that was now rotting inside the jar. The jars were pretty heavy; otherwise, Paul would have had the men carry this equipment.

They made their way to a watering hole where all the men knew crocodiles made their home. That’s when Paul found a tree near the water, and tied a rope to the tree, and tied an iron hook to the rope, and then opened up the jar, and all of a sudden, the smell of rotting meat permeated the air.

The men were not expecting the rot and started coughing and asked, “What are you doing?”

Paul said, “Putting the bait on the hook. Crocodiles like rotten meat. I will hang this meat about a foot above the water. That way, only the bigger crocodiles will be able to take the bait. Once he does, several of us will pull him on shore, while the others may or may not jump on his back, depending on the situation. Since I started all this, I will be the one to kill the first one by stabbing it in its brainpan. Afterward, all 25 of all of you will kill your own.”

Despite the smell, all the men’s jaws dropped, Abilio’s eyes opened wide and said, “You want us to jump on the back of the crocodile?”

Paul said, “Depends on the situation. If they are swinging around trying to bite us, then whoever kills it ought to use their pig spear like a hammer. But if they focus on one guy, then the rest of us should jump on its back, and then one person takes out their knife and stab it in the brain. I will have to go first to show you where it is.”

One of the men said, “You make this sound so easy. You do realize we are not like you. We have not killed lions by ourselves.”

Paul said, “Killing the lions was very hard and very dangerous. Killing the crocodiles with the right tools isn’t so bad. Back where I come from, people killed them by the thousands this way. In fact, one man was known as the crocodile hunter, and instead of killing crocodiles, he captured them alive, and brought them home with him.”

The men’s eyes went wide and said, “You have very mighty warriors where you come from.”

Paul Said, “Yeah, Steve Irwin was a powerful warrior, and he probably wouldn’t be too happy with me killing crocodiles using his method to capture them, but it is my job to stand on the shoulder of giants, and he has something for me to pass on to you.”

Another one of the men said, “What do you mean stand on the shoulder of giants?”

Paul said, “Where I am from, I learned from many great men who learned from many great men, each generation learned from the last, and we called that standing on the shoulder of giants. Perhaps I will tell you about where I come from when the boys become men.”

After Paul finished hanging the bait, he began moving when the men asked, “Where are you going?”

Paul said, “To hang more bait, there are crocodiles all over this pond.”

Someone said, “We are going to hang more than one?”

Paul said, “Yes. We are going to walk around the pond. Unless we can’t cross the stream, hanging the bait as we go. Until we completely encircle the pond or run out of rope and hooks. Don’t worry; we are not going to run out of bait.”

With that, the men warily began following Paul, and the stream was easily crossed. Once they made their circuit, they found the tree with the first line shaking. Paul had a big smile on his face, and when he turned around, he found his men were shaking. Paul said, “Don’t worry; we got this.”

The look the men gave Paul said they didn’t believe Paul. Under Paul’s instruction, three men very nervously grabbed the rope and began pulling it. At first, the crocodile pulled the other way, but as soon as it got its head out of the water, it charged the men, and they fled in three directions. Paul was shocked. The croc was 20 feet long, at least. Paul did not let fear rule him, and he jumped on the back of the crocodile and used his entire body to force the crocodile’s mouth shut and covered its eyes.

Paul yelled at the men, “Jump on its back, Jump on its back now!”

The men overcame their fear and jumped on the back of the croc. Paul yelled out, “Men, we have control of the croc. Pulling team, come back right now you need to see this.”

The pulling team had not run very far, and they began making their way back, as they came back, they saw a bunch of men on the croc. They were shocked that the men controlled a giant twenty-foot long crocodile. That crocodile had likely killed unwary men before, but they had it under their control.

Paul yelled out, “Watch carefully.” He pulled out his knife and pointed out where the brain pain was. And said, “This is where you have to stab it, if you stab it anywhere else you will not kill it.” With that, Paul raised his knife and stabbed right into the croc’s brain.

Paul yelled out, “One down, twenty-five to go. Who’s next?”

Abilio said, “I am.”

Paul said, “Good.” Then he looked around and said, “Where did the oxen go.”

Abilio said, “When the croc came out, the oxen ran away.”

Paul said, “Find the oxen. Otherwise, we will have to drag these monsters back ourselves!”

Chapter 36 April 74 AD Boot Camp

Paul’s men each killed their own crocodile, and to Paul’s surprise, every crocodile was a monster. Each at least fifteen feet long. The longest was twenty-two feet long. Paul’s twenty-five men started the day with their knees knocking, but by the end of the day, they were confident that they were monster hunters!

It took a couple of weeks to get the crocodile hides made into leather, but when it was done, each man had a fantastic piece of leather armor to use as their uniform. Paul’s men were sharp!

During the curing process, Paul had the men build the barracks for the boys. They were not that willing until Paul said that once done, the soldiers they were training would do all the building from then on. Knowing it would be their last building project, they worked hard to get it done fast.

In time those who had been sent away to help their villages with their harvest came back.

Once they were all back, Paul started school as usual, with everyone lining up for martial arts training. Once in line, Paul said, “Some of you have reached the age where its time for you to become men. Today you will graduate from the school and go to the barracks that has been built for you to take your next step in life. From boy to man.”

Paul could see the smile of the boy’s faces, and Paul said, “Every boy twelve and up grab your belongs and take them to the barracks where you will learn to be men.” The boys couldn’t help but cheer as they ran to grab their meager belongs and start their new life. Paul let them. School life was very different than barracks life, let them enjoy the last few minutes while they could.

Paul continued, “We have several young ladies here who are not yet old enough to be married but are no longer little, and so for the next two years, you will continue your education. Although now you will learn how to teach, as one day you will have children, and it will be your responsibility to teach them before they come to school.”

Paul continued, “Where the men have the responsibility to protect their family, village, and nation from attack from men and beast. Women have the responsibility to protect your home, your village, and your nation from sickness and to heal people when they get sick or are injured. Between my time instructing the boys, I will instruct you on medicine. Otherwise, the other teachers will take you under their wing and begin teaching you their craft as I have taught them.”

At this point, all the teachers were either widows under the supervision of Paul’s wife or injured men who could do nothing more than instruct. All were grateful for their job. They can all remember people who the village let starve because they could no longer work, and yet Paul found work for the most downtrodden. In this world, Paul thought it wise to generally keep the widowed women and injured men as teachers, so those who could do nothing else had work.

Once all the boys made their way to the Barracks, Paul went and changed into his Croc armor. Paul was changing from the boy’s principal who often spanked them for their bad behavior, to the boys’ head drill sergeant.

Paul had never served in the military. If Paul understood boot camp correctly, boot camp’s job was to make young soldiers learn to work as a team, obey orders, and become disciplined. In this world, these were needed lessons.

If Paul was back in his time, what he was doing would be considered a war crime—training a bunch of twelve-year old’s to be soldiers. But in this world, enemy raiders had no problem killing the twelve-year old’s, or five-year old’s. The difference was that Paul could effectively train the twelve-year old’s to work as a team to defend themselves and their village from raiders; he couldn’t teach five year old’s that lesson.

Paul found the rest of his men wearing their new armor, their new uniform, and they made their way into the barracks. The inside of the barracks had lots of wooden posts from floor to ceiling. Paul had made beds between the post with rope. Alongside the walls was a lot of shelving.

Paul and his men marched in, neat orderly and in a line. Like they used when they were practicing with their sword, shields, spear, and arrow formations. The boys were all grouped up together in the middle of the barracks, and they looked up and just stared.

Paul yelled out, “Line up in front of your beds!”

The boys looked around, confused, and started trying to figure out which bed was theirs.

Paul yelled out, “STOP. Drop and give me pushups! When I tell you to do something, you will run to get it done! You are here to become men! Acting like a lazy child dragging his feet will not work here.”

All the boys knew what pushups were since it was part of their training in school. They all got down and started doing pushups. Until Paul yelled out, “Get up and go to your beds.”

This time they quickly got up and stood in front of their beds in the ready stance they had learned at school.

Paul went and inspected the first young man, and he had his stuff all over his bed and shelves, and Paul said, “Your bed and area are a mess. I expect everything to be organized and neat when I come by here. Do you understand me?”

The boy said, “Yes, sir.”

Paul said, “Because of this boys mess all of you will give me thirty squats.”

The boys all groaned, and Paul said, “DID I GIVE YOU PERMISSION TO COMPLAIN? NOW ALL OF YOU WILL GIVE ME THREE HUNDRED SQUATS!”

There was not one peep after that, as they all started doing their squats.

Paul went down and found fault in each of the boys’ areas. They all suffered for it, but they learned not to complain very quickly.

Once Paul was done with inspecting, he took them outside and said, “As men, you will need to learn to use a bow both for hunting and for protection. Until now, you haven’t been strong enough for a longbow, but now you will start your training, and in time each of you will be able to handle the hundred- and twenty-pound bow. Some of you will one day be able to handle bows with even heavier pull weights.”

This was why Paul needed so many men to help him with the boys. Paul was overseeing twenty-five men helping the thirty-four boys learn to shoot the bow the first time. Paul was the worst man in the village when it came to every aspect of the bow. All the men were experts, and The men had no problem teaching the bow because it was always expected that they would do this for everyone as they got old enough.

After their lesson, Paul lined the boys up, and where they thought they were going to do martial arts exercises, Paul instead had the boys run in formation. At first, the boys thought it was a race, but as soon as a couple of boys got ahead, Paul yelled out, “STOP! We have two of you leaving everyone behind. Your job is to be part of the group. Stay in the formation! In a battle, if you get ahead of everyone else, people die. So instead of learning this lesson in blood, you will learn it in sweat. Time to do some four-point kicks.”

The boys wanted to complain when he said that, but they had learned. Four-point kicks is where you kick to your front, then turn ninety degrees and kick again, when you kick and turn ninety degrees four times that is one four-point kick. It’s a great leg day exercise. After forty four-point kicks with both legs, Paul had them running in formation again.

This time the boys were more careful to stay in formation, but as they ran, a couple of boys started falling behind, and Paul yelled out, “STOP. Running ahead due to pride is bad, but just as bad is falling behind because you lack willpower to stay with your fellow men. Everyone get on the ground. We are going to do six inches. You will all keep your feet off the ground until I say otherwise. You will learn willpower!”

Paul was making a group of people who would learn to work together. That didn’t work if some proud man ran ahead and got himself and others killed, or if some lazy person, who lacked will power, fell back and out of position and got himself and others killed.

Sometime later, it was clear that they were paying enough attention to work together while running, so Paul had them break for lunch. During lunch, Paul forced the boys to wait to eat until everyone could eat at the same time. Several of the boys were unhappy when lunch was over as soon as the first person finished. Paul was determined that they would learn to do things as a group.

Much of the rest of the day was spent learning how to use the pig spear. It was the most versatile weapon for their situation, as it was useful against most animals, and people. Again, the other trainers showed their worth by practically individually training Paul’s soldiers.

This week would focus on big spears, next week would focus on sword and shield, the week after they would start learning how to get in formations of six and seven and fight effectively as a unit with members using different weapons to help each other out. The entire time their focus would above all be teamwork. Part of their education would be hunting, so after they learned their formations, they would break up and learn to hunt antelope, gazelle, and boar.

The first night the boys learned that they would be standing watch from then on for the village. It was a real joy for Paul to surprise the boys with the “wonder” news. In fact, it’s one of the reasons why it was so easy to convince the other men to help Paul. With the boys having watchman duty, they wouldn’t have to do it anymore, although Paul made a much-needed twist for the watchmen. He now had them doing watch with two men instead of one. Paul was never comfortable with the watch being done with only one man, but there was no way he would convince the men in the village to commit to teams of two for the watch. Now that he had his soldiers in training, they had no choice but to follow orders.

On the third night of what the boys began calling man camp, two boys fell asleep on watch. Paul woke them up and said that because they fell asleep on watch, they were killed by a raid. Then Paul brought them to the barracks and woke everyone up and told everyone, “These two fell asleep on watch, so we are going to pretend that a raid happened, and they died. Because of that, they are going to watch you exercise to make up for their mistakes.”

From about one in the morning on they exercised, while the two boys watched. When the other men came to start leading the soldiers training, Paul made sure to tell them to exercise everyone else but the two who fell asleep. Eventually, when the rest of the boys were alone with the two who fell asleep, they gave them the black eyes and busted lips they had earned. After that night, nobody from this class ever fell asleep again on watch.

Chapter 37 May AD 74 Wart Hog

Paul was very pleased with how things were going with his soldiers. By now, they were finding out who was best with the various weapons, and his men were starting to specialize. Even though most would not specialize in the bow, Paul made all of them practice with it as it would be invaluable in hunting throughout their life, and it also allowed them to do mass volleys of arrows. At least in time when Paul had more men, it would.

Part of entering manhood for all these young men was hunting. After the men received their specialization, the other leaders began taking the soldiers in training out hunting to show them how it was done. It was good to see soldier after soldier come back with meat, and in time they went out without a leader and brought back their kills. Previously this would have been when they were called men, but Paul had more to teach them.

Paul was also pleased with how things were going with the girls. Most of them loved teaching, and they were taking to medicine like fish to water. Paul taught all the girls how to make a weak alcohol, which was used more for a pain killer than anything else. It was also used for helping with stomach issues. In truth, at this time, there was no way to produce enough alcohol to get anyone drunk, so at least for now, alcoholism would not be a problem.

Then Paul showed them how to use alcohol to make vinegar. Although Paul had them making vinegar as a disinfectant, as the vinegar was a better disinfectant than the weak alcohol, it wasn’t long before Paul showed them how to pickle stuff with it. It added a lot of flavors to the food they had. All the kids could remember when they only ate bread every other day. At one time, they only had a piece of meat once a month. But since Paul had brought them to school they eat bread several times a day, they eat fruit and vegetables every day, and they eat meat every other day. Now Paul was introducing pickling to all the foods they never really had access to before. The younger generation loved Paul.

The girls were old enough to help with washing all the clothes. They found that putting the clothes in boiling water and scrubbing on an iron scrub pan that Paul made for them was the best way to clean clothes. Paul was only too happy to provide the huge pots needed to boil the water for the clothes.

Because the boys were learning to fight, they had a lot of cuts and abrasions, and Paul made them go to the girls to get fixed, and the girls got to practice on them.

One day Paul heard one of the wounded boys telling the girl treating his wound a fantastical story about how he was a hero who got wounded.

Paul decided it would be fun to enlighten them and said, “Girl’s the only reason why you are treating the boys is because they either did something really stupid, or they screwed up. The wound on the arm of this brilliant, heroic young man, happened when he decided that he would toss his sword up into the air and catch it. He was too stupid to realize you don’t throw your sword at yourself, and you don’t catch it with the sharp part.”

At this point, all the girls were laughing at the boy, and he was blushing, which was very impressive since this is Africa, and he is as black as you can be.

Paul continued, “Girls, I don’t know how to fix these boy’s brains if you ever learn a way I will teach it to everyone. And I think this boy’s head is more broke than most.”

The boy started to leave due to embarrassment, but Paul said, “Stay right there until she stitches your arm back up. Your arm is already cut due to your pride. I do not want to see it get infected due to your pride.”

Then Paul said, “Now girls, if any of these boys tell you a story of how heroic they are, ask me about it, and I will tell you the true story, and we can laugh about it together.” Paul and the girls laughed as the soldier tried to hide.

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

As time went on, Paul finally got the news he was waiting on. Several warthogs had been sighted at one of the local watering holes. Paul had been waiting on this because Warthogs were pretty aggressive creatures. They would charge you as a pack. Three or four warthogs charging you was a very scary situation. Paul needed his soldiers to learn to stand and fight in scary situations. The warthogs were a great tool to use. It just took a while to find them.

Paul grabbed his soldiers and brought them to the watering hole. When they got there, he had thirty-four soldiers, in four groups of seven and one group of six. There were twelve warthogs near the watering hole, and they started getting nervous as the men spread out.

Paul told his men, “Spearmen, your job is to stab the pig. You will not like what happens if you miss! Swordsmen, your job is to stop the charge of the warthogs with your shield, you will not like what happens if they get through, or if they knock you on your butt. Archers, your job is to shoot the warthog without shooting my men! If you shoot my soldiers with your arrows, you really won’t like what happens.”

Paul’s voice got icy and said, “Hear this now, if any of you decide to be a coward and run, you best hope I never find you. If you run and leave my soldiers defenseless due to your cowardness, I will kill you when I find you. There will be no mercy for cowards. Stand and fight. Stand and pee in your pants. Stand and shake in your shoes. BUT STAND. Those who run will be shown no mercy.”

Paul hoped he didn’t have to find out if he had it in him to kill one of his men, but he had to make the threat because an undisciplined army was death to all.

Paul ordered, “March forward!”

The men began to march forward, and the warthogs were caught between the watering hole and Paul’s soldiers. That’s when Paul said, “Archers fire at the warthogs.”

With great precision, the shield men in the front moved their shields to open a firing lane for the archers, the archers fired between the men and shields and hit some of the warthogs which squealed in pain. With nowhere else to go, the warthogs charged straight at Paul’s men.

Paul yelled out, “STAND AND FIGHT!”

The spearmen lowered their spears between the sword men’s shields. The swordmen braced for impact, and the two and three-hundred-pound Warthogs began to impale themselves on spears, and those who dodged the spears bounced off shields. Paul’s soldiers withstood the charge!

Then his soldiers did what was ingrained in them. The spearmen with a stuck pig, held on, not allowing the warthog to move forward another step! Those that missed or did not have a warthog charge them, repositioned to attack! The swordsmen first stabbed the Warthogs that were banging against their shields, and afterward, they killed the warthogs that were stuck on the pig spears.

It was chaos, but Paul’s men learned they could survive the charge, and not just survive it, but triumph over it.

The reality was that before now when the young men went hunting to become men, they hunted stuff that couldn’t kill them. But Paul wanted them to be able to fight dangerous beast, and so this was the first group of young men who became men hunting things that could kill them. Make no mistake warthogs are two to three hundred pounds, fast and have razor-sharp tusk. They have killed many men, but Paul’s soldiers, these twelve-year old’s just stood their ground against twelve warthogs!

Paul yelled out, “GOOD JOB, MEN! YOU HAVE STOOD YOUR GROUND AND WON! YOU ARE ALL NOW, MEN!”

The newly minted men cheered!

When they calmed down, Paul yelled out, “Grab the pork men. We will feast tonight. You have one more mission to become soldiers. Men stand their ground together for victory. Soldiers attack together for victory. Tomorrow we attack crocodiles!”

The next day, the boys followed Paul to a watering hole with monster crocs. They killed 35 of them. Each man killed his own becoming a soldier. In the next few days, the soldiers walked with renewed pride and confidence. Once the croc hide was cured, and the leather armor was fitted for the new soldiers, they were sent off to the various villages to act as guards.

None of the soldiers were allowed to go to their home village. Each of the three conquered villages got nine soldiers. Eight soldiers stayed at Paul’s village. The soldiers sent to the conquered villages had to build barracks, bathhouses, and a watchtower in each village alongside their daily training

Paul was delighted. He now had men he trusted in each village. Yes, they were twelve, But they are as tall as an adult, and since they ate much better than the previous generation, many of them were bigger than the sixteen and seventeen-year-olds that made up most of the adults in the four villages. Furthermore, they were twelve-year old’s who stood up to charging warthogs and attacked crocs as a team. They faced monsters that their elders hadn’t. Paul was finally starting to feel somewhat comfortable.

Chapter 38 May AD 74 Trade

At first, John was annoyed that he had to put off his trip to explore the river and find tribes to trade with because they really did need a lot more lumber. But in all honesty, it was very fortunate. His older female bison gave birth to seven more bison calves, two girls and five boys. With his other female bison maturing, this means John should have twelve bison to breed with the one mature male. Next winter, John will have to thin the herd by at least half, but it’s a big step in the right direction for domestication.

Plowing and planting went well, and Xena had more pups. John was glad to give them to the men to train to protect their homes. It would be a good day when every man in the tribe had a dog trained to protect their family and the community as a whole.

After John was done planting his fields, he went ahead and, with some help, built a dock for his boat. Then he put timbers poles in the river so they would stick out from the river a little way from the new dock. John was hoping to bring a log raft down with him, and so having the timber poles to stop it near the dock helped a lot. Then with the dock, he could tear the log raft apart and bring it ashore without swimming.

That said, the boat staying afloat for two months did a wonderful job of convincing the women to let their husbands go on the trip, although the kids were still banned from his boat. John snuck a couple onboard and had a good time showing them how amazing the boat was. Then their mamas found out and tanned their hides. John hated it when a kid got spanked for something he, as the adult did. But it was fun until then.

John brought nearly a ton of grain, and ten axes for trade on this trip. The grain was for any tribe that might be hurting now, and the axes were for them to actually be able to cut down the trees that John village needed for their various projects. John also brought camping supplies because he expected they would need to rest several nights on their trip.

As they started their trip, poling upriver John told the men, “I need everyone to watch for smoke. Rivers change course over time and some of the villages that were built alongside the river years ago, are still where they were then, but the river has changed course. Hopefully, we don’t have to go too far to find what we are looking for.”

If the Vikings had made this trip, they would have had a dozen men and been able to paddle against the current. John only had himself and three other men, so they had to pole the boat, and in John’s mind, it was slow going. The tribesmen, on the other hand, thought the boat was terrific. There were not many canoes on this river because the water was too swift. Being able to stand on the boat and push it forward with the poles made river navigation easy, and carrying so many supplies was unimaginable before the boat.

After about ten hours of poling, it began to get dark and so they found a place on the same side of the river as their village to sleep that night. The next morning, they got up and started the poling all over again.

Up to this point, everything had been easy for John. Back in the modern world, John had been a homesteader. Farming and building things was in his blood. His parents taught him how to live off the land, and he was teaching his kids the same thing when the Wixors destroyed the modern world. When his wife’s tribe had come, it was fun to teach them his knowledge, as that’s what a homesteader does. All his life since he was little, he taught people the importance of homesteading. Now he needed to get out of the homesteader’s box, and John honestly didn’t like it.

As they poled upriver, about midday, Nana yelled out,” Smoke. I see smoke.” And pointed in the air. The smoke was coming from the opposite side of the river as their village was on.

They poled the boat up to shore, and John and Nana got out and started looking for the village. It wasn’t long before they came across large fields filled with crops. As they made their way to the village, there was a commotion, and before long, one of the elders of the tribe made their way to them.

The elder said, “What brings you here?”

John said, “We are here to trade.”

The elder said, “I don’t see any furs. What are you here to trade?”

John said, “Well, you see, we built a very large canoe and brought about a ton of grain to trade.”

The elder gave John a disdainful look and said, “Look around, we have plenty of grain. We are a village of farmers. If you want to trade grain, you need to find a village of hunters.”

John was somewhat hurt as he was trying to trade his hybrid grain, but he moved on and pulled out his knife and said, “This is a knife made out of iron, and I have axes made out of the stuff.”

The elder’s eyes went wide when he saw the iron knife. He had never seen anything like it. To him, it shimmered in the sunlight like water. When John handed it to the man, he was surprised by how much it weighed.

John said, “That blade is very tough, feel free to hit it against a tree a couple of times.”

With that suggestion, the elder was definitely going to test out his new toy. The knife easily bit into the tree he hit it with, and then just to test its resilience, the elder banged the back end and flat of the knife against the tree. The elder was amazed at the knife. It was indescribably better than the flint knives they had.

The elder said with surprise, “What do you want for this?”

John, who was not a salesman, and perhaps its rare to have a homesteader who was a salesman; otherwise, there would be more of them, said, “Well sir, we have grain, and some axes made out of iron that we came here to trade.”

The elder said, “You have other stuff made out of iron? Show me.”

The elder went with John back to his boat, and when they got there, John told the men, “I think this guy is interested in trading with us, show him the axes and the grain.”

The elder took one look at the boat, and how big it was, and the elder said, “What is this?”

John said, “This is a very large canoe, or what I would call a boat.”

The elder asked, “Did you come downriver to get to me, or upriver?”

John said, “Upriver.”

The elder said, “There are waterways where we can use canoes, and sometimes when there is a drought, the river’s flow is slow enough for us to paddle upriver in a canoe, but that’s not normal. How did you bring this giant craft upriver?

John said, “Well, we poled it, upriver.” John pointed at the long poles and said, “With these poles.”

The elder said, “That is so clever. Why didn’t we ever think of that?”

John said, “Chances are someone did, but in a little canoe poling is unwieldy, we can stand up in this boat no problem and pole against the bottom of the river.”

The elder said, “What else do you have?”

John pulled out one of the axes and said, “This.”

The elder said, “What’s this?”

John said, “This is an ax. It is used for cutting down trees.” John preceded to show the elder what he was talking about, and the elder stood amazed. The head of the ax hit the tree again and again and did not break, but the tree did. The elder had been around a long time, long enough to burn down trees. To him, this ax was a miracle. Instead of taking hours to burn through a tree, in just a few minutes, the tree was falling down.

The elder asked, “What do you want for the Axes?”

John said, “We need lumber.”

The elder asked, “What’s lumber?”

John said, “When you cut down a tree and separate it into parts, it becomes what is known as lumber. What I would like is to give your tribe the axes now, for say one hundred trees. You will cut down a hundred trees and put them in the water for us.”

The elder looked confused, “Why do you want the trees in the water?”

John said, “We have cut down all the trees reasonably close to our village. My goal is to bind the logs together in a raft, and when they get to our village, stop the raft and pull them out of the water.”

The elder asked, “Why do you need so many logs?”

John said, “In order to make a fire hot enough to make iron, it takes a lot of wood. In order to make a lot of the products we make, it requires a lot of wood. In all honesty, if you want to visit our village sometime, you ought to come. I will show you a lot of the things we are doing, perhaps some of it can help your village.”

The elder said, “If I took a canoe down to your village, how would I get back?”

John said, “We can pole you back up here pretty easy. It will take a day and a half, though.”

The elder said, “I will talk to the other elders and the chief, and when I have a chance, I will visit you.”

With that, they made their trade. The elder would typically ask the other elders, and the chief, but the iron was too precious, and he would make sure to gift each elder an ax. The elder brought ten young men to use the axes and fell the trees. The men were amazed at the strength of the ax. Later as they put the trees in the water, they watched in wonder as John hammered in large iron staples into the logs to keep them together. In their eyes, John had power that was greater than a mighty oak.

Once John had their hundred logs on a large raft, they pushed away guided it back to their village with their boat. Afterward, John was still slightly upset that they didn’t even give his grain a second look.

Chapter 39 June AD 74 A Soldiers Day

Faizal was woken up before dawn by Ridwan. Ridwan was one of the soldiers who had second watch, and it was his job to wake everyone up. Their job was to guard the Nguvu Simba village. Guarding a village was nothing like Faizal thought it would be.

Back when they graduated, Chief Paul told Faizal and eight of his friends that they would be guarding this village. Faizal imagined that they would spend their day lounging around, playing games, goofing off, and every night keeping watch. Faizal was wrong.

Ridwan said, “Faizal get out of bed. Clean up your area. If one of the leaders makes a surprise inspection, you are going to make all of us suffer.”

Faizal hated it, every morning when they got up, they had to make sure their barracks were neat and clean inside and outside. They had shelves for their stuff, but the stuff had to be organized and neat. It couldn’t be sloppy, and woe to the man who had anything on the ground that wasn’t his shoes.

Faizal got up without a word and made sure his area was neat and then began inspecting everyone else’s area. If one of them failed at inspection, they would all suffer. As Faizal made his way down the barracks, Faizal saw a BOW on the floor.

Faizal yelled out, “RIDWAN, you are going to get us flamed!” The soldiers called the punishment, where they had to do lots of exercises as punishment flamed. This including doing pushups till you couldn’t do anymore, then doing squats till you couldn’t stand anymore, then doing six inches until the leader got tired. If a soldier got flamed, almost always, the entire unit did too. If you were the idiot to get your unit flamed, then make no mistake, they would make you suffer later.

Ridwan ran back and said, “Sorry about that. I didn’t notice that it fell after I put it here.”

Faizal said, “Don’t say sorry! Do your job, right!”

Ridwan said, “Cut me a break I just got back from watch.”

Faizal said, “If Chief Paul saw this, he wouldn’t cut any of us a break. You know that every now and then, he loves to do surprise inspections first thing in the morning. He nailed us two weeks ago.

Ridwan said, “Your right, it won’t happen again.”

After they policed the barracks, next came target practice. They were required to shoot a hundred shots every day, and Paul told them by the time the planting festival came around, he expected them to shoot a hundred shots with a bow with an eighty-pound draw weight. Right now, everyone could do a hundred shots with a bow with a sixty-pound draw weight. They were getting close with the eighty-pound bow, but nobody was there yet.

One of the things that surprised the men is that Paul did not seem to care when some men were bad shots with the bow. He said that he would have to invent something called glasses sooner or later. Other guys were chewed out when they shot poorly with the bow. Faizal didn’t get it, but everyone learned not to question leaders until they were out of their watchmen’s duties at fourteen.

Next came breakfast, and it was wonderful. They had fresh hot bread, preserves, meat, and vegetables. Say what you want to about being a soldier, Chief Paul made sure you were well fed. In fact, most of the soldiers were taller than most of the men who were six or seven years older than them. Eating lots of food was really helping them grow.

After breakfast came individual training time. Individual training time was not when the men went off and trained by themselves, its where one of the men lead the rest in exercises that they would do as individuals instead of a group. Paul did not leave a leader, so they did a rotating leadership, and today it was Faizal’s turn to lead Individual training.

Faizal said, “Alright, everyone today, we will do Hindu squats with kicks.”

Ridwan said, “Faizal, every time you are in charge of individual training, we have to do that!”

Faizal said, “Well, if any of you did Hindu squats with kicks, maybe I wouldn’t do it every time I lead individual training. Besides any day now, Chief Paul is going to come by and inspect us. Do you really want him staying with us a week and leading our individual training if we do not meet his expectations?“

A horrified look came across the men’s face, and as one, they said, “No, no. Your right, Hindu squats sound good.”

With that, they did front kicks, round kicks, sidekicks, inside crescent kicks, outside crescent kicks, hook kicks, and back kicks with a squat before each kick. After an hour of that, it was time for their group run. After the group run, the men could do whatever they wanted to do until lunchtime.

After lunch, it was time for formation training. They did mock battles. Since they had uneven numbers, they did two teams of four fighting each other with one member acting as referee. After each match, they discussed what they each did right and what they did wrong.

Once that was done, they went and took their bath in the bathhouse and did what they wanted until dinner.

As dinner finished, two of the soldiers went and took their place on top of the watchtower to watch over the village that night. Paul said that one day they would have enough soldiers to always have someone in the guard towers day and night. But they didn’t have the manpower yet.

Once the sun was down, the rest of the men went to bed. After dark, there just was not any light, and nothing to do so all their lives these young men went to bed at sundown. Around midnight a soldier woke Faizal for his shift for guard duty.

Faizal went to the top of the tower and listened to the sounds at night. He hated getting second shift guard duty, but that’s just the life of a soldier. Once his two years were up, he was thinking of becoming a blacksmith.

Tonight, the moon and stars were out, and it was pretty to look at. Faizal and the other guard talked to keep awake. Paul would certainly consider this undisciplined, but this is what he had to work with. Even though they were not Buckingham palace level guards, they were guards, which was a lot better than what they started out with, which was nothing.

As they were chatting, Faizal noticed movement. Several people were sneaking through the village. Faizal yelled, “Who are you!”

The people on the ground began looking around. When Faizal yelled again, “Answer me immediately, who are you?”

The men bolted in every direction, so Faizal and the other guard banged the gong, and started shooting arrows at the men.

A group of eight invaders bolted toward the barracks. They had no idea the mistake they were making. The men in the barracks came rushing out ten seconds after the gong sounded. Three sword men safely tucked behind four-foot-tall shields, followed by two spearmen and two archers.

The eight men ran toward the soldiers with their stone-tipped spears out. But the soldiers had stood before warthogs. These men were nothing! The pig spears stuck out between the gaps in the shields. Two of the raiders couldn’t see them in the night and ran right into them. Their sudden stop caused the rest of their group to stumble and caused the charge to break on the shields. The swordsmen upfront immediately took out their swords and pierced the men. The Spearmen tugged on their spears to pull it out of the newly dead men, but they were good and stuck, so they let go of the spear, pulled out their swords, and went around the swordsmen and dispatched two more of the confused raiders. By now, the last raider ran.

Faizal could see everything from the watchtower, and he yelled at the archers, “Shoot to wound!”

Both archers shot at the man’s leg, and one hit. He would be lame for the rest of his life, and Paul would have someone to interrogate.

It wasn’t long before all the raiders fled back where they came. At this point, two men were to go back to the Jiwi Mkuki village and get Chief Paul. Once they reached him, Chief Paul made his way to the village and interrogated the man. The man gave up his chief and village, and the soldiers marched out there and conquered a new village.

This dry season five villages attacked Paul’s villages, and they were all conquered. The chief and witchdoctor in every village was executed. By the time the planting festival came around, every village had built a road to the growing road network.

With the new soldiers, it was simple.

Chapter 40 November AD 74 Planting festival

Paul was beginning to view the planting festival as the new year. And as the new year came, Paul looked back on the past year. They have their first group of trained soldiers. They have also conquered five more villages bringing the total up to nine villages in what is quickly becoming a small nation, especially with the road network connecting everyone. Chazia had Paul’s second son. Paul named him George, after George Washington Carver.

This year there were nine villages taking part in the planting festival, and there was a very different atmosphere than the previous year.

The Jiwi Mkuki strutted around in utter pride because they had conquered eight villages in two years. Granted, Chief Paul did not allow them to lord their victory over the other tribes. If anything, Chief Paul was nicer to the villages he conquered than their previous chiefs had been.

The villages that took part in the planting festival last year showed up humbly. They lost badly at warriors rock the previous year, and so the men from those villages were going to skip that event this year. The men who were still single were looking for a widow to marry, as there were no never married girls who were over the age of fourteen yet.

The villages that were added in the last year felt that the only reason why they were conquered was because they were attacked at dawn while they were still in their beds. They planned on showing everyone how powerful they were. By the end of the festival, they would be humbled.

The difference between last year and this year is that this year there are trained soldiers taking part.

When the battle on warrior’s rock started, the five new tribes were quickly and thoroughly defeated. The soldiers and the men of Jiwi Mkuki village pushed them out of the competition like you would get children out of a dangerous game. Firmly but not cruelly.

Each one of the soldiers’ group sent to the various villages fought together. This caused Paul to cheer! Paul was cheering because each soldiers group was made up of soldiers from different villages. Paul was bringing the villages together! When the people saw their chief cheering, they cheered harder.

That is when something strange happened. The three villages that lost badly last year noticed their young people fighting on warriors rock this year, and they were fighting as well or better than the men of Jiwi Mkuki village. When they saw their twelve and thirteen-year-old soldiers were fighting so well, they began to cheer and cheer hard.

It wasn’t long before something of an odd situation occurred. When Paul sent the various soldiers out to protect the villages, he did not send anyone to their home village. This led to the people in the villages getting to know people from several different villages. Now the people who lost badly last year were cheering their heads off for the soldiers who guarded their village and the soldiers that are from their village.

Then something happened that made Paul cheer louder. The men from the Jiwi Mkuki tribe still were not fighting together as a unit. Paul had to have these men help him train the soldiers, in part because they were legitimately much better hunters than Paul, but also because Paul could not always be around to keep the soldiers in training disciplined. Just because these men acted as the soldier’s drill sergeants did not mean they were qualified to do so. The men of Jiwi Mkuki village who only fought as individuals were getting beaten badly by the soldiers who used their numbers against them.

It wasn’t long before the men of the Jiwi Mkuki tribe were out of contention for warrior’s rock. This year a soldier would be the greatest warrior in the nine tribes.

As the soldiers fought, it was fascinating to Paul. Back in the modern world, you would never see a battle royal like this among trained martial artist, but here it was just part of their culture. As the fight continued, the groups of soldiers got smaller and smaller, and eventually, only two were left, and then one.

When there was only one man left standing, Paul got up and announced, “Congratulation’s Faizal Hodari Uta.” Paul specifically used his tribe’s name as his last name. This is the first time this has happened among the tribes. Paul continued, “At the banquet tonight, I will reward you, but I also want everyone else to know this, as the tribes begin to mingle it is not okay to forget where you come from. From now on, everyone will be known by their name and tribe. Your tribal name will be used after your given name, for it is where you come from. Because Faizal Hodari Uta won the battle on warriors rock this year, he has the honor of being known by his given name and tribal name before anyone else.”

The people were excited by this and cheered. They feared that one day Paul would erase their tribe, but to these people, the tribe was everything. In truth, Paul did not want to erase the tribes, he wanted to erase their way of doing things, especially where the tribe owned everything, and the chief of the tribe managed everything in the tribe.

That only led to laziness and selfishness. Lazy because why work when no matter how much you do, you will get the same as everyone else and selfishness because no matter how little you do, you feel like you deserve as much as the next guy because everyone in the tribe should get the same no matter what. But when you become chief you horde all the supplies for yourself because that’s how its always been done.

Paul simply made the tribe a group you belonged to by having people use their tribal name as their last name and nothing more.

As the festival went on, it was a lady from the Jiwi Mkuki tribe who won the female tournament, although there were a couple of girls from the school that did okay.

The archery contest easily went to the Jiwi Mkuki tribe again this year. None of the soldiers were strong enough to pull the 120-pound bowstring all the way back yet. None of the men from the newly conquered tribes were remotely strong enough to do anything with the bow.

In all honesty this year, the archery contest was much more important than the archery contest was last year simply because the soldiers won warriors rock. The soldiers were getting pretty big-headed after beating their leaders, and seeing themselves as number one until they couldn’t pull back the string on the bow. It humbled them and showed them they have a long way to go.

That evening at the Banquet, the man who won the archery contest got arrows with iron heads. The lady who won the martial arts tournament got a pleated dress skirt that allowed her to have a full range of motion for her legs. Paul was pleasantly surprised when she went to her hut to change, as there were many people from the conquered tribes that showed up naked.

Finally, Paul called out, “Faizal Hodari Uta for winning warriors rock. I have a beautiful crocodile leather shield for you!” Paul remembered that the Romans had leather covering the wooden part of their shield, so he figured it was time to start upgrading the armament of his soldiers. Since all the crocodiles they killed were monsters, Paul actually had plenty of leather.

Faizal had a huge smile on his face as he came and collected his shield when Paul handed the shield to him Faizal said, “Thank you so much for this shield, but I have a question.”

Paul was a little surprised, but everyone was in a good mood now, especially since Faizal was not a member of the Jiwi Mkuki tribe, so Paul asked, “What’s your question?”

Faizal said,” The other soldiers and I were talking, and we found out that you are not from the Jiwi Mkuki tribe, and you are bringing all these new ideas and things with you, so where are you from?”

Paul smiled. He was looking forward to the question and, in truth, was surprised that nobody had asked him about it yet. Paul looked over to Abilio and asked, “Abilio Jiwi Mkuki, why haven’t you ever asked me where I came from?”

Abilio said, “Well, I never really thought about it. Every now and then, someone will be forced out of their tribe and join a new one. I guess I just figured that’s what happened with you.”

Paul said, “I am white, your black, didn’t that make it seem like I came from a little further than just one of the nearby tribes?”

Abilio said, “Every now and then, an albino baby is born. The witchdoctor says albino babies are white because they have great power. The witchdoctor usually eats the baby to take their power. I just figured your parents protected you or something.”

Paul was shocked Abilio talked about eating white babies like it was normal, and said, “The witchdoctors are wrong, the color of someone skin doesn’t make them stronger or weaker. The next time we conquer a village, remind me about them eating babies so I can kill them in a much more horrible manner.”

Abilio said, “Yeah, I figured the witchdoctor was wrong because whenever they ate the child, they never got any stronger.”

These are the times that reminded Paul why Africa was known as the dark continent until his day, and why he needed to kill every witchdoctor. That said, Paul was happy that his students had curiosity where the older generation still had none.

Paul said, “Everyone grab something to eat and have a seat. My story will take some time to tell.”

Chapter 41 November AD 74 Paul’s Story

When Paul was first sent back in time, he thought about how he would explain where he came from, but now that he was finally asked the question, he was at a loss for words. How do you explain 21st century America to a group of people who have never heard of a road until you had them build one? How do you explain glass and steel skyscrapers to a group of people who never saw glass or iron until you showed them?

Was the pinnacle of their technology the longbow, forging iron, the ox cart, rubber, or the road? These are all things that Paul introduced to them. The reason why Paul able to build those things was because of a mix of education, books, tv, and the internet. It is not that Paul is an expert, and they are savages. Its that Paul had access to libraries of information for thirty years where they had access to little more than their village. With tv and the internet, he was able to casually watch experts hone their craft his entire life.

In this century, even in civilized Rome, India, China, or Meso-America, the experts would do their best to keep their secrets. Yet where he came from, the experts shared their knowledge with all who would listen to keep their arts from dying. From casual tv watching alone, Paul likely knew things that would revolutionize every industry in the world.

Paul had spent the last few years making sure the people had enough to eat, and so he decided to start there.

“The land I come from is known as America, and it was a very rich nation. Before I arrived and gave the cripples jobs in my school, they had to beg the chief for food because the chief did not want to feed anyone who was unable to help feed the village. He made every cripple a beggar.” The people nodded. In their mind, if you couldn’t help feed the village, then its best to let a cripple die for the good of the village. Granted, at times, they were moved to compassion because the cripple got crippled, protecting the village, although that compassion was never long-lived. The irony of the tribal system was that the tribe got all the fruits of the labor of the tribal people, and in return, the tribe was supposed to take care of the people. But as soon as someone was unable to contribute, that person became a beggar.

Once Paul saw the people understand what a beggar was, he continued, “My country was so rich that the beggars were fat.”

The people gasped. Someone yelled out, “How could beggars ever be fat?”

Paul said, “The nation I came from was so rich it plenty of food for all. Here in the village, our cattle eat grass. America was so rich the cattle ate grain.”

There were more gasp. This group of people had not discovered coinage yet. To these people, grain was as good as cash was in America, and they were shocked that America was so rich they fed their cattle money.

Paul said, “Because we fed the cattle grain, we had so many cattle that even beggars could eat meat three times a day.” Before Paul came, even with the hunters, most of the people were happy to eat meat just once a month. The kill just wasn’t large enough to feed the mouths of so many villagers. With Paul introducing canning, they were getting to the place where they could eat meat once a week. With Paul’s taxes, the soldiers were eating meat several times a week. Although the people were surprised that American beggars could eat meat three times a day, if the Emperor of Rome ever heard about it, he would be more shocked as only nobles were supposed to be that rich.

Paul decided to put a concept in the people’s head that he hoped wouldn’t take 1700 years to come to fruition. Paul said, “One of the reasons why we had so much food is that we made machines that could move without the help of man or beast. These machines were called steam engines. If you have seen the kettle that makes our tea, you know that when it gets hot, it produces a little bit of steam. A steam engine works by producing significantly more steam and using that steam to move. With these machines plowing and harvesting our fields, we had more grain than we knew what to do with.” Paul chose only to mention steam engines because it was much easier to explain than internal combustion engines.

In the people’s minds, Paul had just told them a secret of magic. They always thought of spirits as the source for magic, but to them, Paul just told them that steam was a more powerful source of magic. Someone asked, “Chief Paul, could you make a steam engine to do the work for us?”

Paul laughed, “The steam engine didn’t do the work for the men, as the steam engine didn’t have a brain. But under the guidance of men, it did vastly more work than a man could do by himself. Kind of like how we have oxen pulling carts or plows, except the steam engine can pull much bigger plows and carts.”

Paul continued, “As for building a steam engine, I don’t think I will be able to do it in my lifetime. One steam engine has a hundred times the iron in it than we have produced since I have given you the secret to making iron. Furthermore, there are many gears and principles to make steam engines work that I would have to rediscover over time, although it is likely that I will be able to make simpler engines to help you as a people. I hope in the coming years to recruit some of the cleverer students and adults to help me rediscover these principles.”

The older people who had never been to Paul’s school were dumbstruck. Paul just told them that he would use their children to rediscover the lost secrets of magic. None of the villagers thought that they or their children would be that special. Paul’s casual mention of using them and their children to rediscover lost knowledge made them begin looking at themselves in a new light.

Paul missed the change he was creating in his people by saying he needed their help to rediscover lost technology. Paul continued, “The steam engines allowed one farmer to feed several thousand people at a time.”

Most of the people were not that good at math, but everyone over the age of three could do this much math. If one farmer could feed several thousand people, then one farmer could feed everyone in all nine of the villages. Someone said, “If one farmer could feed so many people, why would anyone work?”

Paul said, “Humans work. That’s what we do. If you are well-fed, are you just going to lie in bed and do nothing else? No, once you are fed, you will look around and see a problem, and you will naturally look for a solution to that problem. I am trying to bring everyone to the place where they don’t have to worry about food, so they can start looking for other problems to fix.”

Paul continued, “For instance, when I was in America, I created insecticide to help farmers keep bugs off their crops. To make new and better insecticide, I flew all over to find new ingredients.”

There was a slight delay as the villagers processed Paul’s words. Then they shouted with great excitement, “You flew? Show us. We want to see you fly!”

Paul was surprised and realized he said a little too much and then said, “We had machines that we flew on, we did not fly under our own power but flew under the machine's power.”

Another person miffed that they were not going to see Paul float in the air said, “I don’t believe you.”

Paul responded, “Whether you believe me or not doesn’t matter. But all of you have seen arrows fly. Imagine if that arrow was as big as a hut, and someone launched it. If you were inside that arrow sized hut, you would fly, wouldn’t you?” The people nodded their heads in agreement, and Paul continued, “My people had great big engines that they put on these things called airplanes that flew like an arrow. I sat inside of it as it did the flying.”

In time Paul’s example would cause him many headaches because the people would draw images of airplanes where the airplane had no wings and looked just like an arrow and had steam coming out of it. But at this point, Paul did not yet realize how wrong the people’s imagination was.

Paul said, “The nation I came from was vast, and it was made up of many tribes. In fact, with nine tribes being here, we should consider ourselves a nation. It is one of the reasons why the engine and airplane were so necessary it allowed us to travel across the nation easily and intermingle with all the tribes that made the nation. We found out that when many tribes work together, we had peace and prosperity. Just think in the last year since we brought all nine tribes together, hasn’t there been more peace and prosperity than and in the previous years?”

Someone asked, “If there was so much peace and prosperity, why did you come to us?”

Paul said, “It wasn’t my choice. One day a rock fell from the sky and destroyed my nation while I was doing work for my job. Since I was always looking for things that could kill or repel bugs, I was away from my nation often. This time it saved my life. What little knowledge I have from my people I give to you, in hopes that one day your children’s children will live to be greater than my people.”

One of the more superstitious people said, “Maybe the god’s judged you because you had all that magic. Maybe that’s why the rock fell.”

Paul began laughing at that and said, “We were not judged because we had technology. If anything, we were judged because we were too slow in using it. My nation put a man on the moon, and we legitimately had technology to stop the rock from falling from the sky, but instead of using it, we dragged our feet until it was too late. Technology is not a curse to a people, delaying its use is.”

Someone asked, “Your nation put a man on the moon? How could you reach the moon?”

“Remember when I said we had machines that flew like arrows, with people inside? Well, my nation made a special machine to get a man on the moon. See the moon is like the earth in that they are both balls moving through space.”

Another person asked, “Doesn’t the earth go on forever?”

Paul said, “No, the earth is massive, but it does not go on forever. It is flying like a spinning arrow and travels around the sun. But it is flying in such a way that it will never land. The sun is also flying. As long as the sun, earth, and moon are moving, they will fly forever.”

It was at this point Paul started talking about very basic elementary level astronomy. Every group in the first century AD had some type of astrology. To this group of people, Paul’s casual explanation of astronomy meant Paul was telling them the secrets of the stars, which was one of the secrets of the witchdoctors. They were thrilled that Paul was teaching all of them magic, and one day when they rediscovered the magic of his dead nation, they would be just as prosperous.

Chapter 42 February AD 75 Nana

John was at the gate of bison valley and was very pleased with his hot cup of coffee. Last summer, his crop of coffee finally started producing coffee berries, in Texas of all places. It only took a bit more than four years, but John kept the faith that eventually, he would get his caffeine again! Most of the villagers agreed with him that a properly made cup of coffee was good stuff.

John was at bison valley to check on his bison like he did most every day. They were still way too wild to do more than let them wander the valley.

John considered his breeding program. Of the two male bison born last year, one was clearly more docile than the other one, so the aggressive bison calf became a good meal for the village. At the end of this year, when the docile bison was able to breed, John would likely get rid of its father.

John was pretty sure all twelve of the older female bison were pregnant this year, so after they weened their calves, John was going to thin the herd. John was only trying to breed one characteristic into these bison, docility.

Bison females could weigh as much as a thousand pounds. Bison Males could weigh as much as two thousand pounds. If they were not extremely docile, they would ravage whoever tried to ride them. John still had a long way to go before they were docile.

As John made his way back to the village, Nana caught up to him and said, “Chief John, we need to talk.”

John knew something was up when Nana used that tone of voice with him, and John said, “What’s going on? You never call me Chief John or use that tone of voice with me.”

Nana said, “Ever since we traded with that one village in the summer, you haven’t taken the boat out to trade again. In fact, you haven’t messed with the boat since. What’s going on?”

John said, “We needed the lumber, and building a boat to go get it was the best option for us. I think it is great that we got enough lumber that it lasted us all this time, don’t you?”

Nana said, “That’s not what this is about! Our village has the ability to trade with every village along the river with that boat. With the tools we built, we could even make boats for any village who wanted one that could pay our price! But instead of doing that, you made one trade, and that’s it. We spent a year building that boat, and I don’t think we are using it like we should.”

John said, “The village is doing well. We have plenty to eat, we have coffee now, we have all the iron we could want, our homes are warm, our families are safe, and in time we will have bison to ride. When we get that, we will change the face of this land.”

Nana was exacerbated, “Chief John, you are clearly an elder of the tribe. It is required of all elders that they have enough knowledge, wisdom, and experience to pass it on to the next generation. I am grateful that you are passing on your knowledge of iron making, toolmaking, carpentry, farming, and all sorts of other pieces of knowledge that you have. You have done your job as an elder, no doubt. I could probably spend a couple of hours talking with you about all the changes you have brought to this village, and my home village, but you do not seem to understand how the big canoe you made, what you call a boat, could change the face of our land.”

John said, “What big change could it make? Your people already have canoes. I get iron is a big change, but until I domesticate the bison, I really can’t do much to change this land.”

Nana said, “If you want to wait to change the land with the bison, feel free, but let me use the boat, or make another boat to use, to begin trading with all the tribes.”

John said, “Sure, no problem.”

Nana said, “That’s it your going to let me take the boat just like that?”

John asked, “Why wouldn’t I?”

Nana said, “Because you spent nearly a year making it. With it, you could easily just trade for everything you ever wanted and not do the hard work of farming, or digging up ore, or making glass, or all the other hard work you do.”

John said, “The reality is that I like all the hard work that goes with building a homestead. One of the reasons why I have not gone out to trade since that one-time last year is that I honestly did not like searching for a buyer and trading my goods. I brought that chief grain that would produce at least ten times as much grain as he had, but he wouldn’t even look at it.”

Nana John right in the eye and said, “You have no clue had trading works do you?”

John shook his head and said, “Honestly, not really.”

Nana said, “If you are going to trade your seed grain to anyone, it would be best to trade to one of the hunting tribes that has elders who are getting too old to follow the herds around. Although you could trade seed grain to some of the farming villages right now as winter is ending, but they likely wouldn’t give you much for the trade. Last year when you tried to trade to the tribal elder in June, the tribe already had their grain planted. They couldn’t have planted your grain in June even if you gave it to them for free. If you want to trade grain, this is the time of year to do so.”

Nana continued, “This is also a wonderful time of year to trade your wheeled plow and some of the special fruits and vegetables that I never saw until I joined your village. Once planting season is over, it would be time to trade your glass so they can store their fruits and vegetables, and as they wait for things to grow, it would be a good time to trade them a boat. Later on, when harvest gets near, it would be a good time to trade your iron sickles. Pretty much all your iron products could be sold all year round. Not to mention your coffee berries.”

John looked horrified and said, “Until I can grow more coffee berries, I am not willing to trade it.”

Nana smiled and said, “But considering how well off you are, if they could grow coffee berries, you would be willing to trade some of your stuff for it, right?”

John facepalmed as he realized the implications and said, “Yes.”

Nana said, “Your problem is that right now you are doing everything on your own. You want to make big changes to this land, for reasons you haven’t told me, but you want to do it by yourself. I appreciate your help, my wife appreciates your help, but you are not all-knowing. Let me help your cause of changing this land by trading with the other villages along the river.”

John said, “I don’t understand why you are giving me this big speech. I will let you do it. You are much more interested in trading than I am, and we have so much in our stores that I don’t know what to do with it.”

Nana said, “You really don’t care, do you?”

John said, “No, why would I?

Nana said, “This is all your stuff.”

John said, “No, it’s not. That’s not how homesteads work. I have helped everyone here build their own homestead, and whatever they made on their homestead is theirs to keep. If I was to keep their labor, it would be theft.”

Nana said, “I may not have been here when the others arrived, but I heard the story. They were a hunting tribe following the herds, then they stumbled across your home, and you fought off bandits together. All the seed they put in the ground came from you. Therefore everything is yours.”

John looked horrified, “That’s not what the people say, is it?”

Nana said, “Yes, of course.”

John said, “That’s not right. I considered them my neighbors. Where I come from, if a neighbor needs help, you help them expecting nothing in return except that if there comes a time when you need help, they will help if they can. I had more than enough seed to help them, and they needed it, so I helped. I only ever expect something in return If I ever need anything.

John and Nana sat quietly for a while when John said, “I have to go to the village and explain this to them, thank you so much for showing me that they thought everything was mine, that’s not okay. And Nana, as thanks, you can have the boat. If I need another one, I can build it, and if another village wants one, I will help you build it as long as you pay me. I will be your worker.”

Nana was shocked by that. An elder, a chief working for him. John was undoubtedly a strange man.

Chapter 43 March AD 75 Growing Pains

Paul was annoyed. He came into his house, which he had long since moved to the Jiwi Mkuki village and called out, “Chazia, are you here?”

Chazia came out, holding Alexander, their oldest son, and asked, “What’s wrong?”

Paul said, “Did you know that for the last several months, the people in the nine villages have started calling themselves the nation of Paulsland?”

Chazia smiled and said, “Yes, I thought you knew?”

Paul said, “No, I didn’t know, and now that it has been going on for months, I won't be able to change it.”

Chazia was surprised and said, “Why would you want to change it?”

Paul said, “The people are almost to the place where they are worshipping me, and in the long term, that’s really bad.”

Chazia said, “They are not worshipping you; they just really look up to you and hope to learn your knowledge.”

Paul said, “I had one of the adults ask me if chemistry meant I combined the four elements. Earth, water, wind, and fire. I told him that that wasn’t elements, but states of mater. Solid, liquid, gas, and plasma. Any element could be a type of earth, water, wind, or fire depending on the temperature or pressure and that there are one hundred and eighteen elements that I know of. He wanted me to teach him how to combine it all together, and I told him if he wanted to know, he would have to go to the school like all the kids are forced to. But no, he wanted me to magically give him the knowledge right then and there with no effort on his part.”

Chazia looked at him and said, “What's the problem?”

Paul said, “It took me eighteen years to learn what I know. I had to learn how to read, write, and do basic math. Then I had to learn basic science before I started learning about chemistry. Then those who taught me chemistry did it with material that was easy for them to acquire, but material I cant get right now. “

Chazia was surprised. “You spent eighteen years of your life learning in school? How is that possible?”

Paul said, “Where I came from, your not considered an adult until you are at least eighteen years old. From the age of four or five until eighteen, you were in school for at least seven hours a day. The country I came from was so rich children didn’t have to help their parents to put food on the table. The country was so rich that only one person working could feed the entire household, although it was common for both parents to work so that they could afford more stuff.”

Chazia said, “It’s a good thing you said your people put a man on the moon because that’s more believable than not having your children helping you put food on the table.”

Paul said, “Honestly, any of the adults who wanted to come could come to class and learn alongside their children; they are just too proud to do it. Chazia, I am grateful for you willing to teach what little I have taught you to the children coming behind you. I am very grateful for you taking the time to teach the widow women and the older girls how to teach the younger ones. If it wasn’t for what you are doing, I would constantly be stuck teaching the most basic stuff over and over.”

Paul continued, “I hope that one day I will be able to teach them how to discover chemistry. One of the easier experiments we did was taking water and, through electrolysis, made it into hydrogen and oxygen, which shows water is made up of hydrogen and oxygen. But to do that experiment I need electricity. To make electricity, I need copper and magnets. I don’t have either, so I cant do some of the more simple experiments.”

“When I was young I read the biography of George Washington Carver and the man was so smart. He figured how to make all sorts of practical products out of crops, beyond just eating them. He made dyes, artificial marble, road paving, and all sorts of things from plants. I don’t know how he did it, but I understand the underlying principles behind doing research. In time we will be able to do the same things he did. The only problem is, can I teach it to my people, who have decided to call their nation after my name?”

Chazia said, “You will do fine.”

Paul said, “honestly, I am glad for the school. I am getting the young people the curiosity and the discipline to do things I just don’t have time to do. Honestly, turning the boys into soldiers is an extension of the school. Last year when we had them fight the boars and crocodiles, I gave them so much confidence. When their two years are up, and they are fourteen, I hope they take that with them.”

Paul said, “This year I am going to do something new. Chazia, do you know what a wall is?”

Chazia said, “Of course, we have walls in our house.”

Paul said, “When I train the boys this year, I am going to teach them all the stuff I did last year, and I am going to include wall building. Not a houses wall, but a wall to put around the entire town.”

Chazia said, “Why would you build a wall around the town?” Chazia imagined a wall the same size as the wall in her house.

Paul answered, “I plan on having the boys cut down trees and build a wall around the town as tall as the tower in the middle of the town.”

Chazia gasped, “That would be gigantic. How would we get in and out?”

Paul said, “I will put a gate on it, which is like a large door.”

Chazia said, “Why would you do that?”

Paul said, “For several reasons. Part of it is I want to push the boundaries of what those boys think is possible and give them the courage to try new things. I am introducing a lot of new stuff to our people, but I need the people to start producing new things without my help. When I said wall, you thought of house wall, I am sure they will think the same thing, and once they have a thirty-foot tall wall around the village, they will be blown away. Especially when there is a watchtower at every corner. “

“Furthermore, Abilio told me that when they found me, they were looking for the lions I killed because those lions had killed a child in the tribe. A large wall will keep out lions, hyenas, elephants, hypos, and nearly anything else large enough to kill one of us.”

“Finally, because if someone tries to raid the village, they will have to get through or over a thirty-foot wall. Since we are the only group making iron in these parts, they will have a very hard time getting through the wall, especially as the soldiers serving as watchmen pelt them with arrows.”

Chapter 44 April AD 75 Walls

This year man camp had one hundred and seven twelve-year old’s learning how to be men and soldiers. Nearly three times the amount they had the previous year. Paul split them into three groups, two with thirty-six, and one with thirty-five. Then Paul put the best soldiers from the previous year over each group to act as their drill sergeant.

They were drilled in how to do everything as a unit. How to eat as a unit, march as a unit, fight as a unit, use the bow as a unit, run as a unit, sleep as a unit. They even stood watch as a unit, although it was only nine soldiers at night from each of the three units that stood watch. As the group of twelve-year old’s were learning how to be a unit, the thirteen-year-olds that graduated from man camp last year were learning leadership.

They were learning how to speak to the men you lead, how to give clear directions, how leadership meant showing people how to do stuff instead of telling them. That you never tell anyone to do something you have not done first. That they have a leadership position not because they are older but because they have more knowledge than the people they are leading. In a very real way, these thirteen-year old’s are doing the job Paul did the previous year because they now have the knowledge. Because they have that knowledge, Paul was able to move up. Paul was teaching over a hundred tweens that moving up in life demanded that everyone grow in knowledge.

They started man camp in early March, and after three weeks, they started learning how to hunt from the other men in the tribe. After each group hunted successfully on their own, Paul had a new project for them.

Early one morning, the men were waiting in a ready stance, and Paul told them, “Part of being a soldier is fighting, and we spend a lot of time learning to fight effectively. But a part of being a soldier is also learning how to build fortifications so that you can hinder the enemy’s ability to fight you, and increase your ability to fight the enemy. Last year as each unit went to their village, they had to build watchtowers, and those watchtowers saved a lot of lives.”

“So today, we are going to learn how to build a watchtower. We are going to build it at the edge of the village. Tomorrow, each unit will build their own watchtower exactly where I tell you to. The winner of tomorrow's exercise will get a double portion at dinner.” When Paul said that there was cheering.”

Paul said, “I do not remember giving you permission to cheer. Everyone drop and give me thirty pushups.” The soldiers remember not to groan in earshot of Paul.

As they were doing their pushups, Paul said, “As I was saying before I was rudely interrupted by your cheering. The group that wins gets double portion for dinner, but the group who comes in last will miss their super. So today, you will learn how to build a tower correctly, and tomorrow you will put it up in a timely manner or go hungry.”

These young men felt sore from the pushups, excited to compete with their friends, hopeful about getting more food, and worried they would miss a meal. They didn’t know what to think. But that day, they all paid special attention to detail as they put up the watchtower, and Paul made it very clear that either they get it tall and wide enough or their work would be considered unfinished.

The next day they went out with their axes, cut down the trees they needed, used the oxen to pull them to where they needed to go, dug the holes, put the trees in the holes, put up the cross braces and ladders, and finally the platform at the top of the tower. The first-place team beat the last-place team by only fifteen minutes.

There were now four watchtowers at the four corners of the village.

Despite missing one meal, even the losing team was in high spirits. All these young people remembered a time when they didn’t eat every day, so only eating twice a day wasn’t too much of a hardship. Taking their loss like a man was more important to them.

The next day Paul told them, “Its now time for me to show you how to build a log wall.” Paul had seen in the old cowboy movies how they built forts out of logs. Until Paul was able to make bricks or quarry stone, he would have to settle for log walls. Paul wasn’t too worried about logs vs. stone at this point as all his enemies used stone weapons and tools. Besides, Paul had only been chief for three years now. Logs were a fast-temporary solution. He would get to stone later.

Paul had a group go out and begin cutting down trees, and another group dug a five-foot-deep trench. When the first log was brought to them, Paul used a brand-new invention called the saw to cut it in half. There were two logs now, both with a flat inside and round outside. Then they put one of the unsawed logs standing straight up in the trench. Once it was in there, they nailed the flat half of the log to the log, standing straight up on the inside of the wall. Then they put another log right next to it, and nailed it to the sawed-off tree, and made a line of trees, standing straight up with a sawed in half log nailed to the row of trees. The sawed in half tree acted as the frame for the rest of the trees.

They did this for several rows until the wall went from one watchtower, nearly to the next watchtower on the outside of the village. The final job was to nail more sawed logs to the wall right above the first row. The middle of the logs on the second row went where the logs on the first row met, which made the wall of logs one structure.

Paul then had them build a gate at the end of the wall where the other watchtower was. The gate was made out of flat logs that were cut with saws, and lots of iron. The gate was not as tall as the walls, but it had a platform above it, with its own wall, in order to put a lot of men with bows to discourage anyone from taking the gate.

Once done, Paul said, “You all now know how to build a log wall. There are three more walls needed. Tomorrow the three teams will compete to see who can build their wall and gate first, and whoever wins gets an extra portion at dinner. Whoever loses gets to go hungry.”

Once Paul left, the boys cheered and talked trash to each other.

Building the wall did not go as well as building the watchtowers, as the last place team finished two hours after the first-place team. But at this point, they had four watchtowers at the four corners of the village (Five if you included the one in the center of the village), four thirty foot tall log walls, and four ten-foot-tall gates, with a platform over them with a bit more wall to act as cover for the gates platform.

Once that was done, Paul waited for news of Warthog sightings. The man camp went from April, all the way to June, and now he was basically having the soldiers do busywork until each group had the chance to stand and face the warthogs. The day before the full moon, the first group got to stand up to fourteen warthogs. All stood, none ran. Their courage grew by leaps and bounds.

The next day, Paul had everyone doing busywork, as the night came, and the group went to stand watch. Paul went to bed.

After midnight

CLANG CLANG CLANG

Paul woke up with a start. The men on the watchtowers were banging the gong. And since Paul wasn’t up there giving his men a drill, he knew there was a real problem. Paul quickly grabbed his weapons and ran outside.

As Paul ran to the nearest tower with clanging gongs, he was glad to see that his training was paying off. His people were not running around in confusion. The older men of the Jiwi Mkuki village had been training under Paul as archers for three years now, and they quickly made their way to the top of the watchtowers with clanging gongs.

The youths still in training and those who had become a soldier last year formed up with their weapon. Then they made their way to the gates next to the towers where the watchmen banged the gongs in warning. Their job would be to repel raiders.

As Paul made it to the watchtower, several men of the Jiwi Mkuki village had already climbed to the top of the watchtower, and the clanging stopped. The watchmen knew their warning had been received, and now they should be preparing their bows for any raiders who got to close.

When Paul got to the top of the tower and looked out, he was shocked. Paul had expected to see a group of a few dozen raiders at most. Instead, Paul saw several hundred warriors.

Chapter 45 March AD 75 Witch Doctors Actions

One month before the attack on Jiwi Mkuki Village

The witch doctor for the Matunda Nafaka tribe was warding away spirts from the harvest when he heard some of the villagers talking.

One villager said, “Did you hear about several of the tribes to the south of us becoming one big tribe?”

The other villager said, “No!”

The first villager said, “You need to get out more. I was talking to a villager from one of their tribes, and they said, that nine of their tribes became one tribe and called themselves Paulsland after their great chief Paul. Chief Paul is a great warrior who killed two lions, and is teaching the children how to fight like he does.”

The witchdoctor couldn’t care less about some chief putting other tribes under subjugation. The chiefs knew better than to mess with the witchdoctors; otherwise, the spirits would get the chief.

Then the villager said something that worried the witchdoctor, “This great chief of theirs killed all the witchdoctors in all nine villages and is now teaching all the people magic. He has shown the people how to make a potion that keeps them strong, how to ward off spirits with cloth, how to make crops magically produce more food than any crops they have ever had before, and how to make meat last for weeks. At first, the villages were scared when their witchdoctors were killed, but Chief Paul has done more to keep evil spirits back than all their witchdoctors combined. Paul comes from a people so powerful they put a man on the moon! And he is going to show them how to do the same. I am going to ask the chief about joining them. I want to learn magic too.”

What the villager said, terrified the witchdoctor. He immediately sent off his apprentice to set up a meeting with several of the witchdoctors in the area. That night the witchdoctor put something in the man’s drink, and the next day when the man died horribly, the witchdoctor examined his body and told the people, “This man has been exposed to evil spirits from the evil chief Paul. I need to talk with the other witchdoctors about how we can protect our villages from his evil spirits. To protect ourselves from Chief Paul’s evil spirit, we need to sacrifice three cows and bathe ourselves in its blood and entrails.”

The people had seen how the villager had died. He had blood coming out of his eyes, nose, mouth, and anus while throwing up and squirting out diarrhea. When he wasn’t vomiting, he was screaming in pain. The people gladly killed cows and bathed in its blood and entrails to protect themselves from that fate.

A few days later, the witchdoctor met with several other witchdoctors and said, “We have to stop chief Paul. Not only is he killing witchdoctors, he is teaching the people magic.”

A witchdoctor from another village said, “Several of our hunters came across a stone path the nine villages built and walked to one of the villages. They were shocked at how much food they had. They had more than ten times as much food as our village, and the people said it’s because they did things Paul’s way. My village is debating whether they should raid the village or join up with Paul.”

Another one said, “I sent my apprentice to talk with Paul and found out later Paul executed him when he found out he was a witchdoctor. Paul told the people that witchdoctors have no spirit and suck out the spirit of the people around them. My people used to fear my power, but now they are starting to fear me like a dangerous beast.”

The last witchdoctor said, “I have had several villagers come and ask me about why the moon moves like it does. I explained that it was married to the sun. They said that chief Paul said that it’s a ball that flies like an arrow around the earth, and the earth is like an arrow that flies around the sun. Then they asked why I didn’t teach them magic like Chief Paul was teaching his people. I had to curse them to keep descent from growing in my village.”

The witchdoctor of the Matunda Nafaka tribe said, “If this keeps going, then we will all be dead men in a year or two.” The witchdoctor looked to the apprentice witchdoctors who were silently listening as they should and said, “Including you, apprentices.”

He continued, “What we need to do is get as many tribes together as we can and wipe out Chief Paul and the Jiwi Mkuki village. What I propose is that each of us five contacts two more witchdoctors, and all of us have our village warriors meet up here on the next full moon. Fifteen villages will easily be able to defeat nine villages. What we will do is take all fifteen villages worth of warriors and attack the Jiwi Mkuki tribe, and once every man woman and child is dead, we will raid the other villages.”

Another witchdoctor said, “Why would the warriors come?”

The witchdoctor of the Matunda Nafaka tribe said, “The nine villages have vast wealth. Didn’t you say that one of your villagers saw ten times as much food in one village as his village had? If every village is that rich, then all fifteen villages that take part in this raid. No, not raid, this extermination will be able to get fat this year.”

All the witchdoctors smiled and said, “We will do as you ask. See you when the moon is full.”

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

A month later, the first night the moon was full, fifteen witchdoctors, and their fifteen apprentices met in that spot. Nearly four hundred and fifty warriors followed them. From there, they began their Journey to Jiwi Mkuki village. The men who had been to Jiwi Mkuki village before led the way. First, they slowly made their way to where Paul had the people build a road. Then once on the road, they quickly made their way to Jiwi Mkuki village.

On one hand, the men marveled at how much faster it was to go by road, and over bridges, than through wilderness, but on the other hand, in the last month, all the villages had suffered gruesome deaths that were blamed on chief Paul. They were going to kill the cause of so many deaths, and once they were done, they were going to get rich raiding all his allied villages.

As they made the last bend toward the village, through the moonlight, they saw something they did not expect. They didn’t know what it was. The warriors in front stopped when they saw it. Where the village was supposed to be, there was a big clearing. In the middle of the clearing, there was what looked like a giant hut with no roof. None of the men had seen anything like it before. As each man rounded the corner and saw the peculiar sight, they stopped.

The witchdoctors were confused and furious. Maybe Paul really did know magic. One of the witchdoctors called out to the men, “Go around whatever that is and see if the village is behind it.”

As soon as the order left his mouth, someone from the strange structure yelled out, “Who goes there?”

The witchdoctor couldn’t see where the voice was coming from, but he was angry; the surprise attack was foiled. The witchdoctor was determined to kill Paul, so he yelled out, “I am the witchdoctor of the Matunda Nafaka tribe, and I am here to meet with Chief Paul.”

That’s when a strange metallic noise began to be made by the peculiar hut.

End of Book One

Book II Prologue

When the eulogy happened, and John and Paul was sent back in time, Gandore’s connection with Earth was broken. It’s how you know the trip to the past was successful; the enormous amount of energy cuts off your communication equipment. Paul and John were long dead now.

Although Gandore worked in the trade department of his government, he enjoyed dabbling in the eulogies of different species. His species was advanced enough that they had technology that protected them from new timelines. Like all intelligent species, they kept detailed records of every living planet that they were aware of, although it was rare for anyone to look at the records.

First, Gandore checked the stored records his people kept on the Earthians. The technology that kept Gandore and his people safe from changed timelines also kept their records safe from those changes as well. From 70-75 AD, Some ape named Titus does a lot of stuff in the Roman empire. In AD 71, someone in Rome invents the first lock with keys. That’s actually a pretty neat innovation. In AD 70 and AD 75, two books of the Earthian’s religious text are written. Between AD 70 and AD 75, the Chinese mostly fought a bunch of wars. Apparently, the other civilizations on Earth did nothing during those five years. At least according to their civilization’s encyclopedia called Wikipedia.

Gandore realized it was no wonder the Earthians took so long to get to space. Their history recorded ten wars for every invention.

Now it was time to see what changes his two apes made in the past. Gandore simply accessed his people’s network of astronomical probes. They had quintillions of them over several galaxies. The thing about probes, especially telescopes, is that the more surface area you had, the better they worked, and so having quintillions of them over an instantaneous communication network meant that Gandore could easily peer into the past and see what waves those two apes made. Gandore simply needed to look back one thousand nine hundred eighty-seven years into Earth’s history. The probes made that simple.

One of the aspects of living in a universe with time travel, and the ability to protect your people from that time travel was the need to learn from every instance of time travel. The probes sent all their data to protected servers, and when the time change happened, those servers were cut off from the probes, so the probes internally stored the new data until they could reconnect with the servers. The protection from time travel basically amounted to cutting your species off from the waves in the changing timeline until it caught up to your present. It was a bit too complicated of a process to go into detail with any species which hadn’t yet discovered faster than light speed travel. But the data stored in the probes allowed Gandor to study the changes Paul and John made fairly quickly. Those who were interested in the physics of time travel would be looking at different aspects of the same data.

As Gandore prepared to watch the ripples in time he created, he said, “I hope they survived long enough to put on a good show. It would be awful if lions or wolves killed those apes the day they arrived.”

Since he sent John back first, he would review John’s first five years in the new timeline. Gandore watched as John made a fast fire bow, iron, glass, and made new friends. He watched as the new group of people built a corral for their bison herd. Then watched as John made a boat.

After watching five years of John’s life almost instantly with the help of his AI, Gandore grumbled, “You have a bow that allows you to fire arrows as quickly as your cowboys used to shoot their guns, and instead of creating an empire, you barely leave your village.” Gandore got up and yelled at the image, “WHAT ARE YOU DOING!”

If a man from twentieth-century America saw what Gandore was doing, they would swear he was yelling at his favorite sports team for not following his expert advice over space and time.

Gandore continued, “You come from a space-age civilization, and it takes you five years to build a boat!? This is why species who do not have faster than light speed capabilities are not considered intelligent species. By this point, anyone in my species would already have electricity and light bulbs!”

Then Gandore watches the first five years of Paul’s time in Africa. He sees how Paul builds himself a place to live, conquers a village, builds roads, conquers more villages. Gandore is getting frustrated and yells out, “WITH ALL YOUR KNOWLEDGE YOU MANAGED TO MAKE SEVERAL VERSIONS OF POINTY STICKS! BOY YOUR PEOPLE MUST HAVE SENT THE TWO STUPIDEST PEOPLE TO THAT SEED VAULT!”

Gandore continued to grumble, “Wooden pointy stick, to stone pointy stick, to iron pointy stick. With the knowledge these guys have, they should be able to topple empires, but instead, they are playing in the mud. I wonder how many more eulogies I will have to perform on Earth before they have a chance to become our trading partner?”

As Gandore watched Paul, he said with disgust, “Look at that, a very large group of humans look to be coming to end Paul. He has done so little it probably doesn’t matter.”

Gandore mumbled to himself, “They lived a whole five years and hardly made any changes. I should have put them closer to civilization. That way, the viruses, bacteria, and bugs they had on them would have made big changes quickly. Putting them so far away from other humans allowed their bodies time to get rid of anything that would have become a plague. Next eulogy, I will do better.”

Gandore didn’t realize that before empires can be built and new technology researched, people have to be fed. Regardless of their failures, John and Paul both made their people food secure. As the technology of canning spread, food security would become normal eighteen hundred years before it did in the previous timeline.

Gandore also forgot that humans were not genetically altered yet. Gandore’s species, like most species with faster than light travel, were genetically modified so that they did not age. In fact, it was very rare for a faster than light civilization to exist before overcoming the aging process because faster than light travel is extremely complicated. The male who invented faster than light travel for Gandore’s species was over three thousand years old when he did so. Before the genetic alterations, his species lived for an average life span of fifty human years.

Gandore himself had to go to school for three hundred years before he was allowed to work in the trade department of his species. This school wasn’t fluff either. They had to understand all parts of their civilization, so they had to farm the old way, learn to craft with wood, stone, iron, glass, concrete, and everything else that was used to build their civilization from the stone age to the present. They learned reading, writing, mathematics, coding, building hardware for computers, and above all, how to build your own faster than light ship. Getting rid of old age dramatically changed the education system.

Eliminating aging was not the only genetic modification. They were also given denser muscles, faster twitch responses, new senses like echolocation, and electroreception. They were even given a new organ to store small (by their standards) amounts of electricity, in case they have to use it for emergency purposes. Gandore could even survive the vacuum of space for an hour or stay underwater for six.

To top it all off, Gandore, like every member of his species had a surgery done while they were in utero where they had an AI inserted into their brain. They had learned you do not genetically alter the brain for any reason. The AI helped Gandore keep a photographic memory of everything he has ever seen, heard, touched, or sensed. Its primary purpose was to help his species make sense of all the new ways to perceive the world besides the five senses. This chip also contained all the knowledge of his species. Yes, the chip connected to their version of the internet, but just in case something happened to cut him off from it, he had all the info he needed. Detailing all the functions of the AI would be impossible for Gandore because, to him, it had always been there.

For all these reasons and more, Gandore and every species with FTL consider any species without FTL to be unintelligent.

But they have long learned you can not uplift a species. Give a primitive civilization these abilities, and they will call themselves Greek gods and kill each other. Allow a species to learn these lessons themselves step by step, and some will become trading partners. For the rest, there is the eulogy department.

Chapter 1 June AD 75 WAR!

At the top of the watchtower, Paul was shocked as he looked out and saw hundreds of warriors. Paul was not the only one shocked. Paul could see the fear in his men. They were ready to bolt, and if they did, it would be the end of his new nation. This was bad, but a lesson he learned long ago was in a self-defense situation; the worst thing you can do is nothing.

Paul looked over at the very scared twelve-year-old who was on watch and asked, “How long have they been out there?”

The twelve-year-old was shaking, but he answered Paul’s question, “Only a few minutes. When I saw them, I called out to them and asked who goes there, and someone said they were a witchdoctor from one of the tribes. I am sorry I don’t remember which, and he said he wanted to talk with you.”

In this type of situation, moral is everything, so Paul acting far more confident than he felt said, “It doesn’t matter what village he is from, he will die tonight, along with all his warriors.”

The young soldier’s voice cracked as he said, “Really? Even though there are a lot more of them than us?”

Paul understood that this young man was not arguing with him but asking a legitimate question that all the men on top of the tower had. Paul answered, “Your right if they scatter and run, we probably won’t be able to kill all of them tonight. Tonight, we will have to settle for killing their witchdoctor and anyone foolish enough to stand and fight us. Then in the coming weeks and months, we will go to their villages and conquer them one by one.”

One of the adult villagers asked, “How can we fight so many?”

Paul said, “You’re asking the wrong question? The right question is, how can they fight us? Look at them. How many times over the years have raiders come to raid your village, and before you were even awake, they were already spread throughout the entire village?”

The man said, “Many times.”

Paul said, “The wall stopped them from getting in the village, and apparently, not only have they never seen a wall they have never considered it. Look at them out there. Listen to them. They are confused and arguing about how to deal with the situation. They probably think this wall is magical because this is a new situation to them. With this wall, how can they fight us?”

Courage came to the older warriors from the Jiwi Mkuki tribe. Paul had twenty-five of them from the ages of fourteen to twenty. These were the oldest men in the village. The sad reality is that Sub-Sahara Africa was a hard place to live in the first century AD, and it was rare for someone to make it to twenty, and living to thirty was unheard of. Paul was determined to change that, but part of the change had to do with making villages safe from raids. Paul could not let the enemy walk away from this fight unscathed, he had to break them here and now.

Paul said, “Since our enemy can not fight us, we will kill them. Have none of you noticed that the enemy is well within firing distance of your hundred- and twenty-pound bows?”

Several of the men looked at each other and the enemy and said, “Yes.”

Paul said, “Are we in range of their weak thirty-pound bows?”

The men looked carefully and said with sudden realization, “NO!”

Paul said, “See, there is nothing to be afraid of. Our enemy can not touch us, but we can easily slaughter them with our bows.”

When Paul said that the men’s faces went from grim courage to grinning, they realized that even though they were outnumbered, they could easily win this battle. Some of the men started notching bows without Paul’s order, and Paul said, “Stop! Wait till I give the order to fire. Wait for me to call out and talk to this witchdoctor who wants to talk to me. I will ask if he is the leader. If he says, he is fill him with arrows. If not, I will ask to talk to the leader and kill him first!”

Paul looked over at the twelve-year-old and said, “Before I do that, I need you to run to the other watchtower that is still banging their gong and tell them to stop. Then tell the men up there to wait to fire their bows until we fire ours. Then tell all the soldiers in training at that gate to come to this gate and get into formation. After our men slaughter the enemy with their arrows, the enemy will retreat and scatter in fear. We will chase down the cowards and slay them like dogs!”

The young soldier in training forgot to say yes, sir, as he went off to do as he was ordered. Paul was irritated, but what could you expect from a twelve-year-old drafted into the military that doesn’t have a commander who actually served in the military.

Paul turned back to his men and said, “After you fire arrows into the crowd of men tonight, I fear that they will retreat and go to another village. I can not let several hundred warriors raid another village, so I will lead all the soldiers in training up the road after the enemy. As soon as those men are out of range, I am going to go after them. But I need you to stand guard, do you understand.”

Several of the men said, “Yes, sir.”

Paul said, “It may be several days until I get back, depending on what the enemy does. If I get back and nobody is manning the watchtowers, you will have to deal with me.” Paul wanted to tell them that he would have all of them flogged, but Paul’s army wasn’t big enough yet, and these men are still technically in the chain of command of his soldiers. Paul was still a few years away from being able to get away doing whatever he wanted to do. If these men were too lazy to be in the watchtowers after this army showed up, he would have to figure something out.

Finally, Paul said, “I see the young man is climbing the watchtower, it won’t be long now, get ready. After you fire your first shot, I am going to go down by the soldiers in training. When all the men are out of arrow range yell down and let me know so we can charge after the enemy.”

Several of the men said, “Yes, chief.”

By now, the boy had delivered his messages. The gong stopped, and there was a strange silence. Paul waited until the young man was on the ground, then Paul cried out into the night, “I AM CHIEF PAUL! WHO DARES COMES TO ME IN THE NIGHT!”

A man stepped forward into the moonlight and yelled out, “I AM THE WITCHDOCTOR OF THE MATUNDA NAFAKA TRIBE. I CAME TO PEACABLY TALK WITH YOU AND JOIN YOUR VILLAGE. COME OUT HERE SO WE CAN DISCUSS IT.”

Paul thought, “Really, you think I am so stupid as to leave the safety of my walls so you and your several hundred warriors can kill me.”

But Paul yelled out, “I AM A CHIEF OF NINE VILLAGES, AND I DO NOT HAVE TIME FOR A WITCHDOCTOR FROM A PATHETIC VILLAGE. LET ME TALK TO THE LEADER OF YOUR MEN.”

The witchdoctor was upset that Paul dismissed him as the leader and yelled out, “I AM THE LEADER OF THIS GRO…” the words were never finished as twenty-five arrows were loosed from bows. Fifteen hit the man. The witchdoctor never even had a chance to scream.

The warriors of the Jiwi Mkuki kept two quivers of arrows on their belts. After the first volley, they all reached down, pulled an arrow out of their quiver, notched it, and fired it into the crowd of warriors.

Before Paul came, all the villagers used a thirty-pound bow because it was simple to make, and it had an effective range of about forty yards. Since Paul become chief of the Jiwi Mkuki tribe, Paul had been training his men to use stronger and stronger bows. Paul had twenty-five men of the Jiwi Mkuki tribe able to use one hundred- and twenty-pound bows, which had an effective range of eighty yards on flat ground. Unfortunately for the men who decided to attack this night, the men of the Jiwi Mkuki tribe were not on flat ground. They were in thirty-foot-tall towers, which made their effective range a hundred yards.

The witchdoctor was about forty yards from the tower when he began to speak with Paul. The nearest man to him was ten yards further back. Nearly all the men who came to raid that night were in that one-hundred-yard range. The men of Jiwi Mkuki village smiled as they shot arrows into the crowd.

As the arrows begin to rain down on the raiders, there were screams. Those in the back push forward, those in the front pushed back; those in the middle can not go forward or back. They yell at each other, “MOVE OUT OF THE WAY!” only for one of their friends to be struck down next to them, and next thing you know, these men from different villages start fighting with each other to get away from the death in the night.

The men on the watchtowers see the chaos they have wrought and started laughing as they shoot more arrows into the mass of men. They have no mercy in their heart. They see where groups of men are getting in each other’s way and shoot arrows into the target-rich environment. They can not believe they were ever fearful of these men. They can not believe how easy it is to destroy these men. Before long, they start saying, “Paul cast a powerful curse on the enemy.” But later, when Paul hears the story, he will know the truth. The enemy was undisciplined and panicked. But this panic would be attributed to Paul’s power.

It took a minute and a half for the several hundred warriors to get out of the firing range of the Jiwi Mkuki men. They fired three hundred and fifty arrows in that time. They hit over one hundred and fifty men. Another seventy-five were killed or maimed by their friends and allies. When they were out of range, one of the men in the watchtower yelled down to Paul, “They are out of range.”

With that, Paul had his men open the gates. Paul led all 107 of his soldiers in training out into battle. They were split into three teams, led by three of his soldiers that were trained in the first year of man camp.

Most of the enemy was already retreating because they had no idea how so many men were getting killed in the night. In all honesty, Paul was lucky the witchdoctors took this superstitious lot to fight him in the night where they could not see the arrows that killed their fellow tribesmen. If they had seen the arrows, they would not have so much terror in their hearts. But at night, they did not understand what was happening.

Very few of the men saw Paul’s soldiers exit out of the gates, but those who did saw moonlight shine off of swords and spears. They imagined that the weapons had magical properties, and instead of retreating up the road like most of the men, they scattered into the forest.

Paul’s soldiers had one goal. Get to the next village. Protect it from this large group of raiders. Fortunately, they had been practicing running in formation for weeks, and it was not long before they caught up to the first group of the enemy. Some didn’t recognize the danger and were cut down. Others ran faster when they heard their comrades scream, others ran into the woods, and others turned to fight.

Anyone who turned to fight was slaughtered, but it was not a one-way slaughter. These soldiers in training did not have the crocodile armor that Paul’s other men had, and so many were wounded with arrows and spears in the night.

Two men were killed when they were struck in the head with spears, and later Paul would blame himself for those men’s deaths. Up to this point, Paul had overlooked making a helmet for his men to wear.

In all honesty, there was no grand battle between armies. It was merely one army chasing another army down the road at night. Paul’s army was disciplined and easily slaughtered all they came across, but in the chaos of battling at night, Paul’s soldiers could not see spears, arrows, or clubs and got wounded because of a lack of equipment. Anyone injured was carried on stretchers to the next village. Paul made it clear; his warriors’ lives was precious to him.

In time they made it to the next village. That night they fought off many a scattered enemy who stumbled across the village. No mercy was shown that night.

Chapter 2 June AD 75 Aftermath

As the sun came up, the long night ended, and a very long day started.

There would be no sleep for any of the men. From one village to the next along a several mile stretch of road, there were bodies scattered about. Those bodies would attract hyenas, warthogs, lions, and crocodiles.

Paul sent out one group of soldiers in training to gather bodies and bring it to this village. Another to collect firewood so they could burn the bodies. The final group would head back to the Jiwi Mkuki village with Paul. This group consisted of all the wounded and the dead.

When Paul was twelve, he went to school, played video games, and practiced martial arts. The closest thing to a battle he did at twelve was fighting at a couple of tournaments. Last night he had several hundred men show up so that they could kill, rape, and steal. They had no problem murdering his twelve-year-olds, five-year-olds, or anyone else in his village. It was unthinkable in America for a bunch of people to show up with the hope of murdering children. And yet it was normal here.

Those same twelve-year-olds fought for their lives last night and won. They killed what Paul would consider teenagers. It was as if a bunch of high school kids showed up and tried to murder a bunch of middle school kids. Thankfully the high school kids were so malnourished that they were actually smaller than Paul’s twelve-year-olds. Now those twelve-year-olds were stacking bodies like wood.

Paul was a coward; he could not stay and watch these kids stack bodies.

The trip back to Jiwi Mkuki village was uneventful. They were not attacked by men or beast, but it was gruesome. There were young men dead in pools of blood all along the road, covered in bugs. Paul’s depression fought with his anger. It was depressing to see so many dead youths, but those youths died trying to rape and murder his people.

It took a while for Paul to notice, but as they passed the bodies on the way back to the village, all his young men spit on them. There would be no reprimand for that action. These young men needed to deal with death in their own way, and if it was desecrating the bodies of their enemies, then that’s how it would have to be.

Paul was surprised when he got back to the village because all the bodies around Jiwi Mkuki had already been piled up, and the village men were piling logs on them. In all honesty, Paul was surprised because Paul had been looking down at his people. Paul was something of a micromanager, and in his mind, if he did not tell the people to get something important done, then it didn’t get done.

Paul told his soldiers in training, “Take the wounded to the nurses. Take the dead to the barracks and tell some of the girls to clean the bodies. Once you are done, come out here and help moving bodies. We need these dogs burned as soon as possible.”

They yelled in unison, “YES, SIR!”

Paul called out to one of the oldest men in the village, a 19-year-old, and said, “There are a lot of the bodies on the road, we need to take them to this pile.” Paul couldn’t watch the 12-year-olds carrying bodies, but he couldn’t give them that job without doing it himself. Paul was much better doing this job with a 19-year-old than someone under fifteen or sixteen.

The 19-year-old followed Paul up the road, and they picked up the first body they came to. Paul grabbed his hands, the other man grabbed his feet, and they carried him to the other bodies. When they got there, they swung him back and forth and then tossed him into the pile.

As they turned to head back up the road, Abilio was running towards Paul and called out, “Chief Paul, WAIT. We need you.”

Paul yelled back, “What’s wrong?” Paul was worried there was another attack.

Abilio said, “We captured seventeen wounded prisoners. They come from twelve different tribes. We know you like to heal those captured in a raid then follow them back to their village, so we didn’t murder them when you were away.”

Currently, Paul was using his anger to keep depression at bay, and he would like nothing better than to murder these men. It is one thing for a group to raid his village because they are hungry, but with so many warriors, it’s obvious they came to wipe them out. But Abilio was right. They needed to heal them, follow them back to their village, and make their villages part of their strength. In time Paul wouldn’t have to see twelve-year-olds carrying bodies.

Paul made his way to the school. They were using it as the clinic. The school was always the clinic. Every time Paul treated someone, he needed the other young people to see how it was done, and as they learned, he needed to give them the opportunity to treat patients. Although the girls had a focus on healing from twelve to fourteen, the boys needed to learn to do at least first aid. At this point, all healing that could be done publicly was done publicly. That way, as many people as possible could learn the art of healing.

Paul had never seen the clinic so full. Seventeen enemies were laying in beds, and every one of them had a wound to the leg or foot. An injury anywhere else, and they would have either died or been able to run away.

Twenty-three of Paul’s soldiers in training were laying in hastily made beds, getting treatment from the girls. Paul watched as the girls took off bandages, poured vinegar on wounds to disinfect them, and started sewing up wounds from string they took out of a boiling pot. Paul was proud of these girls and suspected that many of them would marry the men they helped heal.

Paul said, “Girls.” With that word, all the girls looked up to Paul, and he continued, “When these boys tell you there story of bravery, battle, and how they got their wounds, they will be telling the truth.” Those words wore like magic. The boys were hurting but trying to put on a brave face for the girls. The girls were worried about the boys. They had gotten to know them well since they came to school. But when they heard the story of the boys’ bravery, their faces transformed from worry to beaming smiles of pride.

But then the moment of joy was interrupted by one of their prisoners. He called out to one of the girls and said, “Hey, you, nappy hair girl.” One of the girls turned to him, and he said, “Yeah, you, I need water.”

Before she could answer, Paul, said, “Who do you think you are.”

The man looked irritated at Paul’s question and said, “A proud warrior of my tribe.”

Paul, with a dangerous calm in his voice, said, “You came to our village to kill us, and to rape these girls. We have shown you mercy, these girls have started healing you, and you show us disrespect?”

The man said, “Who cares what we do to these girls. It’s not like they are warriors or important or anything.”

Paul did not look at the man as he said loudly, “I will not tolerate anyone disrespecting any member of my village. I especially will not tolerate dogs who are disrespectful to the women who saved their lives.” With that, Paul pulled out his knife and stabbed it into the navel of the man, and pulled it out. The man started screaming and holding his insides.

Paul said, “Girls, let me know when you are done patching up everyone else. When you are done, I will show you how to stitch together punctured intestines. If our guest survives, then he will have learned an important lesson about respecting women. But whether or not he lives or dies, you will get to learn more about how to treat wounds.”

Paul chose anger over depression that day.

Chapter 3 June AD 75 Prisoner

Hamza had never been so terrified in his life. His witchdoctor, the witchdoctor of the Matunda Nafaka tribe, did something unprecedented. He convinced fifteen villages to ally themselves to wipe out the Jiwi Mkuki tribe. For the past month, all the tribes had been experiencing many gruesome deaths. The witchdoctor explained it was due to Chief Paul causing spirits to attack them. They had no choice but to end the threat.

Last night hundreds of warriors came together to wipe the tribe off the map. Hamza had never seen so many people together at one time. If you counted every man woman and child in his village, it might be just over three hundred people, and two-thirds of them would be children under ten. The witchdoctors managed to get nearly four hundred and fifty warriors together. If Hamza could count that high, he would be able to understand how grand of a feat it was. He had to settle for being proud that he was part of a giant army.

As they made their way to the Jiwi Mkuki village, they came across a road. Hamza had heard several members of his tribe talk about roads, but he didn’t believe them when they told him how much easier they were to travel on than through the wilderness. Truth was he wasn’t told half the advantages the roads had. They were flat, wide, and you didn’t have to worry about stepping on thorns. They were amazing! Apparently, this chief Paul wasn’t all bad. He had half a mind to ask his chief to build their own roads when he got back.

Once they made it to the village, he was shocked to see the village was one giant hut. Most of the men stopped when they saw it, but the men coming up from behind forced the men at the front off the road because they didn’t want to get any closer to the strange structure. Eventually, all the men could see the strange structure, and most of the men were off the road, standing on the cleared ground next to it.

Before they could figure out what to do, someone in the giant hut called out to them, and the witchdoctor stepped forward and answered. That’s when the strange sound was made. If the witchdoctor wasn’t there, Hamza would have ran, as he was sure that sound was calling for spirits to strike them down.

Someone asked Hamza, “What’s that?”

Hamza said, “Don’t worry, we have the witchdoctors of several villages with us. We will be protected.”

It was the strangest thing Hamza had ever experienced. Hundreds of confused men talking back and forth, on a road, in front of a giant hut, with strange noise being made from the hut. If anything, Hamza was having sensory overload. Hamza didn’t realize it then, but due to the strangeness of the situation, they forgot about attacking. They were just too young and inexperienced in war to even send a scout around the wall they assumed was a giant hut. Especially once they were challenged, and the strange noises began being made.

After a few minutes, the noise stopped being made from the giant hut. And all the men stopped talking. As strange as the sound was, it was worse without it. After nearly a minute of quietness, the men began to stir, when someone began to yell from the giant hut, “I AM CHIEF PAUL WHO COMES TO ME IN THE NIGHT!”

Hamza watched as his witchdoctor bravely stepped forward and yelled, “I AM THE WITCHDOCTOR OF THE MATUNDA NAFAKA TRIBE. I CAME TO PEACABLY TALK WITH YOU AND JOIN YOUR VILLAGE. COME OUT HERE SO WE CAN DISCUSS IT.”

Hamza knew they were there to kill Chief Paul above everything else and appreciated the lie the witchdoctor told. It would make killing Paul and raiding his villages so much easier.

Hamza listened as Paul yelled out, “I AM A CHIEF OF NINE VILLAGES, AND I DO NOT HAVE TIME FOR A WITCHDOCTOR FROM A PATHETIC VILLAGE. LET ME TALK TO THE LEADER OF YOUR MEN.”

Hamza thought, “This Chief Paul is an idiot. No one but a witchdoctor could get so many villages together. Chiefs do not trust chiefs because chiefs raid each other’s villages. But witchdoctors are never in charge of raiding parties.”

Hamza was unsurprised when the witchdoctor had anger in his voice when he yelled back, “I AM THE LEADER OF THIS GRO…”

Hamza was close enough to see his witchdoctor fall. Yes, there was a full moon out, but even with a full moon out, Hamza could not clearly see the arrows that hit his witchdoctor. It took a second for the death of his witchdoctor to process, but when it did, Hamza turned to run, only to be stopped by the bodies of the hundreds who did not see.

Hamza tried to push through the bodies, yelling, “The witchdoctor is dead, run you, idiots, run.” But instead of running, the morons wanted to see the witchdoctor’s body. That’s when men started falling. That’s when Hamza felt something strike the back of his leg, and he could no longer stand.

As Hamza fell, panic struck the crowd. Someone yelled, “SPIRITS ARE ATTACKING! RUN AWAY!” At this point, it is lucky that Hamza fell where he did because most of the men who fell were trampled to death by superstitious warriors.

Hamza was in a good position to watch the warriors try to run away and fight each other as they got in each other’s way. He saw in the moonlight as dozens of warriors fell for no reason, and he wondered why the spirits only wounded him instead of killing him. Then once they had gotten a certain distance, the warriors stopped falling. That’s when he heard something from the giant hut. He looked back and saw a door opening, and warriors coming out with shining weapons. Hamza wondered if spirits empowered those weapons.

The only thing Hamza could do was play dead. He watched as those warriors ran together, almost like they were one. He watched as they trampled men as they pursued the warriors. Hamza was grateful that he was forced off the road because if he was on it, he would have been trampled to death.

After they passed, Hamza tried crawling to the woods. The problem was that a whole lot of land had been cleared near the village. By the time the sun came up, he was nearly to the forest, but it was too late. He was spotted quickly. He was sure they were going to kill him when one of the warriors said, “Bring him to the school. You know Chief Paul likes to take prisoners, and he likes them healed before he interrogates them.”

All Hamza could say was, “THANK YOU! THANK YOU! It was my evil witchdoctor who forced me to come. I had no choice. I wouldn’t really hurt anybody. You are so kind and merciful.”

The warrior started laughing and said, “No, I am not. Chief Paul is merciful. If it was up to me, we would skin you alive. Or cut your guts out and strangle you with your intestines. Or perhaps hold your feet over the fire, and when they are cooked, eat them while they are still attached to your living screaming body.”

With that speech, Hamza shut up. In truth, Hamza had taken part as his village warriors did those things and worse to enemy warriors his village had captured. All of them begged for mercy, and Hamza laughed at them as they received none.

The warrior continued, “The thing is, Chief Paul’s ways work, so we do it his way. Besides, I am only mad at you for the vast amount of work we have to do. Nobody in the village died, but look around, your group lost dozens and dozens of warriors. Now we have to gather the bodies and burn them; otherwise, your warriors will attract lions and hyenas.”

Hamza only had one injured leg, so the warrior helped Hamza stand, and then served as a crutch as he led Hamza to the giant hut. Hamza did what he was told and looked around. He was shocked. Last night was the first time he had seen so many men in one place. This morning was the first time he had seen so much death.

That’s when Hamza noticed that many of the bodies had arrows in them. Then he looked back at his leg and realized he had an arrow in his leg. Hamza couldn’t help but ask the warrior, “Did the spirits help you shoot us with arrows.”

The warrior laughed and said, “No. Paul showed us how to make something called a longbow. It’s a lot harder to pull back, but it makes arrows go a lot further. When you came to attack last night, your entire force was easily within striking range of us.”

After hobbling a few hundred yards, they entered into the giant hut. After they entered, Hamza had to admit it was the most amazing thing he had ever seen, although he realized it wasn’t a hut. It was four giant walls with towers at each corner, tucked in behind the walls. He never imagined anything so big. None of the huts in his village were even ten feet tall, and yet the walls were thirty feet tall, except at the gate. Although the gate walls were not as tall, a ten-foot-long part of the wall swung open and closed. How did they get something so big to move. Not only that, but it had walls so long that it housed a large village. This village was at least three times the size of Hamza’s village, and yet it had four giant walls.

Hamza didn’t know it, but this was his first taste of civilization. Four large wooden walls.

Hamza was taken to a very large building. A building far larger than any of the huts in his village, and there he was placed on ropes that they called beds, and there were girls there who treated his injuries. The floors were made out of wood. Hamza had never seen anything like it before. The only floors he had ever seen before this was dirt floors. There was even a section of the wall that was stone and had a fire in it, with an iron pot with boiling water in it. Hamza had never seen a fire inside a building before. He had seen iron before; his chief had an iron knife. But to be so rich as to have a metal pot, that was insane to Hamza.

Hamza was upset when the girls hurt him, and he yelled at them, only for a warrior to say, “Hamza, either you let these girls sew up your wound, or I skin you alive.” Hamza decided to be silent after that.

Hamza watched as over the next few hours more than a dozen men he had fought with came into the large and lavish building to be treated by the girls. Eventually, a large group of the people they came to fight came in there, and the girls started treating them exclusively.

Hamza and several of the allied warriors were getting upset with the lack of attention. Hamza wanted to say something, but the threat of being skinned alive kept him quiet. Several of the other warriors started complaining and saying stuff, and as they got away with it, they got bolder. Then an albino warrior came in and said something to his people that Hamza didn’t pay attention to.

One of Hamza’s allied warriors got mad at the lack of attention and said, “, “Hey, you, nappy hair girl.” One of the girls turned to him, and he said, “Yeah, you, I need water.”

Before she could answer, the big albino warrior said, “Who do you think you are?”

The man was irritated and bold due to the mercy shown and said, “A proud warrior of my tribe.”

The Albino warrior, with a dangerous calm in his voice, said, “You came to our village to kill us, and to rape these girls. We have shown you mercy, these girls have started healing you, and you show us disrespect?”

The man said, “Who cares what we do to these girls. It’s not like they are warriors or important or anything.”

The albino warrior did not look at the man as he said loudly, “I will not tolerate anyone disrespecting any member of my village. I especially will not tolerate dogs who are disrespectful to the women who saved their lives.” With that, Paul pulled out his knife and stabbed it into the navel of the man and pulled it out. The man started screaming and holding his insides.

Then the albino warrior said, “Girls, let me know when you are done patching up everyone else. When you are done, I will show you how to stitch together punctured intestines. If our guest survives, then he will have learned an important lesson about respecting women. But whether or not he lives or dies, you will get to learn more about how to treat wounds.”

Chapter 4 June AD 75 A Month as a Captive

After seeing the albino warrior stab that man, Hamza had never been so glad he kept his mouth shut. All the allied warriors except for the stabbed one got very quiet. The one who was stabbed groaned in pain until one of the girls came up to the albino warrior and said, “Chief Paul, everyone has been treated.”

Hamza was shocked. He had heard rumors that chief Paul was an albino, but he didn’t believe it. Hamza was determined to pay attention to this man.

Chief Paul said, “Thank you, go and find several warriors. I will need their help in holding down our patient. We are going to learn about surgery today.”

The girl left and came back with several strong warriors. Paul, each man, and the girls washed themselves in vinegar. Then they went to the pot boiling water in the fireplace and put a knife in it. Then they came back to the man chief Paul had stabbed and tied down his arms and legs. He tried to fight them, but there were too many of them.

Chief Paul used an instrument to pull the knife out of the iron pot and brought it over to the man with the stab wound, and explained to the girls, “Stab wounds in the gut are terrible. But as time goes by, one of our people will get one, either in fighting or in an accident. It is important that you learn how to fix them now when it is not important whether the patent lives or dies.”

Hamza was shocked. Chief Paul just said that it was possible to save someone with a stab to the gut. Hamza had seen many wounds like that, and it always ended in a terrible death for whoever got it.

Chief Paul said, “There are several problems with a wound to the gut. The first one is that inside your gut is an organ known as the small intestine. This small intestine is filled with poison. This poison does not harm the small intestine, and in fact, is useful for digesting food, but if it makes its way outside the small intestine, it will kill you painfully. For instance, because this man has been stabbed, it’s easy for the poison to make its way out of the small intestine and into the rest of his body, which would mean an incredibly painful death for him unless we fix it.”

Paul continued, “The other problem is that the small intestine is coiled up like a rope, so one puncture in the navel may mean several punctures in the intestines, and you have to close all the wounds or the patient will die. In order to do this, we have to make the puncture wound bigger.”

Then Hamza was shocked again when Paul took his knife and widened the stab wound. The man screamed and struggled. It was clear he was in intense pain.

Chief Paul said, “As you can see, operations are very painful. Due to the pain, this man could die from his heart, giving out or bleed to death. Where I am from, they had found several substances that could take away the pain or make someone sleep during the operation. Unfortunately, I do not have any of those things or the knowledge to make them. It will have to be one of the things we rediscover in the coming years.”

Hamza had never seen anything like it. Chief Paul had caused extreme pain to a man, and he did not laugh about it. He was not angry at the man. He was not sad. He showed no emotion whatsoever. How could you cause that much pain and be emotionally distant?

Chief Paul opened up the wound even more and called for the girls to come closer and said, “Look in there, and see where the punctures are. We are going to have to disinfect the wound first, and then sew up each part of the intestines.”

The girls nodded and grabbed bottles filled with vinegar and poured some on the man’s wounded intestines, and he screamed. Then Paul pulled some of the intestines clear out of the man’s body, and sewed it up, Poured vinegar on it, and then had the girls do the same with other wounded parts of the intestines. After Chief Paul was satisfied that the wounds were closed off and disinfected, he had the girls sew up his abdomen.

Chief Paul smiled as he said, “He survived his surgery. Over the next few days, we will see if he survives his wound. Girls, I will need you to clean up and disinfect everything.”

Then Paul turned toward the prisoners and said, “I have some questions for you.” After watching the surgery on a fully aware patient, every prisoner answered every question to the best of their ability.

The next day, Hamza and all the injured warriors, except for the man who had surgery, was taken outside the walls. When they got out there, two dead warriors were lying on the ground, on blankets next to two holes. They wore armor and were cleaned up. It was the first time Hamza had seen someone take the time to clean up a dead body.

Hamza was surprised to see hundreds of people surrounding the dead warriors. Hamza knew that in most villages, there were usually about twice as many children as adults, but it was clear that in this village, there were likely five times as many children as adults. Hamza didn’t think there were as many warriors here as there was in the group that attacked this village, but there were a lot more warriors here than in his village.

This entire village came out to respect the dead. Chances were back at his village people would be happy that he didn’t show up because it would mean more food for them.

Chief Paul got up and said, “These two young men died so that nobody else had to. They fought to protect the lives of the men, women, and children of this village. When danger came, they faced it like men. They went to man camp, and although they had not finished it, they graduated early.”

Hamza then saw something he had never seen before. He saw chief Paul cry. He had never seen a chief cry before, and he did not understand why chief Paul showed such weakness. Didn’t the other warriors from the village say that none of their people died? Chief Paul said some more things while crying that Hamza didn’t pick up, but it sure sounded eloquent, and it made those young warriors sound important and brave. Then chief Paul said things that finally made Hamza understand.

Chief Paul said, “Evson Nguvu Simba and Kito Hodari Shujaa will be remembered and honored.”

Hamza figured it out. These two were not from the Jiwi Mkuki tribe. They were from two different tribes. The warriors were telling the truth. Nobody from their tribe died. But if they were not from the same tribe as Paul, why did he care that they died? Why was he crying over their deaths? Hamza had never seen anything so peculiar.

Hamza noticed that the adults in the tribe looked indifferent. They were clearly there because their chief told them to be. But the group known as the soldiers in training from the nine-tribe alliance wept for their fallen friends. The children also wept for the big kids they got to know over the last year or two.

All the people watched as the two young men’s bodies were lowered into the holes, and dirt was poured into them. Then several strong men carried two large rocks and put them over the graves. Then Chief Paul used a chisel and hammer to put what Hamza could only describe as strange markings on the rocks.

After the funeral, Hamza was brought back to the school where he was treated and was surprised when the building was filled up by children of all ages. The prisoners were warned if they made any noise or distracted the students, they would be beaten. They were to be as quiet as possible and heal.

Hamza had never seen anything like what he saw. All the students were learning from the adults. They were learning something called reading that involved strange markings, and a song called ABC. As near as Hamza could figure out, chief Paul was teaching all the children magic, and Hamza did his best to learn.

A few days passed, and all the prisoners were taken on a trip to a watering hole with some of the Soldiers in training. Hamza didn’t know why there were there, but once he saw the warthogs, he knew they would have to wait a while. He was surprised when the warriors were commanded to form up. Hamza didn’t understand why they were doing that. There was a very large group of warthogs getting a drink, and some of them looked like they were over three hundred pounds.

Hamza watched in confusion as chief Paul commanded his spearmen, “Stab the warthog. You will not like what happens if you miss. Swordsmen, stand firm. You will not like what happens if the warthog gets through your shield. Archers get ready. And FIRE!”

Hamza had a panic attack! He still had a nasty wound on his leg, but even through the pain, he tried to run. Chief Paul was going to get everyone gored to death by panicked warthogs!

Hamza did not see what happened, but less than a minute later, he heard cheering and looked back and was shocked. The soldiers in training killed all the boars. Hamza knew that his village warriors would have run away just from seeing a warthog group so big. Paul’s warriors, who were barely old enough to be considered men, slew them with no loss.

Once the cheering died down, Paul called out, “Prisoners, I wanted you to see my youngest warriors in action. All of you ran away. You ran away because you know your warriors could never do what my youngest group of warriors did. I just wanted to point out that my warriors can stand up to the things that would devastate you without harm.”

Paul took everyone back to the village, and Hamza and the other prisoners discussed the amazing feet of Paul’s warriors.

A few days later, Paul took them out to another watering hole. Hamza was expecting to see more warthogs but instead watched chief Paul hang rotting meat over it, tied to a tree. They spent some time going around the watering hole until finally, they made their way back to the first one. When they got there, the meat was gone, but the tree was shaking.

Chief Paul looked back at the prisoners and said, “I have already explained to my soldiers in training what their job is. Try not to run.”

With that, several soldiers in training pulled on the rope, and a crocodile came out of the water! Hamza ran. With his wounded leg, it would be better to call his running hobbling quickly until he heard cheering and came back. He was shocked to see a dead crocodile. By the end of the day, Hamza and the rest of the prisoners contemplated the stupidity of fighting a tribe that pulled crocodiles out of watering holes for their youth to kill. Jiwi Mukiki tribe’s ritual for becoming a man was insane. Why did they ever fight this group?

After that, Hamza watched the graduation of the soldiers, as they got their crocodile armor. Not only that, chief Paul gave them weird head coverings, he called helmets. Chief Paul said at the graduation, “During the night the tribes came to wipe us out, two of our soldiers died. Both of them died of head injuries, so I give you helmets so that won’t happen again. They are made of rubber and iron. They are broad and at an angle so that attacks will glance off. I hope that these helmets help you have a long life. May each of you live to be over seventy.”

Over the next few weeks, Hamza and the rest of the prisoners led Paul and his soldiers to their villages. This amazingly included the prisoner who Paul stabbed and then performed surgery on. Everyone was shocked; he survived.

The soldiers did what they normally do. They killed the witchdoctors and chiefs, the orphans and children old enough to be students were taken to Jiwi Mkuki village to learn. Finally, roads were begun so that they could join the nine village alliance known as Paulsland. With the twelve new villages, it would become the twenty-one village alliance.

Hamza was not surprised with the ease that the villages were conquered. Many of the warriors were dead from their attack on the nation of Paulsland, and Paul’s men became men by pulling crocodiles out of water. Beating the villages was only a matter of finding them.

After his village was conquered, Hamza was dumbfounded when he was made chief. Men with limps did not become chief. Then Paul explained to Hamza that Paul made him chief because Hamza was wounded. Paul told Hamza, “If your people kill you, then I will have to deal with their rebellion. But if you die, its no loss. Your job is to keep your people happy, and me happy.”

Hamza’s people were curious about the man who conquered them, so Hamza told his people all the wonders he saw done by chief Paul. Several of the men had wounded pride about their losses to Chief Paul when Hamza said, “Don’t give that man any trouble. I watched him perform miracles. He healed people, keeps spirits at bay, builds giant structures, conquered twenty-one villages and trains warriors that pull crocodiles out of the water. That wasn’t even the scariest part.”

One of his people said, “If those miracles are not scary, then what is.”

Hamza said, “Chief Paul acted all those miracles were small. If he considers those things small, then I don’t want to be his enemy when he does big things.”

Chapter 5 July AD 75 Robbery

The last few months had been fantastic. Nana traded the excess things in the village for stuff they actually needed. He got furs, lumber, and lots and lots of grain. It was so funny to see John’s face when he brought in more grain because John thought that the only grain worth having was the type he grew. For the last few months, nobody had eaten John’s grain because John did not want them to destroy what he called a precious resource. He said, “Eat the stuff not worth growing before you eat my precious hybrid grain.”

Nana was amazed at how long the river was. They had been traveling up it, trading with a village, then coming back to their village of Texas for months. They had already traded with more than a dozen villages along the river. Nana and his three men were getting to see the world in a way they never thought they would.

It was also fun to see the world changing. At every village they traded with one of the first things they traded was axes. When they made their way to a village for the first time, they spotted smoke in the distance. From there, they would land their boat on the bank and search for a village. A few weeks or months after their first trade they would see where the villages had cut down the trees near the river, making their job of finding the village significantly easier.

It would be a perfect job if they were not spending more and more time away from home. Granted, it did allow Nana to make his wife mad the day before he left, only to return to find a wife grateful to see him return. Absence makes the heart grow fonder.

On many trips, they don’t have the opportunity to find a new village to trade with, as the villages they have already traded with, called out to them before they could pass by. But this time, they passed the twelfth village, and they were looking for their thirteenth trading partner. John told Nana several weeks ago that thirteen was a lucky number in his culture, so expect good things on this trip.

When they were about three days past the twelfth village, one of the men spotted smoke, and so they pulled the boat onto the bank. Nana yelled out, “Alright, men, time to find lucky number thirteen.” The men cheered.

It took a couple of hours, but as always, they found fields of maize before they found the village. They continued to follow the smoke until they found a little village filled with Hogan houses.

As they broke through the end of the maize field, someone yelled out, “Who are you? Why are you here?”

Nana smiled, turned his way, and said, “We are from a little village called Texas, and we are here to trade.”

The man said, “Trade? I don’t see anything worth trading on you.”

Nana said, “We have a super large canoe back at the river filled with items we would love to trade with you. But to whet your appetite, I have brought a gift. It is called an iron ax. Please bring me to your chief so I can give him this fine gift” Nana always gave an ax to the villages they traded with first because it allowed tribes with nothing to at least trade lumber with them.

The man saw the ax, and to his eyes, it looked strange, but Nana was looking forward to his delight when he saw what it could do. The man said, “Follow me.”

The man took Nana to the biggest Hogan house, and an old man was sitting on the floor with his legs crossed. The young man said, “Chief, these men say they are here for trade, and they have a gift for you.”

Nana presented the Ax to the chief and said, “I gift this ax to you.”

The chief took the ax and said, “What is this?”

Nana knew the man did not mean the name and said, “This is a tool meant for cutting down trees. I notice that your village uses Hogan houses, and so you must burn down trees to get the wood you need for your house.”

The chief said, “Yes.”

Nana said, “With this ax, you will be able to cut trees down directly. It is much easier than burning down a tree.”

The chief looked delighted with that, and said, “What else do you have?”

Nana said, “We have more axes, and some knives made out of the same material. We also have a ton of grain, and something called a wheel barrel that will make your harvesting much easier.”

The chief looked around and said, “I don’t see any of that.”

Nana laughed and said, “It’s on my extra-large canoe. It's on a bank in the river.”

The chief said, “Show me.”

With that, Nana took the chief on a forty-five-minute walk back to the boat, with many of the chief's warriors following them. Nana wasn’t worried about that, as warriors had the responsibility to make sure their chief was safe.

Once they got to the boat and Nana showed the chief all his wares, he asked, “What are you willing to trade for these items?”

The chief said, “We had a bad harvest last year. Truth be told, we wept this year as we planted grain because we knew it meant we would go hungry most of spring and summer, so we have nothing to trade you.”

Nana was about to say, that wasn’t a problem, as they could cut down trees and make a log raft for their supplies, when the chief cut him off and said, “I hate to say it, but we are going to take all your goods and give you nothing for them.”

Just as Nana was going to object, several of the warriors raised their bows, notched arrows, and pulled back their string. Even though Nana and his men had the fast fire bow that John had invented, they could not fight back. Ten warriors with bows already pointed at them meant they would be dead before they could pull the string back one time on their bow.

Nana and his men were furious, but they knew to keep their mouths shut. It would not take much to turn this robbery into murder.

The chief told Nana, “Unload your very large canoe and leave. If you ever come back, I will have you killed.”

Nana and his men did just that under threat of death, then left. It took two weeks to pole upriver to this place, but four men rowing a boat downriver with no supplies was much faster. They made it back to their village of Texas in two days.

As soon as he made his way back to the village, he ran to bison valley where he was sure John was. People could see the distressed look on his face, and they were asking him what’s wrong, but he ignored their questions and ran to John.

When he got to Bison valley, John was there watching over the herd. Nana ran to him, and John turned, saw his face, and asked, “What’s wrong?”

Nana said, “We were robbed! We got to the thirteenth village, talked to the chief, showed him our wares, and he stole them from us! When we took him to our boat, he brought ten warriors with him, and they pointed their bows at us, and forced us to take our goods out for them, and told us to leave.”

John was clearly not happy about the situation, and he asked, “Was anyone hurt?”

Nana said, “No.”

John said,” Good. As long as blood was not spilled, then this situation can be salvaged.”

Nana said, “We have to make an example out of them, so nobody dares rob from me again.”

John said, “Calm down, all they took was stuff. We can always get more stuff, but your life and their lives can never be returned.”

Nana said, “NO! If we do not deal with this problem and the other villages find out what happened, then those who have wicked proclivities will track us down and rob us blind. They will think we are soft and easy targets. We have to stomp this out now!”

John answered calmly, “Nana, I get that you are upset and that your pride has been wounded. But these people are our neighbors. We will deal with this problem, but we need to deal with it the right way, and not with a hothead.”

John could see that he was not getting through to Nana and asked, “Nana, do you trust me?”

Nana said, “I don’t know. On one hand, you have introduced Iron and boats, but on the other hand, you are too focused on these Bison.”

John said, “It is going to take many years, but the bison are going to change our destiny.” The Bison had been a sore spot in the relationship for a while, so John changed the subject and asked, “Nana, can you give me a list of the things that were stolen?”

Nana said, “What’s a list?”

John said, “You know writing down the things that were stolen.”

Nana said, “I don’t know. What’s writing?”

John said, “The thing I do when we are building stuff.”

“Oh, you mean your magical drawings?”

Johns very slowly said, “No. I don’t do anything magical. When we are working on a project, I write down a list of things we need. This includes their size and how many.”

Nana nodded and said, “But aren’t you doing that, so the earth blesses what you are building?”

John said, “No. How did that rumor get started? I thought you all understood what I was doing. I even tried to teach you some sight words so we could communicate better.”

Nana said, “We have seen medicine men bless stuff with markings before and well your sight words ware too complicated to remember, so I forgot them.”

John said, “So you don’t know what you lost?”

Nana said, “Oh no, I know exactly what I lost. Why didn’t you ask?”

John said, “Forget it. If none of you adults remember the words I showed them, then I guess I will just have to teach the kids how to read.”

Nana was mad now, “Why are you talking about teaching kids now! We have more pressing things to do. We have to address the theft!”

John could understand his frustration, so he simply said, “Is the boat still in good condition?”

Nana said, “Yes.”

John said, “Give me a day.”

The next day forty men and John’s dog, General Lee, met at the boat. They began poling the boat up the river. Twenty-five of them were still in their teens, but by the standards of the people, they were adults at fifteen. John didn’t mind, it’s a good thing to give young people responsibility early on, and John was not planning on taking any of these men to war. They were just going to do some very loud saber-rattling.

With a group of forty men, they made much better time poling than a group of four men could. What took a group of four men two weeks to do, took forty men just three days.

John told the men, “Follow me to the village. When I get there, I will take Nana and talk to the chief. We will figure out something.”

Nana said, “YOU WANT ME TO TALK TO THESE PEOPLE!?”

John said, “Yes. The whole point of bringing all these men was so that they would listen. If we were going to kill them, you would do better off just burning their fields in the night. But I would not let any of my men do something so heinous. Well, not without blood being spilled.”

Nana was not happy, but he didn’t say anything as they made their way to the village.

When they got there, they were noticed by a woman first, and she screamed. It didn’t take long for shouts to be heard and armed me to come running.

John said, “Men take out your bows; do not shoot unless they fire first!”

It didn’t take long for the men of the village to point bows back, and for the chief to come out. They were in a stalemate, but no blood had been spilled yet.

The chief called out, “What do you want?”

John called back, “A few days ago there was a misunderstanding between Nana here and your village. I am here to clear up the misunderstanding.”

The Chief looked back at Nana, and his eyes went wide with surprise, he was not expecting him again.

Nana yelled out, “There was no misunderstanding! They robbed me, and we need to get revenge!”

John yelled out, “Nana, and chief of this.. um… village. Hey, chief, what is this village's name?”

The chief looked at John strangely and said, “Our village is the Taklishim village. I am Chief Taklishim. Generally, the village is known by the name of the chief who leads it. Why do you bring this trespasser to my village?”

John said, “I didn’t realize that. Makes sense, though. Before I tell you why I brought Nana back, would you mind if I showed you something fascinating about these bows we are carrying?”

The chief was confused and said, “What?”

John said, “The bow that I carry, and that all my men are carrying are not normal bows, and I think it is vital for you to see this feature before we begin our discussion.”

The chief said, “If you attempt to shoot me or my men, it will be war!”

John said, “I am grateful that no blood has been drawn between us. I hope it stays that way, but before we discuss anything, you need all the facts. So may I shoot my bow at the ground, thirty feet to your right?”

The chief said, “Go ahead.”

John pulled back on the string of his bow and shot an arrow, then pulled the string back and shot another arrow. Every warrior in the Taklishim village was so shocked that they released the pressure on their bows. They were lucky that nobody accidentally shot an arrow. Then John shot a third, a fourth, a fifth, and a sixth. He kept the seventh arrow in their just in case.

John yelled back to the chief, “I can keep shooting arrows if you need more of a demonstration, but you need to know ALL my men carry these bows. And you also need to know that I consider you neighbors, and I do not want to see these bows used on any neighbor of mine.”

Chief Taklishim was so surprised it took him a long time to recover after seeing the bow of the gods. Finally, he said, “Follow me to my Hogan, we will talk.”

John, Nana, and General Lee followed Chief Taklishim to his Hogan, and they met alone. The chief said, “I hate to tell you, I can not give back most of what we took. When he came with all that food, we were hungry and didn’t have anything to trade, so we robed him and sent him on his way.”

Nana yelled, “YOU DIDN’T EVEN LET ME TALK! We would have worked something out.”

John told Nana, “Calm down. These are our neighbors, and they are in need. They didn’t do right when they robbed you, but we are going to make up for it now.” Paul looked to Chief Taklishim and said, “Isn't that right, Chief Taklishim?”

Chief Taklishim couldn’t get his mind off John using the bow of the gods and said, “I wish I could make it right, but I don’t know how.”

John said, “Chief, if your people are struggling, why don’t you let me hire them for a season? I will teach them some new skills, and I will pay your village’s debt off. Once the season is over, they can come back and use their new skills to help your village. “

Chief Taklishim and Nana both were taken aback. Chief Taklishim said, “You would do that for us?”
John said, “We are neighbors. If someone is struggling, then it’s a neighbors job to help them out. I became chief of my village when a hunting tribe was attacking a group of people who decided to join me. They had nothing, so I helped them out simply because they were in need, and I had the resources to help them. Now they are back on their feet and thriving. I could do the same for you, and when you get the opportunity, you can do the same for others.”

Nana said, “Chief John, these people need to be punished!”

John looked at Nana and coldly said, “Nana, would you rather these people be punished, or would you rather get your stuff back? You can not have both!”

Nana looked down and said, “I would rather have my stuff back.”

John said, “You know when your wife came to my village, I helped her out, if I didn’t do that you would never have met her, never gotten married, and never had your son. Swallow your pride and make peace. We all have a lot more to gain from it than war.”

Chief Taklishim said, “I am ashamed of my actions. Thank you, Chief John, for your kindness.” Truth be told Chief Taklishim said that because it was the right thing to say at the moment. He didn’t feel any shame other than the shame that comes from being overwhelmed by another man. But he knew his people went first, so he swallowed his pride.

They spent the next few hours working out the details. Ten men came back to the village of Texas to work off their village's debt and learn. Over the next few months, those ten men learned metalworking and boat making from John. They made two more longboats before eight went back home. They went home in style as John gifted them one of the longboats they made. Two married women in the village and became permanent residents.

Chapter 6 August AD 75 Pay

Since the attack on Jiwi Mkuki village, Paul took his new soldiers out and captured twelve villages. Capturing villages was easy because Paul had nine villages worth of soldiers to go against one village at a time. It also didn’t hurt that the men of those villages were ready to submit after their devastating losses from attacking Jiwi Mkuki village.

The situation with the twelve villages was very different than the last eight that were conquered by Paul. The twelve villages suffered MUCH worse casualties than the previous eight, and the twelve villages considered the wall around Jiwi Mkuki to be magical. Although Paul continued to install wounded warriors as chiefs of his new villages, unlike the previous eight, the new chiefs had seen what they considered miracles. All the new chiefs told their people that the sooner they built their roads to Paulsland, the sooner they had access to magic. The twelve conquered villages were practically grateful they were conquered.

Those twelve villages made the school and orphanage that Paul ran swell. But the school and orphanage were worth the cost as those kids would grow up to be loyal citizens. Paul was aware that the adults in the new villages considered him magical, and Paul considered their opinion a ticking time bomb. Sooner or later, the people would get upset when he didn’t perform the magic they wanted. When that time came, he would have hundreds or thousands of soldiers to dissuade their fury.

Paul decided not to capture any more villages this year because they really couldn’t handle any more children, and they didn’t know where the rest of the villages that attacked them were. Paul was grateful that there were so many widows across the nine villages because he currently employed more than seventy-five to keep up with all the children in the orphanage and school.

Since the last village was captured, Paul sent the new hundred and five soldiers to the first nine villages. Paul didn’t have the manpower to send anyone to their new twelve villages. They would have to defend themselves until soldiers were trained next year.

As the new soldiers made their way to the nine villages, their first job was to build fortifications. Both watchtowers and walls. They were to inform the chief of the village that all the men were to help and let Paul know if they dragged their feet. Fortunately, so far, the people had been so intrigued that the work was going quickly. Once all the villages in the region were walled off, raids should become a thing of the past.

As the men of the various villages were doing the back-breaking work of building new fortifications, Paul had sent for the thirty-four soldiers that had graduated the previous year. It was time to talk to them about their pay. Without currency, pay was a complicated subject, and Paul would need time to prepare it. They were all drafted for two years. That two years would be up as soon as the next crop of soldiers graduated. Then this group would be able to build their own home, get married, and earn a living, but they could only do so if they got paid.

Paul met the men inside the barracks and said, “In less than a year, you will be able to leave the army and do whatever you want. You will be able to move to any one of the twenty-one villages in our nation, build a home, get married, and start a family. But when you leave the army, you will not leave empty-handed.”

Paul continued, “If you are going to be a farmer, then you need the tools to be a farmer. If you are going to be a blacksmith or a glass smith, then you need the tools to do the job. You have served faithfully in my military, and I want to make sure you are able to do well once you leave next year, but for that to happen, I need to know what you are planning to do next year.”

The young men got excited, but before they could barrage Paul with a bunch of questions, Paul raised his hand to quiet them and said, “The three of you who helped me train the new batch of soldiers this year will be allowed to stay in the military. You three have excellent leadership skills, and your job would be conquering new villages, and inspecting the soldiers guarding the twenty-one villages. Your grain ration will be increased by ten times, and you will be given your own homes. If you would like to do something else, I won't force you to stay. This offer is only good for you three, though. ”

Those three cheered, what young man didn’t want to lead warriors into battle? The reality was that their job would mostly be inspecting the troops, but as Paul’s territory was so big, he had to have help conquering other villages as they raided his nation.

Then Paul said, “I imagine most the rest of you want to become farmers. If that is your wish, I won't try to stop you. We can discuss what types of seed and equipment you will be given next year to help you be the best farmers you can be. That said, there are plenty of farmers in this nation. What we really need is more blacksmiths and glass smiths. The few that I have now cannot meet the demand that twenty-one villages have. If thirty of you became blacksmiths, it would make my job a lot easier.”

“It has been interesting for me to watch how your people have a real understanding and mindset for farming. They know how much to plant in the spring so that after harvest, they can eat for a full year. If they don’t plant enough, then there will be a lot of days, they go hungry. If you become a blacksmith and glass smith, then the mindset is very different. You have to fulfill orders to get paid. If you don’t have those orders, then you go hungry. That said, instead of bringing grain in only at harvest, you could potentially bring in grain every day of the year.”

Paul continued, “You, of course, do not have to make this decision today. The reality is that if you are of a more adventurist mind, then I could use you to look for more deposits of pyrite, or deposits of what is known as copper. Copper ore is green in color. For the blacksmiths to do their job, they need metals to shape. I could certainly use some young men who are dedicated to finding, mining, and smelting ore into the metals blacksmiths make.”

“You do not have to make your decisions today. That said, Faizal, I would like to offer you the chance to become my research assistant.”

Faizal was shocked. Nobody else had their name called out during the meeting. Once he got over his shock, Faizal asked, “What’s a research assistant?”

Paul said, “As you all know, the land where I come from had many things that we do not. Although I am familiar with many of these things, I do not know how to make them. As the nation grows, I have less and less time to make new discoveries, so I would like to write down what I remember about my nation's technology and have various people research it. Faizal, you were my student a year before you became my soldier, so I know how smart and inquisitive you are. Even as a soldier, you are something of a tinkerer. I wish to make that your full-time job. Don’t worry, you do not have to make the decision today, but I will let you know the first thing I would like you to research is glass lenses.”

Faizal said, “Glass lenses?”

Paul nodded, “Glass lenses are used to help people see. I am sure that all of you have noticed that there are certain individuals here who are much better archers than everyone else.”

The archers Paul was talking about, yelled out, “We have noticed.” They got some dirty looks from their fellow soldiers who were not as good.

Paul said, “The reason why they are better archers is because they see better. Glass lenses can be used to help everyone see as well as they naturally do, allowing everyone to become as good as an archer as they are.”

The smirks on the expert archers faces disappeared, but the rest of the class grew their own smirks.

Paul continued, “Glass lenses can also be used to make something known as a microscope, which is necessary to make something known as an antibiotic. Once we learn how to make that in large batches, our lives will improve dramatically. The problem is that I do not have time to discover how to make glass lenses. I know it involves grinding glass, but hearing that phrase and understanding what it means are two different things. Faizal, you have always been a tinkerer, so I suspect you would never get bored at this job. I don’t want your answer today, but give it some thought.”

The final thing Paul said was, “I do not expect anyone’s final decision today, I do expect every one of you to come to me and have a one on one discussion about your options at least one day before you make your final decision. Even if you have already chosen to farm, we will need to discuss what you want to farm and what the best tools are for the job.”

Over the next few days, all the young men offered a job to work for Paul took it. Twenty one chose to become blacksmiths and glass smiths. Generally, if you did one, you did both since they both required a furnace. Paul had three who really wanted to give a go at mining, and six who were determined to be farmers.

Now Paul just had to get their pay ready.

Chapter 7 November AD 75 Planting festival

This year’s planting festival was special. In one-year, Paulsland went from nine villages to twenty-one. Thousands of people would show up for the one-day festival. Paul was hoping this would help knit the villages closer together.

The new villages were very happy with Paul because Paul told the chiefs to have their villagers go ahead and eat up all their seed grain because Paul would provide them with new, better seed. This means that as members of Paulsland, they have eaten better than they have ever done before. But this also meant all the members of the new tribes now had to come to Jiwi Mkuki to get their seed grain.

For the first nine villages in the nation, it has been an interesting year as all of them set up wooden walls around their villages. The people never imagined such large structures. It was helping the people to see the world in a different light.

As for the new villages, they were in awe as they passed villages with those thirty-foot tall wooden walls. When they got to Jiwi Mkuki, all the men and many of the children walked around the wall looking closely at it and climbed the four towers at the four corners of the structure. Paul had to set up a designated gate for the people to mess with because so many of them were in amazed that such a large gate could be moved so easily by hinges. Paul was expanding their horizons.

Not only were the new citizens of Paulsland enthralled about the walls, but also the school buildings. All their life, they used huts with dirt floors. The school building was a couple of thousand square feet, with wooden floors raised a few feet off the ground, with screened doors and windows. They could immediately tell the quality, and they wanted their own.

This was the first planting festival that actually felt like a carnival to Paul. With so many people excited to come in and gawk at the sights, Paul couldn’t compare this year’s planting festival to anything else. Paul got a kick out of watching men from the new villages climb up and down the watchtowers. It was almost like their version of the Ferris wheel.

Warriors rock was the first big competition of the day. It was still outside the walls of the village. And to nobodies surprise it was one of the soldiers who won the competition. As for the women’s tournament, a woman from the Jiwi Mkuki village won again this year, but one of Paul’s students from another village gave her a run for her money. Paul would bet good money that one of his girl students won the competition next year. Hopefully, it would be a student from any village, but Jiwi Mkuki.

This year they did the archery contest on one of the watchtowers. Paul thought that it was important for his new citizens to see the range and power of the one hundred and twenty-pound bow. Once they saw the range of the new bow, their faces visibly grew pale. A man from the Jiwi Mkuki village won again this year, but next year some of the Soldiers that Paul trained should be strong enough to start giving them a run for their money.

Finally, it was time for the new competition. Paul got on top of the watchtower, the archers were using and said, “If you like the log walls and log cabins give me a shout!”

The people shouted.

Paul said, “I can’t hear you.”

This group of people that had maybe two dozen people over the age of twenty took the bait and started screaming at the top of their lungs. The wildlife for miles around started fleeing from their terrible roars.

Paul smiled and said, “That was a little better, one more time with effort.”

This time they gave their all. And now Paul knew he had their undivided attention.

Paul said, “The worth of a man is not just in his ability to fight, but also in his ability to work. You all shouted because you like the log walls and log houses, but it takes a lot of effort to build those things. I happen to have twenty-one saws and twenty-one axes. I want to see which village has the strongest, most capable men. Village chiefs select your first participants for the tree chop challenge, and then follow me to the woods.”

With that, Paul left the watchtower and headed toward the woods. He had several soldiers carrying his equipment. Hundreds of men and women and thousands of children were trying to get a glimpse of what was going on.

Paul said, “I need a man from each village.” The chiefs picked out and sent men forward, and Paul’s soldiers gave them axes.

Paul continued his instructions, “You will see that there are a bunch of trees with a piece of cloth, select which one you want to cut down. Hurry up. It is first come first serve.”

These men grabbed their axes and ran to the nearest tree with cloth around it. Someone tried to take a swing, and Paul yelled out, “DON’T START YET! WAIT FOR ME. I WILL LET YOU KNOW.” The man looked sheepish as he put down his ax.

The trees that were chosen were chosen for their size and their distance from the other trees. With the trees spread out, it allowed the people to spread out and see the tree cutting in action. Once they were all in place, Paul yelled out, “GET READY, GET SET, START!”

As soon as Paul said start, they began madly swinging their axes at the trees. It was a fun sight to watch. All these men had used axes before. Even the new twelve villages needed to use them for the road-building project. The problem was that most of the women and children had never seen them in action, and Paul wanted them to see a bit of what the men in the village had been up to.

In all honesty, it was a lot of fun to watch these men swing axes, watch chips fly, and hear the crash of trees as they fell. Everyone has having a good time. It wasn’t long before they had a winner, and it wasn’t too long after that, that twenty-one trees had fallen.

Paul gladly announced, “Crimildo Nguvu Simba has won the ax challenge! For winning, you will be gifted the ax you used!” There were cheers from the Nguvu Simba tribe.

Paul said, “That was the ax challenge! But now I have a new challenge for you. It’s the saw challenge. Chiefs chose two men from each of your village to come up here and compete in a competition of saws.”

The saws were the kind that required two men to work. Each village sent two men who grabbed their saw, and any team that was indecisive on choosing a new tree got jeered.

Once everyone was in place, Paul Yelled out, “Get ready, get set, START!”

The men began to saw madly. This led to a lot of mistakes, which was funny to watch. Men tripping over each other, getting in each other’s way, arguing with each other, and in one case coming to blows. It was great entertainment. Eventually, two men from Hodari Uta won.

Paul had the men play a few more lumber games, like who could cut the limbs off the trees first, using the saw to cut the logs in half the long way, and a racing game where they cut the log into chunks, filled a bag on an ox with them and brought them to the village. Turns out that if you make getting coal into various games, the job gets done quickly.

The Jiwi Mkuki village didn’t win any of the lumber games. Paul couldn’t help but be very glad that Jiwi Mkuki village didn’t win everything. The other villages were catching up and surpassing them.

As the day went on the people had fun together, they saw that they were not that different from each other, widowed men pursued widowed women, people ate together and got to know one another. Prizes were won, and seed was given out. The planting festival was a success.

Chapter 8 November AD 75 Beast

During the evening of the planting festival, Paul told the people about the world he was from. How the buildings where he was from where many times bigger than the log walls protecting the villages. Before the log walls, he had nothing comparable to even a Walmart.

He told them of the steel, glass and concrete skyscrapers, of the great wall of china, and the various stone and steel bridges all over the world. After seeing the log walls, the people were prepared to think bigger.

One of the reasons why Paul had the sawing competition was to begin getting them used to saws. Within the next few years, he wanted to find a place for them to cut stone and build things out of it. He was trying to give his people vision.

The next day the various villagers began to make their way back to their homes. For some, this was an hour away, for others a few hours away. Either way, the roads have turned trips that used to take several days, too much less than a single day. The people left with full bellies, seed, and smiles on their faces.

Paul was looking forward to the next few days as the children went back home to their villages to help the adults with the planting. He was looking forward to spending time with his wife and kids until they came back.

Paul, Chazia, and their five children were walking back to Paul’s home on the hill when he heard a young man yelling, “CHIEF PAUL! CHIEF PAUL!” Paul looked, and a couple of hundred yards away, he could see someone running and shouting his name.

Paul looked to his wife and said, “Chazia take the kids back to our home on the hill. I will come when this emergency is over.”

Chazia said, “I understand.”

Paul turned and ran toward the yelling person, and as Paul got closer, he saw it was a ten-year-old. Once he was close enough, Paul said, “What’s wrong?”

The boy said, “A pride of lions are on the road blocking the path.”

Paul said, “How many people are there?”

The boy said, “A bunch. When they saw the lions lying on the road, they didn’t approach, but the lions started roaring at them. I just turned back and ran for help.”

Paul smiled and said, “You did a good job. Let me grab some of my soldiers.”

Since Paul became chief, he found out that lions were a hard pest to deal with. A single lion could easily kill a man, and lions liked to hunt in prides. But when you bring enough people to deal with the problem, they usually retreat. Its one of the reasons killing lions wasn’t part of training soldiers. They ran. Paul smiled because it sounded like this pride wasn’t retreating. But Paul wasn’t going to tempt fate more than he had to. He started running toward the village to get his troops.

As Paul ran, he said, “Boy follow me.”

The boy did his best, Paul quickly reached the village and thankfully his watchmen were doing their job. When one of them saw Paul running toward the village, they banged the gong, which had the soldiers heading for the gate. Paul’s smile got bigger. Without the watchtower or gong, their response would be much slower. Technology is a wonderful thing.

When Paul reached the gate, sixteen soldiers were waiting for him. Paul said, “A pride has been spotted on the road, and they are not skittish. I need seven men. Two archers, two spearmen, and three swordsmen. I will also need a spear.” One of the soldiers immediately handed Paul his spear. Then Paul started pointing at the men and said, “You, you, you, you, you, you, and you come with me!”

They started following when Paul yelled out to the boy who hadn’t quite caught up with Paul, “Lead us to the lions!” The boy looked up, looked at Paul, realized what he said, nodded, and then turned toward one of the roads and started running in the direction of danger. Eight armed men following.

As they were running, the poor boy started getting tuckered out, so Paul caught up to the boy, and mid-stride picked him up and said, “Point the way.” The boy was breathing too hard to say yes, so he just nodded and started pointing.

It wasn’t long before they came across a large group of people blocking the road. They did not want to separate from the group because then the lions might attack them. The reality was that when the boy ran to tell Paul about the problem, he did something very stupid. Never turn your back on a predator.

Paul and his men stopped running, but after all their training, this little run was nothing. In fact, it gave Paul a great idea for next year’s man camp. He ought to do a forced march where they go to each and every village during the march.

Paul and his men started pushing through the middle of the crowd. Paul was yelling, “Part ways; make room for my soldiers.” The people gave way, and as they got closer to the front of the crowd, Paul said, “Archers take up the front! Swordsmen get ready to take their place!”

They moved into their positions, and as soon as they were out of the crowd, they didn’t see the lions. Paul thought they got away, and he turned and asked one of the people, “Where are the lions?”

Someone said, “Up the road around the corner.”

Paul had his soldiers start jogging again, and when they got around the corner, they saw them. There were fourteen lions. Some were standing and roaring, and others were lying on the road. They were acting as if they owned Paul’s road. Truth be told might makes right, and Paul was there to show the lions who had a right to the road.

The two archers came out and fired at two of the lions. They roared in pain. The pride was confused from the cries of pain, but once two more arrows were loosed, they saw the arrows and turned to see where they came from. They realized they were under attack and were not happy.

They puffed their chest and roared, which allowed more arrows to be shot. Six lions were wounded before they even tried attacking Paul’s group. At the archers drew another set of arrows, the lions began to charge. Two lions at the front of the charge were hit. They stumbled, which stymied the rest of the charge. This was when the archers stepped back, and the swordsmen stepped forward.

The six lions that were not wounded were furious and went around the two wounded lions in the front. When the first one got to the line of shields, it raised on its back legs to slash with its claws, but before it could, Paul stepped up and stabbed it with his pig spear right in the gut. The lion fell back and twisted 180 degrees, trying to land on its feet. This sudden motion ripped the spear from Paul’s hand. When the pole of the spear hit the ground as the lion twisted, it disemboweled the lion.

The shriek of pain from the lion stalled the charge, but it was too late for one lion. As it attempted to stall its charge, two of Paul’s spearmen stepped up and speared it. As it tried to retreat, one of the swordsmen stepped forward and stabbed it in its side with his short sword. Between the three, they made short work of the lion.

The rest of the pride decided to retreat. But the archers sent many parting gifts their way and managed to kill one more lion. Fourteen lions became three dead, eight wounded, and three completely healthy. After this debacle, those lions would avoid humans. With lions, this is the best you can expect.

Paul smiled and said, “Good job, troops. Go ahead and start field stripping the bodies, and I will let the people know the path is now clear.”

Paul walked back to where the people were and said, “We managed to wound most the lions and killed three of them.” Several of the people cheered. All of them knew someone who had been killed by lions. Truth be told, the roads made things much safer since you could see them from far away.

Several people were asking Paul questions when Paul noticed a bee. Paul had been looking for a beehive for five years now, and this was no exception. Paul yelled out, “Stop what you are doing and follow that bee.”

The adults looked confused, but the kids were all used to instantly obeying whatever Paul said, and they started running after the bee. It was pretty dangerous, but honey is a weak antibacterial. If Paul could start raising bees, he could save a lot of lives.

Paul, the kids, and then the adults started stumbling all over themselves as they did their best to follow the bee through the woods. About one hundred yards into the woods, twenty feet up a tree, Paul had finally found a beehive.

Paul told one of the kids, “Go get my soldiers!”

When the soldiers came, Paul said, “Guard this tree!”

One of the soldiers said, “What about the lions?”

Paul looked to the people still standing around and said, “If you want the lion carcasses, you can have them.” The adults cheered and scrambled to be the first to get to the lion hides. The kids stood there, not knowing what to do when Paul said, “Kids, follow the adults back to your village if everything turns out right I will get to teach you beekeeping when you get back.”

As the kids left, Paul looked back at his soldiers who were looking confused because Paul had them leave lion carcasses for a beehive and said, “Don’t let anything happen to that hive. at this point, I consider that hive to be worth more than a hundred lion carcasses.”

That was shocking to them. Paul was a strange man but all the strange things he did worked and they were better because of it. If Chief Paul says a beehive is that valuable, then they look forward to seeing what Chief Paul does to make it so valuable.

When Paul got back to Jiwi Mkuki village, he told the soldiers that they were to trade spots with those guarding the beehive near sundown and inform the group that they would need to come back at sunup, as Paul needed a couple of days to get things ready.

Over the next few days, Paul made a wooden box to put the beehive in, with removable slides for the honeycomb. He also put rubber over cloth, and then made it into what would be considered an inferior version of a beekeeper outfit. It had several layers of screen to make a helmet to protect his head. Then he had to make some shoes with spikes so he could safely climb the tree the hive was in. After that, he just had to grab some green branches to make smoke, and one of the old plastic containers that came with him from the seed vault.

In the modern world, he would be considered the most ghetto beekeeper ever. But here in AD seventy-five, he was eighteen hundred years ahead of his time. The ancients did have beehives, but it wasn’t until the nineteenth century that people learned to make honeycombs that could be moved out of the hive safety. Time travel makes the most ghetto stuff cutting edge.

Paul allowed anyone brave enough to come watch him capture the hive. They were thrilled to find out that smoke calmed bees. Then they were impressed by the ease of climbing a tree with those shoes, and how safe it was to stay up there when you leaned back on a rope wrapped around you and the tree.

Once the beehive was safety in the village, Paul cut up the hive and tied it to each one of the wooden slates. Over the next few weeks, the bees went to work, filling out each wooden slate, and producing lots of honey.

In order to get the honey, Paul began work on his first geared mechanism. He had Faizal help him, and after weeks of experimentation, they come up with a compound gear system that works well to spin out the honey. Chazia was not happy that Paul spent their break with Faizal, but she was not so unhappy that she turned down the honey.

Chapter 9 December 75 AD Texas First Christmas

After months of trying to teach stubborn people how to read, John needed a break.

One of the problems was that since literature was a new thing to AD 75 North America, there was no reading material, so John got to start everything from scratch. John was a fantastic homesteader. He loved to build things with his hands, work with animals, and farm. Book learning was not his strong point. But he saw the need for it.

That isn’t to say he had no success. Nana and the other traders have learned that their trading business works much better when they keep track of stuff, so after a few weeks, they learned Johns base-ten number system, but they only learned the words for the things they actually trade in which amounts to a vocabulary of fifteen words.

John had a bit more success with the adults from some of the other tribes who have become his workers to pay off their tribe’s debt for whatever Nana traded them. But John was sure that was only because it was easier to learn to read than mining, logging, and smithing.

John was having more success with the children than anyone else, since learning to read meant he told them lots of stories. It was getting cold out, so parents were happy to have Chief John babysit their children, but it was hard to teach the importance of reading when the parents didn’t care about it. If something didn’t change, John was fearful that reading would die with him.

Since John was stressed out, he decided to blow off steam by celebrating Christmas. One day he went into the woods found a pine that would work as a Christmas tree cut it down and dragged it back to the homesteads.

When he got back, people saw John dragging this tree into their homesteads. It was winter with little to do, and they figured John was going to do something new. When he reached them, someone asked, “Chief John, what’s that?

John said, “A Christmas tree.”

They had all seen a pine tree before, and knowing that John spoke a different language, they assumed that was his language’s word for a pine tree. So someone else asked, “What are you going to use it for?”

John said, “I am going to bring it in my house, put it on a stand and decorate it. Then I am going to make gifts for my wife and child, wrap them up in cloth, so they can’t see what the gifts are and put them under the tree. Once the winter solstice is over, they will get to open the gifts.” They had never seen anything like this before, so they followed John to his house.

When John entered his house, his wife saw him dragging in a tree. John never saw his wife make such an ugly face as she yelled, “WHAT ARE YOU DOING? YOU ARE NOT BRINGING A NASTY TREE INTO MY CLEAN HOUSE!”

In all of John’s meticulous planning, he forgot to tell his wife what he was doing, so she was surprised when he brought a tree into the house, so he placated her, “Onawa, my beautiful, kind, precious wife trust me.”

All the tribespeople that followed John started laughing. When Onawa heard the laughter, she looked out the door, and when she saw most the village standing out there laughing at her, chastising her husband, she turned bright red and ran back inside hiding herself. This wasn’t a good start for Christmas.

John yelled back, “Someone go to my workshop and bring me some nails and some spare scrap wood.”

One of John’s workers ran off to get it while John brought the tree inside. He started setting it up when the worker came in, and John told him, “Hold the tree.” Once the worker was safely holding the tree up, John hammered a base into the tree. It worked, and kept the tree standing up.

Then John said, “Time to make some popcorn.”

The worker said, “What does popcorn have to do with this?”

John said, “Grab some string and a needle, and I will show you.”

The worker left to grab it while John started making popcorn over the fireplace in his home. It wasn’t long before Onawa heard the popcorn, and she came out and asked, “Is everyone gone?”

John said, “I don’t know.”

Onawa said, “Thank you for making the popcorn.”

John really wasn’t thinking at this moment and said, “The Popcorn isn’t for you. It’s for the tree.”

Onawa was offended and said, “What do you mean, it’s not for me? I AM YOUR WIFE!”

John back peddled and said, “That came out wrong, I meant the popcorn is for decorating the tree.”

Onawa said, “Why would you decorate a nasty tree?”

By now, John was figuring out that he was on thin ice and said, “It’s for a celebration. After the winter solstice, we will get rid of the tree, but until then, we will decorate the tree and use t to make our living room look really nice.”

Onawa tone suggested danger as she asked, “Is that nasty tree in my living room?”

John just said, “Trust me. My homeland did this celebration for hundreds of years.”

Onawa said, “If I don’t like it, its getting tossed out.”

About that time, their son Trevor came waddling in. He smiled sweetly and said, “Popcorn.”

John looked at him and said, “No, it is not for you.”

Trevor was three, and when he was denied his face squished up, and his eyes got teary, and he started crying.

John caved and said, “Okay, fine, you can have popcorn.”

Immediately Trevor brightened the room with a smile, and Onawa said, “Our son can have popcorn, but I can’t?”

John said, “Fine. You can have popcorn too. I will just have to make more for the tree.”

Onawa was enjoying her husband’s discomfort. It didn’t make up for getting embarrassed earlier, but it helped.

It wasn’t long before John’s worker came back with the needle and thread. When he handed them to, John Onawa said, “What’s that for?”

John said, “Watch.” With that, John threaded the needle and started stabbing the popcorn. In no time, he had a string of popcorn and wrapped it around the tree.

Onawa said, “That does look nice. Let me help you.” Before long, they were making several popcorn strings and making the tree look nice.

John didn’t have anything to make hollow balls to put on the tree, but he did whittle out some other ornaments to hang up. Once they were done, Onawa said, “Now what?”

John said, “Now I make gifts for you and our son, but I wrap the gifts up in cloth, so you can’t see them until after the winter solstice. And you make gifts for Trevor and me and wrap them up, so we cant see them.”

John made Trevor a ball made out of wood that was too big for him to swallow, and he made Onawa a bunch of needles and a pin cushion to put them in. Making needles was tedious work, but it was worth it to make his wife happy.

Being chief, John had lots of visitors coming in and out of his homestead, and they all liked his tree and gift-giving idea. Before long, the men in the village went into the woods and found their own Christmas trees. Some because they thought it would be a pleasant surprise for their wife. Others because their wife wanted their house to look as festive as everyone else’s.

During this time, John continued teaching the children to read, and it did his heart good to hear the excitement in the children’s voices over the mysterious packages under those Christmas trees. He even helped many of them make gifts for their parents. That’s when John had a thought. He showed the children how to write their names and their parent’s name.

The kids, of course, went home and showed their parents that the gift said that the gift was from them and to their parents. This softened up a lot of parents to John’s reading lessons.

The solstice came and passed, and the morning after the solstice, they opened their presents. Trevor had no idea what was going on, but Onawa was thrilled with all the thought John put into this thing. John realized that the cloth wrapping just wasn’t as fun as paper. Between the school and all the fun uses for paper, he would try his hand at hemp paper this year. If John remembered right, the constitution was made with hemp paper, although he wasn’t a hundred percent sure.

When Onawa opened up her present, a smile blossomed on her face, and she hugged John and said, “Thank you so much! I love the needles. You must have spent days on these little things.”

The truth was that needles were tough to make with the equipment John had, so he had spent days making them. John simply said, “You’re worth it.”

John opened up his gift, and it was a leather tool belt. John was surprised, he had casually mentioned tool belts in the past, but didn’t think anything of it. For his wife to spend the time to make such a useful tool was precious to him. John said, “Thank you so much. You must have spent weeks making this.”

Onawa nodded and said, “Yes. I was making it before you even talked about the Christmas tree. I wanted it to be a surprise, and your Christmas tree idea made that so much easier. That’s not the only gift I have for you, though.”

John looked surprised and said, “What else do you have for me.”

Onawa said, “This one will take a few months to give, but we are having another child.”

John was thrilled. Introducing Christmas was the perfect break for him and his people. Everyone in the village seemed happier after the little celebration, and they were more willing to listen to John.

Chapter 10 January AD 76 Elephants

Paul was teaching a class when a thirteen-year-old soldier ran in, huffing and puffing and said, “Chief Paul the Mtukufu Tembo tribe’s crops are being wrecked by elephants!”

Paul said, “What are they doing to drive them off?”

The soldier said, “They are setting up fires, waving torches, throwing rocks and spears, but the elephants are not being intimidated. That’s why I left to get you.”

Paul couldn’t help but think that the first couple of years being here, he was fortunate. The elephants didn’t eat and trample his crops. Periodically every few years, each village would struggle with famine because a heard of elephants would eat and trample their crops. They had no way to kill the elephants. The best they could do was try to scare them away with fire.

Now that Paul was in charge of twenty-one villages, this is something he would have to deal with every year.

The villages either hated elephants with every fiber of their being or worshiped them. They couldn’t kill elephants, but the elephants could kill them. Elephants could easily bring famine. Elephants were large and powerful. Elephants made them feel powerless. In all honesty, if the people were given guns today, they would kill every elephant they came across.

No spear could pierce their hide, and even if a spear could, the spear wielder would die. The African bows did not have enough power to pierce their hide, but maybe the one hundred and twenty-pound bow could. Some of the fourteen-year-old soldiers were just getting to the place where they could fire the bows.

Paul was not looking forward to checking out this tactic because Elephants were very dangerous creatures. The only saving grace to fighting elephants is that they scared and panicked easily. If these Elephants were not scared or panicked, then Paul would have to see if technology had gotten to the place where he could kill them.

Paul said, “Go bang the gong at the center of the village. I will catch up to you in a minute I have to get some things.” The soldier ran off to follow orders. Then Paul looked up to the children he was teaching before being interrupted and said, “I have to take care of some elephants, so I need all of you to check the crops like I showed you and make sure your section is well watered and weeded. When I get back, I will check to make sure you're doing your job. If I am not happy, I will make sure that you get stronger.”

All the kids cried out,” YES CHIEF PAUL.”

Maybe it seems strange for the leader of twenty-one villages to be teaching when there are clearly so many other things to do, but every child between the ages of seven and twelve in Paulsland are at his school. Paul is literally training them to be loyal to him and to be good citizens. When he feels he can hand that job to someone else, he will. But today all too soon he is leaving these children to take care of some elephants.

The first thing Paul did was go to the armory and get some iron arrowheads. Most arrows still used flint arrowheads because iron was still too precious. They just didn’t have enough miners or smiths. Paul assumed some time ago that they would have to fight the elephants, so he made some long thin arrowheads that he hoped would get through their thick hides.

Because of the stories he heard from the villagers about the elephants over the last few years, Paul had requested that when the people killed a snake to bring it to him. When they did, he gave them a little reward, so once every few weeks, he got a new snake added to his collection. Due to this, he had a couple of jars of cobra venom.

Paul hoped that an arrow with a long thin head would be able to get through an elephant's hide when shot from a hundred and twenty-pound bow. He hoped that after that, the poison would kill the elephants that were wrecking his peoples' fields. The problem with the plan was that he didn’t have a lot of soldiers that could use the bows, nor did he have a lot of arrows. But he did have plenty of poison.

The chance of poison being able to kill the elephants was way too low for Paul just to rely on that, so he grabbed a few clay pots and filled them with sulfur left over from getting the iron out of pyrite. If the arrows did not kill the Elephants, then they would have to scare the elephants off by lighting the sulfur in the pots on fire and throwing them at the Elephants.

Once his supplies were gathered, he put them on an ox cart and went to his men. They were standing in a ready stance, waiting for his instructions. Paul said, “Men; the Mtukufu Tembo village is having their crops destroyed by a herd of elephants. Today we are going to see if we can kill them.”

All semblance of discipline was lost. Their jaws dropped, disbelief washed over their face, and they said, “It is impossible to kill an Elephant!”

Paul said, “Things are only impossible until they are possible. I honestly do not know if we will be able to kill the elephants today, but if we don’t do it today, we will be able to kill them someday. Today I only need those of you who can use the hundred- and twenty-pound bow because, with the power of that bow, we might be able to get through the elephants hide with my special iron arrows.”

One of the soldiers said, “So what if we can get through the hide. It's not like the arrow will reach its heart.”

Paul said, “I agree. That’s why we will dip it in poison and hope that the poison kills it. If that doesn’t work, then we will use these.” Paul pointed some pots and continued, “These pots are filled with sulfur. Sulfur is very flammable. If the poison and arrows don’t work, we will light the sulfur on fire and throw it at the Elephants. Once they have sulfur burning on their skin, they should panic and runoff. Although I don’t think the sulfur will kill them.”

The soldiers were way more comfortable with covering the elephants in burning sulfur than shooting them with the poison arrows because they knew fire worked on elephants most of the time. Once they realized this mission was not impossible, they remembered their discipline and got back in a ready stance. Paul said, “Everyone who can use a hundred and twenty-pound bow grab it and follow me. We are going to do the impossible.”

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Mtukufu Tembo village was a four-hour walk from the Jiwi Mkuki village. If they did not have the oxen carrying their supplies, they could have made the trip in two. In all honesty, Paul did not expect the Elephants to still be there when he reached the village, but he had to make an effort. He conquered the village, and thus they were his responsibility.

Mtukufu Tembo village was one of the twelve conquered in the last year and did not have a wall surrounding it yet. They just didn’t have the time to make the wall before the rainy season started. Once the dry season comes, they shouldn’t have any issues building the wall.

Everyone was surprised when they got to the village, and the elephants were in the middle of it, surrounded by huts and tribesmen who were at their wits end on what to do. To make matters worse, it was clear that there were uncontrolled fires in some of the fields surrounding the village. It was a disaster.

One of the villagers came running to Paul with a horrified look on his face and tears in his eyes and said, “Chief Paul, please chase the elephants out of our village! They are destroying everything. If this continues, we won't have food, homes, or even a spear left to us. We have to get rid of them.”

These people didn’t have much. Where Paul was from a poor person made more than ten thousand dollars a year, had a several hundred square foot apartment, a car, and ate three times a day. Before Paul annexed this village these people didn’t even eat every day. If Paul hadn’t conquered this village, most of these people would have died from hunger this year due to this disaster.

Paul asked the man, “Why did the Elephants come into your village?”

The man said, “We were lighting fires and throwing rocks trying to scare them off when a man hit the biggest elephant, and it started chasing him. All the other elephants followed the big one. The man panicked and ran into the village. When they got there, they lost track of the man and decided to stay. We couldn’t use our usual tactics of setting fires to scare them away, or we would burn down our village.”

Paul said, “I will do my best to make sure you don’t lose anything else. And we will help you through this crisis.”

The man was crying as he said, “Thank you, thank you.”

Paul looked toward his soldiers and said, “We are not going to be able to drive these elephants off with fire while they are inside the village. These people have already lost enough. We are not going to make them lose more. There are eleven elephants over there, but two of them are still babies, leave them alone for now. We will shoot three arrows a piece into each of the nine adult elephants and try for the chest.”

“After we fire if an elephant charges us scatter. Elephants are not boars, lions, or crocodiles. We can not stand up to a fully grown elephant. Although I think we can take it down. I have no idea how long it will take for the poison to work. Now take your arrows and dip them into the poison, we will fire one at a time to make sure we don’t all aim for the same elephant. If we have to scatter, shoot the Elephants as you have opportunity.”

The men dipped their arrows in the cobras' venom and headed toward the village to get in range and fire their shots. Paul lined up the first shot. He fired at the largest elephant, and he hit it right behind its right front leg, between its ribs. The arrow stuck fast!

The elephant lifted its trunk and ROARED. It was in extreme pain! In all its years, it had never suffered a real wound until today. Elephants are smart creatures. It usually pushed around these pesky humans who grew delicious crops. It knew they couldn’t do anything to it. And that was true until today.

The elephant had no idea what to do when another arrow hit near to the first one. It Roared again! It hurt! Never before in all the times that it had stolen from the humans had it been hurt. It was a forty-year-old elephant! It is the one who hurts these annoying hairless apes! But with the pain in its side, it started to panic, and in its panic, it turned and knocked down a hut. No one was in there, but the owner just lost everything they had ever owned. If the elephant had known, it would be pleased.

After it turned and started to retreat, another arrow hit it in its side, and it roared out one more time in pain. Tears started going down the elephant's face. It had never experienced so much pain before.

Then it heard a roar of pain. One of its herd mates was injured. What was going on? The humans were never a real threat. Sure, fire hurt, but nothing like this. It started moving away from the village. As it moved, the herd panicked and followed. Then it heard more roars of pain. Perhaps it shouldn’t have lorded over the humans.

As it passed the huts and went through the fields, it noticed that it was getting harder and harder to breathe. Even though its chest felt like fire, and it needed to get away from the village where it had been hurt, it couldn’t keep walking. It needed to catch its breath. It stopped, but as time moved on, it couldn’t catch its breath, so it laid down, and it’s heard mates with it. The little ones were panicking and rubbing her with their trunks, but it would be okay, they just needed to rest, and when it was easier to breathe, they would go.

A few minutes later, the venom did its work. The elephants’ lungs were paralyzed, and they took their last weak breath and died. The little elephants began to cry and make mournful tones with their trunk.

Chapter 11 January AD 76 Africa- Workers

Paul couldn’t believe it. When they shot the aggressive Elephants with their arrows, they ran away. He had his men prepared to scatter, but instead, they had to run after the elephants to make sure they shot each of them.

The Elephants went out of the village, wrecking most the huts and trampled several acres of crops. This was an unmitigated disaster! But at least they knew the arrows could drive the Elephants off.

Paul and his soldiers followed the elephants until they were out of the fields, mostly to see if the poison worked. Everyone in Paul’s time knew that cobra venom is some of the deadliest stuff on the planet, but Paul couldn’t remember why. He knew that some venom worked by rotting flesh very quickly. Others worked to paralyze a creature, and others probably worked in other ways. Paul just didn’t have all the knowledge that was available in his time. He was just trying to use his limited knowledge to help people as best they could.

After the Elephants left the fields, they just stopped and stood still. Except for the little elephants. They were running to the big ones and touching them with their trunks and nuzzling them. They knew something was wrong, but they didn’t know what.

Then the big Elephants laid down. Paul was so focused on the Elephants his face became like a stone. The soldiers he brought with him were just stunned. Had Chief Paul’s plan worked? If so, Chief Paul gave them the power to take down invincible giants! They watched in hope. None dared go toward the elephants.

The little ones were nuzzling the big ones, going from one to the next, making little noises, and in a few minutes, they started making the most mournful noise Paul had ever heard. It was now that Paul’s soldiers realized that the elephants were dead, and they started cheering.

One said, “WE WON! WE KILLED THEM!”

Another yelled, “THEY WILL NEVER TERRORIZE US AGAIN!”

His friend answered back, “WE WILL TERRORIZE THEM!”

Then one started a change, “WE KILLED GIANTS!”

Another Joined, “WE KILLED GIANTS!”

Altogether, they started singing out, “WE KILLED GIANTS! WE KILLED GIANTS! WE KILLED GIANTS”!

Paul couldn’t help but join them. They were thrilled.

Once things calmed down, Paul told his men, “Get six oxen and lots of rope.”

They ran off and grabbed the oxen and rope. Paul heard cheering from the village. His soldiers must have spilled the beans. This was somewhat inconvenient for Paul, but he couldn’t blame them. A few minutes after the cheering stopped, Paul saw villagers running his way.

Paul yelled out, “STOP!”

They looked at Paul and said, “Why?”

Paul told them, “We are going to capture those two little Elephants and make them work for us. If you go running out there now, they might runoff.”

One of the villagers said, “How dare you spare them! They destroyed our village!”

Paul said, “If they destroyed your village, I think we ought to put them to work to pay for all the damage they caused.”

Another villager said, “But we must get our revenge.”

Paul’s face showed remorse, and he said in a slightly sad tone, “You will get your revenge. Believe me, you will get your revenge.”

The man looked at Paul like he didn’t trust him and said, “As long as we can pay them back for what they did to us, we will be okay.”

Paul Asked, “How many homes are left? How many of you have fields that are left?”

One of the men said, “About half of our fields were destroyed before you got here. That was from the elephants and the fires we set to run them off. Those who had fields further away took almost no damage.”

Paul nodded his head. Under the tribal system, this would mean half as much food for the entire tribe. Under Paul’s system, this meant that those who lost their crop lost everything and those who didn’t kept everything. Perhaps he could salvage this disaster. The reality was that plots of land were first come first serve under Paul’s rule. Whoever did the most and best work building the roads got first dibs on land, and generally, people wanted land closest to their homes in the village. Now the best workers had lost their crop. Paul decided to follow an old political saying and not let a good tragedy go to waste.

Paul asked, “I believe that if a man doesn’t work, he doesn’t eat. Many of you have lost your crop, so why don’t you come back with me to Jiwi Mkuki village, and I will train you to be blacksmiths.”

The men looked confused for a second, and one asked, “Whats, a blacksmith?”

Paul said, “A blacksmith is someone who turns iron into weapons and tools.”

The man’s eyes got real big, and one asked, “Would you really teach us magic?”

Paul rolled his eyes and said, “Yes.”

The men fell all over themselves to agree to it.

About the time Paul was explaining that this offer was only good for those who lost their farms, which effectively split the village in half, Paul’s soldiers showed up with the oxen and rope.

Paul said, “Do what I do,” and started making the rope into a lasso. His men started doing the same thing, then Paul said, “When we go out there, we are going to sneak up on those baby elephants.” Paul pointed at two of the men and said, “You two throw the rope around the elephant I try to catch,” then he pointed at the other three soldiers and said, “You three try to get the rope around the elephant that I don’t try to catch.”

They said, “Yes, sir.” and began sneaking up on two baby elephants mourning the loss of their herd.

It was much easier than Paul thought it would be. Paul waited until it had its trunk up and threw the lasso over its head and snagged it. It reacted by trumping in surprise and pulling on the rope. It pulled Paul off his feet. This baby elephant was at least three hundred pounds. His two soldiers forgot all about their ropes and grabbed on to his, overpowering the elephant.

The other elephant ran to it and lifted its trunk, giving the other group a great chance to lasso it, but they missed! The poor thing was totally confused about what to do. Its instincts took over, and it ran toward its dead mother.

Paul yelled, “Hold onto the rope! Do not let that elephant get away!” then he grabbed one of the ropes they dropped and ran toward the free elephant. He yelled to the men, “Make loud noises, keep its attention focused on you!”

His men instantly obeyed, as Paul snuck behind it.

The little elephant was so frightened it had tears streaking down its eyes. It didn’t know what to do but raise its trunk and blow. Paul saw his chance and got the lasso over its head, past its trunk, and around its neck. It was caught!

Paul yelled out, “Get the oxen.”

The men quickly brought the oxen, and Paul tied the two struggling elephants to the oxen’s yokes.

With the elephants caught, Paul came back to the villagers and said, “I need you to butcher those eleven elephants, and I need men to go to every village and gather as many glass jars as we can to preserve all that elephant meat. We are going to be feasting on elephant for months!”

The people cheered at that, and as they ran to do what Paul said, Paul yelled out, “Once you are done, come to Jiwi Mkuki village for your revenge.” There was more cheering, but this time it was not cheerful.

With the elephants vanquished or captured, Paul returned to his village with his prisoners in tow. The elephants did not like following the oxen, and they struggled and pulled, but they found out quickly that it was pointless. They were about three hundred pounds apiece being pulled by six oxen, each one weighing a thousand pounds.

Eventually, they were brought to the village and tied to some logs. They struggled and fought, but it was no use; they were not strong enough to break the ropes or the logs they were tied to.

Paul remembered a story about training elephants. Apparently, full-grown circus elephants could be held by a single rope with a peg in the ground because when they were little, they were chained to a rod hammered ten-feet into the ground. Once they found out they could not beat the rod and chain, they never tried to beat the peg and rope. So Paul got to working on his version.

First, he forged two ten foot long rods. Once they were finished, he had his people pound it into the ground. Then he made some chains, and finally shackles. It took Paul and his people two days to make. The people wondered where Paul got all his ideas. Metal shackles, chains, and rods were new innovations to this people.

One man compared the chains to rope, and Paul said that wires were closer to rope than chains, and when they asked Paul what wire was, he told them that he didn’t have time to explain it right now.

Once they finished, the elephants were shackled to the chains and rod and shown that they could not overcome them.

The problem was that the elephants were very sad that they lost their herd and were not drinking or eating. Paul wasn’t surprised. He expected it, and he knew the solution to the problem. The same way you got these heartbroken elephants to eat and drink is the same way you got them to serve you. It is also the same way Paul was going to let the village take their revenge on the elephants. He was going to shell shock them.

On the third day, the elephants were starting to get weak, but now members of the Mtukufu Tembo tribe showed up, ready to take their revenge. Paul felt guilty, but Paul also felt that in the long term, the good outweighed the bad for what they were about to do to these baby elephants.

Years ago, he watched a special by some animal rights group about how some people in India or Africa or maybe china trained elephants. What they did was as soon as the sun was down, they played drums as loud as they could, lit torches and surrounded the elephant with fire, then they beat the elephant with sticks. They did this the entire night. When the morning came, the elephant’s spirit was broken, and it did everything in its power to do what its owners wanted.

Paul recognized that this was cruel. But he also saw it as necessary.

That night every member of the Jiwi Mkuki tribe played drums all night long and kept bonfires surrounding the elephants hot and large, while the members of the Mtukufu Tembo tribe beat the elephants with sticks the entire night. By the time the night was over, Paul felt that the reason why they played the drums was because it drowned out the heartbreaking noises coming from the poor elephants. That said, in the morning, the shell shocked elephants ate and drank for the first time since their herd died.

For the rest of their lives, the elephants obediently followed commands, but they were so shell shocked that for the rest of their lives, they peed every time they heard a drum. Paul decided to call one of them, Caterpillar, and the other one John Deer. These elephants would be his tractors, his equipment for the rest of their lives. Looking at them as equipment instead of living creatures helped Paul bury his guilt for the cruel actions he felt was necessary.

Chapter 12 March AD 76 The Sea

At the beginning of spring, when farming tribes began to plant their crops, a longboat made its way down, what was known in the previous timeline as the Colorado River. The one in Texas, not the one that went through the Grand Canyon.

There were four men on board with a lot of grain seed to trade. Many of these grains were new to this continent, like wheat, oats, and barley.. Variety meant you got a better price.

The one named Nana said, “Chief John is killing us. Since the summer, every time we came across a tribe that didn’t have anything to trade us, we told them about John’s job offer, and everyone took it. If I knew the job John wanted to teach them was how to build boats, I would never have agreed to it. Now we have to go further down the river than ever before to find trade opportunities.”

One of his men said, “You’re not being fair at all. Every time we have taken some people to work for John, John has paid us well. Besides now that John is teaching them all the stuff he taught us, there should be better stuff to trade for up and down the river.”

Another man said, “One of the good things that came out of it is once people hear the story of how John and Onawa spent their wedding night in the bathhouse, they immediately build a bathhouse in their own village. It’s nice to be able to get a hot bath after a day or two of poling upriver.”

The last man said, “Its also pretty funny to see Chief John and Onawa’s face turn red when we mention that there is a bathhouse in every village along the river because people want to have a wedding night like theirs.”

The men laughed about it. John was the most prudish person they ever met, and it was fun to make him a little uncomfortable. That said, despite their complaints and teasing, they really did love their chief.

One of the men turned toward Nana and said, “I think your real problem is that John trades iron with everyone who wants it. When you started trading on the river, you thought you would be the only one given the privilege, but that wasn’t the case.”

Nana said, “This doesn’t just hurt me; it hurts all of you too.”

He said, “Stop your complaining. If you were to be honest, you would admit the reason why you became a trader is that you wanted to see more of the world. If John didn’t show the other men how to build boats, blacksmith, and make glass, you would have been stuck trading with the same handful of villages year in and year out. All of us have wanderlust like the men of the hunting tribes, but with this longboat, we get the best of seeing the world and having a place to call home.”

All the men nodded in agreement, and Nana reluctantly said, “Your right, but don’t tell John I said so.”

The man said, “of course not. I would rather make him feel guilty. That way, we can get better deals when we trade with him.”

The men kept chatting as they paddled down the river looking for smoke. Then they went around a bend in the river, and they saw the sea. This was the first time Nana had ever seen the sea. He said, “I have never seen a lake that big. I wonder how far it goes out.”

One of the men on the boat was one of the original villagers that John rescued from the raiders when they stumbled upon his homestead. He said with fear in his voice, “That is not a lake. That’s the sea!”

Nana heard the tone of his voice and said, “What’s the problem, why do you sound so scared?”

The man said, “When we were following the buffalo herds one time, we came across the sea, and we found out that you couldn’t drink the water at all. Anyone who tried spit it out. There is something wrong with it. We talked with some villagers near the sea, and they said that the sea is filled with giant monsters, and if you go too far into it, you will tip over and fall off the end of the world. “

Nana had never seen the sea before, and as they got closer, the sea just appeared to go on forever, so he believed the man and said, “Grab your paddles we are going to row.”

The men panicked and started rowing against the current. If it was just the four of them on board, they may have been able to row against the current, but they had over a ton of grain on board. They may have slowed down, but they didn’t notice.

After a minute of rowing with no success, someone said, “Rowing isn’t working, let’s try poling.”

All the men grabbed their poles, and two of the men ran up front, stuck their poles as deep as they could in the water, and it was too deep for them to touch the bottom. As they got closer to the mouth of the river, they really started panicking.

Nana yelled out, “Row to shore, you idiots, row to shore!”

One man panicked so much he dropped his pole into the river and ran to grab his paddle. The rest put their poles on the boat. Once they had their paddles, they furiously rowed toward the shore. But they were panicking. Instead of rowing as a team, they rowed as four individuals.

It wasn’t long before they were out at sea, facing the waves of the Gulf of Mexico for the first time in their life. They were stuck in the current from the river, while the tide was going down. They were confused and freaking out. This was the first time in over a year of trading where there wasn’t land all around them. They could still see land, but it was getting further away.

About the time they were half a mile out, they were finally out of the current caused by the river and were able to begin madly rowing toward shore. Several minutes later, they beached their boat and jumped out, grateful to be on land.

One of the men looked up and said, “The sea almost ate us.”

Nana said, “I don’t even know why the sea would want to eat us. We are not even a spec compared to all that water.”

Another man said, “How are we ever going to get back to Texas?”

Nana thought about it and said, “We will have to paddle the boat close to shore, and when we get to the river, pole our way back up.”

One of the men said, “How are we going to pole our way upriver? When we tried that before, our poles couldn’t find ground.”

Nana was not willing to leave his boat behind and walk back to their village, so he thought about it for a second and said, “That’s easy either we stay very close to the shore where the ground is closer to the top of the river, or we make longer poles.”

The men nodded, but then someone said, “Hey, look at that there is smoke in the distance.”

Nana said, “GOOD EYE! Maybe this trip won’t be a complete waste. Besides, now we can get rid of all this heavy grain.”

The men did what they usually do when they see smoke from a fire; they grab a couple of axes and knives and head toward it for trade. It wasn’t long before they came across the villagers tilling their fields by hand with sticks when Nana saw that he wished that John would have had an extra wheeled plow for Nana to bring.

The people were far more interested in their visitors than their work, so they came over, and Nana was the first to speak, “We have come from up the river and braved many dangers to trade with you.”

One of the people asked, “What dangers did you brave?”

Nana said, “Just this day, we entered the sea from the river in our boat and were almost swallowed by the sea. It was all we could do to reach the safety of the shore.”

The people nodded in understanding. The sea was a dangerous place, and many of those who have braved it never returned.

While they were talking, an older man came and said, “I am chief Tonteel. What did you bring for trade?”

Nana started telling him about the iron axes and knives and showing them how it worked. Chief Tonteel was very impressed. At this time in history, most villages were still so isolated that they had not heard about the iron yet. It wasn’t long before they were trading deer, buffalo, raccoon, and beaver furs for all the products that Nana and his men brought. Including the new seed.

Before long, Nana, his men, and many of the villagers headed to the boat to complete their trade when Nana was shocked. The water was far away from his boat.

Nana yelled out, “What happened? We didn’t bring the boat up this far from the beach.”

Chief Tonteel smiled and said, “The tide went down.”

Nana had never heard of tides and asked, “What do you mean?”

Chief Tonteel said, “Every day, the tide goes up and down. If you didn’t know about it, your lucky your boat is still here. Before long, the tide will reach its lowest point and start coming back up. If you left your boat here once the tide rose up, it would have taken your boat away.”

To Nana, this made the sea even more frightening than it already was. They hurried up and finished their trade with the village and, out of fear of the sea, accidentally made a good decision. As soon as the people emptied their boat of the trade goods, Nana and his men dragged the boat to the sea and made their best time toward the river, which allowed them to start up the river when the tide was rising.

Nana and his men felt like they survived a deadly situation, whereas the tribe they traded with were thrilled at the good deals they made that day.

Chapter 13 March AD 76 Salt

John was finishing his day looking out over his herd of buffalo. The villagers loved them during the winter as they were a steady supply of fresh meat. At the beginning of winter, he had two adult males, four juvenile males, seventeen adult females, and eight juvenile females. After the culling over the winter, he was down to one adult male, one juvenile male, ten adult females, and five juvenile females.

The buffalo were getting much less aggressive. In another generation, he was sure that they would start to be safe enough to approach. Several buffalo in this generation had streaks going through their fur, almost like a zebra, but they were brown and white, instead of black and white. Those with the streaks were the most docile, but not quite safe enough to approach yet.

John was looking forward to the day where he could strap a plow or wagon to these buffalo and put them to work. In all honesty, the question he had in his mind was whether they would only be suitable for pulling stuff or if he would get to ride them someday. Either way, one of these days, these buffalo would change this part of the world.

John headed back to the village and was pretty happy to see that Nana was back. He looked like he had furs but hadn’t recruited new people for the village. It wasn’t surprising to John as it was planting season. After the grain was in the ground, John was sure several people would show up and work for him, earning some new skills, especially since there were a lot more boats on the river able to bring more people to Texas.

If it kept growing, Texas wouldn’t be a village much longer but a real town. John hoped the name Texas didn’t die as it meant a lot to him.

John made his way to Nana, and he was surrounded by most of the villagers. John wasn’t surprised because Nana loved to tell stories of his adventures. John made his way over to Nana and saw Trevor sitting in his lap. This brought a smile to John’s face. Three and a half-year-old Trevor was sitting on his Uncle Nana’s lap. They were not related by blood, but John got Trevor calling Nana His uncle. Truth be told, Nana seemed to enjoy the attention.

John was getting the back end of the story when he heard Nana say, “The sea was swallowing us. This is nothing like falling out of the boat in the river. At least there you can swim to the shore on either side. We were in the sea being pushed further and further from land with nothing but water as far as the eye could see. And this wasn’t normal water. This water had something wrong with it so that you couldn’t drink it.”

The people were impressed by his story, but John wasn’t. John was smirking and holding back a laugh. He had gone to the Gulf of Mexico many times as a child, and Nana was making it out like it was a monster.

Nana continued his story, “It was as if the sea was after our very souls. On the one hand, the sea was sucking our boat away from the safety of land, but on the other hand, the waves moved toward the land, making us bob up and down. We had to act fast against this monster known as the sea, and so we started paddling to shore because the sea was too deep to use our poles. The sea tried to freeze us with fear, but each of us showed great courage by paddling toward shore.”

At that moment, everyone in the village was staring wide-eyed at Nana as he told his story of danger. They were all wondering how they would face this monster known as the sea when John Interrupted the moment by Laughing Loudly. John said, “HAHAHAHA.”

Nana was shocked and said, “Why are you laughing?” Everyone listening to his story nodded their head. Nana and the other men went through extreme danger, and they didn’t see anything funny about it.

John kept laughing, “Ha. I am sorry for laughing, I am sure the sea is something new to you, but the sea isn’t as dangerous as you think. Assuming you know what you’re doing.”

Nana said, “What do you mean the sea isn’t as dangerous as I think?”

John said, “Well, for one, you should have moved the boat out of the current the river creates in the sea. You guys must have panicked to get pushed into the sea as far as you say you did.”

Nana responded indignantly, “We didn’t Panic.”

Little Trevor picked up on the mirth of his father and said, “Panicker, Panicker.”

Nana looked at John and said, “Look, you have him started now.”

John said, “Sorry about that. It’s just if you knew what was going on, you really wouldn’t have been in any danger. Did you happen to find a village to trade with near the coast?”

Nana said, “I was just getting to that when you rudely interrupted my story.”

John lit up and asked, “Was the village on the river or the sea?”

Nana said, “They were closer to the sea than the river, but they were not right on either one.”

John said, “That’s great. Give me two weeks and take me back there.”

Nana said, “I’m not going back there. The sea is very dangerous.”

John said, “Nana don’t be a baby. Once I show you a few things, the sea will be a much safer place.”

Trevor said, “yeah, uncle Nana don’t be a baby.”

Nana got flustered and said, “I am not being a baby.”

John said, “Trevor, how about when you grow up, you show Nana how to conquer the sea?”

Trevor said, “If Uncle Nana is too scared, I will do it.”

All the adults started laughing, and Nana was embarrassed and said, “Fine, I will do it.

John said, “Good, then we will be headed out there in two weeks.”

Nana asked, “Since Our first trading expedition, you have been unwilling to go out trading with me. Why the change of heart?”

John said, “Salt.”

Nana asked, “What’s salt?”

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

It didn’t take John as long as he thought to build an Archimedes screw with an attached flywheel. When John was done, he got Nana and his crew to load the brand new technology on the ship, alongside metal cookware and food. Then they started the trip back down toward the sea.

Once they got to the mouth of the river, John explained the principle of getting out of the current, what a tide was, and paddling together as a team.

Once they reached the coast nearest the village, they got out, and John had the men bring the cookware and food. He also made one of the men gather a large pot of seawater and explained that the seawater was more important than anything else they were carrying to the village and that he wasn’t supposed to lose it.

Once they got to the village, the villagers were surprised to see the traders back so soon and asked Nana, “Why did you come back so quickly? We don’t have anything else to trade you.”

Nana said, “This is my Chief. His Name is Chief John, and he asked me to bring him to your village to talk with your Chief. He told me its about salt.”

John didn’t say a word. As Chief, sometimes, you just had to let your subordinates do the talking. It wasn’t long before the people got their Chief, and when he came out, he asked, “Chief John, why did you come?”

John answered with a smile, “I have come to have a meal with you.”

Chief Tonteel was confused and said, “We are not prepared to great such an important guest as you.”

John answered back, “Forgive the misunderstanding. I know it’s a breach of protocol, but I wish to feed you. I do not mean that as disrespect. I know this is your village, and it is normal for you to serve your guest, but I ask that you break custom and allow me to feed you. It is important for me to show you the opportunity you have before you.”

Chief Tonteel was very confused, but since this was the middle of his territory, he said, “Okay, you have my permission.”

John smiled and said, “Wonderful!”

John took the various cooking supplies and began getting a meal ready. Although they didn’t have any fresh meat, the canned bison would do. They also didn’t have any fresh vegetables, but the canned green beans and corn would also have to do. Normally John would make a much more elaborate meal, but today it was necessary to make a simple meal.

While he warmed up the canned food, John grabbed the vessel of seawater and said, “Chief Tonteel, this is really important. This is filled with seawater, from where we came onshore.”

Chief Tonteel asked, “What does that have to do with anything?”

John said, “Everything.”

John poured the seawater into the pot and put it right in the midst of the fire with the lid on top. It was a big pot and likely held two or three gallons of water. It should be enough seawater to produce a decent amount of salt.

It wasn’t long before the dinner was ready, and the water boiled away, leaving salt. Although everything was done, it was not time to mix the salt with the food yet.

John took out the meat, the green beans, and the corn and made himself and the chief a plate. John tasted each of the three pieces of food and said, “Chief Tonteel, please taste your food.”

Chief Tonteel waited until John had eaten first. The situation was strange, and so he was a little leery of being poisoned. He ate the food and thought it was normal.

After he had eaten a part of each of the three courses like John had, John took out a spoon and scooped out some of the salt leftover from the boiled off seawater. He sprinkled some on his food, even stirred it up some, and ate some more. The food was much better with the salt, and he couldn’t help but smile. It had been far too long.

Then he sprinkled some salt on Chief Tonteel’s food, and when the chief bit into his meat, he said, “OH MY! THIS IS SO MUCH BETTER! I NEVER IMAGINED THAT FOOD COULD TASTE SO GOOD! What is this called?”

John said, “Salt.”

The chief yelled out, “Everyone taste this thing salt. It makes everything taste better.” With that, the people came over and began eating a tiny portion of food, so there would be enough to go around. All of the people had looks of amazement over the wonderful taste of salted food.

John couldn’t help but realize this was an excellent chief because instead of greedily scarfing down his food, he shared it with his family and people.

Chief Tonteel said, “Thank you so much for sharing that with me. Do you want to trade us salt for more of our goods?”

John said, “No, actually, I want you to trade salt with us.”

The chief looked confused and said, “You’re the one who brought the salt to us.”

John said, “I got the salt from the seawater. Seawater is filled with the stuff. The problem is that my village is too far away from the sea to make salt ourselves. I was hoping to give you the tools to begin salt production.”

The chief said, “If you show us how to make it, we will make plenty for you.”

John said, “I want salt bad enough that I will give you the tools necessary to make salt, and once you have the salt Nana here will trade you for the salt. If we get salt for nothing before long, you will not want to make any salt.”

John and the chief chatted as they made their way to the boat, and when they got there, John told his men, “Take my stuff out.”

They did what he said but had no clue what they were looking at.

Once it was out, John began to explain, “This is called an Archimedes screw. It can be used to pump water.”

The chief asked, “What does pump mean?”

John realized that at times like these, dictionaries were important, but without a dictionary, he did his best to explain, “A pump is a tool used to move water from one point to another. Let me put this Archimedes screw together and show you.”

The contraption John had built came in four parts. The first part was half a log, and it was about ten feet long. It had most of the wood in it stripped out, so it looked more like John had taken a pipe from the modern world and cut it in half. Inside this hollowed-out half log, John put a huge screw in. The screw part was flush to the half log, although, in the center of the screw in the front and back, it had a place to hold it fast to the log.

Normally in an Archimedes screw, this is where a crank would be put, but John figured that this pump would be used a lot more than what would be comfortable with a hand crank, so he built a flywheel to turn the screw, with the help of the fourth part, the belt made out of leather connecting the flywheel to the Archimedes screw.

Once it was together and had one end in the water, John simply started spinning the flywheel, which made the screw spin, and within a few seconds, water was gushing out of the screw.

Everyone was impressed. The Archimedes screw was invented in the second century BC, but adding a flywheel to it was a new innovation that may never have happened in the previous timeline.

After seeing the new technology, the Chief asked, “What do we do with this?”

John said, “All you need to do is make some shallow ponds to pump this water into, and when the sun dries out the water, you just collect the salt. If you can do that, you will have plenty of salt for your people and to trade with everyone else.”

The chief agreed, and salt production was brought to North America a thousand years early.

Chapter 14 April AD 76 Ivory Throne

Since Paul killed the elephants, the people began to treat him with a reverence that made him feel uncomfortable. Paul understood why. Many of the people worshipped the elephants as gods because the elephants used to be unkillable. Paul didn’t just kill nine of them; he also captured two and made them his servants.

In the northern part of Africa, Rome, or India, killing and training elephants was an impressive feat, but nobody considers it to be mystical. The people Paul ruled were so far from civilization that they consider it supernatural.

Several of Paul’s craftsmen got together and turned the Ivory Tusk from the nine slain elephants into a throne for Paul. It symbolized the change in how the people viewed Paul. On the one hand, this meant that the people were currently much more loyal to him, but on the other hand, Paul is viewed as a diety killer, or perhaps a deity himself.

Throughout history, leaders sought for their people to worship them; from pharaoh, to the emperor of Rome, to all the various tribal chiefs that required their people to bow down to them as gods. To the ignorant, this would seem like a good thing, but Paul had spent a bit of time in the far east where people worshipped polytheistically. In a polytheistic religion, you worship whatever god that gives you what you want. If a god doesn’t give you what you want, you cast it out and get a new god. Paul was not encouraging his worship because he did not want to become the god that was cast out.

Paul was able to curb the peoples’ worship of him a lot by making sure the weapons necessary to kill elephants were in every village. Fortunately, after a little experimenting, Paul found out that you only needed an eighty-pound pow to get the arrows through the elephant’s thick hide. The only problem was that there were not enough men able to use an eighty-pound bow yet.

The ivory throne wasn’t all bad, and Paul decided that his ivory throne should be put under the central watchtower in Jiwi Mkuki village. The watchtower had screens put up all around the throne to keep bugs out but to let light and breezes through. Paul wasn’t going to be uncomfortable sitting on his throne.

This throne symbolized a change in his rule. Before now, people usually went to their own chiefs with their problems, but now Paul was the Elephant slayer, so when they had a big problem, they traveled to Jiwi Mkuki village and pestered Paul. Since Paul had much more important things to do than to listen to everyone’s problems, he made them wait for sunset before he would sit in his ivory throne and listen. The rest of the day was spent teaching, either the students or the soldiers.

When the bottom of the sun touched the horizon, it was time for Paul to begin listening to people’s problems. At this point, Paul was thankful he only had a few thousand citizens. He couldn’t imagine what he would do with a few million.

Once Paul was safely inside the screen, and on the throne, he said, “What is the first petition?”

A man came forward and asked, “Chief Paul slayer of elephants. I humbly ask that I be allowed to join the military.”

Paul asked the man, “How old are you?”

The man said, “Sixteen.”

Paul told one of his soldiers, “Go to the school and bring me the first Eleven-year-old boy you find.”

Then Paul turned back to the man and asked, “Why do you want to be a soldier?”

The man said, “I want to be an elephant slayer like you! When I was small, a herd of elephants rampaged through our fields, causing a famine. My little sister starved to death because of them. I want to get revenge. I would have come sooner, but I had to take care of my crops.”

Paul nodded in understanding. In this part of Africa, you either worshipped elephants or hated them with every fiber of your being, and this man hated them.

Paul asked, “How were your crops this year?”

The man smiled and said, “The best in my village. I hate to give up farming to become a soldier, but I must take revenge.”

This is a story that Paul has heard many times, and the reality was that he did not have the supplies to make every man in the nation a soldier. Paul was getting tired of turning down soldiers, and so he needed to meet with his village chiefs soon. Paul had been hesitant to do so because they were all cripples, and he didn’t trust them. Despite that, a meeting needed to take place sooner rather than later.

About this time, the soldier came back with one of the eleven-year old’s. Paul smiled and said, “Sir, would you mind standing next to the eleven-year-old?”

The man immediately did so, and even though he was sixteen, the eleven-year-old was slightly taller than him and had more muscle on him. Paul said, “Until I conquered your village, you and your entire tribe were malnourished. You have five years on this boy, but he is already bigger and stronger than you, and he has a lot of growing left to do. I teach every eleven year old in this nation, and I can tell you right now every one of them is bigger and stronger than you. They are bigger and stronger than most of the men your age simply because they have gotten plenty of food while they were still growing. For that reason, I can not allow you to be one of my soldiers. You would hold my men back.”

The man looked like he was going to cry, and he said, “Is there anything I can do to change your mind.”

Paul said, “If you can beat him in a sparring match, right now, in front of me, I will allow you to join the soldier training next year. It is too late for this year as that class has already started.” In truth, Paul did not need anymore this year as he had over three hundred trainees. Once this class graduated, they would have enough soldiers to guard all twenty-one villages. By the standards of the time, they were almost a military.

The man got a serious look on his face and said, “I agree.”

Paul said, “Take your corners.”

They separated and got into a fighting stance, and Paul said, “Ready, FIGHT.”

The man immediately sprinted toward the elven year old swinging his fist like a windmill. If there was any technique there, Paul might have called them a hammer fist. The eleven-year-old who had been sparring nearly every day for the last year stepped forward, did a high block, and began punching the man’s solar plexus, ribs, spleen, liver, and diaphragm. The only reason why the eleven-year-old hit the sixteen-year-old so many times is that he was sprinting toward the kid, so when he started falling, he didn’t fall back and out of reach of the eleven-year-old, he fell forward and stayed in range of all the strikes.

Paul had mercy on the sixteen-year-old and yelled out, “STOP!”

The eleven-year-old instantly stopped, backed off, and got into a ready stance.

The sixteen-year-old was on the ground, and he wouldn’t be able to get up for a while. Paul noticed he was crying and knew it wasn’t because he got beat. Paul had seen the abuse many four and five-year-olds went through in the villages without crying. This man was crying for his lost opportunity. So Paul said, “Young man, I see your courage and determination. The problem is that you are not cut out to be a soldier in my army. Everyone who joins up has at least a year of training in my schools before they go to man camp and become a soldier.”

The man downcast with tears streaming down his eyes just nodded.

Paul continued, “But it does not take being a soldier to kill an elephant. It takes someone strong enough to pull the bowstring on an eighty-pound bow. A hundred-pound bow is better, but an eighty-pound bow will work. In the next month or so, I will call all the chiefs here and give them the tools needed to make all the men in their villages able to use hundred-pound bows. It will likely be a year or two process to get there. Back where I am from, we called people who were not soldiers but wanted to help protect their people militia. These people continued working on their farms or working their trade while learning the martial skills needed to protect those around them. Would you be willing to join the militia if it meant getting your revenge?”

The man said, “Yes, sir! Thank you so much!”

After the man got up, Paul said, “Next petitioner, please.”

A man came forward and said, “Chief Paul Mighty Slayer of Elephants, “Paul rolled his eyes, he hated all this pomp and circumstance,” I am in trouble. My farm was the worst in my village, and there is no way I have enough grain to feed my family or me for the rest of the year.”

Paul said, “There is always a need for more blacksmiths, minors, and carpenters. Many of them live right here in Jiwi Mkuki village. Why don’t you just move your family here and work alongside them?”

The man said, “I have heard the stories of the magical land you came from, and I was wondering if there were any other jobs I could do. I would love to be the first man in a new industry.”

Paul was surprised. This was a new petition and one that was very welcome. Paul said, “Your petition pleases me greatly. I have to ask is there any great rocks near the village where you are from?”

The man said, “Yes, sir. There are a number of them. Our village is near a mountain that might be considered one giant rock.”

Paul said, “Where I come from, there was a job known as a stone cutter. This person went to a place with great stones and cut them into blocks that were used for many things. Sometimes as markers, other times as monuments, but mostly for building material. With stone blocks, you can build much greater structures than the log walls surrounding us. Would cutting stone sound like something you would be interested in?”

The man smiled and said, “Yes, sir!”

Paul did something he almost never did at the petitionings, he asked, “What is your name?”

The man said, “Sadat Mlima Kivuli.”

Paul was pleased to see that the man automatically referred to his tribe as his last name. Paul’s ways were catching on. Paul said, “Sadat Mlima Kivuli stay in the boys’ school barracks for a few days, and I will have a saw, pickax, hammer, and chisel made for you. Truth be told, I do not know much about the job, but I intend to give you the tools necessary for it as I consider it important. I was wondering how to introduce this new industry, and you have helped me immensely, so you will be rewarded.”

Paul knew that it wouldn’t be long before others tried to do the same thing to get free tools. But Paul needed stone cutters bad enough that he didn’t care about the future headaches.

Paul didn’t know much about stone cutting, but since it was discovered once, perhaps Sadat Mlima Kivuli could discover stone cutting secrets again, especially with Paul giving him tools.

Chapter 15 May AD 76 Old World Politics

Things were going well with the training of the new three hundred and something recruits when one of the men of the village came running to chief Paul. He said, “Chief Paul, the chief from the Siri Jani tribe, is here to see you.”

Paul looked confuses for a second and asked, “That isn’t one of the villages in our nation, is it?”

The man said, “No, sir.”

Paul was surprised. Since he became chief four years ago, no tribal chief had visited him except during raids. Even the chiefs under his control rarely visited, but that likely had more to do with their debilitating wounds than anything else.

Paul asked, “Where is the Chief?”

The man said, “He is waiting at the east gate.”

Paul said, “Wait for me to sit on the ivory throne and then bring him in.”

Paul was unsure whether he welcomed this interruption or not. The rest of the adults in the village welcomed the interruption since it was the dry season, and there wasn’t much for the adults to do. They all made their way to the ivory throne to watch the unusual sight.

Once Paul was sitting on his throne, the chief was summoned forth with all the ridiculous pomp and circumstance the situation called for. As the chief was coming toward the ivory throne, Paul noticed that the man was naked except for a loincloth and that he had a child with him also wearing a loincloth. They were young enough that Paul couldn’t tell if they were a boy or girl. The child was the first child of that age that Paul had seen outside of his own nation that was not malnourished. Paul assumed this meant that the child was the child of the chief. Each one held a cloth filled with something, although the cloth looked damp.

Once they were a reasonable distance away, Paul asked, “Chief of the Siri Jani tribe, what brings you here today?”

The chief said, “I have heard of your exploits. You have killed lions, crocodiles, and now the hated Elephants and gave your people the tools to do the same. I see you sitting on the proof of your power. People call you a chief, but you are more than a chief. You are a man who rules chiefs. I have come today to bring my village into your nation.”

Paul’s mouth dropped open, he did not know what he was expecting, but he was not expecting that. Paul was so surprised by the chief’s attempt to bring a village into his nation that Paul’s tongue started working without the input of his brain as he said, “In my culture, a man who rules over chiefs is called a king.”

The chief smiled and said, “Then I humbly ask that my village be allowed to join your village, King Paul.”

The people liked the idea that their chief was more than just a chief, so they cried out, “King Paul, Chief over chiefs, slayer of elephants, ruler of Paulsland.”

Paul was so embarrassed he turned red. But he had to give what the man said some thought. The people got such a kick out of the word king; they kept using it over and over again. Paul was grateful for their loud noise as it gave him time to think.

After a minute of that, the people finally started calming down, and Paul said, “Chief of the Siri Jani people, you do realize that joining up with my nation would require that you make many changes, right?”

The chief said, “You already have twenty-one villages under your control. Those changes are coming whether we like them or not.”

Now Paul knew the real reason the man had come. He was afraid that Paul would conquer his village and have his people execute him in a horrible way. Fear makes the negation process easier.

Paul said, “If you join our nation, then your people will be required to build a road to our road network, and your unmarried children from seven on up will be required to go to our school. All of your orphans will be taken to our village to be taken care of. During the dry season of your boys twelfth year, they will be trained in man camp and required to serve in the military for two years. No one will be allowed to marry until after they are fourteen years old, and no one from the same village will be allowed to marry anyone else from the same village. Furthermore, when the rainy season comes, there will no longer be a village farm. Each villager who wishes to farm will be allowed to choose their own land as long as its unused and be given seed. When harvest comes, the village will keep ten percent of the harvest, and the farmers will keep ninety percent. If someone wishes to earn a living with another trade, then they keep 90% of everything they earn, and the village will only keep 10% of it. The village will then give me ten percent of the taxes it collected.”

The chief said, “If I agree to these conditions, will you give us access to iron, and the weapons that kill elephants?”

Paul said, “Of course.”

The chief said, “Then I agree on one condition.”

Paul was surprised the chief had any conditions. In truth, Paul taking in the children was considered an excellent condition for most villages as the children were considered a burden. Most villages considered that the good part of the deal. They were generally upset about the marriage age stuff, but screw them Paul was upset that he had to allow fourteen-year-olds to get married, but for this time period that wasn’t odd. Most girls in Rome got married at fifteen, assuming they were not a slave, those girls got abused at a much younger age. The only huge change was allowing the farmers to own their own land and keep most of their crops. Paul could see how that would rub a chief the wrong way, as Paul was taking economic control from the man and giving it to his people.

The chief said, “I am well aware that in every village you have conquered, you have slain the chief, the witchdoctor, and his apprentice. I am told that your villages have grown strong in part because you have killed the witchdoctors who have no spirit and suck the spirits dry of those around them. “The chief removed a head from the cloth he brought, and said, “I have brought you the heads of the witch doctor and his apprentice, ” With that, the child removed a head from her cloth, “to show you that I am not under the influence of the witchdoctors. To have a guarantee that there is peace between you and me, between your nation and my village, I need you to marry my daughter.” With that, the chief pushed forward the child.

Paul knew academically that nations used to marry off relatives to make treaties official. But Paul was stunned when a man expected him to marry his very young daughter as part of a treaty. Paul sat in stunned silence for a long moment. This was very difficult for him to process. In his culture, treaties were basically contracts, but now he was in a culture where treaties involved marriage. It took a while for Paul’s disconnect in culture to connect up and let him understand the situation, and he began to try to figure a way out of it.

After a couple of minutes of silence from Paul, which made the Chief of Siri Jani very uncomfortable, Paul said, “I am already married. I can not make this decision without my wife’s input. Someone go fetch her.”

Chazia was in the crowd and said, “No need, I am here.”

Paul was relieved to see that his wife saw the entire situation.

Chazia smiled as she said, “My husband is a Chief of chiefs. He is a king. He is a slayer of elephants. He protects the people from spirits. He has shown people how to perform many types of magics, from protecting ourselves with cloth to making iron from the dirt. A chief as great as my husband, a king, should have many wives to show his status. After all, many minor chiefs have more than one wife.”

For the first time in their marriage, Paul wanted to kill his wife. Paul assumed that his wife would not want another woman in their marriage. But Paul messed up. A lawyer once told Paul that in court, if you do not know the answer beforehand, you do not ask it in court. This was Paul’s court, and he did not know how his wife would answer the question, and he asked her publicly screwing himself. Paul often forgets how different this culture is to the one he grew up in. He didn’t realize that to Chazia, the more wives her husband had, the more status she had.

Chazia hadn’t pushed his need to marry more women because Paul passed a law saying no girl could get married until she was 14. The girls in the village were just starting to turn fourteen, and Chazia had hinted at Paul getting another wife, but Paul being a man, missed her hints entirely. So this situation took him by surprise.

Paul had no way out of this situation. He was going to end up with more than one wife and all the issues that came with that. But he would do it under his own terms and said, “Young lady, what is your name and how old are you?”

The little girl said, “My name is Misa, and I am nine years old.”

Paul’s heart dropped, and he turned to the Chief of Siri Jani and said, “The laws of my land state that no one can marry until they are fourteen years old. As the person who wrote the law, I can not break it.”

The chief was ready for this and said, “If you cannot marry her now, then stay engaged to her until she is old enough to marry. She can stay in your school, and if you feel the need to marry her, sooner go ahead. I trust that if you are willing to obey your own law, you will obey your own treaty.”

Paul said, “I will enter into this treaty. In five years, when Misa turns fourteen, she will be my wife. She will stay at the girls’ dorms until then.” In this society, when a girl stayed the night with a boy, she became his wife. Misa could never spend the night at Paul’s house; otherwise, it would look like he broke his own law, and Paul needed the people to respect this law to protect the girls. That’s when a vengeful thought entered into Paul’s mind, and he said, “My wife, Chazia will train Misa in how to be a good wife, until Misa is old enough to marry.”

Paul thought that his wife would be upset with the added workload and was surprised when Chazia said, “That’s a wonderful idea. Misa comes with me.”

Chapter 16 May AD 76 Training My Husbands Fiancée

Chazia took Misa to the girls’ dorms while her husband and Misa’s father hammered out the details of the Siri Jani village transition into Paulsland. Chazia considered Misa to be an appropriate wife for Paul.

Once inside the dorm, Chazia took Misa to an open rope bed and said, “This will be your bed until you marry chief… excuse me, King Paul.”

The little girl looked at it in wonder and said, “What’s a bed?”

Chazia said, “A bed is where you sleep instead of on the floor. Let me show you.” Chazia crawled onto the bed to show Misa what she meant.

Chazia asked, “Do you think you could do that?”

Misa nodded and said, “Yeah, that looks a lot nicer than the floor.”

Chazia then pulled on her shirt and said, “This is a shirt; it comes on and off.” With that, Chazia took her shirt all the way off and then put it back on. She then pulled on her pants and said, “These are pants; it also comes on and off.” She then took them off and put them back on again, just to show Misa how clothing worked. Every time they got new girls in, Chazia or one of the other ladies had to show them everything about clothing.

Chazia then handed Misa a pair and said, “Put these on.”

Misa looked at the clothes and looked at them dismissively and said in a disrespectful tone, “I don’t want to.”

Without hesitation, Chazia slapped Misa across the face. Missa screamed and said, “HOW DARE YOU HIT ME! I AM THE DAUGHTER OF A CHIEF! THE ONLY PERSON WHO HAS EVERY HIT ME IS MY FATHER!”

Chazia slapped her twice more in the face, and with contempt, in her voice, she said, “It shows that your father is the only one who has ever hit you. Do what I say, or I will keep hitting you.”

Misa was furious and yelled out, “MY FATHER WILL HAVE YOU KILLED. HE WILL…”

Before the girl could finish, Chazia slapped the girl in the face several more times and said, “Misa, your father pawned you off to my husband because he was saving his own life. Your father can do nothing to me as long as my husband is alive. My husband gave you to me to train. You will do what I say immediately and with the right attitude, or I will beat you.”

With tears in her eyes Misa yelled back, “THIS ISNT TRAINING!”

Chazia had enough. Chazia had children older than Misa, and she expected Misa to obey her the first time without any talkback, so Chazia grabbed Misa by the hair, then grabbed a stick and started spanking her butt. Chazia did not stop when Misa was crying, Chazia kept spanking the girl till Misa got the suck backs.

When Misa was too busy trying to breathe to talk, Chazia stopped beating her and said, “My husband says that women have three duties above all else. The first duty is to keep their family healthy, then their village healthy, and then their nation healthy. Now that you are engaged to my husband, you are part of my family. My first responsibility is to keep you healthy. Part of that is making sure you wear clothes. In order to keep you healthy, I will beat you until you put on these clothes!”

Misa was still sucking in her breath, unable to talk, but she, through her tears, nodded in agreement and took the clothes.

Chazia kept explaining, “My husband says a woman’s second most important job is to teach their knowledge to their family, their village and their nation. If you would have asked why I wanted you to wear the clothes, I would have told you that it is to protect you from poisonous bugs. But instead of asking me a question, you backtalked me, with a bad attitude. I needed to teach you that a bad attitude will not be tolerated.”

Misa was still unable to speak, but she was trying to put on the clothes like Chazia had shown her.

Chazia continued her explanation, “My husband says that a woman’s third responsibility is to show kindness and respect to those around her. You have disrespected me with your tone of voice, and furthermore, you disrespected my gift. I am the wife of Chief Paul, the man who conquered twenty villages. Your father comes crawling to my husband to use you as a bargaining chip to save his own life, and I show you kindness by giving you clothes that I have made with my own hand, and you turn them down. That was neither respectful nor kind. If it takes me five years, I will beat respect and kindness into you, do you understand.”

Misa nodded her head, vigorously. She decided that she was not going to show Chazia anymore attitude.

After she got her breathing under control, got dressed, and under Chazia’s insistence cleaned off her face, they headed outside. Chazia took Misa to where the girls were practicing martial arts. The instructor was Jujiann Jiwi Mkuki, and she had the Naginata she won from the first women’s tournament with her.

Misa naturally went to the front of the class when Jujiann said, “Young lady, please go to the back. In martial arts class, those with the most knowledge and understanding stand in the front, and those with the least stand in the back.”

Misa might be willing to listen to King Paul’s wife, but this woman was just some random villager. Misa felt being engaged to King Paul made her of a higher rank than some lowly village woman. She walked past the other students and right up to her and said, “I am engaged to King Paul. I will stand at the front of the class.”

Misa saw the look of surprise on Jujiann’s face, smirked, and thought, “I showed her.” Then Jujiann took the back of her Nagata and knocked Misa’s feet right out from under her and started beating Misa with it. Misa scrambled away as best as she could, screaming and crying the whole time. Somehow she ended up in the back of the line. Apparently, Jujiann directed her there.

That’s when Jujiann said, “I don’t care if you are Chief Paul’s fiancée, wife, daughter, son, or heir apparent. If you have the least knowledge, you go back in line. And if you ever talk to me like that again, I will make you wish you were never born.”

Before Misa could say a thing, Chazia said, “I am so sorry, instructor Jujiann. It is true that this girl is Paul’s new fiancée, but she is rather ignorant. If you do not mind, I will instruct her a bit better.”

Jujiann said, “Go ahead.”

Chazia was furious. She grabbed Misa’s hair and dragged her back to the dorms. Once there, Chazia started beating the girl until she began the suck backs. As far as Misa was concerned, this day was terrible. Her father told her that today was to be her wedding day. Instead of getting married, she was told she would have to wait until she was fourteen years old, since then all that’s happened is that she has gotten beat three times.

Once Chazia saw that the stupid girl could not talk back, she said, “The third duty of a woman is to show kindness and respect. That isn’t just to Paul, your father, or me. You should show kindness and respect to everyone. That woman you just disrespected is the best female martial artist in the village. That woman has killed men when they attacked this village. She will be your trainer in hitting things until you are old enough to get married, and you just ticked her off at your first meeting. For the next five years, she will likely make your life miserable because you made a bad first impression with her. And worse yet you made all the girls in the village hate you. Those girls will be your roommates for the next five years.”

Chazia’s voice changed as she explained the situation that Misa was in, “You are engaged to Chief Paul, which means that as long as Chief Paul is alive, you are protected from the men in the village. But when he dies, you are no longer protected. I do not know nor care how long your father has been chief. Your nine years old, so it has probably been most of your life, so you haven’t seen the things I have seen. When I was your age, we had a chief who had three wives. One of those wives went around acting like you. She always disrespected all the men because she could hide behind the protection of her husband. Then her husband was killed by someone who wanted her husband’s job. Every man in the village hated her so when her husband was no longer there to protect her they dragged her into the middle of the village and raped her to death, then did the same to her daughters, and then did the same thing to the chiefs other two wives and their daughters. Then they had all the chiefs sons sacrificed by the witchdoctor because they hated that one woman.”

Chazia got really quiet to let that story sink in, then as the realization hit Misa, Chazia said, “I will not allow you to get me nor my children murdered when Paul dies. You will have a good attitude, you will show people kindness, and you will learn how to act.”

Misa was starting to realize that being the chief’s daughter or wife didn’t mean she got everything she wanted, so she said, “Yes.”

Chazia continued, “Furthermore, I only have five years to get you into shape. Paul is a good husband, but sometimes when I need a beating, Paul refuses to discipline me. I asked him about it, and he said a man doesn’t hit his wife. A man may spank his children to discipline them, but a wife is not a child. I have five years to beat you into shape because my husband won’t do what he needs to do after you are married. But nobodies perfect. “

Chazia finished up by saying, “You know I was kind of upset when Paul didn’t marry you today, but you are so foolish I think it is going to take me five years to get you in shape.”

With that, Chazia began raising Misa to be her husband’s wife.

Chapter 17 June AD 76 Pay Day

Since Paul got engaged, he has done everything in his power not to think about his new fiancée. He really hoped everything was going well between her and Chazia, but he has been actively avoiding the girl. Since that day, the people had transitioned from calling him chief to calling him king. Normally that would have really bothered Paul, but being engaged to a nine-year-old girl pretty much covered up his discomfort from everything else.

On the bright side, his new soldiers had finally finished their training, and they would soon get to wear their crocodile armor showing their status as men and soldiers. When they graduated, man camp that meant the soldiers who graduated two years ago would finally be free to follow their own pursuits. One would become Paul's research assistant, three would stay in the army as lieutenants, three were planning on looking for minerals to mine, six were going to become farmers, and twenty-one were going to become blacksmiths. After serving in the army for two years, Paul was going to give them the things needed to start their new carrier as pay.

That said, Paul did not need them all working in Jiwi Mkuki village. In fact, the opposite was true. Paul had enough miners, carpenters, blacksmiths, and farmers in his village. What Paul really needed was for them to spread out to the other villages and so Paul required all his chiefs to come for the graduation of the soldiers.

Once all the chiefs arrived, Paul had them meet in his home for a little privacy. Truth be told, if someone wanted to listen, it wouldn’t be that hard. Worse yet, most of the chiefs were under twenty, and they didn’t have the discipline or experience to keep their mouths shut.

Each chief limped in except for the one from the Siri Jani tribe. They all had a smug look on their face. It was clear that they were all comfortable, and that made Paul mad. Paul was trying to grow a nation, and they were all sitting back and being ticks to their village. Their job was basically to collect the ten percent tax and solve disputes. They didn’t do anything with that tax except exactly what Paul told them to do. There was no initiative in the bunch. That was going to change today.

Paul started the meeting by saying, “I am very unhappy with how you all are doing your jobs.” That phrase made the smug looks on their faces fall off.

The chief from Siri Jani village was the first to react. He said, “King Paul, do you intend to break your word?”

Paul was startled for a second and said, “O, shoot, sorry about that. I forgot you were here. You have only been here a month, and from what I hear, you are doing a good job making your road and should have it done a month before the dry season. It’s the other twenty village chiefs I have an issue with.”

One of the chiefs said, “King Paul, I have done everything that you have asked, what do you want me to do?”

Paul asked, “Every chief here, except for the one from Siri Jani village, has collected taxes from their village for at least a year. Your granaries are full. What have you done to improve your village with those taxes?”

The chiefs looked at each other with a blank expression. Truth be told all their life the chief held the grain back for the express purpose of feeding his people and planting seed the next year. But with the new seed Paul brought, and the new way of doing things, where each man has his own plot of land to grow on, they have not needed the grain for feeding their people or planting. They honestly didn’t know what to do with it except horde it.

Paul said, “This year we have thirty-four men whose time in the military will be over when this year’s man camp recruits graduate. Twenty-one of them decided to be blacksmiths. Their pay for serving two years in the military will be all the equipment necessary to become blacksmiths. I expect each of you to make offers good enough for these young men to come to your village and become a blacksmith for you. You need them to make iron tools and glass jars. If your villages are going to grow, you need them.”

Paul continued, “Currently, you are allowed to keep ten percent of the revenue of your village, and ten percent is sent to me to pay the bills of Paulsland. The only other expense you have had is to feed the soldiers that come into your village. From now on, I want you to keep at least forty percent of your gran in the granary until seven years have passed, and then you can spend it for the needs of the village. Besides that forty percent, you can spend it however you feel you need to, to improve your villages. I am not going to micromanage you. But if I think you are wasting your grain, I will replace you. And just in case I wasn’t clear enough, a part of that grain will go to pay the blacksmiths that are going to be on the job market today. Do I make myself clear?”

The various chiefs fell all over themselves to yell, “YES KING PAUL!”

Paul needed these men to get past the old ways of doing things. Paul needed them to take the resources they were bringing in and improving their villages. Most of them don’t even have walls up yet, and the ones who did would need to transition to stone walls eventually. Paul was very grateful for Sadat Mlima Kivuli because he is starting the stone cutting industry. The work that Paul has seen was a promising start, and Paul suspected some of the men who struggled with farming and other forms of skilled labor would soon join him in his endeavors.

Paul said, “That isn’t the only reason why I called you here today. Recently many men have come to me asking to join the military, but because they have gone so many years without enough to eat, I have turned every one of them down. Now that I have many soldiers retiring and joining your various villages, I want them to lead militias in your village.”

All the chiefs looked at Paul with a blank slate, so Paul explained, “A soldier is someone whose full-time job is to protect their home, or to go out and fight the enemy. A militiaman, though, is a part-time soldier. They can be a farmer, blacksmith, carpenter, or something else most of the time, but twice a month, they get trained to fight just in case there is an attack.”

“All of the soldiers that are retiring can use at least the hundred-pound bow, and most can use the hundred and twenty-pound bow. They will train the men in your villages who are not fit for service in the military to be militiamen and to fight with at least the hundred-pound bow. This is necessary as it takes at least an eighty-pound bow to get through an elephant's hide, but a hundred-pound bow is better for the job. Of course, the retired soldiers will be in charge of the militia, even though the rest of the men are older.”

One of the chiefs asked, “How will we explain to the men that they have to listen to someone so much younger than them?”

Paul said, “They are fourteen years old. The oldest man in any of the villages I am aware of is twenty-three years old. It is not that big of a difference. But if someone doesn’t like it, you have my permission to allow them to fight for who should be in control. If someone can best my soldiers, they deserve the spot. And by the way, let me know about it because I will want to know if I should promote the man or rebuke my retired soldier.”

With that, Paul dismissed his chiefs. He made them chiefs because they were crippled and easy to control, but now that he was releasing well-trained men into their midst, it wouldn’t be too much longer before he replaced them. Perhaps he could give them jobs as teachers once they stepped down. They were not good at the job Paul gave them, but since Paul gave them the job, he felt responsible for them.

The rest of the day went as plan. It was a celebration for everyone but the chiefs. Over three hundred twelve-year-olds lined up in their new crocodile armor. It was just two weeks ago that they went out and killed the crocodiles themselves. These twelve-year-olds were proud as they stood before their people as men.

The graduation of the soldiers from man camp was not the main show, though. As soon as graduation was over, it was time to pay those who had served faithfully for two years.

Paul called for the twenty-one blacksmiths first. He paid them with forty-one pound iron ingots, several hammers, a flat sheet of iron that they could bang metal on because an anvil was still beyond Paul's capacity, a bellows, and one hundred pounds of coal. They only had to build their own forge. And with all the new chiefs looking for blacksmiths, it was likely the village they end up working at will do it for them. None of these men were master smiths, but neither was Paul. They were better than nothing, and that’s what was important for now.

The next group that came forward were the six who wanted to be farmers. Paul gifted each an ox, a plow, a hundred pounds of grain seeds, and another hundred pounds of various fruits, vegetables, and spice seeds. All of them were also given sugar with instructions on how to grow it. Paul didn’t have any luck growing the stuff, but maybe one of them would. Truth be told, this was the first group of people besides the chief that got their own ox. Many would-be jealous of them, but they had earned it.

The next group was the miners. Perhaps Paul should call them the prospectors. They were also given oxen. Each ox came with a cart, and pickaxes and shovels. Paul hoped they found copper deposits soon. If nothing else with copper, Paul could make alcohol strong enough to work as a much better disinfectant than the vinegar he currently used. Back in the modern world glass would likely have been preferred to copper for the distillation process, but there are no master glass smiths here. The reason why all the old moonshiners used copper stills is in part because copper is easy to work with and doesn’t rust.

The next group was his three lieutenants. They were each given their own house, and their pay would be five measures of grain, and twelve cans of whatever they wanted from the storehouse each week. This was enough for each of them to easily feed a family of six, or trade it for things they wanted.

Finally, the last one was his new research assistant Faizal. He got double what the lieutenants got. Paul wanted every kid to see that studying was profitable.

Once the retirement ceremony was over, the chiefs went after the blacksmiths like their lives depended on it.

In the coming weeks, each one of Paul’s retired soldiers married one of the girls he went to school with. The funny thing was none of the girls who went through school considered marrying any of the men who didn’t. Paul trained the girls well.

It may not seem like it, but this was one of the most monumental moments in Paulsland history. Each of these girls learned how to be a healer when they were in school. They learned many of the things that make people sick, how to get people well, and how to perform surgery during their last two years. When their husbands went to twenty-one new villages to be blacksmiths or to ply their other trades, they went with them.

Every one of these girls were taught that it was their responsibility as women to make sure their family, their village, and their nation was healthy, so these girls begin strongly encouraging the men women and children to wear clothes, drink clean water, and use the outhouse. Keeping things healthy was so ingrained in them when they saw waste in the village, they cleaned it up themselves.

Through education and work, the women did more to move Paulsland forward than their husbands or King Paul ever could.

Chapter 18 November AD 76 Africa-Planting Festival

This year had been both horrible and wonderful. It was horrible because Paul got engaged to five different girls before he found out that he could make the treaties by engaging the girls to his stepsons and sons. The way he found out was when one chief came with his son because his son was his only child to survive. The boy was ten years old. The chief wanted to complete the treaty by having his son marry Paul’s stepdaughter.

Paul was furious. When the chief saw the unbridled anger written all over Paul’s face, he begged for forgiveness. Paul forgave the man because he legitimately understood that in most cultures, women have almost no value. But Paul would not force Eulalia into a marriage. Every girl in his kingdom would have the chance to choose who they married. And yes, Paul recognized the hypocrisy of allowing other tribes to force a girl into a marriage for a treaty’s sake, but Paul did not have the military or political power necessary to live without that hypocrisy.

The agreement they came to was that the chief would marry one of the widows in his tribe, and then his new stepdaughter would marry Paul’s stepson when they were both over fourteen to confirm the treaty. After that, he had four more chiefs bring offers to join his nation, and they all had daughters who were engaged to Paul’s stepsons. Paul felt awful about it, but Chazia was thrilled. Paul didn’t think the drama that would go with a home where there were multiple wives would make a happy marriage or home, but it stopped the violence of war, so Paul accepted it.

Truth be told, the eleven chiefs that came to join Paulsland by treaty were the most powerful chiefs in a fifty-mile radius. They were the most powerful, just by virtue of living the longest. All the chiefs were in their twenties, although the oldest was twenty-four.

They were also the wisest of the chiefs in a fifty-mile radius. They saw that the times were changing and that they needed to change with it. Every one of the chiefs brought the heads of their witchdoctor and witchdoctors assistance as tribute.

Another six tribes were added to Paulsland through war. Paul’s three lieutenants captured two each. This brought the number of tribes in Paulsland up to thirty-eight. One of the tribes captured was right alongside what was called the Zambezi river in the modern world.

To cement the new tribes into his nation, he needed them to take part in the planting festival. This year’s planting festival would be a logistics nightmare. With thirty-eight tribes, Paul was looking at between five and ten thousand people coming to the festival. At this point, Paul had to start thinking of decentralizing, getting some full-time secretaries, and giving some men some more responsibility.

Weeks went into preparing for the festival. First of all, nearly all the new villages were more than a day’s walk by road. Making men carry a season’s worth of seed grain that far was not wise, so Paul sent craftsmen to each of the new villages to build ox carts. By this point, all the villagers were familiar with using the oxen to help carry supplies for the road-building projects, but without the roads, the ox carts were not worth making.

In Jiwi Mkuki village Paul had the children make large baskets for the grain. The baskets would make it easy to distribute the grain. Paul was going to make dead certain that he was the one to give each man their basket filled with grain at the end of the festival. He wanted every citizen to see that good things came from King Paul.

While preparing for the festival, Paul came across Chazia and the five girls he was engaged to. Paul had been doing his best to avoid them, but that’s hard to do in a small village, especially when you are acting as the principle of the school.

While making a basket, one of the girls looked nervously at Chazia and said, “May I ask a question.”

Paul felt bad. He thought the girl was nervous because of him. Chazia answered, “You may ask King Paul questions. Remember, a woman’s second duty is teaching. You cannot perform that duty if you do not have knowledge. Just make sure you learn that knowledge in a kind and respectful way.”

Paul was very proud of the kindness and patients Chazia was showing in teaching these girls. Granted, his engagement to the girls was her fault.

The girl asked, “King Paul, why are you putting all this work, and resources into the planting festival? You are King, shouldn’t everything belong to you by right? Shouldn’t others do all the work to get your favor.”

Paul said, “That’s a good question. It is true that I can fight well, and it is true that I have many soldiers that can fight for me, and if I wanted to, I could hoard all the resources, but if I did that, then everyone would want my job and try to take it from me. Your father chose to join my nation peaceably; most of the other tribes didn’t. Those tribes had chiefs that thought like you do, and when I conquered them, their tribesmen tortured them to death. Many of them still laugh about it to this day. I am now the chief or well king of hundreds of men who tortured their last chief to death. I think its unwise for me to horde all the supplies like all the other chiefs did. If everything comes from me, then they start thinking of ways to kill me so they can have all my stuff. I think when people have their own land and supplies, then they think about better ways to get more food, supplies, and other things through their own hard work. Sure, I am giving them their start, but after that, they succeed or fail from there own effort.” Paul did not mind explaining this political theory publicly, he had done so many times in the past, especially with his brother in law Abilio

The girl nodded and said, “You could just send out grain to their village. Why do you have everyone come here for the festival?” Truth be told, she had other stuff that she wanted to do besides weave baskets, and she hoped that Paul would see the light and stop the festival. It was okay for a nine-year-old to be that naïve.

Paul said, “The planting festival shows that good things come from me. I hand them their grain. They get their own farm because of me. But it also shows that I stand behind their chief, who had to make the hard choice of who got to pick out land first. Without a doubt, the men in the village will have hard feelings over that, but those hard feelings will be directed at a chief that I stand behind.”

Paul continued, “When the people come here, they will see the fighting at warriors rock, and the archer contest, and even the women’s tournament. This is all to show that I am stronger than them. This is important because there will be many men who are not content to farm their own land and make their way in life. They will want to do things the old way and be chief where they own everything, and everyone has to bow and scrape to get any food. When these men come, they will see men and women who can easily beat them in martial combat. When they see they have no chance to seize power, they will begin to think about more productive things.”

All the girls were in awe. Paul clearly put a lot of thought into staying in power, one of them asked as politely as she could, “I now understand why you have the festival and why you have men fight there, but why do you have the logging competitions and the new blacksmith competition?”

Paul said, “Back where I am from, we had something called a world’s fair. The world’s fair was intended to show new thoughts and ideas. Before I came, most of the villagers had never seen iron, and yet the logging competition gives them a chance to use iron tools in ways they haven’t before. This year we are going to have a blacksmith competition which will introduce blacksmithing to a lot of the men. Not every man in every village will make a good farmer, but that’s the only trade they have ever known. When they come here and practice the logging competition, they learn some carpentry skills, when they see the blacksmith competition, perhaps some of the poor farmers will say, “I can do that.” My goal is to expand their horizons, getting them thinking about what they can do, besides take my throne.”

Paul continued, “Last year when the new villagers came to Jiwi Mkiku village, they were in awe of the walls because they had never seen anything so big. It expanded their horizons. They began to think bigger. Most will never do anything with it, but some will. This year my research assistant made what is called a magnifying glass. We are going to show it off, and I will also put up plans for something called a telescope, microscope, and glasses. We haven’t been able to work out how to make those three things, but a magnifying glass is a good first start, and perhaps one of the other villagers will figure out how to do it. Me and my research assistant don’t have enough time right now to study optics because one of the miners found a copper vein, and we are trying to work out how to work on copper and make a still because copper has a lot of medicinal uses.”

When the conversation was over, all the girls were left in awe of the wisdom of their future husband. Granted they convinced themselves since he was their future husband he must be right about everything, but at nine it’s okay to be that naive

Paul was just glad that they didn’t ask how he kept the loyalty of all his soldiers. He didn’t want to talk about why he had all his school children singing songs about allegiance to the nation, and obedience to their chief, and now king.

The planting festival came and went without a hitch. Everyone was suitably awed and inspired, and Paulsland became just that much more stable.

Chapter 19 December AD 76 Second Christmas

Chapter 19 December AD 76 Second Christmas

In the spring, John planted hemp, and he had a bumper crop. John knew that hemp could be used to make clothes, rope, and paper. But this year, he only needed it to make paper. When John was a kid, he had made paper once. But that had been with used recycled paper and a blender. He didn’t have either one of those, so he had to rediscover the secret.

The first thing he did was boil the hemp to separate the fibers from the plant. That was an easy part of the process to figure out. The next part was making the fibers small enough to make paper from them. In the modern world, there were a ton of machines to do this job for you. The easiest to use was the blender. So to invent paper John made a blender.

This blender was a large round tub that John poured the boiled hemp into. He then put a lid on it that had a stick going through it with several arms that filled the tub. John had a belt that went from the arm to a flywheel. The flywheel was attached to a pair of peddles. It sounded very complicated, but it was basically the spinning wheel set up, he already introduced, connected to a tub instead of a spinning wheel. The biggest problem with it was he had to make everything bigger because arms shredding fibers was a lot more work-intensive than spinning a bobbin on a spinning wheel.

Once shredded, the last step was putting the paper in screens and waiting for it to dry. Since he already invented screens years ago, that was easy. What was hard was figuring out the exact ratio to make everything work. Making paper took most of his year, but when it was done, it was worth it.

At this point, there were a few dozen boats on the river trading with the various villages, and they liked that they could use the paper and a piece of coal to write down their figures. John was very irritated that they made drawings of products instead of using the words. Although they had figured out the math system, John showed them.

To a certain degree, John realized that one of the reasons why literacy was so low before the printing press was because there were not a lot of interesting things to read. Literacy would make it so much easier to keep in contact with the various people up and down the river. John just had to figure a way to make it interesting.

A few weeks before Christmas started, everyone in texas got a tree for their home and decorated it in strings of popcorn. Then Paul showed the kids how to make paper snowflakes to decorate the trees. They were a smash hit!

John made several presents for Onawa, Trevor, and his newest son Bobby, who wasn’t even a year old. It wasn’t long before his paper-wrapped presents were under the tree.

The winter solstice passed, and it was time to open up the Christmas presents. Trevor was the first to wake up, and as soon as he woke up, he knocked on his parent’s door and asked, “Is it time to open up the presents yet?”

John woke up and yelled, “Go back to bed; we can upon up presents later.”

Trevor said, “It’s later now.”

John wanted to give the little brat a spanking, but he didn’t want to ruin a good day. Onawa said, “John, I don’t think we are going back to sleep, so we might as well get up.”

John agreed then said, “But we are going to eat breakfast before we open presents. Trever woke us up, so he gets to squirm for a while longer.”

Onawa smiled and said, “Yes.”

When they opened their bedroom door, Trevor was standing there and said, “Presents?”

John said, “No, breakfast.”

Trevor had never looked so unhappy about food. John had to rub it in, though, “I wouldn’t be so hungry if someone hadn’t woken me up. Next year you better let us sleep in so you can open up your presents before breakfast.” Trevor nodded with a sad look in his eyes.

Onawa decided to cook a huge breakfast with oatmeal, bison steaks, and mixed vegetables. The wait was killing poor four-year-old Trevor. His parents were still a bit irritated with him, and every groan and moan made them grin and drag their feet a little more.

Right before breakfast was ready, Bobby woke up, and Onawa had to take care of him before finishing breakfast. Onawa changed his cloth diaper and fed him. Trevor was learning plenty of patients. It was hard on his four-year-old self.

Eventually, they had breakfast, and Trevor ate his breakfast as quickly as he possibly could. His parents enjoyed his squirming, so they very slowly ate their breakfast and made small talk. Trevor really shouldn’t have woken them up.

Finally, breakfast was over, and John said, “You can go ahead and open your presents.”

Trevor cheered and ran toward the Christmas tree. His presents had his name written on them, and he knew what his name looked like. He started going through the presents and found the ones with his name on it and tore them open. He was delighted with the ripping sound, and he was thrilled with the gifts he got.

His mom had made him a buckskin shirt, and pants, and cloth undergarments, that fit him much better than his old clothes. He was genuinely happy about it because new clothes were a rare thing. Then he opened up his first gift from his dad, and it was a KNIFE with a sheath and belt.

John said, “Your old enough to have a knife like the bigger kids, but you better be responsible with it. If I see you doing anything dangerous, I will take it away from you.”

Trevor said, “Don’t worry, Dad, I won’t do anything dangerous with it.”

John and Onawa had talked about the knife. Although Trevor wasn’t yet five, it was good for him to have a tool to use as he went about his day. John made sure the knife wasn’t that sharp, so he wasn’t in danger of cutting himself unless he tried really hard. And it was only three inches long, so he shouldn’t be able to hurt himself or others too badly if he accidentally stabbed someone. That said, it would make Trevor much more useful around the homestead as long as he didn’t do anything particularly stupid.

The next thing Trevor opened up was a carved bison with a little man riding on top. Trevor had never seen anything like it, and he asked, “Daddy, what’s this.”

John said, “This is my dream, taming the bison so that people can ride on them.”

Trevor smiled and said, “Do you think I will be able to ride bison one day?”

John said, “If I have anything to do about it, then yes, you will.”

Finally, Trevor opened his last present, and it was a wagon with wheels. Trevor just looked confused at this thing. John said, “Put the round part on the ground first.”

Trevor did so, then John said, “Push it.”

When Trevor pushed it, it moved just like a hotwheel. He squealed in delight. He had never seen anything like this before. He asked, “Dad, can I show my friends?”

John said, “Yes!”

After Trevor raced out of the house, John looked at Onawa and said, “I better give Bobby his gift.”

Onawa smiled. She knew John was trying to tease her. John gave the little baby a rattle. He started shaking it and laughing as babies will do. That’s when John gave Onawa her gift. She unwrapped it, and it was a necklace with three glass roses. She said, “This is gorgeous.”

John said, “Not as gorgeous as you.” Then after a long pause, John said, “I have another gift for you. Its called a love letter.”

With that, John handed Onawa a long letter where he expresses his love, respect, feelings, and awe for his wonderful wife. The problem was that Onawa didn’t know how to read very many words yet, and she asked, “What does this say?”

John said, “you will have to learn to read to find out, won’t you?”

It turned out that over the next few months, this was the gift that kept on giving. It made Onawa get very serious about her studies, and the more she understood what was in the letter, the happier she grew with John. To her, this letter ended up becoming more important than her necklace of glass roses.

Chapter 20 February AD 77 Twins

Paul was leading ten of his troops to Kiboko Mto village. It was the village that was right next to the river. He planned on building a bridge over the river in a couple of years, the reason why he was coming out during the rainy season to get an idea of how high the water got. It wouldn’t be a small bridge over a stream, but one of, if not the biggest bridge in the world at this time.

The troops were there so that none of the villagers got any ideas about deposing their new King. This was a new village without any soldiers, which made Paul leary.

Today was a day that lived up to the name rainy season. It just rained steadily, although it wasn’t like it was pouring. All the men wore a poncho made from rubber, so none of them were getting too wet. The stones were slick, but their rubber-soled shoes had a good grip on the stone roads.

Earlier that morning, they left Jiwi Mkuki village. Kiboko Mto was about as far from Jiwi Mkuki as you could get. If they were carrying any supplies, it would take more than a day of travel, but since they only carried lunch and a supply of water, they should make it a couple of hours before nightfall. They went through fields and entered into the forest that makes up most of the part of this world. They crossed bridges that crossed over swollen streams, went up, down and around hills, passed two villages, and finally, after most of a day walking, they saw the fields that marked that they were almost to their destination.

But where the fields met forest, Paul heard crying.

Paul stopped held up a hand signaling his men to stop and asked, “Do you hear that?”

One of the men said, “Yes.”

Paul had concern written all over his face as he said, “It sounds like a baby. Find it now!”

The men followed the sound, and not far from the road were two naked baby girls, not even a day old lying on the dirt, covered in ants and screaming. Paul was horrified.

He reached down and picked up one of them and started brushing the ants off the child as quickly as he could. He yelled out, “PICK UP THE OTHER ONE! GET THE ANTS OFF HER!”

Paul’s soldiers had never heard him so frantic. One just a touch faster than the others reached down and picked up the other girl and started brushing the ants off the girl as quickly as he could.

Paul looked to one of his men who wasn’t doing anything and said, “I need clothe to swaddle these girls in find me some.” He immediately ran toward the village. The men were all wearing leather armor, and rubber treated ponchos, the girls needed something warmer.

Then Paul said, “Get out the vinegar and honey.”

Vinegar and honey were considered medical supplies by Paul. He hasn’t been able to make a still yet, so they didn’t have any alcohol that was a better disinfectant than the vinegar. Honey is naturally antimicrobial. These supplies were always carried by any group of soldiers that went out by whichever soldier who was unfortunate enough to be voluntold into the medical officer duty. The duty consisted of carrying more supplies on long marches.

The medical officer took out the vinegar and honey, and Paul took the vinegar first and cleaned the girl off with it. It seemed to help with the bug bites she had. Then he took a bit of the honey and spread it across her body. She was still whimpering, but at least she wasn’t screaming anymore. Paul did the same thing with her sister.

But the time he was done, his soldier came back with a dry cloth he took from someone’s door frame. The owner protested until the soldier said, “King Paul asked for it if you have a problem take it up with him.” That stopped the protest as King Paul’s men invaded less than a year ago, and truth be told, King Paul had treated them very kindly, and he didn’t want that to change.

Once the whimpering girls were swaddled, Paul’s face had the calm look of a man who was furious enough to commit murder. Each of the soldiers had been around Paul for at least two years. First, as students and then as soldiers, and they had never seen their King so angry. They got very quiet because they did not want that anger directed at them.

Paul marched into the village and went straight to the chief’s hut and yelled out, “Chief, get out here now. Your King has come to pay you a visit, and your King is furious.” Although King Paul yelled, he only did it so the other party could hear his voice. There was a dangerous calm in King Paul’s voice. The people in this village grew up in Africa all their life which meant death was a constant companion. They knew that type of calm well. It is the calm that comes before great violence.

The chief limped out, like all the other chiefs who came from a conquered village, Paul chose an injured man to be chief. As soon as the man was out of his hut, he recognized the danger and fell on his face and said, “Great King, what have I done to anger you?”

Paul said, “Gather everyone in the village.”

Immediately the chief got up and quickly limped from one area to the next gathering the villagers. It was near nightfall, so there was none still in the fields. Before long, all the villagers were kneeling before Paul trembling.

Paul asked, “Where are the parents of these two girls. They cant be more than a day old.”

The chief immediately and without hesitation, said, “It is those two.” He didn’t even mention their name just pointed at two individuals. When Paul saw the girl, he could believe that she just had a child that day. She looked to be thirteen or fourteen years old. It was always hard to tell when someone grew up so malnourished. The man, her husband, looked to be fifteen or sixteen years old.

Paul asked, “Why did you throw these girls out?”

The man said in a pleading voice, “We don’t know which one is the evil spirit?”

Paul’s fury was dulled for a moment by confusion, and he said, “What?”

The man explained, “When twins are born, its because an evil spirit slept with the mother after she was pregnant with my child. One of the children is mine, and the other is the evil spirits. I beat my wife for committing adultery and threw out the children to protect the village.”

The rest of the village, men, and women nodded in agreement. This was their practice.

Paul’s confusion vanished, and he asked in a very calm voice, “Did the witchdoctors teach you that?”

The man nodded and said, “Yes.”

Paul asked, “Do the witchdoctors have spirits?”

The man said, “No, we learned from your people that witchdoctors have no spirit and suck the spirits out of those around them. That’s why your people have lived so long, and well, you have gotten rid of your witchdoctors.”

Paul asked, “What do witchdoctors normally do when albino babies are born?”

The man said, “They normally eat them to try to get power form them.”

Paul decided at this moment he would do everything in his power to stop the evil the witchdoctors peddled even if he had to say religious stuff to do so.

Paul said, “Twins are not born because of evil spirits, twins being born means that there is a great blessing about to descend. They are going to bring a blessing to their family and village, which is why the witchdoctors tried to kill them.”

The man’s face lit up, and he said, “If they are going to be a blessing, give them back to me.”

Paul, with an eery calm in his voice, said, “No. These girls are now my daughters, and you are the thug that tried to kill them. Soldiers detain him.”

The man hesitated, the soldiers did not. Three of them flat out tackled the man, and then tied his hands behind his back and then tied his feet to the same rope.

The man realized his situation and made a pitiful face as he begged, “Please show me mercy.”

Paul ignored him and said, “Detain the woman who allowed these children to be thrown out.”

She had just given birth that day, there was no chance of her running away, and yet the soldiers tackled her just as violently as they did her husband and tied her the same way.

She protested and said, “I didn’t throw the babies out my husband did.”

Paul said, “You were their mother. You should have gone into the forest and rescued them.”

She said, “But he would beat me.”

Paul answered, “Its an honorable thing for a parent to die saving their child’s life. But a parent who would let their child die to save their own life deserves death. Even if you thought one of your daughters was an evil spirit, you knew both of them were your daughters. You should have rescued them. Your apathy disgusts me.”

Paul turned to his soldiers and said, “Detain the chief.”

The chief’s face went white, as the soldiers tackled him and tied him up. He protested, saying, “What did I do.”

Paul yelled this time, “YOU ARE THE LEADER OF THIS VILLAGE, AND YOU LET A MAN AND A WOMAN LEAVE TWO SCREAMING INFANTS TO DIE! THAT MAN AND THAT WOMAN WILL DIE FOR THEIR ATTEMPTED MURDER! YOU COULD HAVE STOPPED IT, BUT YOUR APATHY AND LAZINESS LEAD TO THEIR DEATHS AND YOUR OWN!”

The husband, wife, and chief began crying out for mercy. Paul listened to it for a few minutes then said, “These two baby girls cried out for mercy. You didn’t hear them, and they are innocent. You are guilty, so I will show you the same mercy you showed the innocent. In fact, you will take the place of the girls. When I found them, they were being stung to death by ants. Their fate is now your fate.” Paul looked toward the villagers and asked, “Where is a large ant pile?”

The villagers were horrified. Many in this village had committed the same crime against their own children. All of them have turned deaf ears to children tossed out in the forest, crying for mercy. In their fear to turn away the King’s wrath, they answered quickly.

Paul said, “Everyone in the village needs to see this. Grab torches.”

With that, the villagers grabbed their torches, followed Paul, his soldiers, and their prisoners into the nearby forest and watched as the man, woman, and chief were thrown on an ant pile. As they were stung, their screams horrified the people because they know that could have been them. Every time they tried to roll or squirm away from the ants, a soldiers boot met them. All night the villagers watched as the man, woman, and chief were stung to death by ants. It was a terrifying thing to watch by torchlight, especially in the cold rain. The message was clear, ignore the screams of a child facing death, and then the one who would be screaming would be you.

In time the screams stopped as they died. Paul said, “Leave their bodies where they lay. Do not bury them; do not cremate them. Treat their bodies like you would have treated these two girls’ bodies. Ignore them.”

With that Paul left and the people went back to their village. Paul was in no mood to check out the river now, and he needed to get these girls to their new home. One of his soldiers asked, “King Paul, if you leave those bodies out, won’t they have troubles with bugs and animals.”

Paul said, “Yes. If I had the power, I would have all of them flogged until they died, but I can’t do that. It is petty, but I can leave those bodies to rot and cause problems for the villagers who have left many bodies to rot in that forest. Hopefully, they will learn not to do it again.”

Another soldier said, “With their chief dead, who will lead them?”

Paul said, “They need a more compassionate example. I will send one of the teachers at my school to lead them. There are several crippled men there who would qualify. Hopefully, one who has spent years teaching has enough compassion and kindness to share.”

Throughout the day, whenever they stopped at a village, Paul had a lady give suck to his new daughters. At the end of the day, Paul finally got to his home. Chazia wasn’t there, so he sent for her. When she got there, she saw the babies and asked, “What is this?”

Paul said, “These are our two new daughters, Charity and Mercy.”

Chazia’s face had a look of distaste and confusion, and she asked, “What do you mean, our two new daughters?”

Paul said, “These girls were thrown out because they are twins…”

Chazia yelled out, “TWINS?!” and backed away.

Paul said, “Don’t tell me you believe that lie that twins are evil spirits or some such nonsense. Everything the witchdoctors said were lies. A twin is not an evil spirit. It’s the opposite twins represent a blessing to a family, tribe, and nation. If you want our family, tribe, and nation to be strong, make sure that these girls are well taken care of.” Paul decided it would be wise to lie now and said, “It is one of the ways my nation got so strong. The reason why the witchdoctors had people kill them is so their power would not want.”

At this point, Chazia was emotionally anti twins, but logically for them. Her husband had been right about so much he must be right about this.

In the coming weeks, word had spread about what Paul did and said, and instead of dreading the birth of twins, or triplets people began to look forward to them. This is something that didn’t happen until the twentieth century in this part of Africa in the original timeline.

Chapter 21 April AD 77 Africa- Badru Grows Up

Paul told a very pregnant Chazia, “Tomorrow Badru will graduate from school and go to man camp to learn how to be a soldier.”

Chazia smiled and said, “Its bittersweet to see my boy growing up, but I never thought I would get to see him turn into a man. Who would have ever thought that I would live to be twenty-four?”

Paul said, “When Badru goes to man camp, he has to stay at the barracks.”

Chazia frowned and said, “You’re the King. Bend the rules, allow him to stay here until the camp is over.”

“Because I am the King, I can’t bend the rules for Badru. It wouldn’t be safe for him or us.”

Chazia face grew puzzled and she asked, “What do you mean?”

“This year’s man camp is going to have four hundred participants. If I show Badru favor, he will have four hundred soldiers jealous of him. Their jealousy will not stop at the end of man camp; many of the soldiers will be jealous their whole life.”

This is certainly a concept Chazia could understand when it came to teaching Paul’s fiancés, but when it came to her own boy, she struggled to see it. Chazia asked, “Can’t you show him a little favor?”

Paul said, “The only favor I can show him is to have him treated the worst out of all four hundred recruits. “

Chazia was worried for her son and asked in almost a panicked voice,” How is that showing Badru favor?”

“Because I am King, everything associated with me is political. It’s just the way it is. If he is treated the worst out of all the recruits, then many of the men will feel sorry for him and think that he is being treated unfairly. How can they be jealous of the guy who has to run more laps than them, gets less sleep than them, eats less than them, gets chewed out more than them, and basically does the worst jobs in the unit more than everyone else?”

Chazia already felt uncomfortable about her boy leaving simply because her boy had always slept under the same roof as her his entire life. Tomorrow would be the first time it didn’t happen. But to find out that for the next few months, her boy would intentionally be treated the worst out of four hundred soldier trainees, the first time he was away from home, that made her heart break.

Chazia said, “Is there anything I can do?”

Paul said, “Avoid Badru. The vast majority of the twelve-year-olds don’t have either one of their parents still living. If they see you interact with your boy at all, it will not go well for him. It will destroy what I am trying to do for Badru.”

Chazia got mad and said, “What are you trying to do for Badru!”

Paul said, “I am trying to make it, so all the other soldiers like him. Sure there will be some that enjoy his discomfort and will add to his burden. But most will dislike their trainers so much that they will flock to the guy who is getting the worst treatment. These guys will be loyal to Badru. If anything were to ever happen to me, Badru will likely be able to depend on those guys to save his life.”

Now Chazia understood what Paul was doing. She had seen plenty of coups in her lifetime. Sometimes the chief’s family was executed during the coup, and sometimes they were not. Paul was trying to protect her son just in case a coup happened.

Chazia asked, “Did you talk to Badru about this?”

Paul nodded and said, “Yes. I told him that I told my lieutenants to single him out. That they were told to make sure he ran more laps, did more pushups, cleaned the outhouse, had night watch duty more than any other soldier in training. I told Badru that when they treated him worse than anyone else that he needed to keep his mouth shut. No complaints can come from his lips. Badru was upset, and I think Badru thinks I don’t like him right now, but after man camp is over, I think we will be able to make up.”

Chazia started crying. She was about to lose her boy, and during that loss, he was going to have several weeks of misery.

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The next day Badru went to school for the last time. Since Badru first entered school, it had really grown. When it was just a school for the village kids of Jiwi Mkuki, one building easily held all the children, but now it was a school for all the school-age children for thirty-eight villages.

They went from a school of less than fifty to a school of more than two thousand in five years. His stepfather Paul made a habit of collecting widows and wounded men to teach the children, so they always had enough adults to keep the children in line, but it blew Badru’s mind how his stepfather seemed to think that this amount of growth was normal.

Badru would have been blown away to find out that his stepfather went to a high school with three thousand students, and that due to various school activities he visited high schools that were larger than his own. Although the explosive growth was a lot to the village, which only had about three hundred members five years ago, it was almost normal compared to the numbers Paul was used to in the modern world.

Badru did have to appreciate how Paul ended up making the school and dorms alongside the log walls, like a lean-to, that protected the village. It made construction a lot easier when one wall was already done.

That morning Badru would take his last steps as a child and his first steps into manhood. The man camp always took place in Jiwi Mkuki village, so he had seen how difficult it was, and then his stepfather warned him that he told his lieutenants to be extra hard on him. Badru was going to step into manhood the hardest way possible, but Badru figured that would make him a better man than most.

They lined up for graduation, and his stepfather gave some boring speech that none of the twelve-year-olds were listening to. All they were concerned about was going into the barracks and finally being men!

Finally, graduation was over, and they made their way to the barracks. They were immediately chewed out and made to do pushups, run, do squats, and other exercises. Badru was ordered to do more than anyone else.

Then it came time to clean out the outhouse. Badru was chosen.

Then it came time for guard duty selection, and Badru was volunteered by the lieutenant for second shift, which was worse than first shift.

When all his buddies kept asking him what he did to tick off the drill instructors, Badru started realizing how miserable the next two or three months of his life were going to be

Chapter 22 May AD 77 Texas- Someone Else’s Fight

Nana had a load of salt and iron that he was taking almost to the source of the river. It would be three weeks of poling, but he was expecting to get a full load of canned tomatoes for it. The tribe at the source of the river had several members who took up Chief John on his offer to train their people. Once they learned how to forge, John gave them a couple of hundred pounds of tomato seeds as a going-away present. With their ability to produce Tomatoes and their need for more Iron, it turned out they made a pretty good, if distant, trading partner.

Nana had to admit he was skeptical when John offered to train people in his new technology and gave them various plants to grow once they got home, but it seemed to be tying the tribes along the river together. If Nana didn’t know better, he would think that John was doing this on purpose.

Once the salt trade got going, John introduced everyone to something called Ketchup. It required tomatoes, salt, onions, and a bunch of other spices. The salt was at the mouth of the river, and the tomatoes were almost at the river source. If you wanted to make Ketchup, you had to trade with tribes up and down the river. And yes, the tribes wanted the Ketchup. They were putting it on everything, especially buffalo meat.

Nana wondered what other surprises Chief John would bring.

As they poled upriver, Nana spotted a boat near the bank, and as soon as the men on that boat spotted Nana, they pushed off and headed directly for him. Nana wondered if they had a dire need for supplies.

When the other boat reached them, it bumped into Nana’s boat, and the man said, “By order of Chief Gaagii, no boats are allowed to pass.”

Nana was furious, “What do you mean we are not allowed to pass? We are traders! I have been trading since Chief John built the first boat. Trading is my livelihood! Are you telling me to let my wife and children starve?”

The man said, “I am sorry for your inconvenience, but we are at war with Chief Yiska. His grandson murdered our chief’s daughter. We can not risk you bringing our enemies supplies. If you wish to trade goods with us, we will be more than happy to do so.”

Nana said, “Unless you have a boatload of canned tomatoes, I do not wish to trade anything with you, flunkies!”

The man said, “Then, you need to turn around.”

Nana asked, “What will you do if we refuse?”

The man smirked and said, “There are more of us than there are of you.”

That was the truth. There were fifteen on their side and only four on Nana’s side. Worse yet, their boat was touching hulls with Nana’s boat so they could easily just seize Nana’s boat and cargo if they wanted.

Nana said, “Fine. You win, we will back off and go back and talk to our chief about this. But you have to know you will be infuriating every trader on the river.”

The man said, “We can’t afford to lose this war. We can’t risk anyone trading with Chief Yiska. Chief Yiska’s grandson must die to pay for his crimes. We don’t care how many members of his tribe have to die to make that happen.”

Nana said, “Shouldn’t you be more worried about how many of your own tribe will have to die so that Chief Yiska’s grandson will die.”

The man said, “It doesn’t matter. We will be willing to pay any price.”

Nana shook his head, turned to his men, and said, “Let’s go back to Texas.”

The men were not happy, but they were outnumbered, so they turned back.

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The distance they traveled upriver from Texas took about a week when you pole. But when you paddle downriver, it only took about a day. Nana and his men hated that all their work turned out to be for nothing. But there was nothing they could do besides talk to Chief John.

As they made their way down the river, they passed other trading vessels, and Nana let them know what was going on. Most didn’t believe them, and they would have to find out the truth the hard way. Fortunately, some believed them and chose to trade with a closer village.

Once Nana made it to the village, he found chief John at Bison valley again.

Nana yelled out, “Chief John.”

John turned to him with a huge smile and said, “One of the new male buffalo is so sweet. It let me approach it and pet it today! I think it’s still too wild to hook a plow to or ride, but they are getting tamer by the generation!”

Then John realized it was Nana talking to him and asked,” Nana, why are you here?”

Nana said, “A couple of tribes upriver are going to war with each other, and one of the tribes isn’t letting boats pass by. They told me they were scared that we would supply their enemies.”

John shook his head and said, “We have all the tribes along the river trading with one another, getting to know one another, and seeing how profitable peace can be, and this tribe wants to mess it up. Which tribe is it?”

Nana said, “Chief Gaagii is at war with Chief Yiska. The warrior who stopped me said that Chief Yiska’s grandson killed Chief Gaagii’s daughter.”

John was surprised and said, “That’s terrible.”

Nana said, “I know, why would you go to war just because a girl got killed? A girl isn’t worth one mans life much less many men.”

John said, “Bite your tongue. If something happened to Onawa or one of the other women in this village, I would go to war in a heartbeat. I have a duty to protect all my citizens equally.”

Nana kept his mouth shut. He knew that John had strange notions, and since those strange notions usually turned out to be profitable, he didn’t argue about the crazy ones.

When they got back to the village, John asked for men to come help him talk with Chief Gaagii. More than seventy-five men agreed. Just a few years ago, this tribe was almost dead, then John started trading with other villages, and any village who couldn’t afford his products could send people to get training for what they wanted. Many stayed.

One of the reasons was because John believed in people’s rights to own their own property. In most tribes, the tribespeople worked together and shared the bounty of the work, but in Texas, if you worked for something, you kept whatever you worked for. If John saw someone struggling, he offered to pay a set wage for their work. In the end, it meant that any men who thought they could do better without the tribe’s help came to Texas to become self-made men.

Between the new products, the training, and an environment that encouraged individualism, the population exploded.

They set off with five boats with fifteen men each. The boats could easily hold many more men, but they were trying to pole up the river quickly. With this setup, they could have six men poling at one time, and when they got tired, switch off. It left at least three men fresh and ready for a fight if they were ambushed. And considering the situation that was possible.

It only took two days to get back. Poling, with more men without a couple of tons of gear, made a big difference.

The men stopping boats were leery of stopping five boats with as many men in them as John’s boats had. As they hesitated, Chief John didn’t. He had his men head directly to their boat.

Chief John’s boat bumped into theirs, and then he said, “I am Chief John, and I am here to talk with you, chief.”

The man was nervous, especially as John’s other boats began to encircle his. He said, “Chief Gaagii is busy fighting a war. He can not see you right now.”

John said without hesitation, “If you do not go get your chief right now, I will go to war with your tribe. Your tribe will not know about it either because you and all your men will be dead and unable to inform your tribe of the war declaration.”

The man gulped and said, “I will find him immediately.” immediately he had his men row their boat to shore and began looking for his chief.

John had his men move their boats into the middle of the river. That brought them out of range of arrows just in case someone got cute and decided to shoot arrows from the tree line.

A few hours later, a group of men showed up at the riverbank, and one of them yelled out, “I am Chief Gaagii. What do you want, Chief John?”

John told his men to row toward the bank. As they got closer, John noticed that the chief only looked to be thirty-something years old. This was very strange in this society since the chief’s spot was usually taken over by an elder, not a young man. Granted, John was about the man’s age, and John was chief, so maybe it wasn’t as strange as John thought.

John said, “I am upset that you are stopping trade along the river.”

Gaagii said, “I have too; otherwise, your men might give supplies and weapons to my enemy.”

John said, “If you don’t stop, I will become your enemy.”

Gaagii thought about what John said for a minute and said, “What do you want me to do? Chief Yiska’s grandson killed my daughter. I can not just let that slide. Otherwise, all the other tribes will stomp all over me.”

John could understand the man’s pain of losing a child, and so he said, “Let me go talk with Yiska. I will see if we can work something out.”

Gaagii didn’t answer for more than a minute. He kept looking at John’s men and then upriver. After looking back and forth a few times, he said, “Fine, go ahead.”

John turned to Nana and said, “Do you know where the tribe is?”

Nana said, “Yes, it’s not far upriver. We have traded little besides axes and bowie knives with them, although some other traders may have given them more things.”

John nodded and asked, “Do you know if either tribe has fast fire bows.”

Nana said, “I don’t know, but generally, the tribes who get them don’t like trading them. They are just too powerful. I think the only reason why they haven’t started raiding other tribes with them is that they realize that after trading with you, the other tribes don’t have anything worth going to war over.”

John nodded and said, “Show us where this tribe is.”

Chapter 23 May AD 77 Texas- Negotiating With Disgusting Men

About a half a day after they talked with Chief Gaagii, they made their way upriver to the land controlled by Chief Yiska’s tribe, and they had a boat out blocking trade from coming downriver. When the men on that boat saw John’s five boats and seventy-five men, they quickly rowed toward the shore and made a hasty retreat into the trees. The traders they stopped cheered and then jeered at the men as they ran.

John thought it best to stay on the river until those men came back, since the way they were running probably meant they would come back with their Chief. John smiled because he realized they probably thought Johns men were Gaagii’s men.

It wasn’t long before a bunch of armed men showed up at the riverbank, notching bows and pointing them toward John and his men.

John yelled out, “I am Chief John. I am here to speak to Chief Yiska.”

A man yelled back from the shore, “I am Chief Yiska, why do you bring five boatloads of armed men to my part of the river?”

John yelled back, “Because your little war with Chief Gaagii is stopping trade. I have come to see if I can negotiate the end of this war.”

Chief Yiska yelled back, “I am open for negations, row closer, and we will talk.”

John yelled back, “How about you and some of your men get in that boat and row out a ways, and I will row to you, and we will talk where neither one of us can easily assassinate the other.”

Chief Yiska was quiet for a moment. Then in the distance, John saw him chat with some of his men, and then he yelled back, “That will be acceptable.”

A few minutes later, their two boats came up to each other. Chief Yiska was an older man, someone you could envision as an elder of the tribe, unlike Gaagii. Yiska said, “Chief Gaagii is totally unreasonable. If you would ally with me in a war against him, we can wipe his village out and end this war.”

John was taken aback by the casual mention of genocide by this man. In the modern world, even if someone was committing genocide, they hid it behind pretty words and lies. John said, “From what Chief Gaagii said, he has good reason to go to war with you.”

Chief Yiska was bothered by John’s comment, and he wondered, “If you think he has good reason to go to war, then why are you talking with me?” But he didn’t say what he was thinking. Instead, he asked, “What reason is that?”

John said, “Chief Gaagii said that your grandson killed his granddaughter and that he was going to war to get revenge.”

Chief Yiska laughed and said, “That’s a lie! Chief Gaagii’s daughter was out by the river when my grandson spotted her when he was on a trading expedition. He thought she was beautiful, so he and his men took her and brought her here. They are now married.”

To say that John had conflicting emotions at this moment would be an understatement. On one hand, he was glad that the girl was alive; on the other hand, to John, this sounded like rape. The problem was that his father in law Kuruk got his wife the same way. He saw an attractive girl in his youth and took her back to his village. John hated it, but it was considered normal. But at least there was hope that he could work something out.

John said, “Would you be willing to come with me and talk this out with Chief Gaagii?”

Chief Yiska said, “No. Why should I talk to that young upstart?”

John said, “Has there been blood spilled over this situation yet?”

Chief Yiska said, “We have launched raiding partied against each other, but nobody has died yet.”

John said, “I would like to keep it that way. Come with my men and me, and we will keep you safe as we negotiate a peace treaty between you and Chief Gaagii.”

Chief Yiska said, “ Why would I go with you?”

John answered, “Because if anything happens to you, then the good name I spent years developing would go away.”

Chief Yiska rolled his eyes and said, “I wasn’t asking if you were trustworthy or not. Unlike most chiefs, your reputation is that you always keep your word, and although you are wealthy, you are not greedy. I was asking why should I go with you, what’s in it for me?”

Now John was getting irritated, “How about this, if you don’t come with me I will sink your boat and put a trade embargo on your village. What happens between you and Chief Gaagii is, in my opinion, tragic and stupid, but I can not get involved in every tragic and stupid thing in this land. But if you stop trade along this river, I have no problem being the first one to put a stop to your stupidity and letting your village whither as all the other villages prosper.”

Chief Yiska was a proud elderly chief who did not like John’s tone, but he was not so proud or senile to foolishly ignore John’s threat. Before John came, there was no such thing as iron, boats, or fast firing bows. John introduced all those things, and Chief Yiska didn’t have a single fast-firing bow in his entire tribe. He may not like John’s tone of voice, but he wasn’t going to ignore John’s threat.

Chief Yiska said, “I agree to talk to Chief Gaagii, but do not be upset if we can not come to an agreement.”

John said, “Talking is the first step toward peace.”

Chief Yiska laughed and said, “In my experience, a well prepared night time raid is the first step toward peace.”

John bit his tongue, and they began their trip back down toward Chief Gaagii’s village. With all the men on the boats paddling downriver, it didn’t even take a full hour. It was near evening when they arrived, and it wasn’t long before Chief Gaagii got in his village’s boat and joined Chief Yiska and Chief John in the river to negotiate.

When Gaagii reached them, John smiled and said, “Good news, your daughter is still alive. She is just married to Chief Yiska’s grandson.”

Chief Gaagii’s face turned bitter and sour and said, “Are you joking? What’s the difference between my daughter being dead or being taken off and married? It’s the same loss either way. She is a Chief’s daughter. She should have been married off for a great profit. We got nothing, while his worthless grandson has a new wife.”

John was furious. This man is a father, and he should be glad that his daughter was alive. Instead, he is only concerned with the stuff he was missing out on, and in his tantrum, he is provoking war with half the tribes on the river. Worse yet, no matter what happened, this man’s daughter would suffer the most, but he was too selfish to see it.

But John was determined to keep the peace.

While John was processing what he just heard, Chief Yiska laughed and said, “My grandson acted quickly and got a great deal! He is only fifteen, and his wife is the daughter of a chief at the perfect age of thirteen, and it didn’t cost him a thing.”

If these two men didn’t shut up pretty soon, John was going to declare war on both of them. His anger was growing like a flame on coals.

John said, “You two need to shut up now! There are dozens of tribes on this river getting sick of your little games. You both will stop blocking traffic on this river today, or I will declare war on both of you. Do I make myself clear.”

Gaagii yelled out, “What about my grievance. I have a right to get payment for my daughter!”

One of John’s men grunted in agreement, totally cutting John’s authority out from under him. John said, “Your right. What is a good price for your daughter.”

The man said, “A bowie knife and an ax!”

John thought, “That’s it?”

But Chief Yiska said, “No deal! She has already been used by my grandson. She isn’t that valuable anymore.”

Chief Gaagii said, “I would rather see her dead than to lower my price any further!”

John was getting sicker by the minute and said, “Chief Yiska, you will pay five axes and five bowie knives. If you can not afford that price, then you will have to pay for it in lumber that you can send to my village. It will be twenty trees for each item.”

Chief Yiska said, “What do you mean.”

John said, “I do not take kindly to you abusing some poor girl, and I need to set a stern example. If someone takes a girl like your grandson took a girl, then they should pay five times the bride price. In my culture, its called “you break it, you buy it.” You took that girl and used her. You hadn’t paid for it, yet so now you have to pay whatever we tell you to pay. If you disagree, then I will ally with chief Gaagii here and go to war with you, and I will allow the poor girl to come live in my village because I don’t trust chief Gaagii.”

John continued, “I do not like how either one of you are treating this girl, but I can’t stop it. But I can at least make one of you pay for it, and maybe just maybe some of the other tribes along the river will get the hint and not steal women for brides.”

Chief Gaagii cheered and said, “Yeah! That’s what you get for stealing my daughter.”

John gave him a dirty look and asked, “Why are you cheering? You stopped my tribesman from continuing his trade route. You cost him six iron axes and six bowie knives, and you will pay it back, or we will go to war over it. I mean, if you think going to war over a bowie knife and an ax is okay, then going to war over six each should be much more justifiable, don’t you think?” John didn’t know if that’s how much he cost Nana or not; he was just ticked off and was going to make this man pay.

Chief Gaagii was dumbfounded and said, “But that means I don’t get anything for my daughter?”

John said, “No, it means what you would have gotten for your daughter goes to one of the traders you turned around. You robbed one of my tribesmen so you will pay. And guess what. I will be informing every trader who goes through my village, which is all of them that you two fools owe them for their losses. Nobody and I mean nobody will stop trade on the river without going to war.”

Over the next couple of weeks, the two tribes sent the lumber needed to make payments to John down the river. After hearing the story, men were less willing to kidnap their bride, although a lot of tribes began discussing how easy it was to block traffic along the river.

John didn’t find out until it was too late, but he was the only chief to make the two tribes pay retribution to his traders. None of the other tribes did because the traders were beginning to become independently wealthy away from their tribes. It was changing the tribal system, and people were uncomfortable with the change.

Chapter 24 June AD 77 Change

Paul woke up at dawns light, and when he did so, he heard his wife crying. He asked, “Chazia, what’s wrong?”

Chazia said, “You know what’s wrong. Today Loide finishes his service and becomes a Lieutenant. He is taking Eulalia away from me. And Badru graduates from man camp today, and he will not be allowed to serve here because it’s his home village. I am losing two children today.”

Pau hadn’t thought about it when he set up his system, but Eulalia was two years older than her brother, and at fourteen, she was allowed to get married. She waited to marry until the boy she loved was able to have a house of his own. In this society, there was no marriage ceremony. When a girl spent the night with a boy, they were husband and wife. Loide had good leadership skills, so Paul asked him to be one of ten lieutenants this year, and he agreed. The job came with a house in the Mlima Kivuli tribe. As soon as he finished his two years, Paul was sure he would be in a hurry to take Eulalia to their new house and officially be married.

But Badru was officially going to be a soldier when he graduated from man camp the same day his sister ran off with Loide. Badru could not serve in this village, and now Chazia was losing both children. It had been hard on Chazia seeing her boy struggle through man camp and being unable to talk to him.

Paul said, “I will see to it that you get to spend some time with both of them before they go.”

Chazia said, “Won’t that make the other boys upset with Badru?”

Paul said, “Considering all the crap he has been through, I think the other soldiers will be happy that something good has finally happened to Badru. Kinda like Peter Parker.”

Chazia said, “Who is Peter Parker?”

Paul facepalmed and said, “Peter Parker is a man in a story my people told, he is a good man but bad thing after bad thing happened to him. So many bad things happen to him so much that when something good finally happens, people cheer. Badru has been mistreated a lot, and it has not gone unnoticed. I will see to it you can spend some time with your boy and daughter before the graduation. Besides this is his graduation day, we are going to treat the soldiers in training well as they finally officially become soldiers.”

Chazia said, “Will you spend any time with Badru or Chazia today?”

Paul said, “I wish I could, but I cant. I have a lot of supplies to finish preparing for the hundred soldiers getting their pay, and I also have to prepare for the meeting tonight with my researchers, lieutenants, and Prospectors. I expect today to be the only day that I will have all of them together, so even though they will be ready to run off and get married to their sweethearts, I still have to discuss my plans with them.”

Chazia said, “Take all the time you want. The longer you talk to Loide, the longer I get to spend with my daughter and son.”

Paul chuckled and said, “No problem.”

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

The graduation went well. With the new set of four-hundred soldiers, their military now has a little over eight hundred soldiers. But at the end of the graduation, it was time for those who had served two years to retire and get their pay for two years of work. Nearly one hundred were retiring, and only ten were staying as lieutenants, meaning the military had a bit more than seven hundred soldiers.

Those that retired were given enough pay to start new careers; from farmers, to blacksmiths, to stone workers, to carpenters, to prospectors and minors. Others were brought on to work for Paul directly. Besides the lieutenants, Paul hired three secretaries and four research assistance. Paul thought he was hiring too high of a percentage for government work, but he also felt that he didn’t have a choice.

Truth be told, the government jobs were highly sought after by the young people because it meant that they would get a place to live immediately upon receiving their pay, which meant they could get married that day. Everyone else had to go out and make a living before they would be able to marry their sweetheart. But there was possible a much bigger reward working for themselves than working for the government, and each of the young people chose jobs that they thought would be best for them. Paul even had one young man turn down his offer, and Paul respected him the more for it.

After the ceremony, Paul requested that the prospectors, stone workers, and carpenters meet with him. He required all the lieutenants, research assistants, and secretaries to meet with him. Their marriages could wait.

All in all, about forty men met Paul in a classroom. Paul said, “Congratulations on finishing your two years of service. Now that I have over a hundred and thirty students who are adults and have served their time in the military, we can begin planning for some big projects.”

Paul held up his trigger finger and said, “The first big project that we are going to work on is called concrete. Concrete is where you take limestone, crush it into powder, mix it with sand, gravel, and water, and then you shape it into whatever shape you want. Once it dries, it becomes very tough stone. Prospectors I am willing to pay very good money for crushed limestone. Limestone is in the earth. I don’t know where, but it is a type of white stone. It has a distinct smell. Much of my civilization was built on concrete, so if we can start making it, we will really be able to make some awesome structures. If you find a white stone with a distinct smell, bring it to me, and if its limestone, I will pay you well for it. The more, the better.”

The prospectors nodded. They were looking for anything to mine, whether it was limestone, copper, iron, or some other metal they didn’t care, they just wanted to play in the dirt.

Paul looked to the carpenters and said, “As soon as we have a supply of concrete, I am going to have you building seventy-foot tall towers in the center of each village in our nation. Many of the villages are within ten miles of one another, from the top of one of the towers you will be able to see the next tower. I want to say you will be able to see the next village but a lot of them will still be hidden by forest so you will only be able to see the towers from that far away. The reason why I am having you wait until the concrete is ready is because the concrete will give the towers a much more stable foundation.”

Paul continued and said, “The purpose of these towers is to be able to communicate over long distances quickly. Currently, we have thirty-eight villages, with the two furthest being almost a hundred miles apart. Jiwi Mkuki is almost in the center of those two villages. Each tower will be built so that one tower can send a message to the next tower. During the day with a mirror, during the night with a flame. To send the signal, you flash the light at each other, with either a short flash or a long flash. Three flashes of various lengths equals a letter in our alphabet. If someone needed to send a message to the farthest part of our nation with this system, it would only take twenty or thirty minutes. Assuming good weather, of course.”

All the men in this room could read, and all of them had spent two years in Paul’s army. The idea of getting their orders in minutes instead of hours appealed to them. One of them asked, “Would this system just be for government officials, or could anyone use it?”

Paul said, “Anyone could use it, but there would be a cost associated with its use. That said, at this point, we would have it manned by the regular soldiers. But now we are getting off-topic. We are probably a year away from building this system. The third thing is that I would like to start building stone buildings soon. But until we have concrete for mortar, we can not do so. So I would ask that my stone cutters keep up their good work making stone blocks. That said, in order to make my new secretaries jobs easier, I would like to order some large stone posts. We are going to use them to mark people’s properties.”

Paul pointed toward his secretaries, “Now that I have good help that can read and write, I want to get ahead of the curb and marking property clearly across the thirty-six villages making disputes MUCH simpler. Stonecutters after this meeting is over ask the secretaries all the questions you want. They will give you clear answers, and please pass the information on to those who already work at the quarry. Please note the elephants will be lifting the stone post, so large sizes are preferred and not a problem.”

They said, “Yes, sir,” as a group.

Finally, Paul turned to his new Lieutenants and said, “Next year, three hundred men will be retiring. I want thirty of them to become lieutenants. Between last year’s crop, this year’s crop, and next year’s crop, we will have more than enough lieutenants for each of the villages in our nation. When that happens, schooling will no longer be done exclusively here in the capital. Each village has its own school, and the lieutenants will be in charge of them. The lieutenants will also be in charge of taking care of all the orphans in that village instead of sending them here. Although all newly captured villages will send their children and orphans to the capital for their education until I trust them to build a school and orphanage.”

Everyone at the table was shocked. They had all watched Jiwi Mkuki grow, in large part, due to all the children being required to come there for their schooling. With most of the students and orphans gone, this place would be a shell of its former self.

Someone asked, “But won’t that make our capital worse?”

Paul said, “Truth be told, Jiwi Mkuki is not in a good position to be the capital. I intend to build a capital from scratch next to the river. In fact, as soon as we get concrete, I plan on starting to build a stone tower to mark our new capital. But that will likely be more than a year away. We have to discover concrete first. But that’s where the researchers come in—first concrete and then designing stone towers. We have a lot of work ahead of us in the next couple of years. Any questions.”

There were no questions from the secretaries, research assistance, or lieutenants; their priority was to find their girl and bring her to their new home. Everyone else had lots of questions. Some were even legitimate.

Chapter 25 November AD 77 Alexander Paulson

Alexander, Paul’s oldest son, was excitedly waiting at the gate for his big sister Eulalia. She had been living with her husband since June, but it was finally the day of the planting festival, and she was coming to take part in the women’s tournament. Alexander heard his mom say that Eulalia would probably win since the two women who could fight better than Eulalia were with child this year. But that was probably one of the things he shouldn’t have overheard.

He was looking at face after face as people came to the big festival. He was worried that his sister would come in another gate, but that couldn’t be right since the village she lived in was directly down the road from the east gate.

After waiting for what felt like forever, he saw her. He bolted toward her and nearly tackled her in a big hug. She hugged him back and said, “Hey, Alexander! Its good to see you again.”

Alexander said, “I missed you so much, Eulalia. Can you come back home?”

Loide, Eulalia’s husband, said, “Yes, but only for a day, then she has to come back home with me.”

Alexander was disappointed and said, “Why can’t you stay?”

Eulalia said, “Its like dad always said. Children are destined to grow up and move away from home. One of these days, you will do it too.”

Alexander was a bit sad by that, but he was five and quickly forgot his melancholy attitude when his sister asked, “When did they finish the communications tower?”

Alexander said, “They haven’t. Ever since you left, dad has been complaining about concrete and limestone. He sent out prospectors to find some, and they found it within the first week. Apparently, it’s pretty common stuff. Dad thought you just had to make it into a powder, mix it with sand and gravel, and you got concrete. It didn’t work, so he and his researches began experimenting with the stuff because dad knew limestone was a key component in concrete. Eventually, they figured out you have to burn the limestone, then mix it with clay, sulfur, sand, and gravel to get concrete. Dad said his research assistance did most of the work. ”

Alexander continued, “They only got enough concrete to make the tower foundation last week. Ever since then, dad has been in a rush, using every carpenter he could find to build the tower. He barely got it to seventy feet last night, and then that’s without all the stuff that will make it useful like stairs, platforms, and the stuff to make signals. Everyone has been impressed, but dad said that it’s only as tall as a semi-truck is long like it’s not that big of a deal.”

Eulalia asked, “What is a semi-truck?”

Alexander said, “I don’t know. I asked dad, and he started telling me about a big vehicle that moved with an engine, and I fell asleep. You know, Dad always talks about the magical land he comes from.”

Eulalia nodded. Her stepfather was far more open about his homeland with Alexander than he ever was with her or her brothers. But then again, her stepfather said he couldn’t do a lot until he had a trained workforce, and he had spent the last five years training hundreds of them. Next year should be a banner year for growth in her stepfather’s country.

Eulalia asked, “How is everyone doing?”

Alexander said, “Dashiell is working really hard to get ready for man camp next year, so he doesn’t have time for anybody. George is always getting into my things and being annoying.” Alexander huffed.

Eulalia laughed, “I remember when you used to do that. You only grew out of it in the last year or so.”

Alexander’s face blushed and said, “Mercy and Charity are really healthy. Mom and dad were worried that the bumps from their ant bites would never go away, but they have. And Washington is growing really big. Mom says he will be crawling soon.”

Eulalia hadn’t met her newest little brother and said, “Where’s mom? I want to meet my newest brother.”

Alexander said, “Follow me. Mom can usually be found somewhere around the school, instructing dad’s fiancés. They are really funny. They are scared of mom, but dad seems scared of them for some reason. I don’t care cause they are always nice to me.”

After a few minutes, they found their mom, and Eulalia shrieked when she saw the new baby. She asked, “Is this my new brother? Can I hold him?”

Chazia said, “Yes! Of course!” With that, she handed the infant over to his sister and said, “Eulalia, I never thought I would get to see you married. Before your father came, the witchdoctors ate our spirits and made us have short lives. Now with your father’s new way of doing things, a lot of mothers have gotten to see their daughters get married. I want to be the first woman in our nation to have a grandchild, so you need to get to work.”

Eulalia and Loide blushed. Alexander had no idea what they were talking about, but then he caught his mother’s attention. She said crossly, “Alexander Paulson, why are you here?”

Alexander looked down. In all the excitement, he forgot to do what his father told him to do. He said, “Eulalia asked me to bring her here.”

Chazia said, “She’s here. Now you go and do what your dad told you to do. He said that you are to go out into the festival and learn at least one hundred people’s names before tonight. He said that as the son of a king, you needed to know people’s names so that they have a good impression of you.”

Alexander said, “Yes, mom.” And ran out as fast as he could. His dad said that he read a book called how to win friends and influence people by some guy with a strange name. In the book, it said that if you wanted to win friends, you had to smile a lot, try not to argue with people, and to know their names. His dad said there were more chapters than that, but those were the only ones he could remember. Since his dad wanted his son to be well-liked, he was forcing Alexander to go out and meet people and memorize names. If he didn’t learn a hundred before bed tonight, dad would spank him, and then as always, mom would come in behind dad and really spank him.

Alexander didn’t get why everyone was scared of his mom except for dad.

Alexander did his best to learn people’s names throughout the day. During warriors rock, he learned a bunch of ladies’ names. During the women’s tournament, he learned a bunch of men’s names. It was really hard because everything was so exciting, and he kept forgetting to do what he was supposed to do and watched the events.

He liked the archery event; the logging events were exciting, especially when the trees came crashing down. The blacksmithing event was wild. You got to figure out who really knew how to make swords as a lot of them broke during testing.

Dad even had a farming event this year. He had people grow fruit over the dry season, and the top three best fruit growers won a beehive. Dad said that beehives took a lot of attention to detail if you were going to have the hive split. Something about looking for royal eggs and that if someone could grow good fruit in the dry season, they had enough attention to detail to take care of hives.

By the time supper came, Alexander had only memorized seventy-five names, and so he started sitting with complete strangers, introducing himself and asking their names.

When the night was over, he had learned a hundred and five names, just in case he got a couple wrong. His dad asked him if he had done what he was told, and of course, Alexander said, “yes.”

Dad said, “in the morning, we will find out.”

In the morning, Dad had everyone leave through the south gate so that they could say goodbye to the people. Alexander didn’t realize it because of his age, but the people were touched that Paul and his son knew their names. Paul knew many of their names because, over the years, they were his students, but Alexander learning their names also made them feel important, special, and content. It’s as Dale Carnegie said, the sweetest words in any language is a person’s name.

Chapter 26 December AD 77 Trevor’s Boat

Trevor woke up early in the morning and realized ITS FINALLY CHRISTMAS!

He ran toward his parent’s room. He was going to wake them up so he could open up his presents when he remembered what happened last year. If he woke up his parents, they would make him wait to open up his presents. That’s when he remembered he had a brother.

Trevor ran back to his brother’s bedroom and found his brother sleeping. Bobby was a year and a half, and nobody understood him when he talked. Trevor knew that his parents would try to teach him patience if he woke them up, but if Bobby did it, maybe he could open his presents sooner. Trevor knew the fastest way to wake up his brother. He slapped his feet.

Bobby woke up screaming, and Trevor ran out of Bobby’s room to his own. Less than a minute later, Trevor heard his mom asking, “Did you have a nightmare?”

Trevor ran out and said, “Can we open presents yet?”

His mom said, “After breakfast.”

Trevor looked down and pouted. He hated waiting. He decided to play with Bobby while he waited, but for some reason, Bobby didn’t want anything to do with him this morning. Trevor just didn’t get little brothers.

Since Bobby didn’t want to play, Trevor decided to watch mom. Mom was really, really pregnant. It was kinda funny to watch her move around the kitchen with her belly sticking out the way it was. After the food started getting warm and making good smells dad came into the kitchen.

Trevor lit up and asked, “Dad, can we open presents now?”

Dad said, “No. We will wait until after breakfast like last year.”

Trevor pouted as his parents talked about boring things. Finally, breakfast was ready, and Trevor ate it as quickly as he could. Everyone else was eating it like normal, so Trevor looked over at Bobby and said, “We are getting presents today, eat your breakfast faster.”

Bobby gave Trevor a really mean looked, pulled his food toward himself, and said, “NO!” Mom and dad started laughing, and Trevor turned red. Then Bobby started laughing too. Trever was going to get Bobby back later. Little brothers do not get to make fun of big brothers without consequences.

After an eternity, everyone was done with breakfast, and dad said, “Okay, go open your presents.”

Trevor bolted toward the Christmas tree and pulled out the biggest present with his name on it. He opened it up, and it was a book. Trevor turned to his dad and said, “Dad, why did you make me a book? You know I don’t like reading.”

His dad smiled and said, “Open it up.”

Trevor did so, and it was full of boats at sea with men on it. Trevor said, “Dad, what’s this?”

John said, “Just stories from my homeland about men who travel by boats. You have been talking non-stop about boats all year, so before uncle Nana ruins you with his talk of going up and down our little river, I thought you should have a book telling you about boats at sea.”

Trevor’s eyes went wide and said, “isn’t the sea the thing that uncle Nana said swallows up boats.”

Dad laughed and said, “Yes! Uncle Nana needs to get a bit braver. There are great adventure and riches at sea, for those brave enough to take it.”

Trevor said, “Really? Like what?”

Dad said, “Well if you go all the way down the river to the sea and keep going straight eventually, you will run into a massive island that is warm all year round.” At least John assumed Cuba was warm all year round. He wasn’t a hundred percent sure.

Trevor said, “Is that in the book?”

Dad said, “Yes, and many other stories. It talks about a land far to the northwest where if you drop pots with ropes down to the bottom you can pull up something called red king crab, it also tells you about how far to the east is a land called the roman empire which has many ships on something called the Mediterranean sea. The book contains a rough map of the world.”

Trevor’s eyes got really big and asked, “Can I read the stories anytime I want?”

John nodded and said, “Yes.”

Then Trevor opened up his next present, and it was a Boat with a cloth on the top of it, and something sticking out of the end. He asked, “Dad, what’s this?” Pointing at the cloth.

Dad said, “That’s called a sail. It doesn’t work well in a river, hence the reason none of the boats have one. But if you are on the sea, a sail can move a boat faster than ten men can paddle it.”

Trevor said, “WOW.” Then he pointed at the back of the boat and asked, “What’s this?”

John smiled and said, “That’s called the rudder. Again it’s not really needed when paddles or poles power a boat, but if a boat is wind-powered, then you use the rudder to steer the boat.”

Trevor said, “That’s awesome. I am going to try it out.”

Onawa yelled out, “NO! John, why did you give him a water toy in the WINTER?”

Trevor really wanted to play with his new boat, and so he thought very quickly and said, “Mom, I can play with my boat in the bathhouse.”

His dad said almost instantly later, “Yeah, the bathhouse. That’s what the toy was meant for.”

Trevor looked at his dad with a look that said, “Dad, you are not helping me.” But his mom said, “Fine, when the boy’s bath time comes, you can bring your new boat to the bathhouse.”

Trevor cheered and raced out of the house.

Onawa couldn’t help but smile and say to John, “You got him the perfect gift. He forgot about all his other presents.”

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

Trevor ran around Texas with his little sailboat and went to all his friend’s houses, telling them to meet him at the bathhouse when it was open for the boys.

Later that day, a dozen little four, five, and six-year-old boys met at the bathhouse, went in, stripped, and got in the water.

One of his friends asked, “What did you want us all to meet here for?”

Trevor took out his toy and said, “My dad made me a boat!”

All his buddies thought it was awesome. One of them said, “It’s just like the boats the traders use, except for that piece of cloth on the top.”

Trevor said, “My dad says that cloth is called a sail and its what boats use when they are at sea. Instead of using paddles or poles, when you are at sea, wind blows on the sail and makes your boat move faster than if you were paddling.”

Several of the boys said, “Really?”

Trevor said, “Yeah, watch.”

He put his boat in the water and started blowing on the sail, and the boat started moving through the bath pretty quickly. The boy’s eyes went really big, and they all started helping the boat move around the giant tub by blowing on the sail. Before long, they were trying to see how fast they could get it going.

Eventually, it was the girl’s turn in the bathhouse, and the boys had to get dressed and leave. When they left, Trevor said, “When I grow up, I am going to make a big boat, with a big sail and go to a big island in the sea.”

His friends all agree that they would go with him.

Chapter 27 February AD 78 Tolls

Sani was thrilled. He had brought a load of salt from his village on the coast all the way up the river to Texas and made some outstanding trades. His boat was fuller now than when he left his village, which was fine by him because on the way home the river could do most of the work.

A few hours down the river, he spotted another boat. It was filled with armed men, and one of them shouted, “Stop!”

Sani had heard about men blocking the river last year due to war, and he hoped that wasn’t the case here. He wanted to get home.

The men on the boat quickly rowed to Sani’s boat and said, “This part of the river belongs to our village. If you want to use it, you have to pay us. If you can not pay us, you have to go back to where you came from.”

Sani and his men were mad, and he said, “What do you mean I have to pay to use this part of the river! We have been on this river for more than a year, and no tribe has forced anyone to pay to use it!”

The armed men said, “Our tribe doesn’t think it’s fair that other tribes use our part of the river to make themselves rich while we get nothing in return. So we are going to demand tribute of you traders every time we catch you coming by. If you don’t like it head back where you came from.”

Sani only had three men with him. They couldn’t fight the dozen men that were blocking their way. Sani didn’t like it, but he asked, “How much are you charging to use your portion of the river.”

The man said, “Either an Ax or Bowie knife.”

Sani and his men gasped. Sani said, “That’s Ridiculous! I won’t pay it.”

The man said, “Fine, take out your poles and go back where you came from.”

One of Sani’s men said, “We came from the coast, you idiot! We are trying to go back where we came from, but you are blocking us.”

The man smiled and said, “Really? So you came by here and didn’t pay our toll the first time? Well, then you owe us two tools made of iron then. Thank you for your honesty.”

Sani argued with the man for a while, but he refused to budge on price. And why should he, he had armed men with him. If they wanted to, they could kill Sani and his men, and take all their stuff. Eventually, Sani relented.

As they went down the river, a pattern emerged. If they came across a tribe that they had regular trade with that tribe didn’t demand any tribute, but most of the tribes that didn’t have anything worth trading were demanding tribute.

When Sani ran out of metal tools to trade, they demanded his ketchup, when he ran out of ketchup, they demanded his spices, when he ran out of spices they demanded his canned food when he ran out of canned food they demanded the seed grain he was bringing back for spring.

Traveling at night didn’t help much as many villagers had boats of men at night catching them, stopping them, and demanding tribute. Smuggling was best done under a new moon, but they were too inexperienced in this sort of thing to realize that.

Sani had screwed up. He should have gone back to Texas and talked with chief John the first time a village sent men to block his way. He was very surprised when village after village demanded tribute for him and his men to pass. The last village he passed took the last bit of their trade goods, and now their boat was empty. He was worried that he would not be able to make it home because there were still several villages to pass on the river before they reached the coast.

About a day upriver from his home, he got stopped one last time. Several men were in a boat, and the lead man said, “In order to pass, you must pay us. We are not letting you traders use our part of the river for free anymore.”

Sani said, “Look in our boat, its empty. Your friends have already taken everything from us, and now we are trying to get home.”

The man smiled and said, “Your boat is nice. Why don’t you give it to us and then we will let you pass.”

Sani said, “Are you stupid? If you take our boat, then how will we be able to pass?”

The man said, “You should have thought about that when you decided to use the part of the river belonging to our tribe.”

Sani turned to his men and said, “Pole back up the river. We can’t go any further.”

The man smiled and waved at them as they left.

One of the men said, “What are we going to do?”

Sani said, “We are going to wait for nightfall and then sneak past them.”

Another man asked, “What’s going on? This situation is so strange.”

Sani said, “Every tribe demanding tribute from us is saying the same thing. I think they got together over the winter and worked out how to hurt the tribes that are doing all the trading.”

One of the men said, “Do you think our life of trading is over?”

Sani said, “Don’t worry about it. Everyone likes the salt, iron, tomatoes, and ketchup that the trade brings. When we get back, we will have to talk to the chief about it. He will be able to work something out.”

Once night came, they began paddling, and when they passed the village where they were stopped, they were noticed. The men in the village yelled at them, “STOP.” They only paddled harder.

Then the men in the village yelled out, “Stop or we will shoot arrows!”

Sani and his men kept paddling. They had nothing left but their boat and their lives, and they needed to get home. That’s when the arrows started falling, and Sani and all his men were hit. But they kept going. Unless an arrow hits you in some very specific spots, it’s not going to kill you instantly.

The men from that village gave chase for a little while, but soon gave up and started polling back to their village. Their job was to stop people from passing, not give chase down to the next village. If they did that, they might be the ones having to pay a toll.

Sani and his men ran two more blockades before they made it back to their village. Two of his men died on the way. They made it back in the middle of the night, and Sani and his surviving crewmate went straight to the chief’s hut. He banged on the door, and the chief came out and asked, “Who died?”

Then his eyes went wide and saw it was Sani and asked, “Sani, what’s wrong, why are you here?”

Sani explained what happened, and how two of his men died, and that he and his surviving crewmate needed medical attention.

Chief Tonteel face was red with fury, he forcefully said, “Blood has been spilled!” Then he started trying to think of a solution to the problem and, with a resigned voice, asked, “How can we get our revenge against so many villages?”

Sani didn’t realize that chief Tonteel was talking out loud and said, “Chief John didn’t rob us, and he is probably finding out about the situation as we speak. Perhaps we could ally with him.”

Chief Tonteel honestly hadn’t thought about that. Even though he met John once he did not interact with other villages often, most chiefs focus was simply on their own village. When he heard the suggestion, life came into him, and he said, “Gather our warriors, we will go meet with chief John. These blockades are likely affecting him more than us, so he should be a ready ally.”

Chapter 28 February AD 78 Taxation without representation

John was having a terrible week. Apparently, several of the villages that did not do regular trade decided to make traders pay tolls to use the river in front of their villages. Oh, sure they didn’t call it tolls since they didn’t have that word in their language yet, and if John had anything to do with it, they would never have that word.

John hated tolls. John was one of those guys who used the tollways in Texas, and when they mailed him the bill, he let it go to collections because Tolls are taxation without representation. It ticked him off that he paid property taxes for them to build the road, gas taxes for them to maintain the road, and toll taxes to use the road. John would fight to make sure that problem did not repeat itself here.

Currently, John had a village full of traders who were waiting for John to fix the problem. Two weeks ago, many of them came to Texas and traded. They got what they needed, left, and while poling upriver, they were surprised when they had to pay a toll to get past certain villages that honestly didn’t have anything worth trading. They were unhappy about it but decided to pay it and tell their chief’s about it when they got home. After a couple of more villages who didn’t trade very often did this they got worried.

Then a Boat from Dumatli village at the source of the river came by. According to them, more than a dozen forced him to pay them tribute to pass. The traders did the math realized that it wasn’t worth it to continue and made their way back to Texas. In fact, once they had enough boats, they threatened the toll workers and didn’t have to pay on the way back downriver.

Now John’s docks were filled up. John had sent some men to talk to several of the Chiefs up and down the river. Now all day everyday people were asking John, “When will you solve the problem?”

John answered, “I am working on it. I sent representatives to talk to the other chiefs, and they should be back soon with their answers.” Soon was a relative term here. He sent Nana upriver to talk to the nearest village upriver that was charging a toll. Nana had to poll upriver, that takes time. But he sent Ulhas downriver to talk to the tribe downriver that’s charging tolls. He likely talked to them days ago, but its taking time to pole back upriver. John suspected they would get back sometime today or tomorrow.

So far, he hadn’t heard of anyone dying, and as long as things stayed that way, perhaps he could keep things from going to war. But with so many upset traders, and villages a peaceful resolution was looking to be very difficult.

After two more days of waiting Ulhas and his crew came slowly poling upriver. John was impatient, so he got in his boat and went out to meet him. Once their boats bumped, John asked, “What did the chief say.”

Ulhas frowned and said, “He said, that they will force anyone coming by their village to pay tribute because it’s not fair that villages that have trade goods get rich while his village stays poor.”

John’s jaw dropped. Then he asked, “What?”

Ulhas said, “He also said its only fair if everyone gets rich together. He was really smug about it.”

John said, “This isn’t good at all.”

Ulhas said, “I know. This is stealing by inches.”

John said, “Yeah, and the tribes who have stuff to trade are not going to put up with it. Either they will go to war, or they will quit trading altogether when there is no profit, maybe both. This sucks, we had two years with really awesome prosperity. Everyone was better off. Yeah, some people were more better off than others, but overall every village on the river was much better off. This stupidity is going to make everyone as poor as they were before the boats came.”

Ulhas said, “Not just that. But we were going to trade with some hunting tribes who were going to live along the river. They are waiting for us to deliver some grain so they can start their new life. When they realize they are not getting their grain, they will have to get food from somewhere, and the surrounding villages will likely get raided.”

John shook his head and said, “We got to do something about this.”

Ulhas said, “Has Nana came back yet?”

John said, “No. Let’s go back, tell the traders what you told me, and we will wait for Nana.”

A few hours later, Nana and his group made it back. They were paddling hard and continued to do so until they made it to the dock. Nana ran up the dock and straight to John’s house. Nana didn’t knock. He came right in, and he was furious.

Nana said, “JOHN! You won’t believe what chief Gaagii said!”

John had never seen Nana this mad before, he braced himself and asked, “What did he say?”

Nana snarled, “Chief Gaagii said that over the winter, he went to all the tribes that hadn’t been going up and down the river and pointed out that they could stop the traders and take a portion of their goods. As long as each village took a little bit, the trading villages couldn’t do anything because it would mean going to war with every village that took tribute from the traders.”

John said, “What? Why would he do that? I thought he was mad at that other chief for not giving him stuff for his daughter.”

Nana said, “He was so smug, I think he is doing this to get back at you for stopping his blockade last year. He is basically saying that you cant go to war with everyone demanding tribute.”

John shook his head and said, “Chief Gaagii is a disgusting man who doesn’t get whats going on. This isn’t just about me. There are a couple of dozen villages that regularly trades with me, and he is infuriating them all.”

Nana said, “But what are we going to do? Go to war with every village that stops the traders?”

John said, “I would rather talk with them first.”

Nana said, “John, why do you insist on talking when these guys are pointing weapons at us and stealing from us?”

John said, “Blood hasn’t been spilled yet; we can still make it right.”

That’s when there was a bang on his door. John said, “Who can that be?”

Nana said, “Maybe Ulhas is back?”

As John to the door, he said, “No, can’t be him. Ulhas came back way before you.”

When John opened up the door, he was surprised to see Chief Tonteel. John said, “Chief Tonteel, please come in.”

Chief Tonteel came in and said, “Two of my traders were killed returning to my village, and their goods were stolen. I am going to war with the murders. From what I see, your traders are facing the same problems. Will you ally yourself with me in war?”

John paused and thought for a while. Blood had been spilled there was no avoiding war now, so he took a moment to get his thoughts in order and finally said, “What is the purpose of your war?”

Chief Tonteel was taken aback and said, “What do you mean what is the purpose?”

John said, “ What is the goal? If the goal is killing everyone in every village that took tribute from your people, I won’t go to war with you. But if the war goal is to open trade back up again, we will go to war together.”

Chief Tonteel said, “How do you go to war without wiping out your enemy? If you let them live, they will just turn around and kill you!”

John thought for a minute and said, “If you go to war killing people indiscriminately, then yes, they will want to wipe your people out. But where I am from, there is a long history of going to war with a people then a few years later being allies. Blood has been spilled now, and more blood will be spilled in the future, but I want as little blood spilled as possible. I think we should go to war and capture the chiefs of the villages. Once we have all the chiefs captured, we can force all the tribal chiefs to sit down and talk, and make decisions for the river as a group.”

Chief Tonteel said, “What crazy stuff are you spouting? If you have an enemy, you use your weapons to force them to your will!”

John said, “That’s why I asked whats the purpose of your war. Depending on your purpose for war, we may not have to force our will on them.”

Chief Tonteel gave John a look that said he thought John was the strangest thing he ever saw and said, “Explain?”

John said, “You want to go to war in part because two of your men were killed. I have been to your village, and I saw how close you were to your people. The first time you tasted food with salt on it, you gave the rest of your salted food to your people so they could enjoy it also. But since then, you have also been growing rich from the salt trade. Your people are eating better than they have ever before, and they have more things than they have ever had before. You may want revenge, but you need the trade.”

Chief Tonteel reluctantly shook his head agreeing with John, and John continued, “Once I found out about the tolls,” Chief Tonteel looked confused, and John said, “the tribute, once I found out about the tribute demands, I sent men up and down the river to see what was going on. Basically, many villages who really don’t have anything to trade have noticed that those who do are getting really wealthy and want a part of that wealth. If we go to war to reopen free trade, then the point of the war will be to capture the other chiefs and talk with them about how best to make trade going forward.”

Chief Tonteel asked, “How would that work?”

John said, “Let’s be honest, the only villages that have anything to trade are trading things I gave them. Your village is the only village where I went out of my way to give something special. Every other village with something to trade sent some of their young men my way to train under me. When their training was done, I gave them different kinds of seeds to grow. Those seeds have produced valuable trade goods. I have a lot more types of seeds to give out. It’s just I never got to do so with the other villages. In my experience, if you give someone you don’t know well something, they don’t treasure it or care for it. But if they work for it, then it’s a different story. The seeds I have are very precious, and to find many of these seeds, you would have to cross an ocean and a continent. But after the war, I think things will be different.”

Chief Tonteel asked, “If we are going to do that, why not just grab some seeds you think would be good at trading and give them to them?”

John said, “That won’t work. Charging tribute is an easy way for them to amass wealth in the short term. Growing these seeds is hard work. The only way giving them seeds would do any good is if we win this war. They want to be prosperous like everyone else, but they will need to work like everyone else to have that prosperity. We need to get everyone on the same page. At my count, there are currently sixty-four villages on this river, with a few hunting tribes who want to build new villages here. We should go out, capture the chiefs, and bring every chief here, to Texas. Once we are all on the same page and most of the chiefs are content, I don’t think the discontent chiefs will want to go to war again. Especially after they see how dangerous my fast fire bows are.”

Chief Tonteel said, “I agree to go to war with you over the purpose of trade. If you are wrong, we will just have to wipe out our enemies to the last man, woman, and child next year.”

Chapter 29 February AD 78 Fighting like Vikings

After the talk with Chief Tonteel, John went outside and was swamped with traders who wanted to know what was going on. Truth be told, they were frantic enough at this point that they wanted to be heard more than they wanted to listen to John. After a few minutes of the traders talking over each other, they finally got tired of talking, and John finally got to speak.

John simply said, “We are going to war.”

ALL the men cheered. To a real degree, this broke John’s heart. Going out and killing people should never be a happy occasion.

Once the cheering died down, John said, “The purpose of this war is to open up trade again. Not to kill everyone in the villages that we are mad at.”

All the men looked confused at John’s proclamation. The fact was they were in stunned silence, but since John had already talked to Chief Tonteel about the situation, he was expecting it. John simply said, “Trade has made all of us rich, yes?”

Several of the men nodded, others said, “Yes.”

John said, “If we go out and kill everyone in the enemy villages, then we won’t have as many trading partners. If we are going to get richer, we need to force them to be our trading partner.”

The men thought deeply about what John said, and then they started nodding.

As the purpose of this war sank in, John said, “In order for us to force them to be our trading partners, we will have to capture all the chiefs and work out trade deals.”

One of the men said, “So we are going to capture chiefs instead of girls?”

John said, “Yes!”

Another man said, “We ought to capture some girls while we are at it.” Many of the men laughed at his statement. John didn’t.

John said, “We are not going to capture girls; we are not going to take spoils; we are not even going to kill more than is necessary to capture the chiefs. When this war is over, I want as few hurt feelings as possible so that there won’t be another war for years. Since I am leading this war, you will do what I say. If I see one of you men dragging a girl off, I will cut off the hand that you are using to drag the girl. Our goal is to reopen trade, that’s it. If you want something other than trade, go find your chief and go to war for that purpose.”

The men got real quiet for a while. On one hand, they had always gone to war with the idea of wiping out their enemy and taking all their stuff. Granted, they rarely actually accomplished the task. Usually, they just end up running them off or getting run off themselves. On the other hand, trade was amazing. Different villages producing different things and trading with each other has made life so much better.

The men John had trained were the first to say, “We will go to war like you want.” But it wasn’t long before all the men did so. John was old enough to know talk was cheap. John was sure they meant what they said right now, but they were not standing in front of their enemy now, or a pretty girl. John was not looking forward to correcting his men’s bad behavior in war.

John said, “Everyone of you needs a fast fire bow, five magazines, and a bowie knife. Then we will need to put shields on the ships to protect us from enemy fire when we are on the boats.”

One of the men said, “What’s a shield?”

John explained what a shield was, and then they got to work preparing for war. Most of the traders already had a fast-firing bow and a bowie knife, but only two of them had five magazines. After a couple of days getting enough magazines and arrows made, they went to work on the boats. They simply nailed rows of two by fours all along both sides of the boats they were going to war with. Then they hung shields on those two by fours. John was pretty sure this is how the Vikings built their ships. If nothing else, he clearly remembered they had shields on the side of the ship.

After they had all their gear prepared, John made them actually practice using their boats for a day. Most of these men were used to only four men being in the boats, but these boats could easily hold over thirty men. If they really wanted to, they could cram forty-five men on them. They chose to go with just twenty-five men on the boat, and they practiced using the shields as cover while shooting their fast fire bows. It wasn’t long before they were ready to go to war.

John sent men by foot up to the source of the river to inform Chief Dumatli about what was happening. Truth be told, he would probably be the last to know anything just because you had to pole all the way to the top of the river to trade with him. He wouldn’t be expecting a boat for a while.

Then John left twenty-five men to protect the village along with Xenia, General Lee, and Patton. John led over two hundred men from twenty different villages on a raid downriver. They chose to go down river because they would make good time and be able to surprise many of the enemy villages along the way. Poling upriver was so slow they already decided to do that portion of the war on foot. Considering the river was over eight hundred miles long, it would take months. But considering the villages they were fighting were not united in anything more than robbing the traders a little at a time, it was doable.

It was only a half a day before the eight boats with two hundred men rounded a curve in the river and saw a boat with fifteen men waiting for traders to rob, or what they called collecting tribute. These men were not the swiftest men around, but then again, if they were the cream of the crop of their village, they probably wouldn’t be waiting in the cold on the river in February for traders.

They actually started poling toward the eight vessels John’s war party was in. As soon as they could, they yelled out, “Stop! You have to pay us tribute before you can go any further.”

John turned toward his men and yelled, “Stay calm! Stay calm.” John didn’t want his men scaring off these idiots yet.

When they finally got a few feet from the boats, one of the men on the boat yelled out, “Why do you have so many people? If you don’t have anything to pay tribute with, you will have to go back.”

John yelled out, “Raise your bows!”

The eyes of the men on the boat demanding tribute got very big. One even fell down. The leader of the group started stuttering and said, “Yyyyou don’t have to pppppay tribute.”

John said, “Throw your bows into the river.”

Immediately the men did so. Then John said, “Row your boat toward the shore. Do not run when you get there.” They did as they were told, and Johns men followed them to the shore.

Once there, John had one boat of twenty-five men stay with the other boats and the captured toll takers. John took the rest of the men toward the village. John was pleased that the war had been rather bloodless so far and hoped things would stay that way. As they made their way through empty fields, they were spotted, and there were screams. People started running, and men with bows came out and started firing at John’s men.

They returned fire to devastating effect. John yelled out, “Surround the village. Do not let the chief getaway.”

As his men went to surround the village, John could see women and children escaping as men came up to fight. Some of these men had fast fire bows, and they had a shoot out with Johns men. It was a bizarre sight because, unlike the movies with music, and booming sounds of gunfire, the bows just had a twang.

There were screams, though, so many screams. As the village lost more men and started to run low on arrows, their chief cried out, “What do you want? Are you here to wipe us out?”

John yelled to his men, “Stop firing! Stop firing! Remember the reason why we are here!”

Slowly Johns men stopped firing. Some because they were actually listening to John. But most stop firing because they emptied the arrows in their magazine.

John yelled out to the chief, “We are here to capture you.”

The chief had tears in his eyes as he yelled back, “Are you going to kill me? Are you going to wipe out my village?”

John yelled back, “No! All these men are from the villages that have done most of the trading. They are upset with the new tribute that many villages like yours have decided to put on them. We are going to collect all the chiefs from these villages and take them back to Texas and work something out between all the villages.”

The chief was dumbfounded and yelled back, “If you wanted to discuss trade, why did you bring an army and kill my people?”

John said, “If you hadn’t been robbing our traders as they made their way past your village, we never would have needed an army.”

The chief said, “Fine, I will come out. If you kill me, my men will know to fight to the death.”

The chief came out and went straight to John. John yelled out. “Alright, men, I want all of you to head back to the boats. Put the wounded in stretchers and bring them back; we will heal their wounds on the shore.”

The men began to put the wounded on stretchers and head back to the boat when John saw something that made him furious. One of the men who went to the other side of the village when they surrounded the village was dragging a girl along. She couldn’t have been older than thirteen.

John asked the chief, “Is that one of your girls.”

The chief looked mournful and, with resigned defeat in his voice, said, “Yes.”

John said, “I promised you that if you came with, we would not harm your village, and now one of my men has made me break that promise. I apologize. I will fix this.”

With that, John headed to the man dragging the girl. He was big compared to the girl. He had a big smile on his face as he dragged her with one arm. When he saw John, he looked like he had something to say. John never asked. In one motion, he pulled out his bowie knife and cut the man’s forearm in half.

The man began screaming. The girl panicked and ran back to the village, the hand amazingly enough still holding on to the girl for a few feet.

John yelled out, “I said this war was about trade. I said that we would not take spoils or wives from these villages. All of you agreed to it. This man broke his word and lost his hand. I trust we will not need another lesson.”

Everyone was shocked, and many of the men did not like John’s actions, but John was in command. If they really didn’t like what John did, they had to be willing to kill him, and none of them were, so in one motion, John made it clear he was the Alpha in charge.

Chapter 30 April AD 78 A Brief stop

Onawa was inside her home when she heard dogs barking, and then men shouting. When she heard the men shouting, she quickly ran outside to see what was going on. When she looked to see what the commotion was about, she saw hundreds of men coming toward their village. With John gone, she had no idea what to do. Her face began to show panic.

Then she heard one of the men shout, “ITS ME JOHN!”

When Onawa heard that she ran toward her husband, who was leading all the men, and when she reached him, she jumped into his arms and kissed him.

Eventually, she let John breath, and she asked, “Did we win?”

John took in a breath and said, “So far, we are winning.”

Many of the people also ran to hear the news.

John turned back to his warriors and said, “You men go find places to rest we will stay here tonight, and tomorrow we will head upriver to begin that part of the war.”

The men started to disperse when John turned back to the people who couldn’t go to war with him. This included the older men, women, children, and the young men who needed to stay to guard the village from attack.

John shouted, “There were fourteen villages downriver blocking trade. We have captured their chiefs.”

Onawa and the rest of the village cheered at the news.

John continued, “Out of the original two hundred men that we started with, we only have a hundred still in fighting shape.” The crowd sobered up when John said that.

John then said, “Twenty five of those men died. Two were from our village. Seventy-five were wounded. We left all those men at the mouth of the river with Chief Tonteel’s people. But it’s not all bad news. Several of the villages downriver of us were upset that the other villages demanded a tribute, so they added many more warriors to our ranks. We now have two hundred and fifty warriors. Now that we have captured all the chiefs blocking trade downriver, we have to start capturing the chiefs upriver.”

The people all nodded and smiled. To them, the war was half over, and they had more warriors than when they had begun the war.

Someone called out, “Why did you walk into the village? Why didn’t you come back in your boats?”

John said, “Because we are not carrying tons of cargo. If you want to move people upriver, it’s much faster to walk it than to pole it, but if you have to move tons of cargo, it’s much easier to pole that upriver. For the rest of the war, we will walk from village to village. I am sure we will also pick up a lot more warriors on the way. Before we go, we will pick up some supplies. I will need rope, pine sap, and regular arrows. And I will need the men to guard the chiefs we captured.”

One of the men yelled out, “You should kill them all.” Several of the men grunted in approval.

John said, “All that would do is make this war go out of control. We have already lost two men from our village. I do not want to lose anymore. Part of the reason we have lost so few men is that I have treated these chiefs and their villages well. On our first raid after we captured a chief, one of my men decided to take a wife from his village against my orders. He was dragging the poor girl. I went up to the fool and cut off his arm right then in there for disobeying orders and making me a liar. It showed that chief that I meant business about not harming him or his people. That chief had allied with several chiefs in the past. He was able to convince three of them to come without a fight because he saw I kept my word.”

John continued, “If any of you kill these captured chiefs for any reason, I will kill you in horrible ways. All the chiefs but one are over the age of sixty, the young men who stayed here to help plant the crops should be able to easily recapture one of the chiefs if they decide to run. So even if they try to escape, do not kill them, or your life will be forfeit. If they kill someone trying to escape, you do not kill them; I will come back and deal with them appropriately. Do you understand or do you need me to have stumpy, the guy whose arm I cut off, explain it to you?”

This shocked John’s people. John had always been the type of chief to let the people pretty much do whatever they wanted to do as long as they worked hard and didn’t hurt other people. A hard stance wasn’t unknown to them, many other chiefs did similar things, but it was the first time for John.

John then said, “You will not see me or the men I take for several months. Just because walking upriver is faster than poling upriver doesn’t mean that we will be fast. One of the advantages we had, when we were going downriver, is that with the current we were able to move fast enough that all the villages were taken by surprise. I do not think we will have that advantage when we travel upriver. Tomorrow we embark on much more dangerous fighting, so please spend time with your men before we go.”

That night John spent his night with the men that made camp. Sure nobody would have thought any worse of John if he had spent the night with his wife and children, but because John spent the night with the men, they thought better of him.

Onawa understood why John did what he did, but she still came out to him with their three children. Trevor, Bobby, and at just a couple of months old Quincy. John introduced his family to the men who would be sleeping outside in teepees because they were far from their home, fighting for their right to have free trade. Trevor was six now, so John made a point of telling his son all the brave things he saw these men do. The men were touched that John bragged on them in front of his family.

The captured chiefs were surprised when John introduced his son to them because they were prisoners. Who introduces six-year-olds to prisoners of war?

Little Trevor asked, “Are these the bad men you are fighting.”

The chiefs were shocked when John said, “Trevor, these men did what they thought was best for their village. Yes, their decision hurt many men, but the whole point of this war is being able to talk to each other so that when someone makes a decision best for their village, it doesn’t hurt the other villages. In fact, several o of these chiefs have shown great courage in talking to other chiefs and getting them to surrender without a fight. Because these chiefs were brave, blood was not spilled.”

When these chiefs made the decision to force traders to pay tribute, it is true that they thought it was the best thing to do for their village, but everyone also knew that it would hurt all the traders. John showed them great face by overlooking that fact. This made them much more amicable to John, although they were looking to be prisoners for months longer.

Chapter 31 April AD 78 Texas-Fighting a prepared enemy

To quickly fight the villages upriver from them, they had to leave their boats behind. This meant they could not cross the river back and forth. John had to make the decision on which side of the river they were going to fight on.

John decided to fight on the other side of the river from Texas. It wasn’t for tactical reasons. In John’s last life, John was an avid hunter. The only tactical ability he brought back to this time period is the ability to use the bow.

But now that John was in the past, he has led hundreds of men to capture the chiefs of fourteen villages in less than two months. With those fourteen raids, John was the most experienced warrior on the continent. You had to go to Meso-America to find someone more experienced in fighting than John.

It is not that tribes living on the river had never fought other tribes before. It’s just that farming, hunting, and gathering took up most of their time. They just didn’t have enough food security to study war. If someone lived long enough to be an elder, they usually only fought in three wars in their lifetime. These wars were short, focused on extermination, and almost always left incomplete. They were usually about revenge. Resource wars were rare because you do raids if you want resources. Wars were almost always fought because you found out who raided your village for food or women.

When the men from Texas left, they gathered their dogs and had them carry supplies. Most of the dogs could carry between twenty-five and thirty-five pounds of supplies. This was one of the reasons why John had waited to go upriver to fight. The dogs just couldn’t carry anywhere near the supplies that a boat could. One of the messages John had sent by foot to the villages upriver was to prepare supplies for him and his men. It’s not that his village didn’t have the supplies; it’s just that they couldn’t carry those supplies on foot with the dogs they had. This was a big reason why being in a hunting tribe, before horses made their way to the continent, was so hard.

John, his men, and their dogs crossed the river at Texas with no problem. As they made their way upriver to Chief Gaagii’s village, they passed through an area of mesquite trees, and they were ambushed. Nobody even noticed they were being shot at until the arrows started hitting the men. Their screams informed everyone of the ambush.

All of John’s men carried fast fire bows. These bows looked very much like a crossbow, but instead of having a butt stock that held the string in a firing position, they had a magazine filled with seven arrows that could be fired quickly. The magazine was attached to their chest in such a way that they could shoot the bow in less than a second if they needed to.

Upon hearing the screams of their companions, all the unwounded men grabbed their bow and pulled the string back. They were now fully aware of their surroundings and searching for targets. Three seconds later, another volley of arrows began to fire toward John’s men, but this time they saw where the fire was coming from and began shooting back.

There were many more screams from John’s side, but only one from the other. They were firing from cover, John’s men didn’t even know what that was. But John’s men had numbers and courage and began charging toward the men behind cover.

As soon as John’s men started charging the ambushers, they ran. John didn’t blame them. It was clear there were only a handful of men firing at his army of over two hundred. They probably didn’t even have as many arrows as he had men.

As they ran, though, the dogs started chasing. They couldn’t help it; it was their instinct. This made John worry that those men were not after their lives but after their supplies. John yelled out, “Chase those men.”

John didn’t have to yell it out; his men and dogs were already doing that. The dogs easily passed John charging men, and when they did so, they captured the slowest enemy and began turning his legs into mincemeat. All the men ignored the dying man as they passed him and continued chasing the others until they were out of the mesquite forest.

Once John’s men had a clear line of sight on the handful of men, they began shooting arrows at them. They managed to bring seven down. Hard to tell from that distance if they killed them or not. Either way, John’s men stopped chasing the enemy once they got to the edge of the forest. In this society before cars or riding beast you do a lot of walking, but not a lot of running. After chasing the ambushers through the mesquite forest, they were too tired to keep pursuing their enemy. In fact, they stopped and huffed and puffed until John caught up to them.

John bypassed the dogs that were eating the corpse of the man they killed. He knew better than to get between a dog and its food. John felt horror at what they were doing and relief that they still had their supplies.

John eventually caught up with the men who reached the edge of the forest and asked, “Did any of our men keep chasing them.”

One of the men was sweaty and flush from running turned to John and said, “No. But we managed to shoot a few who fell into the tall grass.”

John said, “Good. If any of them survived stitch their wounds.”

The man looked at John with horror and shock and said, “They ambushed us! They killed I don’t know how many men and you want us to stitch their wounds!”

John said, “Those men have heard how we are going to the villages and conquering them. In their mind, the only way to do so is by killing everyone in a village. They are trying to protect their homes and their families.”

He looked back at John and said, “If they were not stealing from the traders, they would not need to protect their homes!”

John said, “You were one of the traders, correct?”

The man said, “Yes.”

John said, “When this is all over, and you are back to trading, do you think these people will be more willing to trade with us if we kill all their men, or if heal the men we wound?”

The man’s face went bitter, be he honestly said, “If we heal them.”

John said, “So the best thing you can do business-wise is healing the wounded.”

The man wasn’t happy about it, but he was more greedy than vengeful, so he stitched his enemies up. While he was doing that, John went back to their wounded and stitched them up. Then John did something the men did not understand. John told the men to bring all the wounded with them as they went to the next village.

After another day, they finally made it to the Gaagii’s village, wounded in tow. Chief Gaagii was clearly prepared for them. They did not have people working in the fields. They did have a lot of men armed for a fight in their village. These villages were not like the Hollywood movies that always showed Indians in teepees. Teepees were only used on a permanent basis by hunting tribes. Everyone else only used them when they were away from their village. This village had a variation of log cabins, and they were built close enough together that they could put up a good defense. It wasn’t a bad plan.

There was no large wall surrounding the village, though. John grew up in a time where he had never been to a city surrounded by walls, but every movie, tv-show, and video game seemed to think walls were the perfect defensive solution. These people did not think building a wall around their village was obvious. Truth be told, the only reason walled fortifications became so popular in Europe was because after being raided by the Vikings for more than a hundred years, they finally figured out that hiding all your goods in a stone fortification kept the Vikings from robbing you. If it took all of Europe a hundred years to figure out using fortifications to stimmy the Viking raids, John could understand why this tribe didn’t figure it out in a few weeks.

As John’s men got close, he heard chief Gaagii yell out, “We are prepared to fight to the last man.”

John yelled back, “We are not. We are here to capture you and you alone, chief Gaagii. We are not going to kill you. We are going to have all the chiefs that have a village on the river, meet and talk with each other.”

Chief Gaagii laughed and said, “You will not fool me with your words. If you want me, you will have to go through all my men to get me. To get to us, you will have to cross fields with no cover while we can take cover behind log cabins.”

John said, “Oh, really?” A fast fire bow was simply a regular bow with a magazine that allowed it to fire arrows very quickly. John variation had a way to quickly attach and release the magazines so that he could shoot many times the arrows of anyone with a normal bow. John took off the magazine of his fast fire bow and took out an arrow with an iron head and rope wrapped around the top. John dipped the arrow in pine sap, then lit the arrow on fire and shot it at one of the log cabins in Gaagii’s village. The iron head sunk deep into the wood, and the fire quickly spread from the arrow to the log cabin.

Gaagii and the faces of his men paled. With those arrows, John and his men could burn down their village, and their granaries. They would have no cover from the hundreds of men John brought to this fight.

John yelled back, “You have my permission to send someone to put that fire out. We will not shoot arrows at them this time. “

Gaagii did as John said, and a man quickly brought a bucket of water out and doused the flames. That didn’t put the flames out, so he ran back three more times until the flames were out.

Once that was finished, John yelled, “Gaagii do you want to surrender, or do I need to burn down your village first?”

Gaagii yelled back, “I surrender.”

After that, Gaagii came over to John’s forces expecting the worst, but he was shocked to find several of his men being taken care of by John’s men.

John asked, “Could you ask your people to take care of these men?”

Gaagii was delighted. In this time period on this continent, most of the tribes considered anyone in the village they grew up in family. When these wounded men didn’t come back, it was as if Chief Gaagii lost nephews.

He ran back to his people and told them that the men who they thought were dead were alive and that when he goes off with John, they were going to leave them there. They were so excited about this that even the widows and orphans of the men who really had died celebrated. This was the best loss they ever had, and it went a long way toward healing the wounds between the tribes.

The last thing John did at that village was to have his soldiers confiscate Chief Gaagii’s boat. The loaded up chief Gaagii and John’s wounded warriors and brought them back to Texas. That done, John continued his campaign against those who would impose tolls in Texas.

Chapter 32 May AD 78 Stone Tower

Chazia was having a tough time with Dashiell joining the military. It surprised Paul because most of the parents were glad when their children were sent away to be fed by someone else, especially when they were too young to do anything but sow seeds and harvest crops. But then again maybe they were not glad to see their children go, but glad to know their children were getting fed.

Ever since Chazia married Paul, her children have eaten every single day. She never expected it. In truth, she never expected to see her children grow up. To see the child, her first husband never met leave home and join the army was very hard for her, especially when she was right there where the army trained and unable to talk to her boy.

So Paul took Chazia to see the new capital he was building along the river. The Road to it was completed in just two months. Paul planned that from this side of the river, it would have at least three roads going to the nearest villages but so much was being built it would be some time before he could devote more resources to road infrastructure.

Chazia could not go with Paul by herself because she had a duty as a mother. Alexander, George, Washington, Charity, and Mercy came along with them. Chazia also had a responsibility as a wife and teacher to continue training Paul’s fiancées, so over Paul’s objections, she brought all five of them.

Paul could not describe how uncomfortable it is to have five girls totally in love with you and expecting to marry you in the next few years. Paul all to often had to be their teacher as he taught all the kids at the same time, he was also a doctor, a warrior, played an instrument, was rich, was handsome compared to the local men who have been malnourished all their life, and he was already married. Paul knew these things were attractive to these girls because they argued about which one was his most attractive characteristic endlessly.

Chazia didn’t just bring the children and the fiancées. She also brought the five girls who were engaged to marry her two sons when they came of age. It stung when those girls argued that Paul’s stepsons were better because they were not old men.

They hadn’t even reached their destination, and Paul already needed a vacation from his family.

The trip took a couple of hours longer than it should because of the roundabout way they had to get to the capital because of how the road system was. The road infrastructure in Paulsland was terrible. All roads led to Jiwi Mkuki village, which was currently the center of the nation, but if someone were to make a road map of the nation, it would look like several lines intersecting at Jiwi Mkuki. Things needed to change so that you could visit much of the nation without going through the old capital, but that would have to wait a couple of years. And so Paul had to listen to girls argue about him endlessly.

When they finally reached the capital, Misa said, “Where are all the buildings?”

Paul was grateful his future wife had stopped talking about him, so he was quick to say, “The first thing we are going to build here is a stone tower. It will be almost twice as tall as the wooden towers at one hundred and twenty feet high.”

His boys and all the girls were suitably impressed. He enjoyed hearing a chorus of wows.

Alexander asked, “Where is it going to be built?”

Paul said, “I will show you.” Paul took them to a place with the flattest stone they have ever seen, and sticking out of it was a forty-five-foot diameter stone circle. Not a stone circle, but two stone circles, one just a yard inside the other. There were men and beast all around, adding stones to the stone circles.

Paul began explaining, “In order to build such a big heavy structure, we have to make a solid foundation for it. To do that we have to do two things. The first thing we did was we drove logs into the ground with what is known as a pile driver.”

Everyone looked confused. Paul looked around and saw one of them and said, “See that tall looking thing over there with a log in the middle.”

Everyone shook their head, yes.

Paul asked, “Do you see how a rock keeps falling on the log?”

Everyone was confused but nodded, yes.

Paul said, “That’s not actually a rock. That’s a two-hundred-pound iron hammer. We have a rope attached to that hammer, and an ox attached to the rope on the other side. The ox pulls the hammer until it’s at the top of the pile driver, and then a worker releases the rope from the ox, making it fall on the log pushing it further and further into the ground. When that log gets all the way in the ground, we put another log on the back of it and keep hammering it into the ground until we can not make the logs go any further.” Paul was confident in this because he saw on the history channel where they used this method to give the Vatican a solid foundation for over a thousand years. At least Paul thought it was the Vatican, might have been some other ancient structure, but the history channel was convinced that this was a good idea.

Paul continued his explanation, “Once we have several rows of logs, giving us an excellent foundation, we dig a three-foot hole and fill it up with concrete. We also place the stones where we want the tower at the top level of the concrete. We do not want the tower to be on the concrete foundation. We want it as part of the foundation. That way, if we have a really bad monsoon, then it will not be able to push the tower over because the tower’s foundation is too strong. Its more likely the tower will break than fall.”

The girls engaged to Paul were convinced that he was the smartest person in the world, so they took his explanation without any question. If they ever told Paul that they thought he was the smartest person in the world, Paul would have told them that there are many people in Rome, China, Persia, India, and Meso-America that are smarter than him. They were just ignorant due to the lack of tv and internet.

Paul’s son was curious, though, and he asked, “If you are worried about the tower breaking, how do you make sure it doesn’t.”

Paul smiled at his son and said, “Good question. Well, my researchers and I got together and made a scale model of the tower with concrete and stone. Actually, we made several scale models. All the models were six feet tall. At first, we wanted to see if the tower walls could hold itself up. The way we are making the walls is that we are making two stone circles with concrete used as mortar to hold the stones together. As the stone circles level rises, we add concrete. So the first tower was basically just stone walls and concrete. In our scale model, we could get it to six feet tall, but it struggled whenever force was applied to its side. So we began to work on supports on the inside.”

Paul continued and said, “I did not want any wooden supports because I remember when Notre Dame was burned down.” Paul saw the looks of confusion on their faces and said, “Don’t worry about it, just that we could use wood as supports, but I would rather use stone even if it’s more work. After about ten more scale models, what we found that works best is more or less concrete arches going from one side of the structure to the next. Well, it will end up more like an X, but the two lines on the x will really be arches crossing from one side of the tower to the next. We will make seven of these and build a floor on top of each of the Xs. The final one will be the roof of the Tower.”

All the kids were wowed. They didn’t know what Paul was talking about, but it sounded impressive. But the whole thing seemed a little overbuilt to Chazia, so she asked, “Paul, why are you making something so tough? I have seen your concrete a few times, and its tougher than a lot of stone. Why make three-foot walls out of it?”

Paul said, “The tower is a fortification. Its first use will be for my men to have a safe place to sleep at night while they build the wall around the city. The wall will be fifty feet high and fifteen feet thick. The tower and wall will both have murder holes at their top. Murder holes are places where you can shoot arrows straight down at people trying to break through your gate or wall.”

Chazia asked, “Are you that worried you will be attacked?”

Paul said, “We are not the only nation in the world. There is a nation far to the north of us called Rome that has a vast army. They split their army into what is called legions. One legion has more soldiers than our entire army, and their legions are better trained. One of these days, our nation is going to grow so big that it will meet with Rome. When that day comes, I hope that our nation has enough fortifications to keep Rome from taking over our nation. This won’t happen in my lifetime, but it could happen in my son’s or grandson’s lifetime.”

That little admission profoundly affected Alexander and George. They were quiet, but they just heard their dad, who was the strongest man in their nation, say that this other nation could easily beat them. Their dad was trying to stop it, but it would take time. They were determined to help him.

Paul said, “Look over there, see how there is an island, and another river. My goal is to make this place our capital. The capital will have four parts; here where we are standing, then on the island, then on the far side of this river on the other side of the island, and finally on the far side of that river. Our capital will be known as the capital where two rivers meet. To surround this capital will be an utter nightmare for generals. And I plan on building strongly fortified cities at every place in our nation where two large rivers meet.”

Misa asked, “Future husband, how do you plan on crossing the river?”

Paul said, “At first with boats.” Paul had to use the English word boat since he didn’t know their language’s word for it. Because of Paul, there was a lot of English words in everyday use in this part of Africa.

Misa asked, “What’s a boat?”

Paul said, “A boat is a wooden object you ride across the water.”

Misa panicked and got teary-eyed and said,” Don’t do that! The hippos will get you! Many a brave warrior has gotten in a canoe to cross water only to be taken down by angry hippos! I don’t want to lose my husband before I marry him.” Misa started bawling, then his other fiancés started bawling, and Chazia gave him the meanest look she ever gave him.

Paul thought to himself, “They are only here because you thought it was good for a king to have more than one wife. If you hadn’t done that, it would just be me, you and the kids.” But Paul was not dumb enough to say that out loud.

Instead, Paul said, “Girls don’t cry. The researches also let me know of the dangers of hippos; that’s why we plan on building a boat, not a canoe. A boat is too big for the hippos to bring down. In fact, the boats will have a weapon designed to kill the hippos when they attack.”

It took the girls a minute to calm down when they did Misa said, “Really?”

Paul said, “Really.” And Paul wasn’t lying. The researchers were just as freaked out as the girls were. Hippos were a terror in Africa, and part of the reason why the continent was as backward as it was. If you were in a canoe and accidentally crossed their territory, they would flip your boat and crush you between their teeth. But the Europeans had a long history of taking boats through African waters, so apparently, they could not flip the much larger, much more stable boats. Besides, Paul intended to arm his soldiers with spiked war hammers to take out the hippos when they dared attack his people.

Then in order to further calm her down, Paul said, “Besides the boats are only for a little while. I also plan to build bridges across the river.”

This left everyone stunned. It was one thing for Paul to build bridges across gullies and small streams, but to build them across this great river. That would be far more impressive than the tower, especially if the bridge survived a rainy season.

Chapter 33 July AD 78 Creating Congress

After nearly half a year, John finally captured every chief who was demanding tolls and tribute. Fourteen downriver and fifteen upriver. Twenty-nine in all.

This feat looked very impressive on paper as there were only seventeen villages taking part in regular trade. In reality, none of the villages who set up toll points expected to go to war with anyone over it. Considering how the villages normally acted, they could not imagine so many villages teaming up and fighting them.

According to the information John has, there are sixty-four villages up and down the river. Eighteen of them were neutral. They didn’t care to trade or to cause problems for the traders. John invited the allied chiefs and the neutral chiefs to come to Texas and discuss their future with the chiefs they captured.

Once John finally reached Texas with the captured chiefs, the allied chiefs, and neutral chiefs joined them, making this a meeting with sixty chiefs present. Four neutral chiefs chose not to come, and John respected that.

They got there when it was about an hour after dark, and had fifteen captured chiefs in tow, Seven allied chiefs helping lead their men, and over three hundred and seventy-eight warriors. The rest of the chiefs were already there. John had sent a warrior ahead, saying that they were going to start discussions as soon as possible no matter what time they got there.

There was no building in Texas large enough to hold the sixty chiefs. Furthermore, John believed all the warriors needed to hear their discussions. It was decided that they would have their discussion outside where all could listen. Large bonfires were lit just outside the village, and the chiefs sat in three groups, depending on if they were tribute takers, traders, or neutral. The rest of the interested villagers stood back and listened.

When the men settled down and were ready to listen, John stood before them and looked directly at the group of chiefs that imposed the tolls and said with the most exasperated voice, “What did you think you were doing? We were peaceably trading up and down the river, including with you guys, and out of nowhere, you start taking our traders’ stuff. WHY?”

All the chiefs were very confused regardless of what group they were in because they all thought that John was going to make demands of the chiefs. No one was prepared to answer questions, especially at such a late hour. John knew they were tired because he was tired, but this discussion needed to take place before everyone.

Finally, the youngest of the chiefs, Gaagii, spoke. “We did what we did because we wanted to be rich, like you guys.”

John thought for a minute and said, “What do you mean when you say rich?”

The chief gave John a funny look and said, “You traders have full granaries, boats, iron, spices, and ketchup. You have everything you could ever want. Why can’t we just take some from you?”

John calmly said, “Because when you took from us, you spilled blood.”

Chief Gaagii started to lose his temper and said, “But you spilled much more blood in revenge.”

The chiefs on the trader’s side began looking angry. In their mind, they should have wiped out all their enemies.

John said, “The chiefs that I went to war with would say that until everyone in your tribe is killed, there has not been enough blood spilled.” The trader chiefs cheered when John said that, but then John continued, “But I say I never wanted any blood spilled and the blood spilled so far has been too much.”

John could see that none of the chiefs understood what he was saying, but his words gave the toll chiefs hope, and it dimmed the fury of the trader chiefs.

John asked Gaagii, “Did you expect to get rich by taking from our boats?”

Gaagii said, “Yes. In time, if enough traders passed, we would have become as rich as you.”

John said, “If you take seed off the stalk, but don’t ever put it in the ground, will you get more seed?”

Gaagii was confused by the change of subject, but then shook his head and said, “No.”

John asked, “Why not?”

Gaagii said, “Because if you do not put one of the seeds in the ground, it won’t grow new seeds.”

John said, “When the traders came by, you took stuff away from them, but never gave anything back, why did you expect that to be any different?”

Gaagii didn’t have an answer. John looked to all the chiefs in the firelight and asked, “In order for you to get seed at harvest time, you have to plant seed in spring. All of you know that. It’s no different when you make a trade with a trader. You are giving him some things so that he can bring you better things back.”

John continued, “All of us are farmers. Every year we give the ground seed, and the ground gives us a harvest in return. If we stop giving the ground seed, the ground will stop giving us harvest. It’s the same way with the traders. If you take from the trader without giving anything in return, they will be unable to give you anything ever again.”

Gaagii said, “But what do we do if we don’t have anything to give? We don’t have the iron like you, or the salt like Chief Tonteel’s village does, or the tomatoes like Chief Dumatli’s village does. How are we to trade when we have nothing to trade?”

John said, “The only reason why they have those things to trade is because they sent men to help me mine iron ore, or in the case of Chief Tonteel I went to his village and helped him make his salt ponds because I wanted his salt. At any time, you or any of the other chiefs could have sent your men to help me, and I would have given your men something just as good in return. I know my traders made that offer to every village on the river. They don’t know it, but part of the reason why I make that offer is that when I came here, I came with some of the best seeds in the world, and I do not have time to grow everything. I figured that if I could train some men and give them some new wonderful plants to grow, they could grow things I did not have the time to grow.”

Gaagii face grew hopeful as he asked, “Is that offer still open, can we send our guys to get training from you and in return they get some new amazing thing to trade?”

John said, “No. I just can’t trust your men now that I have gone to war with them.”

Gaagii grew irritated as he asked, “Then why have us here.”

John said, “Because I want to show you grace. You see the value of what I have, so I plan on giving seeds to many of the grains, vegetables, fruits, spices, and industrial plants I have to every chief that is here. You don’t deserve it, but if it gives you something you are able to consistently trade year in and year out, then we will all be better for it.”

Everyone was shocked. They don’t have a cultural reference for grace.

John waited a while to let things sink in, and when he began to feel uncomfortable with the silence, he said, “Truth be told, you don’t just have to trade them the things you grow. You could make docks like I have and charge them to dock their boat there. Allow them to chose if your cost are too high or not. You could also have a house built especially for traders to stay at near the docks and let them chose to stay there or not. I am sure many of the traders do not like sleeping at random places at night. Those of you that have villages by streams could even make a lock and dam.”

Chief Yiska, who was one of the chiefs that was in the toll group, asked, “My village is near a stream entering the river, but I have never heard of this lock and dam. What is it?”

John said, “Have you ever seen a beaver?”

Chief Yiska said, “Yes.”

John said, “Have you noticed their wooden construction blocking the river and making the water into a pond?”

Chief Yiska said, “Yes.”

John said, “Well, that’s known as a dam in my language. A boat can not travel on shallow water, so you build a dam to raise the water level so that the boat can go to places it normally couldn’t. So far, the traders have only been going up and down the river because the streams are often too shallow to travel. If you built a dam at your stream, raising the water level like a beaver, then they could trade with villages along the stream, meaning they would have a lot more people to trade with.”

Chief Yiska shook his head, then asked, “I can see how a dam would raise the water level bringing trade to villages up the shallow streams, but how would the boats go from the river to the stream if there is a dam there?”

John said, “That’s where a lock comes in. A lock is like two dams. But the two dams have doors you can open and close. When a trader is coming from the river to the lock, you open the door next to the river, and the water will be at the river level. The boat goes in; then, you close the door behind the boat. Then you let the water in from the stream side, raising the water to the stream’s new higher level. The lock fills up like a cup with the trader’s boat going higher and higher until it’s at the stream level, and you let him out. If a trader is coming from the stream, you open the door on the stream side, letting him in, then close it behind him, and you let the water out slowly, and once the water is at river level, you let him out.”

Chief Yiska asked, “If we built that lock and dam, could we charge traders to use it?”

John said, “Of course! You are giving them a service, so you should be able to charge them. Its when you do nothing but threaten people that there is a problem.” When John said that the chiefs that were making traders pay tolls looked down in shame.

John then said, “Do you men agree to no longer charge men tribute who are just passing by your village on the river?”

The chiefs said, “Yes.”

John said, “Do you find it acceptable that I will give you plants to grow for future trade, and that if you offer goods and services, like docks, places to rest, or lock and dams, then you can charge traders fees to use them?”

The chiefs smiled and said, “Yes.”

Then John turned to the trader chiefs and asked, “Are you okay with this decision.”

Chief Dumatli asked, “Are you going to give us more plants as trade goods too?”

John smiled and said, “You guys are my allies. We had each other backs. I will give you men three times as much as the other chiefs. In fact, I will also give the neutral chiefs that are here tonight twice as many seeds as I give the other chiefs.”

The trader chiefs and neutral chiefs smiled and said at the same time, “We agree to the decision then.”

As they were getting up, John grabbed a large piece of hemp paper and coal and said, “If everyone agrees, then we are going to put this decision in writing, and then everyone has to put their signature or thumbprint on it.”

All the chiefs said, “What?”

John said, “Human memory is faulty. But if we write down our decision here and there are questions about it later, we can all look at it and know what the truth of the matter is. Everyone able to write has to sign their name; anyone unable to read or write has to put their thumb in charcoal dust and put their thumbprint on it.”

All the chiefs had heard about reading and math from their merchants. The merchants did a lot more math than reading, though. Putting their decisions in writing was an utterly alien concept to these men. Writing might as well have been computer coding for as much as they understood the concept.

John began to loudly repeat the words of the treaty slowly as he wrote it down. Once he was finished, he read it again several times and asked if everyone agreed. This was all new to them, so they agreed and signed their names or placed their thumbprint on the hemp paper.

Before they went to bed, John said one last thing, “Right now the days are getting a little shorter each day. Twenty days after the shortest day of the year, every chief here should come here to talk to all the chiefs about any issues along the river they want to discuss.”

One of the chiefs asked, “Why?”

John said, “Didn’t this whole war start because Gaagii went up and down the river telling tribes to demand tribute?”

Many of the chiefs said yes, while Gaagii looked like he wanted to hide.

John said, “This whole war happened because ALL the tribes don’t talk to each other enough. If we all meet once a year, we can avoid war and set up trade, and if one of us gets attacked, go to war as many tribes, and who knows what else we can do. Honestly, do you want to risk missing out on the decisions being made by sixty-four chiefs?’

That last phrase guaranteed that every chief would be there in January.

All in all, John was pretty happy with this congress. He introduced grace, written treaties, and a time where the chiefs could meet with each other. Best of all, hundreds of warriors were here to see it and talk about it. These new thoughts and ideas would spread up and down the river. Perhaps this is why republics and democracies always had public viewing areas so that the new ideas got to the people.

Chapter 34 November AD 78 Decentralization

It was the day of the planting festival, but for Paul, this day was going to be the day his school got split up. During the summer, enough lieutenants were made so that every village could have one, with a few leftover for fast reaction units. Now that they have gotten themselves acclimated to their new villages, Paul was going to have them bring the children back and run the schools and orphanages in each individual village. Today the lieutenants, their wives, and the chiefs of the villages would pick up the children, and they would never again come to school at Jiwi Mkuki village.

Paul dreaded this day. He couldn’t sleep well, and so he woke up very early and put little Washington in his arms and just looked at his cute little face.

When Chazia woke, she asked, “What’s wrong?”

Paul looked to her and said, “All my students are going home after the planting festival.”

Chazia said, “If you are going to be so bothered by students going back home, why not keep them here?”

Paul said, “Overall, sending them home is better for the nation. I really like having a couple of thousand students and orphans to teach. Nobody stays in the martial arts world for very long if they do not like teaching. To see the looks on their face when they first grasp reading, writing, math, or martial arts is priceless to me. It is my favorite part of being king. But the kingdom needs these kids to go home and have my lieutenants become principles of their schools all across the nation.”

Chazia said, “Most men would be happy to get rid of the children and have men to boss around.”

Paul said, “It’s disgraceful for a man to need to be bossed around like a child. If you are a man, go work. If you don’t know enough to work, then learn the skills needed to go work. Before I came, all these men were waiting around in the middle of their village, hoping that they would get fed without the chief telling them to do anything. They were waiting for food or direction. I don’t play that game. If you want to eat, go farm, or develop a good or service where the people with food will pay you. The only time I tell these men to do anything is when we have to fight other villages or its time to tax them, or I have a new idea that I pay them to implement.”

Chazia smiled. Paul was different, just not as different as he thought. Then her smile disappeared as she could still see the sadness in his eyes, and she asked, “Do you think your lieutenants will do a good job being the principle’s of the schools and orphanages?”

Paul said, “Yes. I planned to do this since we captured our second village. I was always looking for the boys who were good leaders and actually liked interacting with the children. You watched me all those years as I was principle over the school and orphanage. I always had the older children taking charge of the younger ones. Both the boys and the girls. Anyone too impatient for this work is out doing something else already.”

Chazia said, “If you think they will do a good job, you better stop looking so sad today.”

Paul said, “I know. I will put on my kings face once I leave our room. But Chazia, it is you and you alone that I trust to show my real face to.”

Chazia was touched. Her husband really loved her.

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Since it was the planting festival, the first order of business was eating with the thousands of people who showed up. Breakfast was fine, but as soon as it was over, Paul met with all his chiefs and the lieutenants.

When they saw Paul head to the meeting hall, the lieutenants followed him because Paul was their King. In truth, they really loved their King. If it wasn’t for King Paul, many of them would have starved to death, and their body would have been tossed out of their village when it began to stink. The lieutenants’ wives felt the same way, and they knew they would be needed to teach the girls, especially medical knowledge. The chiefs quickly followed because they remembered how they got their positions. Either they became chief at King Paul’s whim, or they offered up their village to King Paul so that he wouldn’t kill them.

Paul was happy to see that all his chiefs except for one, were over the age of twenty. Just a couple of years ago, there were only a handful over the age of twenty. As these men grew older, they grew wiser and more patient. The chiefs would never be at the level of the students he trained in his eyes, but he was pleased with them.

Paul started the meeting by saying, “Chiefs, when the children go to your village, your job is to help the lieutenants do their job.” The chiefs nodded. By now, they all had some of Paul’s soldiers and retired soldiers in their village.

“Lieutenants, you have several big jobs in front of you. First of all, you will be in charge of the soldiers in your village. I know some of you got away with a lot when you were a soldier because there wasn’t enough leaders to go around and make sure you did everything you were supposed to do. Now though, you are responsible for the soldiers.”

All the lieutenants nodded. They were between the ages of fourteen and sixteen. They thought they could handle it, and so did Paul, that’s why he gave them the job.

Paul continued, “You will technically be in charge of the militia in your village. I suggest you let the retired soldiers who have been training the militia stay in charge of the men they are training. If we ever have to fight a real military, your job will be passing orders to groups of men, so it is important for the men who will lead them into battle to continue training the men. So stay mostly hands-off, only taking charge every now and then.”

Finally, Paul got to the point, “We all know the real reason you are here is because you will be in charge of the schools and orphans in each of the villages. Today there are more than two thousand students in Jiwi Mkuki village. After you take all the students back to their village, there will only be sixty. Your job is to teach the boys until they become old enough to become soldiers.”

Then Paul yelled out, “WHAT IS THE FIRST DUTY OF MEN!”

The Lieutenants reflexively yelled back, “To protect our nation, village, and family.”

Paul taught all the boys that if you protect the nation, then an enemy will never be able to attack your village or family. So all strive to protect the nation first.

Paul said, “The first thing you will teach the boys is how to fight. Next year at the planting festival we will have a new competition. We will have a tournament for the eleven and twelve-year-old boys getting ready for man camp. Since they will have a year of training under your tutelage, I expect you to train them to the best of your abilities. Feel free to try new things, maybe the new things you try will work.”

Then Paul yelled out, “WHAT IS THE SECOND DUTY OF MEN!”

Reflexively the Lieutenants yelled out, “TO PROVIDE FOR THEMSELVES, THEIR FAMILY, AND THEIR NATION!”

Paul was careful to teach that you do not provide for your village because if you can do business better somewhere else, you should. That said, they were taught that the nation is what gives them the opportunities to do well, so you owe the nation a ten percent tax, the rest they use to feed themselves and their family.

Paul said, “The only way they will be able to do that is if you teach them properly. I expect you to go above and beyond on the reading, writing, mathematics, and trade skills you teach.”

Generally, to Paul’s knowledge, people in Rome, India, and China during this time period did not get to chose what career path they wanted. They were trained by their father and locked into the job for generations. But there was no father to teach these boys skills, so the schools were teaching all the trades. How this would look in a generation or two, Paul had no idea. That would be a problem for his son, grandson, or whatever despot took control of the nation to solve.

Paul yelled out, “WHAT IS THE THIRD DUTY OF MEN!”

The Lieutenants yelled out, “TO TEACH YOUR FAMILY, VILLAGE, AND NATION!”

Paul said, “Knowledge is precious, but the more it’s shared, the more valuable it becomes. Make sure that your boys learn to teach others their knowledge and skills.”

The Lieutenants yelled, “YES, SIR!”

Paul certainly believed in the concept of standing on the shoulders of giants. One of these days, the kids who were learning in his class would become the giant’s others stand on. But only if they were willing to share their knowledge.

After that, Paul dismissed his men, and they went through the various games and competitions. All-day long, Paul’s students came up to him and gave him hugs and said goodbyes. Many of these kids cried as they left. Paul’s students genuinely loved him. Many of them realized at a young age that if it wasn’t for Paul, their village would have left them to die just because they were orphans. Many of these kids hated going back to their villages for two reasons. The first reason was because they would not get to see their King most days, and the second reason was because they had to go back to a village that left them for dead.

In the long term, this meant that the villages in Paulsland would have mass migrations out of them as soon as the children were old enough to leave.

At the end of the day, after the last chief and lieutenant took their children away, Alexander came to his dad and said, “Dad, I never realized how much those kids loved us.”

Without missing a beat, Paul said, “Son, those kids don’t love us. They love me. If anything were to happen to me, you would be in trouble.”

Alexander was shocked and said, “Why would I be in trouble. I am the son of King Paul!”

Paul said, “Son, let me tell you a story about the king of the Greeks. This man had soldiers that loved him and followed him into many battles. In time he conquered many nations and made his soldiers rich men. One day he died, and his children were still very young. The soldiers that loved their king killed his children and took the power for their own. Just because a soldier loves a king doesn’t mean they love his children.”

This legitimately scared Alexander, and he asked, “Do people want to hurt me?”

King Paul said, “As long as I am alive, no one will dare hurt you. But once I am gone, that is a different matter. It’s the reason why I try so hard to teach you how to have people skills. If people like you, they are a lot less likely to hurt you. But that is a weak defense. Now that most of my students are gone I will begin teaching you martial arts one on one. In due time once you are a strong fighter, you will begin leading others. In time those you lead will be strong, and when that happens, no one will dare attack you.”

This conversation gave Alexander nightmares for years, but it also motivated him for years to come. Paul hated himself for having to tell his six-year-old son these harsh truths, but most of the students he took in had seen worse truths by the time they were Alexander’s age.

Truth be told, this is one of the reasons why he was sending these kids home now. Its time for the lieutenants to show the men how to be good fathers. Most of these men lost their father before they were twelve, and now their life expectancy was way higher than they ever expected. They needed to learn what being a father to a twelve, fifteen, and twenty year old looked like. The lieutenants didn’t realize it but that was their real purpose.

Chapter 35 February AD 79 Father

After Paul decentralized the school, Jiwi Mkuki village did not feel like home to him anymore. He decided more than a year before the capital was ready to go ahead and move there. He informed his brother in law Abilio that he was now chief of Jiwi Mkuki village. Abilio was shocked and delighted that he was finally going to be chief, as this had been his dream for years. Between the time Paul told Abilio the news and the time he left, Abilio somehow got it in his head that he was getting demoted from second in command of Paulsland to just being chief. Paul dismissed his concerns.

Abilio was furious after Paul left when he saw blacksmiths, carpenters, teachers, researchers, and other artisans packing their things to follow their King to the capital. Not only was he demoted, but Paul was taking all his workers away to the capital.

The work in the capital had slowed to a crawl. Because it was the rainy season, they could not pour new concrete, but they were storing a lot of lime to be burned as soon as the dry season started. The stone tower was about halfway finished, and it was handling the rain, storms, and monsoons with no problems.

The walls were a mile long surrounding the city, and although they had to stop pouring the concrete once the rain season started, the walls were still ten feet high. Such short walls made Paul a bit nervous, but over a hundred soldiers called the capital their home.

The rainy season wasn’t even halfway over, but five villages attempted to raid various villages in Paulsland, and they were all added to his domain. Paul didn’t even have to lift a finger to conquer them. He had three lieutenants with forces of fifty men each, who went out and conquered any village that dared to attack his nation.

The newly captured villages were forced to send all their students and orphans to the capital. It was just best to train utter loyalty in young hearts and minds. Once they were totally loyal, Paul would have schools built in their village where their loyalty would spread to the new younger students.

The children who came to his capital were impressed by the roads, the walls protecting villages, seventy-foot tall communications towers, and the stone city. They were surprised by the kind treatment of the soldiers, the amount of food they could now eat, and the albino King. Most of the time, when these new children saw Paul, they ran to him, wanting to touch him because they have never seen a white man before. Paul’s soldiers had standing orders to let the children come. Occasionally adults wanted to do the same thing, but the guards had standing orders to stop adults from touching their King.

To Paul’s surprise, all the wonders of his kingdom meant these children were far more open to listening than the first few groups of children that came. So far this year, he has not had to do the Eulalia treatment on any of the kids.

The children from newly captured villages would not be the only ones making their way to the capital. The best and brightest of each village were also sent to the capital to study. Simply put, they were openly being trained as future researchers. Not all of them would make it, and Paul was sure there would be some late bloomers who became researchers. Either way more researchers would be trained up.

Most of the teaching was regulated to the widows and wounded men who really couldn’t do manual labor, so Paul could work with the researchers and build new things.

Paul was working with the researchers on building a boat to cross the river. They were making boards, then shaping them, nailing them together, and using rubber as a sealant.

One of the researches said, “King, the boards on the boat need to be thicker. The evil hippos will be able to go through them with their tusk.”

Paul found out very quickly when they started the boat building project that hippos were basically considered to be Satan by everyone who knew about them. There were very few canoes on the various rivers, streams, ponds, and lakes because of people's fear of hippos. Hippos had a bad habit of flipping canoes and mauling to death the people who fell out. Even in Paul’s time, hippos killed many more people than lions. Part of the problem was that it was hard to get revenge on a hippo once it went back underwater.

Paul said, “We have already talked about it. The danger the hippos pose is flipping boats. We are making very wide body boats so that they can’t flip it over. Plus, we will have soldiers with spiked war hammers to make mush out of their brains if they try to attack our boats.”

The research said, “I am sorry to argue with you, King Paul, but have you seen the hippo's teeth? I have seen canoes get pierced by them.”

Paul said, “The only reason why they can pierce the canoes is because they can get their mouths around it. We will have three-foot-high walls on the sides of the boat. Since they will not be able to get their mouths around that, the hippo will not be able to pierce the boat.”

The researcher was about to argue some more when a soldier came in. He said, “King Paul, I have a message for you from the Hodari Uta tribe.”

Paul asked, “Did it come from the communications tower or by hand?”

The soldier said, “Communications tower.”

If the message came by hand, it meant it was for Paul’s eyes only. But since it came via the communications tower, many people already knew the content of the message. Paul was pleased with the watchtower message system. They used a form of Morris code, and in less than an hour, they could send a message from one side of the nation to the other. It helped that one of the glassmakers discovered the secret for simple telescopes when they were figuring out how to implement the Morris code system practically. Simple is the correct term because although it magnified what you were looking at a lot, it was blurry as all get out. Counting flashes, seeing that something was a person, a lion or telephant was about all it was good for because it would not give much more detail with its blur. The secret of good lenses were still beyond them.

Paul said, “What are you waiting for? Give it to me.”

The soldier said, “The Lieutenant at the school of Hodari Uta says that there is a case of severe neglect and that he has reported it to the chief of the village who has chosen to ignore it. He believes that the situation needs your personal attention.” This message made Paul very unhappy. It meant he would either need to discipline his chief or his lieutenant.

Currently, the way the government was set up lieutenants were directly responsible for running government organizations in the village. This would basically be the schools and soldiers. The chief, on the other hand, was in charge of all the civilians. The chief's responsibility was collecting taxes, settling disputes between people, and judging people for crimes.

Anywhere their authority conflicted, the Chief had higher authority. In this case, it sounded like parents were neglecting a child. The child would be under the lieutenant's authority, but the parents neglecting their child would not be. Paul wasn’t exactly sure what was going on because Morris code only went so far, but either way, someone would suffer for making him leave his capital.

Paul immediately grabbed his raincoat, twenty-five soldiers, and made his way to Hodari Uta village in the rain. The entire trip Paul was wishing for horses, but Paul hadn’t seen any yet. Someday he hoped to get them because steam engines probably wouldn’t happen in his lifetime.

They got to the village about mid-morning the next day. The kids were already in school, and Paul walked right in. He looked around and saw one boy who had clearly lost weight since November. About that time, the Lieutenant saw Paul and come over to his King.

Paul pointed to the boy that was looking malnourished and asked, “Is that the boy being neglected?”

The Lieutenant said, “Yes.”

Paul asked, “What's his name?”

The Lieutenant said, “Nizar.”

Paul called out, “Nizar come here.”

The boy looked up from his lesson, saw King Paul and ran over him and gave King Paul a big hug, and asked, “Can I come back to Jiwi Mkuki village with you.”

Paul’s heart broke, but it was time for these children to be with their family.

Paul said, “I am no longer at Jiwi Mkuki village. I moved to the capital between two rivers.”

Nizar asked, “Can I come with you? I won't be any trouble.”

Paul said, “No, you cant, but we can have lunch together, just you and me. Would you like that.”

Nizar nodded, and Paul took the boy and ate with him, and the boy ate and ate and ate. Paul ate lunch with the boy to make sure the boy wasn’t losing weight because he was sick. Considering how much the boy ate, it was clear he was healthy except for his lack of food. Paul was furious.

After lunch, he sent the boy back to school and talked with the lieutenant, “I am furious! That boy is skin and bones! Why haven’t you fed him!?”

The lieutenant said, “That’s why I sent you the message. I have been feeding him at lunch and sending him home at night with food, but it appears that his father has been taking the food away from him in the evening.”

Paul said, “Did you tell the chief?”

The Lieutenant said, “Yes! The chief just said that a father can do whatever he wants to the boy.”

Paul told the Lieutenant, “Grab your soldiers and bring the chief, and the father to me. If they hesitate be rough.”

The lieutenant went to get the boy's father first. He was a farmer, and his farm was pretty far from the village, about an hour after being sent out, the Lieutenant came back with the farmer and the chief. Paul’s face held unbridled fury.

Paul asked the father, “Why aren’t you feeding Nizar?”

The father said, “When I was his age, my father was already dead. Going hungry for days at a time toughened me up. I think its good for a boy his age to miss a few meals, in a couple of years when he is ready to be a hunter it will make him a better one.”

When Paul first started conquering villages, very few boys old enough to be sent to school had a father who was still alive. In fact, out of his first group of soldiers, none of them had a living father, and only one or two of them still had a mother.

Now that Paul had brought prosperity, health, and peace, most of his school-age children had both father and mother. Most of these parents lost their father before they were six and their mom before they were ten. Now the men of that generation were trying to figure out how to be a dad to eight, nine, ten-year-old children when they didn’t have a dad in their life during those years. This man was probably twenty-two years old, with an eight-year-old son. He never thought he would be this old, and now he has no idea how to raise his son.

Paul understood the reason for the man's neglect. But he was a man, and he neglected his duty. There is no excuse for a man neglecting his duty to his family, whether in ignorance or not.

Paul said, “A father should always want his son to have a better life than he had growing up. Instead of creating a better life for your son, you tried making your son have as bad a life as you did.”

The father panicked a little at Paul’s words and said, “It's for his own good.”

Paul yelled out, “LOOK AT MY SOLDIERS! YOU ARE TEN YEARS THEIR SENIOR, AND YET THEY ARE BIGGER THAN YOU! I WANT YOUR SON TO GROW UP BIG AND STRONG LIKE THEM! YOUR FOOLISH ACTIONS WILL MAKE YOUR SON AS MALNURISHED, SCRAWNY, AND WEAK AS YOU. I WILL NOT ALLOW A FATHER TO TREAT HIS SON LIKE THAT IN MY NATION!”

The father cowered with Paul’s words. Paul looked toward his soldiers and said, “Give the man forty lashes, and he is not allowed to wear clothes until the next full moon. If you see him in clothes before, then give him forty more lashes. He should be ashamed that his son is going hungry. Since he is not, he will be ashamed of the scars the lashes leave behind and the nakedness of his body.”

The man cried out, “Show me, mercy.”

Paul said, “How many times did your son tell you that he was hungry, and you ignored him?”

The man looked down and said nothing, and Paul said, “That’s what I thought. You didn’t even show your own son mercy. He is your blood. If you won't show your son mercy, why should I show you any mercy?”

The man saw the anger in Paul’s eyes. It was as if Paul was daring him to ask for mercy one more time. The man wisely kept his mouth shut.

Then Paul looked over to the chief and said, “I am furious with you. Why did I have to come out here and solve this problem?”

The chief said, “Its always been our custom that a father can do whatever he wants to do with his child. Even if the father wanted to kill his own child, nobody would do a thing about it.”

Paul was dumbstruck and asked, “Have you not heard of my two daughters, charity and mercy?”

The comment brought so much enlightenment to the chief that everyone could see it on the man's face as he slowly said, “Yes.”

Paul said, “Their parents left them to die, so I adopted the girls as my own, and killed the scum who would kill my daughters, including the chief who turned a blind eye. Clearly, if you do not understand how I feel about children, you should not be chief.”

The chief was trembling. He heard about what happened to the parents of Paul’s adopted daughters and what happened to the chief that turned a blind eye to the situation. The chief asked, “Show me mercy.”

Paul thought about it and said, “I will show you mercy. You will get forty stripes like the boy's father. And you will remain naked for a month because you will know shame for your failure. You will no longer be chief, but you will be allowed to keep your home and keep the pay you have collected since you have been chief. But you will never work again for the government. You will have to become a farmer or learn a trade or become a laborer for someone.”

The chief dared not say a word. Coming from King Paul, this was a great mercy. The chief got his job when the last chief of his village was skinned alive when Paul conquered it. For two hours, that chief had screamed in pain as the villagers peeled his skin off while laughing. The last chief under King Paul who displeased him was eaten alive by ants. The chief understood he was getting off light.

In the coming days, Paul sent a message out to the rest of the villages, saying that he expected the fathers to give their children a better life than they had growing up. There were many inquiries made about the message and so the situation at Hodari Uta village became well known.

Paul chose the next chief from one of the wounded men that was teaching in the school. Since all the teachers knew how Paul wanted them to treat children, and most of the fathers and mothers had no clue. Hopefully, this would go a long way to preparing a better future for his nation.

Chapter 36 January AD 79 Congresses first secession

By the time Christmas came around, several chiefs had already made their way to Texas. It was a miserable experience for John. Christmas had quickly become a time to spend with his family, and give them gifts. But the Christmas of AD 78 was a year where chiefs came over and were asking for seeds, iron, tools, weapons, assistance in killing their enemies, locks and dams. Although it was a miserable experience for John, he had enough sense to promote this new holiday where you brought a tree inside your home and decorated it, so hopefully next year they will celebrate this holiday before they come and irritate John.

Two days before the Congress was to take place, the last chief on the river showed up to Texas. All the chiefs arrived early to nag at John for stuff.

The night before the meeting, John came home to his cabin, shut the door behind him, and yelled out, “Onawa, are you home?”

Onawa called out, “Yes.”

John asked, “Are the kids home?”

Onawa said, “Yes.”

John said, “Good.” And barricaded the door.

Onawa was shocked and miffed. She said, “WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?”

John said, “Keeping the chiefs out! They have been nagging me about everything for weeks. Tomorrow we are going to hold the Congress, and then they go home. They think this is the last little bit of time they will have to convince me of whatever they want to convince me of. I can't take it anymore!”

Onawa couldn’t help but laugh.

John was offended and a little hurt. He asked, “Why are you laughing?”

Onawa said, “You're locking the chiefs out because they are irritating you. I do that to our kids sometimes.”

John couldn’t help but laugh at that. He was locking the chiefs out just like they were annoying little kids. These elders had the power of life and death for thousands of people, but to John, they were annoying little kids. John laughed loudly enough for people to hear him outside.

While they were laughing, someone tried to come in, but when he found they couldn’t open the door, he knocked loudly and said, “I am chief Yiska, and I need to talk to John about the lock and dam.”

John and Onawa started laughing harder.

Chief Yiska heard their laughter and, in an indignant voice, asked, “Are you laughing at me?”

John laughing said, “Are you knocking on my door?”

Chief Yiska said, “Yes.”

John said, “Then we are laughing at you.” And then John and Onawa had to sit down because of how hard they were laughing.

Chief Yiska said, “I am the chief of a powerful tribe how dare you laugh at me.”

When he said that John and Onawa started rolling with laughter, Trevor heard their laughter and ran into the room with a beaming smile on his face and asked, “Mom, Dad, what's so funny.”

Onawa said loud enough for chief Yiska to hear, “Your dad locked chief Yiska out of the house like I lock you out of the house.”

Chief Yiska was so offended he was shocked into stunned silence for a moment until he heard little Trevor yell out, “Mom, that’s not funny. I hate it when you lock me out!” Then with an over-exaggerated frown, he folded his arms and stomped to his room. His parents were rolling.

Chief Yiska was about to say something similar, but he was not about to repeat a child's words, especially when he was being treated like a child. He stormed off.

After John and Onawa got done laughing, John told his wife, “Where I am from, we had a congress, and our Congress never said what they meant, and their words sounded nice but didn’t actually mean anything. I was so upset every time our congressman compromised I wished for a congress that said what they meant and had the backbone to back it up. Now I realize how naive I was.”

Onawa knew her husband came from a strange, far away place. He tried to explain it to her a few times, but to her, it sounded like the land of gods and magic. He didn’t know how most of the magic worked, so most people besides the children didn’t want to hear about his legends. Apparently, this Congress was part of the leadership he tried to bring to her people.

Onawa asked, “What do you mean you were naïve.”

John said, “All the chiefs are used to having their orders followed. Nearly all the chiefs are men in their fifties and sixties, with a handful in their forties and thirties. They were all successful warriors in their youth. When they were too old to be warriors, they became elders, and once the previous chief died, their village decided they were the best out of all the elders to lead the village. For decades men have had to do what they have told them to do. “

“But in this Congress, they are surrounded by equals. This is a new dynamic for them. When they were children, they had to listen to every adult. When they became a warrior in their youth, they had to listen to the experienced warriors, the elders, and the chief. Over time they only had to listen to the chief, and then they became chief. All their life there was a clear chain of command, but now that we have a congress with sixty-four chiefs, they are all equals without a chain of command. They have never had this type of social experience before.”

Onawa said, “You’re the leader.”

John said, “Yes, and no.”

Onawa gave John a puzzled look, and John explained, “Because I led the warriors of many tribes last year, and won the war, I am viewed as the leader. But the leading I did last year was clearly to the benefit of the villages I led. All the chiefs are here for their village, and their village alone. They will follow my leadership as long as I am helping their village. If I am not helping their village, they are against me. Granted, I personally helped their villages with the trade goods, so they won't attack us as they owe us a favor, but the only favor they would give would be one that also benefited their village.”

John continued, “All their life these men have been taught to put the village first. Protect, provide, and promote their village above everything else. Even when they were struggling with other elders to become chiefs of their villages, it was still a struggle between elders for the benefit of their village. Now we have sixty-four chiefs here who exclusively care for their village, to the point that they don’t care if everyone in every other village dies.”

Onawa gave John a horrified look. John said, “Oh, sure in a few years, it will be different when the traders start becoming elders and chiefs. But right now, all the chiefs in the Congress have been isolated from each other and are only here for the clear benefits that I personally can bring to them. Most of the time, when they talk with each other, they end up threatening war with one another. They are so used to everyone they interact with obeying them that they get upset when another chief tells them no.”

Onawa and John continued talking through the night and laughing every time a chief knocked on their door.

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

The next day was a beautiful day to hold Congress. It wasn’t even that cold out. It was sixty degrees by noon. Living in Texas meant you had some nice winters. John knew they would need to build a building one day, but it wasn’t time yet.

As soon as John stepped outside of his house, he had sixty-three chiefs waiting for him. They all started yelling at John about many things, and John could not understand a thing they were saying.

John yelled out, “We are not holding Congress in front of my house. We will hold it where we had our meeting in the summer.”

John wasn’t sure how many chiefs heard him, but they parted ways and followed John to the meeting place. John could not wait for these men to go home. Many of them had sent young men to learn from John. Those young men were delightful. They listened, learned and obeyed John as if he was their own chief. The chiefs, on the other hand, were pest.

Once John got to the meeting ground, John pointed at one chief and asked, “What do you want?”

The Chief said, “I was talking with several chiefs, and we all agreed that Chief Tonteel is not trading enough salt with us, and we think we should go to war unless he provides more salt.” Many of the chiefs cheered at his request, and the rest went silent as war was big news.

John was surprised two weeks ago the first time a chief told him he wanted to go to war with Chief Tonteel to get more salt. But after listening to a couple of dozen chiefs complain about their lack of salt and demanding that John go to war with Chief Tonteel over the issue John was prepared.

John really wished he could use the goose that laid the golden egg as an example, but none of the villages raised egg-laying animals, and they didn’t know what gold was. John vaguely suspected the Maya did at this time, but gold had not made its way up here yet.

John had to go a different route and asked, “If you go to war with Chief Tonteel and kill everyone in his village, who is going to make the salt?”

The chief said, “Don’t worry. We will make war like you, and we will not wipe out his village. Just go to war until he gives us what we want?”

John asked, “What if he doesn’t have any salt?”

The chief looked confused, and said, “Salt cames from Chief Tonteel’s village, how could he not have salt?”

John asked, “Do you know how salt is made?”

The chief said, “No.”

John said, “You were about to go to war with Chief Tonteel over salt when you do not even know how salt is made? Shame on you, you should be embarrassed.” The chief’s cheeks reddened, and Paul looked over to one of his men and said, “Bring me an iron pot, with water in it.”

He ran off and grabbed the pot, filled it with water, and brought it to John. John put the pot over a fire and said, “How many of you have seen ice turn into water, and water turn into ice?”

All the chiefs shouted out various versions of, “I have.”

John said, “Water doesn’t just turn into ice and water. It also turns into steam and goes into the sky.” About the time John was explaining this, the water started to boil and steam. John continued, “When water goes into the sky, it leaves behind the things that were in the water. Where I come from, we call this process evaporation. It can happen fast when water is boiled in an iron pot, or slowly under the sun.”

The chiefs were nodding their head. They understood what John was talking about. John explained, “Chief Tonteel does not have enough iron pots to make salt quickly through boiling, so he has to do it slowly with salt ponds. But salt ponds only work when it's hot. Right now, it’s not hot enough to have much evaporation, so there is almost no salt being produced. Salt production is done best in the spring and summer, not the fall or winter. If you went to war with chief Tonteel now, you would be robbing an empty granary.”

The men looked embarrassed. What's the point of going to war If you were not going to get something out of it? Their embarrassment did not escape John.

John chastised the men, “This is why Congress is so important. So that you men can come here and make peace with one another, instead of going to war over empty granaries. You know what's worse if you went to war with Chief Tonteel, you would have been so upset about his lack of salt you would have wiped out his village and never had salt again in your life. No one is allowed to go to war without seeking peace at this Congress first because we do not need to lose important things like salt.”

The various chiefs got very quiet. Truth be told, most of them were at the Congress to ask John to help them war against their neighbor, but now they were second-guessing themselves. Would John shame them by pointing out they were fighting for empty granaries?

John turned to chief Tonteel and asked, “Honorable Chief Tonteel, the other chiefs would like more salt, what do you need to produce more salt.”

Chief Tonteel was very sober. He went to the Congress to ask for John to help defend him from those who wanted the salt for free, but he did not realize how many chiefs wanted to rob him. Without John, his village would not survive. At this moment, he realized the survival of his village depended on them producing enough salt to satisfy the demand, or they would likely be destroyed by those who would rob empty granaries.

Chief Tonteel said, “We need more salt ponds. My men can only dig so many between all the other work they have to do. If we could get more manpower to help dig the ponds, that would go a long way toward satisfying the demand.”

John turned toward the chiefs that were wanting to go to war and said, “I expect each of you to send two men to help dig salt ponds until chief Tonteel’s village starts planting grain.”

One of the chiefs who cheered about going to war with chief Tonteel said, “Why should I send my men to help him?”

John yelled out, “What kind of worthless chief is willing to send his men to die for salt, but not dig for salt?” John turned to chief Tonteel and said, “Don’t send anymore salt to this chief, and I will instruct my traders not to trade with his village.”

The chief went pale and said, “I didn’t mean that.” He thought quickly for a second, and said, “What I meant was what kind of pay my men and village would get for helping dig the ponds.”

John said, “Fine, we will keep trading with you, but as for you men's pay, talk to chief Tonteel about it, I am sure he will send the men back if they are worth their salt.” John couldn’t help but grin at that turn of phrase. Historians will be so confused as to how Texas and Rome both had the same phrase.

The chiefs went off with Tonteel to discuss pay, instead of war. After those chiefs had thoroughly embarrassed themselves, no one else wanted to talk to John about war, but Chief Yiska was here to talk about the lock and dam, not war.

He said, “Chief John, my village tried to build a lock and dam on a stream near our village, but it failed. Can you come help us.”

Another chief said, “No chief John help me.”

And another chief said, “We were allies in the war, help my village build the lock and dam.”

This was a thoroughly annoying part of the last few weeks. Several of the villages wanted to build a lock and dam, but they didn’t even have a concept of hinges a couple of years ago, much less all the basic technologies needed to build a lock and dam. All of them wanted John to build one for them, but John had his own village to worry about, and no stream big enough to make a lock and dam worthwhile.

John said, “The first full moon after we plant, I will go to chief Yiska’s village and help him build a lock and dam out of logs. Chief Yiska, I will need you to have fifty logs ready, and three ropes over three hundred yards long. I will show you how to use a pulley system to put everything together and bring the hinges necessary for the lock.”

The other chiefs began to complain, but John cut them off and said, “I am a chief I have to watch out for my own village. I think it will be good for my village for every stream connected to villages to have its own lock and dam, but I do not have the time to build one at every village who needs it, so if you want to know how to build your own, come to Yiska’s village on the first full moon after you plant your crops. I will also be showing you how to use a pully properly.”

John was frustrated with all the questions, bickering, threats of war, and that Congress lasted two days instead of one. But after the Congress was over, nobody went to war, and John was going to show the men how to build some pretty neat things. Now he just had to make a few pullies.

Chapter 37 May AD 79 Texas- Lock and Dam

John was not in the best of moods. He was going to be building a lock and dam for chief Yiska’s tribe. The only problem was that John had never built one. The principle wasn’t that difficult, but then again, chief Yiska’s tribe wasn’t able to figure it out, so maybe it was harder than he thought.

John brought his oldest son Trevor with him. He thought it would be good for his son to see how a big project worked. Besides, he never got to spend enough time with him anyway. In this world, his son would be going out on his own in just a few more years, and John wanted all the moments he could have with him, especially since Trevor was old enough to really begin learning things.

John’s and his son were poling upriver with eight men. They were making good time, but making good time and making good time poling were two different things. Chief Yiska’s people saw them a ways off, and by the time they got to the village dock Chief Yiska and the representatives from the various villages who wanted to learn how to make lock and dams were waiting for them.

Several of the representatives were irritated and said, “Chief John, you are late.”

John just smiled and said, “No, you were early.”

They honestly didn’t know what to say. After a long pause where Chief Yiska had to deal with someone being sarcastic with him for the first time since he became chief, he said, “Chief John you made a deal, and I think it’s unacceptable that you did not come the day you said,”

John simply said, “Okay, I guess that means you don’t want me to build your lock and dam. I guess we will go home then.”

All the representatives from the various villages got a panicked look on their faces, and one said, “No, No, it’s okay, we can understand being a few days late. Poling is hard work.”

Even chief Yiska said, “Your tardiness is forgiven. Please hurry up and help us with the lock and dam.”

John was an introvert by nature, and after the congress, he never wanted to see another chief again. He honestly dreaded coming to chief Yiska because of the congress, and thus left later than he should have. He would be delighted to leave, and he was hoping Yiska would ask him to leave.

What Trevor saw was his dad making the chief and other men dance to his whim. His dad, his hero, made those men beg for his help. His dad was so awesome. Trevor being the oldest of three boys, saw everything in line of making others do his whims, and he got great joy watching his dad do just that to these men.

John smiled and said, “Well, let’s get to work. Show me where you want to build the lock and dam.”

Chief Yiska took John to where they attempted to build their first lock and dam. It was a disaster. For one, it was too close to the main river; for another, it’s clear that the timbers they used were not forced into the ground far enough. Another issue is that it looked like they built the dam to be even with the bank. The bank went about fifteen feet high. The highest John would want the lock and dam to go would be ten feet, and if John could do it lower than that, it would be better.

The first thing John did was ask, “If a trade boat goes upstream from here, where will it begin having trouble navigating?”

Chief Yiska said, “I don’t know.”

One of the men in the crowd said, “I tried to trade upstream, but the first bend in the stream gave me problems.

John said, “If it’s the first bend that gives you problems, then that’s where we will need to make the lock and dam.” John turned toward chief Yiska and said, “You will need your men to move the logs blocking the mouth of the stream.”

Chief Yiska said, “We had a lot of trouble getting them there. How are we going to do the much more difficult task of getting them out of the stream?”

John smiled and said, “I will show you in good time.” As much as he may have disliked being around Chief Yiska at this moment, he had to admit it felt good doing homesteading work. The lock and dam may not seem like homesteading work, but it wouldn’t be hard to add an irrigation system to the system, and perhaps some trout lines.

John said, “First thing, though, we have to see if it is worth building a lock and dam here.”

Someone said, “There are a few villages upstream. If this stream didn’t have so many shallow spots, then we would have already traded with them.”

John didn’t look at the man who was talking to him. Instead, he found a long thin tree and cut it down, and tied a rope to the top of it, and said, “I am not talking about whether there are villages up these large streams. I am talking about the fall rate of the stream.” John looked to one of the men randomly, pointed at him, and said, “In a few minutes, I will need you to hold this tight, and then bring that rope and stick with you when I tell you to come.” The man nodded

The other men looked at John, utterly confused, but John kept up his work and started walking upstream rope in hand unspooling behind him. The men followed, and John explained, “Water goes downhill. The fall rate is how fast the river or stream goes downhill. For instance, we shouldn’t make the dam here more than ten feet high. Well, if the first village is twenty feet high, then we would need to build at least two lock and dams to reach it. If it’s a hundred feet high, then we would have to build ten lock and dams to reach it.”

Someone asked, “How can you tell how high villages are?”

John smiled and said, “That’s what the rope, stick, and bubble in a glass tube is for.”

Chief Yiska was thoroughly confused and said, “Glass tube?”

John said, “Be patient, you will see.”

A few minutes later, they got to the end of the rope. Walking upstream can take a long time when every tree and bush is allowed to grow freely next to that stream. John then put another long pole in the river next to the bank. Then John realized he did not have anything tall enough to stand on to reach the top of the pole. Then he smiled, he had Trevor.

He said, “Trevor, I need your help.”

Trevor smiled the smile of a child who just found out an adult wanted their help and said, “Yes, dad.”

“Trevor, I need you to stand on my shoulders and hold the rope.”

Trever was a little nervous. Dad’s shoulders were very high, and standing on them was not the most stable thing.

John saw the fear in his son’s eyes and said, “Its alright son, if you fall you will fall into the stream. Falling into water doesn’t hurt.” Trevor smiled and, with great excitement, got on his dad’s shoulders, while John was trying to figure out how to explain this to Onawa. There was no way Trevor wasn’t going to tell everyone about this experience.

Once up there, John said, “Try to hold the rope to the pole as level as you can.”

Trevor said, “Okay, dad, I think its level.”

John smiled and pulled out a glass cylinder filled with water, and a bubble in the middle. He said,” Trevor hold the rope to the pole with one hand, and this glass cylinder to the rope. Hold it long ways to the rope. Raise and lower the rope until the bubble is in the center. When it’s in the center, that means the rope is level, when its there make a mark on the pole, then tie the rope where the mark is.”

Trevor did everything his dad asked him to do. After that, John called for the man at the other end of the rope to catch up to them. Over the next two days, they continued to examine the fall rate of the river. Turns out, the fall rate is very low and that just raising the stream ten feet let them easily reach two villages. It was the first example in their lifetime that the earth is not as flat as they thought.

It only took a day to get back to Chief Yiska’s village. Once there, John asked the men, “What did you learn?”

One of the men said, “the earth is so big that sometimes when it gets taller, you don’t even notice.”

John nodded and said, “Yes, that’s true, and we can talk about that another time, but when it comes to the purpose of building a lock and dam, what did you learn.”

Another man said, “You can make sure something is level with a bubble in a glass bottle.”

John realized they were not going to give him the answer he was looking for and said, “Although that is also true, what I needed you to learn is that before you build a lock and dam, you need to make sure its worth it. This lock and dam will easily connect to two villages. One of these days when these villages have wonderful products to trade this lock and dam will be very profitable. But there will be streams where a lock and dam wouldn’t have any profit, so please check the fall levels of your streams before you build your own lock and dams.”

The men nodded, then several of the men from other tribes had worry cloud their faces. But they would have to wait until they were home to assuage that worry.

John said, “With that out of the way, we need to begin designing our lock and dam.” With that, John took out a sheet of hemp paper and began drawing on it. The best place to build the dam was near a bend in the stream. He drew two V-shaped dams, with the point of the V’s pointed upstream. One dam was on one side of the bend. The other was on the other side.

Then John showed the men and began explaining, “If you are going to make anything as complicated as a lock and dam, it helps if you draw out what your plan is first. In our plan, we will make two dams with locks in the middle. The dams and locks will be built out of wood. They will have hollowed out wooden logs, that I will call pipes, in these places, “John began pointing out several places on his drawings.

One man’s mouth dropped open and said, “Drawing your plans on a piece of paper, is such a good idea. I wish I would have thought of it.”

John couldn’t help but think back to the old TV show shark tank. Those billionaires often remarked how nobody had ever thought of a simple idea until someone did. John had to wonder who was the first person who made their schematics on paper, and how many millions of people never thought about such a simple idea before that guy.

John said, “I guess I am lucky to be the first guy to think of it.” Then he turned to chief Yiska and asked, “Do you have those ropes I asked for?”

Chief Yiska said, “Yes.”

John smiled and said, “Time to show you how pullies work.”

John had the men take one of the logs and bring it down to the area where they were going to build the dam. Then had one of the men cross the stream and tie a rope high up on one of the trees. Then on John’s side, he had someone put the pully high up in one of the trees. They left a lot of slack in the rope so that the middle could reach the tree. They tied the tree to the rope.

John Pointed to where the end of the rope was tied on the other side of the stream and said, “That tree is going to help us lift this log. Because the other end of the rope is tied to that tree, it will carry half the log’s weight.” Then John pointed to where the pully was on their side of the stream and said, “We are going to pull on the rope here, and the pully will help transfer our strength to lift this log.”

It was a lot of work, but they managed to lift the log into the air. That’s when John said, “Put the log down.”

One of the men asked, “Why did you make us put the log down. It was a lot of work getting it as high as we did.”

John smiled and said, “Because I have two more pullies. Once we have them set up, you will see how much easier that log is to lift.”

After another half hour, they had all the pullies set up, and the men were dumbfounded how much easier the log was when they had three pully systems.

John explained, “As long as you have the end of the rope tied up to something, it takes half the weight. With three pullies set up, on three ropes, with three trees anchoring the ends of the ropes, those far trees are lifting seventy-five percent of the log for us.” John turned toward chief Yiska and said, “In fact, this will make moving the logs at the mouth of the stream much easier.”

Chief Yiska nodded, and John could see some of the young men were excited to play with their new toys.

It took two weeks to set up the lock and dam, but with new toys to play with, all the men were excited to get the hard work done, and by the end of it, all the village representatives were ordering pullies made from iron.

John didn’t stay around for the lock to fill up. But he found out later that it worked. John didn’t know how well it worked, but since they didn’t have anything to compare it to, apparently, it worked well enough.

Chapter 38 June AD 79 Africa-Hippos

It took a few months, but they finally had three wide-bodied boats to cross the river. Paul knew from history that flat bottomed boats did not do well in the ocean, but they were pretty good when it came to lakes and rivers. This part of the Zambezi river was pretty calm, and perfect for flat bottom boats.

As Paul and his soldiers got in the boat, one of the researchers said, “King Paul, be very careful. There are many hippos in this part of the river.”

Paul smiled and said, “That’s why we made the spiked war hammers. They will easily pierce the thick skull of the hippos.”

Paul couldn’t help but be proud of his small nation. They were overcoming the monsters from tsetse flies, to lions, elephants, and now hippos. They were killing the things that plagued this continent for millennia. Paul even had to start building armories to have the right weapons ready for the right animals.

The human deaths from animal attacks had fallen every year since he started ruling, but so far this year, they have become nonexistent. The Communications towers were a big part of that. Now young soldiers seventy feet up can search the surrounding for problems long before they happen, and send out soldiers when they see lions, elephants, rhinos, hippos, or any of the other beast that will kill lone humans farming in the distance. Some of the more superstitious people were starting to view the communications towers as prophetic.

Another advantage of the communications tower is that Paul was finally getting some decent maps of his nation. Once his soldiers started going high in the tower, they got a new perspective of the world for the first time. Paul was having some of his better artists draw maps of what they could see from the top of the towers and putting together then sewing the individual maps together into a national map. It was helping everyone in the nation to view the world in a new way. Although for nations like Rome, maps were nothing new, Paulsland would be the first nation in the world to make maps familiar enough for every person to study.

Paul appreciates the new perspective, but he disliked some of the old superstitions. All of Paul’s people view hippos as the greatest evil because any village near a river or stream loses more people to hippos than every other animal combined. Their fear was holding him back.

Paul’s soldiers had gotten used to dispatching any hippo they found around the new capital with the spiked war hammer. The spiked war hammer was a ten-pound sledgehammer with a spike at one end. The spike was a foot long, and it was intended to pierce the skull of a hippo. Even if you missed the skull and hit another part of the body, you would at least pierce the hide and rupture some organs.

Paul was having his men take him about two thousand feet across the river to an island. The island would, in time, serve as the throne of his capital. They would see if they need to dispatch any animals there and build a small base.

This part of the river was just perfect for building a well-defended capital. Two rivers met here, and there was an island. The two rivers cut the land into three parts. Paul’s plan was to have the three landmasses have bridges built to the Island. This would allow great fortification from any invading army. Whether the army would be rebels, Roman, Indian, Chinese, or something else only time would tell, but history has shown sooner or later your capital will be attacked. Plus, it would allow easy tolls as you had to go through his seat of power to cross the rivers.

Paul was contemplating all of this as his soldiers paddled toward the island. That’s when some angry hippos started to make their presence known. Hippos are not like other marine life. Hippos don’t swim. They are so heavy they run across the bottom of the river and jump out of the water. This is one of the reasons why they are considered so evil. They don’t just swim toward you, they pop out, go down, pop out closer to you, go down, pop out right next to you, go down, pop out right under your canoe, flipping you out of the canoe and then try to maul you to death.

Paul smiled as several Hippos popped out of the water, getting closer every time they came up. Paul smirked as he said, “Men get your war hammers ready. When they get close, end their lives.”

These twelve and thirteen-year-old soldiers were nervous as the hippos got close to the side of the boat. Paul said, “Don’t worry, we are not in a canoe; they can not flip us over. Do what you were trained to do.”

The young men nodded. They were terrified of the evil hippos, but training took over, and they readied themselves for the fight. Paul stood in the middle of the boat, watching his young soldiers. In his time, they would have been in school, maybe even playing pokemon and catching some hippo monster for fun. Heck in his time, the closest a twelve-year-old would come to this experience would be hunting a deer with his father’s rifle. Paul hoped that one day twelve and thirteen-year-olds would not be called to battle, but that’s not the time he was living in.

Paul watched as his disciplined young men waited until the Hippos began to pop out right next to the boat, and his young men instantly reacted and ended the life of several hippos. The thunks into the hippos skulls were almost musical. Many of the young men lost their war hammers as they got stuck in the heads of the hippos and were pulled out of the soldiers’ hands as they went underwater with the hippo carcasses. Paul made a mental note to keep at least one spare per soldier on their next outing.

Then the hippos reached their boats and began ramming them. In Paul’s boat, everyone was knocked off their feet. In one of the other boats, one of the young men fell into the water. The young man fell toward Paul’s boat, and Paul reacted instantly. He scrambled toward a rope, grabbed it, and threw it toward the desperate young man, but it was too late, one of the Hippos bit him and dragged him under. All the mirth had gone out of Paul.

Yes, wide flatbottom boats could not be flipped by Hippos, but hippos still weigh two tons. That young man’s death was Paul’s fault, and Paul knew it.

Paul yelled out, “Back on your feet, quickly. We have killed more of them than they have killed of us. We will keep killing until they back off!”

But the hippos did not back off. They continued to ram the boats, and although the boats had an excellent seal with galvanized rubber, the wood still began to crack. Paul recognizing the danger, yelled out, “Half of you grab your oars and row back to shore!”

On one boat, only two grabbed the ores and began to row; on another, all of them did, on Paul’s boat, six of them did. Paul did not have time to correct them; he simply grabbed his war hammer and began to swing.

About this time, a hippo came out of the water, mouth wide open and bit into Paul’s boat. The Hippos two large tusks pierced the bottom of the boat. Paul would never have thought in a million years a hippo could get his mouth around his boat’s three-foot wall and put in holes like that.

Paul ran over to the hippo who was trying to eat his boat and ended its life by braining the thing with his war hammer. Paul was shocked to see that after the hippo died, its corpse was stuck. Now they were rowing away from attacking hippos in a boat with a hippo corpse holding on with its tusk. Paul was momentarily paralyzed with indecision. Do you knocking the tusk off, making the boat go faster without the dead weight, but deal with the water leakage, or do you keep the hippo there, and not have the river flood your boat. Paul chose to leave the hippo there.

As they got away from the hippos grounds, whether it was their mating ground or something else Paul did not know, the hippos stopped attacking them so relentlessly.

Paul now knew why everyone else feared hippos. They were savage. When they made their way back to the shore next to the capital, Paul’s soldiers were waiting for him. They saw Paul’s trouble from the watchtowers, and they were ready to protect their King from any hippos who followed Paul, assuming he got to shore. Loyalty only went so far.

The hippos continually rammed into the boats until they reached the shore. Even though the hippos were big and strong, they did not want to mess with seventy-five armed soldiers.

As they landed, Paul looked to his researchers and said, “You were right. We need better boats, with thicker hulls. Get off the piston pump project until we have a better solution.”

Then Paul turned toward his men and said, “I am so sorry for putting you in that danger. I was wrong to think so little of the Hippos.”

One of Paul’s men looked toward Paul and said, “King Paul, you have nothing to be sorry about.” The soldier smiled and said, “We went into the hippos river, fought them on their own turf, and killed dozens of them. They only killed one of ours. We can finally beat those evil creatures.”

It was hard for Paul to understand coming from where he came from, but the people in sub-Sahara Africa have always had a defeated mentality as a whole because of the real monsters they lived with for millennia. But from lions to hyenas, to elephants, to crocodiles, to hippos, Paul was showing them how to beat their greatest monsters again and again, with little cost. Although they will mourn the loss of the soldier, they honestly thought that the hippos would have killed more of them than they killed hippos. To these young soldiers who lived in fear of real monsters all their life, they just won a great victory at little cost.

Chapter 39 July AD 79 Badru’s Promotion

Chazia was beaming! She stood by her daughter Eulalia, and Chazia was holding her first grandbaby. Chazia never dreamed she would live long enough to become a grandmother. And not only was she a grandmother, but now her oldest son Badru served his two years, and he was becoming a lieutenant.

Paul had been melancholy for a month after the soldier died due to his mistake, but even he was in higher spirits on graduation day. This day had become something of a festival. Nearly every soldier who was going to work for the government as a lieutenant, researcher, secretary, or something else was getting married today, as they had a house ready, and a girl ready to move in with them, except for Badru. He had three fiancees who Chazia was training, just like her husband’s fiancees. It would be two more years before he could marry two of them, and the last one would have to wait three years.

Chazia still smiled when she thought about all those times she made sure the girls in the schools knew that her son Badru already had fiancees and that they should chase other boys. She embarrassed her son so much. Chazia couldn’t help but smirk when she thought about how she played dumb when he said she was embarrassing him. Sometimes a mom has to protect their son by embarrassing them. If it is funny, then that’s a bonus.

Once the new soldiers from man camp finished their graduation, Paul got up to give his speech to those who were about to get their pay and start their new life. Everyone got quiet and listened.

Paul said, “Thank you all for being here. I would like to take this time to honor those who could not be. Some are not here because they died when fighting foreign villages; others are not here because they defended our people from lions, elephants, cobras, and hippos. Some had accidents, and others got sick and perished. Everyone who died was a student of mine, and want to honor their memory. Twenty-seven died this year, and so their names will be chiseled onto the inside of the wall of the capital, to be remembered forever…” Paul began calling out the names of those who died and how they died bravely, but Chazia didn’t know them, so she kind of tuned all that out.

Although the names did not affect Chazia, who grew up seeing death at every turn, it affected the soldiers. It meant something to these young men that Paul would care for them in life and in death. Their loyalty for their King grew, especially as they saw the tears going down their King’s face.

Chazia didn’t notice this because she had her children and the fiancées of her husband and sons to watch. So much training to do, and so little time. Her husband was giving pay to over three hundred men, the ceremony was long, and it was not like the graduation ceremonies of Paul’s day where you just handed someone a rolled-up diploma. Paul was giving Oxen, plows, wheelbarrows, bags of grain, and other goodies to every man who had served their two years. Some of the men even got bonuses for excellent service. Everyone watched as Paul handed these men the ability to make it in life.

After the long ceremony was over, Chazia went to find her oldest son. Her children and her children’s fiancées were keen to follow her. But Paul’s fiancées dragged their feet and got left behind.

Misa told the girls, “She’s finally gone! We can talk now.”

Vanda said, “I am glad she is gone, but why do the other girls get to talk to their fiancée when we can’t talk to ours?”

Kyum said, “You know why. Paul can not look like he is breaking his own laws. When we are fourteen, we get to marry him, but until then, he can only talk to us when we are in public, and there are a lot of witnesses.”

Paul and future scholars would never realize the role these girls played in bringing stability to Paulsland. A part of the privilege of being Paul’s fiancée meant that these girls could write home to their fathers as much as they wanted to. Much of what they wrote about was how their future husband not only obeyed his own laws but went out of his way so that nobody could accuse him of breaking his own laws. The various chiefs realized that if their king was going to go so far to obey his own law, then his anger at them breaking the law would be great.

Genifa said, “What are you three complaining about? He always confuses me with Gizela because our names start with the same first letter.”

Gizela said, “We can keep complaining about Paul, or we can go have some fun while Chazia is spending time with Badru.”

Misa said, “I heard they are building a stone tower directly outside of the river gate, on the river bed.”

Kyum said, “I heard about that. Right now, the river bed is exposed, but once the rainy season comes, the water will be rushing through where the tower is.”

Genifa said, “Lots go see it.”

The girls ran off to see the first tower for the first span on the first bridge to cross the Zambezi river. It was a bit of an experiment on Paul’s part to make sure he could build a stone tower in the river that could withstand the rivers might, although to these people it was confusing as to why Paul would build something where it would be overrun by water in a few months.

While the girls were off enjoying their freedom from Chazia, Chazia finally found her son, getting talked to by Paul.

Paul was telling Badru, “Badru, I am sorry that you won’t get to marry a girl as fast as everyone else in your retiring class, but you will have to wait two years for your oldest fiancée to turn fourteen.”

Badru had a serious look on his face and said ,” I understand, dad.”

Paul always liked it when his stepchildren called him dad. Paul continued, “That said, I have a vital job for you. I will need you to cross the river and build a fort on the island, and then once that is done, build a fort on the far side of this river. Don’t worry about crossing the other river and building anything there. We are years from building anything there.”

Badru said, “Why are you giving me this task?”

Paul said, “Two reasons. One I am going to build a bridge out to that Island, and from there to the other side of the river.”

Badru’s eyes got big and said, “How are you going to do that?”

Paul said, “The researchers are working on the tools as we speak. Besides, you know that tower being built outside the river gate on the river bed?”

Badru said,” Yes.”

Paul said, “If it survives this rainy season, I am going to build a bunch of towers like that all the way across the river and build bridges linking each tower.”

Badru’s mouth dropped, “Do you know how big that river is?”

Paul said, “It’s not the width of the river that’s the problem; it’s the depth. Thankfully the river near the capital isn’t too deep.”

Badru asked, “How are you going to build stone towers underwater.”

Paul smiled and said, “You will have to wait until next year to find out when we start building towers toward the side of the river you will be on, which brings me to the second reason why I am sending you across the river. You have to wait two more years to get married, and it will be much easier for everyone to know you are not breaking the law when you are stuck on the other side of the river.”

Dashiell and Badru’s fiancees were listening in on the conversation in shock and surprise at the idea of building a bridge across the river, but when Paul questioned Badru’s honor, one of his fiancees said, “Badru would never break the law!”

Paul hadn’t noticed them until she protested. Paul smiled and said, “That’s good because if I ever find out that Badru was alone with you or one of his other fiancees before you are fourteen, I will break both his legs and make sure they heal wrong. “

Chazia shot a horrified concerned look at Paul that said, why are you saying that.

Paul answered her unspoken question, “Badru is a leader, and worse yet, he is my stepson. If he breaks my law, he will have to be punished and punished harshly, so people know the law is important. Everyone has to obey the law, especially the king and his family.” Paul looked to Badru’s fiancees and said, “If Badru decides to break my law with you, then I will need you to be strong and refuse to break it with him. Otherwise, Badru will be hurt.”

One of the girls said, “What will happen to us if he breaks the law.”

Paul said, “Nothing. I think it’s foolish to blame a child for the actions of an adult. If a man can not control himself, then he is a dog that needs to be beaten.”

Badru’s three fiancees and his brothers two fiancees heard Paul’s words and sent them to their fathers. Generally, before those words, the woman was blamed for the sins of the man, but Paul’s casual words influenced many judgments in the coming years.

Chapter 40 August 79 AD Africa-Lieutenant Badru

Badru couldn’t help but smile at his accomplishments over the last month. Badru and a hundred soldiers made it to the island that his dad couldn’t reach. When was the last time in Paulsland that someone was able to do something their King was unable to do?

Granted, the researchers designed a boat with three layers of boards to stimmy the hippos tusks, a layer of rubber between each so the boards would be less damaged by a hippo charge and the boats had a higher rail to make it unlikely for them to be tossed out by charging hippos ramming the boat.

The five boats with twenty soldiers each worked wonderfully. The soldiers are twelve, thirteen, and fourteen years old, and they slew the monsters by the hundreds. It was hard to tell from the capital, but the island was claimed by the hippos before Badru came and took it from them.

They were also getting a nice bonus by bringing the hippo carcasses back to the capital. They didn’t bring a tenth of the hippos they killed back, but it was more than a year’s worth of food. The jar makers were working overtime to try to make enough jars to keep as much as possible fresh.

The thing that put the biggest smile on Badru’s face was the fact that his men had new uniforms made out of hippo leather. Hippos were far more dangerous than crocodiles, and the men he led got to be the first soldiers wearing Hippo leather. Whenever someone saw them in this leather, they would know that they were the best. They were hippo slayers.

Over the course of a month, the soldiers cleared the island of hippos and trees, and built a log fort, with all the basics. The basics, according to dad, is a granary, larder, cistern, barracks, bathhouse, and Communications tower.

They didn’t need a fraction of the logs they cut down, and they were put aside for the bridge-building project that dad had in mind. It was something else to look out every day and see the stone tower growing taller on the dry river bed. It was the dry season, so a lot of the river bed was exposed on both sides of the river, but as soon as the rains started in a few months, the river would overtake dad’s tower. As far as Badru could tell, the tower would easily be tall enough to stick out of the water. The question was, would it survive the raging river? His dad told him that he was building a triangle with its point pointed upriver to help it survive the raging waters. The whole thing looked weird to Badru, but his dad was usually right about these things.

The really neat part was that his dad was going to build a stone bridge from the river gate of his capital, to the stone tower. To go that far, the stone span of the bridge would be forty feet! His dad wanted the span done before the planting festival to show the people who came to the capital.

They finished the stone tower a day before Badru’s men finished the fort, and now Badru had all one hundred of his men (excluding those on watch duty) lined up to hear their new orders.

Badru said, “Good job on building the fort. The bad news is that dad’s men finished building his stone tower on the river bed before we finished our fort.”

There were groans and boos, and Badru didn’t care. It wasn’t like they were still in man camp.

Badru continued, “Dad’s plan for that stone tower is for a forty foot long stone bridge to be built between it and the river gate.”

The men exclaimed in surprise, and there was chatter. Badru was friends with most of the men, so he knew all about the gossip surrounding the stone tower, and a stone bridge was outside their expectations. Badru could hear their discussion, which basically came down to “What’s the point of building something as complicated as a stone bridge to that tower.”

Badru ordered the men, “BE SILENT AND I WILL EXPLAIN.” They hushed immediately. Although this wasn’t man camp, you could only give soldiers so much liberty before you had to start making their life miserable to create discipline.

Badru explained, “Dad plans to build towers from the capital to this island, and build stone bridges across them to reach here, so you will not need boats to reach the island. And from the Island, he will build stone towers and bridges to the other side of the river. And before you ask, I don’t know how he plans on building towers in the parts of the river that always has water, but he says its been done before and he thinks he can make it work.”

The men forgot all about silence and began talking again, and Badru yelled out, “PUSH UP POSITION!” The men immediately obeyed. It was five lashes to lag behind on that order, and it was rare after man camp to find any soldier who would hesitate to drop into pushup position when that order was given.

One hundred and twenty pushups later, Badru yelled out, “Now that you are too tired to talk, I will explain dad’s orders for us. Since we have finished building a fort on this island and cleared the trees for future use, we are to head to the other side of the river and clear land and build another fort. During the nights, we will come back to the fort on the Island until we clear two hundred square yards of trees, build watchtowers, and walls. We will start staying in that fort then, even if we haven’t quite gotten the gates up yet. We will keep twenty-five men at the island, and if there are any injuries, we will send them back to the capital for the girls to fix.”

Badru pointed at one group of men and said, “Your squad stays here, the rest go to boats we have a job to do.”

Badru chose to put twenty-five men in three boats for this operation. They knew the other side of the river had villages because they could see smoke from their fires in the distance, and Badru was wary of an ambush. His dad told him that the most dangerous part of their job would be when they were approaching the other side of the river because the leaves from the trees would block their view. Once they got past the tree line, they would be able to see a good way into the bush.

As they approached the tree line, Badru had the swordsmen take out their shields and cover the rest of the men. If they waited until the ambush to have their shields out, it would be too late.

The boats made their way to the bank, with leaves blocking their view. As soon as the boats touched ground, the swordsmen stormed off the boat, shields protecting them. Several of the men stumbled and fell. It’s clear they hadn’t actually practiced this maneuver, something to talk to Dad about.

The men safely disembarked, no ambush was waiting, or hippo, or lion, or something else that could cause death and destruction. The men immediately took out their axes began cutting down all the trees near the bank, and got to work, making a two hundred square yard clearing.

After the first day, they were only about a quarter of the way finished and made their way back to the safety of the fort on the island. The next day they went out and began cutting the trees down again.

About midday, one of the men saw movement in the trees and called out, “Movement.” This is Africa, that movement could be the wind, antelope, lions, hippos, or men from other tribes. Calling out movement was a serious thing.

The men were making a lot of noise swinging axes, every man who heard someone yell movement was required to repeat the warning by also yelling movement, so anyone who didn’t hear the first call would have a chance to hear the other men echo it.

As men yelled out, “Movement.” They all began looking around to see if they could see what was causing it, and then someone spotted them. Several men with bows were coming their way. Whether it was intended as an ambush or not didn’t matter, one of the men yelled, “Ambush.” And all the men echoed it, and training took over. They ran to group together and took out their weapons on the way.

Swordsmen were taking shields off their back and putting it on their left arm, and then pulling swords out of scabbards. Spearmen were removing their spear from the harness on their back. Archers were grabbing their bows and notching arrows. Before long, the swordsmen were standing in front of the other men, blocking any attack on the rest of the men, spearmen had their spears ready to dash any charge these foreign tribesmen would make, and archers were standing in the back prepared to snipe.

The other tribe was upset to see men in their territory. They had been worried after seeing strange buildings coming up from the other side of the river. They didn’t come this way much because of the dangers of hippos, but over the last couple of years, they had all seen the strange stone buildings being built on the far side of the river. Then a month ago, they saw men removing the trees from the island the hippos lived on. Now, these men were in their territory, clearing their land, not with fire but with iron axes.

They didn’t know what to think, but they were upset they were in their territory without their permission. They came to talk with the new people, but they came armed just in case the enemy attacked. When the enemy saw them, they yelled out strange words and grabbed weapons.

The chief yelled out, “The trespassers have weapons they are going to attack! Kill them first!”

With that pronouncement, their men began firing arrows! But their arrows were stopped by the large shields held by the strange men. This caused the men to pause for a moment, only for many of them to be struck down by the enemy’s arrows.

The chief’s eyes grew wide and yelled out, “Fools! Don’t stop firing. Sooner or later, you will get through their shields and kill them.”

The men managed to fire two more salvos of arrows, but by then, they lost twelve more men without hurting a single enemy. The chief yelled out, “They are spirits! Our weapons can not hurt them! RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!”

The men began to run, but many were shot arrows as they ran.

After the men ran, Badru told his men, “Good Job! If you have been wounded, disinfect it with alcohol and put some honey on a bandage and wrap it up. If you need more medical treatment, we will take you across the river to the capital to get taken care of. If you are not wounded, go check on the bodies. If anyone survived capture them.”

Badru helped his wounded men. The tribe didn’t realize it, but a few arrows managed to make it past the shields, but with thirty-pound bows, they didn’t pierce the leather armor more than half an inch. None of the men had more than shallow wounds, and unless someone got an infection, the wounds would do little to slow them down.

While this was happening, one of the men called out, “Lieutenant Badru, several men survived, but they do not speak a language I understand.”

Badru eyes got wide and said, “Show me.”

The soldier led Badru to one of the captives, and Badru tried to talk with him, but it was gibberish. All in all, five men were captured wounded but alive. All spoke gibberish.

Badru told his men, “Gather the wounded, and we will head back to the island, I need to send a message to my dad.”

As soon as they got back to the Island, Badru told the boat with the wounded captives, “Take them to the capital. I Have to stay here with my men.” As they left, Badru used the communications tower to send a message, telling them that he was sending them wounded captives that did not speak their language.

When Paul got the message, he was pleased. He was glad that Badru stayed with his men, its what a good leader does, and Paul even sent a message back saying so.

When the captives came to the capital, Paul sent them to the girls to get fixed up. At this point, the girls were much better surgeons and doctors than he ever was, and he had chains for the men made. Finally, King Paul sent for the soldiers who were the best at learning the strange English words he taught over the years. The fact is that whatever language the local language was, it didn’t have a lot of words for the new things he was introducing, so English was used a lot. Some of the kids struggled with the new words, but a handful were gifted in speaking the new language. He suspected that these soldiers would learn the language of the captive quickly.

Paul was pleased with Badru’s leadership. Paul planned for Badru to be the first leader to capture villages on the North bank of the river. But if Badru was going to capture the villages on the other side of the river, he would need someone to tell them how to surrender. Paul just hoped it wouldn’t take to long for the new language to be learned.

Chapter 41 November AD 79 Researcher

Faizal was worn out. King Paul decided a few years ago that the planting festival would be used as a world’s fair. Faizal had no idea what a world’s fair was, but it had something to do with showing new ideas and discoveries.

For most people, the planting festival was about one of the tournaments, or the feasting or the new things the King made, but for the researchers, the planting festival was all about finishing up the latest projects.

Faizal wished it was just one project. This year they had to finish the stone bridge, the pistoned powered pump, the rubber hose, and the mill powered by an ox. That isn’t even getting into the major projects that were not finished yet, like the wall only being thirty-five feet high. It will take another year to get to fifty feet, thankfully, that’s been mostly turned over to laborers who were used to the work.

King Paul was holding the planting festival a week after the rest of the villages. He told the chiefs its because he wanted their various champions of the various challenges to be able to come to the capital and see who the best of the best was. The reality was that all the researchers told him that it would take another week to get their projects done for the festival, and King Paul wanted the chiefs to see the new innovations and make it part of their villages.

The day the planting festival arrived, the researchers had barely finished all the projects that King Paul wanted to show off. The researcher’s first job of the day was standing on the stone bridge and talking to anyone who had questions about it. King Paul told them to write down the names of any children who seemed to take extra interest in the science of their work as a possible future recruit. If anyone had any questions about how big the bridge would be, they were to point them to the telescopes at the end of the bridge.

Even though Faizal got out to the bridge first thing in the morning, many people were already there staring at the bridge in awe. The bridge went nowhere yet, but seeing a stone structure hanging in the air for a span of forty feet was awe-inspiring to everyone.

Faizal was answering their questions when a group of chiefs showed up. They always stood out because they always had something wrong with them, like a limp or perhaps an arm that didn’t work. After they got finished staring in awe at the bridge, they came to Faizal.

One of the chiefs asked, “How did you get the stone to stay in the air like this?”

Faizal answered, “Its an arch bridge. Even though it looks like its just hanging over the ground, in fact, the arch on the bridge means that the tower on that side of the bridge, and the earth on the gate side of the bridge are holding it in the air.”

The chiefs nodded even though it was clear they didn’t know what Faizal meant. Another one of the chiefs asked, “There are a lot of pieces to this bridge. How did you get them to stay in the air until you completed the bridge?”

Faizal thought maybe he misjudged these men and said, “We built wooden towers on top of the tower, and tied ropes to the top of it, and then tied more ropes to the gate. We used that to hang scaffolding to put the rocks and concrete on while we build the arch. Once the keystone was in place, we took down the scaffolding and rope.”

One of the chiefs had a very puzzled look on his face and asked, “The river bed you built the bridge over is dry. Why didn’t you build a scaffolding system from the ground to hold the stone?”

Faizal said, “King Paul wants to build many towers and stone bridges from tower to tower until it crosses the bridge to the island on the far side of the river. To do that, we will have to build some towers in the river where the water is always flowing, and we will have to build stone bridges from one area to the next over the water. We learned how to do that here where it is reasonably safer.”

All the chiefs mouths dropped open, and before they could ask, Faizal said, “I do not know how King Paul plans on making towers in the water still flowing down the river. He says he has a way, and considering everything else he has done, I believe him. I can tell you this. He thinks the piston-powered pump will be part of the way we will be able to build it.”

One of the chiefs said, “But that island is so far away.”

Faizal nodded and said, “I know how far away that island is. If you want, you can look through the telescopes and see for yourselves how far away it is.”

With that suggestion, they ran off.

Faizal was waiting for this part of his day to over. He hated to admit it, but it was embarrassing to tell people he didn’t know how they would make towers in the water every time they asked about it. King Paul needed to tell his researchers, but he just smiled and said, “One step at a time.” King Paul could be very annoying at times.

About the time he was growing irritated with his King, Faizal heard a commotion coming from the river gate. Someone was riding the elephant named Caterpillar. Faizel was dumbfounded when the elephant’s handler took the elephant on the bridge! Didn’t they know that the bridge was new? And untested. Then Faizal saw King Paul coming behind the elephant. Faizal quickly walked to his King.

When he got there, he hissed at the King and asked, “What is going on!” Faizal liked his King, but he was unhappy and familiar enough with the King to show his irritation.

King Paul smiled and said, “This year’s winner of warriors rock gets to ride the elephant across the bridge to the tower and back!”

Faizal said, “But the Elephant hasn’t gone across the bridge yet. We don’t know if it will hold.”

Paul said confidently, “It will hold.”

Faizal said, “Even if it holds what if the elephant panics and runs off the bridge or tower.”

King Paul’s face fell, and he said, “I didn’t think of that. I just wanted to show everyone that the bridge can hold an elephant, which shows how safe it is.” Then he looked at Faizal and said, “Why are you making me worry? This stuff is already in motion! Even if the elephant panicked and ran off the bridge, I could have enjoyed the spectacle until it did, but now I am going to worry until that elephant is safely back inside my gate!”

Faizal said nothing, but a huge smile bloomed on Faizal’s face. King Paul saw it and said, “Shut up. Go to your next station.”

Faizal went to his next station, which was the piston-powered pump and rubber hose. He was pleased when the elephant came through the gate. He enjoyed making his King worry for once.

The King came over with the elephant and announced, “Today we are going to have a contest. I need five strong young men.”

Several young men raised their hands. King Paul selected five and said, “See that water trough over there, I need you to go over there and grab those five buckets. Now when I tell you to begin, you are going to take those five buckets and fill up that barrel with water.” It was worth noting the barrel was about twenty feet away from the trough. The young men nodded. The look on their face said that it would be easy.

Paul smiled and said, “Faizal, my head researcher will be competing against you with the research department’s piston pump, and hose.”

Faizal walked over to another trough set up for him, put one hose in it, and another hose in his indicated barrel.

Then Paul gave Faizal a nasty smirk and said, “Caterpillar, the elephant will be competing against both your teams!”

Faizal mumbled, “I hate my boss.”

Paul yelled out, “Get ready, get set, BEGIN.”

At that moment, Faizal began to pump furiously. One of the hard aspects of inventing the piston-powered pump was finding out to make a pump work you had to have it primed. Since Faizal knew that secret, the pump was already primed when he started, and he began pumping the handle of the lever on the pump furiously.

The five young men dipped their buckets in the trough and practically tripped over each other, getting to the barrel the first time. Although it didn’t take them long to get coordinated. Faizal really didn’t have much to do besides watch his competition while he pumped the lever on the pump. The young men were in great shape and made a good show of running back in fourth with the buckets.

The elephant was something else. It would stick its trunk in the water, and its handler led it to the barrel, and it blew the water back in it hard, water splashing out ever time it blew its trunk. The handler led it back and forth, and the elephant obediently obeyed its handler to the best of its ability. Faizal had worked with several of the elephants they had captured over the years, and he had to admit they made a lot of jobs much easier, and much quicker to complete. They were so strong! He hoped they could breed some soon because the number of elephants in the area had dramatically dropped since Paul came out with the new weapons.

It wasn’t long, to everybody’s surprise, including Faizal’s that his barrel was full first and spilling out water. King Paul said, “Faizal, how did you win… I mean, Faizal won! Congratulations!”

What King Paul didn’t realize is that Elephants can only carry two gallons of water in the trunk at a time! The elephant easily beat the five men with buckets which were only there to make Faizal look good, but now they just looked pathetic, and Paul allowed them to slink off.

After seeing the new invention, people came around and asked a million questions, and Paul said, “The researchers worked with several blacksmiths in the capital to make it happen. If you want your own pump and rubber hose, I am sure they can build you some too.”

After the pump beat the elephant, it would not be long before blacksmiths from every village came to learn how to make the pump themselves. One of the researchers would end up quitting his job and making rubber hoses full time because of all the pumps that were sold. Even though Paul didn’t have time to make a drill to get to the water table for wells yet, the pump beat the elephant, and with a rubber hose, it was practical for every home. For watering fields, to moving water from their cistern to their home without buckets, to bringing water inside forges, schools, bathhouses, and so much more. One day when he got around to making wells, it would be even more practical. The piston-powered pump was the first must-have item for every building in the nation. It’s just amazing marketing that it beat an Elephant.

Paul smiled and pulled the hose out of the barrel and said, “Kids come around.” A bunch of children ran over to King Paul. Then King Paul looked back to Faizal and said, “Start pumping.” Faizal was confused but did what he was asked, and the King started spraying the water into the air, and it rained down on the children! They started shrieking, screaming, laughing, and running around in it. At this moment, all the practical applications for the pump and rubber hose were forgotten for the joy it brought the children.

Eventually, Faizal’s arm got tired, and someone took over, and King Paul handed the hose to someone else. Faizal was sure some mothers would be irritated that their kids got soaking wet, but that’s not something you complain to the King about. Especially when he would get a smirk on his face, and a twinkle in his eye and laugh about it to the mother’s husband and children.

Near the end of the day, Faizal had to showcase the last invention. It was an ox powered mill. It was a big wheel with a hole in it. A rod went through the hole to a yoke attached to an ox. The stone was inside a big round stone with a trough on it. The circle stone was in the trough, and as the ox went around the round stone, it made the circle stone go around the trough. This crushed the wheat inside into flour.

Faizal heard King Paul complain several times about the delays in building this, but it took a few years until they had stone cutters skilled enough to make it. Faizal suspected once the women saw it in action, every village would have one quickly even if the chief only got it to stop their wives from nagging. Women would spend an hour a day making their wheat into flour with stone a pestle. The ox powered mill could make a weeks’ worth of flour in five minutes.

Faizal called out, “Ladies come and see the greatest invention since well the pump.” The ladies were curious as to why Faizal called out specifically for them. They gathered round, and Faizal poured wheat all around the trough and then got the ox moving. In a few minutes, two weeks’ worth of flour was ground down. The women were astonished.

Faizal said, “King Paul says if you are impressed ask your chief to have stone cutters make one for your village. But this doesn’t only make flour. It also makes oils too.”

Faizal never had oils in his food before. He just trusted King Paul when he said it was great and that they would have food fried with oil tonight for their supper. King Paul instructed Faizal to pour peanuts in the trough and that when they were crushed, the oil would come out of a lip built into the round rock with the trough. Faizal did what he was asked, and oil came pouring out into a vessel prepared for it.

The ladies ooh and ahhed, and Faizal said, “King Paul said he was going to have food fried in peanut oil tonight. So this mill doesn’t just make flour much quicker than you can, it can also make peanut oil.”

When Faizal and Paul talked about what Faizal was to say, Faizal had no idea why Paul smiled and said that Faizal would do great in infomercials. Then again, the King laughed about a lot of things that Faizal didn’t understand.

Later that night at dinner, King Paul told the crowd, “Thank you for coming to this year’s planting festival. Many of you are the greatest your village has to offer, and some have proven you are the greatest our nation has to offer.” People cheered at king Paul’s flattery.

King Paul continued, “I believe many of you have enjoyed seeing some of the wonders today and realize how they will improve your life in the coming year. All these inventions are things I have been able to recreate are from my homeland. I would not have been able to recreate all these things without the help of my researchers, that said some inventions have really stymied us, one imparticular. It was called a spinning wheel.”

Paul explained, “I have seen it many times from a distance but never got a good look at one. What a spinning wheel does is it makes thread very quickly. With a spinning wheel, a lady could make cloth ten times faster than with a distaff.” There were gasp in the audience.

Paul waited for the gasp to quiet down and said, “As many of you know, we always need more cloth and thread, so I would love to see someone reinvent the spinning wheel or something like it. I have many wood sheets with a picture of the outline of a spinning wheel. Its basically sits at waist height and has two wheels on top of it, and somehow those wheels work together to spin thread. Anyone who can figure out the secret to the spinning wheel will be given twenty pounds of iron and ten pounds of copper.”

With that, Paul got his people thinking outside the box.

Chapter 42 December 79 AD Bitter Sweet Christmas

Someone was shaking Trevor’s leg and saying, “Wake up, its Christmas.”

Trevor was in between dreams and reality until the word Christmas crossed his brain, and he realized it meant presents. All of a sudden, he was filled with adrenaline and excitement, and his eyes popped open. He was confused for a second because it was still dark outside. The only light coming from the fireplace, but his dad was there.

Trevor asked, “Dad, can we open up presents now.”

Dad answered, “We are going to eat breakfast first and then open up presents.

Trevor was still pretty tired, and thus cranky and said, “Aww, but I want to open up presents now.”

His dad ignored his irritation and said, “Don’t worry, Trevor breakfast is ready, go ahead and eat, and once you and your brother are finished I will let you open them up.”

Trevor smiled. This year was really different. Every Christmas before this year, Trevor had been the one waking his parents up, but now they woke him up. He suspected his parents enjoyed making him wait for his presents during the last few years, so he wasn’t going to complain about the change of pace this year.

Trevor ran into the kitchen and saw mom sitting at the table. She was very pregnant and it made her tired. She sat down a lot, and dad had to do a lot of the cooking. She had baby Quincy on her lap feeding him.

As Trevor sat down to eat, he heard Bobby cry as dad woke him up. But once dad said presents, Bobby stopped crying. Next thing, Trevor knew Bobby was next to him eating his breakfast as quickly as possible.

Mom and Dad were saying boring adult things that Trevor was mostly ignoring, but then dad said, “We have to open up the presents before the chiefs start bothering us about the upcoming congress.”

Trevor said, “Dad, you ought to just make those chiefs do what you want. You’re the chief of the village, and you beat them in war.”

Dad said, “Trevor, although I am chief of this village, if I tried to force them to do whatever I wanted them to do, then there would be war, and a lot of people would die.”

Trevor smiled and confidently said, “Dad, we would win.”

Dad’s face looked a bit sad as he said, “Eat your breakfast.”

Trevor thought, “Adults never listen when you have an idea that will save them a lot of trouble.” Trevor knew better than to say that out loud.

When everyone was done with breakfast, Trevor and his brothers and his dad went to the Christmas tree. Dad handed the boys their presents while mom stayed seated, watching them. Trevor could not understand how his mom could sit still while they opened presents.

Dad handed Trevor a really long present Trevor opened it up, and it was a BOW. Trevor Hugged his dad and said, “THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU.”

Dad said, “Trevor, this bow has arrows with wooden tips so you can play fight with your friends. It has two magazines so you can fire a bunch of arrows quickly, but it also has some normal arrows for you to fire. The normal arrows will not fit in the magazines, but I will show you how to use both.”

Trevor just kept saying, “Thank you, thank you, thank you.” Then he asked, “Can we try it out now?”

Dad said, “Your brothers have to finish opening up their presents.”

Trevor waited impatiently while Bobby opened up a sailboat. Trevor didn’t even notice that this sailboat was a bit nicer than his own. Quincy got a bunch of carved wooden animals. He immediately started putting them in his mouth.

Once the presents were opened, Trevor asked, “Can we go now?”

Dad said, “Yes.”

Bobby asked, “Can I go to?”

Trevor said, “No.”

Dad said, “Yes!”

Then Bobby stuck his tongue out at Trevor. Before they could start fighting, dad asked, “Do you boys need a spanking.”

The boys said, “No.” at the same time while covering their buts with their hands and forgetting what they were fighting about.

Dad picked up Bobby, who was holding his new boat and put him on his shoulders. And told Trevor, “Follow me.”

Trevor followed his dad, who took him out of the village and into the woods. Trevor asked, “Dad, why are we going all the way to the woods?”

Dad answered, “Because if we don’t, the chiefs will find me and take up all my time trying to get me to side with them before the congress starts. It’s not as bad as last year, but it’s still very time consuming. I want to spend at least some of this day with you and Bobby.”

Trevor nodded as he followed his father until they got to a clearing, and in the clearing was an odd piece of wadded up grass.

Trevor asked, “Dad, what’s that?”

Dad said, “That’s my first attempt at a hay bail. One of these days, when the bison are domesticated, people will use those to feed their bison.”

Trevor said, “Why did you take me out here?”

Dad said, “Because it’s also great for target practice. Take out your bow, put one of the magazines on it, and start firing.”

Trevor did as his father asked, and there was admittedly a lot of fumbling figuring it out. Trevor was surprised by how hard it was to pull the string. He didn’t know that his dad intentionally made the bow weak enough for a child to pull, but strong enough to strengthen his arm. It was only a fifteen-pound pull, but Trevor was only seven.

Trevor’s magazine only held five arrows, and three of them hit the hay bail and stuck. When Trevor was changing out the magazine, his dad said, “Don’t put on the other magazine use the regular arrows.”

Trevor did as he was asked, and his first few shots were miserable, but then his dad pointed out some changes he needed to make, and he started hitting the hay bail. Trevor didn’t know how long he was shooting the bow, picking up arrows, reloading magazines, but eventually, he couldn’t pull the string back anymore.

Bobby asked, “Can I shoot the bow.”

Trevor said, “No.”

Bobby asked, “Dad make him share.”

Dad said, “Now, Bobby, you know the rule. If you want your brothers to share something with you, you have to get their permission. It’s their stuff, not mine, not mothers.”

Bobby thought a second and said, “I will let you play with my boat if you let me play with your bow.”

Trevor said, “No, I already have a boat.”

Before Bobby could try to figure something else out, dad said, “Why don’t you put up your bow and meet me in the bathhouse with your boat. Now that Bobby also has a sailboat, you two can play in the bathhouse together.”

Trevor had mixed feelings about spending time with his little brother but said, “Okay.”

Trevor ended up having a lot of fun playing boats with his little brother in the bathhouse, and he didn’t notice when business called his dad away.

Christmas turned out to be a great time to spend with his dad and brother, although the next few days, he couldn’t play with his bow because his arm was too sore.

Chapter 43 January 80 AD Texas- Written Law

John was pleasantly surprised when he didn’t have all the chiefs waiting at his door this year. John made his way to the area where they held the congress, and he was glad they started arguing with each other before he got there.

It was January, and even though it was Texas, it was still pretty cold out. John hoped that this meant that a lot of the pointless bickering would end quickly, but by noon the weather had warmed up and so had all the arguing.

The problem came down to this. The chiefs liked all the things that regular trade brought them, but their people had a tradition of raiding other tribes for things and brides. Sometimes people died during these raids.

To John’s surprise, none of the chiefs were accusing the other chiefs of organizing the raids. They understood that their young people heard stories from the elders about how they went on raids when they were young, and so the young people followed their elder’s example. The problem was that after the raid was over, the chiefs protected their young people from other tribes no matter what they did because that’s what a chief does.

This wasn’t an issue at the last congress because so many tribes were shell shocked from John’s conquest of so many tribes along the river. This year was different because it was peaceful enough to give the young people time to do stupid things.

The chiefs reminded John of the time he worked a union job. There would be men who were part of the union that didn’t do their job, fought the other union members, complained about everything, and every time they got reprimanded, the union fought tooth and nail to keep the worthless guy around. John was sure that the young people who caused issues in other tribes caused problems in their own, but their chiefs felt a need to defend them.

Eventually, the chiefs started getting tired after standing and shouting at each other all day, and John spoke, “It seems to me that many of you are upset when your village gets raided by a group of youths but defends your youths when they do the same thing to other villages. I do not think you can be on both sides of this issue, so I must ask, would you rather the raids stop or continue.”

The chiefs all started shouting at the same time, and John put up his hands to quiet them and asked, “If you want the raids to stop, raise your hand.”

Nearly all the hands went up.

John asked, “If you want the raids to continue raise your hand.”

No hands went up.

John said, “Well, it is clear to me that everyone wants the raids to stop. So what’s the problem?”

The chiefs had to think about how to answer the question. Chief Yiska was the first to speak, “Chief John, the problem is that when our youths go and raid another village, the other village wants us to turn over our youths so they can kill everyone involved.”

John asked, “Raise your hand if you want all raiders who raided your village to be killed.”

John was surprised when every hand went up, including chief Yiska’s. He had to admit, despite all their faults, they were honest men.

John asked, “Raise your hand if you are willing to turn over your youths who have been involved in a raid.”

No hands were raised.

John started thinking out loud. “This is a real problem. All of you want the raids to stop, but none of you are willing to do anything to make the young people from your village stop raiding.”

One of the chiefs said, “The youths are just doing what we did when we were their age. Why should I stop them from having a little fun.”

John asked, “When a group of youths comes to your village and takes property or a girl what should be done.”

The chief said without hesitation, “They should die.”

John said, “So your youths should rob and kidnap from other villages, but no one should be able to do the same to yours?”

The chief looked around, and it was clear that he wanted to say yes, but it was also clear that it wasn’t wise to say what he wanted to, so he said, “No. If you put it like that, I guess it’s not okay for the youths of my village to raid other villages, but they have to stop their youths too.”

John asked, “If you are willing to punish your youths for raiding other villages, raise your hand.”

Not a single chief raised their hand.

John shook his head and said, “If you chiefs are unwilling to control your own youths, then it will not be long before we go to war with one another.” John got mad and said, “Where I am from, we have this thing called the golden rule. It says that you treat others the way you want to be treated. None of you want to treat the other villages as well as you want the other villages to treat you, and it’s shameful for men of your age and wisdom to act like that. The importance of this congress is to stop you from going to war with each other, but if you won’t police your own village, then war is inevitable.”

One of the chiefs said, “That’s not fair. We police our own people.”

John visibly brightened when he heard that, and he asked, “How do you police your own people?”

The chief said, “When someone steals, we beat them and force them to give back twice what they stole to their victim.”

A lot of the chiefs nodded in agreement.

John asked, “If your village handles thieves like that, raise your hand.”

Every hand was raised. The chiefs even nodded together in agreement. Beating thieves worked really well.

John asked, “If one of the young men in the village forced one of the girls in the village to marry him, what would happen?”

Chief Tonteel answered, “We would beat them both, and the young man would have to pay a huge price for the girl.”

The chiefs all nodded in agreement

John said, “If one of your villagers murdered another villager, what would you do.”

Chief Tonteel answered this question also, “They would be banished, and all their property would be given to the family of the person they murdered.”

John asked, “Why not execute the murder.”

Chief Tonteel said, “That rarely happens. If you execute the murderer, then the family might start a blood feud, and then a war starts inside the village.”

John asked, “If the chiefs here agree with Chief Tonteel, raise your hands.”

All the chiefs raised their hands.

John smiled and said, “I think we can work with this. I think you chiefs agree with each other a lot. How about we write this down and make it the law of the land.”

One of the chiefs asked, “What do you mean, write it down?”

John said, “Everyone of you agrees that thieves should be beaten, and pay double to those they stole from. Every one of you agrees that if a guy steals a bride, they should both be beaten and pay a huge price to the girl’s father. “John thought to himself, I am sorry girls, I will try to make this up to you somehow later, but avoiding war is more important now. Then John finished by saying, “All of you agree that murders should be banished. Did I get anything wrong.”

The chiefs were silent for a little while before someone said, “No, you didn’t get anything wrong.”

John nodded and said, “Well, then we will write down these laws, and they will apply to every village. So when your young men go out on a raid, they will get these punishments for stealing or killing.”

The chiefs protested instantly! John gave the chiefs his best dad, being upset with his children look until they calmed down and stopped yelling.

Then John said, “What would happen to your village if you didn’t punish a thief, bride stealer, or murder when everyone knew they did it?”

Chief Gaagii was the first to answer, “There would be war inside the village until someone held them accountable.”

John said, “Most of you are ready to go to war either because your village was raided, or because you are defending young people you know did these things. How many lives are you willing to lose? Or better yet, how many of you are willing to lose your supply of iron, salt, ketchup, lumber, and other spices?”

They didn’t react when John talked about losing lives, but mention losing their favorite spices, and that gets them thinking. At times like this, John hated the chiefs.

Once John saw he was getting through to them, he asked, “How many of you agree to these laws?”

All the chiefs reluctantly raised their hands.

John wrote down the laws on the paper and said, “Each of you will sign this law governing all the villages on the river, or you will put your thumbprint on it.”

The chiefs reluctantly agreed and dragged their feet.

After they had all agreed to the law, John said, “Now the question becomes how will we enforce the law all of you agreed to? I do not believe any of you are willing to punish the members of your tribe when they break this law, so I will ask that all of you send two warriors to my village to be trained on how to enforce the law. Anyone who doesn’t send them will not have their tribe represented when there are raids between the tribes.”

This started a lengthy discussion on how policing the tribes along the river would work.

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

Onawa was shocked when her husband came home with a smile on his face. Onawa said, “Why are you so happy? The idea of congress has had you depressed for weeks.”

John said, “I got the congress to agree to form the Texas Rangers, and if you are pregnant with a boy, we are calling him Walker.”

Chapter 44 March AD 80 Texas- Docile Buffalo

John was thrilled. Today was the day he was going to show his wife the docile bison. John wanted to show her a month ago, but she was too weak from her difficult pregnancy and birth. John almost lost both of them, but Onawa and his youngest son Walker pulled through. It would be impossible for Onawa to get pregnant again. But they had four boys, and so far, they had all survived.

John woke up before Onawa and made breakfast for the family. When it was done, he went into their room and said, “Onawa breakfast is ready.” She continued to sleep deeply, and so he grabbed her foot and gently pushed and pulled it back and forth. Then he said, “Ooonawa, breakfast is ready.”

She didn’t even open her eyes when she said, “Let me sleep. I had to get up three times last night to feed Walker.”

John felt a little guilty, but well, there was no way for men in the first century AD to feed their infants. If his wife had died and Walker had lived, one of the other ladies would have acted as a wet nurse for Walker and raised him until he was weaned before giving him back to John.

John said, “But I really want to show you what I have been working on for eight years.”

Onawa said, “I have seen your Bison before.”

John said, “Only from a distance. This year though, we didn’t cull a single bison. They were all docile. I even went to check on them, and all the bison let me get close enough to pet them. They have no fear of humans at all. Even though its spring, the male bison are not fighting over females. The only thing that got a reaction out of the Bison was when I tried to ride them. They are not yet ready for that, but I think in two or three years, we could have them ready for plows and riding.”

Onawa asked, “So you want me to go out to Bison valley and watch you play with the bison?”

John said, “No. I thought I explained this, I want you to come to Bison valley and brush the hair of the Bison, and get close to them.”

Onawa’s eyes opened, and she said in a half-angry voice, “You want me to risk my life by getting close to one of your huge bison?”

John shook his head and said, “No, no, no. There is no risk to your life; these Bison have been breed for years to be docile. They are so docile the males are not even fighting over the females.”

Onawa said, “No, I am not getting close to a live bison. John, don’t you remember I come from a hunting tribe. I saw what happens to people who get to close to Bison.”

John said, “Onawa, I have gotten close to all thirty of the Bison in my herd over the last few weeks. None of them have an ounce of aggression. It will be okay. Even the mothers are not aggressive when I get around their young.”

Onawa was eyes went wide with shock as she said, “What?”

John said, “The mother Bison let me and Ulhas get close enough to pet its calf.”

Onawa was speechless for a minute and said, “I would like to see this. No promises on me getting close to the bison. But I want to see how docile you have made them.”

John and Onawa had breakfast with their children. And when they were leaving, Trevor asked, “Can I come?”

Onawa was so angry over the question it looked like she was going to have a stroke. The three oldest boys stepped back. Even little walker rolled away from his mom. Onawa said, “No! You are not allowed anywhere near the Bison! They are too dangerous, and you are too young. If I ever hear about you getting close to the Bison, I will spank you until my butt hurts. DO YOU UNDERSTAND!”

Trevor, Bobby, and Quincy all said, “Yes, Mama!” as quickly as their terrified little hearts could.

John thought it was funny, but he knew better than to laugh around his wife. But when he got around the guys, they would laugh about this for a while.

Bison Valley was a couple of miles away. They held hands while they walked, and since his wife was still recovering from her difficult pregnancy, John princess carried her much of the way. Although John was 38 and starting to feel it, he was still an active farmer, and with some effort, he was able to carry his wife much of the way to the valley.

When they got there, he let her go and held her hand as they walked to the gate. Onawa had never been through the gate. There were platforms next to the gate that you could climb up and look over the wall. Onawa and her children had watched John work with the Bison several times from them.

John could feel Onawa tremble as they got close to the gate. As soon as John touched the gate, Onawa said, “John, you need to climb the platform and make sure the Bison are not next to the gate. If we open it, they could ambush us.”

John was excited to show his wife what he had spent years working on and so made a face showing his impatience.

Onawa said, “Don’t give me that look. If you want me to go in there and see the buffalo, then you are going to have to climb the platform and make sure it’s safe.”

John quickly climbed the platform looked around, and yelled down, “It’s safe. They are about a quarter-mile from the gate.”

Onawa said, “Peer over the fence, make sure they are not close to the gate. If you lie to me and they don’t kill us, I will kill you.”

John quickly peered over the fence so she couldn’t see or hear him laughing. Once he got down, he could tell his wife was nervous, and he said, “Don’t worry, everything will be okay.”

He opened the outer gate, and they both went in. Then he closed it behind them and opened up the inner gate, and for the first time, Onawa was in Bison valley, where, in her mind, thirty deadly Bison were trapped.

They could see the Bison off in the distance. John took his wife’s trembling left hand into his left hand and began to walk toward the Bison. Because her left hand was in his, she was able to walk behind John, which gave her a bit more courage, although she was still scared of the massive beast which ranged in size anywhere from three hundred pound calves, to two thousand pound males.

As they got, close Onawa said, “There are too many. If something happens, we can not dodge an entire heard.”

John smiled, and Onawa could hear the smile and courage in his voice when he said, “Keep walking, and you will see an interesting site.”

As they got closer to the herd, the herd did something unusual. If these had been normal bison, they would have challenged John and his wife. But these bison had been bred specifically to be docile, so there was no challenge. Instead, several of the bison walked away like nervous sheep, others stood still not caring about the couple at all, but two yearling bison walked over to John and Onawa.

John began to pet both the bison, and they appeared to be happy about it. John said, “Onawa, take your brush out and brush the hide of Bison.”

Onawa was so nervous she did what she was told without saying a word, although she looked like she were about to cry. As she brushed one of the bison, she started to calm down, and after a minute of this, she asked, “John, why do your bison have white streaks on their brown coat? I have never seen a Bison with any kind of fur except brown.”

John said, “It’s because they are extremely inbred.”

Onawa asked, “What does that mean.”

John said, “Well, we didn’t have a lot of bison to start this project with, so a lot of brother and sister bison had baby bison together, over several generations. It makes some weird characteristics, but it also allowed me to quickly get the bison to the docile state I want.”

As John was explaining this, the bison Onawa was brushing turned around and licked her. She screamed, fell back, and as soon as she hit the ground, she crab-walked backward because she was too afraid to turn around and crawl like normal.

When she did that, John started laughing, the bison was startled by her scream and did exactly what John was hoping for it moved back. It was a wimp. These bison would not intentionally hurt his people. While John was laughing, the scared bison turned back toward him. John grabbed the bison’s head, which was an easy feat considering it was four foot tall, and started petting it.

John asked the bison, “Did she scare you, you poor baby?”

Onawa stopped being scared once the bison turned back toward John. Now she was mad at John and yelled out, “Why are you worried if that beast was scared? I AM YOUR WIFE! WHY ARENT YOU WORRIED ABOUT ME! THAT THING LICKED ME!”

When Onawa started yelling, the bison started scattering.

John said, “Calm down, you’re scaring all the bison away.”

Although Onawa was mad, she had seen what men looked like once bison trampled them, and the thought of them being scared of her confused Onawa.

She asked, “John, some of those bison are taller than me, and they weight twenty times as much as I do. Why are they scared of me?”

John said, “I bred them to be wimps. These bison can weigh twenty times as much as a woman, and fifteen times as much as a man. Their size and speed make them dangerous. Before I could breed them for anything else, I had to make them docile so that they would be safe to have around the village. If anything scares them, they will back off, instead of charging like normal bison. Its why I pay men to make sure wolves do not get inside the valley. A wolf pack could kill all thirty bison in an hour. It’s the reason why I give iron knives to the other tribes in the fall and explain to them that if its cold enough to freeze water and you put blood on the knife and let it freeze, wolves will die licking the knife to death in the winter. A lot of things I have done has been to get to this point.”

Onawa asked, “If this is the first thing you bred them for, then what’s the next?”

John said, “Now I will breed them to like being around people.”

Onawa was confused and asked, “What do you mean.”

John said, “When we breed dogs more often than not, we breed the dogs that are most social with humans. Over time this has made dogs who like to be around humans. In fact, where I am from, some dogs are depressed when humans are not around. Dogs are often bred for that characteristic first because if they get panicked or angry, they can not knock over a house. This Bison can so I bred docility in it first, and now that they are safe to have around our village, I will now breed them to want to please humans.

Onawa asked, “Why are you breeding that into bison?”

John said, “I want these bison to pull plows, wagons, and be ridable. When I put a yoke or my body on its back, it is not going to like it, but if it likes humans, it will behave even though it has this new uncomfortable experience.”

Onawa’s mouth dropped, and she said, “You want to ride that thing.”

John grinned and said, “Yes. “

Onawa said, “NO!”

John could see the fire in her eyes. She was worried about him, so he said, “Don’t worry, sweetheart, it is still a few years until anyone is riding the bison.”

Onawa said, “No.”

John said, “You will love the bison when you see what they can do with a plow and a wagon. Besides, I have to train the Texas rangers after all the villages put their crops in the ground.”

Onawa said, “Don’t change the subject on me. What’s a wagon?”

John smiled. The trick on changing the subject is to change it twice.

Chapter 45 April AD 80 Africa- Murder

Paul had never been so busy. Most of the prospectors had figured out that limestone is much easier to find than iron or copper but just as profitable as long as their king needs it to build his capital, and Paul needed it badly.

Paul was hoping to have his city’s walls fifty feet high by the time the rainy season began, but the walls were secondary to building the towers to hold the arched bridges. Once done, all the arches would be considered one bridge, but right now, for practical purposes, they were considered individual bridges. Paul was able to begin work immediately on any area where the river was drying up. The problem was that the Zambezi river was too big to get more than half dry during the dry season.

When Paul was in school, he remembered reading about how, when the Brooklyn Bridge was built, they built wooden chambers that went all the way down to the river bottom and then pumped out the water. Once the water was pumped out, they built the tower on the river bottom. Paul assumed they put supports all the way down to bedrock before building the tower but wasn’t sure. His people would hammer down logs until it reached bedrock and then build a tower on it using concrete and rock in the middle of the river.

His researchers were working with carpenters to make the wooden chamber that they would build the tower in. It would be twenty feet by twenty feet, with a forty-foot length. It will be covered in rubber on the inside and outside. It was basically a hollow, square, cylinder.

They planned on floating it to where they wanted to build the tower and sinking it in a very controlled manner. It would have ropes attached to it and the banks of the river. Once one side was on the bottom, a large boat would come in with a tower, and they would bang it into the river bottom and pump out the water. They decided to build two of these next to each other so they could have a bit of a wider bridge, and wiggle room if things didn’t line up exactly.

They would build the twin towers this dry season and nothing else because they needed to make sure it survived the rainy season. If things went well, then next year, they might have a bridge across the Zambezi.

Paul was a bit proud that the work required them to make human-powered cranes. The elephants were great, but the buildings they constructed were far too tall for the elephants to be of much assistance after fifteen feet. Paul had seen the trebuchet at Warwick castle when he visited England one year, and it blew him away that the mechanism to make it work was a giant hamster wheel powered by humans. Paul copied the idea for a crane powered by a giant human-sized hamster wheel. Well, Paul and his researchers. They were a lot smarter than Paul, and they were able to figure out how to apply his knowledge.

About the time Paul was working with his researches over the problem of guiding the wooden chamber into a good position on the river bottom, a soldier tapped him on his shoulder. Paul looked up and saw there was a bunch of soldiers.

His stomach sank as he asked, “What’s wrong?”

One of the soldiers said, “We got a message from Abilio. The lieutenant you left at Jiwi Mkuki village has been murdered, and he says he needs your assistance.”

Paul was stunned. Lieutenant Ridwan was one of the first three lieutenants he had. He was just eighteen, and he had a wife and three small children. His first job as a lieutenant was taking some men to the extreme end of the nation and conquering any village that attacked. But after his second child was born, he asked for a more stable position, and since Paul was leaving Jiwi Mkuki village, he made Ridwan the lieutenant of the village. The last time Paul talked with Ridwan, he mentioned they were expecting their third child, and Paul was happy Ridwan would be relatively safe in the old capital and able to raise his children. Paul would never have thought he would be murdered there.

Paul asked the soldier, “Are his wife and children safe?”

The soldier said, “I don’t know. The message didn’t say.”

Paul nodded and said, “Send a message I need to know. Also, let them know I am coming immediately and should be there around dusk. I will grab twenty-five soldiers and head directly to Jiwi Mkuki village. Let the next village know that I expect them to have the message ready when I come through.”

Currently, the nation of Paulsland’s road system left much to be desired. When most of the roads were being built, either villages made roads that directly connected to Jiwi Mkuki village or roads to villages that already had roads directly connected to Jiwi Mkuki village. Paul would be going through four villages before he got to the old capital. He could have cut two hours out of his trip if one of those villages had built a road to the village south of it instead of to the north. Just something to talk to his chiefs about in a few months.

Paul and his men made their way along the road, and when he got to the next village, he received the news. Ridwan’s wife and children were also murdered. This was shocking to Paul. Ridwan and his wife were both excellent fighters. If they both died, it meant they were attacked by multiple people or ambushed and couldn’t react. Paul sent a message ahead, asking if there were any suspects and if anyone else had died.

Paul and his men were in something of a hurry at this point and were doing a light jog to more quickly reach their destination. Paul was forty now, but he was in very good health, so the jog didn’t wear him out too badly. Paul wished for horses because of their speed and stamina, but there were none in this part of Africa, and an ox cart would have been slower. Paul was grateful for the communications towers as they were saving tremendous amounts of time. If the message came by foot, it would have taken at least a day.

As they reached the next village, they found out that there were no suspects. Paul sent a message back saying not to allow anyone else around the place where the murders took place and for them to have charcoal crushed up to a powder when he got there because Paul knew a way to discover who the murderer was.

As they went, Paul was bothered by the entire situation. This is the first time one of his soldiers, or lieutenants was murdered. That isn’t to say murders hadn’t happened. Paul had dozens of villages in his nation, and murder happened. It’s just that usually the young men were hot-tempered and bragged about the murder making the chief’s job easy. The order was clear when one man murdered another; they were to be shown the same mercy they showed their victim.

As they reached the last village before they got to Jiwi Mkuki, no messages were waiting on them, although Paul made sure that they sent a message letting Abilio know that Paul would be there soon.

Paul and his soldiers made good time. It was an hour to dusk when they finally made it to Jiwi Mkuki village. Paul and his men were spent as they finally saw the village in the distance. Despite that, Paul would want to see the crime scene as soon as they got to the village, so they walked the rest of the way to regain the energy they would need that night.

As they approached the village, Paul was pleased to see that Abilio had the good sense to shut all the gates so the murders couldn’t get away, and it looked like there were a lot of guards on the gate. As they reached the gate, one of the guard’s on top of the gate’s platform yelled out, “King Paul and his soldiers are here, open the gate.”

As the gate opened, Paul noticed the guard was Elzo. Elzo was sixteen years old now, and he was a blacksmith, not a guard. Paul always paid special attention to Elzo because Elzo saw Paul kill his father when Paul first became chief of Jiwi Mkuki village. Elzo was the chief's oldest surviving son. Paul remembered the boy at eight years old wanting to kill Paul, only for the boy's mother to hold him down and place her hand over the boy's mouth. Paul assumed that Elzo was called as part of the militia to guard the gate due to the murder.

After Paul and his soldiers made it into the village, the gate closed behind him. When Paul looked around, his danger sense was going through the roof. He finally noticed that the men on the gate platform were sons of the chiefs that died when Paul took over their villages. Many of them were at the age of thirteen and fourteen and serving as soldiers. The only way they could be there was if Abilio asked for them by name.

That’s when Paul noticed Abilio. He had a smirk on his face. Paul turned back to the gate and saw Elzo standing on the platform above the gate, notching an arrow to a bow. A bow that Paul recognize. It was Ikbal’s one-hundred-and-twenty-pound bow that he won it at the first archery tournament, and he always treated that bow like a newborn baby.

Realization hit Paul, and he yelled, “FORM UP! WE HAVE BEEN BETRAYED! WE ARE SURROUNDED BY TRAITORS!”

Paul’s soldiers reacted instantly to the words form up. The swordsmen pulled out shield and sword, spearmen pulled out spear, bowmen pulled out bows, but in the midst of drawing their weapons, the traitors of Jiwi Mkuki village opened fire with their one hundred and twenty-pound bows.

Several of Paul’s loyal soldiers fell, others were wounded, and those that escaped wounds put themselves between the wounded and those who fired on them.

` Elzo fired his bow directly at Paul, whose training took over. Paul stepped forward and, with an inside block, managed to divert the arrow so that it went through his right shoulder instead of his chest. His right arm fell useless at his side, as the enemy began notching more arrows.

Chapter 46 April AD 80 Traitor

Eight years ago, Paul killed Elzo’s father. Elzo could remember it like it was yesterday. He was playing with the other village boys when that accursed Paul showed up with armed men. Elzo knew there would be trouble because Paul’s face showed open anger. Elzo can remember being excited. He loved it when angry men came to yell at his father, only to watch his father run them off. But that day, it was different. Paul asked his father a question, and before he could respond, Paul murdered his father.

Elzo was just eight years old the day he saw Paul separate his father’s head from his body. Elzo did the only thing an eight-year-old could; he ran back to his mother. The next thing he knew, Abilio was running around with his father’s head yelling about how Paul was the new chief. Elzo wanted to get revenge somehow, but his mother held him down and covered his mouth with her hand.

While she was holding him down, she said, “Bide your time, wait until you are grown up to get revenge, it’s the way of chiefs.”

Elzo bided his time. He went to school under the man who murdered his father. He sang the lies like the rest of the children in school that said how wonderful king Paul was. Elzo had to; otherwise, he got beat up when he told the kids how bad king Paul was. Elzo couldn’t believe that giving those dumb kids food and shelter made them loyal to king Paul.

But in time, there were more kids like Elzo. They were the sons of chiefs that got murdered when Paul’s soldiers conquered their villages. Elzo made friends with them, and when no one was around to listen, they talked about how Paul destroyed their lives. As their hate and anger grew, they found that they needed to focus it to learn how to fight and shoot a bow well; otherwise, how could they ever get their revenge?

In time Elzo joined the military and learned to fight as a unit. He watched over villages, protected them from raids, and conquered other weaker villages, all the while biding his time. After retirement, he became a blacksmith and chose to stay in Jiwi Mkuki village because he wanted to be close to the men that he needed to murder. He married a girl who was the daughter of another chief murdered by king Paul’s men. Their hate drew them close.

Then a golden opportunity came, king Paul decided to move the capital by a river. At first, Elzo was despondent until he found out that king Paul’s second in command Abilo would be made the chief of Jiwi Mkuki village.

After the announcement but before king Paul left, Elzo made his way to Abilio and said, “I wonder why king Paul is demoting you.”

Abilio asked him, “What are you talking about?”

Elzo said, “Don’t act like everyone hasn’t noticed, you were king Paul’s second in command for years, and now instead of being second in command of a nation, you are being demoted to village chief. That’s a spot that our king normally gives to cripples. Everyone has been asking, why does our king think you are a cripple?”

Abilio was furious, but the seed of doubt was planted. That seed grew spectacularly when king Paul took most of the craftsmen. Of course, Elzo was not taken, but that helped his plan when he went to Abilio and pointed out that Elzo was the only blacksmith still left, and he had less than a year’s worth of experience. By now, Elzo had Abilio thinking that king Paul was through with him, and so Abilio better start figuring out how to become king before Paul took his life.

Chief Abilio could ask for specific soldiers to come and guard his village, and since Abilio often helped in the hunting part of man camp, it was not a surprise to anyone when he did so. Nobody noticed that Abilio was asking for soldiers who were the sons of dead chiefs exclusively. What Abilio didn’t know was that these soldiers were Elzo’s friends, not Abilio’s.

Over the next year, an odd thing happened. Abilio, Elzo, and the sons of dead chiefs got to talk with the men of the village about how they were left behind by their king when he went to the new capital, and that things were not as good as they once were. It didn’t take much to convince the old hunters that they should be the ones getting all the benefits of the capital.

When Lieutenant Ridwan came, it was like the spirits gave Elzo a gift. Ridwan was utterly loyal to his King, and Elzo used that to drive a wedge between Ridwan and Abilio. Better yet, it allowed Elzo to point out how little Paul trusted Abilio, why else would Paul send a Ridwan, someone that Abilio himself had trained to teach the young people? Elzo asked Abilio how long before Paul got rid of him? Then pointed out the horrible ways Paul had gotten rid of other chiefs.

During this time, Elzo and his soldiers constantly told Abilio how much better of a leader he was than Paul. Elzo had not forgotten about Abilio’s part in his father’s murder. None of the chiefs sons had forgotten that Abilio was the second in command when their fathers were murdered. But Elzo had shown them that once Abilio took out Paul, they could take out Abilio and become the new kings and chiefs. They just needed Abilio to act.

Then that wonderful day came. Abilio was worried, so he called in all the soldiers and men of the village in for a meeting. He had to do it on the down-low, so Lieutenant Ridwan didn’t come. They met in one of the old abandoned school rooms.

Abilio got up and said, “The strength of our village is getting weaker and weaker, and king Paul doesn’t care. He is content to let our village the village that helped him rise to power wither and die, are you men willing to let that happen?”

All the men but one shouted out an angry, “NO!”

But Ikbal, who was cradling the bow he won in the first archery tournament, said, “King Paul has been good to us. Every one of you remembers what it was like under the last few chiefs. We didn’t even get to eat every day. When we farmed or hunted, the chief got to eat most of what we brought back, but King Paul keeps so little. King Paul has given us the ability to stand on our own two feet. We should be praising him not condemning him.”

Elzo could not let this opportunity go to waste, so he shouted, “Ikbal are you a spy? Are you here to tell king Paul about our problems with him?”

Ikbal was shocked into silence for a second when he said, “No!? What are you talking about?”

Elzo looked over to Abilio and said, “He’s lying! Didn’t you notice how he hesitated when I asked him a simple question?”

Abilio got worried and asked, “Ikbal, are you reporting back to king Paul?

Ikbal was utterly confused and instantly said, “NO!”

Elzo said, “That time, he answered too quickly. Abilio, I bet Ikbal will run back to tell king Paul of your treachery just so he can take your place!”

Ikbal was shocked and said, “No! I wouldn’t do that.”

Elzo looked to Abilio, “You better act now, your life depends on it.”

At that moment, over a year of fear, envy, and anger came out. Abilio drew his knife and rushed a stunned Ikbal and stabbed him. Ikbal had some martial training from King Paul, but he was an archer at heart, and thus Abilio easily dispatched the shocked man.

The other men in the room looked on, shocked. Elzo said, “I bet Ikbal has been giving king Paul reports of your words against him. If he finds out you are all dead men. The only way to survive is to kill the king.”

Abilio said, “Your right!”

Elzo yelled out, “If you want to live, make Abilio KING!”

The other soldiers followed Elzo’s chant, “MAKE ABILIO KING!”

And the other men in the mob started chanting, “MAKE ABILIO KING!”

About this time Lieutenant Ridwan heard the disturbance and came to investigate. When he stepped in, the men were shocked into silence. They all looked guilty. Elzo shouted, “KILL HIM BEFORE HE CAN REPORT US TO THE KING!”

Ridwan was slow to turn. His martial training did many things right, but the mindset it taught was to step into your opponent not run from them, and thus Ridwan was several heartbeats to slow to turn and run. The mob of men was already at a full sprint before he took his first step away from them, and thus he was easily caught and beat to death.

Nobody knows who gave Ridwan the deathblow, but Abilio’s thirst for blood was not quenched, so he told the men, “Go to Ikbal’s and Ridwan’s homes and kill their families otherwise king Paul will kill us.” With that, the hunters of the village went and killed women and children.

Once the murder’s were finished, Abilio asked Elzo, “What now?”

Elzo said, “It takes from dawn till dusk for the king to get here, so in the morning send a message via the communications tower that a murder has taken place.”

Abilio asked, “Which one?”

Elzo laughed and said, “Good question. King Paul was using Ikbal to spy on you, so it would be best if you don’t mention him. So tell him about Ridwan’s murder. I am sure that he will come quickly for that. Once we kill king Paul, we can blame his murder on Ikbal, making your rise to the throne easy.”

Abilio smiled and said, “Good idea. I will get to become King, and it will be that traitor Ikbal’s fault.”

Abilio and Elzo laughed.

The next morning Abilio had one of Elzo’s soldiers send a message. Half an hour later, they got word that the king was coming. Regardless of how much Elzo wanted revenge, he had to admit the communications tower was an excellent idea. It made communication so fast over such long distances.

Although Elzo was a blacksmith, the soldiers in Jiwi Mkuki village were there at his suggestion, and they were his men, and thus they gave this message to him first. Elzo brought it to Abilio, who missed the importance of soldiers reporting to Elzo over himself.

Elzo said, “The king is coming, he will get here around dusk, what do you think our plan should be?”

Abilio said, “I currently have twenty-three hunters who want to take down the king and make Jiwi Mkuki the capital again. And I also have thirty soldiers willing to follow me into battle.” Elzo smiled at that statement, Abilio didn’t have a clue how much those soldiers he asked for wanted to see both him and Paul dead.

Abilio continued and said, “I don’t think its good to mix forces, so how about this. We know Paul will enter through the North Gate, so we put fifteen of your soldiers on the gate platform. My hunters will be with me on the path to the center of the village, and when Paul comes through the gate, we will move to meet him. As soon as the gate shuts, we notch our arrows and kill him and the men he is with.”

Elzo said, “What about the rest of the soldiers?”

Abilio said, “Put them in the watchtowers. Twelve in the one next to the North Gate and one each in the other three.”

Elzo asked, “What if Paul manages to survive our initial ambush. I mean, it’s not likely that he will come alone.”

Abilio thought about it for a minute and then smiled and said, “We ought to nail all the other gates shut, so if he somehow escapes our initial trap, he will not be able to get our of the village. Well, not unless he is willing to jump down from the watchtower or gate platform, and then he would just be breaking a leg.”

Elzo agreed, and they began to get ready for their king’s arrival. The men were fed a big lunch, the women and children were required to stay in their homes. Eventually, Elzo watched as the king came. He stood guard over the northern gate with his soldiers.

When they were close enough, Elzo yelled, “King Paul and his soldiers are here, open the gate.”

King Paul passed through without saying a single word. Elzo smiled as the gate closed behind the king. The trap had sprung, and king Paul hadn’t noticed yet. Elzo saw that idiot Abilio coming with a big smirk on his face. When Elzo saw that, he immediately notched an arrow to his bow. That’s when Paul turned and saw him. Elzo could see it in the king’s face. He finally figured out the trap had sprung.

The king yelled, “FORM UP! WE HAVE BEEN BETRAYED! WE ARE SURROUNDED BY TRAITORS!”

As they formed up for a moment, Elzo was blocked from the king by one of his soldiers, but Elzo waited patiently, and while the hunters and soldiers arrows flew at their prey Elzo only had eyes for one man. When the opportunity came, he let loose and was excited that the arrow was flying to the king’s heart, but was shocked when that man managed to divert the arrow into his shoulder instead of his heart.

End of Book 2

Book 3 Prologue

Prologue

Five seconds since Earth's Eulogy and Gandore got a ping. He looked at it, and it was Filkith the male in the eulogy department that pushed the button to make Earth's Eulogy happen.

Gandore answered the ping with his internal virtual world. Since everyone in their species had an AI chip in their brain, they also had the ability to live in a virtual world at much faster speeds than the real world. There is no way that Gandore or Filkith were going to watch the changes to earth in real-time. In the virtual world, you could watch years pass in seconds.

When Filkith stepped into Gandore's virtual world, he was blocky. Someone from twenty-first-century earth would have thought of Filkith as a character from a PlayStation game or maybe Minecraft. The reason was that the laws of their species did not allow virtual worlds to have realistic environments or avatars. Many a species had been wiped out because their virtual world became more real than the real world. Even species with faster than light travel have been wiped out simply because their virtual world was more appealing to them than the entire universe. Most FTL capable species only allowed realistic virtual worlds for those they deemed criminals so they could lock them up in a prison in their mind forever.

When Filkith looked at the virtual version of Gandore, he asked, "So what did I miss?"

Gandore said, "Well I sent two humans back 1,987 of their years. They didn't agree on what continent to go to, so sent them to two different continents."

Filkith had contempt in his voice, and if the virtual world allowed it, he would have had the same contempt on his face when he said, "You let the animals chose where they wanted to go? And then you let them go to two different places? This is why you are in the trade department instead of the eulogy department."

Gandore was quick to defend himself, "I have watched both of them for five years so far, and they are both still alive and changing the world around them."

Filkith said, "So have they made any major changes?"

Gandore said, "They haven't changed anything in their history books yet, but I am sure they will soon, or at least eventually." Gandore grew flustered and said, "You know, even if they die within a couple of decades, different people will be born than were born in the first timeline. Besides, you know it usually takes a few eulogies before a world can be saved."

Filkith smiled and said, "Gandore, I am messing with you. There is no hard and fast rule on how eulogies go. What's more important for us is keeping tabs on the physics involved in eulogies instead of whether or not the animals survive or not. Sure, that's important for you in the trade department, but for those of us in the eulogy department, all that matters is the physics. Truth be told, no one, but the trade department cares if the eulogy saves an animal species or not, so calm down."

Gandore was still a bit miffed from being teased, so he asked, "Well, then why are you here?"

Filkith said, "It's still interesting to watch the changes, and as someone studying the physics of changing timelines, it's good for me to see the changes."

Gandore nodded and said, "Well, I just finished the first five years. Do you want me to sit through that again?"

Filkith said, "No need. If they had made a change in any of the history books, you would have told me. That said, over the next five years, what does their original history books say was going to happen?"

Gandore looked at something and said, "From 75 to 80 AD, their major religion Christianity is going to get two more religious books. Another major religion called Confucianism is also going to get a major religious book in a land called China. Rome is busy conquering the island of Britain, which is only important because of what Britain becomes in another fourteen hundred years in the original timeline. It will be fun to see if it still has its golden age in fifteen hundred years or not because the eulogy should change its destiny. Various leaders gain power and lose power, and a volcano in Rome erupts, wiping out the city of Pompeii."

Filkith asked, "Is that all their history says happened?"

Gandore shook his head and said, "You know how animals with language are. They fight over minor things but don't say much about the major events in history until its long past. The most major scientific progress was that Rome figured out distillation."

Filkith said, "Fine, let's see what your two humans do."

Gandore said, "I have to warn you the first five years were not impressive."

Filkith laughed and said, "The first few years never are. That's why I skipped it."

They sat down on a virtual coach in Gandore’s virtual home, and first, they watched John because he was less likely to change the world. Once the world started changing, they would focus on whoever was changing it… for physic's sake, of course.

In John's first five years, he introduced iron, boards, and boats to the people living on the Colorado River in Texas, not to be confused with the Colorado River that the grand canyon goes through. He also introduced fast-firing bows, and iron bowie knives and axes.

The second five years of John's life in the first century AD really began reshaping the culture. With boats, the farming villages could begin trading with other villages; salt production gets introduced, paper and record-keeping for the merchants get started, although the people have no interest in reading or writing outside of merchants keeping records.

The boats make it much easier for the people to move around, and at first, they use this mobility exclusively for trade, but it's not long before the increased interaction between villages leads to war. John effectively uses the new weapons to win the wars, and he managed to be gracious to those he defeated, growing his trade network and creating a congress of sorts with all the villages they are able to trade with along the river.

After the creation of congress, John showed the tribes how to build lock and dams, further expanding the trade network, which consists of anyone they can get a boatload of goods too. At the beginning of John's tenth year, he was able to get congress to agree to create the Texas Rangers to enforce the law between tribes.

After watching all that, Filkith turned to Gandore and said, "What is wrong with this animal? He seems to be doing everything in his power to keep from taking control of the new nation he is creating."

Gandore said, "I know. It's like he just wants to farm and raise those stupid buffalo. I would say it's a total waste of time except he finally got them to the place where they are not trying to trample them when he gets close to them."

Filkith checked something and said, "Maybe he isn't as stupid as I thought. In the original timeline, that part of the world never developed draft animals. The closest they got to were dogs that could carry very small loads. Governments rise and fall often among eartheans, but regardless of how many nations fell once the earthean's domesticated another set of animals, it appears in the original timeline they stayed that way. So maybe he isn't as stupid as I thought. Only time will tell."

Gandore nodded and said, "Honestly, I am more irritated that he isn't pushing his nation to move down the coastline. He is from a time with flight. I FOUND HIM ON AN ISLAND! But he is content to stay on that small river in North America. It's only 800 and something of their miles. He could expand his nation very rapidly if he simply started showing the people how to sail. For whatever reason, in the original timeline, none of the natives to the north or south American continent figured out sailing. Although somehow, most of the islands in the Gulf of Mexico and Carribian developed some sort of population."

Filkith shook his head and said, "Don't think about animals too much. Remember, we are here just for the physics. So why don't you show me the other animal."

Gandore said, "Before you came in, things were getting exciting. This animal was building road networks, starting schools, and wiping out the religious leaders of the area. The religious leaders gathered a force to attack him and used his own roads to make it to his village. And well, let's just watch…"
They watched as Paul's men fired bows with a greater range than anything their enemies ever imagined, sowing confusion and fear among their ranks. Then they watched as Paul led his students out on a charge like a scythe through wheat.

Over the coming year, Paul forced all those that attacked to join his village, then he trained more troops, killed more witchdoctors, and very forcibly changed that part of the world to what he thought would be better.

He didn't just kill religious leaders, but he wiped out religious icons like elephants, and the survivors were forced to serve him. He built communications towers that allowed his nation to communicate very quickly by the standards of the time. He also killed some of the village's version of the devil, the hippo.

Paul began creating great works of stone and concrete. With his researcher's help, they were able to make an ox powered mill and even a piston-powered pump. Paul had even gotten started on building a very long bridge over the Zambezi river.

Then he was betrayed. Several of the men in one village ambushed Paul and his guards. Many were struck down, and Paul was hit in the shoulder with an arrow. As Paul was stuck with an arrow, Filketh and Gandore forgot all about their commentary on how bad of a job they thought the animal was doing and just watched.

Book 3 Chapter 1 April AD 80 Africa- Escape!

Paul was betrayed, surrounded, wounded, and at this moment, none of that mattered. He had seconds to find a way to escape.

He looked to the center of Jiwi Mkuki village, where the village hunters were notching arrows. He turned to the gate, and it was closed. On the platform above the gate were several soldiers preparing to fire more arrows into Paul's soldiers. Then Paul looked next to the gate, and he saw his salvation, the old school buildings.

Before Paul decentralized the schools, more than two thousand children were coming to school in Jiwi Mkuki village. After building the log wall, Paul decided to save time by building the school along the wall. The school went the full distance of each wall with doors throughout.

Paul sprinted toward the nearest door, leaving the protection of his men that surrounded him. Arrows missed him as he charged the door. In his world, there was nothing else but the door; either he would make it, or he would die. As the arrows whizzed by his head, he had no time to see if the door was locked or not, so he did a jump spinning back kick. As his foot hit the door, it blew open.

As the door slammed open, Paul fell at the end of his kick because his arm was wounded, and that threw off his balance, but Paul was a practiced martial artist. As he fell, he rolled and ended up back on his feet.

The soldiers knew their job was to protect the King, so as soon as he ran, they gave chase. Seventeen soldiers stumbled into the room after Paul. Only four had avoided any wounds. Two of the swordsmen had arrows that went through their shields and into their forearm. When Paul saw that, he realized he needed a meatal band covering that part of the shield, but it was too late for that now.

Paul needed time to think, but the enemy wouldn't give him that time, so he had to make time. Paul simply said, "follow me," as he started making his way down the schoolhouse in a run. The soldiers instantly followed their King.

The further he got from the ambushers, the more time he had to think. Running away from the battle was the only way to make time. As Paul ran, he gained seconds to think and consider his situation. That's when Paul realized that Abilio let Paul in the walls, but the walls were not designed to keep people in.

Paul yelled out, "RUN FOLLOW ME QUICKLY!" Paul instantly broke out in a sprint. He was betting that Abilio moved as many people as possible to the trap, and thus Paul had a clear path. If his gamble was wrong, then he would likely die, but if he hesitated, his death was guaranteed.

Paul and his soldiers made their way through one dark room after the other, knocking things over, kicking others out of the way. Although the soldiers were injured, they were filled with enough adrenaline that they made their way quickly through the school. In the background, Paul could hear as the traitors were finally starting to give chase.

As they ran through the schoolhouse, Paul could hear shouts from the outside, so Paul shouted orders, "I know how I have trained you, ignore that, and charge through the door. If there are men there bust through them. If they run, don't give chase! We must reach the gate!"

The soldiers gave shouts of agreement.

When Paul reached the final door in the building, he had no intention of slowing down. He jumped into the air and did a sidekick, knocking the door off the frame, and into one of the hunters that managed to beat Paul and his soldiers to this gate.

It wasn't a surprise that they beat Paul here. Their path here was slightly longer, but they didn't have a dozen rooms to go through with various objects blocking their paths. Paul was just grateful he ran into the hunters and not the soldiers. The hunters are amazing archers, but they sorely lack in the close-in fighting department, and it looks like they thought Paul would hole up inside the school, so Paul actually took the ambushers by surprise. At least they appeared more surprised than Paul.

Paul's balance was still shot, so he still fell after the kick, but he again managed to turn a fall into a roll and end up back on his feet. As he rolled back onto his feet, he took his ax out with his left hand and struck one of the traitors in the head.

The good news was that all the hunters had turned to watch Paul as he broke through the door with his flying kick, fell, rolled with it, got up, and struck their fellow hunter in the head with an ax when his seventeen soldiers came rushing out of the school, and they went through the distracted hunters like a hot knife through butter. Some of the hunters managed to turn and run, and Paul's soldiers started giving chase.

Then Paul yelled out, "TO ME!"

The soldiers instantly moved to their King as their training dictated. While they were moving toward Paul, Paul was moving toward the gate. But before he could make it there, an archer in the watchtower next to the gate took a shot at Paul, and thankfully Paul was moving enough that it missed him, but it hit one of his spearmen in the leg.

Four of Paul's archers shot back at the archer and managed to get him. Paul had no time to find out if the archer was dead or too wounded to fight them anymore, but he hoped the archer would not be able to snipe them again.

As Paul reached the gate, he was shocked when the door bar wouldn't move. It took him a few precious seconds to realize that they had nailed it to the wall and door.

Paul yelled out, "THE GATE IS NAILED SHUT!"

One of the soldiers asked, "What are we going to do?"

Paul looked around and said, "You know the gate platform is only ten feet tall, we can help each other down. Hurry up and get on the platform."

There were two ladders going up to the platform on either side of the gate and Paul was the first one up on his side, the soldiers quickly followed his example, but before half of them could get up there, the traitorous soldiers made their way through the school and started spilling out the door. Paul's archers immediately started shooting, and then Paul had his heart broken once again.

One of the swordsmen yelled out, "With my shield pinned to my arm with arrows, I can't climb that ladder. I die here, protect my brother."

The swordsman was not alone. He was joined by another swordsman and spearman who were too wounded to climb a simple ten-foot ladder. They charged the soldiers, as the archers began to cover them with fire. The combination of elevated archers and charging swordsmen was effective at giving Paul and the remaining fourteen men time.

Paul yelled out, "I need two men to help me down, and the rest of you follow our lead."

With that, two of the soldiers lowered their King over the gate, to where he was only three feet above the ground and dropped him. As soon as that was done, four more men followed him.

Paul held his hand up and yelled out, "Come over the side."

By now, the three soldiers that charged the traitors had died, and the traitors were shooting their bows at the escaping soldiers. Only six more managed to make it over the side, and with the help of their comrades, they made it down to the ground without any more wounds.

Paul's force had gone from twenty-five to ten in minutes.

Paul said, "Is anyone, uninjured?"

Two of the soldiers raised their hands.

Paul said, "Go to the nearest village and warn them of Abilio's Betrayal, send for troops."

The men said, "What about you?"

Paul said, "There are around fifty men trying to murder me. We need reinforcements."

As soon as they processed the words, they turned and ran. As they ran, they dropped their weapons and gear.

Paul turned to his remaining men and said, "As for us, we have to make it to the tree line."

Chapter 2 April AD 80 Avoiding Capture

Paul and his eight wounded soldiers ran as best they could toward the tree line. They lost their shields, spears, and bows in their escape. Fortunately, they all had a knife or short sword. It wasn't much, but it was something.

Between Paul's injury and his men's injury, they had no chance of making it to the next village before the traitors caught up to them. Their only hope was hiding in the dark. Currently, the gate the traitors nailed shut was giving them the time they needed to get his men to the forest. Paul only wished that their blood wasn't leaving a clear trail. It was still a good forty-five minutes to an hour till dusk. If they could survive until then, they would be much harder to find.

Paul told his men, "When we make it to the tree line, start making your way toward the road to the north."

One of his soldiers asked, "But won't that take us further away from reinforcements?"

Paul smiled and said, "If your thinking that, so will the traitors. But you need to remember your training. I sent word that about fifty men betrayed us. Only the capital keeps enough men to fight so many. Therefore the soldiers at the next village will have to send a message asking for reinforcements. We are looking at three hours at least before those soldiers reach us with enough force to stop these traitors. Three hours we don't have. "

The soldier said, "Okay, I hope this works out."

Paul said, "If we get separated, do your best to survive. Once it's dark, there will be no way for us to stay together, just do your best to survive the night and make your way to the next village."

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Back in the village, Elzo stood in disbelief as the last of Paul’s soldiers fell. He did not see king Paul's body. He ran forward and looked at each body, but they were all black. None were albino. He climbed to the platform above the gate and saw more black bodies, but none were king Paul, then he saw movement up the road.

Elzo yelled back at the men. “KING PAUL ESCAPED UP THE ROAD! OPEN THE GATET! GET HIM!”

The traitorous soldiers ran toward the gate and tried to remove the gate bar, but it wouldn’t budge. He yelled back, “ITS STUCK. WE NAILED IT CLOSED!”

Elzo was starting to panic. King Paul was getting away. If word reached any of the villages about what they did, they would be skinned alive in the best of circumstances. Elzo yelled back, “USE YOUR SWORDS TO PULL THE NAILS OUT! WE HAVE TO KILL HIM OR WE ALL DIE!”

At this point, all the hunters and soldiers were at the East Gate, trying to force it open. This gave Elzo time to look out and see them getting away. Worse yet, two of the soldiers were far and ahead of the albino king and his few soldiers. They would never catch those two. His plan had failed. Even if they killed king Paul Elzo’s time in Paulsland was over.

About the time Elzo realized that they managed to get the bar off the gate, and Elzo yelled out, “Soldiers run to the armory and get your bows. Hunters kill King Paul as quickly as you can, or you will be skinned alive or worse.” With those words, the traitorous soldiers went back into Jiwi Mkuki village, and the hunters sprinted out chasing after their king in panic. Abilio led the charge.

Elzo slowly went down the ladder, realizing it would be the last time he saw his home village. As the traitorous soldiers came running back, Elzo had grief written all over his face as he said, “We are not going to chase king Paul.”

All the men were panicking, and one said, “If we don’t kill him, then everyone will know.”

Elzo had resignation in his voice as he said, “It's too late. When I looked over the wall, I saw two men who were not wounded sprinting toward the next village. Even if Paul is killed, they will know we betrayed him, and they will punish us accordingly. We have to leave.”

One of the soldiers asked, “Where will we go?”

Elzo said, “We were lucky. Paul left through the east gate. If he would have gone through the west, we would die. To the north, south, and east Paulsland has rivers at its borders. Its why he is making that bridge, so he can expand this nation. To the west, though, there is no river, and we can go far. We will set the communications tower and village on fire so that there is no way for a message to go out to the west part of the nation. Grab your belongings, any family members you want to bring, and we will load up some oxen and leave. By the time the sun is up, we need to be in the westernmost village. We will raid it and take our spoil into the unknown”

“What about the hunters?”

Elzo, without a hint of emotion, said, “What about them? They were the men who murdered our fathers or stood by and watched. Let them die killing Paul. If they survive one of these days, we will come back and wipe them all out if the spirits allow us.”

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

Paul led his soldiers past the fields and into the tree line. But if they went into the woods here, their pursuers would see them. They continued moving as fast as they could until they got to a bend in the road, and then Paul turned north. Several of his soldiers followed him. It was getting dark but not fast enough. Paul was in the woods barely a minute before he heard his pursuers make the bend in the road.

Tears fell down his face when he heard two of his soldiers cry out, “We won't let you follow King Paul into the southern woods.”

His eyes got blurry with tears as he made it through the woods as quietly as he could, listening to the sounds of battle as twelve and thirteen-year-olds gave up their life for their king. Once the sounds of battle were over, he heard Abilio cry out, “Go into the woods south of the road!”

It was dusk and getting dark. Paul went through the woods as quietly as he could, around trees, up hills, down small valleys, over little gullies. All in the first few minutes. If a soldier realized they couldn't quietly follow their King, they would go a different way trying to survive.

It wasn’t long before one of the hunters shouted, “There's blood to the north of the road! AND TRAILS! WE WERE TRICKED!”

Paul and his scattered soldiers continued to make their way through the woods as quickly and quietly as they could. All the while, praying for the sun to hurry up and go down. But the hunters were panicked and made a lot of noise as they ran through the woods looking for any sign of the men they betrayed.

One of Paul’s soldiers stumbled upon a hunter as the hunter was running through the woods. They attacked each other immediately. The soldier still had two arrows in his back when he fought the hunter, and so the hunter won, but the soldier managed to stab the hunter's leg in their short battle.

The noise of the battle took the hunters further from Paul, and as the hunters met at the new corpse, the sun finally stopped shining its light on Africa. The foolish hunters had forgotten to bring torches! Perhaps Paul would survive this night.

As Paul made his blind trek through the woods, eventually, he was separated from all his men. Whether they were still grouped together or not, Paul had no idea. In time he heard the hunters getting close, and so he hid. A hunter passed inches away from Paul, but Paul was no John Rambo. Paul stayed quiet and let the man pass by. Paul stayed this quiet for what felt like an eternity. He waited until he couldn't hear any movement, and continued to wait until he heard movement again, and waited some more until that movement was gone.

Eventually, Paul made it to the farms near the north road. Paul refused to leave the cover of the trees and stayed undercover until he was past the farms. Whenever he got near a bridge, he refused to cross the bridge. Instead, he chose to climb down into the small valley or creek and climb up on the other side. There was just too much danger that someone was waiting for him on the other side of the bridge that was effectively a choke point.

It took him nearly to dawn, but he finally made it to the village north of Jiwi Mkuki village.

When the watchman spotted Paul, he called out, "WHO GOES THERE?"

Paul answered as best he could, "YOUR, KING! I NEED HELP!"

The watchman was a loyal soldier. He was an orphan when he came to Paul's school several years ago, and Paul treated him better than his own father. When he heard his King's words, he banged the gong and nearly fell out of the watchtower, trying to get to his King as fast as possible. When he got to the gate, he lifted up the bar and tossed it to the road. He broke protocol, but he didn’t care because his King needed him.

When the soldier ran to the King, he almost wept to see him in such a pitiful state. He just saw his King the day before when Paul made his way to the old capital. Less than a day ago, the King was proud and strong. Now his King was injured, in wet rags, and could barely stand. The soldier came alongside his King and helped him into the village.

When he entered the village, the Lieutenant yelled out, "WHY DID YOU BANG THE GONG, LEAVE YOUR POST, AND THROW TH…" That's when the Lieutenant saw the man the soldier was carrying in and realized the man was his King.

As soon as the Lieutenant saw that, he yelled out, "MEDICS, WE NEED MEDICS GET THE WOMEN OUT HERE OUR KING HAS BEEN INJURED!"

That last statement woke everyone out of the fog of early morning sleepiness. The women immediately came out to help their King.

At the same time, the Lieutenant yelled up to the communications tower, "SEND WORD TO ALL THE VILLAGES OUR KING HAS BEEN ATTACKED. WE NEED REINFORCEMENTS!"

Paul, weak and weary and glad to finally have some rest was able to tell the soldier before he passed out, "The men of Jiwi Mkuki village betrayed us. Do what you must do to the men, but try not to hurt the women and children. If the gates are shut, fill clay jars with sulfur, set it on fire, and throw it against the gates or walls anywhere. It will burn the wood down. RUN FROM THE SMOKE! If they survive, try the traitors as you see fit."

After Paul's words, the girls took him, cleaned his body as best they could, and cleaned a room until it was sterile. While they were doing this, Paul drank the strong alcohol that came from a copper still and ate some honey since it was slightly antibacterial. Once the girls were ready, they took the arrow out of his shoulder, poured alcohol in it, then honey, stitched it up, and bandaged it. Paul had never been in so much pain in his life. Alcohol hurts enough when you pour it on just a normal cut, but to pour it into a wound that goes all the way through your shoulder was terrible. But infection was the real worry.

Afterward, Paul rested despite the pain. After being up for twenty-four hours and walking or running most of it, and suffering from surgery, he just had no energy left in him, so finally he had peaceful rest. It would be the last peace he had for many weeks. All the while, the girls made sure he stayed clean, all hoping that no infection would get to their king.

The Lieutenant's job was anticlimactic. He sent a message requesting reinforcements from the other villages. Within three hours, he had them, and they marched to Jiwi Mkuki village. By then, soldiers from the east of Jiwi Mkuki had already taken control of the burned remains of Jiwi Mkuki.

Elzo gathered his soldiers, wife, and child and left heading south. Elzo only had twenty-one soldiers left. Paul's guards managed to kill nine of them in suicide attacks.

As they traveled, they made good time, and so around dawn, they made it to the last village on the road West of Jiwi Mkuki. The soldiers guarding the village were not expecting betrayal and were murdered alongside most of the men in the village. They raided the village of grain, supplies, oxen, and all manner of things needed to start their own village. Although they couldn't take the ox carts, they were able to load heavy packs on the oxen. Finally, they set fires to the village before leaving.

Out of the six wounded soldiers that went into the woods with Paul, one was killed outright, but the other five managed to remain hidden. Three later died of infection from their wounds. Out of twenty-five men sent to guard their King, four survived. Paul hated himself for it, but he knew that at this time, his life was far more important than the twenty-one soldiers that died. He hated himself because those that died were all between the ages of twelve and fourteen, and yet if Paul had died, there would have been a civil war inside of Paulsland, killing thousands. Paul hated that letting children die for him was the right thing to do. But he had to go on for their sake. They paid a price in blood that he was not willing to squander.

Of the twenty-five hunters that went after the king, eight were killed by Paul’s guards, ten were captured over the next week, and seven got away. The captures were not difficult to make once word got out about their betrayal, with the communications towers being all over the nation and men able to look through a telescope to spot strange lone men and report their whereabouts with Morse code to troops hunting them. The problem was that Abilio was not captured, so either he died in the wilderness, he ran off to a village outside Paul's influence, or he is formatting a rebellion with an unhappy chief. The same goes for the other six hunters who were not captured.

Paul did not judge the men who were captured; his Lieutenants did. These hunters murdered their friends and two of their friend's families, and so they needed to come up with a punishment to discourage such rash actions in the future. The nine men were brought to various villages across the nation and publicly executed with molten glass.

They stripped the men naked and tied the men down at their chest and waist, intentionally leaving their arms free. Then they took molten glass and poured it on different parts of their body a drop at a time. The pain was so great these men ripped their own flesh off to get the molten glass off their body. If a body part started bleeding too much, the molten glass was used to cauterize the wound. They continued until the men died of shock from the pain. It was a terrifying sight to see men tear off their own nose, lips, groin, finger, stomach just to stop the fire. After they died, the traitors were covered in molten glass in all its gore. Then the soldiers put their bodies at the entrance of various villages with a sign that said, “Traitor.”

Chapter 3 May AD 40 Texas Rangers

Training the Texas Rangers did not go how John expected. It turns out all the men sent by the various villages were much better warriors than John had ever been. Sure John could shoot a bow as good as any of them, but when it came to actual fighting, they were teaching their instructor a lot. It's not that John didn't know anything, it's just that watching Indians in movies using tomahawks and knives doesn't mean that you yourself can do it.

The Texas Ranger's job was to arrest and bring to trial anyone in the nation that broke the law in another village. If they broke that law in their own village, then it's their chief's job to punish them. The problem was that their chief doesn't care if they raid other villages, so the Texas Rangers were made to bring them to justice. And John gets to be the one to train them.

All of the Texas Rangers have been given a fast fire bow, a bowie knife, and a tomahawk in case they have to fight for their life. The reason why John did this is because years ago, the history channel said the tomahawk was one of the best weapons ever made. If that's what the history channel thinks, then John will go with it.

The men were also trained with a bola. The Texas Rangers are a police force, and to John, this means they capture people for trial. They are not soldiers. If someone comes at them with lethal force, then they respond with lethal force, but if someone is simply running, then a bola is a wonderful way to slow them down. All the men had fun learning to use their new tools.

They had significantly less fun learning to read. The first thing John had them learn to read was the law that John and their chiefs wrote. All of a sudden, the full-grown men who could use a knife and tomahawk significantly better than John wanted to get out of class. These guys were men of action. They did not care to learn what the scribbles on paper meant. Fortunately, once John sent a few home, they reluctantly straightened up.

As they were learning to read and write, John got a message from chief Yiska that he had been raided. John went to class and said, "I have terrible news, Chief Yiska's village has been raided, and I am going to take all of you to investigate."

Except for the two men from chief Yiska's village, all the men cheered. They really hated to learn to read. They were men of action, not words.

Although in time, John planned for all of them to ride buffalo, the buffalo were not ready for that yet. Maybe the next generation would be ready for a plow or wagon, but riding buffalo was probably a few generations away. Instead, the Texas Rangers had the indignity of poling upriver.

To say that chief Yiska was surprised when over a hundred men showed up to his village would be an understatement, but it helped that John sent the two from his village ahead to explain that all the rangers were coming.

When John got to chief Yiska, chief Yiska asked, "Why did you bring so many men?"

John said, "I'm training them. If there is a problem between the tribes, then they need to come out and see what's going on and learn from it."

Chief Yiska nodded and asked, "Have you done this with any of the other chiefs?"

John responded, "No, you're the first one. Sorry if it's a bit embarrassing, but at least with so many men whoever raided, you will not be able to fight back."

That comment actually got chief Yiska to smile, and he said, "It will be nice to see the raiders punished for once."

John said, "Yes, but you have to tell me what happened."

Yiska said, "Sorry, with so many warriors, it slipped my mind for a second." Yiska composed himself for a second while John took out a piece of paper and charcoal to record his account. The chief said, "Several days ago early in the morning, our people went out to tend to the crops. Two were girls, just twelve years old, best friends. They normally went out and did the work together as friends will do. When they got close to the edge of the field near the woods, five men ran out and snatched them. Its may, the crops are not that tall yet, most of the villagers saw what was going on when someone started screaming, and everyone looked."

John nodded, looked around, and said, "Chief Yiska, I am sorry, but could you pause your story for a second?"

Chief Yiska nodded, and with clear confusion, asked, "Why?"

John said, "Its not you; it's the men." Then John looked back at the men he brought and yelled out, "Why don't I see you men writing down the chief's story?! Do I need to send some more of you back to your village?"

One of the men said, "He is using a lot of words I don't know how to write."

John said, "Then do your best! I will check notes, and whoever has the worst notes will be sent back to his village, and since we need the boats, they will have to walk."

That got everyone's attention, and so they took out their pieces of paper and began to write down the chief's words as best they could remember. Before the lazy men could possibly catch up, John turned to the chief and said, "Please continue."

The chief said, "After everyone saw the men snatching the girls, the men grabbed their bows and started chasing them through the woods. They thought that they would easily be able to catch them, but the men ran to the river where they had a boat waiting for them, and pushed off before our men got there. The men in the boat yelled out that we took one of their girls, so they took two of ours."

John was writing all this down and asked, "Do you think you know who took the girls?":

Chief Yiska said, "It was obviously some young men from Chief Gaagii's village. They are paying us back for taking Chief Gaagii's daughter a couple of years ago."

John asked, "Are you sure that's the only group it could be?"

Chief Yiska said, "Yes. Its been more than five years since the last time someone in our village got a girl from a raid. By now, her village should have forgotten all about her."

John considered this is one of the hardest aspects of being here. It was considered normal to kidnap a girl and marry her. Strangely enough, though, raping a girl and leaving her behind was rare. John knew that he did not understand the religion of these people, but from what he could understand from the local shamans, ancestral worship was a major aspect. In their religion, if you are a man and you farther a child without that child knowing who you are, it apparently has a major impact on the afterlife. John knew enough history about the previous timeline to know that the Romans, Vikings, and other European nations used rape openly as a war tactic. If you rape a man's wife and daughters, the emotionally broken women would cripple his ability to go and make war. But the American Indians never seemed to use rape as a tactic of war, but from the histories, John read they made a habit of kidnapping women and forcing them into marriage. John didn't know what was worse, but this is one of the issues he would have to contend with.

John asked, "Did your men try to chase them?"

Chief Yiska said, "How? You know how many bends are in the river. Even if they could have reached our dock in five minutes, they would have still been three hours behind. I sent you a message to see if the law all of us chiefs signed means anything."

And there it was. Some young idiots challenged the law that all sixty-four chiefs signed, and now John had to make sure they were slapped down hard. If not, the tribes would fall into war, and with iron weapons and fast fire bows, it would be very bloody. It was up to John to make sure the sixty-four tribes became tribes that were united behind written law. Otherwise, they would delve into war and either wipe each other out or end up in some sort of tyranny, with one tribe ruling them all. John was hoping they could skip the monarch phase of government, but if he failed here, they might not even get that far.

John told chief Yiska, "I need someone to come with me to Chief Gaagii's village and identify the girls."

Chief Yiska said, "I will send both the girl's mothers. Their fathers are rather unreasonable, saying that since their girls have honor, they would commit suicide rather than marry their kidnappers. They are overlooking that they took their wives in raids many years ago, so they should not expect more from their daughters than they did from their wives."

This discussion ticked John off plenty, and so John sent three of the trainees back to their village on foot for doing a terrible job of keeping notes. John just didn't have any other way of letting out his anger, and they deserved it for being lazy in their book learning.

The next day John, his men, and the girl's mothers set off downriver to discuss things with Chief Gaagii. When they got there, John sent the two recruits from Gaagii's village ahead to let him know that a large group of Texas Rangers were coming. Surprisingly enough, Chief Gaagii sent two really good men to the program. Although John despised the Chief, he had to admit his people were good workers with a good head on their shoulders.

Chief Gaagii was waiting for John when he got there, and John was the first one to speak. John asked, "Did your young men take two girls from chief Yiska."

John was shocked when Chief Gaagii said, "Yes."

John thought this would be a lot easier than he thought, and so he asked, "Where are they?"

Chief Gaagii said, "Where is the young man who took my daughter away from me?"

John was blindsided by the off the wall question and said, "What?"

Chief Gaagii said, "Where is the young man who took my daughter from me. You're here to take away the boys that went to another village and took a girl, but when someone takes a girl from my village, you don't care."

John once again wanted to murder the man. But that would cause problems. Instead, he said, "Chief Gaagii, I was there after your daughter was taken. I made sure you got the price for the girl. If you hadn't caused so much trouble, you would have even been allowed to keep the goods for the girl. So don't give me this victimhood mentality about poor chief Gaagii. Not even two seasons ago, you signed a document that said that if one of your people go to another village and steal a bride, you would allow my Texas rangers to do to them what you would do to them, which is to beat them and give a bride price to their father. Do I need to pull the document out and show you."

Chief Gaagii said, "But it's not fair that my boys will pay a price that Chief Yiska's grandson didn't have to pay!"

John said, "If my Rangers went up and down the river making everyman who stole a bride pay the price our new law said they would have to pay, we would be at war with every village on the river. We can not charge those who stole a bride before the law was signed, but from now on, we will make those who steal brides pay the same price. If you don't like it, I have over a hundred and twenty warriors ready to force these conditions on you."

Chief Gaagii sighed in resignation and asked, "What's going to happen to my young men?'

John said, "Neither you nor chief Yiska can judge the bride stealers. But I will let you choose whether you want me or another nearby chief to judge them."

Chief Gaagii said, "I think it would be best to just get it over with so I will allow you to judge them."

John nodded and said, "Bring them out here."

Chief Gaagii Sent for them, and two men and the two girls they stole came out. John turned to the mothers and asked, "Are these girls your daughters?"

One of them, with tears in her eyes, said, "Yes."

John turned to the young men and asked, "Have you made these girls your wives."

One of them said, "Of course, why else would we go through the trouble of getting them?"

John then turned to Chief Gaagii and asked, "Where are the young men that helped them?"

Chief Gaagii said, "Can't you just focus on the two that married the girls?"

John said, "No. The law you signed said that if someone steals, they have to pay a price. Three more young men helped these two to steal these girls, so they must pay a price also."

Chief Gaagii said, "Go get them."

One of the young men said, "Chief, what are you doing? Why aren't you protecting us?"

Chief Gaagii said, "I did not give you permission to go raid, and now you are going to pay the price for your indiscretions."

The young man answered back, "But we were just paying them back for stealing your daughter."

Chief Gaagii got furious and said, "If you were paying them back, then you would not have brought those girls home to use for your pleasure. You think I want the other tribes to come crashing down on my people because you wanted to get a girl?! You want to have sex with a girl you kidnapped for my benefit? Shut up before I banish you and your stupid friends!"

As dumb as the young man was, he was smart enough to keep his mouth shut. Chief Gaagii was walking a tight political rope. He needed to protect his people, including the idiot youths that went and kidnapped these girls, but he also couldn't afford to go to war with every village on the river. It wasn't easy to remove a sitting chief, but it could happen if his people thought he wasn't doing a good job protecting his people, but Chief Gaagii saw all the chiefs agree to go to war with any tribe that broke the law, his people didn't.

As the three accomplices came out, John said, "Did you help these two take these girls?"

One of them said, "Yes! It's only right considering they took the daughter of our chief."

John asked, "Did these two girls take the chief's daughter?"

The young man looked confused and said, "Well, they didn't, but their village did."

John said, "So you punished these girls for a crime they didn't commit?"

The young man got angry and said, "You're turning my words around."

John could see the young men could not be reasoned with, so he said, "For being an accomplice on a raid, you will get twenty strikes with a rod from one of my Texas Rangers and have to pay one iron ax for each one of the girls. If you can not pay that today you will be required to come to my village and work until the debt is paid."

The young men gasped and said, "That’s not right!”

John said, “Your right, you will now get forty strikes with a rod, and pay two axes apiece.”

Before the young men could foolishly say anything else, chief Gaagii said, “I WILL PERSONALLY SLIT THE THROAT OF WHATEVER IDIOT SPEAKS NEXT!”

When the chief said that they finally started to realize how serious a crime they committed. In their parent's day, raiding for a bride was winked at, but no more.

John turned to the girls and said, “For running off and getting married without your father's permission, your mother will strike you fifty times with a rod. It is not appropriate for you girls to be humbled in front of any other man besides your husbands, so you will go to one of the cabins in the village and have it done in front of the women alone” It was all the mercy John could show. He felt terrible about it, but he couldn’t put a schism between the girl and her new village by having one of the village women beat them. Perhaps their mothers would show them mercy, perhaps not, but it was the best John could do.

Finally, John turned to the young men who stole the girls for their own pleasure and said, “For taking these girls without their father's permission, you will get eighty strikes with a rod. It would have been forty, but your friend decided to get your punishment doubled. You also owe ten iron bowie knives to the girl's father. If you can not afford to pay it, then you will be required to go to Texas and work off your debt before your allowed to return home.”

The verdict was carried out immediately. The Texas Rangers took delight in beating the young men. The reality was that they hated it when other tribes took part in raids even when they turned a blind eye to their own raiding. John knew the young men would have back trouble for the rest of their lives, but it was a great warning to everyone that raiding would no longer be tolerated.

The girls were taken to a small cabin and beaten in front of the women. John felt that it was not appropriate for women to be humbled in front of men, and so this would become the custom for when women got flogged.

Their mothers had a soft enough touch that they would merely be bruised for a few days, but their wounds would allow them to grow close to the women in the village quickly. This is why John hated being a leader. Sometimes as a leader, all the solutions sucked, and he just had to pick the best bad solution.

Chapter 4 June AD 80 Africa- Elzo’s Army

Elzo, his soldiers, and his wife were struggling to bring twenty oxen with them across broken wilderness as they made their escape from Paulsland. The wilderness was to broken to attach carts to the oxen, but with harnesses, each ox held hundreds of pounds of goods. Now they just had to keep predators from killing any of them.

Elzo had spotted smoke in the distance two days ago, but with the broken terrain, they were having significant difficulty reaching the village at the end of that smoke. They had to find places to ford streams, make their way around steep hills, backtrack out of woods too thick for their oxen, but since they could not go back to Paulsland, they pushed forward, eventually finding the village.

When the villagers noticed the large group of men with oxen, they cried out. Less than a minute later, men with bows came out in a threatening manner and yelled out, “WHY ARE YOU HERE!”

Elzo yelled back, “I HAVE TERRIBLE NEWS TO BRING TO YOUR WITCHDOCTOR!”

Once the warriors heard that, they took a closer look at the group. It didn’t take long for them to decide that if a group of very strange looking people wanted to talk to their witchdoctor, they better inform the witchdoctor before they get cursed. One of the men ran back to find him.

To this village, Elzo and his people looked very strange. They had a shiny helmet, leather armor, and oxen with leather saddles holding objects that made the people think the oxen was a spirit.

Fifteen minutes later, the witchdoctor came forward. He had leaves and twigs hanging from his hair while holding a type of burning incense in one hand and an idol in another. He was told that spirits had come forth out of the forest and wanted to talk to him, and so he came prepared.

The witchdoctor yelled out, “SPIRITS, WHAT DO YOU WANT WITH ME?”

Elzo yelled back, “WE ARE NOT SPIRITS! WE BRING WARNING OF IMMENSE DANGER FROM AN ALBINO THAT WAS ALLOWED TO LIVE!”

The witchdoctor thought about what was said for a minute and finally said, “ONE OF YOU MAY COME AND SPEAK WITH ME.”

Immediately Elzo left his group to talk with the witchdoctor.

Once Elzo reached the witchdoctor, the witchdoctor looked at Elzo with a look of disdain and curiosity. Disdain because the witchdoctor did not think his life was really in danger but curiosity because it could be. The witchdoctor asked, “What danger do you think comes for me.”

Elzo said, “When I was a child eight years ago, an albino man named Paul slew our witchdoctor, and my father, the chief.”

The witchdoctor waved a hand dismissing him and said, “So what? What does that have to do with me?”

Elzo continued and said, “Since then, he has gone to all the surrounding villages and slain their chiefs and witchdoctors. He has told all his people that witchdoctors eat the spirits of men and that they should kill you on sight to protect themselves. Over a hundred villages have done so, and their warriors are looking for new villages. Once found, the first thing they will do is kill the witchdoctor.”

The witchdoctor visibly got angry and said, “Without witchdoctors who protects them from spirits?”

Elzo bitterly said, “The people say king Paul protects them from spirits. The people say that since they have killed their witchdoctors, their lives are much longer, and it must be because the witchdoctors ate their spirits. With the witchdoctors gone, they are safe, and that they hate all witchdoctors. But it’s a lie. King Paul planted certain herbs and flowers to protect villages, and I brought them to you. I humbly ask that you use his magic against him. He needs to be destroyed.”

The witchdoctor looked suspiciously at Elzo and said, “Why didn’t you destroy him?”

Elzo shook his head and said, “I tried. I managed to convince his second in command to betray him, and we ambushed him, but it's like the witchdoctors always said, the albinoes have mystical power. I myself shot him with an arrow, and he was able to shake it off. Without the aid of a witchdoctor, there is no way to beat Paul.”

“How do I know your story is true?”

“Simple, just send one of your men East until they find a stone path. Then have them follow that stone path to a village, and have him ask for the witchdoctor. He will get an ear full. That may take a couple of weeks, though, since I burned down the village closest to us. That should stop Paul from expanding any further west for a while. While he is doing that, I could teach your men the secret to making iron.” With that, pronouncement Elzo pulled out one of his knives and gifted it to the witchdoctor, who smiled and sent someone to check out Elzo’s story.

Elzo and his men immediately got to work in their new village. Building a log house to live in and looking for a source of iron. They quickly found a source of pyrite and began showing everyone the secret of iron.

It wasn’t long before the man the witchdoctor sent out came back with lots of questions about whether the witchdoctor had a spirit or not, and that the people of Paulsland did not think they did. In fact, they hated all witchdoctors for reducing their life and loved their king that protected them from the evil witchdoctors who was already recovered from an injury he received at an ambush. The people talked about a time when all the witchdoctors would be dead and gone with relish.

The witchdoctor gave the man a reward for his good work. But since the man was questioning the witchdoctor, it was a poison that would kill him several hours after he ingested it. Best to keep those who would question his authority dead. Besides, it would give him an opportunity to tell the people that Paulsland was a curse that they must wipe out.

The witchdoctor sent his apprentice out to set up a meeting with the nearby witchdoctors with the dire news that over a hundred villages had found the secret of iron and were exterminating the witchdoctors. He told them to investigate it themselves and to meet in two full moons. Over the coming weeks, all the witchdoctors confirmed Elzo’s reports and demanded that Elzo come to their meeting. When the witchdoctors finally met, they did so at a hill that they claimed had much spiritual energy.

The witchdoctors discussed what they should do for hours. From sending curses, spirits, poisons, and the warriors of their villages. Finally, one asked Elzo, “If we took all the warriors from our villages and attacked Paul do you think we could beat him?”

Elzo laughed. The witchdoctors gave him confused and concerned looks when he explained, “When I was eleven years old, many villages tried the same tactic. They gathered hundreds of men and went straight to Jiwi Mkuki village to attack Paul directly. We had a fraction of their army, and yet Paul took those few men and wiped out the enemy. I was too young to fight, but the next morning when I looked over the battlefield, there were hundreds of enemy corpses. If I remember correctly, Paul only lost ten men, and would have lost even less if his soldiers had helmets.” Elzo tapped on his helmet.

“Why was the army beaten so badly?”

Elzo smiled and said, “It's simple; they brought stone knives and spears against our shields and leather armor. It's not comfortable getting stabbed with a stone spear, but it won't pierce our armor, whereas our iron swords and spears easily pierce the skin of our enemies.” Elzo could see the confusion in the witchdoctor's faces and said, “One of you take out a stone knife and try to cut through my armor. Then you will see what I am talking about.”

One of the witchdoctors did so, and when the knife didn’t pierce the leather, he stabbed harder and harder until Elzo grabbed his arm and said, “Stop, you are going to give me a bruise.”

That’s when the witchdoctor realized that Elzo was a very strong young man. Then Elzo let go of the witchdoctor, took out his sword, and sliced the leather armor. It wasn’t the easiest process, as he had to slide the blade all the way across his armor to get it to open up slightly, but it worked where the stone knife didn’t.

Elzo then looked at the group of witchdoctors and said, “I can give you the tools to kill Paul before he kills all of you, but you will have to trust me.”

“So, you will give us all the secret of iron?”

Elzo was dumbfounded for a moment and said, “Is that all you think you need?”

The witchdoctors nodded their heads

Elzo was astonished and said, “Paul has soldiers armed with iron swords, iron spears, leather armor, iron helmets, shields, he trains them nearly every day, he feeds them every single day. It will take years to get your men up to the standard needed to face Paul. I can do it, but it will take time and your support.”

One of the witchdoctors said, “How does Paul feed his people every day?”

Elzo said, “He has some special seed that grows better than anything I ever saw as a child, but in coming here, I stole that seed and offer it as a gift for you and your people. Moreover, Paul showed us a secret that makes it easy to hunt crocodiles. With your support, I can feed your hunters crocodile every single day.”

With that, the witchdoctors looked at one another, made hand motions, and one said, “We need to discuss this, alone.”

Elzo nodded his head and said, “I understand. Before I leave, let me just say that I am not just offering the secret to iron, and crocodile hunting. I am offering over a hundred villages united into one nation. None of those villages have witchdoctors, so you can imagine the wealth and influence you would have if you let me lead you to victory over them.” With that last sales pitch, Elzo walked through the night to the village he found when he escaped Paulsland.

The next day around noon, the witchdoctor made his way back and told Elzo, “Prepare our men for war.”

Elzo and his men smiled. The first step for preparing for war is simply feeding your men. Elzo took the skeptical warriors to a nearby watering hole where crocodiles were known to lie in wait and did what Paul taught him. Attach an iron hook to a rope, tie the rope to a tree, put some rotten bait on the hook, then hang the hook about a foot above the water. The men were then told to get away from the watering hole and wait. Elzo failed to mention that they were there to catch crocodiles.

After about an hour, they heard a splash from the watering hole. Elzo and his twenty-one soldiers smiled. They brought the village warriors back to the watering hole, and Elzo told the villagers, “Pull on the rope.”

The villagers appreciated the iron weapons they were getting from Elzo, but Elzo wasn’t one of them, and so one said with disrespect, “Why don’t you do it?”

Elzo took out his sword and slapped the flat part of the blade across the man's face and said, “Either do what I say, or I will have the witch doctor cast a curse on you.”

The villagers felt fear of the witchdoctors from the bottom of their hearts, and although they thought of fighting back, Elzo had his sword out, and his twenty-one soldiers had their hands on the hilt of their sheathed swords. Each village warrior grabbed the rope unwillingly, and as they began to tug on it with indignation. They were proud warriors. How dare these strangers boss them around like children.

When they pulled on the rope, they were surprised at first as it resisted. Several of the men thought the hook had snagged a log in the water. Then the rope went slack. Then a very angry crocodile came out of the water, and the warriors scattered as Elzo and his soldiers jumped on the back of the crocodile like it was a game.

Most of the villagers turned to watch as Elzo killed the crocodile with a smile on his face, but two of the villagers were cowards and ran all the way back to the village when they saw the crocodile.

Elzo said, “I see you have some brave warriors that left you to die. What should be done to cowards?” Elzo knew the answer. The men depended on the other warriors in the village. One of them being a coward could get them killed in a critical moment.

One of the warriors said, “All cowards should die.”

Elzo said, “I can't hear you. WHAT SHOULD BE DONE TO COWARDS!”

At that moment, all the men yelled out, “ALL COWARDS SHOULD DIE!”

Elzo nodded and said, “I am sure we will find them back in the village when we are done, but before that, I need your men to kill a crocodile like we did.”

A couple of hours later, the warriors copied Elzo’s feat, and Elzo encouraged them, telling them how brave they were, as they brought the two crocodiles back to the village.

When the two cowards saw the men entering the village with the crocodiles, they were astonished. They had told the entire village everyone else had been eaten. Every woman and child cheered when they saw the men coming into the village with the crocodiles on their shoulders. They were worried after the reports of the disaster at the watering hole, but it appears their men had won a great victory, and they were about to have a feast.

When the men saw the cowards who, Elzo constantly reminded them, left them to die, they were furious, and grabbed the men, and tied them up. They told their women to cook the crocodile. Then they let Elzo skin the men alive. Cowards had no place in their village. The reality was that what these men did could have gotten them killed, and the other warriors were glad when they died. Their horrible deaths was to discourage others from putting the entire tribe in danger through cowardness.

Over the next couple of days, Elzo introduced glass making and canning to the village. Once Elzo dealt with the food security issue, he left to go to another village to teach them the same lessons. In fact, his soldiers scattered into five groups to teach more villages as quickly as possible. The village's responsibility until he got back was to hunt two crocodiles a day and to make iron ingots until he got back to show them more.

They went out and showed each village how to hunt crocodiles, can their meat, and how to smelt iron. All of Elzo’s men knew that soldiers need meat and iron to fight. They continued skinning alive any man who ran back to their village when they saw the crocodile, except they got more brutal as time went on. They learned to cut around their arteries and veins so they wouldn’t bleed out, then they learned to cut muscles and ligaments so they would be unable to move as they cut their skin off. Elzo and his soldiers' dream was to one-day capture Paul, peel the skin off his body, and while Paul was still alive, show Paul how good his albino skin looked on them as they wore his skin in front of his dying body. To say that they were bitter about their fathers' deaths would be an understatement. And every time they met, they fed each other's bitterness.

In the coming months, they went from village to village teaching them what Paul taught them. From the secrets of turning dirt into iron to canning, tanning hides, and most difficult of all, how to fight. This is not a time of guns and artillery. This is a time of swords, spears, and bows. Elzo knew exactly how well Paul trained his people to fight and so he went from village to village training the hunters into warriors and then forging them into soldiers.

There was one distinct difference in Elzo’s martial training. When Elzo’s men trained a village to fight, they trained the chief first, and then the chief trained the men. Elzo and his lieutenants beat any who hesitated to obey their chief. The chiefs loved this. The chiefs always wanted more control, and now Elzo required every warrior to obey their chief instantly without thought or question. The chief’s embraced this training, not realizing that they were, in effect, relying on Elzo and his lieutenants to control their people.

As the witchdoctors further and further west found out about the threat of Paulsland and the secrets Elzo was giving away to any that joined his cause, it wasn’t long before more than a hundred villages joined. They reached so far west that one village was in the grasslands of Africa. Elzo and his twenty-one men were busy crisscrossing Africa west of Paulsland, preparing thousands of men for war.

An irony that would be lost to history is that Paul is responsible for created two nations. One to bring about his grand vision, and another to kill him out of fear of his grand vision.

Chapter 5 July AD 80 Step Sons

The last few months had been the most heart-wrenching in Paul’s life. He was still mourning the young men who died so that he could live. They were so young. They had their entire life ahead of them, and they gave it up for their king, and the worst part of it all was that they made the right decision. If Paul died, then hundreds if not thousands of people would have died within his nation due to civil war. The pain from his injured arm helped him deal with his broken heart.

That said, Paul remembered his responsibility to everyone on earth. If earth did not develop asteroid mining technology in less than two thousand years, asteroids would show up to kill everyone on the planet again, and perhaps that alien would not be so magnanimous a second time. Paul began writing down his knowledge of chemistry, especially the periodic table. Paul had so much knowledge to give but often did not have the tools necessary to make the people understand.

Water is hydrogen and oxygen, but he didn’t have the battery necessary to separate them with electrolysis. There was a lot of carbon from the coal used in melting the iron out of the ore. What he called iron was really a weak form of steal, but he didn’t have a way to add carbon to make a better steal yet. The best tool he had for chemistry was sulfur. It did a fantastic job of making rubber, but Paul did not know how to make it into sulfuric acid, and even if he did, he did not know all the processes that industrial chemists used. Paul was from the modern world. Most chemistry was done using petroleum.

Paul did not even have the tools an elementary teacher had, and yet he had a great desire to teach the periodic table. If nothing else, he wanted a record for future generations who would be more able to understand his knowledge. If he had to teach it by rote, instead of by understanding, then so be it. Perhaps the Romans, Persians, or Chinese could take his knowledge of chemistry and reach heights they never did in the original timeline.

As much as he would like to teach chemistry, that is for the future. Currently, he was dealing with the fallout of two villages being burned down on the same night, which created two very different problems. Jiwi Mkuki village is still the center of the nation. To get to most villages, you still have to go through it. It has to be rebuilt and rebuilt better than ever. Because of its wonderful position, there would be no problem in finding people to move there, especially from the retiring soldiers. The other village was the village furthest west and not as attractive. Paul would have to give bonuses to people who moved and lived there.

Both villages would be rebuilt in concrete and stone. It was a slow process, but in the long term, they would be better for it. With Elzo and his soldiers out west, Paul wanted a solid fortified city just in case they came back with a few raiders to irritate Paulsland.

Another major problem is that Abilio and several hunters have not been found yet. Paul suspected a chief was keeping them in hiding. Abilio’s betrayal broke Chazia's heart, but Paul never trusted the man. He was too cold and distant from his nephews and niece for Paul to be comfortable around him. As for the chiefs, Paul had the perfect way to deal with them, but he had to wait until after he married his fiancés to root out the problems. Paul wished he could go back and never get engaged to the girls in the first place because right now, those engagements were keeping him from doing something he needed to do.

That said, it's just one more year until Paul, and his stepsons get married to the first batch of girls and another year until they get married to the second batch. Paul suspected that when they have their next set of big expansions, his sons would be getting engaged to a lot of girls, but that will be a sacrifice they have to make to make the nation stable. Chances are in a hundred years, or so this political polygamy will destabilize the country, but that’s a problem for those descendants.

Regardless he had to keep his stepsons away from their finances. Today was graduation day for the new soldiers. There were more than six hundred graduating, and with the availability of food and medical care in a couple of years, Paul was looking at producing more than a thousand soldiers at a time.

Traditionally all the soldiers were trained in man camp at Jiwi Mkuki village. This year Paul had them trained at his capital. It wasn’t originally the plan, but it got the young men used to heights, water, and it had plenty of room for the barracks.

This year there were four hundred fourteen year old’s retiring and getting their pay. Dashiell was one of them, he was old enough to get married, but the girls he was engaged to were not. So Paul came up with a solution to the problem. He had both of his stepsons meet him after the ceremony to tell them about it.

Once in his office, Paul looked at Dashiell, smiled, and said, “Congratulations on your retirement. Are you ready to be a lieutenant?”

The young man looked miserable and said, “Thank you. Yes, sir.”

Paul said, “Look, I know you are not getting married this year like all your friends, but you are the son of a king, so your responsibility is to the nation as a whole. Your brother Badru has already been waiting a year, so you are not the only bachelor out there.”

Badru looked toward Dashiell and said, “ Most of the guys I served with are already fathers or will be soon. I’m falling behind them in life. It helps me to know that you are just as backward as I am little brother.” Dashiell shot his brother a dirty look. But what could they say? Their family situation was political, and so they were stuck.

To Paul, this entire situation was otherworldly. When he was in middle school, the boys would fall in love with five girls a week and tell each and every one of them that they would love them for life and marry them one day. If a relationship lasted two days, it was a surprise. Here in Paulsland, a boy would decide he liked a girl, tell her that they will get married when he retires from the army at fourteen, and actually keep his commitment. As far as Paul could tell, despite their young age, the domestic violence was low. Whether that was because the girls could fight as well as the boys, or because Paul required all of them to teach to some degree or something else, Paul didn’t know, but the marriages appeared to be working by and large. Paul was actually prepared to allow a lot of divorces and then use it as an excuse to move the marriage age up to sixteen or so, but until there was major trouble, he couldn’t do that.

Paul said, “I didn’t call you two here to talk to you about your love life. Or well, your lack of a love life. I called you two here so that I could give you new assignments.”

Badru was a bit confused and asked, “Are you going to move me?”

Paul said, “Yes, and no. The capital is being built where two rivers meet. The side of the river where we have control is the west side. The side of the river you built a fort on is the north bank. The part we haven’t done anything with yet on the second river is known as the east bank. I will have you go to the east bank and build a fort there. You will still be in charge of the men on the island and the north bank while you are capturing the east bank. Next year we should finish building the bridge to the island, and the year after, I would like to build two bridges to the north and east bank and start taking those lands into our nation. I need you to build a fort on the east bank so that if they speak a different language there, we can go ahead and learn it before the bridges are complete.”

Badru nodded.

Then Paul turned to Dashiell and said, “I need you to go down the river until another river meets this one. On the far side of that river, I need you to build a base. After that base is built, I will need you to come back here for further orders. If you build it quickly enough, then I will have you build another base further down at the next river. We will continue doing this until we reach the sea.”

Dashiell nodded

With that bit of business out of the way, Paul looked to Badru, his older stepson, and said, “Right now, our military is transitioning from fighting purely on the ground to going from boats to the shore. If one of the men should accidentally fall out of the boat with the armor they currently wear, they will sink to the bottom and drown. The rivers are dangerous enough with the crocodiles and hippos that we don’t need any more unnecessary dangers. I got the researchers together, and we designed a new feature on the armor that allows our men to swim in their armor just in case they fall into the river. It’s two hollow pieces of rubber on their chest under their armor, and one on the back of their neck over their armor. We call them floaties.”

Badru nodded.

Paul explained, “Dashiell’s class has already been trained in them, but how it works is when your men go to a place where there is deep water, the men help each out by blowing into each other's floaties and making them airtight. If someone falls into the water, the floaties keep them afloat, and the rest of the men pull them out, saving their lives.”

Badru asked, “How did you think of that?”

Paul wasn’t going to tell them he needed to use them to swim until he was ten; instead, he said, “I saw a need, talked with the researchers about it, and we figured out a solution. I don’t want you to be shy about any need you see. Make sure you bring it to the researchers. You would be amazed at the solutions they come up with.” Truth was without the researcher's Paul didn’t have enough understanding to turn what he saw in the twenty-first century into actual material. They were really smart, creative, young people. Sooner or later, he would have the tools to teach them chemistry.

Paul said, “That’s is all.”

As Badru got up to leave, he decided to ask, “What are you going to do about Elzo?”

Paul looked at Badru strangely and said, “Elzo went into the wild. He is out of my reach.”

Badru said, “But he tried to kill you and killed a lot of good men during the attempt. Don’t you want revenge?”

Paul sighed. He knew how his sons felt and said, “Yes. But Africa is a big place. I don’t think we could track him down with the head start he has, besides, you know, my philosophy of going out into the wild. Wait until you have a villager to guide you. Africa is too big of a place. It's possible if someone got lost, they could never find their way back here. I like to think Elzo becomes some witchdoctors sacrifice, but it's likely since he left, he has gotten so lost he could never find us again. If he ever came back, what could he do with his twenty-one men when we are training hundreds of soldiers every year?”

Chapter 6 November AD 80 Africa- Lenses

Despite the dry season starting out so poorly it was ending on a high note.

His two stepsons managed to build small forts along the river and get a foothold in territories they will conquer in the future. Paul was glad he sent them ahead because when they defended their forts and captured the raiders, they found two new language groups. As slow as the language learning was going with captives they got last year, Paul was sure these new languages would take just as long to learn. Since Paul wanted to teach and train the various villages children, he had to be able to communicate with them before he conquered them.

Several of Paul’s villages were raided to the north and south near the rivers. The raider’s villages were added to the nation of Paulsland. It wouldn’t be long until every village between the Zambezi and Mazoe river would be a part of Paulsland. At least for a hundred miles out from the capital. Things to the West were eerily quiet. There were reports of hunters coming and asking strange questions for a few weeks, but nobody has been seen since. Paul didn’t mind; it would allow him to focus on crossing the Zambezi river and expanding Paulsland to the east and north.

The attack at the beginning of the dry season was forcing Paul to fix the major problem with the roads in his country. Every road led to Jiwi Mkuki village, so you had to go through there to get to most places. Paul knew it would be better if the road system looked like a spider's web on a map instead of several straight lines, but when most of the tribes made the road to the next village, they used up all the rock they had easy access to. Now that they had hundreds of graduates, Paul told the chiefs to get some prospectors to find and mine limestone and start making bricks and use the new bricks to make roads.

When Paul told the chiefs that they were utterly lost and confused, so he had the researches get with the new prospectors and chiefs and figure out the best way to make the bricks for the roads. Limestone is everywhere in Paulsland, so it was relatively easy to make sure every village had their own concrete plant.

Paul also sent some of his experienced prospectors, miners, and builders to Jiwi Mkuki and the village burned down by the traitors to help them rebuild better than ever. If Jiwi Mkuki wasn’t the center of trade for the nation, Paul would have let it be, but it was still too important, besides many young men saw the advantage of moving there now that the men had been killed or abandoned their previous claims.

Things in the capital were going very well. They managed to finish the fifty-foot high wall and four gatehouses. The gates were designed with a T junction design where the bottom of the T is the outer gate, then the top of the T has two gates going left and right. Any enemy who makes it through the bottom junction will be like fish in a barrel because the inside of the T had plenty of murder holes to shoot arrows or pour burning oil.

Now that the wall was finished, Paul was having four towers built on the four corners of the city. The towers would be at least a hundred and twenty feet tall, and the first fifty feet of them would be solid concrete. Once the first fifty feet were built, there would be five floors to hold guards, the military, and their supplies. When they were finished, Paul would have trebuchets built on each one. He just needed to figure out how to make trebuchets before they finished.

Paul was making this city into a fortress because he knew one day someone would try to take this city. Paul hoped that history would show many an army breaking on the walls of his capital.

The construction of the bridge was going fantastically well. They managed to build three towers in the river and bridges all the way to them from the river gate. As long as they all lasted through the rainy season, they should be able to finish building the bridge to the island next year, and in two years, connect to the other side of the river. By then, Paul expected to have already conquered many villages.

But the best news of all was that a man named Hedy figured out how to make great lenses. A couple of years ago, Paul tried to rope him in as a researcher, but he declined because being a researcher under Paul meant he had to research what Paul told him to. The man was fascinated with glass and all it can do, and that’s the only thing he wanted to research. He got the full blacksmith kit because the furnace went equally well for ironworkers as glass workers. Hedy spent the last two years figuring out how to grind glass into great lenses and can consistently make them whatever strength he wants to, which allows eyeglasses, good telescopes, and best of all microscopes to be made.

To make a telescope or microscope, you have to make lenses with varying degrees of strength and size. Paul was sure there was a math equation that would allow someone to get it right every time, but he had no idea what it was, and thus without a math equation, you had to rely on talent. Hedy had plenty of talent. Paul sent fifteen men to guard him. These are not just any men; these are all men who were fascinated with glass all the year's Paul taught them. Paul was hoping by the time they retired they would have lens making skills.

Now that the planting festival was here, Paul was going to show off his bridge again, but also Hedy’s lenses. Paul understood that at this point until the bridge crossed the river, it wouldn’t be as impressive as it was last year. They were already getting used to the idea of a tall bridge. But the lenses for the glasses and microscope were something new and special.

This year's planting festival would be a nice contrast to last years. Last year the people saw what Paul’s researchers could do, but this year Paul was going to highlight what regular people with a passion could do. In order to do this, Paul instructed the chiefs to bring the best archers their militia had along with the worst. Paul suspected once they could see a lot better, things would get interesting.

The day of the planting festival after breakfast, the archers with poor skills were sent to an office given to Hedy for the planting festival.

When the men came in, one asked, “King Paul sent us here to find Hedy. He said that you had a way to make us see better.”

Hedy nodded and said, “Probably. Once the King learned, I knew how to make lenses one of the things he had me do was make a bunch with different strengths. As long as I have enough for everyone, you should be able to see better. I just need to know how many of you know how to read.”

Most of the hands went up. There were several militiamen there that hadn’t learned to read yet, but for the most part, the men they brought were students of Paul. Paul wouldn’t be surprised by this fact. Once a young person turned twelve, they had to hunt on their own. Those with poor eyesight would have made terrible hunters been malnourished and much more susceptible to disease. Paul’s students were anything but malnourished, so there were a lot more poor shots from them than the hunters that were too old to go through Paul’s training.

Everyone knew Paul openly favored his students above the other men, so Hedy started with them. He pointed to one and said, “Stand at this line and read as far down that chart as you are able.”

The young man came to the line and was confused by the chart that had big letters at the top and progressively smaller letters. Hedy didn’t think he would ever have thought of the idea himself, but he had to admit it was a very practical way to figure out someone’s eye strength. Hedy didn’t care about what the young man could read; he cared about what he couldn’t read. Once he got to a place where he struggled, Hedy lifted up lenses to help the young man.

The young man was shocked, and he shouted, “I can see a lot clearer now.” And he easily read off the rest of the letters. The rest of the men got excited. Hedy put some lenses in a pair of wooden frames and gave them to the young man and said, “King Paul said to practice shooting your bow before the archer contest.”

The boy had a huge grin on his face as he shouted, “YES, SIR.”

Jealous of the young man's gifts, several of the other young men broke into a fight trying to be the next one to get lenses. Hedy quickly grew tired of the fight, so he had his guards that Hedy’s guards toss several of the men out, which caused the rest of the youths to become much more obedient.

Before long, most of the men had lenses that were perfect for them; others had to make do with what was best from the leftovers. All of them went to practice their archery before the tournament started.

Eventually, an announcement was made that the archery contest was about to begin. King Paul, Hedy, the various chiefs, and the archers lined up on the fifty-foot wall to shoot at the targets.

One of the men looked to the lens wearing archers and said, “Do you have those things on your face as punishment for being pathetic bowmen?”

The lens wearer smiled and said, “I bet I shoot better than you.”

The archer immediately asked, “Would you wager a pound of iron?” The archer figured why not make a big bet since there was no risk of this loser beating him.

The lens wearer said, “I accept.”

King Paul got up and said, “Since we have a wall this year, we will have all of you shooting at the same time. Your position on the wall has a number, and so does the target on the ground. Each of you will get to take five shots this year. Closest to bulls-eye wins. BEGIN!”

The men smiled and began shooting. The chiefs let out shocked cries as their worst archers began actually hitting targets.

Once each man shot five times, the elite archers still beat the lens wearers, but it was a lot closer than anyone ever thought. Wearing glasses for a couple of hours doesn’t teach pinpoint accuracy; it’s just the first step.

One of the chiefs came to Paul with a shocked expression on his face and asked, “How did you make our men shoot so well in such a short amount of time?”

Paul said, “I didn’t improve your men, Hedy did. And Hedy can show you how he did it I just need one of you chiefs to admit you were never the best archer.”

The chiefs all paused. Although most of them got their job after Paul made them a cripple, they did not want to admit weakness. After the paused extended for a while, one of the chiefs said, “My curiosity outweighs my pride. I have never been a great archer. Please do whatever you did to those men to me.”

Hedy pointed to a line and said, “Stand behind that line.”

The chief did as he was told. He was hoping that Hedy would call down wind and lightning and empower him, but he would accept more mundane magic. Instead, Hedy took out a large sheet of wood with pictures on it. One of the things irritated Paul was that almost none of the chiefs learned to read, so Hedy had to use pictures instead of letters for the chief's eye exam.

Hedy pointed to the big one on top and asked, “What is this?”

The chief answered, “An Elephant.”

Hedy kept pointing to different animals like antelope, oxen, African bison, and the chief was getting them all right until they were too blurry to make out correctly.

Hedy nodded, took out a case with a bunch of lenses selected one, and told the chief, “Close your right eye.”

The chief did so, and Hedy put the lens over his eye, and immediately the chief could see clearly for the first time in his life. The chief was struck speechless he never knew that the world was so beautiful.

The chief said, “The world is clear now.”

Hedy nodded and continued his eye exam of the chief. Eventually, Hedy found his best lenses for the man and used the ones out of his testing kit to fix the eyes of the chief, as the militiamen already had the rest.

Once Hedy was done, Paul got up to speak, and he said, “Because of Hedy, in time, every man who needs lenses will have them and see the world more clearly than ever before. But that’s not all Hedy has produced.”

Paul produced a telescope and said, “Hedy also improved the telescope.”

One of the chiefs said, “We have seen telescopes before.”

Paul answered, “Not like this, you haven’t.”

Paul handed it over to the chief, and the chief was shocked to be able to clearly see five hundred feet. The old simple telescope was blurry at any distance, but this thing was a fantastic improvement. The chiefs passed the telescope around and talked about the marvelous new invention.

Before they got tired of playing with the new and improved telescope, Paul had them move on to the next activity of the day. When lunch came around, and the sun was straight up, Paul had a new announcement.

Paul told the crowd, “Thanks to Hedy, most people will be able to see the world more clearly, and we will be able to see much further than we have ever before. But Hedy has also created the first microscope. In fact, the reason why he created the lenses that work so well is because he was trying to make the microscope I described years ago. With the microscope, you will be able to see a world you have never seen before.”

Paul had six microscopes for the people to check out for the rest of the day. He chose to have bugs placed on it with researchers pointing out that they could now see details on them that they could not see with their naked eye. It was just a little too soon to introduce the idea cells or bacteria to most of the population, especially since most of them would only be able to look at the microscopes for scant seconds.

The rest of the day went smoothly until dinner time. Before anyone could eat, Paul called Hedy before the people and made a shocking announcement.

Paul said, “Hedy has performed a great service for our nation. He has made lenses that will open the door to many new discoveries. To thank him for this, I will give him a year's worth of grain, and from now on, he will receive a lieutenant salary regardless of what he does. He is getting that because he has discovered new things and so he should be rewarded for that discovery for the rest of his life. Truth is that with this invention, Hedy is a giant whose shoulders many generations will stand on. In recognition of this, Hedy will no longer be known by his village name, but by the craft he created, I introduce everyone to Hedy Lenzi Fundi. From now on, you and your children will be allowed to marry anyone who does not also carry your last name.”

Paul gave this reward for many reasons. The first reason was there was no patent system. If someone invents something truly new and unique, how will they profit from it before someone steals their invention? Paul's solution was to basically pay them both a large lump sum and a licensing fee for the rest of their life. Once they are set for life, who cares if the invention is stolen? Furthermore patent systems really only work in societies where there is mass production. Where there is no machine that can churn out a million items of whatever you need, you need as many people as possible hand making the product. The financial reward strongly incentivizes them to show exactly what the new process is, which allows it to be taught to others, or at least write down the process allowing others to read up on it and try it out for themselves.

The reason why Paul changed the name was simply because it gives the young people something to aspire to. When kids ask why his name is so weird and find out its because his discovery made him a giant, they will aspire to be a giant like him. It doesn’t mean all of them will be inventors, but if it encourages those who have a mind for it to go that way, then all the better.

Besides, it allows one group of people to marry the girl next door. That will get a lot of attention and do a lot to encourage board young men to study.

Chapter 7 February AD 81 Africa- Political wedding

Misa woke up early in the morning and realized what day it was. She squealed in delight, waking several of the girls in the fiancée dorm.

Vanda yelled out, “SHUT UP! I am trying to get some more sleep in before Jujiann makes us go for morning martial arts practice.”

Misa said, “Sorry, I just realized today is my birthday. I am finally fourteen, and I get to marry the King!”

Vanda was the youngest bride, so she had to wait until the next summer to marry the King. She was a bit jealous, so she was not that excited for her friend. But she put on a smile and said, “Oh yeah, I forgot about that. Congratulations.” With that, Vanda laid her head on her pillow and tried to go back to sleep.

Genifa's head raised and said, “If you are getting married today, that means you will be moving to Paul’s house.”

Misa was startled by the realization, said, “Yeah, how did I miss that?”

Genifa said, “Let me help you get your things together.”

While the other girls slept, they gathered Misa’s things. Eventually, Jujiann woke all the girls in the dorm. When she did, Kyum woke up and asked, “What are you doing?”

Misa said, “I’m fourteen today. I finally get to marry Paul.”

Kyum said, “Oh yeah. Congratulations. I’m going to miss you.”

Misa said, “Don’t be silly. It won't be long until you marry him too, and besides, I’ll still be living in the capital. I bet Paul has me doing the same job as his first wife, and I will get to go around helping with the school.”

Kyum nodded and said, “True.”

Misa took her meager belongs with her when they went to line up for morning martial arts practice. Chazia was out there waiting with Jujiann, which wasn’t a surprise. Chazia often acted as a teacher, so she usually joined the martial arts class.

When Chazia saw Misa, she called out, “Misa, I need you to come with me.” As Misa came closer, Chazia saw that Misa was carrying her stuff, and so she said, “Its good you’ve already gathered your belongings.”

Misa asked, “What’s going on?”

Chazia said, “Tonight you will be married to the King. You have to get properly ready.”

Misa was confused and said, “Don’t most girls go about their day as normal before they move in with their new husband?”

Chazia said, “Misa, you are not most girls, and Paul is not most men. You are the daughter of a chief given to King Paul to create peace between tribes. Your status and purpose of marriage demands that you are properly presented before the King.”

Misa said, “Does Paul know about this?”

Chazia looked at Misa like she asked the dumbest question she ever heard and said, “Of course not. My husband, as good of a man as he is, has no clue about women things. He gave me the role as your teacher and guide, and so this is just me fulfilling the role and being a good wife.”

Misa asked, “Did he say anything about me this morning?”

Chazia smiled and said, “Yes. He mentioned that this is what I wanted. Truth be told, I wish he was marrying more women. The more women he marries, the higher our status.”

Misa nodded. This was certainly something that Chazia drilled into the girls. The more wives, the better because it means their husband is greater than any other men. What Chazia didn’t mention was the melancholy tone of Paul’s voice when he said that this marriage is what Chazia wanted.

Misa asked, “What about my duties here?”

Chazia said, “It's no big deal missing a day. Your duty to your King and husband is more important.”

Misa simply nodded and went with Chazia. At fourteen, Misa had a duty as an assistant teacher for the younger children. The girls who were between the ages of twelve and fourteen helped the new students learn basic reading, writing, and math, where the teacher helped the older students with more advanced things. When they were not teaching, all the girls of that age were learning to develop skills in the medical arts. Currently, they had a project of tracking down penicillin. Paul knew it was a blue mold but little else. The girls could see bacteria in the microscope, but finding a mold that was effective at killing it was proving an interesting task.

Chazia took Misa to the bathhouse first, and for the first time in her life, she had a bath by herself. Usually, when they bathed, it was as a group, the girls usually came in after they practiced martial arts in the morning, and once clean, they went off to school, either to learn or to teach. Misa bathed until the other girls started coming in. That’s when Chazia took Misa to the best seamstress in the capital.

The seamstress put Misa in a dress. Dresses and skirts were growing in popularity among the girls because with enough pleating it danced as they walked, it was easy to put frills on it, and it made going to the bathroom easier than with pants. And most importantly of all, it was prettier than pants.

The seamstress took measurements, tightened up some things, put needles throughout the dress, and finally said, “I will have everything perfect by midafternoon.”

Misa was happy about that. Only the married girls used the seamstress’s services because all the girls got married at fourteen and they didn’t earn an income until then. When they walked around in their dresses, they looked so pretty, and Misa was finally going to get to be just as pretty as them.

After that, Chazia took Misa aside to do her hair. Nobody was a dedicated hairstylist yet, but Chazia had fixed hair all her life. When she was a child, she fixed her friend's hair; when she was older, she fixed her daughter's hair, and since Paul came, she has been fixing school girl’s hair. Since Misa was finally getting married, Chazia decided to do something a little fancy.

After she was done, they had lunch, and it was time to put makeup on. Granted, what they put on would not have been recognized as makeup in the twentieth century. Chazia had several different selections of mud that, once applied, had an attractive contrast to Misa’s skin tone. Once complete, they went back to the dressmaker.

Once there, Chazia took wet towels and soap and cleaned Misa’s body before she put on her new dress. Once on, the dress did a fantastic job of showing off every curve the girl had. If they had a mirror Misa’s jaw would have dropped. Once she was dressed for the occasion, Chazia and the dressmaker explained the ways of men and women to Misa. They were getting her spiritually ready.

Finally, it was time to take Misa to her new home. There was no big ceremony. Most of the world did not have marriage ceremonies until the twentieth century. Even though there was no big ceremony by now, everyone in the capital knew that their King had obeyed his own law and had not touched the girl until she was of age. It's not that they were counting down the days until Misa got married; it's simply that her friends told everyone that Misa was finally fourteen and going to marry the King that night.

Chazia brought Misa into the house. When Misa stepped into the King’s home, her new home, this was the first time she ever came in. The workmanship was very similar to the dorms, as it was made out of logs, but the furniture was much better. It had chairs and sofas and tables. It was slightly messier than the dorms, but not by much.

Her new husband was seated on the couch with his five children. The three boys and the two adopted girls.

Chazia smiled toward her husband, grabbed Misa by the shoulders, and said, “Your new bride is ready.”

Paul had intentionally been avoiding his fiancées up to this point, but the time had come for him to start marrying them. He could not escape his obligation anymore. Going from always seeing this girl from a distance to seeing her clean, dressed to show off her curves, with makeup to highlight her best features, and her hair made up fancy made Paul’s jaw drop. She was dressed up so nice he couldn’t help but notice her.

Paul had no choice but to compare this girl to Chazia. Chazia grew up malnourished all her life. She had three children in that condition and did not meet Paul until she was nineteen years old. When they met, Paul thought that Chazia was much younger than she was due to her utter malnourishment. If you wanted to be kind, you would say Chazia was petit. Eating regularly since then has done a lot to put meat on the girl's bones, but she would always be petit.

Misa was half Chazia’s age but actually looked older. Misa had only suffered malnutrition in the youngest years of her life, but that stopped when her father became chief. She had the classic hourglass figure, which is something a woman who grew up malnourished never could have gotten. For the last five years, the girl had not only eaten well but been instructed in martial arts most days. Under Chazia’s tutelage, the girl learned to dress in a very attractive manner. In many ways, although not every way, Misa was more attractive than Chazia, and Chazia was actually proud that she made it happen.

Charity looked at Misa and looked to her dad and, with a very troubled look on her face, asked, “Is she our new mom?”

Paul looked at his adopted daughter and said, “No. This young lady is Misa. Since I am marrying her, that will make Misa your mom’s sister. You may call her Aunt Misa.”

Mercy got really excited and said, “Thank you, Dad, I always wanted an aunt.”

Charity and Mercy were only five years old, and even though they knew their father’s fiancés, one moving in was a whole different world to them. Paul talked with Chazia about this a long time ago, and they agreed that once married, the girls would be sisters to Chazia. But Paul suspected it would be a hard thing going from being an authority figure to the girls to being an equal. If they were back in the modern world and Chazia took a personality test, she would be called Choleric. Choleric’s loved being in charge, so a change in that status would be hard for her, and Paul suspected everyone else too until she came to terms with it.

The children stayed up until after dinner getting more comfortable with the idea of having this new adult member of their family. Once they went to bed, Chazia gladly left her husband alone with his new wife.

Paul looked to Misa and said, “I am sorry about this situation.”

Misa looked confused and asked, “What do you mean?”

Paul said, “Because of your father, you are forced to marry me. Without the treaty, you could have married whoever you wanted to.”

Misa's eyes widened in shock and said, “Do you think you are not worthy of me?”

Paul said, “I think that if it was your choice, you would marry a young man, not someone as old as me.”

Misa said, “You are rich, powerful, and handsome. Your status demands that you have multiple wives. It's an honor that I get to be one of them. Besides, if my dad hadn’t joined your nation, sooner or later, you would have come in and killed my father, and I would be over at the school tonight waiting for some soldier to retire so we could get married in a few months. My marriage to you saved my father's life.”

Paul thought, “She said that like it was normal.” Then he realized it was normal. That is what Paul did; he goes to villages, kills their leadership, and makes their young people part of his community. Sure he only does it in response to their raids, but he still has to do horrible things. In another time and place, what Paul was doing would be considered war crimes. But here it was normal, and during this century, many nations would have considered him soft because he didn’t kill the leader's family. They had a point considering what Elzo and his friends did, but Paul utterly refused to kill children. Paul knew he was a monster, but even he had lines, he would not cross.

Paul answered Misa, “That’s why I am sorry. You didn’t have a choice.”

Misa said, “I am not sorry. I am glad you are my husband. I am glad you obey your laws. I am glad you spared my village. I am glad you treat the people in your nation with kindness. My mom died when she was eighteen, which was normal. Now I am surrounded by people who are in their twenties! Chazia is almost thirty. I see it, but I can barely believe it. All of this is due to you. I am grateful to be your wife and all that entails.”

Regardless Paul felt guilty about the situation. But it was necessary to make the changes that would bring stability.

Table of Contents

- Table Of Contents -
Prologue
Chapter 1 March AD 70 Texas
Chapter 2 November AD 70 Mozambique Africa
Chapter 3 April AD 71 Africa
Chapter 4 April AD 71 African Villagers
Chapter 5 May AD 71 Texas Homestead
Chapter 6 June AD 71 African Villagers
Chapter 7 June AD 71 Africa Paul’s Shelter
Chapter 8 June AD 71 African Village
Chapter 9 June AD 71 African Bride
Chapter 10 June AD 71 Marriage at first sight
Chapter 11 September AD 71 African Family
Chapter 12 October AD 71 Guest in Texas
Chapter 13 October AD 71 Indian Raid
Chapter 14 October AD 71 Indian Chief
Chapter 15 November AD 71 Abilio Returns
Chapter 16 November AD 71 The Village
Chapter 17 November AD 71 Planting Festival
Chapter 18 November AD 71 Responsibility
Chapter 19 March AD 72 Capturing Bison
Chapter 20 April 72 AD Chief and Witch Doctor
Chapter 21 April AD 72 FURY!
Chapter 22 April AD 72 Becoming Chief
Chapter 23 April AD 72 Leader

Chapter 24 October AD 72 Family Problems in Texas

Chapter 25 November AD 72 A Good Dry Season in Africa

Chapter 26 November 72 AD Planting Festival
Chapter 27 January 73 AD African Raid
Chapter 28 January AD 73 First Conquest
Chapter 29 February AD 73 School
Chapter 30 March AD 73 Extra Large Canoe
Chapter 31 April AD 73 Watchtower
Chapter 32 August AD 73 Officer Training

Chapter 33 November AD 73 Planting festival for four villages

Chapter 34 February 74 AD Finished Boat
Chapter 35 March AD 74 Uniform
Chapter 36 April 74 AD Boot Camp
Chapter 37 May AD 74 Wart Hog
Chapter 38 May AD 74 Trade
Chapter 39 June AD 74 A Soldiers Day
Chapter 40 November AD 74 Planting festival
Chapter 41 November AD 74 Paul’s Story
Chapter 42 February AD 75 Nana
Chapter 43 March AD 75 Growing Pains
Chapter 44 April AD 75 Walls
Chapter 45 March AD 75 Witch Doctors Actions
Book II Prologue
Chapter 1 June AD 75 WAR!
Chapter 2 June AD 75 Aftermath
Chapter 3 June AD 75 Prisoner
Chapter 4 June AD 75 A Month as a Captive
Chapter 5 July AD 75 Robbery
Chapter 6 August AD 75 Pay
Chapter 7 November AD 75 Planting festival
Chapter 8 November AD 75 Beast

Chapter 9 December 75 AD Texas First Christmas

Chapter 10 January AD 76 Elephants
Chapter 11 January AD 76 Africa- Workers
Chapter 12 March AD 76 The Sea
Chapter 13 March AD 76 Salt
Chapter 14 April AD 76 Ivory Throne
Chapter 15 May AD 76 Old World Politics

Chapter 16 May AD 76 Training My Husbands Fiancée

Chapter 17 June AD 76 Pay Day

Chapter 18 November AD 76 Africa-Planting Festival

Chapter 19 December AD 76 Second Christmas
Chapter 20 February AD 77 Twins
Chapter 21 April AD 77 Africa- Badru Grows Up

Chapter 22 May AD 77 Texas- Someone Else’s Fight

Chapter 23 May AD 77 Texas- Negotiating With Disgusting Men

Chapter 24 June AD 77 Change
Chapter 25 November AD 77 Alexander Paulson
Chapter 26 December AD 77 Trevor’s Boat
Chapter 27 February AD 78 Tolls

Chapter 28 February AD 78 Taxation without representation

Chapter 29 February AD 78 Fighting like Vikings

Chapter 30 April AD 78 A Brief stop

Chapter 31 April AD 78 Texas-Fighting a prepared enemy

Chapter 32 May AD 78 Stone Tower
Chapter 33 July AD 78 Creating Congress
Chapter 34 November AD 78 Decentralization
Chapter 35 February AD 79 Father

Chapter 36 January AD 79 Congresses first secession

Chapter 37 May AD 79 Texas- Lock and Dam
Chapter 38 June AD 79 Africa-Hippos
Chapter 39 July AD 79 Badru’s Promotion

Chapter 40 August 79 AD Africa-Lieutenant Badru

Chapter 41 November AD 79 Researcher

Chapter 42 December 79 AD Bitter Sweet Christmas

Chapter 43 January 80 AD Texas- Written Law
Chapter 44 March AD 80 Texas- Docile Buffalo
Chapter 45 April AD 80 Africa- Murder
Chapter 46 April AD 80 Traitor
Book 3 Prologue
Book 3 Chapter 1 April AD 80 Africa- Escape!
Chapter 2 April AD 80 Avoiding Capture
Chapter 3 May AD 40 Texas Rangers
Chapter 4 June AD 80 Africa- Elzo’s Army
Chapter 5 July AD 80 Step Sons
Chapter 6 November AD 80 Africa- Lenses

Chapter 7 February AD 81 Africa- Political wedding