A tale of a city

Camilick and his people progressed. For the next two days; they walked through inhospitable forrest. The attack they had suffered a few days before was still scaring people; and then they found a large river in the second night; Camilick thought he was done; but luckily he found that the people had enough faith to try anything. This was their trial before the promised land. They were desperate after days and days of wandering through unknown lands; feared so much for their lives that they would have believed anything to stop their constant suffering. And their they had it; a man who spoke to gods and promised a land after this river and whose predictation had come through.

Swimmers tried to go through and were carried away to never be heard of again. Rafts barely curved from wood were put to the waters and sank as soon as they'd hit the water. Someone tried a flying machine and broke his leg; a bridge project was considered. But Camilick saw that this people were geting desperate to cross. He thought about ordering to follow the riverto find a crossing; but he knew that this was his moment to shine. He thus ordered the creation of a large vessel. And so his people started to work tirelessly on it. A raft so large it wouldn't sink was beyond their understanding; the man had spoken. He also had incredible luck. The boat survived the crossing and its occupand installed themselves on the bank for the rest of the night

But the thrill of the crossing was short lived. Before the day was up, Carmilick decided to go on a tour to see what laid ahead; he saw another river. He quickly realized that they had settled an island in a river. Of all the places to cross, they had picked this one. So he went back to the temporary camp and had a brillant idea. People wanted a promised land; he would give it to them. He would give them the land they found themselves in. He was a peasant, and knew that the land was probably very fertile. He noticed several plains and hill not too far, so they would have good spots for invaders, and the forrest they had comed from would provide all the wood for shelter and warmth.

And so the inhabitants decided to install themselves there. At first, it was just huts primitevely installed around a small rock that served as village center. Camilick became chief. The people that started to doubt the fact that it was a promised land were mysteriously drawned in the night; rumours were that it was the Chief that had ordered it. But their Chief was also busy farming this hostile land, encouraging the construction of more boats to hunt and gather fruits in case of food shortages. Soon, most of the Island was being domesticated, either farmed or used for houses. People started to forget the city they had known before. They lived a much harder life, but they had made it. And they tried to rebuild temples and re-build a city. In the meantime, the Chief started to appoint assistant. He also made an attempt to build a bridge that failed miserably and trained a militia. Those that had become good at hunting in the days of the wandering became soldiers in case bandits or wild animal wandered.

Camilick grew old. But how much progress his village had made! A small temple was now in the middle of the village. All the houses were in wood; but they now had boats. An old man who relied on his family for food and shelter decided to make himself useful. He made experiment with water and dirt. People laughed, saying he had gone insane and thought he was a child. But they were amazed when he was able to harden it and shape it. He invented potery that day. No one ever laughed at him again. But the old man wasn't one to sit and be satisfied with one success. After training a few youngster, he decided to play with dead animal skin. Hunters gladly brought to him excess skin that wasn't used for clothing, and he used them in many various way. In the end, he was successful in copying what the barbarians had made before him: leather. Meanwhile, his wife tried to follow her husband but was more inspired by nature. One day, tired of cleaning the house, she just sat and watch a spider weave a web. She had an idea, and joined her husband in toying with dead animals; using usually the fur. And she managed to start weaving cloth from animal fur. But the village had more successes than just by their inventions. The traitors that had destroyed the lost city had attacked the neighbouring cities and villages. This had created an influx of people that followed the traces left and were drawn by the stories of the prophet and the prowess of its inhabitants. Luckily, there was more than enough land in the surrounding areas for farming. The mighty river also had plenty of fishes for all.

Camilick died; the people were upset; they erected a small effigies of him. This was extanded later in a temple by the population. Hewas succeeded by one of his assistant; but a powerstruggle ensued between him and Camilick's son. The people sided with the latter and so the successor to Camilick was put to death. The soldiers started to protect the Chief and then other people. Those now had a full-time job; and were paid in food. This was the first job that wasn't food related; the first employee position.

The Chief, dubbed Lick by his growing number of opponent had not his father's charisma or authority. His wife was miserable, seemingly beaten by her husband. That created some distrust about the future; one must remember that a new generation had emerged. Several people actually left the village with some valuable and a food reserve. No one ever expected to see them again. And yet, they were suprised to find that they had come back. They had brought back finely woven cloths and bows and arrows. It was there that the villagers learned that down the river another village had been built. It was there that these wonders had been develloped. It is true that they had been rumors; brought by survivors from neighbouring invasions. Hunters, when meat was scarce and were forced to go faraway met other people; but contact were limited at this point.

There was to be interesting devellopments in the society. Following the Chief's example, men in the village had started to be more agressive towards their wives. There was no priest per se, yet; no moral code other than the vague law edicted by the founder of the village; and the few that had were policing were actually wrongdoers themselves and could not be bothered to protect women. And yet, the Chief's wife made a crucial discovery. While the Chief had given up on mastering the bow, his wife, bored decided to try it. But it was too big for her so she installed a smaller sting to it, further away from herself. She played both strings and failed to send an arrow straight. However, she heard a sound; out of boredom she played them for a while. She noticed the different sounds. She had discovered music. She became quite a sensation in the village; she learned to modulate sounds and was beginning to sing for people in the village, where she got more and more influence. She was fair, as well as modest and intelligent. People began to rely on her more and more to settle dispute; consequently the cases of marital violence seemed to decreased.

Then, the Chief died of illness. Their were numerous voices in the village that wanted the maident to succeed to her husband. She proceeded to edict numerous law; she understood the tricks of her father-in-law and proceeded to claim that the gods were speaking to her. She thought about edicting laws, that would have been dictated by the gods. The first that came to her mind was prohibiting marital violence. But she thought it would be a transparent move to help her 'sisters'. So instead she decided to try and be more general and prohibit violence. But this would have meant losing people that believed in strenght. So she decided to state that "love was at the beginning of all; at all stages of the cycle of life". She then decided to basic laws about hygien of life, do's and don't of life. Yes, marital violence was proscribed. So was eating meat that was uncleaned and 7 days old, killing animals for other purpose than usefulness. In addition, she decided that every 6 days, a day of rest would be granted to all, during which a small celebration was to take place.