The Martial Unity

The aliens never ceased to confuse the Martial tribes of Vilun Island. Now these outsiders seemed to be trying to build a modest village atop a hill on the island that wasn’t too far from the G’ak’arkan Tribe.

All of the Martial tribes knew that for some reason the outsiders held a lot of interest in the G’ak’arkan tribe, more than any other tribe on the entire island. None of them, except the G’ak’arkan Tribe, had any idea why this was the case.

It wasn’t as though the G’ak’arkan Tribe was the strongest Martial tribe on the entire island or anything of the sort. It was rather strange for them to constantly be sending people to the Martial tribe.

And now, they were building a small village very close to the G’ak’arkan Tribe. This was certainly no coincidence.

Why were the aliens bothering trying to build a home on the island in the first place? Even if they did, why did they do it so close to the G’ak’arkan Tribe?

While most of the Martial tribes spread across the island scratched their head at this development, the G’ak’arkan Tribe had a slightly better understanding of the situation.

“This must have something to do with that trade offer that they’ve been pestering us for many years with,” N’Kulu, the chieftain of the G’ak’arkan Tribe solemnly said. “They haven’t given up it seems.”

“Those annoying pests!” Senior K’ahru glowered. “We should treat them like any other Martial tribe and destroy them!”

That earned many nods from the Martial Artists who were a part of the meeting.

Back when the outsiders first greeted the G’ak’arkan Tribe and tried to hold dialogue with them and expressed an intent for a peaceful relationship, many members of the G’ak’arkan Tribe were a little confused and at a loss for words.

Such a thing rarely happened on Vilun Island. To them, everybody else that they had ever known prior were all enemies. The very concept of establishing friendly relations with other parties was largely lacking in their minds.

This was why the process of befriending the G’ak’arkan Tribe took far longer than it would have with states on the Panama Continent. It took a tedious and painstakingly slow build-up to where it was today, it had begun with the smallest of tokens and gifts between ordinary humans for an extensive period of time, before escalating the gestures and tokens that they expressed. It even took providing a little bit of aid to the G’ak’arkan Tribe during certain times of need.

Years and years of doing this was what finally led to a stage where they could even talk to the tribe without being treated like an enemy.

However, despite this, the G’ak’arkan Tribe was simply much more comfortable in picking a fight with the diplomatic convoy than they were trying to maintain a friendly relationship. The latter was something that was uncomfortable and strange while the former was normal and regular.

They were much more comfortable knowing that they were their enemy than wondering if they were friends.

Yet, not everybody was supportive of the idea of engaging in hostilities with their strange alien ‘friends’.

“I strongly believe we shouldn’t make them our enemy,” A third strong voice interjected, drawing all the attention to her.

The third Martial Senior of the G’ak’arkan Tribe.

“Sister K’Mala…” K’ahru gritted his teeth.

“I believe that their offer has merit, I have always said that,” She voiced her opinion, uncaring of the frowns that it drew. Her sharp eyes swept across the many members who were an audience of this discussion.

“Hah!” Her brother scoffed. “Their Martial Artists listen to the words of mere humans, even submitting to them! How can such weak and pathetic Martial Artists have anything worth offering to us? It’s a miracle that they even managed to become Martial Artists in the first place.”

This once again earned many nods from the members of the meeting. K’ahru’s logic was sound in their minds.

“Their customs are… strange. But that does not mean they are weak. Have all of you forgotten the Martial Artist of the third rank that sought an audience with us many seasons ago?” She addressed her gathered tribes-folks with a calm and composed voice, striking a chord with them.

She turned to K’ahru and N’Kulu. “You remember how strong his aura was, do you think he has nothing of value to offer?”

K’ahru gritted his teeth. He could not, in good faith, insist that a Martial Senior was useless when she focused on his rank. The Martial tribes of Vilun Island worshipped power more than anything else, after all.

“You both have offered valuable insights,” The heavy voice of N’Kulu drowned out the presence of the two younger Martial Seniors. “It is true that Martial Artists of higher ranks cannot be useless.”

He nodded towards K’Mala, acknowledging her point. K’Mala smirked as she reveled in her victory over her younger brother.

“Yet, that is entirely different from whether they have enough merit to be able to offer power that is worth our sacred Martial Art techniques,” His voice grew graver. “Our techniques are everything, they are the foundation of our power against our many enemies that seek to annihilate us in war. That is what they desire to have from us. Today they have settled near us, tomorrow they will move closer, the day after they may pierce their way into our tribe, or take away members of our tribe possessing the techniques they seek. They have relentlessly chased after our techniques for many years now. I do not believe such a group will be satisfied with our refusal.”

The air grew solemn as everybody stared at the elderly warrior chieftain, awaiting his verdict.

“I will not tolerate this forever,” He declared. “I will give them one last opportunity to accept our final refusal in the next talk. Should they continue to strive for our technique despite that, then it is clear that they do not respect or fear us enough to ever stop. When that happens…”

He opened his eyes. “We will destroy them. We will hurl our mighty techniques at them from the skies, and wipe them out with the techniques that they desired! Long live the G’ak’arkan Tribe!”

“Long live the G’ak’arkan Tribe!”