The Tribe

Chapter 14: The brink of war

After everyone returns safely to the village, Phil knows that Leader Sean is really furious about Vince's army going against the coexistence agreements of destroying part of the local rainforest.

"Um, dad?" Lilith asked with concern.

"Not now! I'm trying to decide if we should negotiate, or declare war against him for destroying our peaceful home!" He shouted while angered.

Lilith was shocked by his aggressive tone, and decided to leave him alone.

"Um you're grace, we captured three more human kids. Where do you want them?"

"Put them in the holding pits till morning." Sean spoke as he tried to calm down.

"Yes, you're grace." A male fox says as he, and a couple of his friends carried the child soldiers to the holding pits for the night.

"He doesn't sound happy." Winston says.

"There could be a war happening soon if General Vince won't negotiate for common ground." Phil says as he heads to his hut.

"Will there be?" Winston asked Lilith.

"I hope not, but the human army did break the rules of the coexistence agreements. Lilith says.

Just then, they heard sounds of flying aircraft from some distance.

"A couple of Ospreys are coming!" A female fox shouted from a tall tree.

All the tribe members immediately put out all the torches, and started climbing up the tall trees, and started opening the giant leaf tarps to cover up the village from being found by the ospreys.

Lilith immediately took Winston inside her hut to hide as they waited for the search party to pass by.

"No Fox village anywhere here." The human pilot says as he flies past.

After the coast was clear, everyone came out, and relit the torches.

"Let's keep the leaf cover out for the night." Lilith suggests before everyone heads to sleep for the night.

Meanwhile...

General Vince was planning his next move on getting rid of the Fox tribe for his plans to take over Xena for humanity. He read through a few guide books of Xena, and noticed something that caused his interest.

"Guardian trees?" He says as he reads more about it.

The next morning, Phil yawned deeply as he got out of his hammock.

He leaves his hut as he sees the Human children that they captured yesterday are being recruited into as new members of the Tribe while they were persuaded that General Vince is the real enemy.

"Morning Phil." Lilith says as she hugs him.

"Morning Lilith. Have you seen Winston?" Phil asks.

"He went to help Dr.Alice collect some herbs outside of the village." She answers.

"I see. Any word from your dad?"

"He went to the human base to try to negotiate with General Vince peacefully, but I'm worried about something that might happen to him." Lilith spoke while concerned.

Meanwhile...

Tribe leader Sean, and a couple of his members escorted him inside the base to the conference room to have a meeting with General Vince. As he wasn't happy about the rainforest incident, he still decided that talking it out solves the problem.

"I have a bad feeling about this. We should leave, the humans don't like us here." A female fox says with worry.

"Ignore them. After this, we will leave immediately. For the sake, and peace of our home. We have to speak with General Vince so he won't destroy it." Sean says as he waits for Vince to arrive.

"So, you must be the leader of the Fox tribe. We finally met." General Vince says as he walks in the conference room, and sits across from them.

"Cut the chatter human, We need to discuss the stunt you pulled of destroying part of one of our rainforests. That's a violation of the sharing agreement." Sean says as he tries to hold back his anger.

"Now, now. We can talk about this peacefully, and share Xena." General Vince says with an evil smirk.

"Then, why did you attack the rainforest?" Sean asked.

"We've been having trouble finding Prox in the area that we are only allowed to dig. Besides, you did capture two traitors that were involved in killing my son." Vince explains.

"Well, your son was a menace to us to be honest since he shows no respect. Besides the two child soldiers that you mentioned, they are part of my tribe since they have potential." Sean explains.

"Those two? They are war criminals, and needed to be back here to be persecuted for their crime. If you do that, and return my seven other soldiers, then we can stay away from your territory." Vince suggested.

"Those soldiers are children, you know? They are too young and shouldn't be part of combat at all!" Sean shouted.

"Age doesn't matter due to over popularity. Those kids don't have families, which is mandatory by law to be recruited in the military. You have to return them." Vince says.

"I will do no such thing. Those kids that you sent to their death, will be part of my tribe so they won't be warmongers like you, and your army. Just keep your digging operations away from the restricted areas. We're done here. And any more trouble from you humans, we will declare war." Sean threatens as he and his escorts leave the conference room.

"Be careful what you say, you old Fox. You don't know who you are messing with." Vince threatens.

"You don't scare me human." Sean snaps back before he leaves.

Back at the village, Winston was helping Dr. Alice out on making some medicine.

"Can you crush these herbs for me, sweetie?" She asked as she gave him a bowl of herbs.

"Sure." Winston says as he starts crushing them with a stone.

"Are you doing okay? She asked.

"Yeah." He says as he finishes crushing the herbs, and gives them to her.

"What kind of medicine are you making?" He asked while interested.

"I'm making some medicine that will help numb pain while injured." Dr. Alice explains as she mixes the herbs with water.

"Like painkillers?" Winston asked.

"Yes, but help heal injuries fast as well." She added as she puts away the medicine on the shelf

"Any more herbs you want me to collect for you?" He asked.

"No. I'm good on supply for the next month. How about you go have some fun with your friends?" She suggested as she smiled.

"Okay." Winston says as he leaves the hut, and went to go find Phil, but noticed he was alone with Lilith.

"Hey Winston!" Tyler shouted.

"Hey Tyler." He spoke.

"You want to help us catch some fish from the lake?" We do need to help hunt for some dinner tonight." Marcus says while explaining.

"I'm in." Winston says as he follows them to the lake.

Meanwhile...

As leader Sean and his bodyguards were almost to the village, Sergeant Gerald and his men were planning an ambush to capture him.

"Now!" Gerald shouted.

His soldiers jumped and tackled Sean and his tribe members to the ground, and tied their arms behind their back.

"What is this?!" Sean shouted.

"Nothing personal, just to make sure you don't cause any trouble." Sergeant Gerald says as he orders his men to take them back to the human base.