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Instead of making our way to the secret underground testing ground, Tavora led Grud out the main door to a waiting horse-drawn cart that we rode an hour out from the tribe and along the coast.
Grud and Tavora arrived at a secluded beach that was surrounded by rock formations. There, he saw ten of his adult children, all of them drenched in seawater and looking miserable, but with a smile on their faces.
When Grud asked Tavora what was happening, she told him that ten of his sons and daughters spent the better part of two days nearly drowning themselves, and on quite a few occasions, they actually did drown and had to be pulled ashore and forced them to cough out the seawater.
They were currently standing in a circle around a symbol drawn in the sand, which had wavy lines that flowed into itself. And from the context clues of being next to the sea and his saltwater-drenched children, Grud assumed that the symbol represented water.
"And you would be right." Tavora confirmed Grud's assumption, "Now we just need to find out how to use it. As we discovered when testing the Cold symbol, it worked similarly to the Fire symbol in some ways, but not in others. But first, we need to practice the manifestation of the Water symbol. Care to join us, husband?"
"Gladly." Grud answered. "But first, the lot of you are going home and getting some rest." he said as he looked at his wet and cold children.
Following that command, a chorus of "But father!" came from them, but Grud brooked no argument with his children, some of them older than Tavora, and sent them home on their horses. "You all have already discovered what is needed, and the symbol will still be around at the usual place when you are done warming up. No point getting sick just to test a few more ideas."
As his children rode off home, Grud stood over the symbol and started clearing his mind as he pondered the symbol and manipulated the mana in his body to try and manifest the Water symbol.
Within an hour of trying, Grud managed to form a mana construct, only visible to those sensitive to mana, of the Water symbol between his hands. When the mana construct was finished, slowly but surely, over the span of a minute, water from the environment started to fill the space where the mana construct was and form the Water symbol.
Off to the side, Tavora was huffing at the ease Grud managed to manifest the new Water symbol, "I don't know if I will ever get over how easily you manage to pull off new symbols so easily."
Grud just smiled at her, dropped the symbol, letting the water fall to the ground, and pulled Tavora into a hug while kissing her head. "And I love that grumpy face you make when I do so."
After some hugging and kissing, Tavora could not stand to stay mad at Grud and only demanded that Grud pay special attention to her ass that night because her pussy was off limits until she gave birth.
When they got back to the underground research base under Tavora's shaman hut, there was already a small celebration being organized to celebrate the discovery of the Water symbol.
***
While the secrets of the World's Language were being unlocked, Orin and his brother Voro sat by a campfire when they stopped their travels for the night.
As they finished a bowl of porridge and kept warm by the fire, Voro broke the silence. "Brother, are we going to do anything about those emissaries? They are acting out of line, as if we owe them something and are not doing them a huge favor. With every group that joins us in our march, they get more and more belligerent. They do not know their place, and I say we teach them about it."
Orin raised a hand in a calming gesture, "At ease, brother. I know that they are planning something. Most likely some way to squeeze what they can get out of us. As for why they are agitated about our numbers growing, I have a few ideas that I will keep to myself for the moment, but the fact that they are angry about it is good enough for me."
Voro nodded at his brother's answer, but still had a frown on his face. "We should at the very least put them in their place. The way they are talking to us is bordering on disrespect."
"We should. But we won't. Let them run their mouths. We may yet derive what they are planning if unintended words slip from their tongues. Let them mistake my silence at their brazen attitude for timidness. Who knows, in their arrogance, they may end up doing or saying something stupid, or even better, get their chieftains to do something stupid. So I ask this of you, brother, do not act on their disrespect." Orin replied.
Voro took a deep breath and sighed, "I see the wisdom in your words, brother. I will hold my tongue… I wish my father were leading us into battle. It is so much easier when other chieftains and leaders are too afraid to talk back or order Father around."
"And the best part of all, if Father was leading us, with him charging at the front, I would say victory is all but confirmed." Orin chuckled. "But alas, he may not look it, but remember that he is getting up in age, and it is time for us to make a name for ourselves."
Voro elbowed his brother. "You are one to be talking, you made plenty a name for yourself. So much so that you already have three wives and no shortage of families still offering their daughters to you."
Orin just sighed. "I don't know how father does it with over twenty women every night. I can barely handle my three wives."
"I guess I can't relate to your struggles yet. I only just got married to my first wife… talking about our family and our father, have you noticed that our father and our most senior mothers don't look their age? They should all be in their late forties to early fifties, but conspired to look like others their age. They don't look a day past twenty-five. Especially father, and mother Nita and Mita." Voro said.
"Then what everyone says must be true. Our father is blessed by the spirits, and that blessing has passed on to his wives and us. I am sure you have noticed that every one of our brothers is stronger and bigger than other boys and men their age? And not to mention our sisters, few women can match their beauty, and every now and then we need to step in to defend one of their honor when some guy tries to forcefully take them as their wife?" Orin pointed out.
"True, true… but I have been thinking. After we make a name for ourselves, what then? Do you want to leave the tribe to start your own or something?" Voro asked.
"Or something… I honestly do not know. Father says I have a talent for command. I can see myself getting rich off the loot we get from the battlefield. But that means months away from my family and risking my life in battle, and I don't think I want that for myself in the long run. I have three wives, two babies, and three more on the way to provide for, so I think I will stick with my fishing boat crew when we go home, at least that is a job I can come home to my family every day." Orin said.
There was a stretch of silence between the two brothers. "You… have given me a lot to think about, brother." Voro said, breaking the silence as he stood up to stretch, "I think I will turn in early for the night."
"Mm, rest well." Orin grunted in reply.
***
Their travels finally came to an end when they reached what looked like a hastily put-together camp.
As Orin's now two thousand-strong army closed in on the camp, there was a scramble of activity as the coalition of small tribes tried to form a strong front, even if it was towards friendly forces.
Seeing their supposed allies so riled up, Orin sent the emissaries back to their people to calm them down before they did something stupid.
Around half an hour after the emissaries were sent to calm their tribes' nerves, a group of seven well-armoured men, along with the emissaries, and escorted by around fifty warriors, walked toward Orin.
It was time to meet the chieftains of the tribes he was going to assist.