The Way of The Ancestor's

The day went as quick as it came, and by sundown, we welcomed back Father and those who had also been away defending the village. The villagers cheered at another success of triumph against the tribes, but I noticed my father did not share their enthusiasm. Despite his commendable achievement, he held his head low, he seemed tired of this life.

Out of everybody there, I knew him the best. So I made my way through the crowd and congratulated him, he lightened up a bit. He handed me the armor of the enemy's chieftain, asking me if my mother and the children were safe. I answered, yes. It relieved him a bit, but I asked if anything had gone wrong. He answered, no.

If everything went well, why did he not seem happy about it? I asked him. He hesitated to answer, sighing a bit, thinking of how to reply. ‘The truth,’ he said, ‘is that this triumph of ours will be temporary. To be honest, son, I am getting old, and I do not know if I will be able to shield Rus, once more. I have reached my thirty-second year, but I have not accomplished much.’

‘In the times of my ancestors, my accomplishments would have been the cause of envy, but what is there to envy, my son,’ he said, ‘I will leave this world, but what have I done to distinguish myself? What legacy do I leave to my sons? What stories of worth shall my grandchildren have to distinguish themselves from other lineages?’

I did not know how to reply, but anyhow, he kept going, ‘I wept the other day, at the statue of our country’s father, grieving that I had failed to put an end to these tribes. It brings me sorrow, that while Oleg, at my age, was already establishing our once great country, I have yet to achieve such brilliance. And look at what has happened, my son, the great nation of Oleg has fragmented, to puny villages like ourselves, and what audacity of us to claim this flag of his!’

‘Disputes between the commons and kings have brought us to these circumstances, a house so divided that they cannot protect themselves from those scavengers! What use was to demolish the institutions of our ancestors, if we were not going to install something greater? The institutions of great men change over time, yes, but to abandon them completely? In the days of the ancestors, we could enjoy time with our children, but in our time, we can only hope to catch a glimpse of them before they marry another, to journey along the way that we call life.’

‘Father,’ I said, ‘If you desire to settle down, why not reestablish the institutions of our ancestors? There’s no better man to lead us than you, do you not think so?’

These words sparked something inside my father, almost as if these words of mine were what he had been meaning to hear. He cheered up that night, deciding to attend the banquet after all, but this would not be without inciting the revival of the monarchy, essentially desiring to reestablish the independent villages, settlements, and cities into one kingdom. Stumbling around, he had managed to come across a table, where he pushed everything aside, stamping his foot upon it to gather the attention of his people.

‘People of Rus, you and I have shared many victories and many tragedies. Many of you have lost sons and daughters, as we struggled to deal with these tribes. Many of you have shed tears for these children, and many of you have regretted sending them out to fight. I assume,’ Illya said, ‘You do not have to admit it, it is natural to lament and regret sending your brightest son to fight and perishing in what seems to be an endless war effort. It is lamentable to lose your virtuous daughters, who could have born you many grandchildren and kept your lineage alive. The pile of corpses of our people continues to pile up year after year, and we never manage peace that is not temporary, do we? I no longer have any father, or brothers and sisters to cry for, my people, they have all died for this village of ours.’

‘And as time has passed, I realized that I will succumb to their same fate, and so will my children here. How long will we continue letting the blood of our people spill before we ought to do something? The tyrants of the past were rid of, but we face greater dangers today with this division amongst our country, some having abandoned their flag of origin and establishing their own country within ours! How ridiculous, is it not!?’

‘And do you want to know the best part of it? They enjoy greater lives than we do, we who continue to feel pride in a flag that no longer carries the power it did four generations ago! Oh my, oh my, are these the words of a drunk man, or the words of a hurt man that desires something greater for his people? That is up for you to decipher, but if I am to leave you with anything, my people, we are to reestablish the institutions of the past, not to put the power in the hands of one, but to display the brilliance of our people to the world once more!’

‘Instead, we are to do this, for the sake of our descendants and their descendants, to come. Put your mortal needs aside, for you do not have the great needs you supposed yourself to have. Night after night, the men of service provide you with the comfort of safe keeping and peaceful sleeping. Not once had the tribes entered the lake, and how can that be? It was not easy. I can tell you from personal experience, the ease you enjoy is at the cost of many men, who will not be remembered by most, aside from their loved ones, if they had any left to weep for them.’

‘If leisure is what you enjoy,’ Illya said, 'what do you have to lose by not accepting my proposal? For the greater good, we must rise and forge our way through blood and steel, once more to reestablish that great kingdom. There is no worthy man to bring that to fruition, but if you may put your trust in anybody, it could be me that can bring you to greatness, once more. Who better than you to decide the fate of your own descendants? I mean, who better to provide them with a greater life than you had. For that is the purpose of life, is it not, to provide a better life for the children, compared to the life that you and I live.'

Those were the words of my father at the banquet, and surprisingly, they were met with great support. If there was anybody of status who could pull that off, it would be him. At the time of this declaration, it was the beginning of winter, and that would give my father time to establish his plans for campaigns outside the village. However, he would first have a census of the people taken, to see the number of men available for service.

At his disposal, my father had an army of 7,393 men. However, he knew it would not be wise to leave the village defenseless. To his luck, he had to leave behind at least 2,000 men capable of defending the village. This would be fewer men than the amount needed to defend the village on a regular basis. Luckily, fate was on their side, it was winter and their enemies would not waste supplies for war. It was decided, every man of age would be put in the hands of the chieftain, Illya Muromets.

He had not decided a structure for his army yet. Instead, Illya had the men train daily in the meanwhile. Sixteen years of age is the requirement for those to take part in the army. However, a decent physique can also play a part for those wishing to join. For the first time in four generations, Belomas will use its military to go on the offensive against foes abroad. This brought many people to join the great army, as they hoped to enrich themselves with the pillaging of their foes.

This led to my Father passing a decree, stating that the women of the village were to handle the farms with their children and were expected to hold them down, until the army returned from abroad. The village, Belomas, did not have slaves. They believed it to be dangerous to have such things in their society, as they could revolt when a majority of the men were handling defenses of the village. Slave revolts were common, and it was difficult to control. In addition to this, casualties of war had not been captured since the time of the first monarchy, which had led to a decline in the slave class at Belomas. 

Throughout the week, my father gathered a small party of his trusted warriors, which would include: Fedor the Just, Voron Ironside, Yarik the Defender of the Fatherland, Stanillo the Younger, and Illya the Younger. Not only was I invited to this group, but it cemented my place within the future kingdom, it was difficult not to put your eldest son into your close circle of men. At dawn, we traveled throughout the countryside. It was my first time, furthering outside our village's boundaries. I felt the thrill of excitement, a sense of danger that I grew to love.

My father surveilled the land, searching for potential areas to establish our camp when the time came for the campaign. The expedition made everything clear: My father intended to subdue the neighboring tribes to his yoke, before campaigning towards neighboring lands. He wanted to ease the pressure on the home front, I think, and to make it difficult for potential enemies to ally themselves with the hostile tribes.

He did not think it was best to annihilate the tribes, he thought that to be barbaric. The best course of action was to confront these people, and subject them once more, to the Kingdom of Rus. It would not be an easy task. Rumors had it, there were about twenty of these tribes that had overtaken the entire western region of the former Kingdom, a significant factor for the collapse of the original kingdom.

The original Kingdom had failed to respond on time to these tribes coming westwards, and it led to a complete loss of crucial trade routes westwards. This was a brutal blow to the Kingdom's economic power, which led to its eventual decline. Eventually, the east broke away from the Kingdom, becoming its own independent nation. The South and North remained, but eventually these places were fragmented into independent territories, run by different peoples or families. My father desires to restore these parts back into one kingdom, but the first step was to retake the west.

“Forgive me, Illya, but why have you brought us here? You do know how hostile these barbarians can be, right?” said Stanilo.

“If he did,” Voron Ironside said, “He would have brought more people, or does he trust us that much?”

“Perhaps he does, Voron,” Yarik laughed, “He brought his junior along. What do you think, boy?”

“I do not know,” I said, “Whatever it may be, I trust my father.”

“So do I, boy,” Fedor chimed in, “However, I do not trust these Ugrics. Those scums have killed many of our people.”

Tightening his hold on the reins, my father came to a stop, arriving at a lake. This led to everyone coming to a sudden halt, as the chief had stopped. For a moment, my father surveyed the area, trying to find some use for the place. The lake, it seemed, to be the same river that flowed eastwards, to the village. For the first time, my father cackled, saying, 'Well, my friends, this explains a lot of this tribe's insistence to fight us.'

“Insistence? What do you mean, Illya,” said Stanillo.

“This same river leads to the village,” said Illya.

“And so what?” said Stanillo.

“Do you not see the issue here, my friend,” Illya said, “This river is a safety concern for this tribe, as they seek to push our village's boundaries farther from it. Do you not remember that our village was not always this small? It used to be much larger in the past, until those people began to push our people further, to prevent them using this lake.”

“Are you implying this river is a threat to their defenses?” said Fedor.

“Exactly, and it is for this very reason that they fear giving us entry to the river. This river is not accessible to us, but it is, if the borders of the village were back to their original place. However, I do not just see that, I noticed that this river would be easy to establish a supply line from the village itself!” said Illya.

“Not just that, Illya,” Fedor laughed, “This allows us to overwhelm them, but where could this river lead to? We do not have any boats, any ideas?”

“Do not indulge in your hubris, friend,” Illya said, “We must return home, and make further preparations. It seems we will have to establish the camp a month before winter ends. The enemy would notice if we established the camp at the beginning of the spring.”

“We should send a small group of men, father,” I suggested, “We will need people with knowledge of the area, and to discover more things.”

“I know,” Illya said, “That is why I will be sending you and two of the people here. Let us return, boy, for I have many things to think of.”