The elves sat atop a small hill, watching the humans work below them across a wide valley that was smoothed and flattened out, producing a nice farming area. The hill, being at the mouth of the channel, was the best place to watch the entire view of the workers.

  The river, over the last thirty years, had become the 'life-giving river' to the humans. Farms upon farms had been attempted at first, but now they had settled into a solid yearly flow, and there was some certainty that, given no great error or flaw, the farm would produce enough food for the winter months. The tribe had also expanded in other ways, as a second group, mainly of warriors, would head back down south during winter to graze sheep and goats for meat and milk.

  Without horses, something that had so recently changed the course of war for the people of the grassland, it was impossible for them to migrate back down south fully. At first, a few leaders rode them, and now some tribes had mounted half their warriors. The other half ran alongside them, holding some reins during war to steady and calm the horse.

  A few of the more wild warriors even rode in alone without an aide. Chariots were expensive and difficult to manage, which is why, despite being used by city dwellers to the west of the grasslands to great effect, it didn't transfer to the 'barbarians' like them. Unfortunately for the 'settled,' a term used by the barbarians to describe the weak, unworthy, and city or farm dwellers, down south, a breed of horse that could carry a human in armor on its back was bred.

  The people of the tribe, who had been pushed north previously, simply referred to their tribe as the public tribe or the middle tribe, and other tribes by name or as prey, warriors, and tributes. It was too slow to adapt to the horse.

  Now, as they were huddled around the dragon, who, about one generation ago, took them into what the dragon referred to as a Covenant, it had already changed their identity, even if it wasn't noticed. They were the dragon's tribe now. When the tribe called themselves, in the past, middle tribe, they meant the middle of the world, a very arrogant name, when the tribe called themselves public tribe it was when they had been given reasons to doubt. Now the generation losses were reconsidered as guidance from the gods or the dragon, and dignity was restored easily.

  At this time, the majority saw it as guidance from the gods.

  Since then, a band of older, seasoned warriors from within the tribe went up to speak with the dragon, and discussed things. The two elves were invited to follow, and were asked to teach the humans to farm by the human elders. After the first two years, where the dragon watched over them and they ate well, being guided to great spots for hunting from the air by the dragon, the dragon went to sleep.

  It has slept for the next 28 years. The elders have since passed away and handed over to other warriors the covenant and what is expected of them, how to awaken the dragon, and some basic instructions for what to do while the dragon sleeps.

  The first order they were given was that they were not allowed to build any walls while the dragon slept, and the second order they were given was that they needed to get horses. Unfortunately, since then, three bands of priests have ventured away from the tribe with various trinkets and tributes that the elves taught them to make, expecting to trade for a horse. The first one came back without having met anyone and nearly ran out of food, the second band did not return, and the third was robbed but allowed to return.

  Then a fourth band was made. This one consisted of three of the robbed elders and the rest warriors. However, these warriors were half and half—some were spearmen like old, but some used crude bows and mimicked the elves, although the elves had refused to teach archery despite many requests. The humans, especially the ones that had held bows since 8 or 5 years of age, were skilled enough to get a nod of approval. None were to the standard of an elf, but the elves figured they were more impressive archers than any humans had ever been.

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  But the elves had never seen human archers and only guessed.

  There was a level of unease in the elven hearts when a young human boy, who had adored the beauty of the sister, came to show off his skill. They saw a vague shadow of elven skill in the boy—the focus of his eyes, the gentle brush of his fingers over the strings, contrasting with a taunt stone-like back, that he chose to fire during the perfect moment in his breathing and thought of their own tribe back home, the one they left behind, which they still saw as the elven forest and her people.

  Their archery had made them something of a celebrity during the first two years, as with the guidance of the dragon, just the two of them could easily hunt enough meat for the entire tribe to live off for two months in an afternoon. They feared seeing that skill, used on them. The two siblings had become something like tribal symbols, a role they had been happy to fill at the time but now found restricting, as they watched the humans change slowly but surely.

  If the idea to use arrows on the elves themselves ever entered the mind of the human tribe, the elves never caught wind of it. The idea, however, would linger as a just-in-case.

  There was something else that concerned the elves. The young infant from back then had grown up to become a beautiful woman and also completely obsessed with the dragon. She spent most of her time in the cave just outside where the dragon was sleeping, fasting herself and in religious prayer.

  It was her who convinced the elders they were priests and would, on occasion, make substances that blurred the line between reality and illusion, claiming to hear the dragon in her dreams, although she was not taken too seriously. She told the people that the dragon was an aspect, a central, and perhaps the most important aspect of a cosmic order.

  The elves did not listen much, but they didn't like how she sounded like their elven elders speaking of the world tree.

  These warriors, the archers, returned with horses, and they returned with captured slaves and another cart. The archery had spooked the horses and managed to break apart a charge. This had left another tribe's camp undefended, which was promptly raided by the team, taking some of the lesser horses and the woman.

  No one thought anything of this. A similar fate had befallen this same tribe before they met the dragon, and it was seen as simply the way of the world. No moral justifications were made, and none felt any guilt. Raiding was simply a part of life for the grassland tribes, and slavery was simply a part of raiding. The idea that the world could be different never occurred.

  They were neither crueler nor kinder to the captured people than any other tribe would have been.

  The tribe in question eventually recovered from the rout, and came to get vengeance against the dragon's human tribe. But led by the elves, they took shelter in rocks, hills, and mountains where the horses wouldn't work and then used the keen slopes to kill off the men that came to flush them out.

  They then captured the rest in an ambush at the base of the mountain, and after a few digressions, figured they couldn't take any more slaves as there wouldn't be enough food to feed them and eyes to watch them. So, they marched them into the river and drowned them. Stabbing those who could swim with spearmen waiting on the other side, pelting those who froze in panic when they learned what the dragon's human tribe wanted of them, and thrusting spears into the back of the pack to keep them walking.

  The women taken from the tribe were brought to a ridge to watch this happen. To smother any hope and accept the need to integrate into the tribe. If the men dying didn't know what was happening the horrible screams and threats from the woman of what the dragons tribe would do to them let everyone know what was happening.

  The idea to awaken the dragon had come up, and a runner, as they hadn't figured out how to ride horses yet, was left out of the fighting in case things took a turn. But the priests were hesitant to invoke their lord lightly. This had set a tone of opinion about the dragon and had put an idea in the heads of both the elves and the humans.

  One day, the dragon would reawaken, and no one knew exactly when it would occur.