Chapter 55: The Hunter and the Hunted (1)
The Balak are a very warlike people by nature.
It was clear that if you took war and hunting out of their lives, there probably wouldn't be much left.
As Vikir followed Aiyen to the entrance of the clan, he reviewed what he knew about the Balak.
'Their language has only about three hundred words, and most of them are nouns. Verbs are gestural, and there is no distinction between them and us when it comes to possession. Men are ambo, women are akouati, love is aauki, death is utika...'
The people of Balak viewed the empires as rude, devious, and pretentious.
Conversely, the Imperials viewed the Balak as barbarians who screamed and punched at the slightest hint of anger.
The people of Baskerville seemed to be somewhere in the middle, Vikir thought, between the civilized people of the Empire and the barbarians of the jungle.
"I wonder if they're vaguely resembling both sides of the border, never fully belonging to either.
As Vikir pondered this to himself, the hunters of Balak gathered in a circle.
Hunters, young and old, gathered in groups of three and four.
Several mounted on the backs of wolves, bows and spears dangling.