Muttering to herself, Eskarina tried to separate the various parts of her yurt, which had fallen in the night before. It was not an easy task: her yurt had contained a lot of extraneous wood and such, and now was giving her some difficulty. As it was, she was already resigned to having a leaky roof for the next few months.
She sighed. This never would've happened if they just had listened to her a few days ago, when she said to use all that driftwood on the coast to the west to prop up tents. A few had complied, but most had just nodded respectfully and then moved on anyway. The nomadic life was no time for foolish ideas like using wood to build shelter.
She gave up trying to reconstruct her dwelling and instead went outside to where her top adviser and friend, Vainamoinen, was stirring what was left of yesterday's fire.
"Give a man a fire and you keep him warm for a day, but set him on fire, and he's warm for the rest of his life." He murmured, nodding at Eskarina. She was used to his little parables, and so she got straight to the point.
"Vai, I need to..."
He stopped her with an upraised hand. "I know what you're going to say. Let's settle down and stay here, I'm tired of wandering... nothing you haven't said before."
"Yes," Eskarina said defiantly.
Vainamoinen sighed. "My answer is still the same. Maybe that would be better, but it's impossible. I bet you can't settle down anywhere and make the Egyptian Tribe become an empire. Look, we can't even support ourselves moving around all the time!"
Eskarina looked out across the temporary village. Most people, like her, were diligently trying to resurrect their homes. "You bet..." she muttered to herself. Then she cupped her hands around her mouth.
"ALL RIGHT, LISTEN UP! You, you, you, and you, come over to my tent... well, what's left of it. The rest of you, you'd better do a good job on those yurts, because we're not moving from here. That's it, I've had it up to here. There's grains to the northwest and some kind of fat pink animals to the south, we'll survive." she said, pointing out a few men and then sweeping her arm across the rest. Then she turned, and ignoring the stunned silence behind her, strode towards her tent.
Vainamoinen caught up to her. "What do you think you are doing?"
"Settling down. My mother's name was Thebe, so we'll call this settlement Thebes. Remember that really strong guy who killed that wolf last week? Send him out to explore. Take the most likely strong man in the camp and begin training him to defend this village."
"You're mad..."
"Damn right I am! My roof fell on me during the night!"
She turned to face the men she indicated outside. She looked at the most cunning and dishonest looking one.
"You! What's your name?"
The man bowed nervously. "E Ka Nah Mik, highness."
"Good. You're in charge of bartering and trading from now on. Maybe there's some other humans out there that have something we might want."
She turned to the one who looked most arrogant and most intelligent.
"You! What's your name?"
The man bowed nervously. "Iravar, highness."
"Good. You're in charge of finding out how to best use our land around here. And find me a way of tracking beasts and going through forest unharmed, etcettera."
She turned to the other two and frowned, since they looked exactly alike.
"What are your names?"
The men bowed nervously. "Boink and Fwizzle, highness."
"And which one of you knows most about the land over here?"
The men both raised their hands. Eskarina rolled her eyes.
"All right, which one of you is the ugliest, most arrogant inbred son of a ..... around here?"
A smattering of laughter rolled through the tent, while Vainamoinen, who taught Eskarina etiquette long ago, covered his face with his hands.
Fwizzle stepped forward. "I guess that's me." he said, grinning.
"One settlement will not be enough. I want an empire. When there are more cities around here, you will administer them, see to it that their populations are happy, well fed, healthy, etcettera. For now, just look after Thebes. Boink, you're in charge of my army, or will be once I get one. I'll give you the details later. You're free to go. Get to your tasks immediately!"
The men filed out.
Vainamoinen walked over to stand next to Eskarina.
"I must admit you handled them well, although the obscenity was a bit too much..."
"The obscenity is what made them listen to me." Eskarina replied.
Vainamoinen shook his head. "Still, my bet stands. I bet you will not be able to sustain a normal empire."
Eskarina turned to him and grinned devilishly.
"Bet taken!"
