The tribe used to have thirteen Field Runners, otherwise known as the people who could run really fast. It was true that they couldn't run at the speed of light, they weren't that fast, otherwise they might cause a rip in the fabric of the universe, but they were fast nonetheless, faster than any other human who didn't possess such an ability, at least. They could run at half the speed of sound, which was still quite impressive.

Yet, their abilities were considered sub-common within the tribe, not rare, so they weren't as respected as much as the circle of elders within the tribe, who had magical abilities that were considered either beyond strong, dark, or straight up evil. The Field Runners weren't considered important, basically, so it wasn't a surprise that most of them didn't bother returning home after the massacres of the Giant's Ditch.

There used to be thirteen of them, now there was only one Field Runner, Eni.

The thing was, that the rest of the thirteen Field Runners didn't die in battle. Neither of them died, they were too fast for the giants to squash them, or eat them, but since they didn't return home, it necessarily meant that they've left the grasslands entirely.

Field Runners weren't known for their bravery. Since they were literally able to run away from their troubles, they never needed to be brave, so in a way, they were psychologically conditioned to lack it.

The giants may not have scared them out of the grasslands, but since half of them lost family members in the massacre, they saw no reason to be part of the tribe any longer. Other than that, they abandoned the tribe, the very moment when they realized that they could no longer benefit from the tribe.

Singular contributions were far different from collective contributions. They knew that they'd have to provide most of the food for the tribe after the massacre, so they weren't up for it.

The latter was understandable, it could be excused, but what couldn't be excused, was what they did after they left the grasslands.

Within the many hills of the west, where the elevations dropped towards lower grounds, one Field Runner found himself trying to join one of the few tribes that were spread across the west hills.

"Yes, giant humans killed my tribe, most of them, I suppose." He explained to the tribe's chief. "I escaped with my life, but the grasslands are fucked. Hunting there is impossible with giants running around. Thirty of them, killed seventy-eighty, maybe even all of our hunters? Our elders killed a couple of giants, but it wasn't enough, we got wiped out."

"Wiped out, and yet you're standing in front of me?" The chief pointed out. "These 'giant humans' you're talking about, they couldn't kill you, because you fled. How many of your hunters ran as fast as you?"

"Thirteen," He answered, not sure where this conversation was going.

"So thirteen cowards are crossing my lands?" The chief added, "And yet you call us cowards, telling us that the giants cannot be killed? Who are you to say what we can, and cannot kill?"

"You misunderstood," He tried to defend himself. "I'm sure your people are brave, but this is not a question of bravery. The giants are just too big, too violent, and it would take a lot of unnecessary effort to kill them."

As stubborn as an unmoving rock, the chief grunted, and patted his own back, "We've killed dinosaurs bigger than you can imagine, coward! I will not let you tell me that my tribe can't kill these giants! Haven't your parents taught you respect?"

In a single burst of movement, the chief then swung his spear forward, and tried to kill the Field Runner in front of everyone, within the largest cave of the west hills!

In a fraction of a second, and to everyone's surprise, the head of the chief snapped off, and rolled across the ground.

The Field Runner had seen the attack coming, and reacted. His spear was simply faster than the spear of the fat, bulky chief's, so he won the battle before it could've even started.

Within the same second, he ditched the cave, and started running across the west hills. He left the tribe without a chief, and the tribesfolk with a target that they would want to kill on the spot. Assuming they could catch him, they were going to kill him on the spot.

The tribe was in panic, the women and children were screaming as they saw the head of the tribe's chief roll across the ground. This was a horrid day for them, especially since the death of their chief seemed unprompted. In their mind, the Field Runner should've just accepted his fate, and forfeited his life out of respect for the chief, but the situation didn't quite pan out how they expected.

One of the oldest hunters of the tribe walked forward, grabbed the decapitated head of the chief, and looked at it. As he looked at the lifeless, hairy head, with the chief's horrid expression frozen in place, he got beyond angry, and didn't know who to direct his anger towards.

The Field Runner killed their chief, but they weren't going to catch him anytime soon, they couldn't. With that said, the hunter's anger misdirected towards the closest thing related to the Field Runner.

He held the chief's head up above his head, and shouted, "Hear me, my people! The menaces of the grasslands have done the unthinkable, unredeemable, and unforgivable; They killed chief Ronik!"

The hunter got everyone's attention, that was for sure. It was hard to ignore a man who was holding a severed head.

Once he got their undivided attention, the hunter then shouted, "Our chief got killed in the middle of the day, in our home, in front of our children! Will we just stand here and do nothing about the disrespect, about this horrible shame the grasslands have brought upon our people, or will we do something about it!? Will we avenge his death?!"

The crowd roared in response. Every man, woman, and child, wanted revenge. They wanted to avenge the death of their chief, which in their eyes, died for no reason!

Just like that, the Field Runner started a war that he wasn't even going to be a part of. He didn't care, and just kept running, looking for another tribe he could fool, and even aiming to run down to the bottom of the west hills as well. He didn't want to be associated with failure, whatever failure might look like in his eyes.

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