Odesday, 1st of Maia, 470th Year of the Fifth Era

  The winds and the air of the Northern Halaklands was far colder than what most of the Gorian Halak were used to. Many of the warriors, including Josias, had taken to wrapping around their ulos clothes around their necks, draping their armor like a cloak instead of its usual way of being worn like a sash. It was quite a peculiar phenomenon that existed in the highlands of Hutangali. Despite the wind being chilly enough as it is, the Halaklands still being on the Banuatonga continent, the sun was still blazing and shining upon the land. An admittedly paradoxical layout of things within the natural world.

  But if it was this cold during midday, one could only imagine how figuratively freezing dusk until dawn would be. Josias had heard of many stories regarding the far western continent from the foreign missionaries and at times he couldn’t believe what they told him. They said during the cold season, many of their cities would be covered in snow. Ice that fell from the heavens due to the harsh and freezing temperatures. If even temperatures like this felt somewhat uncomfortable for him, how more so would it feel like were he to ever travel west and see the continent of Terradome with his own two eyes?

  But putting aside his own dreams of setting off to see the far off lands of the world, Josias had to admit that even within the Halaklands itself, he was far from well travelled. He had barely even seen half his own realm of Goria, let alone the realms of the other kingdoms, some of which even hold hostile feelings towards the Gorian christians. While the lands of Goria had many beautiful places in their own rights, it lacked clearly distinctive natural features as compared to the northern Halaklands which was bordered by the Ulutano mountain range which separated the Halaklands from the true Northern reaches of Banuatonga.

  While Goria was still a cold place as far as the sunny continent goes and had its fair share of highlands surrounding the riverland areas, Hutangali was on its own level. The old Halak weren’t kidding when they named the place (Due to ‘Hutangali’ literally translating to: ‘Cold Village’ or ‘Cold Town’). As far as they had travelled along the main roads and paths into the lands properly controlled by Hutangali, to the distance they had a view of the absolutely breathtaking mountain range, with the peaks of the mountains being covered in an alluring mist and covering the valleys between them within its gentle shadows.

  It had been almost two weeks that the warriors were travelling. Perhaps if they had gone straight towards Hutangali without stopping or with only minimal amounts of rest, they could have reached the area a few days sooner. However, besides the obvious main goal of this entire expedition which was to eradicate the bandit threat from the realm, there were also more minor yet just as crucial roles this show of force had. One of those roles being a projection of power towards the areas already under the control of Goria to remind the populace that the splendor of the realm was only increasing. The extravagant display of banners, western armour, as well as religious symbols of the Halak church would also remind any subversive elements within the populace of who’s really in the position of authority.

  In doing so - as well as to resupply at regular intervals - the expeditionary forces made a few stops at the prominent Gorian villages along the journey north which also doubled as an inspection conducted by Josias’ father as heir to the king. Along the way, they forces were heartily received by the various villages as they felt honoured to be visited by such an important host, although with such authority also came responsibilities as in a few of the villages, Lord Parulian was forced to mediate and resolve a few local and internal issues, most often being contentious land disputes between the people of certain villages. Josias’ cousin Timotheus also took the opportunity to inspect the growth of churches within Goria’s greater realms. With the shortage of priests and missionaries, a single clergyman could have been charged with overlooking the spiritual well being of multiple communities within the vicinity of his established area. To these ends, there were talks being conducted between King Parhal and the Lord Ephorus Archbishop Ludwig to neatly divide the realm between clear administrative jurisdictions both civil and religious. However such a system would still take a while to be fully implemented and there were other more pressing issues that required more attention.

  Last Solsday, the expeditionary forces had stopped by a village which formed the furthest extent of Goria’s direct control and celebrated the church liturgy there. It was the village of Lumban Rapmasari and as its name suggests, it was the ancestral seat of the Rapmasari clan and thus Lord Hasudungan Rapmasari took charge in the inspection of his clan’s estate. As expected of Elder Rihar’s influence, the church of Rapmasari was no less prominent than even the main Church of Goria and unlike a few of the other village churches, was fully staffed and was led by Reverend Lambert Rapmasari, one of the native priests who had been ordained alongside Timotheus.

  Now it had been a few days since they had entered Hutangali territory and so to avoid misunderstandings with the locals or any other difficulty of the sort, Lord Sohasurahan and the young son of the king of Hutangali, Prince Panghirimon, had accompanied Parulian at the front of the group. Lord Sohasurahan was holding his own banner which acted as the official standard of the Kingdom of Hutangali. A black tusked boar head alongside a golden axe and a golden saber upon a field of red. When they had reached a village under the authority of the Singalion clan, Lord Sohasurahan made sure to send out a single horse rider to bring the message that the expeditionary forces were arriving.

  The expedition had followed along the Aek Nangali river whose waters flowed from Goria all the way to the coasts of the Hutangali realm. Finally after following the river for a day or so since crossing into Hutangali territory, they came across a fork on the river. Lord Sohasurahan had explained that the branch coming from the north was where Hutangali was and that they were close. The expeditionary forces had reached a fishing village that had established itself upon the river and the locals had helped the expeditionary forces with the river crossing to follow along on the opposite towards their destination.

  After following the river for another day, the foot of the Ulutano mountain ranges could clearly be seen and with that, their destination lay atop one of the mountains there. Josias would be lying if he said the view that Hutangali had presented him was anything short of breathtaking. As they had followed the waters close to its source, Josias saw the river had flowed from a magnificent waterfall coming from the mountain range and in the headwaters below the waterfall, many children could be seen playing around while being watched over by some older women who were also washing their clothes, either their mothers or sisters. On the right side of the waterfall were inclining roads that lead further atop the mountain and further above the mountain lay the village of Hutangali proper. Lord Sohasurahan explained that it would be about a few more hours before they reached the main village.

  All along the mountain path to Singalion, the expeditionary forces had passed through several smaller villages and hamlets located along the road, each being fortified with a palisade and watch towers. Suffice to say, the Hutangalians clearly treated their defense and security as the utmost priority. The mountain itself acted as a natural fortress and add to that all the system of villages and watchtowers, there should be nothing that was able to happen on the mountain without the King and his court being informed of it. Luckily enough, with the presence of Lord Sohasurahan and Prince Panghirimon, the villages gave no trouble to their expedition.

  In fact, throughout their journey in scaling the roads and trails of the mountain, each time they passed by the villages, Josias could see that the formidable force was welcomed with looks of reverence and awe by most of the villagers. While of course some of the locals were rightfully terrified initially by the presence of over a hundred tiger beasts, for the most part no mass panic came of it. Tiger beasts were known to the locals, no doubt, but besides Goria, few other realms within Goria maintained a dedicated force of tiger-mounted warriors as they were harsh beasts to tame and the wild tigers being the ferocious monsters that they were, were rightfully feared.

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  Finally after another hour of marching, the expeditionary forces reached what could be considered close to the summit of the mountain. Josias shook his head as he saw the breathtaking view of the vast lands of Hutangali from the part of the summit where he was at as well as the great valleys of green and mist between the other mountains to his other side. If he had the chance, he would love to come here again in the future with Serena to enjoy the natural beauty of the Northern Halaklands. It would be a wonderful thing to have a short vacation and tour of the land after their wedding. Josias merely laughed as he shook his head for getting far too ahead of himself in regards to his plan.

  Focusing back his attention to the matter at hand, The expeditionary forces finally came to a halt in front of the palisade walls and gates of Hutangali proper. Surrounding the gates was the gatehouse of which the banners of the Singalion clan flew proudly along with another flag, one sporting a hollow circle upon a white field and a cross on top of it. It was the flag of the Halak church, a symbol that Hutangali now considers itself a Christian realm.

  Looking inside of the gatehouse from the outside, Josias could see that there were several guards posted there, all equipped with matchlock arquebuses. Similarly, the guards who stood upon the two watchtowers on either side of the gate were also armed with arquebuses though unlike the warriors of Goria, they were all wearing very minimal - if any - armour. Some of the warriors sported spears and wooden shield, but most of them at best were only wearing simple shirts and extra ulos-cloths over the shirts to provide an extra layer of thickness though they were perhaps more to protect against the cold mountain air instead of defending from a fearsome blow of a warrior. Only a handful of the guards could perhaps be wearing simple metal cuirasses but even then, it didn’t really compose the full armor.

  Josias only shrugged as he could somewhat understand the lack of focus on the heavier protective gear from the perspective of tha Hutangalians. After all, with their main seat of power being on such remote, mountainous terrains with many natural advantages when it comes to defense, an invading force would have to be either absolutely confident or just plain stupid to want to assault such a position. With that in mind, Josias could also understand why instead the King of Hutangali would focus his resources in equipping his soldiers with the latest and most advanced firearms technology. Being able to shoot a man from a hundred meters away is already an advantage in and of itself, but add firearms to the mix, and perhaps even a simple peasant trained only for a week could kill a starred aura-warrior.

  Such was the absolute equaling power of the western firearm. Josias couldn’t think of any other weapon with the same amount of practicality of guns despite the fact that as a warrior he lived and would probably die by the sabre. While some would say that the bow would be a masterful weapon that could even outrange the gun by a significant margin depending on the archer, an archer would take a man years to properly learn to use and even more so to actually master it. The only true downside to the gun being that it was expensive to procure and that the smiths of the Halak had not yet reached the level of skill or lacked the adequate resources needed to properly reproduce the weapon.

  With all those technical thoughts aside, Josias who was riding with the first line of warriors behind his father’s lieutenants could see that his father had rode forwards along with Lord Sohasurahan to the front of Hutangali’s gates. Soon enough the lieutenants also rode forwards, stopping themselves behind his father. Soon after, the great warriors took off the masks that they were wearing as they looked upon the warriors of Hutangali. Finally, Lord Sohasurahan spoke as he shouted towards the guards.

  “Santabi ma tu angka panuturi ni Hutangalion! (I ask permission from ye, guards of Hutangali!)” Lord Sohasurahan bellowed out to the guards of his realm “We ask for you to allow our host entry into the great realm of Hutangali!”

  There was no immediate answer to Lord Sohasurahan’s request and Josias could only grow bewildered at this turn of events. Didn’t they already send word to Hutangali that they would be arriving? Well, they should have, considering there hasn’t been a problem so far as to their travel to the realm. Though, soon enough Josias’ concerns would be answered.

  “By what right do you claim entry to the great village?” A guard finally asked back. Josias could see this particular warrior looked better armed and stronger than the rest of the warriors inside the gatehouse. The man looked like he was somewhere in between the mid to late forties. He was wearing a plain cuirass with the black boar head of Hutangali emblazoned upon it while an extravagant Ragi Hotang ulos was worn atop his armor. Upon his head was an equally extravagant and intricately-designed talitali hat and judging from his groomed appearance, he must’ve been someone important within the political structure of Hutangali. In fact, now that Josias had a better look, the man bore a striking resemblance to the Prince Panghirimon.

  “By right of my blood as a son of the Singalion and brother to the king!” Lord Sohasurahan replied in an equally extravagant manner to the man.

  “Whom have you brought here with you, O Unblemished one of the Singalion?” The Hutangali warrior asked once more.

  “I have brought with me guests of the highest importance towards our people!”

  “Then I ask again to your guests, by what right do you request entry into this great settlement?”

  “They come by right of our request for aid!” Lord Sohasurahan continued to speak on the expedition’s behalf but it appeared as though the warrior of the gatehouse still wasn’t satisfied.

  “Have your guests no mouths to speak on their own behalf? I ask once more, by what right do you request entry into this settlement?”

  Finally, as if he was waiting for that moment to speak, Parulian had answered and shouted out with his own voice, bellowing out with an air of authority as he lifted the great processional cross of Goria with the Bonang Manalu beneath it, “I, Tuan Parulian Nasilua Sigumogo, 19th in the line of descent from Tuan Sigumogo, eldest son and heir of the Hulubalang Nabolon, request entry into your settlement!”

  Once more the warrior replied, “By what right do you request entry?”

  And to that, Parulian grinned before he bellowed out once more, “By the right that our God, Christ Jesus, had put upon me as a warrior and as a defender of our faith and for all my brothers and sisters who follow it! I ask entry so that I and all my warriors here may lend our aid to defend you, our brothers!”

  Finally at this request, Josias could see the warrior in the gatehouse grin as well before he nodded and raised his right hand. The warrior said, “I have heard your request and therefore I, Raja Tagam Rahanan Singalion, twentieth in the line of Tuan Singalion, grant you, Noble Warriors of our Great Hulubalang and our brothers in Christ, entry into Hutangali! Horas!!”

  “HORAS!!” All the warriors upon the walls of Hutangali followed their king and gave their greetings towards the Gorian warriors. Naturally, this gesture was returned in kind by the Gorian contingent.

  “Horas!!” Parulian shouted out as all the Gorian warriors also shouted to return the welcome of their host.

  And with that, the gates to Hutangali had opened and at that same moment, wonderfully cheerful gondang music could be heard playing in the background. Taganing drums being beat followed by the entrancing sound of the Sarune. As the gates opened, what looked to be a group of over a dozen beautiful girls - many of them being Malaok - had walked out to greet the warriors while dancing to the beat of the drums in the traditional ‘manortor’ fashion. As this happened, Lord Parulian signalled for the expedition to accept the welcome as they slowly marched inside of the gates of Hutangali.

  They haven’t even done anything of note, yet they were already being treated as if they were heroes. Josias could only smile at the warm welcome the allied realm had given the Gorian warriors as they marched inside of the great Hutangali village. A welcome truly fit for a king. It was a great reminder that though terrible adversity was staring down at them from afar, in the midst of all that, there were still many things that could be enjoyed and to feel thankful for. Josias only hoped that things wouldn’t get too out of hand.

  But, regardless of all those worries, it looks as if a feast was about to be held for the Gorian warriors and Josias couldn’t help but anticipate the hopefully wonderful event he was about to experience.