The Future of the Tribe
Aram Heart, pride of the Twisted Hairs, grandson of the elder. His promise was astounding. It was no secret that Heart's grandfather was grooming him to someday lead the tribe. He was too young to join raiding parties, but he hunted, and quickly became the best hunter of the tribe when he was as young as eight years old. His kills were quick, clean. He never expended any energy that wasn't needed. Efficient to the point of cold.
Heart was never a smart boy, never nearly as smart as his sister, but he had his own intelligence. He never grew angry, he never judged. He perceived and he acted. He did everything with level-headed skill and grace. He didn't hesitate, he didn't reflect, he didn't regret. He traveled ever forward, never dwelling in the past or deliberating the present.
The Twisted Hairs didn't have good relations with their neighboring tribes. They waged war, they extorted, they threatened every other community. They grew strong at the expense of their neighbors, so when their neighbors fell to Caesar's Legion they were able to fight off Caesar's incursions into their land. They never engaged in any out-and-out battle, there was never any open warfare, but there were plenty of skirmishes which kept the Legion tide at bay.
The first envoy of peace that Caesar sent was threatened, beaten, and sent back to Caesar disgraced. The second envoy Caesar sent was accompanied by dozens of guards and hundreds of slaves, bearing gifts of coins, armor, and weaponry. Not just to entice the Twisted Hairs with the riches of the Legion but to make it very clear that any true march of the Legion might be repelled but at great cost to the Twisted Hairs.
His second envoy worked. The elders of the Twisted Hairs convened and decided to ally themselves with the Legion. They would work as scouts and representatives, be given weapons and armor, be treated as brothers to the Legion. There was only one condition, which gave the leader of the elders pause. If the Twisted Hairs were to join the Legion, they would have to give Caesar the grandson of the head elder. He was to become a legionary, as symbolic act of the Twisted Hair's and Legion's new alliance.
And so the young man once known as Aram Heart, brother of Arama and grandson of Harpy, came to be known as Mortuus Anima. The first thing the Legion did was give him that name, the second thing the Legion did was shave off his hair, his dreadlocks. He was ten years old, and would spend the rest of his life in the Legion, trained to be a conqueror, given control of his own contubernia and becoming the pride of his commanders. From Aram Heart to the Dead Soul.
After Aram Heart was taken away by the envoys of Caesar to begin his legionary training, one elder turned to another and said, "I believe we have just traded away the future of our tribe." Julia would later reflect on what an apt statement that had been.