Before the coming of the Way of Order, the People continued on the Wide Land as they had before the Sea of Grass had risen. Instead of following the Margon, though, they rode the horse and they took the horse to war. They strove continually against each other and for the supremacy of the Tribes which they made. For the Tribes took it in turns to lord over one another. They waxed and they waned with the might of their Warlords, but no Tribe's glory lasted longer than the life of their Warlords. One after another, mighty men of old rose up from the Sea of Grass and eventually diminished upon it. So many have risen and fallen, that no history knows their names.
It was into this Way of the Horse that Jen Shu was born in the year of the Ch' i lin. His father was said to be a Huang Spirit of Ti'en. This Spirit is presumed to have carried off Hana, the mother of Jen Shu, from the Gergs of her people and to the peaks of the Pillars of Heaven. For she was missing for the space of ten years. Now the father of Hana was a minor Warlord who lived the Way of the Horse. They traveled with the herds, near and on the rivers that flow past the Pillars and many other tribes avoided them for the sake of the Buso and the savage Kala and the cruel Oni that lived there.
In the Year of the Dragon, Hana returned to the Ordaru of her people, with a child in hand. She stopped by the Lake of the Clouds which is on the plain above the Wide Land and there surveyed all that she could see of Eastrun. This, she promised to Jen Shu, would be an inheritance to him. As far as his eye could see, and as far as his feet could carry him, would belong to him. Then, descending to the Gergs of her father's people she was welcomed home with her child, and died. So the Uncle of Jen Shu buried her near the Lake of the Clouds and put a Stela in that place to mark it and the young Jen Shu climbed it often before he became a man to visit the grave of his mother.
When he came of age, Jen Shu left the Ordaru and joined his Uncles Bataro and there he learned the Way of the Horse. He learned to hunt and to war from horseback. He learned with the horn bow and the lance and the sword. He excelled in it and brought pride to his tribe until his Uncle passed, slain by an Oni. Then his cousin was acclaimed to be Warlord of the tribe and Jen Shu served him as he had the Uncle until his cousin's death. Then his nephew was acclaimed to be Warlord of the tribe and Jen Shu served him as well, though there were none so able as Jen Shu in the Way of the Horse.
In all, Jen Shu served other men for the space of twenty-five years and the acclaim of his tribe was eventually that he should be Warlord of the tribe. It was fitting for he was the most accomplished and the survivor of many battles. He had outlived even younger men and it appeared to many that he was but a week past his youth in his visage.
Jen Shu brought the Ordaru and Bataro of the tribe to the Lake of the Clouds and there he had them survey all that his mother had shown him, from the foot of the Pillars to the distant bamboo forests of Chiro. "This will be my inheritance," he said. "I mean to take all that we see according to the Way of the Horse. This and all that is beyond, even to the Shores of the Great Eastern Sea. I will slay all who resist me, but those who assist me will find wealth and many rewards."
Then the night came and all the tribe slept in their Gergs on the shores of the lake and by morning, many had slipped away, thinking Jen Shu mad. To those who remained, however, Jen Shu offered membership in the Golden Tribe. The Bataro he abluted in the waters of the Lake of the Clouds, but the Ordaru he had swear and oath with one hand raised to Heaven and other upon the Stela of his mother. So from that day forth, all who entered the Golden Tribe did the same and were counted worthy of sharing his spoils and his fame.
Now a census was taken in that Year of the Monkey and when the Golden Tribe descended from Pillars they numbered only 22 warriors and 20 horses in the Bataro and 9 women and children in the Ordaru. As yet they had no heads which would become the banner of his tribe.
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