The horticultures spread out between the many pit houses that formed the village. Squash and more importantly maize could be seen thriving in the small and well-tended plots. Nearby sat women by massive stones in pairs of two grinding flour from the maize, carefully and slowly sifting it and collecting it into small clay pots stored inside protective baskets. On a hill far away from the village they could see a couple tents raised for a foraging site where they knew berries and wild plants grew, most plants from there were for medicinal use. Further away from the village however they knew of locations where they could collect berries in tandem with the hunters who searched for fine game. The fisheries were even further away from the village by a river they could not be seen, knew it was known as a place of communion between them and the neighbouring village thanks to the abundance of fish.

The village elders had taken notice of the abundance of children running around and how they now lacked the energy to care for them and teach them the right ways and rituals. They saw that the tribe was growing, and perhaps also the entirety of the Pueblo people.

The near abandonment of a nomadic lifestyle had resulted in a slowly growing population. It had been causing many disputes of hunting grounds within the complex, and some tribes on the fringe had grown weary of protecting their lands.

In the far north small bands of Pueblo warriors began to raid settlements that were not of from their direct kin. They were not only to defeat the tribes but drive them from their territory. If this objective could not be achieved, they expected no mercy in the retaliation and with no power left to defend their current homesteads they would also be pushed further into the periphery. These tribes in the northern fringes of the Pueblo complex knew it meant certain death for their village if they failed.

The 15 warriors all wore distinct paint on their face. Their forehead covered by a black horizon down to the whites of their eyes, peering through the darkness. Their chin was coloured yellow with five brown feathers rising from its base across the face. With this paint they would inhibit the vile spirits of the world and mentally condition themselves into to become the fury of nature itself. But it also had yet another function. A protective seal imbued with the prayers and incantations sung by the village elder, and again symbolically imprinted on the warrior by the big man (“Chieftain”) who carefully applied the paint. The wearer was thus protected from the possibility of corruption should they fall in battle, sparing his village and the Pueblo people from needlessly fighting a living corpse. Their souls could then rest easy in the afterlife and themselves light a new fire in the night sky near our ancestors.

It was dishonourably to ambush a settlement or encampment, so the Pueblo band of warriors made themselves known as they threw a spear into the village centre thus declaring war. Whilst most of their raiding party made way towards the village two stayed behind shooting arrows towards the scrambling men and women, many too unprepared to properly fight back.

The first Pueblo warrior who made his was into the camp was struck down by a man wielding an adze axe rushing out from his tent, a wild gaze turned towards the panted man. The man leapt forward screaming with equal intensity to the Pueblao warriors who were somewhat caught by surprise and three had to engage the wild man. He could not win, that was certain, but how many would he take with him? How long could he delay so many of the Pueblo warriors? A spear struck the man on his side and he flinched falling down on his knees, pulling the assailant close enough to break his axe over his head, the Pueblo warrior slumping down beside him. The other two took their opportunity and rain forth with their own weapons striking him down. The man dropped down sideways, defeated, gazing over the horizon as his tribe fled, seeing a few other men fighting back, perhaps their legacy could go on some place where the Pueblo had yet to set foot.

Along the northern rivers new Pueblo pit house villages were established by those being pushed away from their own lands. Horticulture had spread further north and the complex had grown larger and its system of established hunting and foraging settlements established themselves around these villages. There was a hope by those who moved that no such event would take place again. But as their villages grew and agriculture expanded, who knew how far it would take them? What was certain at least was that a new ritual centre had to be found to celebrate the summer solstice when Chaco was beyond any distance tribes could feasibly travel.

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