For an army, both animal and human, I needed resources. Luckily, my base of operations had slowly been expanding over my stay there. So far, my resting place consisted of a decent sized room with a bed against one wall, a small kitchen, and a storage area for domestic accessories such as cloth clothes and desert protection, my canteen, and trophies from a few of my more dangerous opponents. I also had a separate workshop building, complete with three refining forges, a smithy, several mortal and pestles, and three large storage cabinets. I'd also left room for a few more advanced structures if I needed them. Beside the workshop, I had an armory constructed, complete with racks of dull swords, bolas, spears, and quivers of wooden arrows. I had a shoddy farm built near the natural well in my compound, and I had a few crop plots sitting unused. Without fertilizer, they didn't have the nutrients they needed to grow real food. The final building I had constructed was my planning room. It was long and kind of narrow, with a long wooden table right in the center. The table was littered with diagrams and notes I'd taken on my memories of the Green Village. On one wall hung a large version of the map in my notebook. It was painstakingly detailed with every note and dot on my notebook.

In order to furnish my compound with soldiers, I'd need transportation. In order to get transportation, I'd need tranquilizers. Luckily, I already had a decent supply of tranquilizer arrows in the armory. After all, the only man I truly wanted to kill was the chieftain of the Green village. I grabbed a quiver of tranq arrows and my bow and set off in search of my first tame. I needed something herbivorous but large, so that it would remain unmolested by carnivores, but also be a great way to get berries.

After about an hour of searching, I found the perfect beast: a morellatops. This hulking herbivore had size and power on its size. The perfect caravan creature, my heart was immediately set on having one. I chose an arrow from my quiver an nocked it on my bowstring. From what I knew about morellatops, they were shy creatures and would run from danger. Because of this, I lined up my position so that the morellatops would run into an area crowded with huge rocks. I pulled back the string, lined up my shot, and let fly. The arrow hit the morellatops right in the head, sending its tranquilizing juice through the beast's blood. It bellowed and ran in the opposite direction, with me in hot pursuit. Because I shot while sprinting, a few of my arrows went wild, but I managed to land a few more shots while the morellatops ran into my trap. When it realized that it was trapped, it turned and ran in a different direction, back towards me. I used this time to stay still and land several more arrows on the creature's sides. I took off after it when it started to get too far away. Somehow, my legs didn't feel as tired as they should with all the running. I sank two more arrows into my prey before it finally collapsed into a heap. I caught up to it and fed some berries into its mouth.

A few hours and hundreds of berries later, my new friend awoke. I could immediately see the difference in the way it looked at me. I rested a hand on it, and something startling happened: my hand glowed a soft red, and the light seemed to enter the morellatops. For a moment, the creature seemed to glow with that same red light. I blinked, and the moment passed. But I could feel something now, a connection between me and the morellatops. I started to walk away, and the morellatops stood there. I stopped, confused as to why it wasn't following me.

"Come on," I ordered, my voice hoarse after days of no use. At that moment I recognized another dilemma I faced: how was I supposed to ask for help and recruit soldiers if I couldn't speak. Anyways, back to the problem at hand. Surprisingly, at my command the morellatops lumbered towards me. I turned and walked back towards the compound, the morellatops in tow.

Arriving at the compound, I set to work on crafting a saddle for the morellatops. Once complete, I strapped it to the beast and hauled myself up onto the creature. I gripped the reins and steered my mount off into the desert in search of other conquests.