Tribes at War
I wrote this story for the Further Confusion 2011 convention book. To my genuine surprise, it was published.
Several thousand years ago the desert lands of Australia were occuied by two tribes: the kangaroos and the dingoes. The kangaroos inhabited the southern desert and fabored the wild plants and small oasis pools, while the dingoes were bloodthursty and imperial. They stood on the high cliffs and mountains overlooking their prey. They were not fond of the kangaroos using the vast resources near the mountains, where much of the desert fruit was growing. When the tribes couldn't agree on which land was theirs, they started a war.
The dingoes were already prepared. They had stockpiled weapons for hunting, which they would now use for war. The kangaroos were not as prepared. They never hunted wildlife, so they had no tools that could be used in the war. They assembled clubs and spears before rushing into battle. The dingoes were strong and did not lose much of their forces. Their hides were strong enough to withstand the blades of their enemies. The kangaroos made a hasty retreat.
As they began breeding new tribe members to replace the ones that were slaughtered, one of the survivors had an idea. He gathered anything he could find in the area: bones, scales, twine, and rocks. He brought them all to a tent in his village and began to think of how these materials could help his tribe.
First he remembered that the kangaroos did not have any protection against the javelins that the dingoes used against them. He assembled the bones, scales, and twine to make an outer shell that could be worn ober the torse to stop the javelins. The rocks were tied together into a group of three that could be thrown to immobilize the dingoes.
The next day, he got an idea for something more powerful than a javelin. He carved a bent shape from a nearby wood pile, attached a flexible string to it, and tried to launch a twig from it. It flew through the air exactly as he had imagined it. He sharpened a rock and tied it to the same twig. He fired it at a nearby tree and was amazed by how far it penetrated.
As the children began to grow into warriors, the inventor showed all of them his new equipment and instructed them in their use. Now it was time to face the dingoes in combat once more. They ran to the mountains in large groups, alerting the dingoes and beginning the fight. The dingoes threw their javelins one after another, but the body armor prevented them from going through. The kangaroos fired their weapons, tripping the dingoes with their flying rocks and slaughtering them with their sharp sticks.
What remained of them came out in surrender. They could not risk losing their entire species and agreed to allow the kangaroos into their lands. They rested in the oasis pools and fed on desert fruit as the dingoes began to rebuild their tribe. The two tribes have since lived in harmony.