>>145282"No, that's... that's not what it means to respect something. To respect is not to honor. To respect is to acknowledge something's power and place, and to not act the fool around it. You must respect fire, or else you will surely be burned. You must respect the forest, or else you will get lost and die. You should revere fire and the forest, for both have their place here on this earth, and both give life to what is around them in their own way, even if the two conflict sometimes and have different ends. But you absolutely must respect them, as you will be punished if you do not. When the Changelings came, and intruded into our territory, they did not respect us, and... Maakade? Would you care to explain?"
In a moment, Makade explains,
"They came in their standard formation, approaching from the south. Somewhat spread out, with scouts ahead, and a deeper line that allowed for reinforcement in the event of an ambush. They had forest colored uniforms, though that is of only so much use when moving forward, and of course their magical disguises are less useful in an empty forest. They made three incursions in total, towards our camp and I believe somewhere further east and north. They did not respect us. They believed that we had nothing more than knives and bows and arrows. What they did not appreciate is just how silent a bow can be, or a knife can be, when dropping out of a tree, or a bush. They assumed that the small slices caused by said arrows were minor wounds to be bandaged. I don't think they knew anything of the paralyzing venom of the wasp, or how it could be applied to blades and arrows, or the wooden stakes left in pits and covered with leaves.
As for firearms, I don't believe they thought we'd have any at all. I'm not sure that a single one of the conscripts we were up against had handled a firearm outside of the military, and I'm frankly not sure they even fired them much in combat. Certainly none of them had scopes on their rifles, or had trained much for marksmanship. They were not hunters, who in teams, tracked, hid from, cornered, and killed animals in those forest since they were young. We were hunters.
They assumed that as soon as they found cover, got their bearings, and shot back at us that we'd run away. And you know what? They were right. You see, I
do respect the Changelings, for even though I did not fight in frontline combat for very long I did learn much. I know they have machine guns, mortars, artillery, and planes. That they have ways of dealing with such inferior forces. And I, leader of the hunting party, had no intention of staying around long enough for them to bring those advantages into play. What the Changelings did not expect, I assume, is that we'd attack again. And again. And again. Not head on, mind you, but a well placed shot from a distance, or an arrow in the back of a straggler. They could walk the exact same path returning home that they used before, and find traps of wooden stakes.
We evacuated and moved our village. We can afford to do so with our mobile construction. It was only on the second day that they used their greatest advantage. A sentry, seeing a bear roaming around, and seeing it behaving oddly, thought it had distemper or hydrophobia, and shot it. And it turned out to be one of the doubles in disguise. If only that that scout had lived around bears, and knew how they behave near settlements, he would have found our camp and we'd be none the wiser. They could have placed planes on us."
Makade pauses, and Waabishki starts again,
"To disguise one's appearance… That's one of the powers Nanabush had. I assure it, the trickster is very much to be respected. As for the spirits... well, have you seen lightning? Or a tree struck by lightning? If you have, you have an idea of what the Thunderbird may summon at will."