"Get to the point, honey," Jean said, embarrassed at this man talk.
"The Turtles are having more trouble than we are. They have a stronger natural fortress at the center of their farm lands, but they've had so many raids that their arsenal is depleted and half their warriors dead or wounded. They're getting desperate."
"That's too bad," Vivian muttered. "They make good neighbors."
Jean said, "The matriarch told me to let you know there'd be a meeting this afternoon in the assembly hall. Clan meeting, all present."
"What about?" Vivian said, her attention going back to the beauty of her captured weapon again.
"About the prisoners. We've got to decide what to do with them."
"Do with them? We'll push them over the side of the canyon. Nobody thought we'd waste bullets on them did they?"
Alan said, mildly, "The question has come up whether we ought to destroy them at all."
Vivian looked at him in gentle annoyance. "Sweetie," she said, "don't bother your handsome head with these things. You've had enough excitement to last a nice looking fellow like you a lifetime."
Jean said, echoing her chief's disgust, "Anyway, that's what the meeting is about. Alan, here, has been talking to the matriarch and she's agreed to bring it up for discussion."