Chapter 8: the Real War

 "They come.", the young scout reported breathlessly, but calmly.  "A hundred or more, as Goes Alone said." he nodded to the Chief scout.

"Two of three, or a little less, carry the rods, and surround the younger ones.  They didn't send scouts ahead...well I don't think so."  Goes Alone nodded approvingly. Never assume.

"They look tired.  They look down, and plod along.  Not alert.  No flanking scouts either...I don't think."

Goes Alone nodded again.  He had sent three scouts toward the Sea People's Village, and was confident that his own scouts would have detected (and killed) any Enemy scouts north or south of the river. 

The Enemy was arrogant and undisciplined. With a glance, Goes Alone told Spinner that this was probably the real situation.

Spinner smiled and nodded back, then stood up to assure the rest of the warriors that all was as it should be, and their orders held.

Along the south bank of the shallow river (the flat, level side) came the Enemy.

The leaders moved around to predesignated places.

The trap was set...the Wolf People and Sea People prepared to kill the Enemy.

In silence, first came the vanguard, trudging along tiredly, some dragging the butts of their spears.

They walked in a semi-circle; eleven warriors. Spinner glanced at Goes Alone, who was on the opposite side of the line of warriors lying behind a low rise, directly in the Enemy’s path.

A well-practiced hand signal said “the one who leads is the target” (in this case, the War Chief). More hand signals from Spinner said “You target him.”, and he pointed to two other Warriors, silently telling them the same thing.

The rest knew to count from the nearest end of their own line in, and target the Enemy across from them, so that fewer spears were wasted on double-hits.

Blood sang in the Chief’s ears, and he gripped his weapon firmly to hide his trembling fingers. His people could not be allowed to see his fear.

The attack was up to Spinner now. There was some grass and shrubbery in front of his warriors, but soon an enemy with sharp eyes would see the eyes looking back at them from behind this sparse camouflage (despite the fact that most of his warriors were keeping out of sight completely, while only the leaders watched).

A little closer, and the range would be ideal, and the downslope trajectory should prevent misses from hitting the slaves...now!

Spinner stood, deliberately, and his other twelve warriors followed his example.

The startled Enemy froze in place, staring at the Wolf Warriors as the nocked their light spears to their throwers, and then launched them.

Spinner’s warriors were well outside spear range, as far as the Enemy knew, so they were shocked when they saw spears flying at them.

The War Chief, to his credit, reacted instantly, diving to one side, but, as was common practice with hunters, two of the warriors had aimed slightly to his left and right respectively, while Spinner and Goes Alone had aimed dead center from opposite sides. One warrior had hesitated, and now threw at where the target had gone.

One spear cut him along the back of one leg, but another plunged deep into his side, just above the hip.

Five or six more enemies were hit; things were happening too fast for Spinner to get more than a general view of the situation.

The Enemy War Chief was tough, and already shouting orders through the pain of his wounds.

“Finish the Chief!”, Spinner shouted, and spears rained down on the War Chief.

But several of the Enemy warriors had clustered around that one as...human shields.

Spinner snarled in frustration and rage as at least four more Enemies were impaled protecting that one man.

He strode foreward, down the slope, glimpsing Goes Alone out of the corner of his eye doing the same, and threw his third spear as a Warrior fell out of the way.

Die, you coward! His spear sunk into the War Chief’s belly, and (he suspected) Goes Alone caught him high in the chest.

Spinner came back to himself now, as his vision expanded to see the other Slavers moving forward from the rear and flanks to deal with the threat in front of them.

The Enemy was in the open, with no where to hide. They had to attack the smaller force in front of them with overwhelming numbers, or be slaughtered from a distance by these horrible weapons.

They wove from side to side as they came forward, and herded their slaves ahead of them, as Sees More had predicted.

Spinner actually smiled as he watched the younger slaves pushed toward him, forming into the first attack wave. When it looked right, he signalled the group led by Log Pusher, hidden in the woods and uphill—to the side of, and almost behind the Enemy formation.

There were over thirty warriors in this group, and they reigned death on the slavers who had been driving their slaves forward to die first in their attack wave on Spinner’s position.

“Turn on your masters and you will be spared!”, some warriors shouted.

“We are here to free you!”, yelled others, in three languages.

Chaos ensued, as some of the slaves turned to fight their masters, while other slaves opposed them, and some simply fled toward Log Pusher or Spinner.

Spinner’s party had already picked up their shields and preferred hand weapons, and now they charged forward. Log Pusher's group would kill or wound as many as they could from a distance, then also attack with shields and hand weapons.

Sees More's group of fifteen warriors was across the river, opposite Log Pusher's group, and was now entering the river to prevent the escape of slavers and facilitate that of slaves.

Spinner almost sneered at the Enemy.  They hadn't even figured out shields! 

Then he was fighting for his life.

Spinner couldn't get a clear idea of the battlefield before he was in personal combat. The Enemy was fighting it's own slaves as well as the Sea and Wolf warriors, and nothing was clear, except the determined look in the eyes of one of them, who faced him with a spear. Clearly, an enemy.

The Wolf chief turned the spear aside off his shield, and rammed into the warrior with all his momentum, knocking him down.

Spinner stumbled himself, looking wildly around for enemies trying to kill him before he refocused on the enemy he had knocked down.

This one had scrambled to his feet with a knife, and was already attacking, but Spinner had room enough to club him down; seeing the stone head of his weapon deform the enemy's skull with a sickening sound.

Around him was madness, beyond his worst imaginings, but he was a warrior like the rest now, and he looked for attackers, and people to kill...

A part of Spinner loved this, and he let that part run free now.

He knew that his side was winning, with few casualties, when he saw the young scout, Sees Far, pinned face down by an enemy who was raising a club to brain him.

Too far! Spinner tried to pull his hand out of the strap that held it to his club so that he could throw it, but knew there was no time...

Then Goes Alone literally flew over Sees Far's assailant, and split his skull with his stone axe.

Just as Spinner felt pride, joy, and relief, Goes Alone rolled to his feet, and was struck in the back of his neck by an enemy's axe, and fell bonelessly to the sand.

By now, Spinner was close. He tried to slow down, but all he could do was hit the enemy axe-man in his lower leg as he flew by him.

By the time he could turn around (now dangerously oblivious to everything but the fallen Goes Alone and his assailant), three of his warriors were stabbing and bludgeoning this enemy's corpse.

One of them was his brother, Sees More--tears flowing freely from his eyes, and cries of dire pain escaping his lips.  It was a sound a wolf might make. It hurt to hear.

Goes Alone was rolled onto his back, and looked around at the faces above him. He couldn't move, at all. He knew what had happened to him, but not whether or not it was permanent.

He focused on his older brother Sees More's watery, anguished eyes, and found the answer there.

"I'm pithed.", he stated. "You need to finish me."

"You saved my life.", Sees Far blubbered. "You taught me so much..."

"You were worth saving.", Goes Alone responded, calmly. He rolled his eyes back to his brother's:

"Medicine Woman and you belong together. I want you to go to her, and be a father to my daughter.  Raise her as your own...I wonder how I can breathe, you know?

"I love you, brother.  I love all of you." Goes Alone rolled his eyes all around.

"The Enemy is defeated. I'm proud to have helped. The allies are safe. Now you must finish me, before the bugs and scavengers do. My nose itches, as it is."

Sees More squeezed his eyes closed, reaching for his knife.

Spinner's hand stopped him.

"You won't carry this burden. This is mine to do."

Spinner took out his own knife, and leaned over Goes Alone.

"Would you say more?", Sees More asked.

"Just go to my wife, and see if you can replace me in her and my daughter's life. This was a great thing we did today. Spinner--you will never be forgotten. I love you all.  Now end it."

Spinner's expert stab was quick.

"I didn't even feel that!" Goes Alone chuckled. "Well, I guess I would--". And so, Goes Alone died.