Chapter 9

Suddenly a signal is given. The whooping and screaming started, with them jumping up and down. The front line dashed forward and then back, trying to get us to waste arrows at them.

Howling Wolf and Running Elk dashed up and down our lines calming the warriors down and telling the archers to hold their fire, until told to do so. Finally the battle began, and it looked like a tidal wave of raiders was ready to wash over us.

The raiders kept whooping and screaming, and then suddenly the front line dashed forward toward us. When they got into range, Howling Wolf shouted, "Fire!"

The first line of archers fired. You could hear the hum of the arrows as they flew over our heads. The first line stepped back, and the second line of archers stepped forward and fired, just as the arrows from the first line struck the advancing line of raiders.

We could hear the raiders scream as the arrows struck them. Unbelievable they never slowed down. They raced right over their wounded and dead fighters. Wave after wave of arrows rained down on them, without seeming to slow them down.

Suddenly they stopped and raised their bows and fired back at us.

"Shields!" Howling Wolf shouted as soon as he saw them get their bows out. Some of our warriors took damage, and a few got killed.

The brief pause in the action gave the raiders a chance to dash forward.

"Bombers fire!" Running Elk roared, as the raiders approached the buried bombs.

There is a small group of archers, who's only job is to fired red-hot arrow tips at the buried bombs. They fired at Running Elk's command. The ensuing explosion was amazing, with raiders getting blown up all over the place. Unfortunately it only slowed them down a bit and they kept right up charging toward us. Our main group of archer's kept raining arrows on the raiders. The second group of bombs exploded killing more raiders. Still, they kept coming.

The raiders were close to reaching the outer barricades. I hope the barricades worked as designed, and funneled the raiders more toward the center of our camp. Our archer's were deadly accurate with their aim and most of the bombs worked out the way we had hoped. But it's hard to tell just how many of the raiders that we have killed. The hordes of raiders kept trampling over top of their dead and wounded.

Their archers were beginning to inflict some damage to both our warriors and to our archers. Our losses were slowly starting to mount up. Howling Wolf started to bring up reserves to replace the fallen.

My plan of dividing up the duties among the chieftains, has worked out well so far. Those in charge of the wounded and the dead were doing a good job of getting bodies out of there and to the right place. The wounded were taken to our medical area and the dead were moved to the far back.

The women were doing a good job replacing arrows and bows if needed. So far our warriors were just using their shields for protection from the arrows, as the raiders have not yet penetrated into our camp.

As I moved back to the command tent, I am thinking about the cavalry. I had given Chief Wild Horse instruction not to attack, until he heard our bombs go off. With this huge mob in front of us, it was hard to tell if any other action was going on.

I am Chief Wild Horse and I have taken the cavalry through the mountains, hoping to be able to get to the backside of the raiders. After a hard long ride, we finally found a trail to lets go back down into the valley. We could hear the noise of the battle and then the explosions of the bombs as they went off. Most of my cavalry warriors can hit the center of a target, at twenty paces on a full gallop.

As we entered the valley, we could see the raiders in front of us. I set my riders up into two groups. The first group was the grenade throwers. As they approached the raiders, they would light the wick of the grenade with a coal ember carried in a special clay-lined small pot. They would throw their grenade as far as they could into the raiders. The second group would follow firing arrows at the raiders, protecting the first group. The first group would then double back, and throw their second batch of grenades, again with protection from the second group. Then both groups would fire at will, before retreating back toward me.

The exploding gourds worked like I'd hope they would. The raiders had no idea what had happen to them. There was mass confusion in the back ranks of the raiders. After a short period of time they figured out what was happening to them. A large group broke off the pack and charged toward us. We retreated back up into the mountains.

After a series of hit and run tactics, we made camp in a clearing, in the mountains. We needed to let the horses rest. We were just about out of arrows, and grenades. I had set out a couple of sentries to guard the camp, really not giving much thought that the raiders would chase us up here in the mountains.

Shortly after we settled down, there was a scream and the next thing I knew, we were being attacked by a group of raiders. They had us pinned up against the mountains. I managed to get one rider away, with an extra horse. I hoped he would make it out and report back to Grey Wolf, telling him what we have done and what is happening to us now.

The battle is intense and they out numbered us. We gave a good account for ourselves and managed to kill the attacking raiders, but the damage is done and there were only a couple of us left. So I took those left and we headed toward the north.

A runner raced up to me, "Chief Grey Wolf, the army commander Howling Wolf needs you up at the front," he said all out of breath.

"Lead the way," I said back to him as he took off and I followed him.

When I arrived at the front, I noticed the raiders had pulled back out of range and they were just milling around. One member of their command group, as I came to call them was missing. I wonder if Chief Wild Horse was causing them some problems.

I walked over to Howling Wolf, "Well what do you think?" I asked him.

"I don't know, they just stopped and retreated for some unknown reason. Sure beats the hell out of me," he replied. "Anyway it gave us time to get the dead and wounded out of here. I got fresh troops to take their place. Everyone has been fed and watered. We got the warriors supplied with grenades and the archers supplied with more arrows. I guess we are ready for the next charge," he said to me.

I just nodded back to him and continued to stare out toward the battlefield, kind-of hoping they would turn tail and run.

The morning dawn is just starting to break over the horizon. As the daylight increased, I looked out onto the battlefield and I could see the many dead and wounded raiders out there. I had not yet been able to break free to check on our wound and dead. One of the women stopped by and gave me some food and water.

I had just finished my brief meal, when I notice the third member of the command group returned. The raiders started to whoop and holler and started to charge toward us. The next attack has begun.

Again when they got into range of our archers, Howling Wolf gave the command to fire at will. They never slowed down. Finally they reached the barricades. We could hear them scream as they fell into the staked lined pits. When they got close enough the warriors lit their exploding gourds and threw them at the raiders. We killed many, but the wave of raiders still pressed on forward.

Some of the raiders broke through the barricades and engaged our warriors in hand to hand combat. We held a big advantage with our superior weapons and shields. Our warriors are better trained, but they held the numbers. More were making their way through the barricades.

"Fall back to our secondary position," Howling Wolf barked to his warriors.

Quickly we fell back to our secondary position, and here we will make our last stand. We had lots of bombs buried between us and the front lines. As the raiders approached those areas, our archers fired their arrows to ignite the bombs. Again as effective as the bombs are, it hardly slowed them down.

The raiders slammed into our second position with a vengeance. The fighting is fierce, as their overwhelming numbers begin to take a toll on our warriors. Our archers dropped their bows and took up arms to help the warriors battle the raiders.

As I looked out over the battlefield, I could see hundreds upon hundreds of dead and injured raiders, yet they still poured through our barricades and into our camp. The battle is starting to go poorly for us. The overwhelming number of raiders is wearing down our warriors. Our losses were starting to mount up and our reserves were getting thin. Both Howling Wolf and Running Elk were doing their best to rally the troops.

I sent a runner to Red Hawk. "Tell him to take what is left of the tribe and any others who would like to go and abandon camp," I instructed the runner.

"Red Hawk, Red Hawk," shouted the runner as he rushed into our tribes' camp.

"Over here," Red Hawk shouted back at him.

"Your father sent me to tell you to take all who wants to go and abandon camp, as the battle is going badly for our warriors," the runner said.