Chapter 6

The children who had been presented with crossbows appointed themselves the guardians of the trek to the Mammoth Hunt. There were 6 boys who fit within the category, and they were very conscientious about fulfilling their self-imposed task. Of course, men were out screening the column of people as they marched, but the boys were very serious about their "job." The boys were out farther from the column than the men who were the official guards, so they were the first to discover the stalkers.

The boys were using every bit of the hunting skills that they had been taught, so the stalkers, who were so sure of themselves that they were not paying close attention, never did see that they had been discovered. The boys sent one of their number back to report to Little Bear, who was in charge of the guard, about what they had found. Fortunately, Little Bear took their report seriously and returned with the boy to investigate for himself.

There was no question that this was a war party that was stalking Doug's people. Little Bear did not recognize any of the men in the war party, so he had no idea why the group would want to attack his people, but he had no doubt that that's what they had in mind. Little Bear hurried back to the column and talked to Chief Raven. They decided that, since Doug was the source of their two most effective weapons, he should be in on the discussions about their use.

Doug was summoned and asked his opinion how best to counter the threat. Doug asked whether Chief Raven wanted to launch a preemptive attack on the war party or wait to be attacked. Chief Raven trusted Little Bear's assessment sufficiently to choose the preemptive attack. Doug suggested that an ambush with the crossbows would be the most effective, and Chief Raven gave the go-ahead.

Little Bear assembled all of the men to be in the ambushing group, but told the women to keep their crossbows ready in case something went wrong, and they had to defend themselves. The women were somewhat taken aback by this order, but recovered and bristled with pride as they prepared to defend themselves and the children if it became necessary. The boys who had discovered the stalkers were very unhappy when they were told to stay with the women, but they were reassured when they were told that their presence was necessary to make sure that the women and children were protected. The boys were the first line of defense, and the women were their backup.

The ambush was set up in a stand of high brush that would do a good job of concealing the men while they waited for the war party to arrive. They had the crossbows and plenty of darts, and their opponents only had stabbing spears and 2 or 3 atlatls. This should be a slaughter. They did not want to kill every one of the stalkers, they just wanted to drive them off, so the ambush was set up to allow the enemy to escape if they had the good sense to run away.

After only a few minutes of waiting, the first of the enemy showed up. Doug had said that the best results would come if all of the men fired their first darts at the same time, so Little Bear would shout to tell his men when to shoot. Doug had done this sort of thing when he had been in the Rangers and was dropped back in the bush somewhere to help peasants fight government troops, so he was used to telling the locals what to do and then hoping that they did it the way he had said.

Little Bear was more interested in keeping his people alive than he was in gaining some sort of personal glory, so he did just as Doug had recommended. The enemy had all come into sight and were within range when Little Bear shouted for his men to fire. The first volley was very effective in wounding many of the enemy. Some were killed outright, but most were badly wounded and would die later of sepsis. About 20% of the enemy had escaped being wounded in the first volley, and Little Bear held off a second volley until he was sure that the enemy wanted to continue the uneven battle. Fortunately for them, those that could took to their heels and left the scene of the carnage as fast as they could run. For some, this was not very fast, considering the nature of their wounds, but even they left as fast as they could manage.

Little Bear's men waited until they were sure that the battle was over and then went out to recover those darts that they could. A few of the enemy were still alive, so, in keeping with the mores of the day, their throats were cut to alleviate their suffering. It looked like about one-third of the enemy war party had been killed. Probably, most of those who were wounded, but had escaped, would die within the next two weeks. Everybody hoped that this was enough to keep them from threatening Doug's people, again.

When they got close, some of the ambushers recognized a few of the enemy as belonging to the village that was involved in the land dispute with them. What was going on? They had never fought a war with any of their neighbors, before. Did they now have to be concerned about being attacked at any time? Shit, what was the world coming to?

Chief Raven was very disturbed by the implications of this battle, but he didn't know what to do about it. Such an event was completely out of his experience and that of every other regular member of his village. He called on Doug to find out what experience he'd had with such a situation. Doug said, "In my former life, I had to train people to fight wars for the first time. I never really enjoyed doing it, but I was told that I did a good job at it, so, if you want, I will undertake to do the same for our people."

Chief Raven said, "I am sorry that we have come to this, but I am afraid of what could happen to us if we remain unprepared. Please do what you can to train our people to protect themselves."

"Very well. When we return home, you will need to call a meeting of the entire village and tell them what you have asked me to do. In the interests of self preservation, we will need to include the women in on the weapons training so that they can protect the village while the men are away from home. I know that this violates tradition, but it is necessary if they are to be protected at all times. The women have already exhibited that they can protect the village from wild animals, now they have to learn to protect the village from wild humans!"

"That's going to be a difficult job, convincing the men that women can fight and need to be trained to do so. I'll do what I can, but most of the convincing will fall onto your shoulders as you go through with the training."

"OK, I'll think about it during the Mammoth Hunt trip and have a plan ready by the time we get home."

The Mammoth Hunt meeting went pretty much as had the previous one. Doug was challenged to free-style wrestling matches by several men of other villages. These contests were one of the most popular events of the gathering, with huge crowds showing up and ridiculous wagers being made on the outcome. Doug never lost a bout, but there were several close contests that required his best efforts to win. Doug's opponents were better prepared for surprises, this time, so the bouts generally lasted longer than they did the previous year, much to the delight of the crowd.

The other big show of the gathering was the exhibition of the crossbows. People of other villages were astounded at what could be done with a crossbow, and they were especially impressed that the weapon could be handled by women and children. A number of contests were held to demonstrate the range, accuracy, and effectiveness of the instrument. On several occasions, women contestants had to be careful not to shoot better than the men on their team. Nearly everybody at the gathering wanted one, only the most hide-bound traditionalists refused to have any thing to do with the new fangled monstrosity.

Doug was badgered continuously by people wanting to trade for a crossbow; this was an even bigger hit than the atlatl had been. Even those people who did not want one for hunting wanted one as a toy or a status symbol. Doug was torn between supplying as many crossbows as the village could make and not giving out any. He knew that putting the crossbow into general use would mean that everybody would be able to eat more meat, thereby improving their diet, but he was afraid of having them fall into hands that wanted to use them to conquer their neighbors. For example, he shuddered at the thought of what might have happened if the other side had also had crossbows during that incident on the trip to the gathering.