Chapter 4

The exhausted caravan spent several days at the wadi, resting up, repairing equipment, beating the dust from fabric and re hydrating desiccated tissues. Luckily John had managed to keep the nursing mothers hydrated enough through the ordeal that none of them had their milk dry up. John put the giant spoked wheels back on the palanquin, turning it back into a carriage again, and made the front axle articulated, attaching it in the middle of the carriage only, and adding a pair of levers and a seat so someone riding on top could sit comfortably and turn the wheels slightly.

He was grateful that the thin brass rims didn't weight that much, or he would have been forced to abandon the wheels on the southern trail. They were just enough to prevent the sharp rocks from wearing and splintering the wood of the outer rim. With the spoke design, the wheels although taller than John could be picked up by any of the men in the caravan.

After the people and animals were rested, and the forage was unfortunately mostly gone as it was early in the season for the northern route, they set out again, heading west into the setting sun. Their new travel pattern now was to rest in the heat of the day, and to travel well into the night, setting up camp in the early morning light, and sleeping until the cool of the evening. It was a lot easier on the animals and people, and the moon at this time made the trail shine like a river, the beaten path glowing under their feet.

There were many advantages, and they practiced moving as silently as possible, cool, comfortable, nearly invisible. Tuk took the children who were up to it on night time scouting missions, and taught them to avoid stepping on sleeping snakes, locating them by their acrid smell. The scents of the night desert were sharpened in the still air, and the children with their fresh young noses closer to the ground were quite good at locating snakes, rabbits and the occasional man John sent out ahead to try to hide and surprise the nomads In training.

That almost ended in tragedy, the first time, as it was only Tuk's firm command which prevented the little warriors from falling on him with their sharp little knives. When the little nomads turned the trick around and waited in ambush beside the dark trail, they were passed by without anyone noticing the clumps of rocks, which rose up behind them and touched the throats of the rear guards with the cool wood of their singlesticks. The guards were silent at first in shocked surprise and then in complicit participation.

The children 'took out' all the guards as they moved up the edges of the caravan, and the guards fell in behind trailing the caravan a good distance behind. It wasn't until the midnight mingle that the success of their daring raid was noted, and in this instance no one chided the guards for being lax. It was just that the little nomadic scouts were too good. John was gratified that he had such effective scouts assisting Tuk in protecting the group.

The children were quite strong by now, proudly carrying weights all night which would have grown men groaning and complaining. Their training continued apace, and Zithrusa and John intensified their use of their knives in battle. They were all given a full sized dagger to go along with their eating knives, and they learned well how to use them against a full sized opponent.

It was just an adaptation of their singlestick technique, scaled up for a larger opponent, using Vedeya's mantis sway and getting in too close for a sword to be effective, putting the pint sized warriors with daggers which were as swords in their tiny hands uncomfortably close to vulnerable portions of anatomy. John took up a staff and made certain that every one of them paid full attention to dodging, even if he had to give them a few bruises to do it.

He didn't hold back, any child who wielded a dagger no matter their age was treated as a warrior, and trained fully, including the blows which go along with such teaching. The children bravely endured their bruising, and improved. Better a few bruises now than a sword slash later! With the training and exercise, some of the children who were ten and eleven became strong enough to draw and hold the child's bow steady, and started to incorporate archery into their training regime.

Zithrusa was very pleased with how their new family was progressing, becoming a wall for each other in this open land. The adults could use more work, but the little nomads were actually more accomplished than many of the nomadic children. There were none of the chauvinistic distinctions of merit as with her old family, and the little girls were praised for their warrior skills just as much as the boys.

Zithrusa concentrated on training the girls in the sling more than the boys in a slight reverse discrimination, but any boy who wanted to join was able, and there were some who refused to be out done by the girls at any skill. The competition made for some intense training and some highly skilled little warriors. Tuk hardly had to hunt at all, there was so much small game being brought in.