Masters of the Arches Ch. 10

They were now moving through the region where Lomac had spent most of his life. They were thus warned well in advance when they came either to a river or when they had to cross a trail. But Lomac did find it very strange that up to now they hadn't yet met anyone from his village.

"Hunters from my village always come this far north in search of games. We should have met a few of them by now, I fear that something bad has happened."

Verla tried to reassure him by telling him that they hadn't seen any of her people either. She explained to him that the likelihood that a catastrophe had happened to both tribes was highly improbable.

But as they traveled closer to Lomac's village he became much more nervous since they didn't meet anyone on the trail and when they finally reached it on the tenth days, they were all in for a great shock.

The village was in complete ruin. Most of the houses had been burned to the ground and only a few huts here and there remained partly intact.

When they investigated the desolated village further, they discovered a horrible spectacle. Unknown attackers had murdered women and children, and many of the bodies were mutilated beyond recognition.

All indications pointed to the fact that the villagers had been attacked in the middle of the night since many of the deads were still lying on their sleeping mats. Also the fact that none of the cooking fires were in use when the attack occurred, tended to confirm this theory.

"I want to go to my village," said Verla. "Something bad must also have happened there since we haven't seen any trace of them yet. I am sure the men of my village would have come to help Lomac's people. The fact that we haven't seen any trace of them may mean that whatever occured here, must also have happen in my village."

They remained in Lomac's village for the rest of the day. They piled the few dozen corpses on a heap of logs and burned the bodies. Before nightfall they moved a few miles south of the village so as to spend the night away from the horror they had seen.

Early the following morning, they began their walk toward Verla's village. When they got there, it was in the afternoon of the following day and what they discovered was a replica of what had happen in Lomac's village.

Almost all the huts had been burned down, but there were not as many bodies to be found. The few bodies that they did find were not close relatives of Verla but still she did know each of them. She was very sad, she had a brother and two sisters living in the village and there were no traces of them.

Vincent was shocked by the way both villages had been systematically destroyed. It appeared to him that someone had gone to a lot of trouble to completely obliterate the whole population. The question that came to mind was whether it had been done to prevent the captured slaves from returning back to their village, or was it simply the result of jealous neighbors. He didn't bother to share his thoughts with anyone since both Verla and Lomac were extremely depressed by now.

The following day, they continued on their southward trek. Now that both Lomac and Verla had nowhere to go they decided to remain with Vincent and Nika in their journey south.

By Lomac's estimate, in five or six days they were going to arrive to a wide plain that was mostly a desert. He also warned the group that only a few of his people had ever tried to cross that plain since it was very dry and there were stories about all kinds of dangers to be expected there.

It seemed that only one man from his village had managed to cross the dessert and return to tell about it. Lomac had heard from that man that there were great areas of desolation in the dessert. But once across, there was a friendly tribe living on the other side.

They were near the beginning of the dessert when disaster struck them. They

were walking in a single file in a dense wooden area, Vincent was leading the way in front while Lomac was in the rear while both women were waking between them. All of a sudden they heard a tremendous growling coming from behind them.

Vincent ran back toward the source of the noise, and he was just in time to see Lomac with his left arm pinched in the mouth of a saber tooted tiger.

The great cat was about five feet tall at the shoulders and was trying to carry his prey into the low foliage. Its large green eyes were full of anger and blood from Lomac's arm was oozing out of its mouth. When the large cat saw Vincent and the others appearing, it turned toward them and stopped motionless in its tracks. The great beast remained very still while staring at the trio as if trying to decide what to do next.

It took Vincent only a second to aim his rifle and shoot. There was no way for him to miss at this short range, but at the same time he had to be careful so as not to hit Lomac.

The shot hit the beast in the neck and it did let its prey fall to the ground. But its long teeth immediately closed again on Lomac, as if it wanted to make sure that his prey wouldn't escape while it turned his attention on Vincent. The sound of breaking bones reached Vincent ears and he knew then that this was the end of Lomac.

The second and third shots hit the great cat somewhere in the head and through the left eye, but still it didn't fall down. Blood could be seen pouring out of its many wounds and staining its brown-stripped fur. Under such pain and anger Vincent expected the cat to make a tremendous amount of noise, but not a sound could be heard. It then occurred to Vincent that the bullet that had gone through the neck of the great cat had probably severely damage its throat.

In one tremendous jump it soon was in front of Vincent as blood dripped from its wide opened mouth. Just as it prepared itself for a final leap on Vincent, he shot it right into its mouth.

The bullet probably severed the spinal cord of the enraged cat, since before it had time to leap on Vincent it dropped dead on the spot as the cat's momentum carrying it to Vincent's feet.

As soon as the great cat was down, the three of them rushed to Lomac, but it was only to discover that he was already dead. His chest was ripped open and much of his innards were on the ground next to him.

They buried him under a pile of rock not far from the spot where he had died. It was very sad to see Verla crying over his grave, while she mumbled incoherent words of farewell to her mate.

Within the last few days she had lost her family, and all of her tribe and now her mate was gone. But Vincent knew that the people of her world never gave up, even if things were really bad. He had discovered this while being held prisoner in Haski's village. Everyone accepted his or her fate. Nika and Verla had both done so when they had been forced to submit to the lust of half of the males of the village on their last night of captivity. So far, he has never seen anyone falling into a depressive state for very long. Probably the fact that they could expect to live an extremely long time had something to do with it.

Two days after the death of Lomac, they were standing right at the edge of the wide plain. It did resemble much more to a desert than a plain. In the far distance, they could see the horizon where the landscape melted with the sky and in between the topography of the land was all the same. Sand, rock and a little grass here and there.

Vincent now regretted that he hadn't questioned Lomac more about the plain. He would have like to know where they could expect to find water and how far it was between water holes. More important still, what were these hidden dangers that Lomac had been talking about.

They had two plastic bottles - which he had brought from his world - that could hold water and also two organic bags that he later discovered were the intestine of some animals. These bags had been picked up in one of the burned villages.

They spent the night on the edge of the plain. In the morning after a small breakfast, they filled the two bottles and the bags with water then they began their journey across the plain, always walking toward the south.

That first day, he figured they must have walked thirty miles or so. When they made camp for the evening, the sun was very low and the temperature was noticeably colder. Since small quantities of water were evaporating and leaking from the two bags, they had first used the water from one of the water bags and one bag was already half empty.

A simple calculation made him realize that provided they did not drink more water than they had on that first day, they would have enough water for about five or six days.

Food was not one of Vincent concerns; at the rate they were eating they still had two weeks supply of smoked meat. Beside he still had a few bags of biscuits and dry foodstuff that he had brought from his world. He figured that they would run out of water long before they ran out of food.

That first night in the desert plain, none of them slept well. Verla was still very sad over the death of Lomac while Nika and Vincent were both exhausted from the long hot walk and both were also sad to see Verla's suffer for the lost of her mate.

The land did not change much for the next four days. But the mood of the trio did change from one of eagerness to one of hopelessness. There seemed to be no end to the dry plain and they now had barely enough water for another two days.

Except for the lack of water, it was difficult to imagine what Lomac had met when he said that this place was full of hidden dangers. So far they had seen only snakes and all sort of insects.

On one occasion Verla thought she saw the shadow of a large bird but she was the only one to seen it. She did tell Vincent and Nika about it but at the time she had been walking behind them and when they examined the sky for a bird they didn't see any. Still Vincent figured that she must have seen something since after that she did stay very close to him and Nika.

In the middle of the morning of the sixth day, they were attacked. It was the day after Verla had seen the moving shadow of a bird. They had been walking toward a low mountain range that had been visible far to the southeast the previous day. It was at least another day and a half away.

As soon as they saw the mountain range, they change direction from straight south and they went in the direction of the first low hill. Their chances of finding water was much greater among the hills than on the flat plain.

Nika and Verla had both noticed the mountain range first since Vincent had been walking with his eyes partly closed since the brightness of the sun was painful for his eyes. At the time he felt very sorry that he hadn't brought his sunglasses from his world, but it was too late to worry about that now. For some reason, both women didn't seem to be bothered as much by the bright sunlight being reflecting off the white sand.

When an opaque object in the sky partly blocked the sun's rays, they were greatly surprise since there were no trees around and there was nothing higher than the small rocks lying here and there. The women cried of surprise made Vincent open his eyes wide as he turned toward them. Both women were looking upward toward the sky.

Vincent looked up in the direction where the women were looking and he was stunned by what he saw.

It seem that no more than five hundred feet above their head, flying very gracefully, were about a dozen brown and white-feathered birds. After a couple of seconds he realized that they were much farther away and much higher than he had first thought. The reason that he had judged them to be closer than they really were was due to their enormous size.

One of the birds was much closer to them than the rest were, it was enormous, Vincent figured that it must have been on the lookout for a possible prey. These were the birds responsible for the shadows that the girls had seen earlier. As the rest of the great birds got closer to the trio, he noticed that each bird had a lump on the back of the neck. It was now also clear that the birds were now aware of their presence below since they were all gracefully gliding toward them. They flew with the sun at their back and it was difficult to see them clearly because of the glare of the sun behind them.

Vincent lowered his knapsack to the ground and he held his rifle in both hands. The way the birds were approaching seemed very odd to him. It reminded him of dive-bombers he had seen in movies of WW II just before they would release their load of bombs.

They were in a single file formation with about two hundred feet of separation between them. Then the one in the front began to loose height and the others followed. Vincent was then greeted with a surprise. The lump on the back of the neck of each bird turned out to be a man sitting there. Each bird was being guided my mean of ropes tied to a harness over the bird's head and also to its legs.

He also noticed that in the huge bird's claws, was a sort of net filled with a load of some sort.

The use of the net soon became apparent when a shower of fist size stones began to fall around them. Nobody was hit but it was only a question of time before this would happen. To make matters worst still, he and the two women had nowhere to run or hide.

A second load was dumped on them. This time a rock hit Verla on her right leg just below her knee while she had been trying to run away from the deadly shower.

There was no question whatsoever in Vincent's mind now as to the intention of the birdmen. They wanted either to kill them or to capture them.

He aimed his rifle in their general direction and he fired.

The noise did scare them since the one closest to them dropped its load well before it had reached the trio. Then the great bird along with its rider simply glided to the right and away. The rest of the formation began to circle around the trio on the ground but they didn't come any closer.

Finally after a couple of minutes, one of the birds detached itself from the ring formation and made a diving approach. This time Vincent took his time, he aimed carefully at the head of the giant bird then he slowly pulled the trigger.

The angle of the decent of the bird changed immediately, it began to plunge downward carrying with it in its fall the struggling rider on its back. As soon as the bird and rider hit the hot sand, no movement could be seen from either of them and Vincent figured that both were probably dead.

For a few more minutes the rest of the attackers kept on circling high over their head, then two birds detached themselves from the formation and approached the trio on the ground in a similar dive. But they were coming from two different directions.

Nika had her bow at the ready while Verla who was an expert in the art of throwing a spear was waiting with her arm pulled well back.

But the women's help was not needed. With two more shots, Vincent sent both birds to the ground before they had time to unload their net of their content of stones.

The rest of the birds kept on circulation high overhead for another fifteen minutes and finally they left heading toward the south. But one of the them released its load of rocks and it remained high above the trio on the ground, probably to spy on them.

Verla's leg was not broken but it was evident judging from the swelling that she would not be able to walk on it for a while. But still they couldn't remain where they were since the birdmen could returned and attacked them again. Vincent realized that they had to find a place fast where they would be protected from these rocks coming from the sky. It was only because of the lack of coordination between the birdmen that they were still alive. Had they chosen to attack together Vincent knew that the outcome would have been much different.

"I think we should check for water".

He was pointing the spot where the first bird and its rider were lying on the ground.

"Yes I will go and see". Said Nika.

Before Vincent had time to react she began walking toward the dead bird a few hundred feet away. She slowly walked with her bow ready in hand and an arrow already aimed in the general direction of the fallen mountain of flesh ahead of her.

Before she reached her destination the bird flying overhead was upon her. In one low pass it tried to catch Nika in its claws. There was no doubt it could have pulled her off the ground since its wings span was at least forty feet long and its net was no longer loaded with rocks.

Nika's arrow buried itself into the neck of the bird only seconds before she was within its reach, this is probably what saved her. As the arrow hit its mark and plunged into the huge neck, the bird pulled away from its prey and its claws missing Nika only by a couple of feet.

A few seconds later Vincent fired at the bird while it was still in the process of gaining height. It then lost all control and fell toward the ground while its rider was trying desperately to make it climb again as he pulled on the straps tied to its head and feet.

Leaving Verla where she was, Vincent ran toward the recently fallen bird which was no more than twenty feet from Nika. Both bird and rider were dead.

The dead man had a dark brown skin and was rather small. There was some kind of harness and straps arrangement that went to the head of the bird and ropes were tied to each side of the cage-like net around its head. It was evident that these were used to guide the bird while the two straps tied to the bird's legs must have been used to make the bird climb or descend.

The rider had no weapon whatsoever and the only possession he had was a water bag made of animal skin, the bag hung attached to the harness next to the bird's neck.

"Take the water and bring it to Verla while I check the other three birds". Said Vincent

He didn't wait for a reply from Verla, instead he ran toward the nearer of the fallen birds and after checking that both, the birds and the rider were dead, he recovered the water bag. He did the same with the other two dead birds and riders.

When they check their inventory of water later, they had gained another three days supply.

"Let us get away from here as fast as we can, I think they will attack again and if they do that all at the same time we will not have a chance".

"But Verla can't walk, her leg is swollen". Said Nika.

"I will carry her if you can take care of the rest of our supplies".

He cut several strips of leather from one of the bird's harness. Then placing a section of strap under each of Verla's thighs with the other ends meeting around her back, he made her climb on his back. She was now riding piggyback with her weight being distributed between his shoulders and his waist.

Nika had both knapsacks on her back and she was trying to figure a way to add the four water bags on her already well-loaded back.

"Here place the water bags on Verla's back, she can hold them".

"But you already have her weight to carry".

"With the harness I can manage. Don't argue, just give us the water. We have to leave this place fast".

They began to walk toward the range of mountains ahead of them. It was very difficult to predict how far the nearest mountain was, when they stopped to rest an hour later, they did seemed to be a little closer to their destination.

The birdmen didn't bother them again that day and Vincent figured that they had another day of walking before they would reach their goal. Verla's leg was still swollen and she was in pain but she didn't complain. She did try to stand on her leg a few times but the pain was too intense and Vincent had to again carry her.

Even though he was very tired, Vincent could feel Verla's breasts pressing against his back and now that he paid closer attention to her, he realized that her breasts were a little larger than Nika's. She was very beautiful indeed and her being there on his back made him feel uneasy.