The Sands of Time

"Don't get overpowered by the raiders. Do whatever damage you can do, and move on. Keep hitting the raiders in a different place to vary your tactics, and don't attack until you hear us first," I told chief Wild Horse.

He left with his guerilla hunters. They raced toward the hills to fight the raiders from their rear ranks.

While I had time, I called a quick meeting with the war council to get updated on how each chief was doing. When that was finished, I toured the camp checking on the food supplies, firewood, water supply, and weapon supply. There was nervous energy flowing through the camp.

I stopped at my camp for something to eat and a quick nap. Silvermoon crawled into the tent with me.

"Please hold me. I am so scared on what might happen to you and us," she said in a soft voice.

"Everything will be fine. We are ready for them," I reassured her.

We kissed for a bit and then quickly we shed our fur clothes. Time was at a premium.

"Fuck me hard Grey Wolf," she cried at me, as I mounted her from behind.

She was moaning in pleasure, as I grunted a few times, depositing my sperm deep inside of her womb.

We both drifted off into an uneasy sleep.

It seemed like I just laid down when Red Hawk awakened me.

We sat down by the fire having something to eat, and were joined by Running Elk.

"Red Hawk, I want you to stay back with our tribe. If things go badly for us, I want you to take our remaining tribe members, that includes Silvermoon and her daughter. Also any nearby tribe members, who may want to flee with you. Make sure you take some food and water. I want you to flee back to our great cave bear campsite. I will leave a dozen young hunters back with you, to help with the retreat," I said to him.

He started to argue with me over this. But I held my hand up.

"Remember our heritage and what happened to our tribe many moons ago. Thunderbird had to do the same thing to keep the tribe going. I want you to do the same. Keeping our tribe alive, was the number one goal here," I told him with a stern voice.

He looked at me nodding his head. "I will do as you ask father, even though I don't like it," he replied.

"That's my boy, I know I can count on you to keep the tribe alive and strong," I said back to him with a slap on his back.

Just then a runner came up to us, "Chief Grey Wolf, you and Running Elk are needed up to the front," he said gasping for some air.

Then we look at each other. "Good luck Dad and brother," Red Hawk said as we all grabbed each other's forearm in our tribal handshake. We both ran off following the runner toward the front. Running Elk headed toward the army commander, while I stopped at the command tent to get an update as to what was happening.

I walked into the tent, just as a major discussion was going on about raider tactics. The one thing we feared the most would be the raider's attack at night time. We had huge bomb fires set to go but they would not cover all the area with light. Also, how to determine who was friend and who was foe. We hoped that all the pits we dug with stakes in them would help stop any attack at night time.

I walked up to the head of the table and raised my hands up in the air. I waited until it quieted down.

"We have done all we can do, no sense in second guessing ourselves now. It'll be night soon and they have slowed down and won't arrive until sometime in the morning. I will send out some more scouts to check and make sure there will be no sneak attack. I suggest that all of you get some food and sleep, tomorrow will be a busy day. We will meet back here in an hour before sunrise, unless I need you sooner," I said to the war council.

I toured the front lines and talked with the commander of the army on a few of the tactics he planned on using. He had all of his soldiers put white arm bans on so we know who was who. This would only work for a little while until the raiders figure it out. He had other ideas on what to do when they did.

After an hour with Howling Wolf, the commander of the army and Running Elk, I went back to the command tent with some food. After I finished my dinner, I took a nap. I woke up some time in the middle of the night. It was eerie quiet out there. I had just exited the command tent when I heard screaming coming from the front of the camp.

I raced to the front, coming to a halt next to Running Elk and Howling Wolf.

"What happened? What was that screaming that I just heard?" I asked both of them, as we could still hear some moaning.

"I will bet that they sent a probe attack to check out our defenses," Running Elk said.

"There was a good chance that's just what had happened, but what of our scouts? They should have warned us of this," Howling Wolf questioned.

We look at each other, searching for answers on what just happened, and what to do about it.

"Should we send some warriors out to investigate what happened out there," I questioned them.

We discussed the options among the three of us and decided to wait for first light before investigating the sounds, with some warriors. The idea that we got no advance warning from our scouts was bothering me.

It was an hour before first light and the war council was back in the command tent. I was in the process of reporting to them what had happen during the night. When Running Elk waved at me, so I excused myself to see what he wanted.

"A couple of scouts have returned to make a report," he told me.

"A raider probe party advanced faster than we could react, to warn you. A group of advance scouts followed the raiders up to our barriers and watched them fall into some of the pits. We attacked and killed the few that did not fall into the pits," the two scouts reported.

"Thanks for the report. If anything else happens out there, let me know immediately," I said to him.

I sent a group of soldiers out to finished off those in the pits and covered the pits back up. They brought the bodies back here and buried them in a pit.

I filled the council in on what Running Elk, and the two scouts had reported to me. We spent the rest of the night until dawn started to break, discussing various different types of tactics. We were finishing our discussion, when some of the women came in bringing us some food to eat. While they were eating, I went outside and went up to the front to talk with Howling Wolf, to see if there were any new developments.

We were talking about tactics, when Running Elk came running up and pointed out toward the front past our barricades. Suddenly I could see our advance scouts racing back to the camp as fast as they could. Behind them the raiders were screaming and hollering, and chasing after the scouts as fast as they could run.

It was not the full force of raiders, but an advance troop chasing our scouts, looked like about 50 raiders in the troop. Howling Wolf raced to the front hollering orders to his archers.

"Wait until they get in range and do not shoot at the bombs. Do not fire until I give the order," he shouted.

The scouts came charging in with the raiders hot on their tails.

"Fire," Howling Wolf shouted.

The first flight of arrows flew straight and true and the first wave of raiders tumbled to the ground. The rest turned tail and retreated from us. They stopped just out of arrow range. I marveled at the discipline of our archers not to waste arrows at the retreating raiders. Soon they retreated back to the main group of raiders. A group of warriors went out to finish off the wounded raiders, and gathered up all the arrows they could find.

We expected a mad dash frontal assault type of attack, one that would attempt to scare us into making mistakes. Instead they moved up to just outside of arrow range. We could see them out there studying us, and the defensive layout in front of our camp. This gave us a chance to look them over also and note the type of bow they carried.

They were using short bows, which could maybe shoot half to three quarters the distance that our bows could shoot. Some raiders carried spears and other carried war clubs; none seemed to be coated in the metal, like ours were. Also I did not see any type of wooden shield like we had, or any type of exploding containers.

It was kind of spooky, with them just standing there hardly making a sound. Every now and then one of them would gesture at different points of our defense. This wasn't what we expected from them. I watched as a group of raiders moved off to the side. They seemed to be conferring with each other.

Suddenly a signal was 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.

CHAPTER NINE

Suddenly a signal was given. The whooping and screaming started, with the raiders 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 were 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. Unbelievably, 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 was a small group of archers, who's only job was to fire 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 was hard to tell just how many of the raiders that we had 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, had 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, the raiders had not yet penetrated into our camp.

I moved back to the command tent, I was 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.

Chief Wild Horse speaks:

I had taken the cavalry through the mountains, hoping to be able to get behind of the raiders. After a hard long ride, we finally found a trail to let us 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.

When 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. 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 hoped they would. The raiders had no idea what had happened 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 was happening to us now.

The battle was intense and they outnumbered us. We gave a good account for ourselves and managed to kill the attacking raiders, but the damage was 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. 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 battle started at dawn, and now it was past mid-day and the sun was past being overhead. 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 wounded 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 had returned. The raiders started to whoop and holler and started to charge toward us. The next attack had 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 were 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 were, it hardly slowed them down.

The raiders slammed into our second position with a vengeance. The fighting was fierce; 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.

I looked out over the battlefield, and I could see hundreds upon hundreds of dead and injured raiders, yet they still poured through our barricades and into our camp. The battle was starting to go poorly for us. The overwhelming number of raiders was 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 tribe's 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, the battle was going badly for our warriors," the runner said.

"Ok thanks," Red Hawk said to him as he turned and started to give orders to hunters to gather everyone up.

Red Hawk left camp with fifty women thirty children and twenty young hunters. They took enough supplies to last us a few weeks, as they made their break for freedom.

The raiders were pressing us hard. They were a little shorter than we were, with slanted eyes, but they are extremely fierce fighters. They didn't seem to take any male prisoners, they made sure each warrior or archer was dead.

The battle was looking very bleak, when suddenly there was a lot of shouting, and the attacking raiders just stopped. They moved back toward the north. It seemed that some of our outpost commanders, headed northwest and northeast and rallied the Northern tribes to come and support us. They met up with Chief Wild Horse and began to attack raiders from the rear.

Howling Wolf rallied what troops we had left to charge the raiders. When there was some more whooping behind us, and in swept Red Hawk, with a large army from the Southern tribes. We had the raiders pinned between two advancing armies, with fresh warriors.

It seemed that Red Hawk had sent some scouts south, when trouble first reared its ugly head, to get the Southern tribes to help.

There was a tremendous clash as the Northern and Southern armies and plus what remained of our army, slammed into the raiders. When the dust settled, our combined forces had wiped out the raiders. They fought to the bitter end, they wouldn't surrender to us, and died to their last man.

I sat in the command tent, exhausted from the battle. Reviewing and reliving all that had happened in the last few weeks. We had close to seven hundred and fifty men fighting in our army. In addition, another two hundred and fifty in support roles, and backup archers. Giving us close to one thousand men and women involved in this battle.