Monday, April 3, 2017

CHAPTER 4

Previously...

"Oh no." muttered Kato. "What?" Ayak returned. He suddenly shot up to a standing position and pointed towards the rolling hills between the plains and the snow capped mountains. "Fray." Kato said in awe.

Ayak slowly rose to her feet, holding the roof post. She glanced up from where Kaya and the warriors were and saw hundreds of black shades. some were holding torches, some holding spears. They were getting closer and they were getting closer fast.

.....

Stakaya was stumbling up the final incline of the hill, when he was charged by Stak. In a split second he was in his father's arms being rushed back inside the community. There was yelling. Everyone was running and doing so with great fervor. Stakaya could barely focus on the hysteria because Stak was running at full speed. As Stak continued through the community he yelled orders to many different warriors in order to get ready for the incoming onslaught. "Seal the entrance doors once Kaya is in!" he yelled to Dentyro. Dentyro nodded and made for the south entrance, which now had at least a dozen warriors waiting ready to defend the community with their lives.

Stak flew up the hide flaps to the family hut. He turned around and within a split second had vanished back outside. Before he got too far he doubled back, opened the flap, and told Stakaya to stay in here and wait for him to come back. He once again exited and ran into his Kato and his daughter Ayak. Within one moment, Stak changed his facial expressions from surprised to angry to relieved. "Get in here and defend it with your life." His eyes were focused on Kato. "With all of my honor, Stak." Kato replied. Ayak and Kato went inside.

Stak only had a few blinks of his eyes to locate his son, Kara. In the whirlwind of his people there was no hope. He then noticed at the other end of the community, at the south gate, Kaya and her search party had just made it inside. Immediately, the group of warriors shut the gate and went into a defensive stance. Stak heard intense screams of horror. He looked up to the direction his people were pointing. The sky was barely lit from the ending of the sunset, but he could make out the storm of arrows arching their way down onto the community. He felt his soul drop to his stomach. "Everyone inside!" He screamed. "Everybody get in a hut!" Within a few seconds, the arrows met the community.

Stak froze in a moment of horror. All the pandemonium muted for him, but the movement and results of his community being bombarded by a siege of arrows did not. He wanted this to be a vision. He wanted to wake up in a sweating screaming storm of confusion next to Kaya. But this was happening. Not one warning. No hints. He scanned from left to right with shell shock as his family was torn apart by arrows. Not all of them of course. But one arrow piercing one of his community was the same pain as all of them. About two to three dozen bodies hit the ground. The volume came slamming back at Stak as he came back to reality. "Stak they are advancing!" A warrior yelled down to Stak, from the top of the community perimeter. He was instantly struck in the heart by an arrow from outside of the community. He leaned back and fell down to the ground. Stak whipped his head around to the south gate. Kaya and her party of warriors opened the entrance, and with a great war cry, they advanced out into the open. Stak gathered a handful of warriors and began to scale the perimeter next to him until he was at the top.

The mass of shapes were now within striking distance, and they had began combat with Stak's warriors. Stak and the warriors jumped down and struck the enemy from above, he took a few finishing blows with his club and instantly moved onward. He wanted to be with Kaya in this fight. During a battle, Stak never took the time to observe the little things, like that this enemy was in fact Fray's clan. He did not care to acknowledge it yet. His mind was focused on bloodshed. It did not matter who the enemy was, except that they were the enemy. Stak charge through the crowd, striking several enemies in the back of the head and neck.

Kaya was defending the south gate from the outside, they were being overrun, but She was handling herself nicely. She had her club in her right hand and her saber tooth in her left. She would club an enemy in the head, or spar their attack successfully, then go in with the saber tooth for a killing blow. In the corner of Stak's eye he noticed that warriors had began shooting arrows down at the enemy, which was evening the ratio of kills to death between to two clans. He gave a gory roar of honor and began flailing his club, breaking skull after skull. No enemy was a challenge for Stak. He was in his zone.

Kaya had an enemy in front of her as well as behind her. A stare off between the three resulted for a few moments, and then Kaya made her move. She sparred with the enemy in front of her and swung around to connect a deep slice to the stomach of the enemy behind her. The enemy fell to her knees. Kaya screamed out in pain, she looked back to see the other warrior had stabbed her above the right hip. She snarled and growled as she took out the blade. The enemy resisted letting her obtain his blade, but was knocked down by Kaya's head slam. She finished taking the blade out and kicked the enemy in the chest. Stak watched as Kaya then put the blade into the warriors heart, making eye contact with her now dead enemy the whole time.

"Stak!" a familiar voice called out. It was Dentyro. He gave one last blast to an enemy's face before continuing, "We need to make sure the north is not being overrun!" Stak nodded with a furious look. "Kaya, go with Dentyro, I will take this position over."

Dentyro had Kaya's arm around his shoulder's. She was bleeding pretty badly. She could not run on her right leg because there was some tendon damage due to the stab wound. Even then, they still hustled through the community, which was a ghost town other than the archers on the community perimeter. There was only young children and elders in the huts, but the hide entrances were all closed. Dentyro looked at Kaya, "I can drop you off at your hut so you can defend your children." Kaya painfully laughed and replied with, "I have not obtained my desired amount of bloodshed."
Dentyro sighed and with a grin said, "I was afraid you were going to say that."

They passed through the north of the community and instantly were stopped in their tracks by 5 enemy warriors standing, like they were waiting. The middle enemy, was taller and more grotesque than the other four. His pale skin matched with war paint made him looks almost sickly, other than his muscles. "Fray." Kaya mustered between breaths.

"I was waiting for one of you two to come back inside to make sure everything was okay." Fray said with a joking yet menacing manor. "Just surrender to us Kaya, Dentyro." Fray gave little acknowledgement to Dentyro, due to his lack of importance at this moment.  "You have something I want." Fray continued.

Dentyro and Kaya looked angrily confused. "What? Other than the death of my whole family and everyone who is apart of this community? Or is it the lack of women left alive for your men to have their way with? I have heard how comforting you and your men are towards women."

Fray's sinister smile turned to a sunken hatred. "I will get to that. Right now though I just want to retrieve your son, Stakaya is it? Out of respect, I didn't look for him, my men are bloodthirsty and I wouldn't want any unnecessary bloodshed." His smile returned.

TO BE CONTINUED....

1 comment:

  1. Cliff hanger! Good pacing.

    I'd like to read a bit more description of our antagonist, Fray.

    ReplyDelete