Red Hawk the Spear Maker(Part 8 100 Years Later-The Raiders)
Introduction:
This chapter is about the prep work before the battle begins
The next day I moved up toward the front to view the raiders. My God they covered the ground for as far as I could see. Must be thousands of them? We must be out numbered 10 to 1. We are going to be massacred, how are going to survive against so many?
Best guess they were maybe a day away. Our defensive team has been busy placing bombs in the right places, and our hunters were practicing hit their targets. Weapon masters have been busy making both bombs and grenades. Arrow and bow makers had plenty of arrows. The bow makers had back up bows and extra bow strings. The women were trained to get arrows and bows or strings to the archer who might need them.
We had primitive shields made out of sticks and bark. They might stop an arrow, but not much good against a club or spear. But they were better than nothing. Our weapon masters were busy making more of these shields.
Our perimeter defense was designed to slow down the raiders, and funnel them toward the middle. The hope was then have the bombs, and grenades put a hurt on their charging forces. With back up help from all of our archer’s.
I had the horsemen tribe take 25 of their hunters, and go up into the hills to attack the raiders from the West side. They carried some grenades with them. I hoped an attack from a different direction might slow and confuse the raiders. “Don’t get overpowered by the raiders. Do whatever damage you can do, and move on. Keep hitting the raiders in different place vary your tactics, and don’t attack until you hear us first.” I told them.
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.” 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 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.
“I want you to stay back with our tribe. If things go badly for us, I want you to take those left of our tribe. 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 Red Hawk.
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 samething to keep the tribe going. I want you to do the same. Keeping our tribe alive, is 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, even though I don’t like it.” He said back to me.
“That is 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 grab each others forearm in our tribe 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 is 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 raiders night time attacks. 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 hope that all the pits we dug with stakes in them would help stop the night attacks. We also got word back that our cavalry was in position on Westside of the raiders.
I walked up to the head of the table, and raised my hands up in the air. I waited till it quieted down.
“We have done all we can do, no sense in second guessing ourselves now. It will be night soon and they have slowed down, and won’t arrive till sometime in the morning. I will send out some more scouts to check and make sure there is no sneak attack. I suggest that all of you get some food and sleep, as tomorrow will be a busy day.” I said to the war council. “We will meet back here an hour before sunrise, unless I need you sooner.”
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 till 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.
“You don’t think they sent a probe attack to check out our defenses?” Asked Running Elk.
“There is a good chance that is just what has 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 happen, 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. They had to wait as a raider probe party advanced faster than they could react, to warn us. They followed the raiders up to our barriers and watched them fall into some of the pits. They attacked and killed the few that did not fall into the pits. Finished off those in the pits and covered the pits back up. They deposed of the bodies, and the rest went to join back up with the advance scouts, while these two came here to report.” He told me.
“Thanks for the report, I will go in and inform the war council. If anything else happens let me know immediately.” I said to him.
I filled the council in on what Running Elk had reported to me. We spent the rest of the night till dawn started to break, discuss various different types of tactics. As we were finishing our discussion, some of the women came in bringing us some food to eat. As 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.
As we were talking about tactics, 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 till they get in range and do not shoot at the bombs. Do not fire till I give the orders.” 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 disciple of our archers to not 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 attacked, one that would attempt to scare us into making mistakes. Instead they move 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 a 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 seem to be coated in the metal, like ours were. I did not notice any carrying grenades or bomb type containers. Also I did not see any type of wooden shield like we had.
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 is not 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.
Finally the battle began, and it looked like a tidal wave of raiders were ready to wash over us.
