Table of Contents – (spoilers)
Before mounting up in the church yard, the squad took a knee for Choke to lead them in a quick prayer.
“So, Gabe, you alright?” Peep asked brightly.
“Yes, Miss Otilla,” he answered, clearly lying.
“Sorry about before. But I had to press ye, to make sure. Right?”
“Of course, Miss Otilla. I understand.”
“Good. Good man! But I meant what I said. Don’t fuck around and give me any reason to doubt ye, or I’ll kill ye.”
“I understand, Miss Otilla. I’m with ye. Ye’ll see.”
“Good. Because today we’re gonna go right after it, and we aint stopping until we find some bad boys to mix it up with. You good with that?”
“Yes, Miss Otilla.”
“Right. Okay, so here’s how this works. Choke, I’m guessing yar gonna wanna lead the charge on this thunder run, right? Seeing as yar the only one that can fight mounted.”
“Yes, I think so.”
“Good, so then, in middle we got Knuckle, Pinch, and Gabe. I’ll hang in back. We’ll be riding fast. All of us watch out for anything fucky. Anyone pops out on us; we go in hard and smash them. Gabe: when it kicks off, yar job is gonna be gathering the horses. Me, Pinch, and Knuckle are gonna be leaving them to fight on foot. You then gather them up and keep them together and safe. Unless otherwise ordered, that’s yar job. You are horse boy. Any questions?”
“No, Miss Otilla.”
“Okay. So, today we’re heading up Cowslip Holler, past Tully’s. What’s up there?” Peep asked Gabe.
Gabe blinked to be suddenly put on the spot, but rallied quickly:
“Well, not much. The road goes up another couple of clicks to the trading post, and then it just peters out into a trail that sticks with the crick up into the bush.”
“Trading post? What’s that?”
“It’s a trading post, run by Bill.”
“Bill Cornmasher. The general store man.”
“That’s right. He trades potato wine and stuff for furs and goblin ears and whatever the bushrats bring,” Gabe said.
“And that’s it? Just the trading post? Any cabins or farms or soldier outposts and shit?” Peep asked.
“Oh, I’m sorry, Miss Otilla. Yes, there’s a soldier outpost at the trading post, and a couple of farms on the way there past Tully’s.”
“Yeah,” Peep said, looking annoyed. “This is the kinda thing ye need to be telling me right off when I ask ye for fuckin information. I shouldn’t have to dig for a complete report. Yar our fuckin local guide here. Smarten up!”
“Yes, Miss Otilla. I’m sorry, Miss Otilla.”
“So, how many soldiers they keep at the outpost, usually?” Peep asked.
Gabe thought about this for a moment. “About five, I’d say.”
“Okay. And the road from Tully’s to the outpost, is that the same as it is from here to Tully’s?”
“Yes, Miss Otilla. It’s just the same. Stays on that side of the crick and is good straight through.”
“It get socked in through any bush? Any choke points that’ll be good for an ambush? Stretches where the bush is right tight with it? What’s that like?”
Gabe thought some more. “It’s pretty open after Tully’s. The holler opens up then, which is why they have some farms there.”
“Okay,” Peep said to Choke, Pinch, and Knuckle. “Sounds about perfect. Let’s ride straight to Tully’s a little easy to save the horses and then we give’er to the trading post. Right?”
“That seems to be the plan,” Choke said.
“All right! Thunder run! Let’s fuckin go!” Knuckle shouted.
With this, the squad spurred their mounts and rode on out of Bristlehump.
It was only about half a kilometer up Cowslip Hollow to Tully’s, with a good number of cottages spread out along the way. The squad rode over the Crotch where the Bristle and Cowslip creeks met, and cut northwest, riding at a canter, heading up the road towards Tully’s.
After they passed the first little cluster of cottages, a rider emerged from behind a lone cottage a little further back from the others, set against the thicker bush of the flanking hill. Riding in back of the squad, Peep spotted him. She kept looking over her shoulder as they cantered on to keep an eye on him. When the man fell in behind them at a canter that matched their own, Peep gave a quick whistle to alert the others.
“We got a tail! One rider! Keep going and lookout to the front! I got the one in back!”
They kept on riding to Tully’s, with the tailing horseman keeping about one to two hundred meters behind them. It was almost midmorning by now and Tully’s was in full breakfast mode. On the veranda, Lieutenant Dixon was at his table with Sergeant Wagner. The teamster security chief, Sneed, was seated at another table with three hard-looking killers, all outfitted for the bush. The four horses tied up to the veranda railing in front of Sneed and his men were fine-looking and sported saddles with full saddlebags as well as long and short bow cases and full quivers.
Choke, Pinch, and Knuckle all eyeballed the men as they rode past the brothel veranda on the road out in front.
“Good morning, boys!” Peep called to them cheerfully as she rode past, giving them a wave.
When they passed around the bend in the road and creek behind Tully’s, the ravine did indeed open up. They had been riding mostly under the canopy of mature trees, spread out to allow for cottages here and there. Now, they rode out into the open. The ravine was between two and five hundred meters wide, with the Cowslip Creek winding through it. There were little ponds and marshy areas near the creek with cattails and yellow cowslips aplenty. The road, such as it was, stayed between the creek and the forested hill to the south. Up ahead about half a kilometer, there could be seen the buildings of a small farm.
The squad kept on with a fast canter while Peep kept her attention focused behind them. She could still just make out Tully’s and the road in front of it when the man tailing them reached there. As he passed the brothel, the man cut hard to the south and rode into the bush. Peep gave another whistle.
“Man in back hit the bush! Going for the bushrats!” Peep called out.
Choke waved his acknowledgement of the update as they rode on. As they neared the farm, where a number of people could be seen out in the fields, Choke kicked Nike up into a gallop.
With Choke about two horse-lengths out in front of Knuckle, Pinch, and Gabe, and Peep about the same behind, the squad galloped towards the farm on the road that passed through a few of its small fields. The farm consisted of a big farmhouse with three smaller buildings behind a fair-sized stone wall set right by the road.
Of course, the squad galloping straight for them upset the peasants at work, who all ran for their compound. This was natural. However, as the squad rode on past the farm, they spotted a woman out behind it doing something odd.
To the northwest of the farm, there was a nice strip of pastureland, leading to a bit of forest that jutted out from the main treeline, no doubt left there as a windbreak. At the edge of that was a cowshed. The road they were on curved to the north to head around the windbreak. Out in the pasture between the farm and the windbreak, a pair of children were running a small herd of cows towards the farm.
The woman, who had not been visible to the squad until they galloped on past the farm, was a ways out into the pasture, no doubt there to alert the children. Nothing unusual about that. However, as the squad passed her by, she was continuing to wave frantically, with her attention focused on the windbreak of trees behind the pasture and the children.
Peep, Pinch, and Gabe all noticed the woman’s focus. As they rode on, Peep and Pinch both spotted a pair of men standing up in the bush behind the cowshed.
Peep whistled sharply and pointed as Pinch raised himself high up in the saddle, yelling and pointing himself.
“Behind the cowshed!” Pinch yelled.
While he had seen nothing himself, Choke did not need to be told twice. Maintaining his gallop, he veered Nike off the road and into the pasture, heading straight for the cowshed, setting his lance as he did.
Following in back, Peep spared a look behind at the farm. There was nothing untoward. Focusing ahead, she could now see daylight in behind the trees of the windbreak. The forest there was not deep, and had an open meadow right behind it. Then she spotted the movement of a number of people in the bush there, getting into position.
Peep whistled a loud, long alarm.
Choke reined up and wheeled to the right as the first arrows came at him from the bush around the cowshed. He was just under a hundred meters from them, and the shortbow arrows all missed.
“Knuckle! Pinch!” Peep bellowed as she reined up and dismounted with her Scythan bow in hand. “Hit them to the left! Flush them out!” she pointed to the main woods to the south from where the windbreak began. “Gabe! Yar with them!”
The three had reined up as well and understood immediately what Peep was getting at. They galloped for the tree line to the south keeping about a hundred meters between them and the men in the windbreak. More shortbow arrows were shot out at them, but at that range there was little to no threat from them. None of them found their mark.
Peep now whistled at Choke and gestured for him to loop around the end of the windbreak at the road. He nodded and spurred Nike that way.
Now standing next to her horse out in the open pasture just over a hundred meters away from the cowshed, Peep replied to the bushwacking archers. A hundred meters may be a terribly long shot for a shortbow, but it is well inside easy killing range of a full-powered Scythan warbow. Peep spotted her first target and sent a war arrow his way. She could not tell if she hit the man, or was just close enough to scare him into dropping to cover. Either way, he was no longer a target. In the second it took Peep to notch another arrow, another target presented itself.
A tall man in buckskins stepped out from behind a tree with a mid-powered hunting bow. He and Peep shot at each other in about the same instant. With Peep’s bow being more than twice as powerful, her arrow reached him in a much lower arc. She hit him in the stomach when his arrow was still high in the air falling towards her, giving her time to crouch and step aside.
Following this, no one else in the windbreak tried their luck with Peep. She hopped up into her saddle and notched another arrow, waiting for another target.
Over at the south side of the pasture, to Peep’s left, Knuckle, Pinch, and Gabe had reached the forest. Knuckle and Pinch dismounted at a run and threw their reins Gabe’s way. With the farm’s peasants grazing their livestock in the area, the forest was marvelously free of any thick, entangling underbrush. Knuckle ducked into the trees first, unlimbering his greatsword from his back as he did. Pinch followed with his hunting bow notched and ready. Gabe took a moment to gather the horses before following as best he could.
Knuckle and Pinch came through the edge of the forest and into the trees of the windbreak. The finger of forest was about ten meters wide, with mature trees in the center offering a sheltering canopy above, and juvenile trees at the edges. Knuckle led the way, heading north down the windbreak’s center towards the cowshed about fifty meters on. He held his greatsword pointed straight in front of him, almost like a spear and moved fast at a jog as he wove between the tree trunks. Pinch followed a couple of meters back with his bow ready to shoot. They soon ran into the bandits.
The first three were ready for them. The one in front was jogging in a crouch straight for Knuckle with a small roundshield and a spear. Behind him, two shortbowmen popped out from behind trees to shoot.
Pinch paused and shot the first bowman he saw in the chest, felling him before he could release his own arrow. The second bowman shot Knuckle as he charged, but the shortbow arrow bounced harmlessly off his chainmail. Then Knuckle and the spearman clashed.
The spearman came in low in a lunge at Knuckle’s legs, looking to stab either of them or just trip him up. With an equal reach, Knuckle pivoted left, avoiding the spear lunge, and returned with a hard downwards chop towards the spearman’s neck. The spearman already had his shield raised to cover this attack, but the power of Knuckle’s blow was too much for him. Knuckle’s sword caught the edge of the shield and twisted the simple handle in its center boss from the man’s grip. There was plenty left on the swing to chop through the spearman’s neck and deep into his chest.
Pinch shot at the second archer who was ducking back behind his tree, and missed. Knuckle wrenched his greatsword free of the spearman’s torso and kept right on moving forward. Knuckle came around the shortbowman’s tree to find the lad running away through three warriors who were heading right for him. Two had smaller roundshields and spears, and the third was a big fellow with a battleaxe and standard roundshield.
Knuckle feinted right, as though to charge the battleaxeman, and then cut left, surprising the spearman moving to flank him on that side. The spearman managed a thrust that glanced off Knuckle’s armor before Knuckle cut off his left leg just above the knee.
Battleaxe Man and the second spearman closed on Knuckle, with the spearman moving to flank right. This would have been a fine idea, but it made him an easy shot for Pinch who had closed on his flank. Pinch shot him in the side, dropping him.
Knuckle and Battleaxe Man clashed head on. Knuckle smashed the man’s roundshield hard with a two-handed, downward slash, and stepped inside the man’s counter, ducking low so that the axehead overshot him and the shaft hit him harmlessly on the shoulder. Knuckle pressed on, dropping his sword as he ran into the man with all his considerable weight and dragged him to the ground. Now on top of the much lighter man, it was no matter for Knuckle to pin him and draw his dagger to stab him in the throat.
Further up the windbreak, the running bowman had whirled and shot wild, as another arrow came harmlessly overhead from even further back. Pinch closed on Knuckle and snapped a fast shot at the retreating bowman, which he missed.
Sparing only the time it took to sheathe his dagger and pick up his greatsword, Knuckle kept right on moving towards the cowshed through the trees. Ignoring the dismembered spearman screaming on the ground, Pinch followed with another arrow notched.
Through a thicker clump of trees, they found the rest of the ambushers hiding behind the cowshed. It was about ten meters to the shed, with just a few mature trees between them. There were seven bandits upright there, including the bowman fleeing Pinch and Knuckle who had just joined them. The bowman Peep had gut shot was nearby, writhing behind his tree, chewing dirt in his agony.
Even outnumbering them as they did, the assembled bandits wanted no part of Knuckle and Pinch. The screaming of their fellow was plainly audible, and the raw panic of the fleeing bowman joining them was infectious. Then there was Knuckle. A scarred giant with killing frenzy in his eyes, in iron helmet and full chainmail, covered in blood, with greatsword raised high: Knuckle may as well have been a legion of devils spawning from the gates of hell as he came through the trees at them.
Being creatures of the wild with a sense of survival, if nothing else, six of the seven remaining bandits had the presence of mind to run out the west edge of the windbreak, away from Peep’s position.
Out in the pasture, Peep was standing tall in her saddle with her bow at the ready. While she was no accomplished rider, making a shot from her stationary horse was no trouble. She shot the bandit that bolted from behind the cowshed like a rabbit flushed from a bush.
The cowshed the bandits had been hiding behind was near the north end of the windbreak, where the trees were beginning to thin out. There was little to no proper cover to be had between the cowshed and the road, which is why the six remaining bandits lit out into the meadow to the west of the windbreak. Sadly for them, Choke was waiting on Nike out by the road at the end of the windbreak, where he could observe both the pasture to its east and the meadow to the west.
As the bandits broke from the trees into the pasture, Choke put Nike into a charge straight for them. He had no need to spur Nike; the stallion he had raised and trained from a foal may as well have been a living part of his own body. Together, they closed the distance to the fleeing bandits in seconds.
One brave fellow with a roundshield and spear turned to face them. It was he that Choke drove his lance through. Then he rode on into the clump of remaining bandits, slowing as he did. With his front hooves lashing out in fast, head-level kicks, Nike felled two bandits straight away. Dropping his lance, Choke drew his longsword as he wheeled Nike in the middle of the remaining three, keeping his shield side towards the most dangerous looking: a brute with a big, two-handed axe. Nike kicked out with both hind legs as he whirled and sent another bandit crashing to the ground. The axe-wielder sent a wide chop at Nike’s neck, which Choke was able to lean out from his saddle to block with his kite shield. The blow was hard, numbing Choke’s arm and sending a sharp pain up through his shoulder as it notched his shield. Choke wheeled Nike again, causing the axeman to duck back from his lashing hooves. As he came around, Choke nudged Nike forward so that he could slash down at the axeman with his sword. He caught him high in the right arm and almost severed it.
Meanwhile, the last bandit, the same small shortbowman that had been running from Knuckle and Pinch since the start of the engagement, ran on into the meadow. He dropped out of sight into some thicker heather just as Choke slashed the axeman.
As the axeman fell with a shriek, Choke guided Nike sideways over top of him so that the warhorse could finish him of with prancing stomps from all four ironshod hooves. While Nike did this, Choke looked around the meadow for the last bandit. While the fellow had managed to hide, it was unfortunate for him that much of the morning dew was still upon the grass and heather of the meadow. It was not hard for Choke to see precisely where he had gone to ground.
Knuckle and Pinch popped out of the windbreak just a few meters away. Choke signaled for them to take care of the three bandits that Nike had felled with kicks, who were rolling around and groaning in pain. Then Choke rode down the last bandit. He simply followed the trail through the grass and rode Nike directly over top of the hiding lad, who screamed in terror and then pain as the large horse reared over top of him and then stomped him into oblivion. Looking down, Choke felt a twinge as he realized the lad could not be any older than fifteen.
Behind Choke, Knuckle and Pinch had already made quick work of finishing off the other bandits with their swords.
Over in the pasture, as soon as Choke had charged into the meadow, Peep whistled and waved over to Gabe crouched low in some bushes at the edge of the forest with three horses.
“Horses to the road!” she yelled, waving that way.
Gabe mounted up and quickly led Knuckle and Pinch’s horses through the pasture in front of Peep and to the road. When Gabe had passed, Peep followed him, riding slowly with her warbow in hand and her head on a swivel.
In the windbreak, the leg-severed bandit had stopped screaming, no doubt having bled out. However, there was some audible groaning and the occasional agonized cry as Peep and Pinch’s kills took their time dying from their arrow wounds.
Peep and Gabe had only need to wait about a minute at the road for Choke, Pinch, and Knuckle to join them from the meadow.
“Woah! Dood!” Peep said as she beheld Knuckle covered in blood. “Ye get any on ye?”
“Fuckin A!” he bellowed, his eyes bugging out wildly as veins popped in his face and neck.
With his greatsword held high above him, Knuckle then turned towards the farm and the forested hill behind and screamed a war cry of rage and exhilaration.
“Yeah, you tell them, man!” Peep exclaimed, giving Choke a happy thump with her bracer-covered forearm.
The five all mounted up and paused look around. All was quiet again.
“Okay, that went well,” Pinch said. “What next?”
Choke was rolling his left shoulder as he flexed his left arm and winced. “How much farther to the trading post?” he asked Gabe.
“A click and a bit,” he answered.
“You okay there, Choke?” Peep asked. “Ye need a Stron high five for that arm?”
Choke thought about it and shook his head. “It’ll be fine.”
“Cool cool. So, Gabe, this road to the outpost. Things nice and open like this? How many more farms are there?” Peep asked.
“Four, Miss Otilla. And it’s pretty open, yeah.”
“So we push on, right?” Peep asked the crew.
Their response was interrupted by the strident note of a warhorn, blown up in the forested hill behind the farm.
“That was close,” Peep said.
Now, the baying and barking of dogs could be made out. This, too, did not seem too far off.
“Okay, chop chop! Back to the church or push on?” Peep asked.
“Hiding at the church? From these assholes? Fuck that! Fuck them!” Knuckle exploded. Then he shouted, “Fuck you!” at the hill.
“Okay, so we’re taking them on a goose chase, right?” Peep checked with Choke, who nodded.
“Right!” Peep addressed the squad. “Thunder run straight to the outpost. Unless I say otherwise, no stopping this time. Anyone pops up, we push on past. Let’s go!”
With this, the squad fell back into their original formation as they took off down the road, heading for the trading post and military outpost at the end of civilization.
Muse Vassal 