It was unable to make the change in many creatures at once. The thinking process was too slow. But it had changed some. And the new young would be born with the changes. These new creatures were a threat like the other. They must be combated. And they lived where it could get at them.
—
As yet another joyful song came from the compound, Seth looked at Hadassah, “Truly this is insane. Here we are in the middle of a hunt, and you all are giving birth right and left.” Hadassah grinned at him, but didn’t argue, instead riding off toward the sounds. Amandus watched her go, envying Seth the son that clung to her back. He kept asking Constantina, but it was not yet her time.
The hunt had been going very well. The new technique was working.
So far only one more person had died, this time a Horseman, trampled by an enraged Beast who had managed to get out of the circle. Seven weeks they had been out on the plains, and they had feasted well; more than well. Much of the meat had been smoked and carted back to the castle.
Hadassah had been only the first to give birth. Two weeks after her birth, everyone noticed a commotion in the Telumato camp. Seth and Hadassah (the baby clinging to her back) had ridden over toward the camp, when they were met by Quirinus coming toward them.
“Turn back my Brother, ride on my Sister,” he had said. “We Men are being chased from the compound.”
Quirinus turned back to Seth, “Truly it is amazing. He who is has been preparing us for this adventure.”
That had been the beginning of the Spearwomen births. There had been five so far by count. The men had started living outside the compound.
Amandus was nervous. Constantina had not yet given birth but, if she was to be believed, the signs were she would do so soon. “Poor Amandus,”
Hadassah said to him, “are you sure you have fully made the change?” He bristled, then calmed. She was only teasing him. He often wondered, though.
He was powerful, more powerful than he had ever been before; and he thought he was brave in battle − certainly he had never run away or said anything. But he was younger than the rest of the men, and often worried about living up to their standard.
He looked at her and broke into a grin. She looked funny, with the baby clinging to her back. Of all the races, only Farmer and Dwarf babies could not cling, but he was used to Marshman fashion with the baby clinging in the front, and still found the Aviovamimo fashion odd. She grinned back at him, and then rode off toward the compound.
She hadn’t gotten very far when they heard a yell from a nearby hillside. He looked and one of the Horsemen, a Horseboy in fact, came galloping over the hill. Seth and several others rode toward him, and Amandus ran beside them.
“Hunt Leader, my Lord − they are coming! Several Beasts are coming.
They saw me from far away and started after me.”
“How many, Poika?” the Leader demanded.
“I don’t know. At least a dozen.”
“The women!” Seth said, “We must protect the women and children.”
The Hunt Leader galloped back, yelling instructions, and Amandus ran beside him, his heart pounding. One advantage of working with a militaristic people, he thought, was how quickly they followed instructions. The Hunt Leader soon had them organized as he wished, with the Spearmen forming a line around the tents, the Spearwomen forming inside them, and the Horsemen riding away.
“Where are they going?” Amandus asked.
“The men and boys will hunt from outside, the women and young children will ride to a hilltop and watch for other dangers,” the Leader responded.
Two minutes after the Horseboy had come over the hill, the first of the Beasts followed him. And this Beast didn’t hesitate, but charged down the hill, straight at the camp. He hadn’t gotten more than several yards down the hill when the second, and then the third Beast came in view. Amandus stood behind his Spearleader, his spear held out, guarding the compound, and watching the Horsemen, as they tried to turn the Beasts.
However this was not as easy as it seemed. When the Horsemen would get close, some of the Beasts would break off and chase them, but then would immediately turn back to assaulting the Spearmen. They had never been like this before. Everyone knew the Horsemen had to get in, had to take the pressure off the Spearmen.
The Beasts had now reached them, but Amandus didn’t have much to do yet. The Beast in front of them was fairly small, and intimidated by the wall of spears it faced. It snorted and pawed at the ground, but every time it looked toward moving in, the spears moved with it.
But there were not going to be enough spears, and the Beast behind this one was much larger, and would be harder to stop. Already one Telumata was out of the line, being bandaged by his wife, and his second had had to move forward into his spot.
Outside of the line Horsemen were frantically trying to get around the Beasts so they could attack the ones going against the circle, the ones attacking towards the women and children. Their own women were safe, but this didn’t seem to lessen their resolution.
“Spread out, spread out!” Amandus heard the Hunt Leader cry.
And so they spread out. Horsemen and Horseboy they spread out, around and around the Beasts. More and more Beasts turned to attack them.
But still the main crowd went after the circle of Spearmen, a circle around the 180 tents − too few Spearmen guarding too large an area. Amandus saw one of the Spearmen go down and another move to take his place against the Beasts.
It was one of the younger Horseboys, the Hunt Leader’s second Son, who finally broke through. He rode in between the Beasts that were chasing the Horsemen, dodging rapidly up, until he could launch one of his spears against one of the inner attackers, the large Beast that had already done damage. That Beast, and two others, turned, and chased after him, leaving a hole in the Beasts ranks for a few seconds. The Horseboy danced out through the other Beasts.
Now that they had the idea, other Horsemen followed his example…
Of course Spearmen didn't get nervous, but had he been of any other race you would have said that Quirinus was nervous. He sat, together with several of the men, again, at a fire, well outside the compound. They had already distributed the Wives and the men were waiting for the last of the Spearwomen to give birth. The last Spearwoman, Camilla, Quirinus' own Wife.
"I still remember watching the two of you ride off together," Seth was saying, "I was worried that the day would never come!" "Some of us were just slower learners than others," protested one of the other Spearmen, who had also been in the slow language class.
“It was not that we were slow learners, my Friend,” Quirinus said. “We were slow changers. We knew that our old life was coming to an end, and we were reluctant to let it go.”
He gazed at Seth, “You were dragging me somewhere I didn’t want to go, my Lord.”
Seth merely looked at him an amused grin on his face.
“You − and He Who Is,” Quirinus continued, “breaking our pride, bending us to His will, His plan.” He shook his head as if to clear it.
“But I knew nothing of all that at the time, or at least I never admitted it − to myself or anyone else. All I knew was that I hated −” He turned toward Seth, “I hated you.”
“Strong words,” said Seth.
“No stronger than my feelings; although I hope my behavior was proper, I was very angry.”
“So when did you forgive me?” Seth asked.
“I − I don’t know.” Quirinus got up and paced. “You were an excellent teacher, but that almost made me more angry. And then you gave me a Wife. I tried to convince myself to be angry despite that; that it was but a political alliance.”
“And then our time on Schip. Visser do get angry, but they don’t stay angry, and I found my anger evaporating.”
“Then we came here, and I saw what was needed, and I was very, very angry again. I saw that your plan was working, but I saw that my part in it was not to be a Farmer. And then − and then I changed.”
“You could still be a Farmer,” Seth replied. “You have more than earned yourself an estate, once we settle land near a river.”
Quirinus laughed, a booming laugh, “Foolish, foolish Farmer. Do you think I want that now? It all seems as a dream and a vapor to me now! Behold, you have made me a Prince of Spearmen, of all people the most brave and strong, and you would now demote me to grubbing in the dirt?”
Everyone laughed, and then Quirinus asked, “My Lord, how is it that you, or your Father, came up with this plan? Had your Father been planning it for years?”
Seth stared off at the camp, “No. Indeed no. I can hardly tell you how it happened, actually. You remember that final battle. The one that wasn’t a battle at all? Where we faced down my Father’s enemies at Oak Valley?”
Everyone’s head nodded. Their lives had been changed forever by that battle that wasn’t a battle.
“Well, I and my friends had just joined with my Father, and we sat up late that night talking. And we −” he looked at Tristan, “I can’t remember at all how it happened. We talked, and talked. One person said one thing, and one another. We never really ‘decided’ to do it − after an hour or so of talking it was like we were all agreed already, and were just working on the details. The General, once my Father co-opted him, had many more ideas, but − but it was never really like we decided to do it, we just knew that we had it to do.”
“Well, however it happened,” Quirinus began, but suddenly there was the noise of hoof beats, and a Horsegirl came galloping up to the edge of the circle, standing her horse with those of the Horsemen and Poiken37 at the edge of the crowd. Everyone looked at her.
“It’s a boy,” she said.
The Inn
The men looked out over the river, where the Dolphin swam, lazily. “It is going well,” the Ellyll said.
“Well indeed,” the Sjefen, agreed. “And perhaps soon even more can join.”
//Join? Join? Purpose? Duty?// The Dolphin replied, it’s sharp tones echoing out of the river, //Live do we. Bred have we.//
“We are one,” came the booming tones of a Troll.
//One we are. One we are.//
//All of us, all are one. All, all.//
The tones were accusing, and everyone looked to the roof of the inn.
“We are one, but to work together might be a slow flight,” the grand creature flapped its wings, and then settled back. “The struggle will be long, but we will all be one.”
“In the service of He Who Is,” the Farmer said, and all agreed, “May He Who Is be praised, and glorified, and honored, forever and ever.”
Thus ends book II of this series. I should be getting Book III (Dwarves and Dragons) up soon. It is one of my favourites :)
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Von