LLM Part 1 Chapter 12

12.

The situation was contained later with Tonto explaining that he was away from the camp fire. He was tending the horses when the attack came. He did rush to help but it happened so fast. The attackers were focused on the group and not him.

“I don’t know. Maybe they are avoiding me. I only left the group for a short while.”

Mr. Smith wanted to go back for his men at dawn. He told Lance to continue in the pursuit with the carriages.  It was then the Lone Ranger and his partner rode off in silence. They picked up the tracks and pursued from there. It was dawn when they caught up with the carriages. Lance watched them with his looking glass.

The Hawkins group was resting by the river bank with three guards posted out. The others were all seated by the river banks and Mr. Hawkins was not seen. Lance saw the Corsair stepping out without his shirt. His chest showed the bulky muscles with the muscular forearms. He was holding the sabre favored by the Corsairs and having it swung as if he was in practice. The other gentleman was seated under the tree with his hands flexing the bow strings. The Ottoman bow was a recurved composite bow with the wooden core and animal horn on the belly. The bow was built tough with the needed strength to pull the string back. Omar was fingering the grip that allowed him the thumb draw on his bow. The grip prevents the arrow from moving when the archer is riding. The draw on the string was short but with the tautness and pulled on the string, it was enough to propel the arrow in a long distance.

“Indians!” The warning went out. The resting guards all grabbed their rifles from the saddles and took cover. Lance counted twenty five Native Indians in the first wave. They were riding in hard from the low hills. Lance focus on the native warriors riding then. He saw the war paints on their faces and chests. They were carrying an assorted range of rifles from the Winchesters to Spencer.

“Ndee!” Tonto called out on the name of the attackers’ tribe. They were Western Apache and he knew their strategy. The attacking group was the distraction. There was a second group there who will sneak in. He scoured the river and saw the second group of ten warriors were crossing the river and going for the flank of the guards.

“There were no warring tribes there.” Lance voiced out. “Who are they?”

“Peoples of the land. They are not renegades but there is a purpose to the attack.” Tonto replied and then pointed to the bank across the river. “There is the Shaman. He is here to protect the warriors. It’s the demon they sought too.”

The ten attackers from the flank opened fire at the carriages. The guards tried to double back but then Lance saw the figure emerging from the carriage. It was Sergei who rushed out with his sabre and then Omar also appeared. He held several arrows in his left hand and had them nocked on the bow string. He released the arrow and then moved onto the next one. He fired in succession but with each shot he aimed at different targets. He brought down four of the attackers there with his arrows. By then Sergei had reached the nearest attacker and his sabre removed the head in the swing. The Corsair then leaped up onto the headless body and used it to propel himself at the second attacker. He was shot then in the chest but that did not stop him. He cut the second attacker in half from the left shoulder with the downward swing before he did a body turned to toss the sabre at the third attacker in the chest. The sabre swung out like a rounded shield in a roll and cut into the flesh. The blood spurts out but by then Sergei had rushed forth to grab the sabre and used the body as a shield. With his strength, he pushed forward with the body and rushed at the fourth attacker. The attacker fired off two shots before retreating from the forceful adversary but his flight was cut short when Omar’s arrow pierced the left side of his neck. Sergei had not seen arrow and slammed into the Apache. The impact of the bodies slamming together propelled backwards into the tree trunk. Sergei gave it last push before he pulled up his body.

By then the others were all killed by Omar with his bow. The bowman was precise with his shots and then had lowered his bow. His lost shot had killed the attacker in the neck.

The first group that attacked the guards had withdrawn with half their numbers dead.

The fight was all over.

Lance watched on and saw the astounding feeding then. The guards all walked away to a far distance and then Hawkins stepped out from the carriage with the lady. They approached the dead bodies by the river and then crouched down. Hawkins was seen holding the wounded warrior in the hands and then he motioned to the lady. She leaned over and bared her fangs. She sank her fangs in and devoured the blood off them. Hawkins moved to another and saw it was a young warrior. The warrior was still alive despite the protruding arrow in the chest.

“Kaga…” The young warrior addressed Hawkins. The word was short but it was definitive to address the demon before him. Hawkins glared at the warrior and then stomped his right feet on the warrior’s chest near the arrow. The warrior screamed out in pain and then glared back at the other. He felt ashamed to cry out in pain and then called for the Great Spirit to guide him.

“He-ay-hee-ee!” It was then Hawkins move to stomp on the face and crush the nose into the brain. There was no more sounds then from the warrior. Across the river, the still surviving Shaman cried out with the words of the Spirits. Omar ended the chanting with an arrow into the Shaman’s throat. The elderly Shaman fell to his knees clutching the arrow and soon fell dead. Omar and Sergei then joined in the feast on the others. It was like watching the pack of lions feed on the plains. The only difference was the group then only drank the blood.

Lance leaned over to throw up but Tonto was still watching. The former looked at him and asked.

“Do you relish such feeding?” Lance asked.

“No, it’s not the feeding. It’s to know the demons in them. I could only kill them if they are beyond redemption of their sins.” Tonto replied. “Those are not sinners. They are the demons of the sins.”

The wait for the carriages to continue their journey was later at dusk after the rest from the feeding. The journey was for three more days and two nights before they arrived at what appeared to be a major town. The difference was the army fort on the edge of the town and the major rail tracks interchange. There was a train on the tracks with a series of wagons in the load.

“Welcome to Fort Bright.” Lance heard Hawkins called out. “This is where we will begin our next journey.”