The Tirnano - Book 1 'FINN'

by Peter Emmerson

  Approaching the rocks the formation split into two, each arm moving out to encircle the area, the spare mounts halted and stood waiting silently, waiting and watching ready to join battle if required. As one the warriors turned towards the centre, and with bows at the ready, and with arrows notched they moved forward.

  ‘Bunched, behind rock’ signalled Bodan, the information was quickly relayed round the troop. Roza confirmed the information from her side of the rocks, as one the troop moved through the outer rocks towards the target area.

  As they moved inward they came across a group of filthy, frightened youngsters, none of whom were more than sixteen years old. They were dressed sparsely in roughly prepared hides which barely covered their skinny, almost skeletal, naked bodies; they carried no weapons other than four steer’s thigh bones which they used as clubs. It was obvious that they hadn’t eaten properly for weeks, and probably not at all for the last few days. The youngsters had been aware of the troop’s approach, and had formed some semblance of a defence square with the weakest in the centre. Four club wielders were at the corners.

  ‘Ho;’ signed Pavel, ‘what we got here then?’

  One of the group obviously their leader clicked, ‘Just lookin’ for food Lord, just lookin’ for food, we ain’t doin’ no harm.’ His eyes were slanted more in the human style, but like their own his skin was variegated. The kids were clearly frightened, expecting that the next few moments were to be their last.

  On seeing the approaching battle troop riding terrifying creatures, all well fed, well clothed and carrying formidable weapons, against which their four thigh bones would have effect. They had formed a protective square and waited for the end to come. Realising now that all hope was gone, some sank to the ground in absolute misery.

  Had the last ten weeks of starvation? Brothers, sisters and close friends who had been taken or killed by the Gargoys? The deadly cold, and ice of the snow fields counted for nothing?

  But along with the dread, there was pride and not a little defiance in their slanted eyes. They had never seen such short but frightening men and women, even Roza the tallest member of the troop was at least half a head below the shortest of them in height.

  The youngsters had variegated skins, and eyes of bright gold, their skin base colour was a light tan. They had dark hair, and the males were without manes. The hunters were confused, for the stories told that the Chin had clear skins. The Chin were of all shades of skin, from the deepest black through to almost pure white. But no Chin had skins like their own, variegated, with stripes and blotches, lines and circles. These children’s skins had markings of every colour that humans’ could be, and like the hunters’ not one of them was alike in their markings. These children could not be Chin; surely Chin were tall, more like Dippy Timmie.

  None of the hunters had fought against Chin before. It had been at least thirty years since the last time the Clan had faced the Chin, and none of the reports from that time mentioned that they had variegated skins.

  The children had never seen the like either, the trooper’s round, almost circular eyes, the strange colourings in their close cropped hair, their grey variegated skins, with only black markings. The hunter’s short stature too, was totally alien to them. But more surprising was that they had long forked tongues like their own which constantly flicked from between their split upper lips and the glimpses of the long, sharp canine teeth in both top and bottom jaws was something the youngsters did not have. That they shared a style of communication and the same language was a bonus.

  Albie dismounted, he was father of two who were not much younger than the now kneeling group, he looked them over for a moment, and suddenly, showing an unheard of compassion, signed, ‘Get them cleaned up, then fed and dressed. We’ll set up camp here for the night. When they’re cleaned I want to see that one,’ he pointed to the youngster who had responded, then spun on his heel and preceded his mount away from the group of children, his nose wrinkling.

  The Runners were not as polite as their riders, they snorted and stamped in an effort to clear the scent of the youngsters from their nostrils, Roza, Ames and Yevgeniy one of Albie’s corporals led the bunch of youngsters to a large pool at the rear of the standing stones.

  From their packs they extracted bars of soap made from animal fat and threw them at the group, ‘When you’s clean, you get to eat, ‘n’ that hair is gonna get cut, you could’ve Gargoys living in that lot,’ signed Ames.

  Almost as one they shucked the filthy skins they were wearing, and naked as the day they were born and with as much modesty, leapt into the freezing water of the pool. With gasps and hoots they began to scrub the accumulated dirt from their skinny bodies. The water that flowed from the pool was black with filth.

  Yevgeniy had disappeared when the group hopped into the water, but returned after a few minutes carrying spare clothing which she had scrounged from the generous troopers. The clothing would be wide in the shoulder, short in leg and arm, but better than nothing. The youngsters would have to do without footwear, for no one was prepared to part with their soft ankle boots or moccasins, none of which would have fit the children’s large feet anyway, ‘Cut up their old skins, they can stand on the bits and we’ll tie them at the ankle, that should do till we can get them properly shod,’ suggested Ames.

  The old skins were thrown in with the youngsters who began scrubbing at the filthy hides until some semblance of cleanliness had been achieved. Then dripping wet, glowing pink, and shivering in the cold air, they lined up to receive their new clothes and wrapped the still wet pieces of skin around their feet. When dried, they would surely be warmer than bare feet, and serve them as boots.

  Once they were clean, their hair cut to shoulder length, and dressed warmly, more warmly than they had been for as long as they could remember. They were escorted to the camp fires. The troopers had eaten, and stood around watching as the youngsters fell upon the meat and onions like ravenous Gargoys.

  Their clean clothes were soon streaked in fat and gravy, but at least it was clean fat and clean gravy, a few handfuls of water and the impervious leather clothing would be almost as clean as before the meal.

  It was some hours later, sentries had been posted, fires were burning brightly and the flickering light illuminated the faces of the youngsters who were relishing the warmth of the fire and the pain of full bellies. Pavel and Albie moved into the light, the group of youngsters immediately assumed a kneeling position, their heads down, eyes looking at their knees.

  ‘You, the leader, what’s your name?’ clicked Pavel.

  ‘Xjang Lord’ replied the boy who then stood, his head bowed.

  Xjang answered all their questions with an open honesty, ‘Where had they come from? What were they doing? Why were they in clan territory?’ And a host of others including, ‘how they came to be so far into Tirnano lands?’

  The question on clan territory generated great surprise for the lad confessed that they had never heard of the clan, nor did they know that they had trespassed into clan lands.

  The final question was the big one, had they seen any other troops, a large band of mounted warriors, mature soldiers.

  ‘Ten nights ago we hid from just such a band, in fact when we first saw you we thought that it was them, and that they had found us.’

  ‘Ten days ago? How far have you travelled since then?’ snapped Albie impatiently.

  ‘We only move at night Lord, to avoid the Gargoys, but we usually cover about three to five klicks a night.’

  Pavel did a quick mental calculation, ‘That’s about a hard day’s ride Boss.’

  Albie pondered for a moment, ‘We need to check it out. In the morning we’ll split back into our two patrols, my patrol will head directly back towards where the kids saw the troopers. Your patrol loop round ‘n’ see if you can cross any trail further along the line the kids were travelling. - If we make no contact we meet back here in six days time, if you see the Chin no heroics, just observe and then come bac
k here, we need to report back to the Clan, not get killed.’

  Pavel could see no reason to argue or add anything to the Troop Leader’s suggestions and nodded his understanding, fisting his forehead he spun on his heel.

  ‘If you find tracks on the trail, send a spare Runner to fetch us, wait for us to catch up. I mean it, no heroics,’ Albie clicked to Pavel as he turned away.

  ‘Affirmative,’ clicked Pavel over his shoulder, ‘no heroics,’ the fingers of his other hand tightly crossed. He turned back to the troop commander.

  ‘Take half the kids with you, we’ll take the other half, if they get in the way just dump them, but they might come in handy, anyone who can survive out here the way they have deserves some respect,’ clicked Albie.

  Pavel couldn’t help but agree; he responded with another clicked ‘Affirmative’ and returned to his own patrol to pass on the instructions, and to get them started on preparations for moving out at first light.

  ‘Boss says no heroics, so no fighting if we meet up with them,’ Pavel clicked to Jojo as they lay side by side looking up at the scudding clouds above them, the intermittent view of the moon was accompanied by the landscape being lit with its flickering pale light as it peeped occasionally from between the huge clouds on its way towards the horizon.

  ‘As if!’ responded the big man sarcastically. ‘By heck, those kids stunk,’ he clicked almost to himself, changing the subject.

  ‘Pretty much how we do on the return from a hunt,’ clicked Pavel.

  ‘Nah, never like that, they were covered in shite, smelt like people shite at that, must have been to pong that bad,’ he grunted, turned over, farted and like a true hunter was instantly asleep. But like the true warrior he was, he would be instantly awake and active at the slightest, out of the ordinary sound. Pavel listened to his brother’s regular breathing for a minute longer before giving in and accepting the comforting oblivion of sleep.

  40.

  CONTACT

  Northern Plains

  Tirnano Country

  Just before dawn, by the light of the dipping moon, and before the snows began to fall, they were mounted and mobile.

  The most difficult part had been loading the five youngsters onto the mounts. Not one of them, no matter how much they were threatened, would mount and ride alone on the spare Runners. In the end they reluctantly agreed to ride behind a hunter, and were lifted up behind the five tallest riders in each patrol. The mounts found it amusing and snorted, swishing their long sinuous tails, slapping the unwary youngsters around the ears.

  ‘Stop that!’ commanded Roza, as the girl behind her took another stinging slap around the side of her face.

  ‘Enough of the messing, we got a job to do, all of us!’ her mount a lithe dappled mare, who was more than capable of galloping for hours on end with all five of the youngsters on her back, snorted in disgust but settled down as ordered.

  The girl behind her was wide eyed as she witnessed the exchange between the tiny huntress and her huge mount.

  They rode hard for most of the day, looking for signs of any passage of a large group, Roza as the stronger viber was in her usual position with Bodan as tail guard.

  It was just after they had stopped at a rock outcrop to make camp for the evening, that one of the youngsters began clicking away to Xjang in an excited manner. Within moments the lad ran to Pavel who was tending his mounts. ‘Lord, Lord the other group is under attack.’

  ‘How do you know?’ demanded Pavel.

  ‘Winalto can speak with her brother who is in the other group, they are being slaughtered by attackers, they are ambushed, not far from here in the next oasis to the east.’

  Pavel looked across the plains to the east but by now the sun was dropping and the scene was flooded with red and green light; there was no way he could make out any distinguishing features.

  ‘Are you absolutely sure?’

  ‘Yes Lord, they speak to each other with their minds all the time.’

  ‘Bring her here now!’ Pavel’s clicked command brought instant response for the young girl was within earshot and ran forward immediately; tears were streaming down her cheeks.

  ‘Tell me what is happening!’

  ‘We must help them Lord, they are not far, the attackers have long knives which cut people, my brother has been hurt, he is hiding behind a dead horse, and the Chin are killing everyone.’

  Pavel considered for a moment then gave the command his entire patrol expected, ‘Mount up! We ride!’

  As one, they vaulted onto their steeds and taking up battle formation set off in the direction the girl indicated. It took them more than an hour’s hard riding before Tonne held up her right hand. The troop halted immediately and closed around the scout.

  ‘About three hundred paces, there are two sentries, with another two to their right, they are hidden in the grass, we will have to take them out before we can go any further.’ She clicked.

  ‘Bodan, Roza, you know what to do.’

  ‘Sure Boss,’ Roza replied, and they both passed care of their mounts to their colleagues. The moon was about to disappear behind a large bank of clouds and the scene was flooded with a pale light; they waited until the last glimmer of the moon had disappeared, before melting into the grass.

  Moving in absolute silence, the two guided by their viber senses came upon the first pair of sentries, a hand across the mouth and a knife across the throat were sufficient. The two were clad in thick clothing, the likes of which neither hunter had ever seen or felt before. The little girl was right, they carried long knives with blades at least an arm’s length in size. The knives were honed to a sharpness which neither of the hunters could have imagined; as sharp as the best struck flint edge and certainly keener than the bone knives that they carried. Their own bone knives were more like spikes than knives in comparison. Taking up the new knives they slipped through the grass once more towards the second pair of guards.

  The second set of sentries was dispatched in like manner. They had no notion of the silent death which crept to within a pace of their positions. Two more knives were added to the hunter’s plunder.

  The moon was beginning to make its presence known by the time the pair made their way back to the waiting patrol. Within moments the entire patrol crowded around the two, closely inspecting the long blades.

  ‘If they all got these, we are going to have a real fight and none of it can be close quarter,’ clicked Pavel quietly.

  ‘In the next cloud over we move closer to the oasis and check out the odds, if there is a fight and it goes bad, Bodan you take your section and leg it back to the caves, we have to get at least one of these weapons back to show the Elders, it could be the end of the Clan if we have to fight against serious numbers armed with weapons like these.’

  He continued, ‘I think that a good plan would be to keep ourselves out of their reach, we leave the Runners here, the youngsters can stay with them, and we’ll go on foot through the gap you have made. Bows and knives only.’

  There was a shout and cries of alarm, ‘Looks like the element of surprise has gone,’ clicked Luie, ‘time to party, they’ll be streaming all over this place in a moment or two.’

  ‘To war then, but keep away from these long knives, we use bows, knives only if you have to. Section commanders take your posts, Luie you go with Bodan, I’ll stick with Roza’s section.’

  By now the shouts had doubled in intensity as the second pair of bodies were found, Chin came streaming out of the oasis, some obviously straight from their bedrolls, for they were only half dressed, but they were all waving the sharp shiny long knives.

  The first volley of arrows fired by Bodan’s section took out six of them, before they could prepare or defend themselves five more fell to a salvo from Roza’s side. The sections moved with discipline to new positions, and a few moments later another volley of arrows fell upon the now confused Chin warriors, downing another five. They were obviously not accustomed to being attacked.


  With shouted commands their leaders restored some semblance of order, and they ran as one back to the safety of the oasis’ rocks. Two of the hunters slipped through the grass and relieved the fallen warriors of their long knives, at the same time dispatching those who were not dead. There were enough knives now to equip all the patrol members. The hunters felt the weight of the weapons and with a few tentative swings began to work out how they could be used. It was not a pretty thought; these knives could cut a man in two.

  ‘Now we’re going to get serious, it’s going to get real dark before snow and dawn, so we better make it good, I want to know numbers and where they are in the oasis. Bodan and Roza get down closer and vibe them out for me, the rest of you refill your quivers from the from the pack mounts, if you have to use the long knives, improvise, learn from them, but don’t get yourself killed while you do so,’ they all chuckled at his joke and then sped off to the mounts, moving like wraiths through the grass.