by J.A. Sprouls
Chapter 18
The Flugs were slowly making their way back to the barracks. Those who had turned tail and ran after the first cannonball were already in bed. The others trickled in one by one and fell into bed exhausted. Those few Flugs who had gotten lost in the Square would eventually manage to make it back. At least, that was what Gesus hoped would happen. He was just thankful that there were no lives lost in this battle.
Gesus was humiliated. Such a resounding defeat and at the hands of humans, he'd never live this down. He went to the C.O.'s quarters to fill him in on the details. Gahn wasn't too happy about being awakened so early in the morning. His mood didn't improve any when Gesus told him what all had happened.
"Are you saying that not one of your troops stood his ground? They all just chickened out and went home? What type of troops are you training? Yellowbellies?" Gahn demanded answers.
"Actually, my troops are family men who want to be there for their family. Being killed in the line of duty isn't what they had planned on. We also didn't plan on the pirates being ready for our attack. But they were. We were hit with cannonballs before their cave had come into view. So they knew we were coming. I'm guessing that Gorbook isn't as good at covert disguises as he used to be and they knew we were watching them. So they were ready and armed to take us on. As to their running away, we didn't have the necessary equipment to take them on. All we had were spears and bows and arrows. They are no match for cannons and gun powder. If you want them defeated then we must match them, fire power for fire power."
Gahn sat there for a good five minutes before answering, "You're right. We have to beat them at their own game. So if they use gun powder then we must do so also. We don't have much of it in our supplies so you had better plan out our next attack carefully and you must make sure that optimum damage is incurred. That way we won't have wasted the explosives."
"I'll begin planning right away. I know the lay of the land now so it shouldn't be too hard to figure out how to win against them. They are, after all, humans. We Flugs have and always will be superior to them in every way. They may outsmart us once but certainly not twice." Gesus saluted and left Gahn to get back to sleep.
Gesus woke up his very best strategists and they stayed up the rest of the night to figure out the best plan to take out the humans.
Meanwhile, Jethro couldn't sleep after all the excitement of the attack so he got dressed and headed out to look for a new hideout. He thought it might be best to find one immediately so that if the Flugs attacked again then they wouldn't know where the pirates were.
He saw that Tally was back in his hammock sound asleep. Though Tally did stir every once in a while and murmured something about no one touching his stew. Jethro shrugged, not knowing and, for that matter, not wanting to know what that was about. He headed south in hopes of finding some place in the canyons that would be protected and not that easy to get to. He had searched most of the night and by early morning he had finally found the perfect place. It wasn't a cave but it was definitely well protected and would be easy to defend in case of an attack. It was also well hidden. So the Flugs would have a hard time finding them. He headed back to the cave and made it back by the time Wicket had breakfast finished. He informed the others of what he had found and they all agreed it would be best if they went there immediately before the Flugs could rally the troops back together again. Jethro figured that it might take a while to get the troops all gathered up simply because they had scattered like dust in the wind. Since he knew that most Flugs didn't have a great sense of direction that might take days to happen.
After Wicket and Tally had gathered up the cannonballs that Tally had used in last night's battle, the pirates started to break down the hideout and prepared to head out to the new one. It took most of the morning to get everything torn down and loaded up. Jethro was just thankful that he had kept his two oxen, though he had mainly done that to insure the girls had fresh milk. But the oxen came in handy in getting everything moved and moved quickly. By midafternoon they had everything they needed and wanted at the new hideout. All they needed to do now was set up the cabins.
Jethro took one of the oxen back to the original cave. It had been decided to try and fool the Flugs into believing that this was still their hideout. That meant that Jethro would set things up to make it look inhabited. He got some of the gourds that grow wild and with some straw and old clothing he made dummies to pose as lookouts, using the gourds as heads. He even went so far as to paint faces on the gourds. He went out a few hundred yards to see what the dummies looked like from afar and was pleased with the way it looked. So he got back on his oxen and tied some scrub to the back of the oxen so that it would drag the ground and obliterate any signs of their having moved their hideout.
With all the precautions achieved the pirates settled down into their new hideout. It was a large outcropping in the canyon wall. You couldn't see it from up top and you wouldn't have known it was there from the way the wall angled out to the side. It wasn't until you were right in front of it, that you would see it. But by the same token there were little perches that could be utilized by the lookouts to watch most of the valley area. From those lookout points you could see for miles. So there was no way the Flugs would be able to sneak up on them like they did last night.
The Flugs, like the pirates had had a very busy day and they too had accomplished a lot of things. It had been decided that a lookout would be sent to keep an eye on the humans. Just so they knew just what they were up to. Unfortunately, this decision wasn't made until after the pirates had already moved. But the lookouts thought the dummies that Jethro had set up were really humans so they thought they still were using the cave. They sent a report saying as much back to the C.O. and Gesus.
Gesus and his strategists had devised a great plan that even the C.O. approved. They would send the demolition crew out in early evening and set charges on the cliff just above the cave opening. Then they would do another, though hopefully more successful, frontal attack and drive the pirates into the cave. Then they would blow the cave entrance up and trap them inside. There would be no way they could dig themselves out. After all, they aren't Flugs. They don't have control over dirt like the Flugs do. They would then starve to death without the Flugs actually having to take their lives by their own hands. They would never bother the Flugs again. So the C.O. gave the necessary orders to have this plan carried out. This time, he would be sure it was done properly and would supervise it himself. That way the victory would go down on his record. Of course, if it failed, then it was all Gesus' idea and he had nothing to do with it.
The demolition squad had managed to make it to the cliff top just above the cave and set their charges. They then crawled back down and signaled the ground troops that the charges were set so they could commence with the ground attack whenever they were ready. Gahn was looking at the cave entrance and could see two humans just sitting there. He knew that they would spot any movement above ground so he had the mining crew dig shallow tunnels in the direction of the cave. This way the troops could get up close enough to the cave without being seen. And since they were Flugs they were very good at traversing the dirt.
With the tunnels finished in short order he sent the first wave of troops to get through the tunnels and take up positions for attack. He had a second wave of troops ready to head out on ground if the humans spotted the tunnel squads coming out of the tunnels. He hoped the ground troops would distract them so that all the tunnel squads would make it out of the tunnels and in position to attack and drive the humans back into the cave. The two humans at the mouth of the cave didn't appear to have noticed anything. They hadn't even moved since the Flugs had gotten there. Gahn figured that the two had fallen asleep on the job. That was typical for humans, too lazy to stay awake for an attack. Well, all the more easy for the Flugs to gain a great victory. So Gahn gave the order to start attacking and drive the humans into the cave.
The ground troops, from the initial tu
nnel squads, leapt up and threw their spears at the humans and the archers let loose their arrows. The humans pretty much rolled over and played dead from what Gahn could see. Daggum it, he told them not to kill anyone. It was about that time that Gesus, who was also looking through another pair of binoculars, noticed that the heads of the humans were headed into the cave. It almost appeared as though they were rolling but that was impossible. It was most likely they were crawling into the cave to keep low and out of the range of the spears and arrows. So Gesus told Gahn that the humans were crawling into the cave to hide. Gahn immediately ordered the charges to be detonated and in a few minutes there was a very loud explosion and the top of the cave crashed down covering the entire entrance, thus trapping the humans inside. This was a really great victory for the Flugs. Now with the humans trapped they would have to just sit there and wait to die.
Gahn congratulated all the troops and told them that this was an important day in the history of the Flug military. Yes, the Flugs outsmarted the humans and trapped them like the animals they were. They headed back to headquarters to celebrate.
Just off to the south of the cave, Jethro and Lark, who had been hunting for supper, heard a ruckus and so they crawled closer to the noise to see just what was up. They saw the Flugs not too far from the cave opening. They heard them charging at the cave and attacking. In a few minutes there was a great explosion and the top of the cave came crashing down.
"Gosh, I guess it was a good thing that we left," Lark said in the greatest understatement of the world.
"I figured the Flugs would try to attack again. That was why I wanted to get us out of there. They aren't the swiftest of creatures but they are bound and determined to win, no matter what," Jethro said.
"You think we had better get back to the new hideout and let everyone know what happened?"
"I think, for the moment, we should just lie here real still and wait for the Flugs to leave. That way they won't see us and then follow us to the new hideout. The last thing we need is to have them attack us there."
They lay there for over an hour to make absolutely sure all the Flugs had left the area. It took them a while to leave because the Flugs had to have their epic battle recorded by their historical artist, who obviously was very slow at drawing. A souvenir, Jethro supposed. He didn't figure any of them would hang around for too terribly long simply because they were in the middle of the Square and the Flugs were just as superstitious as any human was about the Square. When it was absolutely obvious that they had left, Lark and Jethro slowly crawled back down into a canyon and headed back to the new hideout.
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