Roar, Lioness. Roar

Bloody Canyon

From the cover provided by jutting cliff rocks, Latisha watches the savage women throw themselves into the kill zone. Rebel, her second, arms covered in tattoos and battle scars, raises her battle ax and shouts a challenge down the narrowing canyon. The rest of Latisha's hunting party scream insults and meaningless threats. The taunts echo off the cliff walls and into The Bright Waste. Driven into a frenzy by the challenge, the Red Rock reavers take the bait. Their leader, a burly ox of a woman wearing a horned helmet and a cape of bear fur dyed red, spurs the reavers forward.

"You are a stupid fat cow, yes," Latisha whispers to herself.

She counts their numbers: twenty-five Red Rock against three Yellow Suns. The comparison is almost ridiculous...

The Red Rock don't stand a chance.

Rebel shouts again, assuming a combat stance. Her companions, Bria and Anya, throw back their niqab and draw out their rifles. The lead Red Rocks try to slow down, realizing their mistake but it's too late. Latisha shoulders her own long gun and unsheathes her serrated hooked blade. Hidden by the cliff's long shadows, she runs along the contours of her ledge. The noonday sun descends behind the stone peaks, hiding from the carnage to come.

The feeling of the sand and stone beneath her bare feet provides a sharp sensation, seasoning to her mounting excitement. Born the daughter of The Lioness, Latisha's life has been full of blood and conquest. Below, Red Rock reavers charge into her trap. On the canyon floor, her hunting party will make The Yellow Sun proud.

Bria and Anya's rifles bark, and four of the enemy die. Two from hot metal, two as the bodies trip them up and they are trampled by their peers. The rifles bark again and two more reavers fall into the dirt as Latisha gains on the cow in the horned helmet. The Red Rock hit Bria's little surprise, a collection of chain and spikes that springs from the dirt in a crippling cyclone. A few of them get tangled in the jagged bloody mess. The only way around it is to squeeze between the chains and the jutting stone of the cliff. Three is the most that can pass through at one time. Their numbers mean nothing.

Latisha grabs a fistful of rope and leaps from the ledge, vocalizing as she falls upon the Red Rock band. The rest of her hunting party pick up the song, emerging from cover and firing down on their enemies. She cuts an angry red line across a tall woman's breast, giving her a momento that matches her clan's colors. Pulling the rope taut, Latisha plants her feet against the cliff wall and slashes her hooked blade across the eyes of another reaver. A nimble Red Rock scales the wall and swipes at her with deadly claws. Her head explodes, blood and brains splashing the earthen walls.

Latisha spares a moment to glance towards the top of the canyon where Verlaine guards her back from the scope of her sniper's rifle.

"Yellow Sun!" Latisha cries, releasing the rope and diving into the reavers below.

"Yellow Sun," her hunting party answers.

Tick and Patch fire from their hiding places on the lower cliff ledges, while Rebel leads Anya and Bria into close combat with axes and machetes. With their backs to a narrow deadend, the Yellow Suns have no fear of being ambushed. The Red Rock can only come from one direction and they've committed all of their band thinking their superior numbers would win the day. The Lioness teaches that force alone cannot win a war. A strong huntress must use her brains.

Muscle could never conquer The Bright Waste, not when Phalanx hid behind its metal walls and her dreaded Valkyrie ruled the skies.

Latisha tears open a Red Rock's guts then rolls aside, coming up with her blade to split another woman's leg from shin to hip bone. Strong hands grab her by the collar of her garbs and toss her through the air like a scrawny man-child. She lands in the dirt beside Bria's spiked chains and scrambles to her feet as the bigger woman charges, her head lowered to utilize the huge horns protruding from the side of her helmet. Latisha moves aside and the ox shakes her head side to side, cutting a thin line across the huntress' gut. Her fist connects with the woman's jaw, sending her stumbling backward.