Skytrails

13-Settlers

Keten'tenka clawed her way up the dry, rocky edge of the ravine. That was close, she thought. The broken remains of another warrior lay sprawled across the rocks at the bottom, near the shallow stream, but not in it.

If the dead body touched the water, the water would be fouled for miles. If the body bled into the water, the water would be fouled for miles. If a wild animal tore the body apart and caused any of it to fall into the water, the water would be fouled for miles.

She pulled herself over the lip of the ravine and rolled onto her back. The enemy had been a worthy one. She had fought and died honorably, but she had been too predictable. And too cautious.

Keten'tenka had fought her enemy hard, knocking spears and trading cuts, corralling her close to the edge of the ravine. As soon as the other woman was close enough, Keten'tenka planted her spear and pushed her full weight, feet first, into her enemy. The other woman had kept her spear up and sliced a ragged line across Keten'tenka's shoulder. They had both gone over the edge, but the other woman had flown, while Keten'tenka had merely dropped, skidding down on her back until she could stop herself against a rock.

She stood and retrieved her spear. She felt her shoulder and stiffened at the pain. She exhaled slowly and looked down at the wound. More serious than she had thought. She would have one of the others bandage her later, but first they had to make sure there were no other raiding bands.

Her fellow warriors waved her up to the top of the bluff where the fighting had begun. The raiding band had been foolish to attack them there, counting on their greater numbers to overcome the downhill advantage. But trying to kill someone standing above you while running uphill.... Foolishness.

Even the hairy devil men knew that much. But desperation made people foolish.

Keten'tenka joined the other twelve women. All of them, alive and whole. Daer'jii looked to be the worst off, bleeding from a deep gash in her leg, below her hip. The two of them bore the most serious wounds.

'Tenka,' said one of the women, 'Can you run?' The woman was called Yaere'ya, the oldest in the circle. She had seen thirty summers and was a grandmother now. She would not go out with the scouts much longer, maybe a few more seasons, but she was not ready to stay at camp with the men, children, and old women just yet.

Keten'tenka nodded.

'Jii?' asked Yaere'ya.

Daer'jii, face full of anger, shook her head. Daer'jii was still young. Seventeen summers. She had been unable to give birth as yet, and worked all the harder to prove herself as a warrior. Keten'tenka knew Daer'jii despised this, being the weakest section of their spear due to her injury.

'I will stay with Daer'jii,' Keten'tenka said. 'The rest of you, go.'

They did. The other eleven ran like furious gusts of wind across the barren wilderness of the Kepta'jaera. If the two women stayed at the top of the bluff, they would see the dust cloud made by their sister warriors for some time.

'Bad luck to go on without all thirteen,' said Daer'jii.

'Aye,' Keten'tenka nodded, 'But worse luck to drag along two cripples. Come, let's go upstream to where the ravine is shallower so we can wash our wounds.' Together they made their way down the bluff and north along the edge of the ravine, Tenka using her good arm to support Jii's weight.

As they neared the place where the ravine shallowed and the stream became easier to reach, the two women stopped. Keten'tenka could not believe her eyes. There, on the far side of the stream, a settlement grew along the bank and up the gently sloping hillside above it.