02 Quetzals Flock

QUETZAL'S FLOCK
Obeid had two thousand men at his immediate command. Hammadi led
another five hundred. Obeid disdained to take the elementary precaution of
safeguarding his women and children. They remained in the war camp under the
protection of a few older men. Obeid had a few patrols watching his rear. If the
necessity arose, he could split his force and take care of a two pronged attack.
If the truth was faced, there hadn't been a battle for a long time. There had
been much talk of battle, old men reflected on bygone glories and stratagems, which
had been fought out originally and inconclusively, many centuries earlier. The
strategies had been exaggerated and the outcomes falsified to be great victories. It
suited the recollections of the ancients, but owed little to the truth. Eridos and Obeid
had not fought a pitched battle for nearly three and a half thousand years. There had
been small skirmishes between their herders. It was usually as a result of one side
encroaching upon the grazing preserves of the other. For the most part, they had
respected unofficial boundaries and had contented themselves with lurid threats.
Kane elected to remain within the meagre shelter of the Arch. Theoretically, it
promised to be in the epicentre of the battlefield, but he sensed that it was still the
safest place for him to be - and the one place where he could be sure that the Psi Gate
could be opened if he looked about to be overwhelmed. If there was going to be a
battle - and he acknowledged that he seemed powerless to prevent it - he could see no
useful purpose in getting himself killed. On the other hand, he saw no reason to
become directly involved. There would come a time when sanity returned and that
would be the moment for Quetzal to make his move.
Nuraghe had been assigned to the rearguard. He wasn't very impressed to be
singled out for a duty which would keep him out of the forefront of the battle. It so
happened, that he was the one who noticed the great pall of purple dust, which was
being raised by the stampeding herds. He watched it for a few minutes, not quite sure
what was happening and then decided that the herders must have lost control and
needed extra manpower. He rode out with the rearguard in the direction of the dust
cloud.
His thousand men fanned out and began to turn the herd and then he saw the
grey cloaks on each flank. They saw as well, the bloated size of the herd and knew
that they wouldn't be able to stop it. Those directly in the path, wheeled their Picun
and ran for their lives before the frenzied beasts. The remainder tried to attack the
grey cloaks on each flank. It was an unequal fight, Nuraghe and his men were
disorganised, some were driven back into the herd to meet the fate of their unfortunate
brothers. Short, sharp fights with the sword, from the backs of their rearing beasts,
produced inevitable casualties on both sides.
The first of the fleeing rearguard brought the news to Eridos. He was already
mounted, ready for the first assault. He looked behind the messengers at the sea of
animals hurtling towards him and did the only thing possible. They ran before them
and surged over the rise which separated the Encampment from the Arch. Kane
crouched down against the inner face and was ignored. A thousand men swept by on
their way to Obeid's camp. He wasn't quite prepared for the sight of thousands of
Picun, surging like a tidal wave, behind them. The remnants of Eridos' Encampment
were skewered on their horns or trailed from their hooves. There were also pulped and
bloody remnants, from which he turned his eyes.
Where the funnel of land narrowed near the Arch, some Picun were forced by
weight of numbers to splash into the ocean. The hideous shapes of the Krain started to
rear up from the shallows. The scene was utter carnage. The Picun screamed in
frenzied terror as they were trapped, writhing in the embrace of tentacles, whilst
157