Raiders, Traders and Tribes - Chapter 3

“NEVER!” Dawn yelled and leapt forward with her sword high in the air. She landed and sank her blade deep into the raider’s chest. He fell to his knees and looked down at the sword now embedded in him with shock. He fell to the ground. Dawn took her blade and wiped it on a nearby bush.1

Kara breathed out; her heart was still thumping in her chest. 2

“Thanks would be nice,” Dawn said grinning.3

“Er…thanks. And sorry I snapped at you…I-,”4

“Forget it. Friends?”5

Kara sat up and smiled at Dawn.6

***7

It was early evening in the Golden Serpent Tribe’s camp. Kara and her patrol had just come back from the open desert.8

Most of the Tribe were sitting around the camp fire and well, others were worshipping the Gods of water and flame. Kara, after what had happened earlier, hadn’t realised how hungry she was. She sat down, beside Dawn, feeling ravenous.9

The centre of camp was bustling with activity. Young children ran around together laughing and shouting. Most of the women were by the main fire, helping to cook the food as the men waited impatiently. The men of the patrols that had just come back were queuing up by the well desperate for water to soothe their parched throats.10

The Tribe would eat well tonight because one of the lesser patrols had stumbled upon a large gazelle herd, south of Berdbrik Horn. This had put everyone in high spirits, except Kara, who didn’t normally enjoy social events like supper. It wasn’t usual for the Tribe to go to bed with full stomachs. The desert was pretty much empty of sustainable life and nowadays traders rarely supplied enough food for a whole tribe.11

The cook-women announced that supper was ready. Everyone surged forward like vultures after a carcass, desperate to get the first mouthful of food.12

Kara and Dawn followed the crowd to get their dinner. Once they had their food they sat down. Kara looked round, in a daze, at everyone ripping meat off their bones like starving wild dogs. She sighed.13

“Kara you haven’t said anything since we left the raiders, hours ago. Are you okay?”14

“She never did talk much before y’came along,” Ivas growled behind her.15

Kara awoke from her daze startled. She rubbed her forehead.16

“I’m fine. I-I just feel guilty that’s all,” she replied sadly.17

“What? Why?” Dawn asked.18

“I nearly died today. I’ve killed loads of men without a second thought. Men with families. Men with lives. I’ve been thinking about my life and to be honest it isn’t much of a life,” Kara’s eyes stung, she bit her lip to stop her tears.19

“Always knew women were too weak ter fight, even if she is better than the rest of us!” Rick crowed. Dawn glared at him and turned back to Kara.20

“Rubbish. You’re young and fit, you’ve got ages. You have a great life. Y’know, galloping about and fighting all the time. You’ve got plenty of time to enjoy yourself!”21

“It doesn’t make up for lives I’ve taken! And it’s not as if I could get married or have children or anything! Most of the men see me as a small lad anyway! For all I know I could die tomorrow.”22

“Married life isn’t all it’s cracked up to be y’know. Don’t be guilty about men you’ve killed because they have killed many in return. The cycle goes on and on, it’s the Tribal Honour. Look, don’t worry; I’ll look after you if you ever need my help!”23

Kara gave a sad smile and began to eat her food. She stared into the campfire feeling a bit better. Once Dawn had finished she got out her blade and wiped it with some cloth. Kara looked up.24

“How did you learn to fight like that anyhow? Because Ned’s …,” Kara hesitated not sure of Dawn’s reaction.25

“Pathetic I know. Don’t worry he’s pretty bad in other areas too, if you know what I mean!” Dawn winked, laughing.26

“No, I don’t really know what you mean,” Kara replied, blushing.27

“Er….anyway, I sort of taught myself to fight. I practise early every morning and every evening. I watch some of the men fighting each other and try and copy. I don’t do what wives are meant to; weaving or spinning, or cooking and repairing clothes. I’m not that kind of girl, I’m surprised they let me replace Ned. No offence meant but they only let you fight ‘cause you’re the commander’s niece, well you are the best anyway so it don't matter, but…why are you looking at me like that?”28

“Oh nothing. My arm’s sore, I think I’ll turn in,” Kara replied, suddenly happy she had finally found a good friend. 29

***30

Kara sat on her horse, waiting for her patrol, full of anticipation. She was strangely in a good mood after last night. Kara looked up at the orange glowing sky as the sun slowly rose to reveal Dawn. The sky was full of vibrant colour and the whole desert seemed to light up.31

A tiny shiver ran down Kara’s spine as a very gentle breeze blew from nowhere. Strange, she thought, even a breeze is rare in this desert. She shuddered as a feeling of uneasiness seeped into her. Destiny started dancing about.32

“Hi Kara. You alright after yesterday? What about your arm, surely you should let it heal first?” Kran said now beside her.33

“Flece stitched it up. I’ll be fine!” Kara replied defiantly.34

“I mean it Kara….”35

“Ahem, I was leader last time I checked! The commander’s dogs are looking hungry again so I’d shut up if I were you. Anyway, you lot wouldn’t last 5 minutes without me!”36

“Well, don’t coming running to me if…,” Kran muttered under his breath. Kara ignored him.37

Kara looked round to see Dawn just joining them and with a gentle squeeze of her heels they were off into the flat, open sand.38

They trekked through the sand for hours. The horses slowly ambled over the sand dunes and the sun glared down. The rest of the patrol were half asleep, in their usual bored trance but Kara was wide awake. She felt the hair on the back of her neck stand up and she knew something wasn’t right. She couldn’t help but notice the unusual breeze was getting stronger.39

“Aaah, this cool breeze is nice isn’t it?” Dawn said suddenly beside her.40

Kara just shook her head, frowning.41

“What’s up?”42

“It isn’t normal. This breeze, where does it come from?”43

“Who cares?” Dawn laughed.44

There was a sudden blast of wind and her smile disappeared. The men awoke from their trances in shock and neighs rang out. A couple of the younger horses reared up in fear. Kara yanked her reins as her horse attempted to buck. The wind blew stronger and the men cried out in dismay. Kara felt fear brew inside her stomach and she looked to the horizon. She gasped in horror.45

A great tidal wave of sand and dust rolled towards them at terrifying speeds. It was hard to judge from the distance but it could’ve been 50 metres high. It swirled and ate up the ground like sand-ridden fire.46

For a second Kara stared at it completely frozen in terror. She had never seen anything like it. Suddenly, she came back to her senses and smacked her horse’s rump with all her strength. Destiny leapt forward and flew across the ground, her ears flat back and her eyes rolling in fear. The rest of the patrol followed. Kara did not know where they were going, they were miles from home. If they went to another tribe they would be slaughtered. They galloped on for their lives.47

If Kara thought for a moment they could outrun it she was wrong. She dared a look behind and the wave of sand had halved its distance between them in just a few minutes.48

The wind bit and stung Kara’s face making tears stream down her cheeks. She coughed and choked on the sand churned up by hooves. She could hear resounding smacks as her men whipped their horses, in panic, to make them go faster even though they couldn’t. The land whizzed by in a haze of speed but the storm still ravaged ever closer, bit by bit.49

“C’mon, c’mon!” Kara yelled to her men but the wind snatched her voice away. She looked behind again and the ominous cloud of sand was closer. She tried to ignore the growing pain in her bad arm.50

Kara felt despair cling to her heart as she saw it come closer. The horses were foaming and straining every muscle just to keep moving. She thought about yesterday and she knew she would’ve preferred death by a blade rather than sand. Sand from the desert, her home.51

Kara just turned round to see Destiny bound up a dune. They reached the summit and at that speed Kara was thrown from her horse’s back as Destiny fell and rolled down the slope. They collapsed in a heap at the bottom of the dune. The others, who had had warning, followed and slid to a halt beside Kara. She realised it was too late to get back up.52

“GET DOWN! GET YOUR HORSES DOWN! ON THE GROUND! NOW!!!” she bellowed at her patrol. They hurriedly obeyed.53

Kara checked her horse for injury after her tumble. There was none. As Destiny was already on the ground Kara ripped off her bandanna from her neck and covered Destiny’s head.54

The young horses, that had reared earlier, refused to lie down. They were wild in panic. One reared and its rein snapped so it bolted. The other struck it’s rider down and followed. Kara yelled at her men again and she dived to the ground beside her horse. She clamped her eyes and mouth shut and covered her nose with her hand. Her arm hurt awfully.55

Perhaps a second later the massive sand storm struck the cowering patrol.56

Kara’s heart pounded in her chest as the sand roared overhead. She had no idea how long they stayed there clinging to the ground, hoping and praying.57

Eventually everything went quiet. Kara opened eyes and realised she was almost completely buried in sand. She managed to clamber to her feet, urging her horse up too. Destiny shakily stood up and shook like wet dog. Kara laughed and covered her eyes as sand flew everywhere. She couldn’t believe they were alive.58

“What’s so funny?” Dawn asked suddenly behind her. Kara turned round and gave her a rib-breaking hug. 59

“Well, that was definitely more than a breeze!” Dawn exclaimed. Kara just laughed again.60

“It’s gone, it’s safe to get up,” Kara told the others, scraping more sand off her clothes and hair.61

“Kara you saved our lives! How can we repay this debt?” Kran asked, leading his horse over. Everyone gathered round agreeing with Kran.62

“Oh rubbish, you’ve saved me plenty of times! C’mon you lot let’s get back to camp.”63

By the time they approached camp the sky was pitch black and the air was still. No one could’ve guessed what had happened earlier that day.64

The patrol had let their horses walk the whole way back after their exhausting race against the furious sand storm. Kara had never been so glad to be near home.65

As they got closer Kara could make out fire burning and many of the tents had been pulled down. Kara leapt off her mare and sprinted over to the camp.66

Barrels, stalls, goods and tying rails had been knocked over and strewn all over the place. Most of the tents were crumpled on the ground or ripped to shreds. The commander’s tent, to Kara’s dismay, was burning in orange flame. Kara’s heart beat quickened in panic as she looked for bodies but she found none. She didn’t know whether to be happy or even more distraught. The whole camp had been destroyed but everyone was gone. There were no horses tied up, dozing. No gazelle in the coral waiting to be slaughtered the next day. Another tribe wouldn’t have kidnapped them surely? Kara began to feel nervous.67

She heard a noise behind her. She whirled round with her sword in hand but it was only the rest of the patrol.68

“What the hell happened here?” grunted Rick.69

“I don’t know, everyone has gone. Even the animals,” Kara replied, dumbfounded.70

“Where are they?” asked Dawn, more to herself than anyone.71

Kara sat down on and upturned barrel trying to ignore her growing feeling of fear.72