Shouting and war cries woke them.
"It's them, the hill folk," Caralassa hissed. "They're attacking, Davama's thugs."
There was more commotion as Vera emerged from the last layers of sleep. She drew a deep breath as she listened to men fighting and dying.
"Auntie, what's going on?" Salema was frightened, drowsy, and confused.
"Quiet girl! Those bastards mean business!" Caralassa fumbled about for her short sword. "We need to find out what's going on!"
An arrow sprouted humming out of the tent pole. Vera found her sword and spear. She slipped the sword strap over her shoulder and between her breasts.
She spoke to Caralassa: "Stay with Salema. I'm going to see if I can help Dravo. I'll be back before long." She slipped under the side of the tent in the direction of the fighting.
She could see some hand to hand on the far side of camp near the young warriors' tent. The firelight highlighted and silhouetted the clashes. Vera took a few steps in the direction of the fighting when she heard Salema scream. She turned and saw Caralassa dueling with two knife wielding phantoms. Three others were dragging Salema down the path to the river. Caralassa slashed at one who fell and was stabbed by the other. And again. As she fell to the ground the short sword was seized by another shadow that headed for the path.
[COMBAT PROTOCOL INITIATED]
Veras' mind swam in deep unfamiliar waters for the merest sliver of time as the situation clarified and she moved with calm resolve and inhuman speed to spear the nearest monkey trying to dislodge the knife from Caralassas' prone form. The world had stopped while she moved at normal speed. The night had fled, she could see as clear as daylight! The spearhead pierced his chest and she tossed him over her shoulder into the bonfire -- thirty paces away. He landed in a shower of sparks and rolled out of the fire; fur aflame; screaming into the night! Dravo's archers made quick work of the bright target.
She poked Caralassa's other attackers' eye out with the butt end of her spear. The pulverizing sensation of his skull splintering when the round, blunt end connected to the other side was quite satisfying.
She headed for the path and the other monkey raider who'd fought with Caralassa. He spun, swinging the stolen sword in a level arc. Vera slowed ever so slightly, drew her sword and beheaded him with in one deft stroke! She was past his corpse as it fell. The head intersected wetly with a tree trunk a second later. She didn't even break stride. Up ahead she knew Salema was being forced along the dark trail.
Vera sprinted down the path and listened for the abductors. They were still cuffing the girl and dragged her along as fast as she could move, no pretense at stealth. Vera counted three of them moving on the trail, pulling the monkey-girl. She slowed and allowed yet another inner dynamic to fully suffuse her being.
[SITUATIONAL ANALYSIS INITIATED]
It spread through her blood like fire as it brought her on-line. Her battle reflexes were fully engaged as well as her situational analysis. She was aware, confident and deadly. Strategies and possibilities played in her head as she closed with the hill monkeys. She paused when she got within sight of the river to watch them as they finished crossing. She wished that she'd moved faster to catch them before they forded the river, but that was that.
They disappeared into the undergrowth. Her enhanced night-vision allowed her to spot them moving along the trail. She sprinted the short distance to the river and leaped the span flipping and landing in slow motion with both legs slightly flexed.
They'd heard her and one climbed a tree to lay an ambush as the others headed for the rendezvous. In the distance, along another trail, she could hear others heading this way, with as much stealth as haste would allow. She hoped that it was Dravo but knew that it wasn't likely. Dravo would follow but only after he'd secured the site. She acted quickly: scrambling quietly along the path till she was beneath the concealed hill-monkey. He leaped, as she'd known; with his full weight on the spear to maximize the effect. She caught the spear and its owner swinging it in a full arc onto the path! The monkey was stunned and Vera moved in wrapping an arm around his chest from behind, gripping it's mane, and breaking his neck, (his spine snapped with an audible crack that felt really, really! good!). She tossed him deep into the jungle. She didn't care if they could hear her now. She was coming for them. They needed to know. They needed to fear what was coming. She was in full battle mode and a force to be reckoned with. Alive and afire!
She caught up with them a few seconds later as they turned to meet the fury on their tail. There were two raiders left, one had Salema, dragging her along and the other hurled a spear at the swift horror closing in. She caught it, spun it around, hurled it through his chest, and elbowed his dead husk out of the way as she seized the surviving monkey-raider. He kicked at her as she pulled him from his feet. She laughed and tore his right arm from the socket, hurling it into the jungle. His screams of terror and pain were silenced when she swung him headfirst into the trunk of a tree.
She forced herself to disengage from the violent horror she'd become. The world resolved and she was in real time once again. The girl Salema embraced her hysterically crying and trembling. "Oh Vera, they've killed Caralassa! They killed her and there was nothing I could do! Nothing."
Vera was out of breath and disoriented! She was also covered with blood, none of her own!
"I know, I know, but girl, we must go now! There are others coming and I need to get you to away from here!"
An arrow thunked into the tree beside her. And another. And then two more!
"The next one goes into the girl unless you surrender!"
Vera could only see one course of action that would ensure Salemas' safety.
