#15:.....But It's Members Were Still Children

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The hunters were, however, even after they had become uncannily skilled, still children. To them hunting was fun. Gryphon-Gauchos would scout the area and locate the game. Then they’d swoop down and herd it toward the bear Riders. The young Griffin-Gauchos, all female oddly enough, would often shoot a few arrows into the hapless beasts. They used dummy arrows that stung, shocked or made loud noises, but did not kill. Why haul a thousand pound carcass any further than need be? They wanted to kill the animals near the wagons.

The young strapping Bear-Vaqueros, all male oddly enough, took great joy in their speed and strength. They would slaughter the poor animals. Occasionally they ‘released the beast” and let the bear make the kill. Most of the times they did not. It was cleaner and quicker to use a weapon. A bear paw with it’s claws and the jaws with it’s teeth were deadly and fearsome enough but were less suited for harvesting large quantities of game than were their weapons. Most of the time the elven riders used a lance.

Baranatha had also made another discovery even more important than finding the weapons locker. She discovered that the meat wagons could automatically process, and store their kills. All that was required was to flip a few switches on a control panel. If done correctly that would deploy a chute from the rear of the wagon. The kill was then dropped onto that chute. Everything was automatic after that. Silently the carcass would move up the chute and disappear into the interior of the wagon, there to be processed and stored. It would not spoil. Nothing was wasted.

The weeks turned into months and the children had grown quite good at harvesting protein. Then one day misfortune intruded. The youngsters had been carefully culling the fringes of a large herd of literally thousands of large cattle when they were attacked by aliens.

They were taken completely by surprise. Some of the children were killed in the initial ambush. Oddly enough their alien attackers weren’t very good shots and had missed more than they hit. The kids had become very aggressive since they left the Ark and instinctively knew that offense is the best defense. They had instantly counterattacked and blown thru the ambush. They destroyed the alien’s cohesion. Unfortunately the evil creatures had spooked the herd with their loud weapons and caused a stampede.

As luck would have it when the panicked herd stampeded they happened back upon the Slipneir road. They were near it’s source and the yellow bricked road stretched off into the distance away from the gate. The herd, in their many thousands, turned and ran down the road, naturally following the path of least resistance . The youngsters and their attackers were swept along in the turmoil, fighting each other when:.....

.......... the gate activated.

.......... god's own strobe light exploded in silent eye searing brilliance directly behind them.

........ suddenly a large number of animals and small wagons were running in and amongst the stampeding herd and the combatants.

……...were they more enemies or could they be allies?

Next Episode
#16:A New World…
Previous Episode
#14:The Gestalt Learned…
First Episode
# 1 : In the beginning…

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