Last night, Tuchuks had taken point on the trip, tonight was PClaw’s turn in the danger zone, ahead of the main group and pack kailla, by about 20 ehn.
Tasp and Drax had ridden the right flank, along the rocky ground towards the mountains, looking like a lone man and his FC, a good target for any brigands in the mountains. But they encountered no problems, nor sighted any signs of recent human presence.
Medi and I rode the left flank, looking like a pair of FW lost in the tall grass. But Medi had her bow ready, and supposedly is a pretty good shot on kaillaback, from her upbringing among the Savages. I had the barbarian kajira riding with me, holding my askari shield, and me just carrying my lance and having one hand for the reigns.
Richard rode about a pasang behind, equally spaced between the flanks, with a crossbow ready and a builder’s glass. He had one kajira with him, to act as a messenger to run back for reinforcements if the point was attacked. Richard’s other girl and trina had stayed back and ridden with Ragnar’s group.
I really don’t have a good sense of distance on these seemingly featureless grasslands, or the mountains which I don’t know the scale. We set out at dusk, and traveled about 6 ahn, mostly at a brisk walk, but with two good open runs through some sparser areas of shorter grass (probably places where the ground water is really low, or minerals create a bad soil for the usual grasses.)
Tasp and Drax picked a good campsite, a shallow depression behind a foothill, where a single sentry will have a real good hidden vantage point. But we’d have two sentries, when the Tuchuks arrived, to be safe. On the mountain side, we have some pretty steep terrain, so it would be unlikely we’d be approached from that direction at all.
Ragnar wouldn’t know this, and didn’t need to know; but I felt pretty safe against Kassar attacks. Ubar Kull and I had an alliance going back several years, to a time that our mutual self-interests had coincided. One of his FW had run away to join a rival Panther band. He had wanted the woman in chains, and I had wanted the rival Panthers to have bad things happen. Kull and I had arranged that, and had some trade and an occasional visit or meeting since then. I had met Kull in the Victoria market and told him about our move, and had renewed our non-aggression pact. I had sent a messenger from the Pointe, and he had agreed to pull his outriders back from the mountains this week. I am pretty sure that the Kassars who attacked us leaving the Pointe were either renegades or had not got word from Kull yet. And Kull would certainly have no idea that Ragnar was with us.
I don’t think we’ll have trouble with Kassars, but I am concerned about wild kailla. There are alot of shallow tracks, of riderless kailla, and alot of droppings. I had heard rumors that Sometimes the wild ones hunt in packs. I'd hate to meet up with something like that. Not as bad as Kassars, but faster than us. We couldn't run from riderless kaillas.
