Ashes of the Realm - Juliette's Dream (7 page)

Jingo tilted his head and nodded. He respected this Human and was often amazed at his insights. The communities needed to be kept busy. He turned around and saw Jesa sitting in front of her home, crying because Jingo had not come back with Scotty. “Especially that one.”

On his way back to the nesting ground, Scotty asked Zreeg to fly over the area surrounding the forest and was stunned at what he saw. “Zreeg, how many Torg are moving toward the forest?”

Zreeg looked down and said, “More than a hundred thousand in the initial herd.”

“What do you mean, initial herd?”

“There will be at least four herds coming to attack our newborns. The follow-up herds are bigger than the first. “

Scotty looked down and saw Torg as far as he could see. “Why are there so many?”

“They know the exact time of our breeding cycle and have been coming for as long as we have been here. This is their largest meal of the year, and their numbers have exploded since they began attacking our nests. Last cycle no newborns survived.”

“Take me to the forest.”

Zreeg turned and flew toward the forest directly in front of the giant, moving mass of Torg.

Scotty came into the nesting ground and yelled for all archers to assemble. The thousand came running and Scotty waited for the last to arrive. He looked around the group and said, “It’s a lot worse that I thought.” He saw their apprehension on their faces. “I have just flown over the Torg herds, and it appears upward of half a million of them are coming to feast on the Zord’s newborns.”

Jingo heard the number and said, “That many?”

“Maybe more; I hope those additional arrows arrive quickly.”

Jingo looked at the group and said, “There’s only one way we stand a chance.”

The archers all turned to him and he continued, “We’re going to have to allow them to get close to the nests.”

Scotty agreed, but the other archers were shocked at his suggestion. Michael Blake asked, “Shouldn’t we should stop them before they get close?”

Jingo looked at Michael and said, “If we attempt to defend a large perimeter, Torg are going to get through. We need the smallest perimeter possible to make sure the number of pathways into the nesting ground is limited. The only way we can slow them down is to kill enough of them to choke their routes through the hedges. We have to fill the spaces between the hedges and pathways with enough dead Torg to block those coming from behind. That line must be where the killing starts, and then we take on anything trying to break through the barrier of dead Torg. I’ve scouted the area and there are a hundred ging roots leading into the nesting ground, and we must defend those paths. If we move fifty yards further out, the number of routes we’ll have to defend doubles from a hundred to two hundred. Ten of us will have to cover each pathway leading from the forest to the eggs. We know the initial numbers charging ahead of the main mass will be fewer than the mass pushing from behind. There will be one archer for every nine on the ground that will be up in a blind. They’ll be hitting anything that makes it through any path leading to the nests. Once the pathways are choked off, half of us will go up in the blinds and start hitting anything that looks like it will even remotely break through. The rest will go where they’re needed. Do any of you see another way?”

Scotty said, “Once we stop the initial charge, I want fifty archers in the center of the nesting area at all times to support any part of our perimeter that looks like it will be overrun. Jingo and I will lead that group. Michael, you will lead the northern approach and Burd, you will handle the southern. Advance fifty yards up each path and start hitting them before they can reach the ging trees’ trunks. You’ll have to hit the first Torg more than a hundred yards up the path to slow the rush enough to create a barricade of dead Torg.”

Bleath sent a thought, “You better get ready; one of the eggs just hatched and the Torg will smell it momentarily. The others will be hatching within the coming five hours.”

Jingo yelled as the archers ran to their trees, “Make every arrow count!”

Jingo and Scotty ran to the center of the northern perimeter toward the largest tree. Scotty went to the left and Jingo right. Eight archers arrived and waited at the giant tree’s trunk. Scotty and Jingo returned to the archers. Scotty looked at the eight other archers and said, “We see four major pathways leading up to this giant tree’s trunk. The one we are standing in leads directly to the nests. The Torg are going to funnel down those other three paths and arrive at this trunk next to the nesting ground.”

Jingo looked at the pathways and said, “The two pathways coming from the left and right have a clear field of fire of more than two hundred yards. Four of you advance a hundred yards up each path and start hitting them two hundred yards out. Try to build the first barrier of dead Torg outside of a hundred yards. Retreat if you must, then start a new barrier at fifty yards. We must keep them away from the trunk of this tree.”

Four archers went to the path on the left and four to the right while Scotty and Jingo took the path in the center. The archers knew that Scotty and Jingo were faster and more accurate than any archer in the communities. Jingo was the acknowledged champion, but only just barely, having bested Scotty by one point in the annual competition. Jingo swore that Scotty let him win, but Scotty never confessed that he did. The competition limited the archers to only one bowgun and Scotty knew that with Jingo’s four arms, there was no doubt about who was the real archer. Jingo was twice as good as Scotty because he had two bowguns. Scotty was good, but Jingo was twice as deadly. The archers moved a hundred yards up the pathways and dropped three extra quivers of arrows at their feet. They waited and knew it wouldn’t be long. The Torg could be heard getting closer.

The other archers arrived at their trees and immediately saw that Jingo was right. The Torg had to be slowed before they could reach the tree where the pathways grew larger. They assigned archers to each path, advanced up the pathways, and took their stances. They heard the cries of newborn Zord among the hedges in the nesting area increase in volume. The sound grew and soon became a noise that permeated the forest. If the Torg hadn’t smelled the newborns, the archers were certain they could hear them.

The Zord circling high overhead couldn’t see what was happening in the forest. The females could hear the babies crying below and longed to throw themselves into their defense, but had learned that it was futile to try. They screamed to the babies below trying to calm their fears.

As the archers arrived, Vring counted the Torg entering the forest from the clearings around it and knew they were going to run short on arrows. The last Zord warriors had arrived with their load of arrows and delivered them to the nesting ground before the Torg began massing, but he could see it was not near enough. He looked at Zreeg and said, “We must go back and bring the two-legs more small feathered sticks.

Zreeg looked down as they circled the forest and said, “Lead the way.”

The two Zord took off at high speed. Bleath watched them go and wondered where they were going. Then he heard the first bellows of the Torg below as they began massing to enter the forest, and turned his attention back to the forest. He decided at that moment that even if the effort by the two-legs to save the hatchlings failed, he would never attack them again. They were placing themselves in danger to save the eggs, and he knew he wouldn’t have done the same for them. They deserved respect for their bravery. The Torg would arrive at the nesting ground in six hours.

Scotty looked from the blind on the tree and saw the other archers had followed their lead and had moved into the pathways below the giant trees. He had divided the archers into a hundred teams such that the best archers were evenly distributed. Half of the teams only had one pathway out into the forest. He had selected the most dangerous location for himself and Jingo. He looked out over the forest, waiting for what he knew was coming. The archers sat and rested as they listened to the volume of the newborns grow to the point of being almost painful. The leaders of the hundred teams sat against the trunk of the tree they were defending, watching Scotty.

Scotty looked out over the hedges and short trees and saw the dust rising from the pathways leading to the nesting ground. The hours seemed to drag as the thousand waited for the Torg to arrive. Finally, he stood up and looked at the team leaders and held up ten fingers. Ten minutes until the Torg herds arrived. The team leaders ran to get their archers ready. The volume of the newborns was now being drowned out by the bellow of the approaching Torg. Then the ground started shaking and the archers took their guns off safe.

Scotty came down the tree and joined Jingo on the ground. He looked at his friend and asked, “Has that war gland of yours kicked in yet?”

Jingo smiled, “Nope, not yet! How about that adrenal thing you’ve got?”

Scotty chuckled, “It kicked in on the warrior flying here and hasn’t turned off. Here they come.”

The Torg could be felt as well as heard. The ground was trembling under their hooves and their roars grew louder by the second. Jingo leaned over and shouted over the roar, “It’s turned on now.”

Scotty smiled as he saw the first Torg turn the corner of the pathway a hundred yards away and fired his first arrow. Jingo followed with two less than a second later as Scotty pulled the gun around and aimed for a Torg that had managed to get around the three that had fallen in front of it. Three more Torg hit the ground, and the stampeding herd rushed into the fallen animals in front and began tripping. Scotty and Jingo hit any animal that fell at the front of the charging mass, and the pathway had a mound of dead Torg four feet high extending from hedge row to hedge row. The charging Torg crashed into those in front, trampling hundreds of them as they stumbled and jumped to clear the dead and fallen Torg struggling to get up. Torg were being killed by the rushing mass as well as the arrows. Those that jumped over the barrier were hit and added their bodies to the growing mound. The barrier of dead Torg grew to six feet in less than a minute, and the charging herd continued to rush over those slowed or dead in front. The screams of the dying Torg mixed with the newborn Zord deafened the archers. The charging mass of Torg finally slowed down and stopped trampling those stopped at the wall of dead Torg. The Torg in front leaped and began climbing over the wall. Scotty hit the first to come over the top, and Jingo caught the second two before they could get their heads over the top. Scotty looked at the other two paths and saw Torg in the left pathway were less than fifty yards away. Scotty reached over and pulled Jingo’s vest. Jingo looked at him and Scotty pointed toward the archers on the left. Jingo looked and nodded. He ran over to the besieged archers and Torg began falling too fast to count. The dead Torg began forming a barrier eight feet high in less than thirty seconds and Jingo left and ran back to Scotty who had killed twenty more in his absence. Jingo took over firing as Scotty moved back and picked up four more quivers of arrows. He looked at the openings into the clearing and didn’t see any archers. They had to be holding the Torg off up the pathways. The noise was thunderous.

After an hour the wall of dead Torg was fifteen feet high, and Scotty sent the archers up into the tree’s blind to fire on the Torg trying to climb the wall. Once they were in place, he and Jingo sprinted across to the tree just south of them. Scotty scrambled up the tree, knelt in the blind, and looked down on a vision from hell. The herd of Torg had charged into the wall and had pushed dead animals forward. The wall slowly moved and then toppled forward. Scotty began hitting the ones in the front ranks and Jingo added his fire. A mound of dead began piling up as Jingo hit them before they could pass. Scotty picked off the ones in back attempting to push the mound over. Three archers joined Scotty in the blind and the mound not only grew in height, but now width. Scotty saw that this mound was going nowhere and he scampered down the tree and motioned for Jingo to join him. Over the next five hours they supported the groups of archers wherever the Torg threatened a breakthrough.

Jingo grabbed Scotty’s arm and pointed at the quivers behind the southern archers. There were only thirty five left and Scotty realized it was not going to be enough. He looked at Jingo, shrugged and hugged his friend. Jingo smiled and nodded. They grabbed a quiver and sprinted back to the northern line.

Vring and Zreeg arrived at the community and Vring saw the young female that was the four armed two-leg’s mate. He thought to her, “We need all the arrows you have.”

Jesa’s heart went into her throat and she yelled for Jing, who came rushing up, and Vring said, “We are going to need every arrow you can spare.”

Samuel arrived and the two began yelling orders. Jesa came up and looked at Vring saying nothing. Vring stared at her and said, “I don’t know. We can’t see into the forest to know if he is still alive. I’m sorry.”

Jesa nodded and said, “Please help him come back to me.”

Vring stared at her and replied, “If I have to die trying, I will do my best to make that happen, little one.”

Jesa ran forward and hugged the Zord’s front leg. Vring was touched by her emotions, and began to feel his heart beat increase. He looked at Zreeg and said, “I will carry the first load into the forest.”