Hymn of the Cornered Deer

A squadron of typhins burst out from underneath the sand. They were no more than fifty meters away, and they rushed towards the carriages.

“They’re looking to kill!” Caramine yelled from the main battlefield. “EVERYONE! They won’t settle for anything short of the kill!”

I found myself screaming at everyone still with the carriages. “Scatter firewood between us and Tundra! We need to stall them! Merlum! Merlum! MERLUM! We need wind for fire!”

I didn’t know if Merlum heard me. He was besieged by three more typhins right in the center of Tundra’s base, his sword tracing invisible calligraphy as it neatly parried several blows with one fluid stroke.

Remme and Memme and the other children began dropping wood just outside the carriages, while Lotus sprinted through them and doused all the wood with the oil she took. I saw something emerge from behind Lotus’s shadow and shot at it, barely missing the mark.

“You’ll never get the children!” I heard someone shout from behind me.

Behind me, I saw Razzel take up a halberd and swat aside two typhins, approaching her from the front and, terrifyingly, behind her. I cursed loudly into the wind. They already had us surrounded underground. How extensive were their tunnels?

Merlum found an opening and, seeing our firewood, launched two blasts of wind towards the carriages. The small flames Lotus and others had started quickly became an inferno. We now had a physical barricade keeping us separate from any more typhins from outside. That is, if any typhins were still outside.

My eyes darted around the carriages, trying to find anyone or anything to suggest more members of Tundra. The heat from the flames exacerbated the pain of my peeling rash, and I contorted my face. I can’t scratch my face now. Any moment of distraction and someone—

A typhin jumped over the flames. I shot, and my arrow pierced his head. His brains splattered against the night sky, briefly blocking out the stars and the rest of my vision, while his body crashed to the ground with a thud.

I could feel my heart race in my chest. In the corner of my eye, I saw another typhin, already inside our borders, ignite a torch on the wall of flame and bolt towards our supplies. Suddenly, Lotus jumped out from behind another carriage and seared them with her own torch. I turned to face them and, in the typhin’s moment of distraction, I shot her close to her armpit. She doubled over in agony, her body narrowing missing Remme as he darted through the carriages.

We didn’t have many arrows left, I realized. I had only three left. Would that be enough? No reinforcements had appeared since another fifteen or so Tundran fighters emerged from underneath the desert. I prayed to Accipitus that no more would.

“YOU MONSTER!” Razzel croaked, her voice piercing the night over the cackling of the inferno.

I heard a wet thunk to my right. Then another. Then another. “Die a thousand deaths!”

Someone in Moonlight had died. Who was it? I wanted to rush out, but I couldn’t. I couldn’t walk on my single-legged crutch without being a sitting duck.

I saw a shadow fall from the skies to my left and I turned around again. Another typhin had collapsed just within the ring of fire, struggling to get up. Was he that shadow? Then how did he jump that high?

The catapults, I realized. They were using their catapults. But as I watched several of my bandmates wrestle the new invader to the ground and bind his wrists, I realized that Tundra did not expect the impact of landing. The wall of flame was doing exactly what I wanted.

Another typhin was launched five, ten meters up, soaring above the others and far above the flames. I took aim and shot an arrow through the base of her tail. An animalistic wail pierced the night from above. The typhin landed inside the wall of fire, her sickening impact forcing the shaft of the arrow further into her body. She kept screaming. Could a typhin even survive that fall, even if I didn’t shoot her? More screaming. Lotus stepped out of the shadows with rope, when an injured bandmate loped out to stop her.

“She’s not going to make it,” our teammate said. “I’ll spare her the suffering.”

Lotus stared at the wailing assailant. She kept screaming.

Our bandmate raised a scimitar and decapitated her.

Back on the main battlefield, the rest of our forces banded together and surrounded the haggard remnants of Tundra. Merlum unleashed a gust of wind, knocking them all over. By the time the dust cleared, Moonlight had tied up the wrists of every last one of the Tundra fighters. Two of the bound members, one wearing a massive filigreed necklace of gold, limped over to Caramine while holding up their hands.

“Please! We surrender!” He wailed.

“Bring them all here,” Caramine said, speaking to the rest of her band.

Across the battlefield and the carriages, I watched as the tired members of Moonlight led whatever remained of the Tundran force out to the center of the base, where Caramine stood. Out of the thirty typhins who attacked, fewer than twenty remained.

The battlefield was now empty of fighters or sounds.

We won.