Brin woke me before my mid-watch started.

Something was wrong and he was agitated.

Something was wrong in the dark of a moonless night.

I took extra magazines and quietly chambered a round. The second watch was coming in. It was Jeb and Amos. They were supposed to wake Peter and me for mid. Sheriff and the Rabbi had the dawn or death watch. At least, in our world, that’s how it worked and was called.

I shushed them both and pointed to Brin who was still whining very quietly. We had to trust his instinct. This was dangerous ground, however we looked at it. Silence was our greatest advantage. We had to wake our men and keep them completely silent, even if this were a false alarm we needed the practice.

Jeb woke the rest of the captains and gave them almost silently whispered instructions, they disappeared into the dark to start waking the men. I simply followed Brin as he silently worked a trail leading us away from the camp and the Kansa River, he was a good dog and allowed me to move slowly behind him. I hadn’t brought much with me, just the M1911, my long knife and my ultrabright flashlight. My plan was to trust in Brin. The night sounds of the cattle and horses covered up whatever was happening back at camp, there weren’t any screams or gun shots so I thought we were still OK.

I followed Brin carefully, watching every footstep until he suddenly froze and lay low, I laid next to him. The night was dark and there was very little light to see by, the stars weren’t even much of a help with the sporadic cloud cover we had. But all the night critters had gone silent, something was out here. We were lying flat on the ground about two hundred yards from the main camp when I felt Brin start to growl deep down in his chest. I immediately shushed him and stopped breathing to listen.

They passed within yards of us as we lay there in stillness, Brin was quivering to be released and I simply soothed him and waited for the inevitable second wave. The second wave passed about twenty yards behind the first, I was sure the leaders would be behind them but I needed to focus on that second wave. Pete and I had discussed this, the first wave caused confusion and the second wave brought victory; that was their thinking.

I was now behind the second wave and waiting for them to pause as they held for the attack command. Brin and I got ourselves turned back around and followed them, we followed silently as they set up for the attack.

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You could hear their night calls where the insects had gone silent.

As they paused, I readied myself and Brin; there were a few of the second wave warriors a couple of yards in front of us. When they gathered themselves, I went into action.

My first word was to give Brin his release.

Then I released myself.

The world got ugly fast.

The warriors in front of me were surprised by the growl and then Brin was upon them. I flicked my high-powered LED light onto max and burned their eyes and then I burned them down with double taps. Brin was doing his thing and I really didn’t want to be any part of that but I heard muskets and rifles going off at the camp and hit the ground instinctively as errant rounds burnt through the brush at man height. There were new screams from back towards campside, not including the screams from Brin’s latest chew toy. I heard the shotgun bellow twice in quick order and I froze hoping to hear it again.

Instead I heard a .45 and a .22 coughing and I worried; then that beautiful double barrel spoke again. By the sounds good things were happening. I killed the lamp, whistled up Brin and we went hunting Chieftains, who I was sure would be in the third wave of would be conquering heroes. This time however, Havoc was hunting them.

I knew I had just made some fresh enemies but I didn’t care, I sent Brin to Seek. The Narrator was coming and he didn’t count coup.

There were three of them and I lit them up, Brin found them in less than two minutes and his growl alerted them. I lit them up with my light and announced myself by shooting the youngest and loudest in the face. He fell like tipped cow.

Everybody else went silent and still.

I motioned them off of their horses with my pistol and simply said “English?”

One replied “Yes”.

I gathered their horse leads and said “My fire, we will smoke.” I was hoping to resurrect something out of this blood bath. Brin was bade to and happily led us back to camp, it was time to have a little pow-wow with the Kansa raiding Chiefs.

The first thing I did when we got to camp was to order large fires built, enjoy it fellas – roast marshmallows if you have them. Major victory achieved and show the world our might.

Happily, we hadn’t killed so many of their warriors, well except for my captains and me. We had killed or severely wounded twenty of their young men, this was a major blow to the tribe. The lethality of my weapons stunned them and I began to hear my name whispered even as I walked past my own men. To hear them tell it Brin and I killed thirty men that night. It was very far from the truth, but I was sure it would get worse over time. Folks love a good story and they love to embellish it at every turn.

I wanted to go back home.

Everywhere I went, I would hear them saying in a hushed voice:

It’s the Narrator.