Several buildings patterned the back of the tortoise, and seeing indlovu walk in and out of them, I was again reminded of how truly mountainous the tortoise must be. Each of the building’s doorways accommodated the indlovu with space to spare in every direction, so maybe twenty feet tall, if the truly massive Allatsu was among the tallest of the statuesque people. A building that large must have been several hundred feet long, and there were half a dozen I could see, one of which stood in the center and twice as large as the rest.
This monster must have been at least 1000 feet long and across, though I would be amazed if it were less than 1500. Somehow, its shell was flatter and less precipitous than the other one we’d seen, so its belly only stood some fifty feet off the ground, the peak about one hundred feet higher than that. How the indlovu could scale its four legs to stand on top of it escaped me, but I couldn’t care about that. Instead, I watched as it walked. Only one foot lifted from the ground at a time, and moved ponderously and cautiously through the air. Before it reached the ground, a pillar of earth rose to welcome and guide the foot to its place. Under the three grounded feet, the earth shifted constantly and flowed like a stream forward, and the indlovus’ approach was artificially hastened by what I could only assume was the tortoise’s magic. Again, it seemed to take a liking to a patch of scrub brush and its head darted down and devoured the whole patch in three bites. A cavernous pit was left behind, but as soon as it finished its snack, the surrounding earth filled in the hole without leaving any sign behind.
I nearly began speaking to those of my elites that stood nearby, but realized I hadn’t even looked at the soldiers. With a force of effort, I tore my attention away from the awe inspiring tortoise and its mounted city to attempt to evaluate the soldiers that marched beside it. At least 100 that I was sure were the Inkulu’s soldiers flowed forward, the earth carrying them just as easily as it carried the tortoise. Just like the hunters, the indlovu wore leather clothing, with bracers and thigh coverings seeming to serve as armor. On the other hand, every one of their number I identified as a soldier gleamed in the bright sunslight.
Their wrists, ankles, and shoulders sported thick bangles or cuffs of burnished steel or some other metal. Even though we stood miles away, I felt I could hear the jingling of their metal accompanying the tortoise’s every step. They each held an iklabhu as well as a large, bulging bag that hung below their non-dominant hands. Every one of them stood alert, eyes searching while their ears tossed every which way. Nearly impossible to ambush, then. A hard, poisonous pit of fear settled into my stomach as I forced myself to admit that we would be slain to the last if that was what they decided to do. They moved more quickly than we could with our herds, and that tortoise alone would be impossible to kill, while it could swallow a dozen of us at a time.
Again, I forced myself to cease my observation and instead turned my attention to my elites. Sybil, Foire, Silf, Took, Solia, Joral, and Shemira stood ready for my command. Brutus, my constant shadow, Continued sizing up the threat to my life Only Foire and Silf could see what I did, and their nerves betrayed them with ceaselessly twitching tails and shifting from one foot to the other. Sybil immediately picked up on my mood and strode forward as she asked, “Please enlighten us as to our current situation, Alpha.”
I considered for a moment, and started where I thought best. “That giant thing is like the tortoise that the High Speakers were riding when they chased us. The thing that controlled the earth? It’s the same thing, but so much bigger it’s foolish to compare the two. It controls the ground underfoot better than anything I’ve seen before, and I’d say it’s obvious that the soldier’s will wear armor it provides just like the Earthspeakers we saw before.”
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“Like the one you killed in the original fight against the humans?” Took clarified.
“Yes. But more than twice as big as you. Stronger than any of the humans we’ve seen, and there will be at least 100 of them. Their magic will probably insulate them from any of our magic, except maybe Sybil’s and mine. Ytte might be able to break through, but it would be a contest I’d imagine she’d lose, even with their mobile fortress supplying the armor to a hundred of the soldiers at once.”
“What do you think would be their weakness?” Took asked, her eyes searching not my own but the horizon for our approaching enemies.
“The more spread out they are, I would guess it would be harder for the tortoise to provide armor? I would guess that, with so many and how large each soldier must be, the armor won’t be quite as thick as that of the individual Earthspeakers. That would be mitigated by how thick their skin is, though.”
“They have been observed to be particularly vulnerable to your magic.” Sybil interjected, and I felt a brief flare of unreasonable rage at the interruption. “The earth may also be impacted by water, so the Wave Wolfstags may be of particular import.”
“Their minds haven’t been anything noteworthy either.” Shemira added. “I can twist their perception of me without them noticing. That, or they just didn’t care.”
“They might be too proud to do otherwise, but there’s something different about their presence.” Foire said. “I don’t think they’ll be able to sneak like the hunters. Maybe it’s something about their Words of Power?”
“They’ve never told us anything about their Words.” I countered. “They might never have shown us. It might be something more like the Moonchildren’s. Then, these soldiers will be stronger, faster, or just completely better than the hunters.”
Foire’s tail flicked in slight disagreement, though he fought to school himself. I ground my fangs, the stupid anger that was fighting to keep me from finding a solution clouding my mind. “I shouldn’t have said that. You didn’t deserve my ire. My stress about this situation is keeping me from calm evaluation. That was a good point, and I trust your intuition.”
“I see 143 on the ground.” Silf sidetracked. “I can’t say how many may be on top of the beast. We outnumber them greatly.”
“You didn’t fight the Earthspeaker.” Took cut off his train of thought. “Currently, escape is more attractive. If they catch us, many will die. It would be better to exact revenge on them another day, after we reach our true potential.”
“They’re threatening us, but they haven’t made any overt promise of violence.” Shemira said, her tail flicking in thought. “Maybe we should try to just talk? Ideally, we wouldn’t make any enemies. I know,” she rushed to say in response to many disbelieving looks, “that probably won’t work, but if it could work, it’d be the best case.”
“We can’t depend on that.” I answered, and the growing chorus of hissing arguments stilled. “We can try something that would allow that to work in the best case, and help the swarm along if negotiations fail.” I gave a quick summary of my orders and the plan as a whole, and, with a glare, cut off Shemira’s early attempts at complaining.
“Alpha.” Sybil added as I allowed my elites to settle and ponder over the plan. “I believe I have an idea as well that will assist.”