“How many are there?” I said softly to Bheriya as she made her way back to my side.

“Five that I could see,” she replied in a near-whisper.

“Hmmm…armed?”

“Yes,” she replied nodding. “Bows and arrows, swords and likely knives as well.”

“Hmmm.”

“Were there any women?” I asked, looking at her.

Her flushed face, softened slightly as she looked suddenly sad. She nodded.

“At least three. I saw one with bad bruises on her face.”

My mind pole-vaulted into anger. Anger happened very quickly now, much quicker than fear did.

“Okay, so that means no cannon.”

“Yes,” she said.

“Alright let’s do the usual. I’ll enter from the main clearing. You and Dabi flank from one side and Heta, Vinua and Rinja take the other side.”

I snuck a quick glance at Rinja after I said her name. Unlike the other women, Rinja had grown quieter and quieter as the weeks went by. Even now, she sat by herself, without an expression on her face and stared vacantly into the distance. I had noticed the other women guiding her around and even feeding her at times.

I saw Bheriya looking at the unusual woman as well; she looked very concerned. She turned back to me and caught me looking at her, whereupon she schooled her features.

“My lord, the plan would undoubtedly work again. But I have a different suggestion,” she said, not addressing the topic of her troubled companion.

“Oh?” I replied quirking an eyebrow. This was the first time Bheriya had piped up with an idea on matters of raiding, usually she restricted her suggestions to more domestic matters. We had been raiding bandit camps all over the forest for a couple of weeks now. We encountered them fairly often and it became apparent to all of us that it was much easier to ‘liberate’ food and materials from the bandits than to hunt or scrounge for ourselves. It also didn’t hurt that we freed many kidnapped girls and women along the way.

“Yes my lord,” replied Bheruya. “I propose that I go unarmed to the edge of the camp. I’ll make a fuss, perhaps shout insults or something. The bandits will no doubt think of me as easy, unusual prey and rush to capture me. Since I will be unarmed and I’m smaller and young, I expect I’ll be able to stay safely ahead of them and lead them here where my sisters and you can deal with them.”

I thought about her plan. There was a lot of danger to her in this new idea but in some ways less than in our usual modus operandi wherein the bandits had the chance to draw weapons on the women or me. Having said that, in all of our four raids thus far the original plan had worked a charm and I couldn’t see that this new idea was necessarily more efficient or better in any way. I said as much to her.

“You’re right my lord,” she said in a deflated tone. I hadn’t meant to dishearten her or cut down her idea. The two of us had started to get along better these last few weeks. I no longer saw her or talked to her like a tiny girl. She was clearly much more capable and ferocious than that. From her side she no longer talked to me like I was just a large buffoon. Perhaps she respected me more because I showed her more respect? It was an interesting idea that I would think about more later.

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“I’m not saying no. I just want to understand why you think it would be a good idea,” I said to her as gently as I could. It still came out gruffly. I was embarrassed to seem caring and not the vicious Giant the she-wolves clearly thought I was.

“I want my sisters and me to learn battle techniques. We’re clearly smaller and less used to actual fighting than the bandits and other menfolk. But we think more clearly if you’ll pardon my saying so.”

I chuckled and allowed her to continue.

“So I want to try different ideas. I also want my sisters to trust their minds and not think themselves lesser than any man. If we realise that we’re able to outthink those who find us weak, we’ll have a better chance of thriving.”

“Hmmm,” I replied thoughtfully, scratching my scraggly beard.

It was a plan. I would never admit it, but I was worried about the she-wolves’ safety, especially about Bheriya’s. But at the same time I could see the wisdom in what she was saying. I also realised that there was not much I would be able to do if she decided to become obstinate. Might as well keep my self-respect.

“Alright, let’s do it. I’m getting hungry. Go get my lunch,” I said to her grinning.

Her face lit up and she smiled at me for a few moments before she turned to her sisters and started giving orders.

“Where is she?” I muttered to myself.

“She’ll be here, my lord,” replied Vinua from my right thinking I was talking to her. She didn’t sound convinced by her own words.

Bheriya had been gone for a half an hour at least. The bandit camp was no more than a ten minute walk from where the she-wolves and I lay in wait. My skin was prickling and I feared a headache from the deep-level of anxiety that I felt. My mind was circulating thoughts of my Lolo dead, the real Kishni dead, villagers dead. All dead. I didn’t want to see my new fierce friend dead. But rushing ahead to rescue her if she didn’t actually need rescuing could be worse. So I stayed there sweating and stuck in limbo.

The rest of the girls were arrayed in a wide semi-circle around the opening of the path that led to the bandit camp. Bheriya would draw the bandits into our semi-circle where their first sight would be of me, towering over them. As their brothers-in-blood before them, they would be too shocked at my Giant form to do much in those crucial first moments during which time the remaining sisters would impale them with the knives, swords and spears we had pocketed in our previous raids.

I was about to call an end to our wait and revert to the original plan when we heard loud whoops headed our way.

“Come back girl, we’ll show you a good time!” shouted one male.

Another voice ‘whoop-whooped’ again, sounding like a hyena.

Through the trees I saw the small form of Bheriya bounding towards us gracefully. She seemed unhurt. I sighed in relief.

“Get ready,” I whispered to the she-wolves.

Bheriya burst into our clearing and hurried to my side. She was sweating and heaving but had a massive grin on her face and her eyes were shining with excitement. I chuckled at her antics and then turned to face the two bandits who had followed the she-wolf into our den. I was the last thing they saw with wide-eyes as the five sisters fell upon them.

Liberating the camp was almost too easy after that. We looted the two corpses after which I threw them aside. Then, we simply stayed put. Whoever the leader of the camp was would send more men our way, when the first two didn’t return. We waited only for another half-hour when another bandit just waltzed into our trap. I let the women take him down as well. I guessed correctly that Bheriya wanted to ‘blood’ her sisters. Make them less squeamish about inflicting violence and killing. Who was I to argue with humans who had been through what they had been through? After all, I had had to learn the realities of this world the hard way as well.

After taking care of the new corpse, Bheriya and I moved our gang closer to the bandit camp. We surrounded it and lay in wait quietly. The sisters were closer to the camp than I was. No matter how silently I waited, my bulk would be easily noticeable.

We didn’t have to wait too long for further action though. The fool of a bandit leader had sent most of his men to chase after Bheriya. Only he and one other bandit remained to protect the camp in which there were four abused women.

Bheriya later told me, very proudly, that the four captives had realised that the bandit leader and his last companion had grown increasingly panicked. Apparently, without needing to say a word aloud to each other, they had encircled the remaining two bandits with murder on their mind. The bandits had realised the danger from their erstwhile slaves too late, the no-longer-captive-women swarmed them from behind. When the she-wolves saw what was happening they had raised the alarm and jumped into the fray. Being further back, I took longer to reach the camp but when I did the captive-women had already slit the throats of the last bandits.