D.A.B, day 21
Two days later. Waiting.
This sucks.
I'm not sleeping well, and some of my dreams are unpleasant. The good news is that the damn raiding group is just camping in their ambush. The bad news is that the damn raiding group is still camping in an ambush. And me and Bokyli keep on working and training while Xuela mostly stays on watch while sewing a custom rucksack for her front, or practise with her crossbow or 'death from above' by dropping things. I really wish Reiley had a radio link to me, but I still won't pray to the damn alien bastards for that.
Bokyli do great work on a lot of things but especially making bricks and with building the community hut. My arms are stronger than Bokyli's but her legs more than compensate, and she do many slate runs while I work, so together we work well. I'm not even that annoyed when Bokyli mess up her excuse for me not working on the high fields, and I understand that Reiley have convinced Bokyli to do most of the external work away from the cliff and fetch stuff for me, so I can stay and work in the hut or on the cliff projects. I take it as a sign that Reiley is protective of me and loves me. And there is good progress in a lot of projects, and not just building the hut or paths. The small terrace garden on the cliff is finished and bushes and plants have been planted. The molotov work, and we're making all we can. Thrown packages that on impact spread a cloud of fine ground Number 3 powder work. And similar that have Number 3 sap mixed with a bit of alcohol might be useful before it dries. The special arrows that shoot a Number 3 filled wooden piston works. Hopefully an impact on a shield or chest will make a cloud and have some irritant or incapacitating effect. We are storing sap and powder in small bottles to smear on blades and arrows. Bokyli is also getting a bunch of those very vicious thorny plants, as we will plant them in places an enemy might try to approach the cliff from that isn't along the path. I'm following Reiley's directions about her tanning project, which seem to work. I just wish the damn raiders would leave so we could return to normal.
I worry for Reiley. I have tested my crossbow against a single layer of my coverall on the lowest part of the leg I've normally fold up, and at 15 meter the bolt penetrated way too deep for comfort. The material is impressive especially as it isn't thick, hot or uncomfortable, but 6 cm penetration into the side of my body might kill me and will absolutely severely wound me, and I don't know how much more protection the three layer overlap over the middle front and back actually give. Still, the coverall will protect well against blows, cuts and normal bows as they don't have the same shearing or force, so I absolutely want a coverall for Xuela and Bokyli.
It's not just for Reiley I worry, but also for our future here. It seems that the raiders don't know about us for now, but it is likely that the raiders will slowly increase their manpower in one way or another, and they will become a bigger threat. If they're camping the Salt Boon now, they might decide to build another camp at the Salt Boon when their population grow big enough that they need to expand. Once we're noticed I assume conflict between us is just a matter of time since I won't bow to the raider assholes, so we have to move, disappear and start all over. Abandon our home and all we have built. The high fields that have just started to show growth.
So, an idea have taken root. A bad and dangerous idea. To attack their ambush and wipe them out, as we might never get a better chance to weaken the enemy. But we must wipe them out so no-one return with intel about us or what happened, so their camp might suspect the dinosaurs and be afraid to send out another expedition. It should delay future exploration here, but also make that next exploration more careful, paranoid and probably bigger. Killing all of them will be hard and dangerous, especially since we don't have a manpower advantage, or even muscles advantage. They are four big people on the ground against our three. So how do we ambush the ambushers? We could eliminate their dugouts so they're forced to move by foot which will make it damn dangerous for them to make it back to their camp. But that is obvious enemy action, and they will be pissed off, close and looking for enemies. We can't let the enemy have the initiative and attack us, unless we can make them walk into an ambush.
So how? That is what my mind is thinking about when I'm alone, and building or crafts aren't distracting me.
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I'm cleaning off from mortar work and sweat, when Bokyli crouch down beside me and just place a bundle of wet cloth with a thin bladed short sword on top in front of her.
"A person attacked me as I was gathering clay. We fought. Person was slow. I won. I've chopped up the body like you said might be a good idea, since we don't know what another person can heal from, and I threw the body pieces out into the sea. This is the things the person had."
What?
My mind is going wild with so many questions that I don't know where to start, but I see Bokyli nurse a wound that luckily seem very shallow, and the look she have just makes me want to hug her and comfort her. So I do, and wonder if she is okay. Her people don't really hug much, but she doesn't complain that I do, and she hugs me back and take deep breaths. Bokyli tells me more details about what happened and I can't fault her action as it seems to be a clear case of self-defence. The other person might have been affected by the sanctuary flowers, but done is done. I also don't fault Bokyli for disposing of the body like that. It is something I mentioned and talked about with Reiley. We don't know what an alien species can survive or regenerate from, so we should dismember every enemy, and possible burn the bodies even though it will be gruesome. But chopping off the heads should work in most cases before we have time to do that. Bokyli doesn't know if the person she killed was a man or a woman, or something else, and quickly disposed of the body to avoid attracting scavengers or predators there, and smoke might be visible to the raiders. We are careful about smoke, wind direction and even sounds.
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We clean Bokyli's wounds since we don't know about infections here, but Bokyli isn't worried about the wounds as they are shallow and her people also heal quickly; like her 'change' ability wasn't awesome enough, she can actually regrow a limb over half a year or so, and a finger or an ear is faster. She can bleed out so she really likes the tourniquets, but only her brain, spine and internal organs are dangerous to get wounded in. Like for the rest of us. Her healing ability is already helping her mouth and tongue heal, and hopefully Bokyli won't try eating Number 3 leaves again. She really didn't want to admit that was the cause of her pain yesterday, as we had warned her and she said she wouldn't eat it. But those leaves are very pretty and a quick munch might be okay? Bokyli absolutely understand our reaction and why I have had her harvest a lot to weaponize. I've promised to not tell Reiley or Xuela what she did, as long as Bokyli never try eating anything from Number 3 tree again.
The bundle of cloth turns out to be a jacket-dress woven with a pretty brown-blue design, and the person also had some gold jewellery. Bokyli seems to offer the things to me like a penance for doing something I would think is bad, so we have another talk about self-defence and so on, and this time she seeks my embrace. Right now Bokyli might look and behave like a scared young woman that just had a terrible fight-for-your-life experience, but I sure wouldn't want to get into a knife fight against Bokyli. Her tribe basically have a close combat martial art blade fighting style combined with dancing as part of their culture, and she liked to practise that, and I can just imagine getting kicked by those legs, or not being ready for a quick jump in or out or range. Although one should have two weapons or a shield and blade or a staff. So without asking for Xuela or Reiley's opinion, I give Bokyli the short sword. Bokyli obviously doesn't want the jacket-dress as it will make her stand out more, but she like some of the jewellery. Personally, I only care if the jewellery is useful metal or similar, so if Bokyli want to wear something that is just pretty or shiny, I don't care. Especially if it help her cope with what she just experienced.
A very distant red Star Fall to the north distract us until it disappear from view. It's kind of annoying that we haven't gotten any random Star Fall close since Reiley said her group basically got one a week. Although I really hope there isn't a Star Fall that fall between us and the ambush group, because they might explore to find it, and instead finds us. Star Fall stuff is obviously very nice, but I keep my mouth shut so I don't give the Damn Alien Bastards any bad and dangerous ideas. I'm willing to bet that some of those 'random' Star Falls are not so random.
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It's late and we're working while listening to the rain. Bokyli is making more arrows and bolts, Xuela is doing clay work like making molotov bottles, pretty pots or just useful items, and I am working on figuring out glyphs and testing designs. I don't like hearing that rain. We've never seen dinosaur tracks on the ridge, but there are those flying dinosaurs visiting and especially when it rains, so I don't like that Reiley is out there and I don't know how or where she is. She might be wounded. She might be captured or getting tortured.
Xuela pointed out that the big dinosaurs are different north and south of the ridge, and the ridges seems to be part of a natural divide and barrier across this land, that have split the large dinosaur species in two. There are some grazers that are pretty much the same, but many large animals are not. There is a faint whistle outside that I recognise and I instantly take my weapons and silently move out, but before I peek down between the plants I hear Reiley's voice.
"Arne, you need to shower. Lower the ladder and I will help scrub you."
I peek down and Reiley smiles back up. She seems alone and happy, so I assume she means it. We really need to decide distress code words, but I quickly lower the ladder, and Reiley hurries up and gives me a hungry kiss I happily receive, before dragging the ladder back up and walking inside.
"I just wanted to give an update. I've found a good spot overlooking the Salt Boon cove and I can make it back there before sunrise even after a few hours of sleep. Set your watch alarm for two hours before sunrise. They are definitely part of the Raiders that attacked my old camp as I recognise three of them, including four arms and the big violet woman who just looks dark to me. They're still lying in ambush. They seem lacking in discipline and not really keeping watch after dark. Then again, one of them snores and is quite loud which seems to annoy the other three, and especially that big dark woman. They also make a small fire every evening and morning to cook food, although the climbing one seems to eat raw meat. He have shoot a few big fish from his position that he have roped up and eaten raw or brought back to the others, and seems to be really good with his big bow."
"Do you want warm food?" Reiley nods, and Bokyli hurries to prepare it so I continue: "Talk while we eat. We have things to update you about."
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We don't care that Xuela or Bokyli are downstairs as we have sex before trying to sleep. Reiley won't get more than about 5 hours of sleep, but it is 5 hours together and I'm not the only one happy to share our bed again. But falling to sleep will be hard for me as there is plenty of thoughts circulating in my head from what Reiley have told us. A true plan is starting to form, but we cannot expect the ambushers to stay forever, and they might leave tomorrow, so we have to put that plan into action as fast as possible and likely tomorrow night. The night is bright and if the enemies don't keep watch and is noisy during the night, and move into the same positions in the morning and behave predictably, we can use that to our advantage. But timing is tricky and small variations makes a huge difference in how it will go. Traps are hard to do, and triggered by the enemy, who obviously will change their behaviour once the first trap is triggered. And we cannot even be sure which trap that will be, or where each enemy will be when that happens. I would really like to have command detonated stuff. And better ranged weapons. Tomorrow we need to prepare and test some stuff to see if the slightly bad odds might actually be worth the huge risk. The enemy have two ranged warriors, and also two big dangerous close combat warriors, with the big armoured lizard being hard to wound. Bokyli might be quick, nimble and ready to kill, but it is still bad odds. We need to decimate and wound them fast, and preferably starting the fight with something that looks like shitty bad luck and not enemy action. It will still be dangerous as hell.