Suddenly war clubs were clashing across the lava top. Pykor, Zana, and Kardan each engaged a Razor Boar fighter. Faydayo had Sarkola pinned to the ground, forcing his mohawk to the rock floor. Krissa watched on in a daze, her forehead now smeared with gray clay.

“Everyone, stop fighting!” Yuliko yelled.

Minty and the Razor Boar healer also shouted for a break in the combat, but their yells went unanswered. The Ibex and the Boars swiped at each other and parried blows. The two groups were more or less equally matched.

Zana dashed and dodged, as leopard-like as her tattoos, artfully moving around the burly young man she dueled. So another Boar jumped in on her, putting her on the defensive. They were backing her into a rock wall as she fended off their blows.

Kardan’s opponent, a girl with her hair trimmed short, managed to whack his throwing stick out of his hands, so Kardan had lunged upon her war club, and now they wrestled over the weapon, kicking and punching.

Faydayo dug his knee into Sarkola. “Tell your people to back off!”

“Go roll in dung, Ibex!” Sarkola answered.

Faydayo clapped the side of the Boar leader’s with his fist. “Tell them!”

“I’ll piss where you sleep!” Sarkola yelled.

Then he grabbed a nearby rock and struck Faydayo in his crown, knocking him off top of him. Sarkola tried to reverse the table and pin Faydayo, but the two became locked in a wrestling match on the ground.

Yuliko watched the scene unfold. It was a disgraceful display between two Black Glass clans. They were one people, crafted from the molten life force within the great volcano, meant to dwell on these lands together, peacefully. They all shared Maw’Goro’s hot blood, it was not right for them to fight each other.

“Stop! Stop it! Are all of you crazy!” she yelled.

But she got no response. The fight continued. Yuliko looked up the mountain, where in the distance trails of lava flowed. She was sure Maw’Goro’s blood had not run so heavy when they first got to the base of the volcano. Yuliko got a bad feeling. Like this was only a prelude to something more dangerous. Maybe Krissa had been right, the mutilated ibex might mean something important.

The brawl was not progressing in the Ibex Clan’s favor. Zana had been cornered against the rock wall by the two Boars. And Pykor was also losing ground to his fast whipping opponent, who swung their club so fast Pykor was always being pushed back. The girl with the short hair wrestling with Kardan headbutted him, and he tumbled backward to the ground. She smashed the club down hard at Kardan, but he crawled backward, avoiding the blows.

“Oh, Maw’Goro’s ashes!” Yuliko said to herself upon seeing Kardan in danger. She dashed forward and grabbed the red painted ibex horn with the ‘death’ symbol. Before the Boar could bring her club down on Kardan, Yuliko swung the horn into the woman's gut, knocking the wind out of her. Then Yuliko kicked the short-haired woman over.

Yuliko ran over to help Kardan up.

“Thanks,” he said as he took her hand.

Then she saw that Zana was being overwhelmed by the two Boars cornering her. Yuliko pointed and Kardan nodded. He ran and struck one of them in the back, giving Zana the chance to break out and take control of the battle.

Yuliko almost followed after them, but something on the horizon caught her attention. It had just been an instant, but she thought she saw a figure in the distance.

Closeby, Faydayo still lay entangled with Sarkola, each trying to force the other’s limbs to the breaking point, so they might submit. The two rolled across the ground, Faydayo managed to get on top, but then Sarkola had him twisted by the wrist.

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“You tell your people to back off,” Sarkola said.

“Go lick a pig pen!” Faydayo replied.

Sarkola swiftly jerked on Faydayo’s twisted wrist, causing him to scream.

That jolted Yuliko out of her scan of the horizon, and she ran over to the two embattled mo’huran leaders. She hovered the end of the death horn over Sarkola’s face. “Let him go.”

“I got this,” Faydayo said, in pain.

“I know. I’m just helping,” Yuliko told Faydayo, then she faced back to the Razor Boar leader. “I said let him go.”

“No. Faydayo the big boy doesn’t want your help, Totem-Loser,” Sarkola said.

“I can handle this, Yuliko,” Faydayo said, gritting his teeth.

“Seriously, we shouldn’t be doing this,” Yuliko said. “I saw something out in the yard.”

“You think I’m going to fall for a trick like that?” Sarkola said, struggling to maintain his hold on his opponent’s wrist.

“No trick,” Yuliko told him.

Sarkola’s eyes darted to the symbol etched into the ibex horn. “Ah, I see you choose death.”

His eyes flicked back up to Yuliko’s. She thought she saw something darker than power-hunger in those eyes. Like he had wanted them to choose death all along.

But in the split second he shared his dark gaze with Yuliko, Faydayo had broken free of his hold. In an instant, Faydayo slipped his arms beneath Sarkola and trapped him in a headlock.

He took a moment to give Yuliko an unwelcome glare, before shouting at his captive, “Call off your people!”

“Goat lover!” Sarkola yelled back.

“Faydayo, I really did see something out there,” Yuliko said.

“Not now,” Faydayo grunted.

Yuliko scanned back out over the horizon. Just more mounds and coils of dried magma. But then she noticed Minty was staring out over the horizon too. Yuliko looked back down at the boys, still squirming. If they wanted to keep at each other, then so be it, she thought. And then she left them to their wrestling match and rushed over to Minty and Krissa.

“Did you see something out there?” She asked.

“I thought I saw movement,” Minty answered.

“Dead things move in the far lands,” Krissa said. That was another myth about the far lands. It is said that those that die there don’t go to be reborn in Maw’Goro’s Sacred Fire like the Black Glass People do. Instead they are cursed to dwell in the Earthly Realm as corpses and ghouls.

“She’s hurt,” Minty said.

The welt on her forehead was large and the redness showed through the gray clay. And her eyes had a glaze to them.

The fight showed no signs of ending. Faydayo still held Sarkola and they were yelling profanities at each other. The quick-handed duelist had pushed Pykor along the crest of a coil ridge. Kardan and Zana were now in a two against three battle since the short haired girl Boar had jumped back into the fight. The other Boars that were not fighting also appeared to be gazing out at the same point in the horizon.

It was only a matter of time before someone got really hurt, and more than that, Yuliko was certain something was out there observing them now. She needed this fight to end, or maybe they were all going to get hurt.

Yuliko looked at the red ibex horn in her hand. It had been crudely sawed off at the base, leaving an approximately fist sized hole at the end. The other end had been untouched, coming to a point.

“Minty, do you have a saw in your bag?” she asked.

“Uh-huh,” the healer girl said. She dug through her medicine bag and pulled out a finely crafted saw-toothed blade made of razor sharp obsidian. This piece had been fashioned by Lion specifically for the clan’s healers. The knapping was so delicately done one could hardly see the flaking edges. It had been made for dire medical situations, where a limb must be removed. This blade could saw right through the bone. Pieces like this can only be crafted by an obsidian master using vibrational knapping.

“Keep looking out,” Yuliko told Minty, then she used the serrated tool to saw off the tip of the ibex horn, making it open on both ends. Thanks to the high quality saw, it did not take her long to convert her impromptu weapon into a blowing horn.

She looked back out at the fight. Somehow Sarkola had broken free and he was laying punches on Faydayo. Kardan and Zana were facing constant blows from the Boars. Pykor had been tripped by the quick Boar and he rolled down the lava coil.

Yuliko raised the horn to her lips and blew. A low resonate sound bellowed across the yard. “BWAAAAAAAH.” The horn was quite large and required all Yuliko’s breath to sustain the wailing sound. The wail had a warbly quality to it, like something dying. “BWAAAAAAAH!”

The fighters all stopped mid-strike, and turned to look at the source of the noise. Yuliko blew until she had no more breath. “BWAAAaaa. . .” Then she lowered the death horn and let the wide end drop to the ground. She took a big gulp of air and then yelled out, “All of you stop fighting! There is something out there.”