Free Eagle People by W.R. Benton

meat, she moved forward again, looking for a good place to spend the night.
    Spotting a grove of mixed hard wood trees, mostly oak and hickory, she moved for them, looking for a source of water. A few hundred feet in the trees, she spotted a small babbling brook, and then made camp fifty feet away from the stream.
    Camp was simple; they secured the horses to a picket line, started a small fire, and they were done. As Theodosia cut and then skewered large chunks of meat on sticks, Ada took the horses, one-at-a-time, to the stream to drink. When she returned with the last horse, she saw sticks holding the meat stuck into the ground near the flickering flames.  
    Saddles were not removed from the horses, because they fully intended to ride a few miles up trail after eating, and then sleep in a cold camp. Both knew fire and food smells lingered in the air for hours, and they were determined to escape.
    After eating all the meat they could hold, they extinguished the fire, mounted and then moved on. An hour later, they moved behind some large boulders and relaxed. While sharing supper, it had been decided that guard shifts would be used all night, with Ada pulling the last duty period. Each shift was six hours in length. Not only did they have to worry about the Wolf People, but also wild animals and other groups of warriors that might be in the area.
    Getting into a fetal position, Ada was soon asleep.
    Theodosia let her mind jump from subject to subject as she watched camp. She gave thought to her childhood, school, her warrior training, and then to Markus, a man she loved. When their camp was attacked, the chief had ordered Markus to take a group of elderly, women and children and flee. She'd not seen him since. She'd remained behind to help the shaman with the injured, dying, and dead. She was captured a short time later.
    I'm not a strong person, like Ada and others, and I freeze when around violence, she thought as she scanned the area slowly. When she killed the old shaman it happened so fast, and was savage. It was a premeditated cold-blooded act of violence and it overwhelmed me. Why can't people talk things over, reach an agreement, and avoid shedding blood?  I can never understand how people kill and then forget about it, like it never happened. What was that?
    She heard the clinking of metal tapping metal and it sounded like it was on the trail, which was close, maybe fifty feet away. She moved to Ada and touched her ankle.
    A voice from the darkness said, “Stop that damned noise and do it now!”
    “Ain't nobody out here, Byron. Hell, your super woman is long gone by now.”
    “You heard me, Eldon. Open your mouth against me one more time and I'll see your ass whipped when we return. Do you understand me?”
    “I hear you, and I won't say another word.”
    The noised stopped and so did the talking. The clip-clop of the horses slowly faded and then Ada whispered, “They've discovered it was me that caused all the damage to them, Theodosia. And, I'm sure they're pissed a single warrior did the job, not to add I'm a woman.”
    “It doesn't matter, because if they get their hands on us, they'll use us and then cut our throats. I think their being mad will work to our advantage, because anger will rule their thinking. In the morning, let's ride parallel to the trail but remain in the woods. They'll have to backtrack to this spot and then pick our tracks up again. It will give us a little added time. And call me Theo, because no one calls me Theodosia, except my mother.”
    Glancing at the clear sky overhead, Ada checked the time, and then said, “Your idea is a good one, and since it is near the time for me to take over as guard, you go to sleep now. I will wake you an hour before dawn. We will then eat more meat and travel.”
    About half way through her shift, the wind picked up and dark gray clouds began to move toward them from the west. The thought of rain made Ada smile as she thought, if it rains, it'll