I think people should get hurt for the sake of realism. Some may get hurt worse than others, others may get out of it with little more than severe 'scratches', but people need to be hurt otherwise it ends up being like a cheap action movie where the main characters always seem to untouchable.

Hermann showing his redeeming qualities would be nice. And as a guard he would be expected to fight. Cowardice would probably not be permitted when facing the enemy - like in any modern army. And coming from the 4th Reich, he probably feels that he needs to prove himself, especially since he is the only male guard in the city.

Mandred, Peter, and Anne... if they are caught in the fight would probably help, but I think the Amazons would want them to be out of harms way if possible. Their value, like most of the kids, is in what they know (like vulcanizing rubber), so they would want them alive.

Speaking of which, do the raiders know this? I would think word would have spread pretty quickly about the kids and their value to society. Perhaps the raiders want to sell them to other cities? Or keep them for their own benefit?

*coughs* he grew up in the 3rd Reich. The 4th is taking form on the continent on the other side of the planet Midgard.

;)

The raiders heard from the accounts at the wreck that there are some furless beings that can kill with loud noises, and punch a raider out of action.
Most don't believe these tales.

The raiders however saw the metallic shell and know that they have never seen anything alike. The scent of the humans was all about the wreck, so they know there is something that can make such things, and they will recognize it by scent.

=> A side option was that the raiders manage to grab and abduct one of the children. This could be one of the not yet mentioned kids that maybe works in the harbour / gate area.

Manfred, who has the best education, will be handled by Tanaz, She has order to protect him - like Tiz and Harun are to protect Peter - but unlike them she will sock him when he doesn't look and when its safe again, wake him and tell him he stumbled. If she finds it neccessary.

Peter, however, following Tiz and Harun up the hill and up the fortification walls, might get to the area that gets overrun for a while by the raider/tigers.
So, he could be abducted, which would result in Harun and Tiz setting out to find him - and Hermann , for example, being sent along plus a few volunteers from the fennekim and Amazones.

The raiders do not do any trade withthe cities. They are suspicious toward everything not part of their family, and consider zebras and fennekim to be supper.
Thats why it takes usually getting mopped up by a caravan, being let alive and being given watercanteen and dried fish before they get the idea into their head that the towns are actually their friends.

Anne would be ordered by Chaman not to interfere in he fight. But she might well ignore the command.
=> offers the chance to show Chaman in full action extracting Anne from Danger.

Is this still the place to comment? I love this story! I find this world you’ve crafted fascinating, but I am confused about one thing: the Dancers. What is the purpose of a secret society of stealth warriors in this utopic little city and why are there only women among their ranks?

Well, this is indeed one of the places to reply and throw ideas at me!

The Danceress Guild is one of the oldest organized groups in the Fennekim culture.
Initially, both genders went out during the night to hunt for food, or did dig to expand a villages tunnels. However, always some of the young females stayed with the cubs during those times.
Not to fall behind in their skills, they trained.
However, fighting was only a very small part of a fennekims life whilst being outside or during digging.
So, by comparison, those that stayed to guard the cubs had a lot more actual combat training than those going outside.

As the fennekim society started to specialize, many young males - often enough those not smart or skilled enough for a special trade - started to specialize as guards and hunters and trackers, tasked with protecting the Sietches or those working outside.
By that time, however the guild of danceresses had formed and performed shows for the entertainment and as social glue for the Sietches, the subterranean towns of the fennekim.
Their shows used the motions the young fenwas learned to defend themselves and to fight any type of danger that might attack a Sietch.
Where the motions were obvious, they were used to tell about past glorious battles fought - by the males.

However, why had they trained fighting?
So that - in case the defense of a Sietch collapsed - they would be able to extract the children and bring them to safety.
They are the last defense for a Sietch.

The task of the Danceress guild is manyfold these days:
1) Serve as mediators for conflicts with their supposed "gentle ways".
2) Be the central entertainers preserving cultural traditions.
3) Use their knowledge and skills to gather intelligence
4) Serve as inconspicuous Bodyguards by officially serving as liasons, teachers for fennekim history and courtly manners.

Add that, as they are dancers, and thus cultural icons, they themselves cultivate the image that they are the weak and cultivated flowers of society, gentle, educated and calm.
Most danceresses however are those fenwas with a high aggression, speed , endurance and strength.
The Danceress training focuses on self-control, as they train for catastrophic situations were stress would be high.
Having to escort children and wounded older women through the dangerous desert to reach a place and then start a new sietch will be stressful.
Channeling their aggression on the actual dangers enables danceresses to exert themselves beyond what purely physical training would enable them to.
Males training to fight fight until they are exhausted, then they have to recuperate.
Danceresses train to be able to deliver a fighting retreat for days against a superior force.
And they can do it, though they burn through their physical reserves to the point that they starve even when they get enough food as their body wastes away faster to provide the energy needed to fight than their body can take up new energy from food and rebuild the burnt out reserves.
They literally die fighting, and they know and train for it.
An enemy that would try to kill the core of a Sietch would be fighting violently in the tunnels of the sietch for days whilst the greater part of the Danceresses escort the children to safety.
Any enemy realizing it in time to be able to track the escapees would run into minefields of traps, would be attacked from the sane, from behind every rock, sanddune, waterhole - the latters, unless he fortified them himself before, will be gone, salted or worse.

To be able to be such a mighty shield to the future of their society, danceresses need to be, as mentioned before, strong, enduring, focused, and equipped with enough rage to be willing to go throuh that training - but also intelligent enough to truly control their rage and to learn not only all that a danceress has to know, which is jsut as much as every trade needs. But they ,too, need to learn at least one trade additionally, and typically they learn two additional trades.

So, a danceress poses as a soft, gentle, caring flower of society.
Every red blooded male will adore them for their beauty, wisdom, skill and intelligence.
But every danceress knows that when she marries, and her husband gets into danger and dies, her duty is not to revenge him, but to stay calm and wait up to the point when her own duty calls.

When the Strategas of the Amazone-Zebras learned and understood this, they forbade fennekim males that are part of the amazones standign military to marry, as to avoid a fenwa not trained with the self control of a danceress, to go out to seek revenge agaisnt a person or group she might find responsible for her husbands death.

And the princesses of the amazones usually have a fenwa fro mthe danceress guild as her, say, dance teacheress - her personal liasion to ask the help and advice of the danceress guild and its headmistresses