Over the far dune stood rows of Khar, in all the glory of war, with hatred, with desire to hurt, to maim, to destroy. Their similarities to Tua ended with their constitution. They were savages wielding tools of savagery, with which they enacted perversions of war. With their tube weapons they would strike down his entire tribe before they could set upon them, with no teeth, no claws, no strength or cunning. The black war-hunters did not need such things, nor even approach their targets. To Tua, this was a great injustice to life, and an injustice to the final death-fight all living things should be granted. In a split moment he envisioned a terrible scattering of bolts rush through the air and cut down his entire tribe with a sudden and instant end.

He became immensely wary, for he was wise with knowledge of the low cunning and foul vileness of their kind. They gestured to one another on the remote distance, too far to hear, yet plainly visible on the sunset. He had a deep and terrible gut feel.

From behind him pleaded Teya. "We find no chance, Tua, surely you see it. Don't take them for fools, there are more weapons they would not yet show us, and new ways to kill. They have superseded our methods of warfare, it is not even ground we stand on. God, you must see it!"

Tua did not take eyes off them, but whispered back to his brother "No, you must see it. There is no other place for us to go, and there is no further east we can travel. We are cornered on all edges. We must stand, else there will be nothing left-" He stopped short as he noted a small troop break away from the main band and head towards the village gates.

The rest of his clanmates hushed and stood on edge, their familiar silhouettes dark against the sky. Tua knew them all as strong hunters, skilled in the ways of felling the great beasts of their domain, and picking the scents, and seeing the trails. But the Khar were analytical, fierce, aggressive, and possessed minds far beyond that of prey. Tua knew not a single Tsaagan had taken the life of another of their kind, insofar as he doubted if they could at all, not for the difficulty of it, but for the brutality of it. The snuffing of a mind which knew life and songs and love, and from the looks of their faces he saw the immense apprehension they bore as they glanced from their held spears to their advancing foes.

He turned back to his brother. Teya's body trembled and quills stood on end, deep fear seating itself in his mind, bearing down on him and fraying his thoughts too thin to focus on anything but the figures in the distance. He did not speak, though Tua knew there was immense dread on his tongue had he the fixation to say it.