Summer, 1430

After ten further days of heavy skirmishing, Oevcn and his army found themselves staring at a wooden picket fence, a field of barley and a comfortable farmhouse with smoke rising from its chimney in the distance.

Human civilization.

The Eastern Expeditionary Force had finally cleared the Doldrums and reached the outer settlements of Pometia. Many of the troops, having never left the cyno towns and villages, stared in wonder at the sight of human habitation and its command of the landscape: roads leading to farms with rows upon rows of crops, a landscape adjusted for the comfort of humans. It was a stunningly different world from the wild and harsh environment they were raised up in.

Oevcn raised his arm and turned to face his troops.

&We go carefully. Remember that we are chasing the Calaveras Legion, nothing more. Things are dangerous enough as it is. We do not need to fight the powerful Pometian Theme on top of it.& He looked over thousands of battle hardened-warriors. &Anyone who raises trouble with the locals will be dealt with by me personally. Understood?&

The cynos all nodded. Myrewecs tapped his bow upon his forehead as a sign of agreement.

Oevcn awkwardly clambered over the fence.

&Be ready for anything.&

Beimcu set off with her scouts, quickly disappearing into the alien landscape, and was soon followed by a thin screen of skirmishers trudging through the fields, guarding the remainder of the army as it advanced down a country lane in a marching column. A half hour later, the little army had cleared the barley crop and found a second field of peas, when the scout Jungtew suddenly came rushing back.

&Sutter’s forces are here! They’re assembling on the crossroads!&

Weapons were immediately readied. Myrewecs notched an arrow. Oevcn pulled his gonne from his shoulder, but failed to light his matches.

&Where is Beimcu?& The dark cyno asked.

&She fell back to that farmhouse with a squad.& A paw pointed to the cozy structure a half mile ahead. &I was ordered to alert you. Their scouts are skirmishing heavily with ours along the other end of the farm. They know we’re here as well. &

&How many?&

&A lot. Perhaps all of them. Thousands. They mean to fight.&

Oevcn paused. He looked around the farm and the fields, the comfortable house, the picket fence lining the property.

&Well, this is as good a place to fight as any.& He raised his gonne. &Battle lines! Remember the plan!&

Just as the cynos finished deploying, a human rider appeared in the distance, fully lit by the morning sun. Then a satyr horseman followed, or a human wearing a horned helm. Then a trasgu rider. Soon a company of enemy cavalry had assembled, then a battalion, then an army. Condottiero Sutter himself appeared, majestically dressed in shining silver morion, breastplate and buffy coat, though looking a bit dumpy. The Free Company leader confidently raised the Skull Banner of the Legion before his assembled force.

Ovecn raised his gonne again in defiant response, and the army readied for the attack.

&Remember, this is but a great stag hunt!& The dark cyno barked. &Keep calm and follow the plan!&

&There's a heck of a lot more facing us than a stag!& Someone responded.

&More of us too!& Oevcn called back.

&These slavers are far more dangerous than deer!& Another voice called back.

&But far dumber too!& The dark cyno retorted, eliciting a chuckle from the army. The conversation was soon interrupted by a cry:

&They’re attacking!&

With blaring hunting horns, the Calaveras Legion charged; three thousand of them, sweeping down like a cascading waterfall, thundering down the fields, trampling crops. After three major clashes however, Oevcn's forces had prepared a new tactic in response. The cynos scattered immediately, but instead of fleeing, many took up sniping positions all around the field, firing arrows, stones and javelins at the approaching enemy forces.

A hail of projectiles rained down upon the free company, throwing riders from their horses, but the attackers continued, certain of victory. There was no swamp to catch their horses in a quagmire this time-this was optimal ground for equestrian warriors. Sutter's forces quickly bore down upon the troops of the upstart black shuck, who began to flee, as predicted.

“A merry hunt indeed! Why did we fear these craven vermin?” The Condottiero called out as hunting horns blared in triumph.

Yet Tar Hollow's tactics soon became apparent: the cynocephali were retreating, but not in disorder. Some quickly broke into small loose squads of a dozen or so warriors, aggressively hovering around the peripheries of the attack column like a swarm of angry bees. These would stop and counterattack, launching projectiles upon the enemy, flanking the Legionnaires to hit them from the side or surprise them from the rear with spears, only to continue their retreat if attention was shifted to them.

The Calaveras Legion quickly fell into confusion; some turned their horses to run down the closest cynos attacking them, others pulled out their crossbows to shoot back, still others milled about in confusion, awaiting orders from their leaders. One by one, Legionnaires fell.

Oevcn’s forces were also suffering losses, with entire squads trampled or hacked to pieces by the horsemen, but more often than not the nimble fighters were able to outmaneuver their opponents and evade the enemy. The bulk of the cyno army continued to retreat, slower but still being driven across the field.

As Oevcn had planned.

Him and Myrewecs briskly fled across the field, the gray and brown furred cyno occasionally turning to take some parting shots at the advancing enemy.

&Through the fence!& The dark cyno called out to his troops. &Then turn and stand when you cross!&

Quick and nimble, the cyno warriors hopped over, dived under, or leapt through the thin picket barrier. Then most stopped and faced the enemy, weapons at the ready.

Ovecn had not yet utilized his weapon during this engagement, but now he lit his matches.

&Today we take down these killers!& He called out.

Still being harassed by cyno stragglers, Sutter’s charging forces approached the rallied defenders. The Legionaries were tired, disorganized, bloodied, but still eager to break their hated foe, and the hunting horns again blared.

Oevcn howled back in response. Myrewecs picked up the call, then the rest of the army, echoing through the field, a defiant interruption of the Calaveras Legion’s premature claim of victory.

The dark cyno lit his fuse and fired.

The shot downed a human, immediately followed by another shot picking off another enemy warrior. As the charging Calaveras Legion, slowed by the now tiring horses and the heavy skirmishing, came into range, the cynos threw everything they got at them. Now the free company troops fell in doves before the storm, men and horses collapsing in heaps, sometimes tripping the riders and mounts behind them.

Stumbling, the Calaveras Legion continued on, and came up before the split rail fence.

The horses balked before the flimsy barrier, backstopped by hundreds of cynos. As the Calaveras Legion involuntarily wheeled, avoiding the obstacle, Oevcn fired another shot, downing one of the horses in the rear and sending man and mount crashing into other raiders nearby, cascading the attackers. Some of the horses crashed headlong into the barrier, cracking it and throwing riders and some cynos off, while a few expert horsemen leaped over the fence to trample and engage the mass of dog-warriors, though most of these foolhardy individuals were quickly pulled off their mounts and ruthlessly dispatched. The attack abruptly stopped in its tracks, as the raiders suddenly found themselves blocked by the simple but insurmountable barricade, roiling and wheeling in confusion.

Oevcn had never stopped firing, each dry crack of his gonne taking down an enemy with cold precision. Now he sensed that the tide had shifted.

&Warriors, attack!& The dark cyno barked.

At that his troops counterattacked, surging back over the battered fence to directly engage the bloodied and disorganized enemy. At the same time, the stragglers still in the field converged, hitting the Calaveras Legion in the rear. Soon the horsemen were being attacked on all sides by the canid humanoids, toppling horses and riders with frightening rapidity. Under continuous assault, the Legionnaires began breaking up, with more and more riders hit, thrown, or impaled by brazen cyno warriors with polearms.

It was indeed like the Great Stag Hunts, only with a more dangerous (if not necessarily more intelligent) adversary.

The situation was unsustainable, and quickly the Calaveras Legion broke, hundreds of riders streaming back through the thin cyno screen in the back before taking off in a chaotic rout across the field. With whoops and howls of triumph, Oevcn’s army pursued, cutting down or capturing stragglers over a mile.

In the middle of the field, Condottiero Sutter sat atop his horse, silent and frozen in shock as his vaunted free company broke and fled for the third time, beaten fair and square. His signalers blared the rally from their horns, until then were taken down one by one. The new commander had performed better than expected, but proved no match for the upstart young dark cyno, who now took aim and finally took the broken condottiero out of his misery.

***

So ended the Battle of Leetown. A thousand Legionnaires lay across the field, including seven hundred dead, stacked in piles along the fence. Another three hundred had been captured, on top of five hundred horses. Oevcn’s forces had suffered serious losses as well, a hundred dead, three hundred wounded, but they had been triumphant.

As the victorious army trudged through the devastated field littered with corpses, they met Beimcu's squad hailing them from the farmhouse, now pockmarked with arrows and bolts. A human couple and their three children were with the scouts, huddled together in a worried mass.

&Well done!& The tan, brown and gray agouti cyno called out.

Oevcn gestured at the frightened family, who shied away at the motion.

&Why are they with you?&

&We wanted to keep them safe during the fighting. The farmer's cubs kept asking if we were planning on killing them.&

Oevcn knelt before the children, two boys and a girl, and smiled. “No. You are safe with us.” He asserted. Then he stuck his tongue out. The children smiled, then laughed as the dark cyno made faces with them. Satisfied at the reaction, Ovecn got up and addressed the adult humans, still watching him suspiciously.

“We mean no harm to the people of Pometia. We're here to avenge ourselves against the Calaveras Legion, our mutual enemies. We have no ill will towards you all.”

“The Other Men invaders once said something similar.”

Oevcn winched, before quickly collecting himself. “We will do our best to bring no harm. Let us bury our dead, and we will help you bury the enemy dead and allow you a share of the spoils to compensate for the damages to your farm.”

“Then what?” The farmer's wife asked.

“Then we leave to destroy the Calaveras Legion. Then we leave Pometia.”

She nodded, though not quite convinced. “Good.”

---

Steve Earle - Copperhead Road

From  akali2

Original: https://www.furaffinity.net/view/60992957/