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that alert or ready to fight!!
"Always meant to `try' this myself," Amethysta mused as we drew up there
with the ruins before us, a few Peasants watching from a distance, their
hovels like dots there on the landscape... Bob speaking to Carol in low tones
behind us, his wife answering. June on the other side of me, her chocolate
skin glistening now. Jon keeping his thoughts to himself, no doubt recalling
what I'd told him of my adventures in crossing these ruins back in 2365...
"Let the dogs free," I ordered, June nodding in reply to me.
"Those little `Bostons' aren't going to do much," she said.
"They will bark, draw in the bigger animals," I pointed out.
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"`Something' out there, watching us," Ta-she-ra said to me. Like me she
was mounted on one of the gigantic wolves I often now used, although I didn't
"trust" the animals inside the city yet. The dogs roaming about, although most
stayed pretty close to us. The rubble much like I remembered it the time Hope
and I had crossed these same ruins over two centuries before. I doubted
however that we'd find any remains left over from that time now. The sun like
a furnace there in that cobalt blue sky overhead. I'd gotten a bit later a
"start" than I'd planned, but I didn't think it really mattered that much. I'd
brought wagons, barrels of water, extra supplies, everything that we might
"need" here...
"June, I think it would be a good idea to put out scouts," I spoke,
turning in the saddle, aware that there were ample places here in these ruins
where we might be fired upon from above now. The ruins of buildings perhaps a
dozen feet or so in height yet. "Detach your women in groups of three," I
added as she "nodded". "And tell them to stay alert and keep their bows ready
to use..."
"Looks `promising'," Keri said, slipping from her unicorn's back. Bob
giving her a grin, the story he'd once told me about the slim brunette
something I thought it best to keep to myself. The hot sun above striking
glints from her thick coal black hair. Her slim, trim figure, her height, Keri
being taller than I am, made her the sort of a woman that any red blooded man
might want! The two other Scribes dismounting, speaking in low tones to Keri.
One the handsome Tom Stevens, his skin as "brown" as June's was.
"Put out guards, establish a `perimeter', two archers to a crossbowmen,"
I spoke to June, adding then, "And each group is to have a Bull Terrier with
them." June nodding, giving her orders. "The last time I was here the
`reception' wasn't too `friendly'," I added, giving her a grin as she nodded
back, well aware I sup- pose that even with our weapons we could be in serious
trouble...
"I'll let the rest of the dogs roam free," she said to me.
"Hold the dire wolves in reserve," I replied, June nodding.
"You are planning to fight..." Amethysta spoke, watching.
"If `necessary'," I said, dismounting from my own wolf.
"She is a `Warlady'," Jon added, dismounting himself.
"We are `surrounded'," Ta-she-ra said, sitting there on the top of some
rubble, stroking the head of Delilah as she laid now panting beside her. My
Princess having brought my 10x60's from the airplane, which allowed her an
excellent "view" of things... They were a bit "heavy", but the optical quality
was better than anything I've ever seen, either now or in the 20th Century
here. A sixty degree apparent field of view, razor sharp to the edge. The
optics were of "ED" quality, the eyepieces of seven elements. I wished I had a
blaster rifle of the sort I'd once used on Mars.
"A force as powerful as mine can fight their way out," I an- swered. If
Hope and I had been able to make it as "far" as we had, I was sure that a
hundred Warrioresses, well armed, some ten dire wolves, fifty Bull Terriers,
and a half dozen Boston Terri- ers, could "go" wherever we wished in these
ruins. I also had my flamethrowers, against which there was no defense but
"distance"!
"`They' will not attack until night," Ta-she-ra said then. "And your
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dogs are not `invincible' by any means," she added now. I nodded, well aware
of that fact. Against men, they were "ef- fective" fighters, but against the
sort of "things" that Hope and I had seen here two centuries ago, not even
Bull Terriers would be effective except just to maybe "slow" such creatures
somewhat.
"You feel that I am `overconfident'?" I asked, a bit annoyed here at
her, although I suppose I could blame "that" on the sun!
"I think sometimes you `believe' too much in yourself," she answered.
"Remember what Carol `did' to you three years ago..." I'd been overconfident,
and eager to show Darlanis up a bit too! Carol had made even more of a "fool"
of me than she had Darlanis! No one had ever said anything of it to me, but I
had no doubts my reputation as "Warlady" had suffered a bit from her actions
here.
"And the `terrain' would be in their `favor'," I answered. Even
primitive bows of the crudest sort would be "effective" too, especially at
night when we'd be all "targeted" around our fires. Ta-she-ra, being "Nevada",
was quite familiar with such tactics.
"The flame throwers have a maximum range of seventy feet," she pointed
out, "And it is possible these creatures can see in the dark better than we
can," she added, a cold chill going down my back as I wondered just "where"
these "horrors" did live now? Even in my flights over the ruins I'd never seen
but a few here. Yet, when Hope and I'd rode across these ruins we'd found
plenty!
"The dogs can see better in the dark than we can," I said, talking
perhaps just to reassure myself that I was in "control".
"They can be killed easily by any pointed weapon," my Nevada Princess
answered, playing the "devil's advocate" here to me now.
"You are truly of the Warrioresses," I smiled, sitting down, taking the
binoculars from her, and searching the nearly rubble.
"I have learned `much' from you," Ta-she-ra now smiled back.
"I've got a `hunch' you're more `capable' than June is," I said, well
aware that June, while a capable officer, was not all that "imaginative" when
it came to military tactics as such here. She was "brave", an awesome
swordswoman, but not a "tactician". War can be and often is a "game of wits",
not just a "battle"...
"She is `brave', but not `crafty'," Ta-she-ra smiled back.
"I wonder...," I mused to myself, looking then for Carol.
"How do you `feel' today?" I asked Carol, drawing her aside.
"Hot," the old gray haired Warlady smiled, looking into my eyes. I
wondered why I'd brought the pair on this adventure now? Both would have been
better off back at the palace, where medical assistance was available should
it be needed for Bob's heart now. True, I did have my own doctor with us, but
still I didn't know if I'd done the "right" thing here in bringing them both
with me.
"I mean..." I spoke, fearing to cause her "pain" here. She was a woman
that I respected, one that I'd grown to like, and to make "fun" of her
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condition was the last thing on my mind now...
"I don't `remember' what I had for breakfast, but I still can recall the
North Star, and what I did to you there on the es- tate," Carol answered, her
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