Strangers Come to Shokonee Flats

Suzy hated this game, but all the other kids were here playing so she was here too. She hoped they wouldn’t tease her with a scorpion. She hated scorpions, but still thought what the big kids were doing was wrong.

Then they saw the strangers, a ferren, a tall girl, a goreaux on a thunder cycle, and a little man riding a big yellow dog. She had never seen anyone like him before, except maybe Mayor Trimble, but he was different, like a little man the size of a kid. Suzy asked to pet the dog and it sniffed her and let her pet him on his soft fur. She like the dog. They wanted to go to the store so she showed them where Mister Lu Wang had his general store. Sometimes mother would buy her a sweet from the store. She pushed her face against the window looking inside.

Then she heard the sound of distant thunder rolling across the desert. She knew it was the sound of Lord Kallin’s troops coming to town. She could see the cloud of dust rising into the air. Suzy hid in a shed and peaked out at the street. She was afraid of what would happen. Lord Kallin’s troops came into town. There were two men and six gnolls. The gnolls scared Suzy. They seemed more like wild animals than people. Some of the group had guns with them. Four of them when into the saloon, two stayed with the crawler, and two went into the store. She knew they would be mean to Lu Wang, he was one of the few townsfolk who tried to stand up against Lord Kallin’s men.

Suzy wasn’t surprised when Lu Wang came flying through the window. Suzy put her hands over her eyes at the sound of the smashing glass. Then she heard the strangers. She had forgot about them. They didn’t know they were s’posed to hide when Lord Kallin’s men came around. The little man with the big dog was calling the big gnoll names. Suzy put her fist in her mouth to keep from crying out. She knew the little man was prolly gonna git killt.

Suzy couldn’t help herself from watching as they began to fight. The big gnoll hit the little man with an axe but the dog and the little man fought back. The raccoon also came up and started firing a gun. Soon the sound of gunfire was all over the street. A gnoll ran into the saloon. Soon the troops were firing out of the windows of the saloon at the strangers.

Suzy was amazed that the strangers didn’t run away. The tall lady raised her hands in the air and blasted water at Lord Kallin’s troops. She had heard that the bhuka sometimes could move earth like that but she never heard of someone doing tricks like that with water. The battle went on and on. The tall lady kept healing her friends with her water magic. The dog kept tripping the big gnoll to get him on the ground. She thought sure the strangers would lose but then finally the big gnoll went down.
When it was almost over Sheriff Plank came out and tried to arrest the strangers. They scared him back into his Jail house. Suzy giggled at that. The strangers had won. It turned out the strangers were heroes! They must’ve come to save the town!

After the battle everyone ran into the street and started cheering. Well, most everyone. That Lady Scarlett didn’t look too happy of course. Anyway Mayor Trimble came out and said there would be a parade tomorrow. The little man and his dog stayed in town but the rest of the heroes left. Some of the grown-ups started to look worried when they saw the heroes leaving. Had they come to save them or not? At least the little man and his dog were still here.

Ambush at the Sun Dial

Aurroo glanced at what remained of her squad. Lord Kallin was going to be angry. They had lost two of the metal men. She still had the foul taste of goreaux in her mouth. She wondered why Yeenoghu allowed something so foul tasting to exist.
Only yesterday they had set out to harvest the death stones with a full squad. The trip to the sun dial on the sand crawler was uneventful. They should have paid more attention to the strange scent. The harvest was going well when they were ambushed by the strange pack. Two ferran, a human, and a half-human riding a dog. The dog fought with great courage. It took down Yeeauk and Arauul. Rraroo and Panurok were also struck down. Grrurul had disgraced himself by offering the weasel ferran his spear in the midst of the battle. She must have cast a spell on him. The raccon ferran had fired a boom stick at them. These must have been the group that Bauau had reported seeing at the Bhuka camp a few days ago. They must be more powerful then she had reported.
These strangers seemed not to have heard of Lord Kallin. Aurroo explained to them that they would be in trouble when he found out what they had done, but the strangers ignored the warning. For some reason the human female used magic to revive the squad. She must not have been hungry.
The strangers met a goreaux on a thunder cycle. They took the sand crawler and the remains of the metal men and rode off to the east.
Aurroo hoped that her failure would not bring disgrace to the Blood Paws pack.