George Crow fought off two Paleskins slashing at them with his long knife as each lunged towards him. One pirouetted around the outstretched weapon and came at George Crow’s side, punching him. George Crow felt the crack of a rib and buckled over. The other Paleskins jumped high over the long knife. George Crow thrusted his knife upwards, but it moved too quickly and hit him in his kidney. The pain caused George Crow to buckle to his knees. He barely held on to his weapon as the two descended on him. He tried turning the knife inward to the Paleskins at his left. The blade caught its calf, but the blow did not have enough force. One bit into George’s neck before being thrown suddenly from him, smashed in the skull by a thick-headed war club. Rising Bison stood over George Crow and brought the club down on the other Paleskin, smashing it into the ground. He swung once more to be sure.
“I am done,” George Crow gasped. He took shallow breaths to avoid upsetting his broken ribs.
“No, you’re not. You’re just done with this fight. Play dead. And don’t tell me it’s dishonorable. Any Paleskins come to feed on you, stab them in the heart.”
George, unable to talk without wincing, nodded slightly.
Rising Bison ran on finding one of his people, taller than he, newly awakened and fighting alone. The man’s bulky arms swung over hand and landed against the crown of a Paleskin’s head, knocking it back. Rising Bison finished the job with a swift jolt of his club.
“Take this,” he said, and handed the huge man a long knife, “and follow me.”
They concentrated on rescuing the women and the old who could not easily fight. One Paleskins got in their way and the large man nearly lopped off its head with a single swing. \
“What is your name?” Rising Bison asked.
“Johnathan Smith,” the man said. At the introduction, Papa No Clouds joined up with them. “That’s a stupid name,” he said.
“I’m sure we can com
e up with a better one,” Rising Bison said. “Go fight. I am needed elsewhere.”
The fight was tough for the ancestors without weapons. They started off at a disadvantage, being corralled and surrounded, and they were being picked off like cornered salmon by a bear. It would have been a hopeless battle, except the Paleskins no longer had the Sisters to command them.
Rising Bison’s Companions split off to form other small war bands they could command to fight together. Many that joined wrestled with fuzzy minds as their memories slowly returned.
When they found women or the young, they urged them to escape. “Run past the fighting, get to the Canyons south of here, and hide. We will find you,” Rising Bison urged.
Shoots Paleskins stayed with these refugees to make sure no one followed. Three stronger awakened Lakota helped him guard the rear of their escape. Hundreds escaped before his band met a group of Paleskins led by a giant man made of several skins.
The Patchwork man flanked Shoots Paleskin while the three Lakota fought off the lesser vampires. Shoots Paleskins traded his bow for an axe and smashed it into the enormous creature over and over. William withstood the blows and knocked Shoots Paleskins to the ground. He straddled the fallen elder and used his enormous fists to smash at his chest.
Shoots Paleskins hacked back with his weapon. The axe blade sparked against the chains. Marks of black oil stained the Patchwork man’s outer clothing where the blade found its way through. One blow struck the chain in a weak spot and it separated. Further strikes caused the link to detach, and the chains loosened around William’s body. The brute continued to beat down. He ignored the swings of the axe, which began to weaken.
By the end, Shoots Paleskin’s three helpers managed to kill their undead enemy and protect the others as they escaped. They returned to Shoots Paleskins and saw his broken body lying on the ground. A pile of chains rested nearby. In the distance, the patchwork man now ran far from them and they returned to the immediate battle, instead.
***
Ancestors and Paleskins fought around Seal. She called for Javin, but the combatants drowned her out with their struggling and angry yells. Seal wondered if this had all been a waste. She had freed her people, restored their memories only to have the attacking Paleskins made stronger as they fed upon her people.
Seal hid behind a teepee when a grotesque Paleskins pulled it down. He stood there, mouth wide open, drool running down to his neck. He was balding, his hair hanging to one side of his face. She recognized him from the band of Paleskins when they passed through the field of ghost bison.
She turned to run, then stopped as she ran straight into the waiting Sisters. Merrivale and Evadine were together again and had come looking for her.
After assigning orders, Rising Bison headed towards the Cottonwood tree where he last saw Seal and Javin. Him and others rushed in and saw the two Sisters coming towards the fleeing girl. The leader of the Elders ordered them to pick up anything they could use as a weapon. He charged the two Sisters, his war club raised above his head. He separated Evadine from the blind one and ordered the others to focus on Merrivale. Seal ran past them and hid behind a boulder. She watched helplessly at the battle between Evadine and Rising Bison.
Evadine kicked high at Rising Bison, hitting him hard in his thigh. He swung his war club and she ducked, then struck his arm again with a hard kick. He lost feeling in it. She kicked again at his exposed knee. Pain shot through his body. She kicked again at his stomach and he flew back against the cottonwood tree. Evadine barreled towards him and he swung with his weakened arm, but the clubhead flew over her as she ducked. She pinned his arm, now crossed over his body against him, and drove him against the pole, knocking his breath away.
He tried to slip to the side, but she followed his motion and kept the pressure on his chest, keeping him from taking a breath. He tried punching with his off arm. It glanced weakly off her face. She returned his blow with a headbutt. She loosened her hold on him and he rolled around the pole, placing it between them.
She circled around. He swung his club wildly, causing her to back up. Her feet tripped on the body of her lifeless sister. She fell forward on her hands and he buried the giant war club into the back of her head; he heard a cracking sound. Rising Bison swung repeatedly until Evadine was no more. He looked up, his eyes still blurry, and saw the bodies of the men he had led. The final Sister was nowhere to be seen.
***
The surrounding band of Lakota had thrown stones at Merrivale, their only available weapons. She slashed wildly with her hands as rocks pelted her. One drove a larger stone into the side of her head, but she did not fall. She grabbed at and killed three of her attackers in quick succession, but their relentlessness weakened her. Merrivale needed her sister.
She heard a guttural roar behind her. It was met with the screams of the men attacking her. Then they went silent. “It’s, okay, Merrivale. Let me take you to safety.”
“Creighton? Is that you? Evadine, we have to help her.”
“She’s no more”, he said. He took her arm and led her away. Creighton looked back at the pole, still within eyesight. Evadine struggled with Rising Bison. Creighton knew the man and knew he was skilled. Whatever fate had in store for Evadine, Creighton did not care. He led Merrivale safely away, and they disappeared from the fight between the Lakota and the Paleskins.
The battle continued and the empty space around the cottonwood pole filled with combatants. Seal stood by Rising Bison. Others joined him. They formed a circle around her as protection, but a tall giant, wrapped in bandages, broke through their lines. He knocked Lakota aside with the stiff swings of his arms. He was impervious to their fists. Their bodies flew everywhere. A flood of Paleskins followed, carried by his momentum. Karl the mummy knocked Rising Bison to the side. A Paleskins dove on Rising Bison. He fought it off. Another came. He killed it. The mummy nearly reached Seal, but Echo stood in his way.
Echo struck repeatedly at the creature. It grabbed Echo’s weapon, wrenching it away. They wrestled, and the mummy easily flipped him to the ground. He picked Echo up and threw him down again. Echo heard a thud next to his ear. He recognized his own small axe, the one Javin stole from him.
He grabbed it and began hacking away at the mummy’s. A shadow flew over him and landed on the back of the mummy. The mummy stood up and Echo followed, continuing to beat away at the disoriented beast. The mummy ignored the blows and tried to reach for whatever latched onto his back. His stiff arms were not flexible enough to reach his attacker. Karl and Echo heard a hissing sound. The mummy spun around, comically, like a cat trying to bite its own tail.
Echo finally saw his savior. Javin rode the creature’s back; arms twisted in the wrappings to keep hold. Sparks shot from the mummy’s head. Javin had tucked his largest fireworks into the hard bandages. “Things are about to get lit,” he yelled.
“Get off that thing!” Echo said. Javin leaped away and landed on his back. Echo surged in with the small axe and hacked away at the creature’s chest when the fireworks finally exploded, blowing a hole in the back of Karl’s head. The lumbering monster fell to his knees and Echo finished him with a blow to the neck.
“Thank you for giving my axe back to me,” Echo said.
Javin shrugged. “Actually, I was trying to hit that thing.” He tucked his dad’s lighter back in his clothes and ran off to find Seal.
He spotted her in between a large skirmish. He yelled towards her, but she did not hear him. When Javin reached her, he grabbed her hand in his. She felt something cold and hard and saw the spirit seeker, now destroyed, its feeding spikes melted.
“We must complete the final ritual. How good are you at catching?”
“I can juggle. I can catch,” he replied. He stepped back.
Seal took the ball and threw it straight up into the air as high as she could against the crackling sky. The ball arced and Javin tracked it. He faded back. The ball moved unnaturally, as though blown by an invisible wind. As he drifted, he reached the fighting mass of Paleskins and Ancestors. He ignored them and kept watch on the descending ball. A body knocked him to his knees. He tried keeping his eyes on the ball and struggled to push against the embroiled figures around him. He watched. He pushed. He lifted himself, then he fell again. He didn’t think he could reach the ball.Could he still catch the ball?
Seal yelled out, “Don’t let it hit the ground!”
A rough hand appeared, blocking Javin’s view of the descending ball. It was the hand of Rising Bison, who remembered the ritual and his duty to catch the falling ball. It landed in his outstretched palm.
A booming voice called from the sky in the language of the ancestors. All the people heard it and looked upward. The Paleskins looked around in confusion. The shriek of a raptor called from above, followed by a blazingly fast object scudding across the sky. To Javin’s eyes, it looked like a plane. Seal recognized it as the shape of a giant eagle. The gray sky gave way to cracks of light which spread from the wide wings. Those cracks grew and filled in with sunlight until no more of the dull sky remained, burning away. Rays of sunlight warmed the ground for the first time in over a century.
The weakest of the Paleskins, the ones who had not fed during the battle, fell to their knees. They grabbed their heads in pain and shielded their eyes. The light burned through them and left them ash.
The Paleskins left alive were now in the minority. Their gem and metallic flaked skin glinted with sharp beams of light, half blinding them. The rebelling Ancestors quickly overwhelmed them. Men, women, and children alike swarmed them. Echo’s knives were the last to fall that day. His two weapons buried deeply into the balding Paleskins that had chased Seal. Poor Zintkala was avenged. The battle was over.
Seal’s people had won.