Chapter 15 - War
Bella was standing along with the other 99 volunteers of the bow and arrow squad while they awaited the 'signal' for their role to come into play.
Though there was a sense of calm and ease among the volunteers, the nervous and anxious expression was clearly perceptible on their faces. These people had not been a part of the regular army. They had never known war or trained for it. Neither had they ever seen any bloodshed. They were just pure normal civilians.
Thankfully, this time, they did not have to even see the incoming soldiers directly- at least that was the plan. They had been ordered to take their position behind the walls and when the signal came, they had to fire their arrows as far as they could.
The previous day, Suthrath had taken note of the maximum distance the arrows could reach from their position and he would be the one giving signals accordingly.
These 100 volunteers had been standing in a horizontal line with a gap of 2 feet between two volunteers. In between every two volunteers, an earthen pot had been placed and fire was burning inside the pot.
Bella was still going through this phase of anxiety and uncertainty when a single loud sound from a conch blow echoed from the battlefield.
This was the cue they had been waiting for.
Bella picked up all the useless thoughts at the back of her mind and she picked up one of the wooden arrows which she had carved yesterday. She had tried to made it as sharp as possible.
On the front side of the arrow, just below the sharpened edge, a thick piece of cloth had been tied around it. The clothe had been dripped into animal fat and was thus highly flammable.
Bella dipped the arrow into the fire pot and the clothe, in an instant, caught fire. She then placed the arrow on the bow and pulled the strings as far she could and with a 'tung' sound, the arrow soared into sky.
And with her soared another 99 arrows carrying the same fire with them.
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(Few Minutes Earlier)
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Suthrath saw the enemy army approaching towards the western settlement in a slow speed.
He had to admit that the enemy was disciplined and in order; and had not broken the formation. He spotted the motivated faces of the men who were waiting to unleash their ferocity on the battlefield.
In some more time, the enemy had closed the distance and the front line of the soldiers was at a distance of around 200 metres. Suthrath, at this moment, pulled out the conch from his waist and gave it a loud blow.
The soldiers of the Eastern settlement did not understand and were confused at what the sound of the conch implied. They did not see any soldiers of the Western settlement making a move.
They were still in the confusion when, the low sound of air beinf pierced by the arrows echoed in the surrounding.
One solider of Eastern settlement shouted, "Arrows."
The soldiers of the Eastern settlement looked up to see the 100 arrows coming their way.
At the distance from which the arrows had been fired, the incoming attack was not quite fast. In addition, the arrows had been made out of wood.
The arrows could not really mean much harm to the army and were easy to evade.
But as the arrows closed in, the soldiers of the eastern settlement spotted something unusual.
The tip of arrows were glowing- a fire was burning at the tip which had not been visible initially because of the sunlight.
Before the soldiers could think much, the arrows struck. But the soldiers were able to evade majority of the arrows with ease and a lot of the men did not even have to move a step and the arrows fell in the gap between the two soldiers.
The massive man, the murderer of Suthrath's father chuckled at the naivety of the western army and its leadership. What difference could these wooden arrows make? And what difference did it make, even if it was burning with fire. He thought this to be nothing more than a move made out of desperation.
But his line of thought had not yet completed when the ground where the arrows had landed erupted with fire. From every point which the arrows had struck, fire spread wildly- at a very fast speed and this caught the soldiers off guard.
"The grass below us had been mixed with animal fat," shouted one of the men in chaos. All the formation and discipline and order had broken as they tried to run to save themselves from the fire.
It was as the man had said, Suthrath had ordered for a large quantity of dry grasses to be collected from the settlement. And this had been not a particularly tough task- almost every household kept such grasses to help light up the fire.
And then he had, animal fat to be mixed up with grass and then which had been spread across this area.
The soldiers of the eastern settlement ran and the cavalry made their horses gallop forwards. But the fire was not that very intense to kill these men or even harm them seriously.
The layer of the grass which had been spread was not thick and despite it being mixed with animal fat, the flames did not reach to a height above the knees. Also, the fire would be over in short few moments as soon as all the dry grasses would be consumed.
Other than causing panic and minor injuries, it hardly did any damage.
But this was not the end- another volley of arrows followed as soon as the first one had landed on the ground.
And unlike previous time, when the concentration of the soldiers had been on the incoming arrows, this time hardly anyone was able to pay attention to the incoming arrows.
The wooden arrows this time struck few of the men and even though they did not penetrate deep into the body, the injury was grave. The clothes of the men had caught fire, the wound caused by the arrow had been burnt and more chaos ensued.
And then followed another volley of arrows and more damage was caused.
Few moments later, few of the soldiers of the eastern settlement were able to get out of the area of the dry grass and of the burning fire and though they were injured, they seemed fine. But all their orders and disciple had been broken.
This time Suthrath placed the conch near his lips and gave two quick blows- the signal for the next phase of attack when the massacre would begin.
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