Chapter 7
Ahead of Halfclaw and his nomads, the cliffs at the northern end of the Great Southern Plateau were drawing nearer. Halfclaw was working things over in his mind, trying to figure out how to get his entire tribe down the cliffs without their pursuers catching them. “All archers to me!” he cried. “Slippy take the lead, those cliffs should be easy for the lizards to climb down get everyone to the bottom quick, me and the other archers will be along shortly.” It turned out to be very easy for the lizards to climb down the cliff face. Since all unnecessary items had had to be thrown off. Halfclaw and his archers went to the back of the group and turned to face the enemy. Burgy gulped nervously, “Oi’ve never ad to shoot anybeast wi arrers afore. I opes oi don’t af to see the pore beast oi kill.” Halfclaw gave the signal to knock arrows, “Ready.... aim..... FIRE!!! Quick get down the cliffs!” Halfclaw really was a true leader. His plan had worked perfectly, he and his archers had aimed at the front row of their pursuers causing the rows behind them to trip over their slain companions. It took almost three seconds and Krika Longblade’s band was stopped in its tracks.
Longblade looked over the scene, frowning. “That Halfclaw is smarter than I thought. He’s managed to give himself another full days head start.” In the grand collision, Longblade’s lizard had tripped as well, causing Longblade to be thrown into the back of his lieutenant, Umrag’s, incredibly hard, head. It had taken almost a full night to bring their leader out of his comatose state. “Sir, when do we move out,” Umrag asked. “As soon as this headache goes away and I’ve gotten some sleep. I don’t care how far ahead they get, nobeast escapes Krika Longblade!”
The nomads from loamtown had made it to the outskirts of Mossflower woods. Halfclaw was the hero of the day for his quick thinking. “Tank you my friends, but it was nothing. Now lets keep moving the father away we get from Longblade the better. They began to trek through the woods, unaware of the eyes that watched them.
“Yik yik, looka looka, many beasts, we catcher ‘em.” a small Flitchaye said to his companions. The others promptly turned and left him their alone. “Youse catcher ‘em, Shavvalaggamakamak got deaded by tew rabberts, ya tink we wants to catch a hundreds big beasts.” the little Flitchaye thought it over and ran after his companions, “Yew right, tew much trouble.”
As dawns first light hit the treetops. A rear scout rode up to speak with Halfclaw.
“Chief, I climbed up a tree and looked over to the cliffs, Longblade has made camp on top of the cliffs.” “Good,” Halfclaw sighed, “we may be able to lose him if we keep up this pace.”