I could not allow the others, the Konac maij in particular, to escape. They had to know something, and I needed to know.

"Don't let the others get away," I said to the husk. The warrior underneath her was covered in blood and thick ropes of drool.

The words said, the husk spasmed with new life. It struggled to disentangle its limbs from the writhing warrior. I started my own wiggling, though the spear seemed unwilling to budge. The warrior had driven its tip straight into the grass.

The Konac warrior let out a heavy grunt as the husk bounded away, its limbs jerking with unnatural bursts of vigor. The young woman's bronze skin was smeared with blood, but I could not be sure whose.

"Blessed Father, grant this child strength!"

The warrior staggered to their feet. The fear in his eyes had dulled, overtaken instead by his manic prayer. He stumbled towards me, some of his fingers twisted and bent in unnatural directions. He seemed scarcely able to walk under the weight of his armor.

"Remove this spear," I said, though I knew my words would hold little sway.

The warrior's lips continued to flap and whistle in silent prayer. He reached out towards me, but the strength went out of him. The warrior fell over like a (puppet) with its strings cut. I could see the red pucker of burnt flesh across the back of his unarmored neck.

I redoubled my own efforts at freedom, but the spear would not quit the earth's maw. Its shaft was too long to slide off the other end as it pointed towards the morning blue overhead nor would the wood snap under my weight.

And so I lay in a small puddle of blood as the wispy white of cloud floated overhead.