The Great Wall

By: Augustine Lesiuk

Injured, but not weakened, Sanyo kicked his enemy in the head with his hind legs. After he
killed the human, Sanyo took a breather to observe his surroundings. The battle was nearly over; the
rest of the human warriors began retreating from the centaurs. Unfortunately for them, the centaurs
could catch up to finish them off.

“Heh, pathetic fighters they are, soon we will be able to take over their capital,” said a
familiar voice.

“Tensop? You survived? I thought that human archer got you,” said Sanyo.

“A minor graze, my leather armor managed to stop the arrow in time,” said Tensop.

“Then fortune smiles on you my friend,” said Sanyo.

“Yes indeed, fortune smiles to us all. If you excuse me, I’ll be helping the rest cleaning up the
battle field,” said Tensop.

As Tensop galloped away, Sanyo looked over at the horizon. He could see the human’s
capital city, a huge beautiful city sitting on top of a hill.

After we rest from this battle, taking over that city will not be a problem and once we
conquer that city, conquering the rest of the human’s land will be a breeze. Sanyo thought.

At night, the centaur army celebrated their recent victory in their camp with ale and
entertainment. Sanyo, half drunk, went to his tent where his wife, Knives, was waiting for him.

“How’s my big soldier doing?” said Knives.

“Tired and drunk… I did poorly in battle today,” said Sanyo.

“Really? You didn’t get to kill over 10 like you boasted?”

“Didn’t even get to 5,” said Sanyo.

“Well, maybe you’ll get much more once you fight in their capital,” said Knives.

Suddenly Sanyo and his wife began hearing angry shouts outside their tent. Sanyo
immediately galloped out and found that the shouting came from a group of centaurs arguing with
each other. He found Tensop who was also shouting.

“What’s going on?” said Sanyo.

“A messenger came, our warlord wants us to return home,” said Tensop.

“What?! We are soo close to the capital, why does he want us to fall back?”

“Apparently he wants us to take over another centaur clan who just happened to be
attacking ours.”

“But the warlord should have enough warriors to defend…”

“He wants us to TAKE over the other clan, not defend from it,” said Tensop.

Sanyo wanted to continue arguing, but he knew they all have to follow the warlord’s order.
Not doing so means death penalty.

And so the centaur army packed their camp and made their journey home, leaving the
human capital unharmed and unscratched.

A fight between centaurs is more horrendous than a fight between humans. Once Sanyo’s
group finally returned home they immediately began fighting the other centaur clan. Every day
Arrows fly in the air, swords and shields bashed against each other, the ground soaked by blood.

“There’s their camp, take it over!”

And after 3 weeks of fighting, Sanyo’s clan was victorious. Once they took their enemy’s
camp they chopped off the clan’s warlord head to present it to their own warlord. Sanyo was picked
to present the head.

“You have done well soldier,” said the warlord.

“I’m grateful for the honor of meeting you in person sir,” said Sanyo.

“I’ve heard that you wanted some kind of permission?” said the warlord.

“Yes sir. For the last two weeks, I’ve heard that the human capital had been building a wall.
The wall has not yet been complete, but it concerns me on what will happened once it’s finished. I
would like permission to attack the city before the wall is complete,” said Sanyo.

“Ha Ha Ha! You don’t need to worry about that wall. My scouts have reported to me that the
humans are losing quite a lot of resources and manpower trying to build it, it’ll take them at least a
year to finish anything threatening,” said the warlord.

“But sir, it’s still a wall…”

“Right now we have more important matters to take care of. There’s another battle between
two other centaur clans. I want to seize this opportunity to take over both those clans when they are
weakening,” said the warlord.

“But sir…”

“Enough. Return to your troupe and tell them my new orders.”

“Yes sir.”

After Sanyo reported the new orders he returned to his tent with Knives waiting for him. As
they both sleep in each other’s embrace, he began cursing over the warlord. How can he not realize
the danger? If we were human then the wall would not be a concern. But we are Centaurs, we cannot
climb no matter what with the legs that we have.

The battle to take over the two clans took longer than the earlier battle. Around 7 weeks
later, Sanyo’s clan was again victorious. But this time the cost was higher and there’re very few
warriors left.

“I have decided that we are to take over the human capital! I will personally lead our army
into another victory!” shouted the warlord.

Every centaur cheered, except for Sanyo who kept quiet.

After the announcement, the centaurs marched to the human capital like they did 10 weeks
ago. Once they got there, they began the final battle.

Sanyo sliced through one human to the next with his battle axe. Blood covered his armor and
his lower half. The human warriors began losing in numbers again as they die from centaur steel.

“Retreat!” shouted one of the humans.

And so they all ran, with the centaurs chasing them and killing anyone who got caught up.

“They are running towards the capital, take them all down and burn the city!” shouted the
warlord.

They reached the recently built wall that surrounds the city completely. The gate of that wall
closed after the last of the human warrior survivors managed to go through. The centaurs came to a
halt.

“Tch, so they did finish the wall. It must be fragile to be completed so early. Archers! Set that
wall aflame!”

The centaur archers began shooting fire arrows at the wall. They expected the walls to burn,
but to their surprise, the assault didn’t even make a camp fire.

“Stone? They managed to make a wall of stone in 10 weeks? How can this be?” shouted the
warlord.

Because you gave them time, thought Sanyo. Sanyo’s fears had come to realization when the
human archers began shooting at the centaurs from the top of the wall.

“Return fire!” shouted the warlord.

The centaur archers tried to shoot down the enemy, but the enemy had stone cover that was
built on top of the wall to hide behind. Very quickly the centaurs lose their numbers when the human

archers made a rain of arrows.

Sanyo dodged a few, but he shouted in despair as his friend, Tensop got shot in the head.

For once the warlord shouted, “Retreat!”

The surviving centaurs began retreating from the arrows. Suddenly another group of human
warriors cut them off their escape route. Trapped, the centaurs desperately tried fighting their way
through. It was futile with the archers shooting at their backs and the warriors attacking at their
fronts.

“No… this cannot be,” said the warlord before he died from a spear throw by one of the
human warriors.

Sanyo felt a very sharp pain from his back. He had been shot by a few arrows. Falling to his
side, Sanyo remembered when he looked at the capital city over the horizon 10 months ago. So
close… he thought before he sank into oblivion.