We took a small village with three families on the sixth day. They had posted no watch and the only weapons we found were hunting bows. Clearly, these people had known peace for far too long. I decided we would use this point as a resupply base. These lands were hot and my men needed rest and water. The slaves we had taken thus far were locked inside one of the houses, and we camped for the night.One of the farmers told us of a town called Zavala some five days away. The man said it was a local trade hub, by far the largest town for many leagues. He knew that they kept a garrison of warriors, but was unsure of their numbers. The villagers were totally uneducated, and none could give me any mporno.top more useful information.I left a half dozen warriors to defend the outpost. I sent two riders back towards the coast to gather horses and carts so we could haul away any loot we found. The rest of my warriors broke camp early in the morning, and I drove them on through the night. At noon on the third day, Baldar, my best scout, reported back to the column that he had spotted a large fishing village on the banks of a river. We made camp that night a few hours march from the village. After a short rest, I went to scout the town with Baldar and Inger and we arrived before first light.Creeping slowly through the wood line, Baldar pointed out a small rise on the side of town opposite the river from which we could overlook the town. The forest thinned near the rise as trees gave way to tall grass and we were forced to crawl the rest of the way on our bellies. We spotted two solitary sentries on our way there. They were both in stationary in locations that were out in the open and had limited field of vision. I stopped and took a good first look at our enemy’s warriors. One sentry was a teenage boy, not yet fully mature. The other was also young—a girl with a ponytail and developing breasts. They were dressed in simple woven cloths, the boy wearing pants and a loose shirt, the girl wearing a skirt and bra. Both were armed with spears—an odd choice for a sentry. It seemed then that sentry duty was for the weak and inexperienced and was intended to ward off wild beasts, not trained killers.It took two more hours to reach the top of the rise. By then, the sun was newly risen in the sky. The town sat a few hundred meters north of the banks of a massive, slow-moving river. The land sloped gently down on all sides towards the village and the riverbank. There were gardens on the three sides of the town facing land, tall rows of grain on the west and northwest sides. This place was significantly larger than I had bargained for. Nearly a hundred wood and thatch buildings were grouped around a large central square. Nearly three-dozen small boats were lined up on the rocky beach, their owners just starting to make ready to cast off. I could see at least two hundred people, but judging by the size of the buildings, there were probably closer to three hundred people living here total.