The War

   When the Trojan walked right into one of the Greeks, the latter was ready with his lance and skillfully pierced his enemy through one eye.  There was a terrible scream from the speared horseman and Greek centaurs let out a blood-curdling cry as they followed Corydon out of the protection of the woods and into the stream.  Their sudden appearance was a compete surprise to the Trojans.  It was not that difficult to cross the stream quickly and the Greeks fell upon the opposition with a fury as they reached the other side.

   The first of their enemy to fall from this charge was a Trojan who had been jolted from a midday nap and had leaped up, trying to place his shield on his arm.  Corydon's lance slipped past the alpha-omega shield and glided under his foe's helmet, piercing his throat and jutting out the back of his neck.  The force of impact was so great it made the Trojan rear up and then collapse dead, the lance remaining in place.  Losing his lance, the Greek drew his sword and selected a new target.

   Two Greeks caught an enemy between them, one attacking the human body with his lance, the other jabbing away at the horse's body with his own lance at the same time.  The Trojan was able to fend off the attack on the human part with his shield, but was unable to counter-attack.  Meanwhile, the attack on the horse part cut chunks of flesh from his thigh.  As the Trojan turned in agony to stop his being butchered from behind, the first Greek saw an opening and drove his lance into the arm that held the shield.  The shield fell to the ground and the wounded centaur was unable to prevent the rapid gouging that followed.

   The Trojans were not to be scorned in their fighting ability.  One who hurled his lance at a Greek struck the latter in a forelock, costing the wounded centaur speed and maneuverability.  The Trojan then drew his sword and attacked at close quarters, sticking with his opponent who tried to distance himself but could not.  The Greek found his iron-tipped lance useless in this situation and in attempting to draw his own sword under this barrage first had one arm hacked off, and then the other.  He stood there in shock while the Trojan stabbed forcefully with his steel sword, a strong uppercut motion of the weapon going under the chin and into the head.

   While the battle between the scouting party and the patrol raged, and the Greeks appeared to have gained the upper hand, one Trojan managed to escape into the woods to rush to get reinforcements.  Corydon had predicted this possibility but could to nothing; the Trojan would be impossible to catch.  He ordered one of his own to race back for reinforcements.  What was to have been a Greek attempt to find a probably nonexistent route past enemy forces without a fight, and a seemingly needless watch by Trojans alongside a stream in a quiet sector, grew like a cancer into a major battle between centaurs.  They rushed from both sides to deliver ghastly wounds and death blows to one another in the steam, along its banks, and the large wooded area on both sides.  The stream was so discolored with blood from the dead and dying it appeared to be blood itself.  The banks were strewn with casualties, and the intense fighting in the woods was purely hand-to-hand combat as neither side could gain a positional advantage.  New orders went out from Agamemnon to the Greeks and from Paris--not Hector--to the Trojans.  Hundreds of centaurs arrived, hundreds of centaurs died, and then hundreds more came to continue an engagement that turned out to be the costliest (for both sides) all-centaur battle in the history of the Trojan War.