Times first glance

Six-foot grass fills a box-shaped clearing beneath the forest canopy. At its edges, a few fragile Filipino-style stilt homes lean among the trees, their woven walls bright against the green.

Several groups of East Asian adolescent boys and girls move through the grass, each crowd numbering five or more. Their patched cloth armor, bamboo poles, and painted wooden shields look hurriedly made.

The stilt dwellers huddle behind raised shutters. A woman in a woven red wrap reaches for a child, while an old man braces a pole against one trembling doorway.

Gnnamme Wasa enters unseen through the tall grass, his large frame concealed below the waving seed heads. The raiders remain focused on the homes, unaware of his approach.

Gnnamme Wasa gathers stones from the clearing’s edge and hurls them from the grass. The first skips short; the next clatters against a painted shield instead of its bearer.

The raiders turn from the homes and spread out, poles raised. Their search parts the tall grass, revealing the narrow ditch and shadowed roots between Gnnamme and the nearest stilt ladder.

A second stone strikes a bamboo support beside the ladder, making the whole platform shudder. The frightened dwellers pull the ladder upward, sealing their doorway from below.

The failed barrage has scattered the raiders and bought the villagers a barrier. Their divided formation leaves the ditch open, offering Gnnamme a clear route toward the homes or deeper cover.