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Message: <blockquote data-quote="The Shaman" data-source="post: 1978533" data-attributes="member: 26473">Normand, Pyotr, and the other two legionnaires approach the wounded man carefully, scrutinizing the landscape as they advance, but the only thing moving appears to be their fellows with Cpl. Lavareaux. The wounded man is lying behind a dense stand of brush, clutching at a bloody wound on his right side, just above the pelvis – his face is ashen and his breathing heavy as he stares up from the ground.The man also appears Muslim, with dark hair graying at the temples and a neatly-trimmed salt-and-pepper mustache. He is wearing well-worn military fatigues and combat boots, a maroon Berber cap covering his head. Other than his labored breathing, the Muslim makes no sound as he returns your gazeSgt. Neumann picks up the man’s rifle from where it rests on the sand. It’s a MAS-36, standard arm of the French Army for many years and still in service with some units around Algeria, including the gendarmerie and some of the Algerian auxiliaries. All of the legionnaires trained with it at Sidi-bel-Abbès, in fact. Neumann removes the magazine, works the bolt, and ejects a brass cartridge into the sand, before setting the rifle down again.____Cpl. Lavareaux’s line works its way through the rocks and scrub, eyes probing the brush, but there is nothing but sand and stone and sparse vegetation as they approach the legionnaires standing around the wounded man.____Vidal looks at the body. Flies have started to collect on the bloody tunic, on the man’s mouth, on his unseeing eyes. It’s a young face – late teens or early twenties, his hair and mustache fine, his stubble patchy and uneven. The légionnaire sees the man’s kufi lying on the ground – the skullcap is brown, with dark geometric patterns woven into the knit along the edge. Next to the cap lies the rifle – Vidal notes it’s a Mauser 98K, the kind used by the Germans in the war. The stock is worn but the metal has been well cared-for over the years. Leather sandals complete the dead man’s clothing.The bloody tunic has no pockets, but in the trousers Vidal finds a small book and a folded sheet of paper – the script appears Arabic. A small string of wooden beads, mahogany perhaps, is in the pocket as well. In an olive drab pouch hanging from the dead man’s belt, Vidal finds two more magazines for the Mauser. The flies buzz angrily as the légionnaire conducts his search.</blockquote>

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