" Iskaral Pust’s warbling battle cry was somewhat strangled as he leaned forward, perched high in the stirrups, hands reaching like a raptor’s talons, and the mule reluctantly stumped forward.
Kruppe watched this agonizingly slow charge. He sighed. ‘Really now. It comes to this? So be it.’ And he kicked his war-mule into motion.
The beasts closed, step by step. By step. "

― Steven Erikson , Toll the Hounds (Malazan Book of the Fallen, #8)