Niphru awoke in the evening, stretg in his chair before leaping down and heading to the main room. He spotted Dawn sitting on the ground, eyes closed, surrounded by dozens of blindingly bright lights spinning around her. As he watched, she stuck out her arm, most of the lights swerving out of the way, though one brushed her hand. She cursed under her breath and pulled her hand back before stig the other out. This time two lights brushed her arm before she stopped and opened her eyes.

  “Niphru, you’re awake!” she excimed, staggering upright before heading towards him and sitting back down beside him.

  “Of course, I wouldn’t be walking around if I was asleep,” Niphru replied before inquiring, “what was it you were trying to do when I came in?”

  “Oh, I was worried that I might get attacked during the Bck Tide. If I keep the fmes orbiti all times, they should collide with anything that attacks me. This way I could defend myself without fog on it,” she responded.

  “But if the fmes explode, wouldn’t that hurt you too?” Niphru questioned.

  “Oh, I had pletely fotten about that…” Dawn said, looking down and sighing. She thought for a moment, before tinuing, “If I ’t use the orbiting fmes to defend myself at cle, how I stay safe?”

  “Well, you aren’t going to be alo there, are you? Just trust others to keep you safe. I’ll be there with you!” Niphru responded, nudging her hand with his head.

  Dawn smiled, scratg behind his ears as she replied, “Yes, you are right, I keep fetting I don’t have to do everything alone now.”

  “How about you get some rest while I go check how far away the ant swarm is? I know you need sleep, and I already rested for a while,” Niphru said.

  “I suppose I probably should… You’ll be safe right?” she asked as she hugged him, before standing back up and heading towards her room.

  “Of course, I’ll keep myself hidden and am just going to look,” Niphru replied as he headed towards the door.

  As Dawn vanished into her room, Niphru operated the t the bottom of the door a himself out. Once he closed the daiurned and headed towards the eastern gate, leaving towards the forest. As he passed through the gate, he noticed one of the red-cd warriors with a massive sword watg the forest from beside the gate.

  “Headed out, little ohe man inquired.

  “Yes, I want to see how far the ants have gotten and how much time we have. Devoioned you had seen them approag, how far were they?” Niphru responded.

  “Hmm… I don’t think my measurements would help, we both have different speeds we sider normal. How about I travel with you and tell you how much differehere is when we reach them? I’ll have to let the others know where I’ve gone first, though. That is if you are okay being aloh me,” the man replied.

  “Sure, I don’t mind. I’ll wait here for you, I promised I’d be safe, and two is safer than one,” Niphru stated, then sat down beside the gate.

  The man in crimson armor headed baside the gate, vanishing for several moments before returning. As he approached, Niphru stood back up, sending his foxfire out a ways ahead of them to help the man see. The man o him, then walked towards the forest as Niphru followed him.

  As they walked, Niphru questiohe man, “You asked if I was okay being aloh you, but what about you? I’m good at taking out siargets, and you guys were going to kill me.”

  The man chuckled for a moment before responding, “I trust you, you don’t want to leave your friend and harming me would put her at risk. Besides, I think you are a good person. Not all of us are the same, I joihe Church because of the squads that get sent to kill mohat threaten vilges. One of those squads saved my vilge in the past and I wao do good as well.”

  After gng around and ging their dire, the man tinued, “Also I paid attention in the vilge, and several people looked like they were nearly ready to attack us when we were asking about you. They brought up how you had helped with some of the monsters nearby and saved lives, and that it was wrong to hunt you. Personally, I agree with that; and am gd for the agreement the others made to put aside your species for now.”

  “Thank you for clearing that up for me. I’d thought you were all in agreement on hunting me down, it is good to know some of you see me as a person too,” Niphru excimed.

  “Don’t get me wrong, most of the members of the Church will see you as subhuman and a threat to be exterminated. It is just that roup is mostly posed of those who have joier in life rather than grown up with the Church of flict’s ideals their whole life. Most groups would still be after yht now, but we are more flexible than them,” the man replied.

  Following this, the two of them tinued onwards in silence for about the rest of the journey. After a signifit walk, the two of them located the edge of the swarm of ants. Beyond the edge the forest floor was scoured of the underbrush, and many trees had been stripped of their foliage as well. Ants tio tear up everything they could reach, before turning and heading back deeper into the forest.

  “Well, it appears they haven’t moved too far from where we st saw them. I’d guess we have about another day or so before they reach the vilge. Too bad we ’t slow them down to buy more time,” the man said and sighed.

  “Well, we might be able to, actually. Fire works well on them, and I happen to have fire. If you could take down some trees we could set up a wall of fire that would st for a while,” Niphru replied, then waved his fme around a bit.

  “Unfortunately, I don’t have an axe, just a sword, and it isn’t suited for taking down trees, I would damage it quite a bit by chopping things down with it,” the man responded, looking a bit down and sighing again.

  “Well, I guess we should head bad share the hen,” Niphru said before turning back the way they came.

  The man nodded and turned as well, taking the lead as they headed back towards the vilge.

  Shard