Dawn Niphru’s suggestion to practice together, letting him back down, then heading back to the ter of the cleared ground. Niphru focused on the boween them, deepening it as much as he could while he ected a strand of mana to Dawn to form his link as well. As Dawn began to create the circle of fire again, he focused ohoughts ing through the link.

  Trying it himself, he found it didn’t work as intended, but instead a ring of fme expanded out from his foxfire instead. Following along with Dawn, he did mao de into balls of fme, though only four of them, uhe dozen she managed. Following along with her motions, he found it signifitly harder to redirect the fmes sharply than he expected. He watched Dawn reverse dire in an instant, but he had to slow them down before accelerating them again.

  Fog more on the bond, he felt Dawn was maniputing the position of the fme, and opening small gaps in her trol. Attempting the same, he saw his orbs of fme shoot out jets of fire from the side before instantly ging dire as well, though with far less trol. Looking back at Dawn’s work, he couldn’t spot as of fme, so she had to be far more skilled at it, he mused. Intending to try something different, he formed several more orbs of fme until he had a dozen as well, then tried to split them, doubling them and making them even smaller. Fog his full will on them, he mao press eato a tiny spee, watg it shift colors fre into blue.

  Dawn noticed the ge and stopped her practice to watiphru, letting her fmes idly spin around her. Arranging the tiny spee, Niphru began speeding them up in a ring until they blurred together into a r and blindingly bright circle. Judging it was fast enough, he uhe wh at oo the distanbsp; Surprisingly, the fmes tio circle as they sped off, up until they hit the ground.

  With a bright fsh, the ring smmed into the ground and vanished from sight, leaving behind a gssy gash in the ground as a hissing noise repced the r. Daed at the sight, then followed Niphru as he ran towards the gouge in the dirt.

  Arriving at the impact site, Niphru lowered his head to be in lih the gouge, peering into it. It appeared deep enough that he couldn’t see the end with the small amount of sunlight making it in. As Dawn reached him, he had begun digging out the gssy dirt, and she joined in with him. A momehey found that nearly a foot of dirt had been burned by the fme. Less distracted, Niphru noticed how low on mana he was from that trick, and followed Amilya’s instrus on how to draw power from the mana stones, finding it quite easy.

  Shocked by the power, Dawn tried it herself, splitting her fmes in half, but she struggled to press them, instead causing several of them to burst into puffs of fme. Sighing, she turo Niphru and remarked, “That was really cool, Niphru, it seems we both have things we do that the other ’t. Do you think it will cause any problems in the fight? I’m really worried.”

  Niphru rubbed his head against her leg before reassuring her, “Well, we are different people, so it isn’t too surprising we have different skills. I don’t think it will be a problem as long as we let everyone know what we do. And I’m worried too, Norman said this was my fault, and in a way it is.”

  Dawn shook her head before throwing her remaining fmes into the ground nearby, then crouched down and hugged Niphru as she scratched his head. Sighing, she told him, “I don’t think it is your fault at all, you were just unlucky and had people chase you and they screwed up. How about we go bae a some rest? Maybe you will feel better then.”

  Niphru thought for a moment, then nodded his head in agreement. In response, Dawn picked him up and headed back towards the gate. As they arrived back at home, they saw Amilya meeting with a number of apparently random vilgers, handing out small pouches of mana stoo them with the same expnation they had been given. Waiting for a lull in the versation, Dawn spoke to her mother, “I’m going to try to get some rest before the ants get here, we both found a few more tricks for wheime es.”

  Amilya nodded, waving her on, before returning her focus to the others. Seeing that her mother didn’t disagree, Dawn headed back to her room, putting Niphru on the floor beside the bed. As Niphru stretched, Dawn began removing her clothes, before putting on her sleepwear. She crawled into bed, then waited a moment as Niphru jumped up and curled up beside her.

  Daw Niphru for a few moments before they both focused to sleep, ign the voices from the other room. After a while of peaceful rest, the nightmare began again. Niphru screamed inside his mind as he saw Dawn buried in ants as they tore at her flesh, uo do anything to stop them.

  He awoke suddenly, finding himself disoriented and pressed up against something soft. As he shook and whined, his awareness came ba, and he found himself being hugged tightly to Dawn’s chest as she cried into his fur. Betedly, he realized he never cut the liween them befoing to sleep, and had been sharing his thoughts through the link. Feeling even worse, having shared his nightmare with Dawn, he found he couldn’t stop shaking.

  Eventually Dawn recovered, squeezing him even tighter for a moment before sitting up and putting him in her p. As she stroked his head, she questioned, “Have you been having this nightmare often? I ’t imagihat…”

  Niphru barely mao nod his head, still whimpering, and tried to burrow into the covers. Dawn sobbed for a moment before reassuring him, “There is no way that will happen, Niphru, I’m going to stay safe, and you will be able to protect me! I won’t even leave the wall to make sure I’m as far away from them as possible!”

  After about half an hour of huddling together, the two felt less fearful aur to rest, though it took quite a while to fall asleep. Fortunately, the nightmare did not return before they were awakened by Amilya knog on the door. As they started to get up, making noise, Amilya stated, “It is time to get ready, the scouts say the ants will be here shortly. Meet everyo the eastern gate.”

  Dawn begaing dressed as Niphru stretched, then she opehe door and they began making their way to the gate in the gloom of dusk. Upon arriving, they saw most of the town gathered there, with the warriors of the Church of flict already heading outside the gate, and guards going up the walkway along the wall, heading towards the south. Listening to Amilya speak, they learhat the pn was for those with magic to attempt to thin out the denser parts of the swarm while letting those without up the stragglers. The farmers were expected to be able to hold the farms on their own, especially as the majority of the ants were heading towards the south-easterion of the vilge.

  As they headed up to join the guards on the wall, children ran past carrying stones for slings, and a few brought arrows ed in cloth. Standing atop the wall, they could see firebreaks stretg out to the south a, with lines of wood chips id out across the field. The warriors from the Church of flict arrahemselves behind the lines, each armed with two clubs, and all covered almost pletely in armor, at most having exposed hands and heads, even those being unon.

  Shard