Devon watched the whirl of fme carving through the horde in the distance as he smashed several more ants before him. Unfortunately, despite their best efforts, several streams of ants had been able to reach the walls and were piling up in an attempt to climb them. He didn’t have time to worry about that, however, focused as he was on thinning the number able to reach them. Hopefully those on the walls would be able to hahe ohat slipped by.

  As he was moving to another se of ants, however, he saw signs of something going wrong just a moment before Niphru screamed, the fmes wavering and then flig out at random before exploding. He spun towards Niphru as the screaming increased in pitd became heart-wreng. As he began to sprint, Niphru staggered a step, then colpsed, a small blue fme emerging from him before bzing indest white.

  Throwing up a hand to shield himself from the blinding light, he caught a glimpse of the ants swarming over Niphru’s still body, as he was uo tinue dodging. The light tinued, rapidly overp the orb Amilya had thrown up earlier. A sed or two ter, he reached the body, thrusting a mailed hand into the pile of ants, grabbing Niphru’s limp form. There was an immense explosiohe wall as he brushed the ants off Niphru, tearing ks of flesh loose, even as he turowards the wall.

  The heat from the bst set his eyes watering, and he saw a rge portion of the wall afme, with a bzing inferno before it. Looking up, he saw that Dawn had gone missing from the wall. Making a quick decision, he shouted for his men to pull back to the wall, and spriowards it. Upon reag a close enough point, he shouted with effort and hurled himself as high as he could, tug his feet in as he brushed over the top of the palisade.

  Devon smmed into the ground, staggering several steps, and caught a glimpse of a child recoiling backward into the shadow of a building. Unwilling to stop, he simply raced towards the healer’s home, barging in and depositing Niphru on a bed before rag back out.

  **********

  Billy shook in fright as one of the warriors of the Church of flict sailed over the wall while holding a fox, smming into the ground nearby. As he hit, the fox in his arms had its jaws flop open, a brightly shining stone dropping from them and rolling away. The man g him before sprinting down the road.

  Billy knew he should be he western gate with the women and other children, but he couldn’t bring himself to stop watg, and now he knew he had a purpose here. He carefully looked around, then jogged over to the shining stone, grabbing it and stig it in a pocket before turning to follow the path the man had taken.

  As he headed for Monti’s house, he tried to calm down, reminding himself that the only fox that could possibly have been was Niphru, who had ily saved his life. But despite that, he was still terrified, as he had been tormented by that other fox for almost half an hour before being saved.

  Standing outside the door, he shuddered, hesitating for a moment, then knocked on it. Just a few seds ter, Monti opehe door, questioning, “Billy, is that you? What are you doing here, you should be at the gate.”

  With a great deal of effort, he replied, “I know but I had to watch…” Taking a deep breath, he tinued, stuttering, “And… is Ni-Ni-Niphru here?”

  Shaking, he pulled the sto from his pocket, getting more trol over his voice before finishing, “I saw this fall from his mouth as the man carried him.” Scared, he then pushed the stoo Monti’s hand before running away.

  **********

  Gee spun as he crouched, both clubs extended, smashing through nearly a dozen ants that had him surrounded. As he stood back up, he ended up seeing part of the wall in his vision, just in time to see Dawn knocked off with one of the men. Dozens of thoughts raced through his mind in an instant even as he began running.

  He couldn’t remember the name of the fox, though he regretted that now. All of them had been saved from being overwhelmed at least once by the ribbon of fire, and it had to have the sed or third highest tribution itle. He had expected it to flee as soon as it got dangerous, but it had joihem in the very front of the battle, and not wavered. He could recall how it had talked about Dawn, and knew he had to do everything possible to protect her out of respect for the surprising fox, on top of everything else.

  As she fell, bolts of fme that had been killing the acid ants in the distanstead darted into the mound of ants below her, just before she fell into them herself. There was a horrifying scream from behind him, and the darkness fled. Suddenly a streak burself into his vision, smming into the pile of ants and exploding.

  The hing he knew, he was ying on the ground, smoke rising from his leather armor, and blood trig from his nose. Crawling back to his feet, he saw a rge se of the palisade wall afme, and the pile of ants sm, only to catch fire as he began sprinting again. To the side, he saw a charred corpse, which was also covered in burning ants.

  As he reached the bst zone, he dove through the outer ring of fire. He stumbled as he nded, barely avoiding a scorched figure that was crawling towards him, fire c it in several pces. Seeing the fmes, he pulled out his dagger and grabbed a fistful of their hair, yanking their head back with it. He reized Dawn’s face sched up in agony as he brought his dagger down, hag off most of her hair and hurling it away as it burned. He dropped his dagger and he grabbed the jaws of the ant locked arouhroat and wrehem open, throwing the crumbling remains to the side.

  He shuddered, looking at her back, then steeled himself and roughly began tearing the burning ants off, rge ks of flesh following them as his heariurned and he heard Dawn screaming. Another warrior showed up beside him, having checked the other body and found it quite dead, quickly helping to remove the burning ants.

  When they finished, she looked horrible, with patches of bone exposed, and most of the remaining skin horribly burnt. She had finally—mercifully—fallen unscious as they worked. With a nod to his panion, they both grabbed Dawn and raced back through the outer ring of fire, heading as quickly as they could towards the gate.

  The guards, having seen what happened, had already opehe gate before they arrived, allowing them to race straight to the healer’s home with their charge. Rapidly arriving, they rushed inside, nearly colliding with the man as they hurried to pce Daw-down on a bed as carefully as they could. The healer gasped in shock before rag over to his raedical supplies. Assured the healer would do his best, they raced back out to rejoin the fight.

  **********

  Monti swore in shock, Devon had just vanished after dropping off Niphru, then almost immediately, what he thought was a corpse was brought in, only to barely reise the face as Dawn. He barely had time to cheiphru before she arrived, and the result didn’t seem good. He had no breath, beat, and was oozing blood from several rge wounds. Dawn was in a horrible state as well, with exposed bone, dozens of ks of flesh missing, and horrible burns all over.

  He rapidly begaing her as best as he could, grieving at the loss of Niphru as he worked, hoping she would five him if she survived. A moment ter, Billy arrived, bringing him a small mana stone, g Niphru had dropped it. He tried not to let anything show on his fatil the child had left, thehe stone beside Niphru’s limp form, returning to work on Dawn.

  Out of the er of his eye, he saw a fsh of blue e from the bed Niphru was on, and heard a shuddering gasp. Quickly running back to Niphru, he found a very faibeat had begun, and he was breathing again. With a quick prayer, he ran his healing magic through Niphru fog purely on sealing the cuts so he wouldn’t bleed out, then hurried back to Dawn again.

  **********

  Amilya awoke from where she had colpsed in exhaustion, staggering back upright before heading to the wall again. The Bck Tide had almost beeed, the stragglers being crushed as they climbed the walls. Devon had pulled his men back atop the walls at some point, and all the mages were missing, as she expected. It had been a long fight, and it wasn’t possible to keep going forever. As she headed outside to help up the st patches of ants, she noticed a rge se of the wall was sm, with a handful of water mages wetting it down. Shocked, she asked what had happened, and hearing what they had seeo the ground sobbing. How could she have lost both her daughter, the st remaining member of her family, and Niphru so quickly?

  A few moments ter, one of the mages, a farmer by trade, grabbed her arm and dragged her towards the vilge, takio Monti’s house. Every bed was filled, with some wounded ying on the floor as well. Monti was hard at work over what had to be her daughter, from what she had heard, though it was a horrific sight. Monti gnced up before returning his focus, and she staggered over, barely able to see through the tears. “There is still hope, Amilya,” Monti said, reag for another jar as he tinued, “she is still breathing, and her heart is strong. I ’t promise anything, but you know I’ll do my best.”

  A faint whine from the bed beside them got their attention, Niphru twitg slightly. His eyes were still shut, and he seemed to be struggling to breathe. Amilya reached down to stroke his fur, and his eyes cracked open the slightest bit, the whining being even more heartbreaking to hear.

  Amilya looked back at Monti, and he could clearly guess her question, nodding to her. She turned bad carefully picked up Niphru, trying to avoid as many of the wounds as she could, then pced him beside Dawn’s face, careful to keep him as far from her back as possible.

  Niphru twitched for a moment with o whine before he went quiet, struggling to move his head befiving up.

  **********

  Devouro the healer’s home, exhausted by the fighting. He had already stopped by the barracks to speak with those who were mostly fine. Opening the door, he saw Amilya and Monti standing over Dawn, the fox id out beside her, but lookier than when he had left. He turned, gng through the room, until he found the others of his and, walking over to speak with them.

  A few moments ter, he o the st warrior he had spoken to, and walked over to the healer. After waiting for him to finish what he was actively doing, he stopped him and began speaking, “I’ve talked to my men, and we are in unanimous agreement. Every ander of the Church carries a high quality salve made by one of the best alchemists we hire, desigo be used on life-threatening injuries.”

  He reached into his pocket, pulling out a metal tainer and handing it to the man before tinuing, “Niphru and Dawn both saved us several times over. We are giving this to them, with the ihat you use it to the best of your ability. If any is left over, do with it as you will. But do your best to save them both.”

  He o the man, and turo Amilya, trying to find the words to say. Finally he spoke up, “I know we failed at keeping them safe, and I ’t fix that. But know that we will do all in our power to make up for it. I am sure the salve will help a great deal, though she will likely still bear scars. We did kill a fox in the forest, so we will be rep that whe back, and that we did not find any fox in the vilge when we arrived. This should keep others from showing up.”

  He sighed before tinuing, “I believe both of them should visit the mages of the capital for further training. If you do send them, send word before they arrive, and I will make sure our squad is the o the gate so they enter safely.”

  **********

  Niphru struggled to open his eyes. He had ma briefly earlier, before being moved, but it was still incredibly difficult. He could smell Dawn, somehow, which calmed him, but he k had to be his mind pying tricks on him. There was no way she could have survived the fmes.

  Feeling the extent of his injuries, he tried to move his foxfire to help heal, only to find he couldn’t locate it. Trying to pull it out of himself resulted in the worst pain he had ever felt, and he fell unscious again.

  **********

  Dawn rose back to sciousness, struggling with incredible pain in her babsp; She opened her eyes, and saw Niphru ying in front of her, sluggishly breathing but otherwise unmoving. She tried to raise her head, but found herself uo move, eyes darting around until they caught a glimpse of her arm behind Niphru. She recoiled internally at the extent of the injuries, realizing immediately that she was feeling pain from her ba spite of a pain blocker, as her arms did not hurt at all.

  After several more failed attempts at moving, she gave up, closing her eyes and attempting to fall asleep.