Miriam woke up to the crashing of hoofs on the rocky earth. She jumped up in a panic, grabbing her newborn daughters to her chest.
"No!"
The Houndmaster had caught up to her!
Tired from loss of blood, panting, Miriam tried to dash away using the last of her strength, but it was too late.
GRAWOOAR!!!!!
A beast that was half horse half ogre – the Ogla-beast – jumped over the bush as soon as it saw her rise. She was surrounded! Sweat began to trickle down the side of her face. Her breath was coming in short dry pants – scraping against her throat. She had gotten a fever from sleeping outside in the cold after giving birth. With a baby in each arm Miriam's eyes looked right and left, scanning the gaps between the monsters of the Houndmaster's army for a way out as the direwolves followed the Ogla-beast, jumping over the briars to hem her in. She knew she only had one chance to escape, and she intended to do all she could for her children's sake.
A flash of light suddenly went off in the cold dawn. Miriam threw a potion, her last one, as a distraction at the feet of the biggest direwolf, the pack leader, and as it roared in anger she tried to take advantage of the situation. It was a blast potion, capable of producing light that lingered for a few minutes once the potion was exposed to air. With her eyes shut tight, Miriam twisted out of the circle of monsters and ran headlong into the empty space, desperately trying to gain some distance.
The Houndmaster's servants were enemies of light. Her blast potion scalded their eyes and the creatures howled in pain as the sudden attack caught them unawares.
Miriam was quick! She sped ahead using the last bit of power in her body and went a league into the woods. Still panting, her arms aching with the effort of holding the newborn girls, she fell to her knees beside a towering oak tree and huddled one daughter behind a shrub next to the tree. Before she could hide away the second child a howl split the air behind her, so again, she ran, putting another burst of speed into her tired legs clutching one sobbing baby to her chest. The monsters chased after her oblivious to the small life she had hidden away. She ran towards the pale light that began streaming from the leafy roof overhead – sending down weak points of light unto the forest floor. She was close to safety – she could feel it!
"Aaaaaaaargh!!!" she screamed aloud as a spear flew out of nowhere and pierced her side. To protect the baby, she fell on her back groaning in pain.
As if on cue the little girl started to cry. Her cries filled the air as the lead direwolf began to shift, and Miriam's eyes widened in fear. They weren't just direwolves! They were a pack of Wolmen – servants of darkness that could assume a near human form in the daylight.
The alpha of this Wolmen pack looked down at Miriam as she clutched the crying baby to her chest, it's face twisted in an evil leer. It reached a clawed hand forward…
"Nooooooo!!!" Miriam screamed as he snatched the little bundle out of her arms. The baby howled in fright.
"Take her!" the beast rasped to his fellow minions, and they pounced on Miriam and dragged her screaming towards the back of a direwolf that had not shifted.
Afraid for the life of her daughter, Miriam fought and screamed, but the Wolmen simply howled at her misery and cackled madly, preparing to partake in the savage sport they usually made of their victims. She had lost a lot of blood giving birth all on her own in that briar patch and the wound in her side was making her even weaker. As a haze gathered at the corners of her eyes Miriam fought! She refused to faint! If she did, her poor newborn daughter…
She held the open wound with one hand trying to trap her blood inside her body as she struggled against the laughing Wolmen that held her back with one hand.
Then, out of nowhere an arrow pierced the neck of the Ogla-beast on the edge of the pack of monsters that had cornered her! Fighting unconsciousness Miriam realized that help was near and had come at last as a savage cry ripped through the air.
"Save my baby!" she screamed as a golden blur leapt at the Wolmen leader who had been dangling her baby by the leg in the air.
They moved so fast she could barely see them, but she saw the Wolmen Alpha leap aside snarling, tucking the baby under his arm as he evaded a blow that would have taken his head off his neck if it had hit. Suddenly, the entire Wolmen pack was under attack, their attackers moving so fast it was hard to follow their movements with the naked eye. It was the Felcit Tribe! Miriam was right to think they had been close.
"My baby! My bab─" her words died suddenly as a heavy blow fell on the back of her head.
A brief fierce battle between the Felcit Tribe and the Wolmen stained the forest floor with dark blood. There were terrible snarls and the clashing of weapons that gave off sparks as the Felcit attacked. The Wolmen, withdrew, blowing the trumpet to signal their retreat from the forest. The Wolmen Alpha had escaped with a few of his pack, Miriam dangling helplessly unconscious over the back of a direwolf that bound forward, covering leagues in one jump.
Victorious, the members of the Felcit tribe roared their dominance in the air as the Wolmen retreated. The Felcit were long-legged graceful beings, with the litheness of cats. Their race was marked by their golden eyes and thick golden hair. Fierce battle cries filled the forest until the scouts pursuing the Wolmen to their borders gave the all-clear. The creatures of darkness had been chased out of their forest!
While a few scouts remained in the trees to pick of any straggling monsters, the other Felcit retrieved weapons from the bodies of dead Wolmen and Ogla-beasts, finishing off those monsters that hadn't been dispatched in the battle. It was as she poked around the surroundings that Layla heard a small cry coming from a bush near the Border Oak. She used her sword to push away the bush, ready to take care of the moles that were spies for the Dark Army but saw instead a naked baby with fiery red hair, whimpering and kicking at the leaves near her little foot.
"Leader!" Layla called, and a tall broad shouldered Felcit appeared beside her in a flash. "Look, a babe…"