She'd been running for what must have been hours. The other women had tried keeping up with her but one by one they'd all fallen behind as exhaustion took its toll on them. Her strides were sure, her heart beat hard and her eyes glowed amber yet exhaustion was as foreign to her as the notion of returning back to the Jamou village. A month or so ago she'd have been overjoyed at the thought of going back home, but now, things were different. Now her heart had found a home in someone and it was to him she ran.

Niada had felt the snap, as if a tether to Ishar had been severed. She'd opened her eyes to find herself lying on sheets spread out beneath her. Thousands of women surrounded her, talking animatedly as they awaited for her to come to.

"You collapsed suddenly." A Talisi woman with round dimpled cheeks had said while offering her a cup of water that Niada had rejected as she sat up. Apparently her collapse had resulted in the whole procession of women coming to a halt despite the fact that they might have had a Binorian army on their tails.

"What has happened at the Ganidan plain, did he reach out to you?" Another Talisi woman had asked. Every woman knew Niada as the one the Kolotian fancied. The question asked played in her mind and with it came need, she needed to go back to Ishar. She needed to see if he was alive. Her life didn't matter, it was forfeit at that moment. A life without him simply wasn't worth living.

"Look at her eyes." A Talisi woman whose white hair was held in a tight bun commented and the women all inched closer to peer at her face. Niada would have felt suffocated and uncomfortable under the numerous green eyed glares but this time her mind was elsewhere. She recalled Ishar's fists pounding on the Goddess Meena's face, she'd seen him fight for her to the point where he overwhelmed a deity. The need had heightened within and she'd started to sprint back towards the Ganidan Plain, forcing a path clear for her. She'd heard many of them follow in her wake but at the moment only her footsteps could be heard and the echo of Ishar's fists within her mind. Tirelessly, she moved up and down hills at a speed that had left many of the women shocked.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"It's pointless what we're doing, Carrot. I'm telling you, I saw her dead with Vayin Vigon's foot on her." Ishar said as he wobbled atop Carrot's back, behind them Cabby followed, matching Carrot's pace from a distance.

Carrot bellowed and quickened his pace, forcing Ishar to dig his fingers deeper into a slab of carapace upon Carrot's back lest he fell off.

"Let's go back and finish them all. Then we'll gather all the Telinetes in the realm, you'll be their king and I'll be the guy who plants cabbages for your subjects." Ishar smiled as Carrot raised his neck in a futile attempt to impale him as he ran. "I want nothing to do with humanity, Carrot, I will cleanse the realm of it. I feel I'll enjoy my time with Rhinos more." Carrot grunted. "It's a simple life you lead, if something bothers you, you impale it. Otherwise you just feast on vegetation and defecate all over the place. A simple life." Carrot tried to twist himself so as to hurl Ishar off his back but Ishar spread his legs upon the carapace flanking him to secure his hold. "I'm not insulting you! I think I'll copy you even! Walking on all fours and screaming occasionally like you do. Heck. I might even try to find a mate, a female Telinete like Cabby there." Carrot came to an abrupt stop and Ishar flew off his back, missing the horns by a hair's breadth to come to a tumbling stop several paces before Carrot.

Ishar laughed as he picked himself off the ground, turning to face Carrot he spoke. "I'm joking, I'm joking! I don't find Telinete females attractive." Cabby came to a stop beside Carrot and snorted. "Does she understand me? I mean no offense, lady, I'm sure you're a lady of unfathomable elegance and grace, Cabby, but you and I can never be. I'm... I'm too damaged." Ishar sat cross legged on the ground while facing the two Rhinos at the crest of the hill where Carrot had come to a halt.

Ishar ran his hand over the left horn protruding from the side of his head and sighed. The sun's gleaming rays picked up in intensity as time etched on to spell the end of the morning. Carrot peeled his lips away from his teeth and nodded his head up and down, seeking Ishar's attention. "Don't worry Carrot, I won't steal your girl." Carrot let out a frustrated bellow. "How did you get her, by the way? Last I saw you you were running away from her. No. Don't tell me. I'm sure it involves bellowing and sneezing, sprinkled with some grunts." Ishar sighed as Carrot grunted. "It's so easy for you with such a limited amount of dialogue. I on the other hand suffered when it came to Niada, I beheld her for days without ever mastering the confidence to approach her for I didn't even know what to say. And even if I did know what to say I feared she'd reject each word. Took a God's intervention to enable me to speak to her. You're so lucky, Carrot, all you can say has already been said. Yet I am left with thousands of untold words, never to be-" Ishar cocked an eyebrow at Carrot. "Can you stop bobbing your head like that? It looks like you're suppressing sexual desire. It's not very gentlemanly of you Carrot." Carrot let loose a frustrated bellow.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

Ishar nodded. "I understand Carrot, I understand. I can never see her again! Oh how I understand that." Ishar stood up and held a hand before him. "But I can see her, you see Carrot. I can see her, she dwells within the flames. Love dwells within the flames and I'll watch the whole realm burn just to see her dance. And one day, when all else is gone. I'll walk into the flames myself and maybe then I'll be with her." Cabby strode forward towards Ishar and the Kolotian held out both hands. "I'm not one for sentiment, Cabby, but I do need the hug before I embark on a tyrannical campaign based on vengeance." Cabby walked past Ishar, keeping a wide berth of his outstretched arms. Ishar cocked an eyebrow at Carrot. "How did you manage to get her? She's such a snob!" He turned around to address Cabby. "Hey! You can't jus-"

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It is mended, and stronger. I do not lie. Nyawe spoke within Rehny's mind as he sat next to Edda who was nursing a swollen jaw. Rehny had a Binorian banner wrapped around his naked form. All around him Talisi soldiers who'd returned from their escape of Ishar's chaos picked through the corpses in search of their fallen kin. The few Binorians who'd survived had done so by running back towards the North Local and were surely on their way back to Binoria to report the death of Vayin Vigon. Leaving behind a field of corpses dressed in red armor.

"I will never do such a thing again." Rehny said, causing Edda to turn a questioning glance to him. He grimaced at the sight of her swollen face and shook his head from side to side. Further away Mairek stood addressing a circle of several Talisi soldiers. Rehny thought of the young man's pose that spoke of leadership and the half spears in the hands of all those listening to him.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Niada." Ishar said. He closed his eyes hard then opened them. Still, she stood before him with Cabby beside her, sniffing at her hair. Ishar shook his head from side to side before facing Niada once more. He turned his head to the heavens. *Ovek please, don't torture me so. Not this type of madness, please." Tears streamed down his eyes. He turned his amber eyes to what he assumed was an apparition and watched as it approached him.

Ishar raised his hands to ward Niada away, unbelieving of what stood before him. He was certain Ovek was torturing him, a cruel joke by the God of Chaos. He knew that once he touched her his fingers would just brush right through her for the mind cannot conjure true touch. Niada took his hands into hers and his eyes widened as she forced him to face her.

Her slender neck glistened with sweat. She was panting hard as if she'd run all the way to him. A smile played upon her full lips and she raised a hand to brush a tear off his cheek. Behind him Carrot bellowed. "You can see her?" He whispered to Carrot who replied with another bellow. His voice had lost the aspect of chaos as his heart thundered with a passion that surpassed Ovek's blessing.

Tears streamed down Niada's cheeks and Ishar hesitantly lifted a hand to brush them away, fearful that the apparition might disappear with the act. But Niada remained standing before him even as his blue tipped fingers were wet with her tears. "You're not dead."

Niada nodded, lips pressed tightly together so as to prevent a sudden wail.

"I thought I'd lost you." Ishar said, his voice breaking at the last word.

"I thought I'd lost you too." Niada replied in a shaky voice. Ishar's horns turned to black dust at the sound of her voice, the dust was quickly picked up by the wind that floated it away as did his grief. The relief of Niada being alive coalesced within his eyes and their amber glow faded back to violet. Niada's amber eyes too fade back to green and the pair stood comforted by each's presence.

All at once, it was as if each of them had been pushed from behind at the same time, they collapsed into each other's arms and their lips parted to meet in a sloppy kiss fueled with an almost animalistic fervor.

Cabby snorted and after a while so did Carrot.