Eirlathion’s reeling mind scrambled to keep up with the situation. Somehow, he had been saved by one of the twins falling in front of him and intercepting an arrow. That’s right, he had forgotten about that part due to the shock of seeing her fall to the ground, but she was definitely shot by that first arrow as well. He looked to the ground and saw the second arrow shaft also broken on the ground, just like the one that had just shattered on her head.

What was going on with this child? Before Eirlathion could chase that thought any further, the child took off running straight toward the assassin. It was not the toddling steps appropriate for her age either. She was running in a very effective manner, and she was also fast. Way too fast as a matter of fact. She ran fast enough to easily overtake a full grown adult.

From the perspective of Eirlathion, this was just strange. However, it was clear that from the perspective of the assassin that this situation was terrifying. The man immediately began to panic and started wildly shooting arrow after arrow at the girl. It was impressive he was actually able to hit such a small and fast moving target while he was in such a rattled state, every arrow hit the mark, but this feat of masterful archery only proved to showcase how useless the action was as every one of the arrows seemed to simply deflect off the skin of the girl as though it were made of the strongest gnome-forged metal.

At some point, the man turned and started to flee. However, the child was faster and as soon as she was in range she made a flying leap several times her body height and launched herself right into the shoulder blade of the man, knocking him to the ground in the process. A moment later, there was a loud cry as the assassin who had been so doggedly pursuing Eirlathion a few moments ago seemed to now somehow be in a fight for his life against a child who was only two cycles of the seasons in age. True, her physical age seemed closer to what that of a human should be than what her own elven blood would normally have, making her more a toddler than an infant, but she was still fighting a full grown adult somehow to the point where it was completely one-sided in her favor.

Eirlathion had no idea what was going on over there. In this darkness, he could only see the silhouette of writhing bodies and hear the leaves rustling, but there was no doubt in his mind that the dark-elf who had attacked him was about to die at the hands of this infant.

“Master Eirlathion!” Suddenly, Eirlathion’s attention was brought back to his surroundings. He looked up to see one of the young hunters of the defenders, likely one of the more timid ones who had held back in this safe zone. Had he only just now noticed what had been going on here? “Master Eirlathion, those injuries!” Yes, yes that is right. He had taken quite a few arrows while he was still fleeing. It still hurt to breathe and he could not get enough wind to fill his lungs. The arrow still stuck from his side, but he did not want to pull it out and worsen the bleeding.

“What was that creature?” A second voice asked. Eirlathion had not even noticed the second man approach, or was he already there at the same time the first one was? He was having a harder time focusing. Part of him was resentful that they were only coming out now and had not used those bows in their hands to help cover him and fight off that assassin earlier. Were they that lacking in the area of sensing a presence? It was a skilled assassin in the dark and covered by a lot of noise of battle, but they ought to have at least caught on with all the noise Eirlathion must have been making himself.

He wanted to comment, but with one lung punctured he could barely get enough breath to stay conscious. What shallow breaths he could take were small and he was hearing more and more of a wet crackling sound with every breath he took.

“We have to get the master magus to safety! You watch out in case that creature comes back this way!” The first young man says and then places a hand on the trunk of the nursery tree only to have his face contort in confusion and shock. “Huh? The… the spirit is not responding! No, it feels as though another far stronger mage is overriding my command!” He frets. “What… who is doing this?”

Then, as though in answer to the young man’s question, they all heard the sound of groaning wood. Eirlation felt the trunk behind him extend outward to cradle his shoulders. Vines reached down to wrap around his shoulders and hips, and he was pulled up into a sitting position on a low ground-level chair that had been formed from the wooden body of the tree. The pain from his wounds was agrivated by the movement and he growled out in pain, but he had to admit that he felt a little bit better in this position.

Then, something else lowered from above. When Eirlathion looked up, it was the other of the two twins looking down at him, clinging to a vine. Her back was to the fires of the battlefield, so he couldn’t make out her expression, but he somehow felt she had a concerned look on that face concealed by the shadows.

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>His pleural membrane has been punctured. The other wounds are inconsequential for now, but that chest wound could kill him before Tia gets finished with getting the blood she needs for this. Nymph, you have to remove the arrow and immediately block the wound in as air-tight a manner as you can.<

She said some words in that strange other language those four children are always using. He had no idea what she just said, but he could sense there was something very different about her tone this time. However, those thoughts were quickly brushed aside when, as though in response to what she had said, one of the vines that was under his arm wrapped itself around the arrow.

“Wait! What are you doing?” One of the young men realized what was going on and demanded. He grabbed one of the arms of the child on the vines and shook her. “Are you doing this? You have to stop! If you pull out the arrow without healing magic, his wound will start bleeding and he’ll die!”

Suddenly, another vine lashed out and wrapped itself around the man’s wrist. He yelled out in pain while the vine pulled his arm straight up. At the same time, there was a very bright flash of light. The apparition of the nymph had materialized.

“Hands off! Asaren knows what she is doing better than you do.” The nymph said in a tone that posed no room for argument.

So, this one was Asaren, huh? Bad luck. This is the one among the twins that the nymph favors a lot more.

>Nymph, Eirlathion!<

>Ahh! Sorry!< The nymph responded in an almost servile tone to this small child yelling. A second later, Eirlathion shouted out in pain. Incidentally, so did the man who had his wrist bound by the nymph. Eirlathoin glanced over and saw the arrow being pulled away from his side, and at the same time another vine reached across his body and, at the exact same time, he felt some piece of wood pressing against his chest. He let out a hiss of pain as the wooden extension from the nursery tree put pressure on the exact location of his wound.

He gasped and groaned and realized he was breathing heavily. It was only a second later that he realized the significance of that. He could barely even breathe at all just a second ago, but having the pressure placed on his wound somehow made him able to breathe again.

He looked up and saw the man who had been grabbing Asaren before kneeling on the ground and clutching his wrist protectively. He could guess from the sight what had probably happened.

>Nymph! What did you do that for?< Asaren was shouting in a tone that was clearly angry while looking at the nymph’s projection. >Did you break that man’s wrist?<

>Umm… well, he was acting violently toward you when you were just trying to help Eirlathion, so…<

>He was also just trying to help! He didn’t know better! That’s no reason to give him an injury on the level of a broken bone! You went way too far with that!<

There was a very definite scolding tone to the words Asaren was speaking. It was definitely strange, and Eirlathion could tell they were not the words of a child just imitating the scolding tone of an adult, this child seemed to know exactly what she was saying and was really angry. Eirlathion couldn’t keep up with the situation, and them speaking in another language he didn’t know certainly didn’t help.

>Fine, whatever. Tia is done with… that. She’s on her way back. Maybe she can heal this guy as well. Just show me the arrow.<

Again, Eirlathion couldn’t follow any of this at all. He was just in a daze of confusion. He looked down at the object the nymph had held to his chest. He couldn’t make out many details in the dark, but there seemed to be something like a large leaf under the wood. Did that leaf have some kind of healing property? It must not be very strong if it does, he definitely still felt a lot of pain from his chest wound. Whatever it was made breathing a little easier, but he was still struggling to breathe. It felt like no matter how hard he tried to force wind into the lungs, he couldn’t get enough.

“Who’s there?” Eirlathion suddenly heard the other young man shout as he readied his bow. Before he could fully knock an arrow though, a vine grabbed him around the waist and pinned him to the tree.

>Nymph, don’t hurt him! He was just a little jumpy! There is an enemy around, it’s understandable! He’s doing his job, he’s just trying to protect us.<

Eirlathion looked up and saw the nymph’s light projection making a difficult expression, and then the vine around the man loosened. Somehow, the nymph seemed to look really depressed over being repeatedly scolded like this. He heard it mumble something.

>How can you be so nice to these people?<

“What…” Eirlathion began choking as he tried to speak. He wanted to ask them what they were talking about. He knew both Asaren and the nymph were perfectly capable of speaking Elven. He wanted to know what they were saying, but as soon as he tried to speak he was overcome with hacking coughs. He covered his mouth as he felt some liquid coming up out of his mouth, and when he pulled that had back to look he saw a dark liquid. In the faint light that came from the nymph’s projection, he could see it was red.

That is when he finally noticed what had gotten the other man’s attention. There was a small silhouette coming straight in their direction. In the darkness, he could see her crude white dress now had a deep dark stain that extended down her neck-line and into her chest. That same dark fluid also covered her neck and chin. Since he had only just seen a fluid of that exact same color, he knew the exact nature of that stain.

The first thoughts he had were ‘Oh no, what happened to her?’