Being grabbed was a surprise, but not so great a one I let it stop me.

The hand that grabbed me had done so by the top of the cloak I wore. I felt my hair and my left ear get grabbed too. But whoever’s hand, or well whatever type of hand they had, was malformed. It was missing fingers, and wasn’t grabbing too hard.

Plus they let me go thanks to shock, when I ran right into them and pushed them away from the door.

“Run, Fly!” I shouted as I pushed over the person who had grabbed me. They fell to the ground with a shocked scream, and between their voice and a quick glance down at them I realized it was a woman. One not much larger than me.

And not a human. She had strangely shaped hands, and her face was a dark red… as if freshly burnt from long hours in the sun.

Stepping towards her, I didn’t hesitate as I went right up to where her head was and swung back my leg. From the moment I prepared the kick, to connecting my foot to her face, I scanned the rest of the area.

Three other people were readily visible. The place was a little dark, but nothing like the darkness that Fly and I had just ran from. Rays of sunlight peered in from all over, from the walls and ceiling. From holes, not windows. This place was decrepit.

And filthy.

There were boxes, barrels, and piles of trash… reminiscent of the stuff downstairs. Were these people just filthy?

I didn’t recognize any of the three still standing people, or the woman I had just kicked, and was really thankful for it.

Good thing it wasn’t that Kapli. Since I knew I couldn’t beat her.

A burst of movement made me spin my head around, and I felt relief wash through me as I watched Fly.

Fly hadn’t lied. Off to the right was indeed a door. One that looked bent and wobbly yet was closed. It obviously led outside, based off the rays of light from all around its edges.

Fly was running to it. She blocked it from my sight after a moment. I couldn’t help but bless her for doing what I had begged her to. Thank goodness she hadn’t hesitated. Thank goodness she didn’t try and stay to help.

“What the hell!” a man shouted, nearly as high pitched a scream as the woman I had just startled and pushed over.

Stepping up against the woman, I kicked her again. This time in her stomach. She let loose a strange guffaw as I kicked all the air out of her.

I felt horrible… yet knew better than to stop. This woman had grabbed me upon opening the door. She hadn’t hesitated.

Even if she looked like a feeble woman right now, being brutally assaulted and abused by me…

She was my enemy.

She was the Societies enemy.

Kicking her again, this time I felt my foot hit something a little harder than the stuff before. Something denser… even though I had still kicked her plainly in the waist.

She let loose a shriek of pain, and began to curl up as to defend herself. She covered herself with her strange hands, shouting wordless shrieks. Likely begging for help, or for me to stop… yet she had no air in her lungs, so couldn’t formulate a proper word.

Kicking her one last time, I heaved a deep breath and turned around. To look at the door I had just been pulled out of.

It was open, leading to the dark stairwell I had just been in… and I knew soon it’d be the source of my demise.

That man. Fin. Or others, would be here soon… and…

“Who the hell are you!” one of the people behind me shouted. A woman’s voice. One I hadn’t really studied yet.

I ignored her, and the others, and hurriedly went to a pile of boxes next to the door. They were stacked high, higher than twice my own height, and looked heavy.

Going round them, I positioned myself at just the right angle to push them over in front of the door. I put my hands up against them, and flinched at both the pain touching the boxes brought, and the sight of my mangled fingers.

My right hand was definitely the worst off, but my pinky and middle finger on my left were also bent askew and already inflamed to twice their size.

Ignoring the pain, I pushed with all my might.

At first the boxes didn’t move, and I panicked at the thought of me being unable to block the door. I needed to. The four others in this warehouse, at least the three still standing, were dangerous enough as it was. Plus I knew that Fin man would not be someone I could handle if he got here.

I knew I’d not be able to escape them in time.

The idea of running away from them on open flat ground, like through the streets of Lumen, was an impossibly daunting thought.

Then, right before I gave up and decided to switch tactics, the boxes actually shifted. The one I was pushing, which was the second up from the floor in the stack, moved with a loud clang. The things were metal, and seemed to have metal stuff inside too.

I couldn’t help but grin and laugh a little as I heaved the tower of boxes over. They fell loudly, banging against the wall the door was built into. One of the boxes rolled away, too far away to be useful, but the rest landed right in front of the door. Two of them even landed on top of one another, blocking the door nearly in its entirety.

Of course I knew that someone like Fin could probably move them aside… but it might give me just that much more time to escape.

“Chaney are you okay?” a man cried out. He was kneeling down next to the woman I had just kicked several times, and I felt a tinge of regret at the sight of the man’s face.

He was terrified. He was crying, and his face was contorted in such a way it was as if he was the one I had just brutally assaulted.

“What the hell is going on?” another man asked. He was looking around at me and the rest with an expression that told me he genuinely was shocked.

“Are you why the Master’s so angry?” the woman asked. I noticed the way her fists were balled up… and the look on her face.

Why did it seem like the women of our race were the ones I needed to fear most?

“Chaney is hurt bad!” the man turned to his friends and nearly screamed at them.

“Shut up! Parkly, we need to grab her. She’s obviously got something to do with Master’s outburst!” the woman turned to the other man, while pointing at me.

“I agree. She looks as if she’s been beaten quite a bit already. Maybe Aunt’s doing?” the man frowned at me as he stepped forwards and towards me.

Great.

He was shorter than Vim… and looked a little old, but was still bigger than me in both size and weight. I couldn’t see any obvious non-human traits on him, but even if he was just a human I was in no condition to take him lightly.

Glancing at the door, it was open now. I flinched at the bright sunlight gleaming off the ground and stone just outside the door and looked away.

So Fly had escaped…

Could I too?

I had to try.

Stepping forward, I rounded one of the boxes I had just pushed over. Although it had blocked the door, for now, it had also blocked my escape route.

The man stood up straighter, and I realized he thought I was stepping towards him as to fight.

Glancing at the others, I quickly figured out how I was going to do this.

The woman I had kicked was out of commission, for at least the moment. She was curled up on the ground, being held by the man worrying for her. He too was likely not an immediate threat… though if he was that emotional over her it was likely she was someone important to him. That meant the sorrow and panic he was feeling now would eventually become rage. Especially if she succumbed to the injuries I had given her in the next few moments.

Other than the man approaching me, the other woman was the only one I needed to immediately worry about. She too was heading towards us… but was walking slower than the man was. Unlike him, she was definitely not a human. She had large animal ears on the side of her head. They were floppy and covered in fur, but the fur was different colored than the hair on her head.

She wouldn’t be able to go outside. But the two men could. They both looked human enough.

Though she could probably wear a cloak or jacket, as I did…

Taking a few breaths, I planned my attack.

I was just going to run to the door. But I knew he would catch me before I made it. So my plan was to skid to a stop a few feet from the door, right when he would go to grab me… and turn and elbow him. Hopefully in someplace very effective. If I was lucky he’d fumble, maybe even drop in shock and pain, and I’d be able to run outside before anyone could get a hold of me.

Then… right before I turned and ran…

The whole world shook.

I fumbled, and fell against one of the boxes. I flinched as the whole world grew… angry.

It rumbled. It roared. The ground beneath me was moving so wildly, it actually hurt. I kept being pushed every which way; as was the box I had fallen up against. One moment I was sitting up against the box, the next the box was slamming into me and sending me several feet away. Amidst the roaring of the shaking world, was the obvious destruction that accompanied it.

Windows shattering. Boxes and barrels falling over, crashing into one another and breaking. Walls creaking, the roof cracking and breaking. Wooden beams, supporting the whole building, cracked loudly as even they succumbed to the movement.

The sound of terrified screams could be heard, but I couldn’t make out what anyone was saying. Especially since the screams weren’t coming just from the people in the warehouse.

Rolling on the ground, I covered my head and wondered if Vim was okay. This was undoubtedly the Master’s work… somehow… which meant he was directly involved in this. And if it was this bad up here, so far away… then…!

Something heavy broke nearby. Its breakage, and following collapse, was somehow as loud as the very shaking which had done the damage. I flinched as what sounded like an entire building collapsed around me.

Half expecting to be crushed, I scrunched up even more as I felt the impact of things far heavier than I falling around me. I felt small things hit my back, like heavy raindrops or clumps of dirt… then the world went still.

Still curled up and covering my head… I couldn’t see anything. But I heard the chaos around me.

The people in the warehouse. One of them was screaming. From pain. One of the men.

There were other screams too. Off in the distance. All around us. People all over the area were shouting, and none of them sounded happy.

I could hear things still breaking. What sounded like stone rumbling down a mountain was somewhere to my right, outside of the warehouse. Glass was still shattering, and…

Lifting my head, I peered at the bright sunlit area around me.

Half of the roof had collapsed. It had landed nearby. Parts of it were scattered around me and I was covered in shards of glass and broken metal pieces.

Slowly sitting up, I was now thankful for the heavy cloak I was wearing. Even if it still stunk horribly. It was likely the only reason I hadn’t gotten too hurt. I quickly felt around my body, and luckily didn’t feel anything more than I had already been feeling.

The woman I had kicked… and the man who had been tending her hadn’t been as lucky.

A huge wooden beam had landed on them. The woman was completely under it, only one of her legs was sticking out, and the man who had been kneeling next to her was scraping at the ground… trying to pull himself free from under it.

“Help…!” he shouted a gargled word, and I shivered at the sound of death.

He was crushed. It was a miracle he was still alive. Maybe he wasn’t human. Only his chest and upper body was free, and he kept trying to drag himself free of the huge beam. His fingers dug into the dirt ground as he tried to claw himself away.

Glancing at the other two, I flinched at the sight of blood. The man who had been heading for me was on his knees, and was holding his head.

Was that a piece of metal? It was lodged into the side of his head, and was poking out right under his right eye.

I had to look away from the carnage, it was disgusting. Even if I had just been planning to hurt him myself, it still made me wheezy.

The other woman seemed to have been lucky like me. She was already on her feet and was looking around in pure shock. She couldn’t believe it anymore than I did.

“Parkly…!” the woman noticed the man with the metal in his head and rushed to his side.

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

I coughed… and decided it was time I left.

If anything to get away from this area. I hadn’t gotten hurt, luckily, but that didn’t mean…

Wait…

“Fly…!” I stood as I realized she was likely still nearby. Maybe even close enough that she might have gotten hurt in the chaos too!

Standing on unsteady feet, I turned and was about to step away. Towards the door, but it was gone.

A small hill of debris was now all that remained of the door.

“Shoot.” I was definitely disoriented. But I knew it wasn’t from the shaking just now. I was starting to succumb to my injuries. I felt light headed. I should have noticed the door being blocked first.

Looking around, I quickly found a spot I could use to escape. It was opposite of where the door had been, and was where most of the ceiling had collapsed. But it had done so in a way that would let me escape easily. The roof had taken half the wall with it. I’d easily be able to clamber over what little was in the way and get out.

Turning as to head that way, I barely made it three steps before I was hit from the side.

Falling to the ground, my vision went fuzzy as I was tackled. We hit the ground hard, but what hurt the most was the stuff I fell on. Even through the thick cloak I felt stuff pierce and stab me, especially my back.

“You!” the woman screamed at me as she sat on me. I struggled to push her off, and hated how weak I felt as she grabbed the cloak I wore and lifted me upward towards her.

“Look what you’ve done!” she shouted at me. The cloak I wore fell back, and I flinched at the sight of the woman’s fury. She was so furious that she had huge bulging veins all over her forehead and in her neck.

I tried to wiggle my legs out from under her, but wasn’t able to get any leverage. She was oddly heavy, even though she didn’t seem much larger than me.

“This is all your fault! The Master will eat everyone now!” she shook me, pushing and pulling me by the cloak in her fury. My whole body screamed at me in distress as I was shaken like a little child.

She was strong. Or I was simply far too weak, especially right now.

“I didn’t do anything!” I shouted at her as I slid my arms in-between hers, as to push her back and away from me.

The moment I slid them between hers though, I regretted it.

Sharp stinging pain made me pull my arms back, and as I did I saw the cause. Long thin needles were suddenly poking out of my arms.

They didn’t look like knives… more like…

“Spines…?” I groaned at the number of them. There was at least a dozen now firmly lodged into my forearms. With every twitch and movement I could feel them digging deeper, and even scraping bone.

“The Master’ll devour us all! Once you wake them up they don’t go back to sleep until full! You’ve killed us all!” the woman didn’t even seem to notice that I had been stabbed by her spines, or quills, and she kept on shaking me.

Luckily she didn’t just… lie down and hug me. From what I could tell her spines weren’t on her hands but her arms. Maybe even her chest and upper torso too, since I didn’t feel any poking me from her legs or waist.

“You’re the ones who tossed me down there!” I shouted back at her.

“Raggh!” she screamed wordlessly at me, and then slammed me down against the ground.

The impact surprisingly didn’t hurt much, but she didn’t stop. She leaned forward and started to hit me.

Her punches, even though I had thought her strong, really didn’t hurt much. She was erratic. I felt her fists not only hit my face and shoulder, but also miss me entirely and hit the ground beneath me. She didn't seem to even register it when she did, but I heard her bones crunch and snap each time she hit the ground instead of me.

I wasn’t going to just lay here and let her vent her fury on me. Even if she was covered in spines. Even if she was… well…

Partly correct.

Through squeezed eyes, I clenched my teeth and waited until she lifted her right arm high up. The moment she brought her right fist down, I slid to the right. She hit the ground, and I quickly sat straight up.

Hitting her in the nose with my forehead, I felt the crunch of bone as the impact actually sent her backwards and off me.

Crawling out from under her, I ignored the ringing in my head as I turned away and stood. She was groaning angrily, but wasn’t out of the fight just yet. She got to her feet nearly as fast as I did.

Hurrying away from her I ran past the broken beam that had landed on the man and woman. He was no longer moving, or screaming for help. Running past their bodies I went straight for the broken part of the wall.

“Stop her!” the woman shouted behind me, and I didn’t like the way she had screamed.

That had been said to someone. Someone else.

I didn’t look back behind me and instead focused on escaping. I reached the crumbled wall, and almost fell when I had to jump over a broken bundle of wood. Maybe from one of the boxes or barrels.

Tripping over some broken bricks, I reached the outside and found myself in an alley. It was not the biggest, but it was also now… full of junk. Half the warehouse wall had collapsed into it, and it seemed this building hadn’t been the only one to collapse.

I ran the direction that had the least amount of blockage, to ensure I wouldn’t fall and stumble. Running with all my might, I quickly reached the end of the alley and found it leading me down another. A quick glance down both directions made me hesitate. Both had chaos. One had what seemed to be entire buildings littering it; the other wasn’t as full of debris but led to a fire.

“Bitch!”

Jumping at the voice, I made a single glance behind me and then decided to run towards the fire. The other way would have me clambering over what seemed like hills of stone and broken buildings. Nothing I could handle right now in my condition.

I didn’t need to look too closely at the man following me to know who it was. The stuff beneath his arms were a clear tell.

Fin.

So that was who that spine woman had been shouting to.

He must have emerged from the door when she had tackled me.

Running with all my might, I barely registered the chaos all around me.

Buildings were falling apart. There were fires. Screams of pain and shouts for help in the area all around me. Parts of the ground were fractured and shifted. Entire sections of brick were extruding upward, as if something heavy had hit them from beneath.

That creature… had it really done all this?

Hopefully Vim was okay.

Though something told me he was doing better than me.

Reaching the fire, I felt a bit of relief as I ran past it. It might grow into a raging inferno soon, but right now it was only a single floor of a building… and most of the flames had yet to breach past the windows and broken walls and out into the alleyway.

“You can’t run!” Fin shouted behind me, and I hated how close he already sounded. He sounded closer than the roaring flames I had just ran past.

Reaching a corner, I took a right. I had no time to decide which one to take, but hoped it led me out into the open… maybe a main road, with lots of people.

If I was lucky I’d run out into the main roads and find a bunch of knights or something. They’d at least protect me momentarily, letting me escape… after all Fin was a large man, and I looked like a young woman.

Instead of running out into a main road I instead ran into a smaller alleyway. One not as littered as the last, but it was angled oddly… I felt myself actually running uphill, and it hurt.

Heaving as I ran as hard as I could, I knew it wasn’t enough. I was horribly slow.

A brief memory of running around the smithy came and went. Yes. That was what I felt like. Worse than that.

Vim had told me that I would someday know my true limit.

Well…

Here it was.

Hitting an upturned brick, I let out a yelp as I tumbled headfirst.

Rolling forward, I ignored all the pain and focused instead on the horrid acceptance.

This was it.

I’d stumble. I’d get up. Shakily… then I’d fight.

I’d fight with all I had. Tooth and nail. Till my last breath.

Then I’d die.

Because I was exhausted. Because I was weak.

Coming to a stop, I groaned as I lay in a rubble filled puddle. The water, although was old and nasty… felt good on my cheek.

I heard footsteps. Heavy ones. A heavy breathing man, heaving as he slowed in his approach.

Fin was here.

Blinking, I stared at the dirty wall nearby. It looked… old. Grimy. The stone was cracked, and not just from the violent shaking earthquake just now. That stone was possibly as old as me.

It was such a strange thing to notice in my final moments.

Taking a breath, I coughed out some water that had gone up my nose during my inhale. Then I tried to stand.

And failed to do so.

Wincing at the horrid pain, I groaned as I rolled my arms under me, and then regretted it. The spines in my forearms poked and prodded not just my chest and underarms thanks to my curling up, but dug deeper into my arms too.

Right. Spines stuck in my arms.

Broken hand. Broken bones. Fractured skull…

Some protector.

“You’re… either very lucky Renn, or out of luck entirely.”

The familiar voice made my eyes water as I looked up, and my mouth actually started to tremble as I stared up at Brom.

“Brom…?” I couldn’t believe it.

He smiled at me and knelt down. As he did I noticed that he held his spear. It was… oddly shiny, maybe because of the sunlight. Had he just polished it?

“Yeesh… don’t pull those out. Those are quills. What’d you do, hug a porcupine?” Brom asked as he grabbed my hand.

My hands were clenched into fists, so he actually grabbed my balled up fist. With a strangely gentle yet firm grip, Brom helped me to my feet.

Water splashed beneath me as I heaved a sob… which turned into a tiny, painful, laugh.

“Uh… well… not exactly,” I couldn’t help but chuckle at him. He sounded so amused, but I could hear the deep worry in his voice. One didn’t need to see the concern on his face to tell how he was likely just doing his best to keep the spirits lifted.

Before I or Brom could say anything more, right as I stood up fully… a man began to scream.

Turning quickly, I realized I had forgotten about Fin. He had been right behind me and…

I felt my eyes go wide upon the sight. Not too far down the alley, was Fin. He was up against the wall, and flailing around. Or rather… he was trying to flail around.

Wrapped around his waist, with her little arms, was Merit.

She clung to him in such a way that her feet weren’t even touching the ground. Her feet and legs flailed nearly as much as Fin did as he shook and did everything he could to pull Merit off him... Yet no matter how much he pulled. No matter how hard he hit. Or how much he tried to pry her arms off him…

Merit hung on.

“What’s…?” I couldn’t comprehend what I was seeing. Weird noises, like hundreds of little pops and crackles, were echoing in the alley… all the while Merit flashed white and blue.

Actually it looked like the air around Merit was flashing. And with each flash Fin shook. Each flash made Fin scream out in pain, as if his very soul was being tortured.

Then I smelled it.

I stepped back, up against Brom. I felt his hand grab me by my shoulder, to support me… and I shook a little at the smell of burning flesh.

Fin continued to scream, and then strange black smoke started to fizzle around him. From his mouth, his hair, his chest… Then, with a wry moan… Fin stopped making noise and fell to the ground.

Merit still clung to Fin, even as the two fell to the ground. Fin landed hard, lifeless… and for a few seconds I held my breath as Merit and her sparks continued.

“See? Lucky, in a way,” Brom said lightly.

“Huh…?” I glanced at him, and wasn’t sure what the heck he meant.

Did he mean being saved? That was lucky. Yes. A lot. Yet he was acting as if I wasn’t.

Brom glanced at me and then frowned and shrugged. “I mean… he’s lucky it hadn’t been Vim. You’re lucky we found you. Yet he’s lucky too, since it had been us and not Vim,” Brom said.

The odd man made me shake my head as I glanced back at Merit and the man she had just killed. Or well… was he dead? I stepped towards them as Merit unwrapped her arms around the man and slowly stood.

She looked fine… her clothes were now dirty, and wrinkled and crumpled thanks to the confrontation… but she didn’t seem to be bleeding or hurt anywhere.

Walking up to her as she brushed herself off, she huffed and then glanced at me. “Renn, you look like you just fought for your life,” she greeted me.

“Ha…” I laughed, but wasn’t able to get more than a single snort out. It hurt to do anymore than that.

Merit smiled at me in a way that told me she fully understood how I felt, and I pointed at Fin.

She glanced at him in the same way I would a weird weed. “He’s dead,” she said plainly.

I nodded, and was a little upset at how glad I was to hear he was.

Wait… “Did Fly get there that fast? It feels like she just left…” I said as I realized why they were probably here. Maybe it’s been a lot longer than what I thought? It felt as if Fly and I had only just a few minutes ago entered that warehouse. Surely they shouldn’t be here already…?

“Huh? Oh… no. Once the earthquakes started I came to find out what was going on. Then we saw Fly running, so we nabbed her. She went back with Reatti to the Society,” Brom said from behind me.

“Good…” I nearly collapsed on the floor from relief. So she was safe.

“Easy Renn…” Merit stepped forward and gently grabbed me by the forearm. I noticed she didn’t even seem to notice the needles in them.

“I’m uh…” I wasn’t sure what to say. I needed to thank them… but… how? What words could I use?

“Where’s Vim, Renn?” Brom asked before I could think of a good way to express what I felt in my heart.

“Huh…? Oh… he’s fighting their master,” I said.

“Which is why you’re in such a condition,” Merit mumbled as she nodded, as if it made perfect sense.

Was it? Was she blaming Vim or simply stating a fact?

“Is uh… Is everyone okay? Some buildings seemed to have…” I wasn’t able to finish the sentence. For some reason I was suddenly out of breath.

“Careful. Brom…” Merit stepped to my right, and glared at the man behind me.

“Right. Come on Renn, let’s get you home,” Brom said. I knew he was stepping towards me, likely to grab me. To carry me back, if he had to.

“I’ll not argue…” I said.

“There’s Fin!”

The three of us turned at the shout, and I groaned at the sight of people hurrying into the alley.

I wasn’t able to get much more than a cursory glance at the several people running at us, since Brom put himself in-between them and Merit and I.

“I’ll handle this, Brom. You take her back,” Merit said sternly.

“She’ll survive a few moments more. Then we’ll all go back, together,” Brom said simply.

“Just because Vim taught you doesn’t mean you can act like him!” Merit grumbled a complaint, and then she pulled on my hand.

Although her grip was gentle, she wasn’t going to let me ignore her. Merit pulled me over to a nearby door that had a makeshift step in front of it. “Sit,” was all she ordered.

I obliged, and realized how silly it was to do so. We had enemies right there, charging at us… yet I was more than happy to oblige her and sit down as if we were going to have a picnic.

Merit sighed and shook her head at me, and I smiled back at her. I could tell she wasn’t upset with me… but…

“Merit… Fly called it a Monarch,” I said, before I could forget it.

Merit went still, her eyes going wide. Even Brom suddenly turned around, to gape at me.

“What!” Brom shouted.

“Focus, Brom!” Merit shouted back, which made Brom turn back around just in time for the first man to attack him.

Sitting down, I nearly stood back up as a large man charged into Brom… but instead of tackling Brom and sending him to the ground, he instead went limp and fell past Brom and to the floor.

The man falling to the ground, releasing a puff of dirt in the process, made the group that had been running behind him slow to a stop right in front of Brom.

Rolling his shoulder Brom shifted his spear… and as he did I noticed the blood starting to pool beneath the man’s head.

Had he… had he cut the man’s neck? That quickly? I hadn’t even seen it.

Merit stepped forward, and I felt an odd shiver as I watched her step up to Brom’s left. She stood there, obviously willing to fight and kill as much as the man who had just done so.

It was… startling. Even if I knew Merit was strong, and had just seen her kill someone, it was hard to ignore her appearance. She looked like a little girl. Not someone who should be standing up to a group of men and women, some of which who were armed.

There was a long moment of awkward silence as the group stared at them, and the man they had just killed. Several obviously glanced past them to the charred remains of the larger man, Fin, who was not far from me.

“Vim usually doesn’t leave so many,” Brom said simply.

“She said a Monarch, Brom,” Merit grumbled.

The group in front of them shifted, though I couldn’t tell if their unease was from the words Brom and Merit were saying or the simple fact that Brom and Merit were talking so calmly between themselves.

“I suggest we finish this quickly then,” Brom readied his spear, sliding his calloused hands along its shaft. The sound his hands made as he took a stance made a few of the people in the group step back in fear.

“Don’t get in my way,” Merit said, and then stepped forward.