Baa-Ram-Ewe!

-Tambelon, Stoneback Warren, Pom-

The Stonebacks were fairly interesting. They looked menacing with their size and actions, but were actually quite peaceful and docile. They were even raising ponies with their little ones on what limited resources they had out here. Said Stoneback raised ponies who couldn’t talk, why would they be able to when the Troggles never educated them, but they could understand intentions well enough to know we didn’t mean them harm.

They farmed edible roots that looked like wood tendrils, they weren’t made of wood though and were delicious while not being overly chewy. Made for a nice soup when I made a smokeless fire to cook some in a boiling broth, it was probably for the best that I don’t draw attention to the friendly creatures hideaway. Probably one of the few safe places in this realm that Grogar didn’t actively look for or stamp out over the last few thousand years.

The Stonebacks were smart enough to avoid drawing Grogar’s eyes for this long, didn’t want to ruin it for them now.

The stonebacks probably looked like boulders to Grogar whenever he looked at them and they became as still as the rocks they looked to be when they hide their true natures. They stayed well away from the City of Bells, the seat of Grogar’s Empire in Tambelon and I had an inkling as to how strong the Troggles were from that alone.

Jaded La Perm was scouting the city with Puff, Woof was keeping Ruff out of trouble and Tuft was keeping Tianhuo company. Tianhuo was not exactly the stealthiest being, being large and generally on literal fire. So far they seemed to be staying out of the way of the Troggle patrols easily enough, Tianhuo was having problems not taking actions based on the tragedies she was seeing.

I saw tuft staring at some dead bodies in the streets, donkeys and ponies alike as they were picked up by Troggles and carted away. For what purpose, I could only guess and didn’t want to be right when it came to the Troggles being omnivores.

Notably there were no Pegasus Ponies here, there were Unicorn and Earth Ponies though. All of them sometimes being worked to death in the upkeep up the City of Bells.

“Dolly stay here and watch the place with Shanty.” I said as I started towards the warrens entrance. “Dormarch with me.”

“Sure, but why are you taking me?” Dormarch was a little confused, he had refused to digivolve since one there wasn’t much digital energy in the air and two since his nightmares continued. That did not however make him weaker than Dolly, he was getting energy through our bond from my god puppies.

“Scouting purposes and you can teleport out of danger, you don’t have to do any fighting… leave that up to my god puppies. Once they get started, you’ll be surprised by what they can do.” One of my favorite things about my son is his signature ability to stay safe. “Also I need one of you here if I’m to find my way back. I’m going to take some kibble for my god puppies… are you alright with that Dolly?”

I was asking because we had a limited supply of food and our wagon didn’t have infinite kibble stores despite topping up on the good stuff for Dolly.

“Sure thing!” Dolly didn’t seem to be upset in the slightest. “Always fed my family before sitting down to eat myself.”

As rambunctious as Dolly was, she would definitely watch out for my god puppies. Still hadn’t asked how her dates with Tusky went, but she assured me that things didn’t get too far and she had a lot of fun with the oddly accented alien canine with the body height drill tooth he could store in his face… somehow.

“Shanty do you think you can hold things here?” The entrance to the warrens was hidden underneath a fairly large Stoneback that stayed on the surface.

“I do not be liking you going off like this, but I be understanding that Jade and Tianhuo are possibly being our only way out of Tambelon.” At least those are my thoughts on why they came into this realm, they are going to bring us home.

The atmosphere in the warren was generally cheerful, probably one of the few places where friendship magic that Ocellus has been going on about still permeated the lands here in Tambelon. That is probably why all the plant life wasn’t completely dead yet for all the gloom and darkness of this place with a constant red glowing sky and no sun, for the parts that weren’t overcast with angry looking lightning clouds.

-An hour later, outside the City of Bells walls-

We had made good time, despite being on a continent that used to be a part of something much larger. Having watched a few patrols Dormarch and I learned that the Troggles could survive off muddy or stagnant water. Fresh water was at a premium here, Tianhuo and Jaded hadn’t come without water canteens, but how well would that quench their thirst and that of my god puppies.

We were on several time limits to get out of Tambelon before things got worse, that or Grogar discovered what Shanty could do by summoning her dolphin Horizon. How long has it been since Grogar saw another goat? The ideas I got from that thought made my wool crawl.

“How are we going to get closer or inside mom?” Dormarch asked as we were possibly within their throwing range, the others had to know we were here given my connections to my god puppies. The puppies were excited to see their ‘baa-baa’ again and trying to carefully make their way towards me.

We didn’t know how well Troggles could see, but given there were Troggles on the walls, outside the walls and heavily patrolling the gate… they were definitely alert to any and all noise.

“What’s the loudest noise you can create?” I asked carefully as we stayed prone in the ditch we were hiding in. “Also we need to test their reaction speeds to things…”

I picked up a rock and threw it towards the wall… the rock was summarily slice in half by a spear thrown at absurd speeds.

“So how much noise can you make Dormarch?” I asked flatly staring at the metal spear that pierced the ground. The rock had barely gotten far before being speared in half.

That kind of reaction time was a bit much, makes me wonder how Jaded is doing around the guards if they are that high strung that they could hit a rock this far out. We were five hundred hooves from the wall.

-Jaded-

Okay, the security here was much higher than any place I’ve ever been. Say what you will about the evil guy aesthetics, but Grogar wasn’t relaxed on security at all in this place. Couldn’t get within five hundred feet of the castle, the Troggles were just that good. If there were guards I didn’t want to alert, it would be these guys.

“Ruff ruff…” Puff drew my attention in a given direction. Pom must be nearby, because he sure seemed happy and was wagging his tail excitedly. He looked like he was about to run off and fly away, I couldn’t let him do that the Troggles had a very good sense about things moving in the air. I’ve been very careful about jumping around places as their spear throws have grazed my fur and the guys didn’t even see me or have line of sight when they threw them.

“Careful now, the patrols are on to us. Which way?” I grabbed the puppy and put him in my pack, he quieted down and pointed a paw in the direction Pom was in. “Okay, let me do the leg work until we need to fight.”

“Ruff.” Puff responded in an affirmative, then turned his head and barked and pointed at a window on a building across the way of an open street. I could see the hint of flames, Tianhuo?

“One of your brothers there?” In answer to my question, Puff nodded. “Okay give me a second.”

I pulled out the whip and wound it around my right arm, I then started to carefully climb onto a higher section of roof while trying to avoid being skewered by the architecture. Once I reached a ledge, I looked around for any Troggle that might have a direct line of sight to me. How was I going to get Tianhuo’s attention?

-Tianhuo-

“Ruff ruff!” Tuft seemed to look in a given direction, then another and tilted his head. He turned to me and nosed in a given direction.

“Pom is near isn’t she?” I knew Tuft would not be so excited if she wasn’t, but being in the city was a bit of a risk. Some of the buildings were derelict in the City of Bells, I looked out the window. “Who? Ah, of course, Jaded…”

I saw the cat waving at me with Puff sticking out of her pack, she uncoiled the… why did she have a whip? She wasn’t exactly known for using one.

Something exploded in the distance and then every Troggle in the area was moving towards the explosion, the downtrodden uneducated donkeys and ponies scattered and whined in fright. In the distraction I notice something near me and I saw Jaded had swung down to me and was trying to figure out how to get the end of the whip off the spear like protrusion she had wound the end of it around.

“Yeah, need to work on my whip work while here.” Jaded mumbled, as she flicked the handle of the whip she held several times and the other end eventually uncoiled from the protruding spear like part of the building it had wrapped around. She coiled it up to place it at her waist and puff leapt out of her pack to tackle his brother Tuft and the two tumbled around a bit before returning their attentions to us. “Hey Tianhuo, was that distraction for me?”

“That wasn’t my distraction.” I stated succinctly to the Abyssinian cat that joined me in the room.

“Something Pom did then, she probably just got into the city with that. Wonder how she managed it, what those Troggles lack in magic they make up for in everything else athletically. Their overall intelligence isn’t too great, but they aren’t too dumb. Grogar runs a rather tight ship.” Jaded has likely been poking at the bear personally. “Yes, I tried to get into the castle to scout it out, simply couldn’t… too heavily guarded.”

“Did you just say you couldn’t get into a place?” That had me curious, many considered Jaded to be among those of the top well known rogues in the world of Equus.

“I could get out, escape it even, but getting in without suspicion that there has been a breach in the security? Yeah… not fighting a Troggle, those guys could overpower Earth Ponies. No way am I winning a fair or direct fight with one in grappling range.” Like you would ever fight fair Jaded. “Their eyesight and hearing is basic, but their sense of smell… that is what’s scary. Once they know what you smell like and can pick your smell out among all the other backgrounds smells, they will know where you are at all times within a short range. They can track any ponies and donkeys easily, perfect smell memory. You can run, but you can’t hide if a Troggle has your scent and is after you.”

“How did you find this out?” My curiosity was met with a wince as Jaded’s ears drew back again her green hair and she looked away.

“Hydra scale split clone.” Jade looked about. “So they might have my scent already, they just don’t have an image to put to it… yet. If a scent is out of place, they’ll know about it, likely better than even Pom puppies will. Grogar already knows we’re here so it’s not like we can hide forever, he’ll eventually have to get up off of his backside and come after us himself if his minions can’t handle us. If he’s this competent to hold together a realm for as long as he has with minions and subjects that have a lineage of thousands of years… well it’s kind of like Celestia what did, but in far worse circumstances and while being decently evil. Grogar is thankfully not a kill everyone guy or else it would just be him here all alone by himself. I applaud his general villainous pragmatism given the circumstances in keeping a stable population going despite the lack of resources he’d need to do so with a city as big as this one.”

“You are without a doubt a good scout, but you are still annoying rogue.” I calmly stated.

“Fair, now let’s go find Pom and ask how she created that explosion. It’s given us some moving room.” Jaded glanced out the window. “It also gave them even more too… move back from the window.”

I did so and soon Ruff and Woof joined us, the four brothers were all affectionately wrestling with each other for a few seconds before they all regained their sense and looked in the direction Pom was likely in.

“Is your shadow pink?” Ah yes, there were some things Jaded wasn’t aware of. “Doesn’t matter, let’s move, puppies your leading us to Pom if she’s trying to come to us!”

-Alleyway in the City of Bells, Pom-

I sniffed the air, Tianhuo was here not too long ago. Dormarch was on my back and shivering.

“Mom, I think they might be on to us, those noses aren’t for nothing.” A shivering Dormarch commented after he watched the end of the alleyway. “Don’t you know where they are already?”

“I just needed to smell that Tianhuo was actually here… speaking of knowing where they are, all my boys are gathered together and are slowly heading this way.” I started climbing the alleyways wall with Dormarch clinging to my back. “Let’s go!”

“The smell is coming from over here, what’s that in the alleyway?” I heard a voice ask and my ears twitched, that was directed at us.

“Those must be the intruders… INTRUDERS!” Yep, we’re in trouble. I clambered up the stone wall as quickly as I could avoided the whizzing of spears being thrown with excessive strength.

Near the rooftop around the sharp bits that is likely to prevent people from climbing around on the rooftops, like Jaded for instance. I exhaled, lashed out with my left hind leg and knocked a spear upwards spinning into the air.

I pulled myself onto the roof and quickly caught the shaft of the falling spear in my teeth, the spear seemed to be a leaf blade variant. Good for throwing, relatively balanced, shaft was not made of wood and was made of solid rock whereas the tip was of an iron or steel kind of metal. The spear looked like it was haphazardly manufactured, so they didn’t have any professional blacksmiths here and the carved rock shaft made it heavy and somewhat inflexible.

With the given lack of vegetation it was fairly obvious to craft spears out of a common material, metal was not common as stone was around here.

Why was I considering the spear when I was currently hopping across the rooftops while dodging or deflecting thrown spears with the one in my teeth? While distracting no less by the feeling of my god puppies nearby and okay, but worried about my current circumstances.

“I sometimes wonder how you do some of the things you do mom, especially when your thoughts are wandering as much as they are.” Dormarch muttered into my ears as he clung to me.

How can they not wander, Tianhuo is here! I was nervous about seeing her and well… she did come into Tambelon as soon as she could after me.

Several spears ripped through the edge of a rooftop I was jumping for and my hooves fell short of grabbing on. I quickly concentrated and fired off a wire of golden wool and pulled myself and Dormarch to the side and several spears impacts the wall of the building I was facing.

I grabbed onto a spear as I release my wool wire grapple and used it to pivot myself into moving in the opposite direction immediately, in the direction I had been moving several spears impacted the wall.

I quickly flipped and inflated my wool before hitting the streets with my hooves and we found ourselves surrounded by Troggles.

“You’re coming with us!” Didn’t really feel afraid, the Troggle that spoke had a silly overly deep voice for their stature.

I spit the spear out of my mouth and held it in my front hooves at the ready in a defensive manner.

A fireball from the air knocked that threatening Troggle onto their back, quite a few Troggles turned to the longma who was giving me a warm look as she landed and stalked forward on the street, behind her were Jade and my four god puppies.

“She’s huge…” Dormarch commented with shock at first seeing Tianhuo in person, yeah I doubt she’d have nearly as much trouble with the Troggles as Jade or I will.

“Yes… she is…” I started crying.

“Ugh… I can hear a heart song coming on…” Jaded grumbled.

(Them’s Fightin’ Herds- Tianhuo’s Theme)

“My dear Pom, it’s been so very long since I’ve seen my dearly beloved ewe~.” Tianhuo sang softly as she stalked forward. “Please tell me, that you’ve missed me too~.”

After singing that part she lunged forward and was on her hind legs letting loose a powerful roundhouse buck that knocked a Troggle out when her left hind leg connected with his head in a painful sounding crack, it also put them through a wall at least one or two feet thick of solid uncut stone.

Quite a few Troggles backed away from her after that given how fast she moved, Tianhuo was not the biggest longma in the world, but she was definitely large and threatening.

I was just staring at the orange in her eyes glowing almost reddish pink.

“You’ve been so far away, much to my everlasting days of dismay~.” She continued to walk towards me with a soft look in her eyes, her left hoof on her chest. “Now please, tell- me that you are okay~.”

She continued to approach me and her eyes flicked to the Troggles around me in a threatening position.

“You don’t need to fight here while I’m near, I will protect you~.” As she sang this she back hoofed an unarmed Troggle trying to tackle her to the ground without looking her left hoof was now covered in blood and she simply ignored it. Nobody was going to successfully interrupt this heart song, I could already tell. “No one will dare to hurt you as my love is still true~.”

As she sang this she deflected a spear upwards and her right hoof hit that Troggle in the throat harshly, he went down choking for air. Tianhuo wasn’t holding back.

Her wings of flame slowly rose from her back. She gently kissed me on the nose and my entire face heated up. She slowly protectively took up a position next to me, my god puppies and Jade joined up with us as Tianhuo’s started glowing.

“Since if you were hurt in trouble that was ever brewed, then let me tell you something that everyone in Huoshan knew~” Tianhuo slowly gazed around at all the Troggles who glared at her. “That the ones responsible were all very much and truly screwed~.”

Tianhuo ignited her mane, tail and her wings flared lighting up the area as she fully burned brightly, her slightly pink glowing eyes turned bright red. Every pony and donkey watching the Troggles encroach watched wide eyed as they backed away from the blinding light and ferocity Tianhuo gave off as the tempo of the song changed from slow and loving to upbeat with Tianhuo’s heat.

She swept out and stole a spear from one of the Troggles and started disarming them, I couldn’t even get to one before she was already on them in a bursting jet of flame following in the wake of her vicious attacks.

“If you even think to dare to even touch my wife, then I’ll beat you black and blue~!” TIanhuo was fighting towards the entrance of the city, my puppies were assisting by locking up the Troggles in place or toppling them Jaded fired an occasional bolt of energy from her claws into their eyes to send them stumbling back. “Come near to hurting a hair on the love of my life, then we’ll see just how well you’ll do~!”

Tianhuo was beating the ever loving crap out of them, I deflected a spear away from myself expertly and Tianhuo was on the Troggle a second later for attacking me.

We kept moving for the entrance of the city and the downtrodden ponies and donkeys were all staring at Tianhuo with confusion, horror and incredibly keen interest.

I quickly shoved a Troggle away from hurting Tianhuo while she was bashing someone over the head with the blunter part of a rock spear, she rammed into the Troggle with a flying kick assisted by a jet of flames coming out of her back pushing her forward at absurd speeds.

The fiery longma was obviously working out some frustrations, I could obviously help her with that later… and would.

“I am Tianhuo of Huoshan and you’ve made a clearly made a mistake by approaching my lovely little lamb~!” So aggressive and possessive… Tianhuo must have really had as bad a year without me a around. Oh… she had to care for my pack while I was away, yeah I can see why that would be frustrating with so many weird canines with all their own individual needs. I wonder if the Fu Dog Sentry is still protecting our home? “So if you really do want to see some pain quite soon, then come on and try just to face your doom~!”

Yikes Tianhuo was really getting into it, that’s like twenty beaten bodies in under a few minutes. It was clearly frightening as we continued to move towards the entrance at a rapid pace.

Tianhuo came slowly flowing up next to me and nuzzled me.

“Are you okay, let me nuzzle all of those lovely little tears away, so I can see that pretty face once your sadness is waylaid~.” I’m a mess of scars, most of which were not necessarily visible Tianhuo. The affection was nice, but we were kind of in the middle of escaping the City of Bells. Could even see the city square with that mud fountain and Grogar’s statue on it. That was quite a lot of Troggles and I knew they weren’t weak, Tianhuo is truly just that ridiculous a fighter in taking many of them out faster than I could even get to one. “I’ll make a path leading the way, to safety with me you won’t ever be led astray, for we are already well on our way~.”

I smiled at the comforting Tianhuo standing over me protectively, tears still spilling freshly from my eyes. My god puppies gathered up at my hooves and quickly picked them up in a hug and nuzzled all of them, Puff, Tuft, Ruff and Woof, my good boys. I put them down and pulled Dormarch off my back and cuddled him too and then introduced him to my god puppies as we kept moving they were sniffing as we headed for the entrance around the fountain.

Jaded was firing off bolts of magic from her claws as ranged support, she was also notably filching a number of things off of the knocked out Troggles while whistling to the tune as Tianhuo continued her flaming high speed rampage. A longma can jet about faster than a pegasus can react, but control at those speeds was paramount and Tianhuo definitely had full control of her movements.

“Tianhuo am I ever glad to truly see you~.” I sang as I was herded towards the city entrance by them and Dormarch with Jaded bringing up the rear. I could almost feel Grogar’s gaze looking down on all of us. “Along with my sweet little god puppies too~.”

Woof, Ruff, Tuft and Puff were ramming into Troggles left and right, they were sending them flying. I watched as Ruff bite one on the leg and slam them about violently before sending them into a breaking off the pointy big of one of the nearby rooftops with a throw.

Canis Minor were ridiculously strong, but looked so fragile and they were doing this to protect me and Jade. Tianhuo didn’t need the help, she was strong enough already.

“Now that we’re together, then we shall readily make our egress now that our hearts are refilled and renewed~.” Tianhuo and I sang together as a number of Troggles started flooding the plaza and trying to block off the entrance. “There is nothing that will stop our breaking through~.”

I lunged forward and deflected a spear up and cracked the back end across the Troggles face. I dodged about a jabbing spear and smashed the flat of the blade across the ankle of the Troggle trying to pressure me, causing them to topple. Plenty of upper body strength, but no leg day apparently and I quickly hopped over their prone form, to be followed by Jade.

I clashed a spear with one of the Troggles and the one I held snapped in half the point flying away, I quickly through the remaining rock shaft into his face and fired off a bark blast to knock him down.

A whip lashed out and pulled a charging Troggle’s leg out from under them and Jade tried not to get grabbed by another Troggle coming at her only to be rammed in the skull by Puff diving at him out of the air and bouncing off of it.

Tianhuo was trying to deal with them as fast as she could, but eventually even their numbers would bog us down. She was about to be struck when Dormarch used Search Hunter to knock the spear off course and he blasted the Troggle point blank with a Wild Bark to the face. Dormarch’s shockwave bark also stunned several other Troggles.

The Troggles were incredible tough, the ones Tianhuo had viciously knocked down were already getting up and I had to duck a thrown spear. Tianhuo was up at the wall in a flash of flames and showing them why they shouldn’t be trying to attack me when she’s around. The sight of a longma blasting flames and forcing them off the wall with her fury was one that would stick in the mind.

We were almost out of the entrance. I quickly passed through as did the others and I turned around ready to block our backs and somehow fend the angry number of Troggles off. How would we stop them from following us though?

“I’m so very glad to see that you’re still alive, and that you’ve survived, you even seem to have thrived~!” Tianhuo stated as we passed through the gate, she came down and hugged me with her stoic nature showing some major cracks. Jaded pulled out a candle and aimed it at the choke point, oh gods and goddesses it was one of those! “So very happy that I cannot lie, I wonder if you could ever truly see, did you know that you are the most important person to me~?”

Everyone who has ever had to deal with them hated chaos candles, usually used when Jaded was in particularly bad scrapes. Like right now, but on the bright side they won’t be able to trace us through smell. If it really messed up my puppie’s senses before, then one of those will seriously mess up the Troggles noses.

“It was so very easy you know where your heart is, it was with the one that you know always helping and willing to give~.” I sang back as we continued to make some distance. “You song gives me quite a smack, it is quite a heart attack, knowing that you still loved me right on back~!”

Jaded lit the candle with magic and sprayed the choke point with wild abandon, the smoke pouring out from the candle was a large amount of irritants and other things. I felt Grogar’s gaze flinch off of us as soon as the smoke started pouring out. The candles had literal chaos magic involved in what they do, they were not even related to Discord and only Jaded seems to know how to make them and there were several variants… this one had purple smoke… poison joke variant then, really nasty stuff. Wonder what she was going to use that for otherwise The Troggles that tried to enter the smoke passed out screaming in agony a seconds later, blind, deaf and dumbed down.

I exhaled flames at the smoke and caused the smoke to spread farther with a small explosion. Both Jaded and Tianhuo looked at each other and even my puppies were confused to see my breathing fire. I’d explain it all later, I turned to Tianhuo and wrapped her in a long legged fluffy hug.

“Who is that my sweetest and most caring partner in my life, her name is Tianhuo~.” I sang teasingly as we cuddled and Tianhuo blushed. “Through sickness, trouble and all kinds of ugly strife, she’s always my sky fire treasure trove~.”

Our hearts thudded in our chests as we pressed our foreheads against one another, her larger size and burning form not intimidating me in the slightest.

“Guys wrap up the heart song, we need to get moving and out of range before whoa… aggh… darn it… those spears hurt and are not likely clean!” Jaded took a spear across her right arm and she quickly bandaged up the bleeding wound with a roll of gauze she tore up with her teeth. She spat and sputtered as we started moving away from the wall quickly.

No one was missing and we were all going to make a clean getaway, provided we don’t run into any of the patrols we got past on the way in.

“You really don’t ever want to mess with my life, you just might get an angry Tianhuo~.” I sang as we ran.

“Says a sweet little ewe who definitely knows how to fight, you’d do the same just so you know~.” Okay now that was embarrassing Tianhuo, but you weren’t wrong.

“We share a bond that’s still strong it seems, after it’s almost been a year of shattered dreams~.” We sang as we ran for it with spears raining down around us, Tianhuo was blasting them out of the air whenever they came close and covered our backs as she took to the air.

“If there is one that has been missing in our lives, it what makes our heart beats to live… it’s why we continue to give… all of our love~!” Once we were far enough away and I was breathing roughly, I sat down and Tianhuo landed next to me.

Jaded sighed and I sat down with my good boys all looking in the direction of the City of Bells warily, Dormarch seemed to fit right in with the four god puppies so easily. They’ll surely like Dolly the same too.

“Tianhuo… I hope you know, that wherever I travel or will ever go…~” I pulled the wool back from my bell and Tianhuo saw the dent in the electrum metal, still magically charged electrum metal. The bell had obviously saved my life. “I will always love you so~.”

I tried for a real kiss only for two powerful explosions that resulted in temporary shadowy masses landed near us knocked us over with their blast waves.

I blinked and saw something on the wall in the distance that sent a chill down my spine, a pair of red eyes, shadow mist and bat wings. Gathering of energy and the launching of another mass of shadowy energy.

Hollow Heart?! How in the Tartarus did he get here?! Well… that’s just kind of the same as asking how did he end up in Duckberg? We couldn’t take him in a direct fight, I doubted even Tianhuo could beat him in a permanent fashion with what he is now! Also since when could he fire highly explosive darkness?

“Let’s go, we need to run… far away… now!” I stated as I locked my mind into Dolly’s position and started running. “Jaded ‘Freaking’ La Perm, if you have anything to smokescreen us, now would be a good time to use it!”

“Use the rest of my chaos candle, got it!” Jaded nodded and threw her candle high into the air, it exploded in a bright flash that not only stopped the next incoming shadow bomb that would have directly hit us, it also blinded our enemies to our movements in a mass of dangerous smoke and constant strobing lights.

Ugh, so glad I didn’t need my eyesight to know which direction to run, I really did not like chaos candles.

“Pom was that…” Tianhuo stated with an obvious shiver traveling down her spine as we escaped, it was like she could feel my terror and even felt some of it herself.

“Yes!” I said in absolute terror as I kept running, with Tianhuo keeping pace with me despite the amount of speed I was putting out.

After all of this I’m surprised we even made it back to the Stoneback Warrens without any trouble or being spotted by Grogar’s gaze. Even managed to feed my puppies once we were out of sight of Hollow Heart on the way back.

It took Jaded a little bit to catch up, she was far slower than us, but at least my god puppies had stuck with her and were happy to fill their tummies with good kibble.