By nightfall, the army ran right into a group of dwarves. One of the fauns saw them in time so he ran towards them, telling them not to attack. Unfortunately however, the dwarves were all armed and looked rather frightened so Elgron decided to charge at them anyway. Within moments, chaos spread and an old dwarf drew his axe faster than anybody could react. He swung it just once and cut a soldier's head clean off with it.

Nume watched the lifeless body drop to the ground while the head tumbled over the ground, hit away by the axe's force. For a moment, everybody seemed to freeze and some of the soldiers even backed away, but then they charged again. Meanwhile, several other dwarves, both men and women, had drawn their weapons and were ready to fight and die for their children hiding behind them.

'Stop it, they can't hurt you unless you attack!' Tarlequin's voice echoed over their heads.

A dwarven woman stabbed a soldier in his stomach and ducked under his counter attack but then tripped over something and fell to the ground. The soldier was nearly instantly over her, ready to kill, but a blow to the head by yet another dwarven woman's sword ended his life before he could do any harm. Others, however, weren't so lucky. Nume watched in terror as a dwarf's right arm was cut clean off by Elgron's sword. When she saw Almrut break away and surround her enemies, Nume instantly new what she was up to.

The children.

With just one sign, her umeno ran past the others and towards the female soldier. As soon as she was there, Nume jumped off the creature's back and stood tall in front of Almrut who just smiled at her. The officer glanced over Nume's shoulder at the frightened children of which many held daggers in their tiny hands.

'Leave them alone.' Nume threatened.

'Or what?' Almrut said with a hysterical laugh before she pushed Nume aside and approached a child, her sword drawn.

'Don't hurt her, she won't...' Nume started, but before she could finish, the child already attacked, pushing a few younger children behind it with its free arm.

A thin cut appeared on Almrut's arm and she smiled at it before lifting her sword over her head. Before Nume could react, the woman suddenly wasn't standing there anymore. Bay had run her over, burring her teeth deep inside the woman's flesh. With one mighty shake of her head, Bay broke the soldier's neck before tossing her to the side and turning to the frightened children.

As soon as they saw that their officer had died, some other soldiers ran towards Bay, trying to provoke her to attack them as well. But the baymout just hissed at them and lay onto the ground, rolling her body around the bunch of children. Their parents only realised that the enemy had broken through their rows now and they looked horrified by bay but the moment of confusion and hesitation sufficed for Tarlequin to regain control over the situation.

Believing that the faun was threatening their children and would send Bay after them if they didn't obey, the dwarves dropped their weapons, much to the army's disappointment. It took a moment until everybody understood what was really going on. Together with Tarlequin, Profaen and Gaplae, Nume explained their quest to the dwarves and told them to travel on towards the Open Wound but not attack any army that hadn't attacked them first.

The dwarfs had trouble believing them when it came to the army of the night's inability to attack, but Nume just pointed at the soldiers who now marched on and pointed out that they wouldn't have stopped attacking had they had a chance to keep going. One of the dwarfs shouted that they still had the monster keeping their children captured whereupon Tarlequin struggled to explain that Bay actually belonged to them, not the army, and had been protecting the children. Only once Nume stroked the baymout and convinced her to get back up, releasing the children, the dwarves started to really believe them.

'If you are with the outcast, then why are you here and not down by the Open Wound as everybody says?' A female dwarf asked.

'We've split up.' Nume said. 'I'm Nume, my friend Kran is down by the Open Wound because he was injured and needs help. We are here to follow the army and prevent people from getting hurt.'

'Oh, you're not too good at it...' Another dwarf threw in, looking at a dwarven body lying next to them. Looking around, Nume realised that many of the other dwarfs were hurt and the one who had lost his arm would probably not survive the night. She considered sending them back on Luthi but realised that it was already too dark for the gseirut to fly.

'Tarlequin, take them and Luthi away, fly as soon us the sun rises and do something about that stump.' Nume said after a moment of thinking. 'We'll keep following the army in case we meet anybody else.'

'Why me?' Tarlequin said, looking at Luthi with displeasure in his eyes. 'You know I hate flying.'

'Because I trust you and you've seen me guide Luthi before, you know how to do it. When you're there, be sure to look after Kran before you come back. I need to know how he's doing.' When Nume was finished, Gaplae added that Tarlequin should bring fresh supplies on his way back to them. The faun didn't look to happy but finally agreed and got to work while the others said their goodbyes and marched on, trying to catch up with the army.

Not much later, the army settled down for the night. Mersha talked to Nume about his sudden disappearance once again but felt like she didn't believe him anyway. When she finally let him go, he turned around and walked a few steps before suddenly standing still. On the other side of the camp, he could see a boy staring at him. Mersha was confused, the boy didn't look like the people he usually saw but weren't there, they tended to be slightly see through and usually very shady. This boy, however, looked very real.

The light was disappearing quickly now so Mersha couldn't make out any details about the boy and he wondered whether one of the dwarven children might have followed them. But it didn't really make sense for it wouldn't have been able to keep up with the umeno that easily.

'Mersha?' Nume asked when he didn't move. 'Is everything alright?'

'Yes.' Mersha muttered without taking his eyes off the boy. He still wasn't sure whether it was just an illusion. But when the boy waved at him and suddenly disappeared, he shook his head and decided to go to sleep. Whatever it was, he decided it would have to wait until the next morning.

In the middle of the night, Mersha woke up. He felt like he had to pee so he got up and quickly walked over to the other side of the camp. After he relieved himself, he turned around to walk back to his sleeping place but froze immediately.

It was bright. Well, not exactly bright, merely nightfall, but it had been the middle of a moonless night a moment ago. Mersha could see the very same camp, but everybody was up and about instead of fast asleep. Then he noticed the boy staring at him again. It was the same boy, just that this time, he was standing in the middle of the camp. Mersha stared at him, trying to comprehend. It wasn't until he recognised Nume's silhouette, turning to the boy and saying something, that it dawned on him.

The boy was him from earlier on. And he was the other boy staring back at himself. Mersha cautiously waved at his past-self.

All of a sudden, it was dark again. Mersha rubbed his eyes, trying to get used to the lack of light. Once he could see a little bit again, he realised he was still standing in the very same spot. The camp was still there, too, but it was now dark again. How was this possible? Was he still dreaming? When he failed to stifle a yawn, he decided to go to bed. Just in case he wasn't already sleeping, it was probably the best thing to do.

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