Philige and a few thousand men were working their way westward to cut off the dragon troops skirting the battle to move toward the Leader’s Lodge. “The cowards,” Philige thought, “attacking defenseless civilians instead of fighting the soldiers.” It made him angry.

He felt different this battle than he had during the Wolf Tribe battle. He had more energy, more focus, and he felt weirdly powerful. He wasn’t exactly sure why, but in a brief moment between fights, he hypothesized that it might have something to do with Lolo’s heart bond. According to Jadu, she’d given him a huge amount of spiritual power that, if Lolo’s shield was any indication, could do great and terrible things. It was also possible that because he was defending his own tribe this time, his mind and body were responding differently. Either way, he was carving through the enemy soldiers quickly and easily, and his men were feeling encouraged for his strength and leadership.

They managed to successfully intercept the dragon soldiers they were after and corral them back towards the rest of the battle, but to do it, they had to push the dragons south, back down the hill. Philige and his men found themselves out of position pretty quickly, and they no longer had the high ground as they rounded a steep, eighteen foot tall rock face, ending up halfway down the slope as they rejoined the main battle. Out of position, cut off from the rest of the army, and backed into a small cliff, Philige realized they were in trouble a little too late.

“Hey!” Lolo and Ulana found the boys as they met in the middle at the top of the slope. “What’s next, captain?” Lolo asked Fortus.

Fortus looked around. “We’re actually doing really well. The bear soldiers could use some help though. Standig, go east with Jadu. You’re all tanked up, use that.” Standig and Jadu took off at a jog. “There doesn’t seem to be much happening to the west, so I say that the rest of us ought to work our way down the middle again, help the bear soldiers push the dragons back down the hill.”

“Let’s go!” Ulana, always more than happy to crash a party, took off to join the fight, announcing her presence with fire. Watching Ulana’s spectacular dive, Lolo just shook her head and smiled at Fortus.

“Agh!” Lolo’s chest suddenly hurt so much that she doubled over, spitting blood as her nose started gushing.

“Lolo?!” Fortus caught her before she completely collapsed.

When she stood back up, her eyes were glowing. “Philige.” She took off at a dead run down the slope to the west. Her shield had activated in that direction, and while she couldn’t see it through a cluster of trees, she somehow just knew that it was there.

Fortus, a little bewildered, chased after her. “Lolo? What’s happening?”

“Heart bond! Philige’s in trouble!" Lolo shouted to him as they ran.

Their run was cut off by a group of dragon soldiers as they entered the trees. “Lolo, go! I’ll cover you,” Fortus yelled and positioned himself to screen her off from the dragons so she could continue running. As she retreated deeper into the woods, Fortus turned to give the dragons a good fight.

Lolo sprinted with all her might through the trees, coming up short when she found the edge of a small cliff. Sure enough, backed into a section of the cliff, Philige and his men had been cornered. Lolo’s shield was protecting most of the bear soldiers, but a few were still fighting for their lives as they’d been cut off from the rest of the army. Lolo followed the edge of the cliff around to where the bears were cornered, found a relatively short section of cliff, and took a flying leap down to the battle below, landing on her feet and left hand, sword drawn and ready to strike.

Something about seeing her husband and his men cornered like this made her blood boil. Her protective instincts were perfectly honed for this sort of moment. She fought savagely, emptying her belt of throwing knives and eventually throwing her dagger at the dragons that were mercilessly attacking the young bear soldiers that’d been cut off. She then covered for the men as they retreated into the shield.

“Lolo?” Philige caught sight of her from the middle of the giant dome. She looked back, made eye contact with him with her green eyes, saw that he was ok, and smiled mischievously before throwing her head back and howling.

Using the lights as a distraction, Lolo began working to even the odds before the shield dropped again. She’d only passed a finite amount of energy to Philige during the heart bond, so, once it ran out, it was gone until she could meditate again and pass more energy to him.

Her assault was as quick as it was brutal, and the dragons were falling before her like wheat before a sickle. In a matter of minutes, Lolo had cut down hundreds of men on her own, and the dragons were falling back. But the cost of such a high-powered attack was lower endurance. As her adrenaline waned, Lolo rapidly started showing signs of fatigue.

Something about the shield also seemed to be draining her of energy. It felt like, as Philige’s stores of spiritual energy were drying out, the shield was tapping into hers. Her nose started bleeding again as her energy overextended. Lolo had to consciously focus to shut down Philige’s shield, but once it was down, she at least had help again.

Having been given the chance to regroup and catch their breaths, the bears charged the dragons with a vengeance, but they were still outnumbered. Lolo fought hard to keep the dragons from overwhelming the bear soldiers, but her capacity had been greatly limited.

“Hello again, little whore.”

Lolo wheeled around to face Sattal and was immediately met with a hard kick to her lower abdomen, finding the gap where her brigandine armor met in the middle. She dropped to one knee to transfer the force to the ground and stood back up to square up with Sattal.

But something was horribly wrong. Lolo was in so much pain in her belly and lower back that she nearly passed out on the spot. She collapsed onto her hands and knees and retched. It was at about this moment that she noticed a hot sticky sensation oozing down her inner thighs.

“So, after all that bravado,” Sattal sneered, “you’re still just a weak little girl.”

She was in so much pain, she could hardly see straight, and she couldn’t move. Even the idea of moving made her want to cry, she hurt so badly. It didn’t make sense. She’d taken many blows that were much worse than this without a problem.

Sattal circled her like a vulture, relishing the opportunity to taunt her until he caught sight of the blood dripping down her legs. “Well, what do we have here?! The little whore got herself knocked up! Now who could the father be?”

“What?” Lolo gasped, having no idea what he was talking about.

“Is that why you’re in the Bear Tribe now? Got yourself pregnant by one of these soldiers after the Wolf Tribe battle?!” Sattal laughed horribly.

“The Bear Queen is down!” someone shouted, and a scuffle started in that same general direction.

“My, oh, my! The Bear Queen?!” Sattal squatted down in front of her to grab her face. “From a little wolf whore to the Bear Queen. I take it then that Philige Tragen didn’t mind accepting my leftovers. He never did have much taste.” Sattal stood up and kicked Lolo violently sideways onto the ground.

She couldn’t do anything to prevent or brace her fall, and she cried out involuntarily as a shock of pain exploded from her abdomen outward. She couldn’t hardly breathe.

Sattal lifted his sword to her throat. “Don’t worry. I’ll be sure to give the father the happy news before I kill him too.”

Lolo wasn’t really sure what happened next, but she didn’t die. Through her delirium, she watched as Sattal was pushed back by someone in Bear Tribe uniform and armor. She couldn’t tell who it was or even if she knew him. Her eyes closed momentarily, but when they opened again, someone wearing gold and black armor, (Fortus, it could only be Fortus), had run Sattal through from behind. She saw Sattal fall and heard Fortus’s voice from somewhere very far away call her name.

“Jadu!! Lolo’s down!! Bring Standig with you!” Fortus was so panicked, he could hardly make the connection at all. “JADU! ANSWER ME!”

“What happened?”

“I don’t know. I didn’t see it.”

“Where is she hurt?”

“I-I can’t tell. But she’s barely conscious, struggling to breathe, and in a lot of pain, and her pants are soaked in blood.”

“Her pants?”

“Inner thighs, up high.”

“...”

“Jadu?!”

“Is Philige there?”

“What? Uh, yeah. He’s injured too. Why do you ask?”

“Where are you?” Jadu asked, turning around so Fortus could give him relative directions.

“Southwest of your position. Towards those trees.”

“I’m coming. Standig’s not with me anymore.”

Fortus, still shaking, worked to connect with Standig. “Standig, Lolo and Philige are both down.”

“What?!”

“Jadu’s on his way. We need cover.”

“Tell me where you are. I’m coming!”

Fortus quickly communicated the instructions and waited, fighting off all enemies that dared to approach.

“Fortus, where is she?” Jadu looked panicked before he’d even seen her. That wasn’t a good sign. Fortus pointed, and Jadu got to work removing Lolo’s armor. “Fortus, come help me with this! Quickly!” Fortus didn’t argue. Together, they stripped Huo Lohse down to her clothes. Jadu lifted her shirt up looking for obvious injuries, but when none could be found, he placed his hands on her abdomen and closed his eyes. Lolo whimpered faintly at the sudden pressure before her body went limp.

Standig arrived, quickly becoming emotional seeing both his best friend and brother on the ground and soaked in blood, and Fortus got up to intercept him and put those emotions to work pushing back the enemy soldiers.

Philige was lying next to his wife with a nasty stab wound in his left shoulder acquired while fighting Sattal. They’d been evenly matched and injured each other before Fortus had shown up to finish Sattal off for good. Now he was watching Jadu work to save his wife from an injury they couldn’t see. “Jadu?”

Jadu opened his eyes again and fixed him with a look of deep regret. “Philige, did you know that she was pregnant?”

“What?!” Philige had no idea.

“She sustained a significant, blunt-force abdominal trauma. She’s miscarrying. I checked; the baby is already gone.”

“The baby?” He couldn’t even begin to accept what was happening.

“I can’t tell how much blood she’s already lost, but if I don’t get her bleeding under control, we could lose her too.” Jadu closed his eyes again to produce his blue fire. But every time he seemed to get one bleed under control, a new one would start somewhere else. Jadu changed tactics, helping Lolo complete the miscarriage, so he could go back and stop the bleeding all at once. Using her padded shirt to give her some privacy, Jadu helped work out the stillborn fetus and the damaged tissue. At long last, he was finally able to limit the bleeding to a manageable amount, and Jadu turned to tend to Philige’s injury.

“Jadu, Lolo was pregnant?” Philige processed as Jadu worked on his shoulder.

He nodded. “You didn’t know?”

Philige shook his head, suppressing a growing well of tears.

“If you didn’t know, then I doubt Lolo knew. She wasn't presenting the obvious symptoms. She certainly didn't look pregnant, but it would explain why she’s been so tired. Based on the size of the baby, Lolo was somewhere in the second trimester. She probably conceived right after the wedding to be this far along.”

“Will she be ok?”

“She’s stable. She’ll need a lot of rest, but she should be ok.” Jadu’s nose started bleeding and he had to stop. “Philige, after dealing with Lolo, I don’t have enough energy to completely patch you up. I’ve managed to heal the deeper structures in your shoulder, but you still have an open wound. I’m going to have to treat you the old-fashioned way with some stitches.”

Philige nodded a silent "thank you."

Wrapping their baby up in Lolo’s padded shirt, Jadu handed it gently to Philige. “It was a baby girl. Philige, I’m really, really sorry that I couldn’t save her.”