By early afternoon, Standig returned to the mountain pass to find the unified armies waiting anxiously for battle. On the other side of the pass, still a distance away, he could just make out Lolo sprinting ahead of a giant swarm of humanesque creatures.

Lolo's shield would have more room to work if she could deploy it before entering the narrow pass, so Standig took off at a run to meet her further into the valley.

"I see you. You brought your shield right?" Fortus said in his head.

"Always."

"Be careful, Standig. I'll let Lolo know you're coming."

"Standig's on his way, Lolo. Watch for him and follow him in."

Lolo looked up and saw an oversized figure running to meet her. "I see him. Are the men ready?"

"They're waiting on the other side of the pass."

From their vantage point, Fortus and Tamkhee watched Standig run right past Lolo, leaving a dark trail of smoke behind him. Lolo skidded to a stop to pivot and follow him in, and the toy soldiers simultaneously turned inwards to attack them.

There were thousands of them. Hundreds of thousands. By Fortus's rough, eagle eye estimate, there were as many as five hundred thousand automatons. The toy soldiers moved like a swarm of bugs, swirling around in tight formations and changing direction on instinct and with an unspoken, collective consciousness. It was a little terrifying to watch.

Standig shattered whatever his shield came into contact with, an arm, a leg, a torso. The blunt-force hammering of his ultimate-fueled charge proved to be extremely effective against these soldiers.

"You're almost to the center, Lolo."

"Give me a countdown."

"Three… two… ONE!"

Tamkhee gasped as her biggest shield yet deployed, crashing and crunching and throwing the toy soldiers in all directions, creating a sort of shrapnel from their broken bodies that hit other automatons as the shield exploded outwards. Because the soldiers had been so tightly packed around her, her shield broke over half of the swarm in one fell swoop.

"Dang, girl! Do that a couple more times, and there won't be any dust piles left for the rest of us to fight!"

"I don't have any more of those in me, Fortus. Creating a shield that size took most of my energy."

"I'd imagine so!"

"How did I do?"

As the dust began to clear, Fortus assessed the damage while Lolo followed Standig back out towards the pass. The toy soldiers regrouped and followed them.

"You did great, Lolo. You almost evened their numbers with ours which is saying a lot."

"How many are left?"

"Maybe two hundred and fifty thousand? Give or take?"

"Against our one-ninety? That's not enough, Fortus. These things are tough. Even I would struggle in a true one-on-one face-off against them. So far, I’ve only managed to take them on while running away from them or with my ultimate!"

Fortus took a moment to think. “Lolo could you create one more shield in the pass, a smaller one, to bottleneck the toy soldiers?”

“You have a plan?”

“Yes. Can you do it?”

“Tell Standig to prepare another ram. Might as well make the most of my shield. And tell him that I’m going to have to over-extend my energy. I’m going to need help getting back out of there.”

Fortus made the necessary arrangements with Standig and tried connecting with Ulana again with no luck.

“Jadu, tell Ulana to let me in, please. Quickly!”

While Jadu went to find Ulana, Fortus told Tamkhee their role in his plan. “As soon as Lolo gets her shield up, we need to try to create a rock slide.”

“How do we do that?”

“This boulder right there,” Fortus pointed. “We’re going to have to ram it together. While I coordinate the rest, clear out whatever you can at the base of the boulder toward the pass.”

Tamkhee nodded and started digging.

“Ulana!!”

“Yes, yes. I’m here.”

“Finally!”

“Don’t be short with me.”

“Just listen, please. The toy army is about to enter the pass. When they do, Lolo is going to create a shield to bottleneck them, and I need you to try and create a giant rock slide or something majorly dramatic to crush as many soldiers as you can on the south side of the pass. Tamkhee and I are working to create a similar event on the north side.”

Ulana ran toward the south mountain and found some big rocks she could probably dislodge with a few of her fiery projectiles. She quickly climbed a ways up to get closer to her targets. “I think I’ve got it.”

“Stay low as the soldiers pass you. We’re not going to have much time. Lolo’s already going to have to over-extend her energy to make the shield. As soon as it’s up, let ‘er rip!”

“She’s already used up her energy?”

“Yeah, but it was worth it. She took out half of the army with one shield.”

“Cool.”

Lolo and Standig entered the pass, and Fortus connected with Standig.

“Just a little further.” Fortus waited until Standig made it all the way through the pass. “Now!” Standig turned on his heel to ram his way back through the swarm and Lolo turned to follow him in.

Fortus switched targets again. “Alright Lolo. Three… two.... ONE!”

Her shield went up, blocking the pass and decimating the automatons in its wake.

“Hold it if you can.”

Ulana was already knocking large rocks down the south mountain and Fortus and Tamkhee got a running start at their boulder. Standig prepared himself to pick Lolo up and run as blood gushed from her nose.

The twin rockslides started crushing the toy soldiers as Lolo was becoming dizzy from exertion. Sounding far away, she could hear the alliance army whooping and cheering while they watched the primordial team make a big mess.

“Standig, I can’t hold it much longer.”

“Then let go. I’ve got you.”

She dropped her shield and collapsed into Standig who picked her up in one fluid motion and resumed running back toward their allies.

“Hey guys!” Ulana suddenly appeared to Standig’s right, grinning broadly, her tone casual. “So, what have you been up to this morning?”

Standig looked at Lolo, and they both broke into laughter.

“So those are your ultimates?!” Tamkhee stated more than asked.

Fortus was keeping tabs on the regrouping enemy in the pass, trying to assess the damage that the rock slides had done. “These soldiers are hard to number, but between their tight formations, Lolo’s shield, and the rocks, I think we are at least evenly numbered now. What do you think, Tamkhee?”

Tamkhee peered down into the pass. “I agree, I just hope that’s good enough.”

“'Want to help me create another rock slide? It won’t be quite as effective without the bottleneck, but it will take a few of them out.”

“I think we’re going to need all the help that we can get.”

The boys looked around for more giant rocks to shove down the mountain.

“Standig, is she ok?” Qingchi asked as the giant bear carried Lolo through the Wolf Tribe army’s ranks.

“I’m alright, Qingchi. I just overdid it a little. You should be more worried about the fight in front of you. Those things are nasty.”

“Yeah, Jadu passed your report to all the military leaders and we’ve informed the men.”

“Good. We did what we could to even the odds for you.”

“Thanks for that. I’m getting the feeling that it’s going to be a tough fight regardless.”

“Watch out for each other,” Lolo shouted as Standig moved her out of speaking range.

Standig set her down next to a tree behind their armies. “Meditating right now won’t do you any good, will it?”

“No. I can’t absorb energy until the sun goes down.”

“How are we supposed to go hunting with you in this condition?”

She ignored his question. “Standig, are you sure you don’t want to stay here? Your ultimate is one of the few things truly effective against the toy soldiers.”

“Lolo, We’ve already talked about this. I’m coming with you.”

“I just think that you would be more useful here,” she gave a last feeble attempt to persuade him.

“Lolo, I’m coming with you,” he repeated stubbornly.

She sighed. “Fine. Then we need to get going. The faster we end this, the better off everyone will be.”

“Lolo?” Fortus connected with her.

“You’re just in time, Fortus,” Lolo said aloud for Standig’s benefit.

“Ready to get going?”

“Yeah. Send Tamkhee down. We’ve got a long way to go.”

“He’s already on his way. Meet him north of the pass. The battle is starting. He’s not going to be able to get to you through it.”

“Ok.”

“And, Lolo, good luck. I’ll check in with you periodically.”

“Standig,” Lolo said when Fortus disconnected, “while I work my way north to meet up with Tamkhee, why don’t you run a few laps through the toy soldiers? Meet us north of the pass.”

“You’re not going to try anything and leave me behind, are you?”

“No. Promise. Besides, you know exactly where I’m going anyway.”

“Alright. I’ll see you in a bit.”

Lolo got up to collect Choloo, Toma, and Khuchad from where they’d been tied to a large post. Feeling tired, Lolo immediately mounted Choloo to save some of her energy. She had a really hard time walking away from the battle, but she’d done her absolute best to set them up for success. She waited for Tamkhee and Standig to join her.

“Silver Wolf, are you ready?”

“We’re going to need to meditate tonight, but yes. Are you?”

“I’m ready to end this.”

“Bear Queen,” Tamkhee said as he got closer, “that was truly impressive.”

“What was?”

“That shield!” Tamkhee was restraining his fanboy level enthusiasm, and the corner of Lolo’s mouth twitched.

“Thank you.”

"I mean, one hit! ONE HIT! And you dropped half of that army. Just… BAM! That shield was huge! Like…." Tamkhee remembered himself and cleared his throat awkwardly. "So this is Fortus's horse that I'm borrowing?"

Still restraining a smile, Lolo nodded. "Mn. This is Khuchad."

Without another word, Tamkhee mounted the smokey black stallion and tried not to make eye contact with Huo Lohse.

"Well, are you ready to face your father?"

Tamkhee's face fell. "He's not really my father anymore, is he?"

"I'm sorry, captain."

"You don't need to call me 'captain' anymore, Bear Queen. I'm not a captain anymore anyway."

"Then what should I call you?"

"Tamkhee works. Fortus is already calling me that."

"He is, is he?" Lolo said, the slightest hint of a tease in her voice. "Since when?"

"This morning."

"If you want me to call you Tamkhee, we're going to have to find something for you to call me other than 'Bear Queen'."

"Uh. I could go back to calling you Huo Lohse," Tamkhee suggested, blushing slightly.

She shook her head. "Are you ready to call me Lolo?"

"You mean…?"

"Can we be friends yet?"

"S-sure. Is that ok?"

"You tell me."

Just then, Standig arrived panting. “I did my best, Lolo.”

She nodded in acknowledgement. “Then let’s try to end this quickly.”

With the battle blocking off the main mountain pass, Lolo, Standig, and Tamkhee continued north, wrapping around the mountains into Wolf Tribe territory to take the lesser-known path through the basin where the village of Pahaad once stood, down the mountain to the military training base, and then to the palace. The goal was to get to the mountain switchbacks right above the training camp by sunset so Lolo could safely meditate without wasting unnecessary time thereafter getting to the palace. It was a quiet but nervous journey spent worrying about the people they'd left behind at the battle.

“Anything yet?” Standig asked Lolo every ten minutes.

She knew what he meant and kept shaking her head. No, Fortus still hadn’t contacted her. Huo Lohse could hardly blame Standig for his anxiety. Hers was out of control. “He’s just busy,” she kept telling herself. The one great comfort she clung to was the fact that she hadn’t felt Philige’s shield activate. At least he was safe, and this time, she’d made sure to stock him up with plenty of energy in advance.

They found the steep mountain pass into the Dragon Tribe territory and loosed their horses. Tamkhee warned them that he half expected to meet at least some sort of resistance in the mountain basin. Frankly, all three of them were looking forward to the distraction from their thoughts, so it was a bit of a mixed emotional bag when they found the basin devoid of human life, friend or foe.

Passing through the charred ruins of Pahaad, Lolo was struck with an anger and sadness that surprised her and spurred her on. Shanti’s once beautiful garden was now overrun with weeds. Lolo added Shanti, her father, Prata Bhuje, Sataaya, and many other villagers whose faces she remembered but whose names she didn’t always to the mental list she was making of people she was going on this mission for. To keep herself from losing her mind, she had been determinedly remembering all the faces of the people she loved and wanted to protect.

As they cleared the village, Lolo frightened the boys when she suddenly gasped and dropped to all fours clutching her chest.

“Lolo?” Tamkhee froze, his eyes wide with concern.

Standig dropped to his knees next to her, supporting her shoulders with his hands. He was disturbed to see her eyes glowing and the return of her bloody nose. “Lolo, what is it?”

“Philige,” was all that she managed to say through her building tears. She was too far away to help him.

“The heart bond?” Standig's anxiety elevated.

She nodded, tears tumbling, shoulders shaking.

“Lolo. He’s ok. Don’t hurt yourself. Drop the shield.”

“Fortus?!”

“Lolo, drop the shield. Philige is ok. Preserve his energy and yours for another moment. One of those things just snuck up on him.”

Closing her eyes and concentrating really hard, Lolo took control of the shield and dropped it, her eyes returning to their usual brown once again. “Fortus, what’s your status?”

Lolo could tell that Fortus was choosing his words carefully. “These things are tough. Unlike us mere mortals, these dust piles don’t get tired. We’ve been pushed back, but we’re sticking close together. Try not to worry about us. We’re surviving. Your shield just cleared a nice area out for us and gave us a moment to partially regroup, so thanks for that.”

Lolo desperately wanted to ask for a roll call of everyone she knew. She wanted to hear that they were ok, but she knew better than to ask, and Fortus sounded busy at the moment. She was kind of glad that the visual link only worked one way.

“You look like you’ve reached Pahaad,” Fortus observed. “You’re making good progress. You might even make it further than planned before the sun sets. Just remember to meditate thoroughly before you reach the palace,” he fussed. “Don’t cut corners, Lolo. We need you at peak efficiency when you face-off with the Black Dragon.”

“I know, Fortus. I’ll do my best.”

“I know you will. I’ll catch up with you again as it gets dark.”

Before Lolo could protest or ask any more questions, Fortus broke the link.

“What did he say?” Standig asked, trying not to sound too nervous.

“Philige is ok. Reading between the lines, the battle isn’t going well, but they are holding it together. They aren't going to be able to hold out forever though. We need to hurry.”