Antioch: Step Twenty-EightScorpion War: Pt. 2

Haarp howled and cheered from atop the Scorpion, who thrashed this way and that to loose its rider. In the wake of this, it managed to tear down the camp entirely and stamp out the fire made there. Cinders flew from its legs, kicked up from the smoldering fire. A few of the company were burned, though none too badly.

One carrier was crippled, by fire or fear none could tell, but Juniper took the young lad into her arms and sheltered him in a brush away from the fray. Others followed her to safety, the few who came fit to carry but not to fight. Ina Rothschild, secretly the bravest of all present, went along to care for these little ones and to protect them, if need be, as a last line of singular defense.

Amidst the smoke of war, Zepp turned and watched the darling Rothschild as she herded the carriers away to safety. She did not look back, but he was glad of it, for she had a mission and was set on it. He admired her, and she gave him courage somehow in her presence. She inspired him to stand strong, as now he had to do. He returned his senses to the fight at hand, startled by the weight of Haarp Wilthead as he landed suddenly upon Zepp and they rolled across the ground together from the force of it.