Dhiren is up and ready to go. He has the army get prepared and the healers make sure that they have their potions secured. They all hope that they find the princess alive and healthy and hope to save many of the humans.

By breakfast they are all moving nervously, too nervous to eat.

Kallen stands tensely next to his prince when Dhiren receives the message. He looks intently at Dhiren as he reads it. Dhiren sighs and nods.

"Mount up, the fight has been started." Kallen yells out in his loudest voice. In no time the elves mount their fleet footed mounts. Within a minute all those that are to go to the fight are mounted and on their way. Only those left to the camp remain. They will have food and medical supplies waiting for any survivors that might make it.

With the reports of their spies they don't hold out much hope that there will be any survivors to help.

They send up prayers to Zira that the princess at least will make it.

Dhiren rides as fast as the wind as he heads to the fight. 

He pulls up sharply when he makes it. They all do and stare in absolute awe at the carnage that presents before them.

"There is no way in hell that there are any survivors from this." One of Dhiren's guard mutters.

It isn't Dhiren that smacks the elf, but Kristoff. Although he does it with tears in his eyes.

The healers slide off their horses and make their way to the humans that they see and help those that still live. There aren't many of them, but there are a few. Most of them, though, are beyond their help and they are only able to ease their last moments. Those, they cry silent tears over.

"Where the fuck is she?" Dhiren demands as he goes from one group of the dead and dying to the next. He barely makes sure that the enemy are truly dead before turning his back on them and moving on. He only takes that time because he doesn't wish a knife in his  back.

He moves to where the heaviest fighting is shown and finds his elven spies and loses the fight with his tears. They are all surrounded by dead enemies, all of them had killed more than ten enemies before they themselves were killed.

Yet, still no sign of Jessa or Nathan. Dhiren knows that it's just as important to find Nathan as it is Jessa.

He finds Nathan first and he falls to his knees. There is no hope for Nathan. He is obviously dead and there is no bringing the dead back.

After mourning for a few moments his lost friend he continues his search. But as time passes his hope falls.

There are exclamations from the elves as they realize just how many Jessa alone had taken out. The arrows are obviously hers. She took out all the archers on this side and as they send elves over to look over there, she had taken them out as well. Twenty archers, she killed alone, on each side. Even her loudest detractors had nothing to say to her taking so many out alone. They stare in awe as their trackers put together the story of the fight.

Twenty archers on this side, twenty on the other. Ten fighter here, five there. The humans taking out thirty before the last of them, Nathan, finally falls.

Jessa then proceeding to take on the remaining bandits. None had taken the chance to flee.

Dhiren finally locates Jessa some distance away from the last grouping of enemy dead. There is just one enemy, a large male. Dhiren can only imagine how tired Jessa must have been by the time she gets to him.

The fact that she is covered in blood, perhaps not hers, but still, she is covered.

He falls down at her side and pulls her to him. She is still alive. That's when he notices the large gash in her side. The blow must have been incredible since it broke right through her mithril armor. "Jessa, baby please wake up." Dhiren says pulling her to him and holding her even as he brushes her hair from her face.

"Healer! I need a healer NOW!" Dhiren demands in the loudest voice that he can. It is enough to gain Kallen's attention and the healers.

The senior healer and Kallen make their way to Dhiren running all out.

"She's alive, prince?" Kallen demands even as tears run down his face.

"Yes, but she's badly injured. Your normal potion for her won't be enough this time." Even if Jessa makes it through this, Dhiren wonders if she will survive hearing that Nathan didn't make it.

"Let me look at her, Prince." The healer demands and reluctantly Dhiren releases his hold on his love.

The healer has Dhiren and Kallen remove the mail shirt and looks over the wound. She shakes her head as she does her best to clean the wound out. "Some of the links were sent into the wound. I will do my best to get them out, but there is no way of knowing if I am able to get all of them out."

The healer shakes her head at the dirty, down right filthy conditions that she is forced to work in to save the incredible female before her. She has no wish to fail her prince at this time. She is well aware that it is because of this female that she is not taking care of elven wounded and dead. Although she believes that the elves would have done a better job of surviving then the humans. Most of them don't have many of the enemy dead around them.

She had recognized the princess's friend among the dead and knows that it will hit the princess hard. Just as she recognizes that the prince is mourning him as well. She wishes that there was something that she and the others could do, but death is final. All they can do is give the humans honor by sending them off in the elven way rather than burying them in the ground.

They plan on leaving the bandits unburied. They are far enough from Silva to not cause harm to the elves by doing so.

"Can you save her, Jenna?" Dhiren demands. Kallen listens intently to the healers response.

"I hope so, my prince, but there is a great deal of blood loss. There is just as good a chance of her dying as living at this time. Make sure that she knows you are here. Talk to her and hold onto her hand as I work on her. 

"General, it would be good for you to do the same. Make sure that she knows just how much you love her.

"I think that it will depend as much on her as my skills on whether she lives or not." Jenna replies even as she thoroughly cleans and digs out the broken metal pieces from her future princess. There are so many broken pieces that it's impossible to figure out just how many are on the ground and how many are lodged within the flesh of the female.

Jenna works swiftly but still time goes by. It is late afternoon by the time she finishes. By then the elves had erected the funeral byres of the dead guards. They had also found the fallen caravan in the pass as well. They secure the caravan load and save it for Jessa as her salvage.

Only then does the coward that Jessa worked for come out of hiding making his demands.

"I demand to speak to the one in charge." Master Culeb says strutting up to the elves.

They sneer at him but move out of his way until he comes to Dhiren who is still on the ground holding the unconscious female in his arms.

"Who are you?" Culeb demands.

Dhiren looks at the arrogant human with no emotion as he coldly replies, "I am prince Dhiren of the moon elves." He sneers then looks over the human before him that inhales sharply at the reply. Then he stands up straighter as Dhiren demands his own answer. "Who the fuck are you?"

"I am Culeb, master of this caravan. I demand that I be given men to help guard my caravan as I return to Castlerock. That and the goods from the caravan before mine." Culeb had seen the dead caravan and that the bandits had yet to ransack it before they came through.

"No, you have no right to make demands of me and mine. You will be given camping space out side of Silva or you can make your way to Castlerock on your own. Jessa is too sick to make the journey at this time. She might not make it. If that is the case then there will be no further interactions with the elves and you.

"If Jessa makes it then the goods will be given to her since she damn near singlehandedly saved your fat ass from certain death."

With Dhiren's less than complimentary words, Culeb retreats to his animals and waits for the elves to lead him to where he will be allowed to wait for Jessa to regain her health. Before he leaves he turns back to the elven prince, "What if Jessa regains her health?"

"If she regains her health I and my guard will be joining her as she goes to Castlerock and we will guard your caravan, although I doubt there will be any trouble for you now. I doubt there are any more bandits in a hundred miles from here."

With that Sorsha comes over with the prince's horse and with tears in her eyes waits for Dhiren to stand up with Jessa in his arms.

Sorsha doesn't know what makes her the most upset, seeing her princess so close to death or the human that is Jessa's friend dead.

"Prince, she will wish to be present to Nathan's send off." Sorsha says placing her hand on Dhiren's arm to keep him from leaving the scene of death with Jessa.

Dhiren hesitates then nods. Sorsha is correct, Jessa would wish to be present even if she isn't conscious during the rite.

Dhiren gives the prayer to Zira asking her to take the souls to their gods, since the elves have no way of knowing which gods the dead humans worship. There are a great many of them, though, Dhiren suspects that most of them worship Jethro the god of warriors, war and healing.

As Nathan's byre burns Dhiren allows his tears to fall on Jessa's behalf.

This will kill Jessa when she wakes.

If she wakes, the healer was unsure that she would.

"Mel?" Dhiren calls out once they get to the elven camp and they get to his tent.

Mel makes himself visible but it's obvious that he is upset.

"I need you to let Alaric know that she is alive, but is badly injured."

"Yes, of course, prince." Mel takes off and goes to his master with a heavy heart. He hopes that Alaric will know how to help Jessa even more.

Alaric waits impatiently for word of his granddaughter. Mel had informed him earlier about how many of the enemy and the odds of the humans that would be going against them. He had been pacing back and forth, his shop closed, unable to deal with any one at this time.

"She lives, at least for now. She has been seriously wounded. Her mithril shirt broken and pieces imbedded inside her. The elven healer has done her best to clean and remove all the metal from her wound, but there is doubt if she'll make the night."

"Shit," Alaric says. It could of course be worse.

"Nathan, he didn't make it," Mel says sadly as he relays this information.

"Damn, she won't take that information well. Did any of the humans make it?" Alaric demands of the little dragon.

"The ass that Jessa signed on with, Master Culeb. There might be a couple of guards, but it is still unknown for them. All of them took major wounds. Mostly the healers just made them comfortable as they lived out their last moments." Mel reports sadly.

This weighs on both him and Alaric. 

"There were more than two hundred bandits. I know that at least some of them were dragon kin, I'm not sure how many. But there was more than one. Jessa fulfilled her duty by taking them out, Alaric. You have reason to be proud of her."

"I have been proud of her since she first came into this shop and we found each other." Alaric bustles around gathering items and heading into his kitchen. He starts cooking and once the food is finished transfers it to an easily carried container. Then he heads out to his courtyard and changes into his dragon form. Catching hold of the container he flies into the night and heads towards the elven camp and his granddaughter.