Chapter 3, the return: There arms were about to fall off by the time they got to Rollo's hut, and he wasn't even home. " Guess he's still with Ansel, they must be romping around that damn office." Rahul muttered as she broke open the door and guided the tire children into the living quarters. " You can put those there, just give me a minute and the men will be along." Rahul motioned to an empty spot for the boys to place the boxes. 'Where the hell are you two?! Are you enjoying your alone time so much that you'll neglect your children?' Rahul yelled at the two morons, they received the transmission loud and clear and in the next moment they had strapped on their armor and had come galloping to the hut. "Okay boys, time to move in!" Rahul cried with a laugh while Rollo stood getting a lecture from his daughter about being late. It had only been a couple hours but these children fit in so well together and with their respective parents that it wasn't at all akward, though old habits would have to die. "Anstel, Rollo, grab some of those and I'll get these, follow me up the stairs when your done." Rahul said with a purr, the men laughed and blushed at the remark. Giro and Yushiro rolled their eyes at the flirting adults. After waiting for about 20 or so minutes, they heard a shriek and Rahul came running down the stairs with Anstel and Rollo hot on her heels. "Move kiddies!" Rahul yelled as Giro flipped open the door for his mother and the thundering men behind her. "You can't be serious, we didn't even see them coming!" Rollo yelled, but the goblins weren't the biggest problem for them it was the ogres that would be the hardest to get rid of. Young hooves on the packed dirt caught the elders attention, Rahul's child was clomping right behind them. Mowanza nowhere insight. Giro's face was frantic and scared. "Mowanza, she was tooken by these big ugly green things. She got cut on the eye because of struggling!" Giro yelled out in a panic. "Calm down boy, where is Yushiro?" Anstel said watching as Rollo wheeled backwards and took off towards some retreating goblin backside. "He went after them carrying some  type of bow." Giro said looking to his mother. "You did the right thing coming to us like you did, good job boy. Now run home as fast as you can!" Rahul shouted as the ogres made their way past two dead guards and into the village. "Go after Yushiro, I'll help the forces!" Rahul cried, Anstel sighed and drew her into a quick embrace before rushing off to follow Rollo's path. "YU!  YU!" Mowanza cried, holding out her arms as the goblins ran forward into the brush. Yushiro jumped over and onto a couple of Goblin skulls, crushing them efficiently. "YU look out!" Mowanza screamed when the arrows were let fly. Yushiro dodged as  best he could while some stabbed his flanks. "It hurts." Mowanza mumbled before looking up at the ugly green goblin carrying her. She noticed how soft the belly was and how easy it would be to cut it with her back legs. Grabbing a handful of the creatures hair, Mowanza kicked as hard and rapidly into the stomach as she could. The blood had long started to drench her hind legs by then. The creature dropped her in mid step which then bowled over to clutch its bleeding stomach. Her eye burned and she only had sight with one but it was fine, Yu was more important. "Yu! come on, we got to go back now!" Mowanza cried while arrows flew past her head, most were lit with the glowing orange flames. The brush had long ago caught on fire and now was moving towards them. "Come here sweets." Yushiro said while lifting Mowanza the best he could into his arms. The bow he had tooken along was smaller than most and had a strong current of electricity running through. "Sweets, I need you to cover your ears, kay?" Yushiro asked as he pulled the bowstring back towards his chin. Mowanza had huddled herself near his feet while he gathered the energy needed and let the arrow of spiritual energy and electricity go. It hit four goblins, and swam back to hit a few more while they scrambled to look for shelter. Soon it was only Mowanza and Yushiro in the clearing while the flames grew. Two large figures leapt over the flames and grabbed up the children. Rollo holding Yushiro and Anstel holding Mowanza in his arms. "I wanna go home!" Mowanza sobbed as the flames grew again. The men exchanged a glance while turning to a side road towards the nearest cattle camp. "Dammit, we forgot about the explosives in that area!" Rollo yelled over at Anstel. Anstel grinned and galloped full speed for the cattle hut. "Are we going to hide in there?" Mowanza asked quietly while the flames seemed to disappear when they reached the camp for the rain had started. "Yes sweets and I need you to be quiet." Anstel said. The group rounded the corner around the hut and through one of the old doors pushed in. The guards who had long from now left to the taverns and finished the breeding were gone and the females were frightened because of the explosion. "Sssh, it's okay, you're going to be fi-" Mowanza broke off mid sentence because her eye was hurting so very bad. "Bring them over here, sir." One of the younger cattlewomen said. She had silver locks that ran flowingly down her back, but was matted with dirt and mud. Her eyes were warm and hadn't lost the liveliness in them yet, she looked to be around 22 moons and about 4 months along. Mowanza and Yushiro were placed on the ground near the woman while Anstel stood watch by one door and Rollo at the other. "How did you get hurt love?" the woman, Cathy asked. Mowanza told her a little about the goblins and held the clean cloth on her eye. Cathy had been sympathetic telling about a bad experience with ogres from her own childhood. Yushiro's flanks were cleaned and some of the wounds had been bandaged to keep the dirt from keeping them raw and infected. "So you're rouges are ye?" A female, her breed scotty so she was small but she didn't look timid at all. She looked fierce with that head of dark red and brown hair and those smoldering green eyes of hers. "Tiffy, don't be rude!" Cathy cried. Tiffy snorted at her and looked at Rollo. "Melina talked about you all the time, well till she was took to the captains tent. She's his now. Five or six clans. She talked of our little wolf over there." Tiffy said with an affectionate glance towards Mowanza. Rollo stiffened and growled. "Daddy stop it!" Mowanza yelled in her native tongue, she only said something to her father in her native tongue if she was embarrassed or if she was mad at him. Rollo quieted and looked at his daughter, she was so at ease with these two women. "Would you like to come with us? Tiffy and Ms.Cathy?" Anstel  asked quietly. The two women looked at each other then at the two children at their feet. "Course I do, don't want my youngin to be raised to be a cattle driver or cattle." Tiffy said, Cathy nodded in agreement. "Don't scream okay?" Rollo said as he unsheathed his silver knife and worked on cutting the ropes that binded their legs to the posts. The women had collars on their neck, thankfully not chained to the wall. They all had hair pins, all exactly alike. "Take out the hair pins, mommy always said they were bad so she never wore hers when she was sitting alone with me and not with the mean men." Mowanza said, Tiffy and Cathy did as was told and watched as the dark blue of the jeweled pin turned into a slight red. "Smart girl you have, huh Rollo?"Anstel said with a laugh, Rollo beamed in his direction. Night fell and the larger group moved out, they had dipped themselves in a batch of mud and tied a couple of palm leaves to Mowanza's tail so that when she walked she would erase their tracks. They reached camp watching Rahul kill a few ogres with only a pair of double swords and bit and pieces of armor. "That's the woman we grew up with and fell in l-oof" Anstel said as Rollo nudge him in the ribs. Anstel glared but payed him no mind. "Is it hard to walk, Cathy?" Mowanza asked, fascinated by the bump in her middle. Cathy laughed and rubbed the girls head. "No love, I'm perfectly at ease, at least for now." Cathy said, Tiffy gave both women an amused smile. "Trust me love, when you're carrying one of those bleaters as long as she has you're going to disagree. Specially when you birth them, damn the pain feels like your  being ripped in two, but it's worth it to see the little bleater." Tiffy said, horror struck Mowanza's face and the two women laughed at the younger girl. They were back to the gate and Giro was waiting for them. He looked like a majestic warrior, until he saw Mowanza and Yushiro. He rushed forward and tackled both, being careful of Yushiro's flanks and Mowanza's head. "How could you leave me behind and let me miss the big explosion?" Giro cried as they listened to the squeal of Rahul tackling Anstel and Rollo. The thump was loud and sounded like a mini explosion. "Dammit Rahul!" Rollo howled as his injured flank made contact with the ground. Rahul ignored him and instead of crying she hit both of them on the head and yelled at them to at least tell her that they were alive. "Ah Ra, you can't just kill us off like that." Anstel whined, the rest of the rouge members came out, carrying the four dead. All so very young and reckless they were and they were all dead. "Seems you recruited two new ones, huh?" Rahul said, examining Tiffy and Cathy. Cathy shied away from the glances but stayed still when a tiny hand reached into her own. Mowanza smiled up at her. "I'm Tiffy from the Scotties, this is Cathy from the Arabians." Tiffy said proudly. Murmurs went threw the crowd of rogues. "Aren't the Arabians supposed to be extinct?" One  uncaring male asked. Rollo walked up to the man and picked him up "Listen here, we leave our nose out of your business so you leave your nose out of her business, got it wise ass?" Rollo growled, the man struggled but nodded. "What happened to the little girls eye?" "Was she attacked by the goblins?" "Sir, does she need any medical attention?" So many questions were forming, so many confusing conversations. Mowanza felt herself start to sway, but she faught the sleep that wanted to take her. "Daddy, I need to sleep." Mowanza said, swaying towards the ground. "It's okay sweets." Rollo said catching his little wolf. He looked to Anstel, who was currently clearing the crowd and then to Rahul who was leading the new females to her home. The other children had already left, while he himself would go home and pack for his daughter and himself.