"When all else fails? Get the fuck out of there as fast as your legs can take you, you nitwit!" - Stratagem 48 from Oscar Dowfrey's "Forty-Eight Stratagems of War".

"Go go go! Run like your lives depend on it!" Reinhardt yelled as his group of survivors started to run from the massacred camp towards Fort Ascher. It was a few kilometers away. Hopefully not too much to ask of his group.

He himself was the last man out from the camp, and as he left he noticed the sounds of people running towards the camp, from both sides. From his right - the same direction that the lucky couple had fled to earlier - he even heard yells and commotion, and they were coming closer with every moment.

Reinhardt wasted no time, and as he ran away, he fluidly dropped down to his hands and feet, and transitioned to a loping gait on all fours. He was a full-blooded therian, his body far more akin to an animal, despite his humanoid build. He was perfectly capable of running on all fours faster than a horse can run at full gallop, even if it wasn't for long.

He periodically looked back as he ran, and noticed that there were two groups of men and women much like those they had just massacred in the distance, some of which were pointing at his escaping group. Some of them also lifted bows and shot arrows their way.

That just made him scoff. The distance between his group and those archers were already far, far enough that any but the best archers would have difficulty hitting a stationary target. He paid it little heed, just checking back from time to time to make sure no lucky archer happened to aim their arrow in his way.

Moments later, when the arrows were still in flight, he caught up with the rear of his group. Rodney and Hannah were at the very rear, as the young man - Reinhardt recalled that he had some dwarven blood in him - was rather short, and short legged. Not the fastest runner in their group.

At least he didn't seem troubled in the slightest by Hannah's weight on his back - even if said girl was very light due to how her kind was built - and he even had the time to snap off a quick salute to Reinhardt when he overtook them.

The first wave of arrows fell upon them shortly after that. Most of the shots went wide, which was to be expected with the distances involved. Even so, Reinhardt heard a pained grunt from behind, and he turned his head to look.

He saw Rodney stumble and crash to his knees, with an arrow protruding from behind his right shin. He had fallen forward from his momentum, and did his best to land on his chest, so as not to accidentally injure Hannah on his back.

Worse, a second flight of arrows was already on its way. He noticed immediately that these ones were more tightly grouped, more accurate compared to the first shot. Reinhardt drew to a halt, and pivoted around as he ran back to where Rodney fell as fast as his limbs could take him.

Even though he was one of the fastest runners in the company, he still failed to reach them before the second wave of arrows fell. Most still went wide, but at least half a dozen accurately fell on Rodney and Hannah.

Reinhardt saw how Hannah twisted around on Rodney's back, then in desperation used her one good wing to shield them both. He winced in sympathy as he saw most of the arrows land on her wing, with another landing on her leg, but breathed a sigh in relief when she moved her perforated wing with obvious pain, still alive.

"Get on my back! Quick!" yelled Reinhardt as he stopped next to Rodney and Hannah. He strained his muscles to do so, but managed to hoist them onto his back. Then he went off running with the two on his back. "Hold on tight! And don't talk! You'll bite your tongue!"

Rodney fortunately got the message, and held on as best he could with his one good arm. More arrows fell just a few paces behind them as they left, Reinhardt running much faster than Rodney ever could, even with their combined weight on his back.

Fortunately, that was the last of their troubles. They were out from arrow range soon after, what few shots sent their way by dogged pursuers going wide. Their pursuers chose not to chase after them, as they reached the fort not half an hour later.

"Who goes there!?" asked an armored dwarven soldier who peeked his head out from behind the crenellations. His armor had seen some obvious abuse, and his voice just sounded tired to Reinhardt.

"Free Lances! First Company!" He shouted back from below the wall, unheeding of the many crossbows he knew were aimed at him from those crenellations. "We have injured! Requesting permission to enter!"

Nobody answered him for a while, but not a few minutes later, the gate was opened, and his group was carefully ushered in, while dwarven soldiers in dented armor kept watch behind them.

Reinhardt had some difficulty lowering Rodney and Hannah from his back, but a couple of the dwarven soldiers noticed, and helped untie Hannah from Rodney's back, and laid her gently on a spread mat. They then lifted Rodney off Reinhardt's back and placed him next to Hannah on another mat.

"Fuck, girl," said Rodney when he got a glimpse of Hannah's condition. The therian girl was alive, but she had an arrow in the side of her left thigh, and another half a dozen that perforated her one good wing. Fortunately due to the distance those arrows had lost enough momentum that they failed to go further after they went through her wing.

"If we both get outta dis shit alive I'mma take ye to the best healer money can buy and get them wings fixed, I swear by me granddaddy's hairy ballsack. I owe ye one," he said, knowing all too well that if Hannah wasn't on his back and hadn't shielded him, those arrows would be in his body right now.

Reinhardt had left them shortly after they were lifted off his back. He walked towards where the secondary barracks of the fort was located, and saw with building dread that the building was damaged, with signs of heavy fighting around it.

He lost his patience by then, and barged into the building. He had to know if his wife and child were all right, and all other matters flew out of his mind like trash being taken out.

"Elfriede! Erycea!" He yelled with worry as he entered the barracks.