An Ambush Related

Well. For those of you who wonder what happened atwixt Gorm kinda losing it. And Gorm getting lifted into the back of a truck filled with 'The Injured, The Crippled, The Maimed' This may help explain it. Thanks to Vixen for the coherent explanation. Intellectual property of myself, Jared G. Juckiewicz. Who also holds the copyright.

Vixen had dragged me into the truck we had appropriated, our injured leaning against the sides, those we had managed to get out. There were so few. Even as she held me straight, seated on the floor, for the benches were taken, I whispered to her. "How many?" I asked, my voice cracking, with pain and thirst. She had turned about, getting comfortable, and positioning me so that her body cushioned the shocks of the trucks motion. She knew as well as I did that only the Wolf Within, and my brief meal of flesh, were keeping me alive. "Too many." She told me. "You caught us by surprise." She said. "Custer and the Walkers thought you meant to break past. They followed you. A few seconds later, the Flight came in low, to cover you, most of them." We struck a pothole, and my groan could have been taken as one of pain. "When you vaulted into the truck, they couldn't keep the momentum. They were gunned down as dogs. The Buteo too, though they took a toll." She paused for a moment, to catch the little pouch Tyrone was lobbing at her from his pack. She opened it, and examined it's contents. The little flask of Usqueabagh, what the Normans had called Aqua Vitae, went down my throat. The Jerky on the other hand, would need softened before I could eat it. And there was no time for that. She continued her tale. "The Gryfalcon came in too low and too fast, and couldn't see to manouver in the smoke. They too payed their way, but fell, slamming into the side of a building dodging fire." I made no sound, the fire of the Usquebagh dulling my pain a bit. "By that point, Illus realised they must have got the Mortar teams, both on accounts of us being unable to raise them, and of their dropping our rounds on our very heads." my fingers traced a tear in her fatigues, where shrapnel had torn its way into the muscle of her leg. My eyes began to tear up. "We decided we'd try to break in close, and we did. They'll not soon forget that slaughter. They couldn't drop the mortars on us without doing our work for us. We lost three of the Sidhe there. A fourth when we siezed the truck. Their Cuain went mad. bought us time to get off. Twice they caught us. Our last rocket felled the first. The second would have had us, but one of the Gryffons had it off a cliff. Went down with it." A moan, and a whimper fled my lips. And not just from the pain. "Howsabout you?" She asked me, her voice stopped, and hushed me. Her finger to my lips. "No. No. Hush. Let me guess. You caught her scent, and despite us being in the middle of a battle, trapped in ambush, you just had to seek her out and ravish her..." I bolted upright. Or tried to. I think my head moved about an inch, before the strain was too much. She laughed. "Easy there. I jest. You know I jest." She settled me back down. "They were hurting her, weren't they? I know you well enough by now, Adal-Ulf, to know that none of your kind can tolerate that. A weaker wolf under the knife? A bitch and a pup, no less? Well. She's safe now. Safe as the rest of us. You rest now. Sleep. Heal." I shook my head weakly. Groaned out a few words. She leaned in close, so I repeated them. "Illus. Vaul. Elf. Lir." She hugged me close, bracing me. From that I knew it was bad. "They live. Illus will be fit for naught for months. possibly years. We've no been able to spare the blood for him. Vaul much the same, though with him, it's time he needs, not blood. As for the others, they be in hiding, here, till there wounds heal. We couldn't transport them safely after the second attack. There wounds were too great. Lir is in the care of the Undine, in a mountain tarn. Elf is safe in a Dryad's tree." Her voice had been soft. Now it was edged with command. "Sleep, Old One. You need it. I'll ward."