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Earendil sighed with relief when he saw that Lin wasn't seriously injured, and he hugged her carefully. At her question, though, he looked around anxiously.

"I told her to hide under the wagon seat," he told her worriedly. "I thought she did ..."

"She's here!" Luk called out, rocking a still-crying Andarien. "She's a fox, though." He blinked at her. "At least ... I think she is ..."

River was shaking and crying, curled up in a ball in the bottom of the wagon, and Arthael launched herself up over the side and scooped her granddaughter up to try to comfort her.

Earendil followed Lin over to the wagon seat and knelt to peer under it.

"Miyuki," he said softly, holding both arms out to her. "It's safe now, it's all over. Come on out."

It would probably be better if she didn't see the carnage, but she needed physical comfort badly.

Celeb was still looking anxiously at the sky, and he only relaxed when he saw a large roc heading down to join them in the clearing. It was Haldia's roc, and she and Amalirahc were riding on its back. Before it had even landed, Amalirahc, about the same height as River now, jumped off the roc's back and ran as fast as his gangly legs would take him over to his parents. Haldia, on the other hand, took her time, climbing carefully down from Rhiel's back. By the time she reached the ground, Celeb was there to catch her, and he wrapped his arms around her and held her close. It wasn't a very close hug - Haldia's abdomen was swollen so large that he couldn't get any closer.

Earendil wrapped his arms around Miyuki and held her tightly. He was so relieved that she was fine, he wanted to weep. When she voiced her concern about her brother, he held her tighter.

"Andarien's fine," he assured her. "Luk has him."

He looked around for Luk, and felt even more relieved when he saw the half human holding andarien out to Lin to take back.

Andarien was crying still, his face still a bright shade of red, terrified and angry and who knew what else all rolled into one.

Earendil nodded and let Miyuki go so that she could see her brother. He understood. With so much death around them, it was important to see that those she loved were alive.

Andarien didn't seem to want to calm down, because even though Lin was rocking him, and she was calmer, it seemed as though his cries were just getting louder.

Earendil looked around for his bag. It had that musical egg in it, the one that Andarien had come from, and to his knowledge it seemed to help Andarien to calm down when someone wound it up. It was in their tent, and he jumped down from the wagon to go look for it.

Andarien's cries didn't even slow, and there were tears coursing down his red cheeks.

Earendil searched his bag as quickly as he could, looking for the musical egg, and when he found it he snatched it up and ran back to Lin and the others, winding the egg as he did so. The tinny music began to play, and when he stood behind Lin and held the egg near Andarien, the infant's cries finally began to slow down, his volume lowering, and some of the redness faded from his face.

Earendil nodded sombrely. "You can say that again," he muttered. He looked around. "Start packing up," he called out to the others. "We've got to go."

He looked over at the new arrivals, and gratefulness washed over him. "Thanks," he said warmly to them. "You arrived just in time."

Kelirahc still had his arms around his family. "We only wish we had found you sooner," he said quietly. "We left Haven this morning."

"I vish only that I could have done more," Haldia added, a bit sadly, as she and Celeb headed to join them. "But I cannot think only of others now."

"You've got that right," Celeb told her firmly, one arm around her shoulders. "You did the right thing."

Most of the others began to clean up and prepare to leave, but Daeron stood in one place and kept an eye out for more attackers. It was impossible to say whether or not they would come back. They very well might, humans were generally stupid like that.

Celeb looked around at the carnage. "Grandmother said you were planning on exploring the Southland," he said quietly to Lin and Earendil. "Are you still going to continue?"

"Ve are vith you, no matter vhat," Haldia said firmly, "do not worry about that aspect of it. But perhaps it vould be vise to reconsider."

Amalirahc slid out from his father's grip and ran over to see how Miyuki was doing.

"You okay?" he asked her anxiously, his golden eyes gleaming worriedly.

Earendil put one arm around Miyuki and rubbed her back gently, still holding the musical egg that was playing its tune for Andarien. Andarien had calmed down to just sniffles, and he turned his face towards Lin and closed his eyes as if he were tired enough just to go back to sleep.

Celeb nodded at Lin's words and looked back at Haldia. His worry was obvious, and the reason for it just as obvious. "The Rovers are a pretty reliable people," he admitted, "it's just a ma-"

He was interrupted suddenly when Emile popped up in the middle of everything. "I told you this was the most dangerous area!" he said in an accusing tone.

Daeron, tense and still on an adrenaline rush, whirled around and grabbed the human by the throat. "You!" he growled. "I knew we couldn't trust you! Where were you when all of this was happening? If you knew it was going to happen, why didn't you warn us?"