IC - Village of Yoblora

Quintus' brow wrinkles as he tries to command the awkward form that coalesces from the pile of shards. It is almost as if he sees both with his own eyes, and with the shattered vision of the shard wolf.

As Danill loads his sling and starts to whirl it, Quintus' wolf of fragments shatters again under the paws of two unbroken former pack mates. Maple's front hooves graze against a wolf that shrilly yelps as it twists out from under her kick. Ognimir's pole sends a fourth wolf tumbling backward with a crunching glassy noise. That wolf gets awkwardly back on its feet just as Damir smacks it across the head with his longsword, and it shatters into many dozens of tiny sparkling pieces.

The two swordsmen shout a wordless greeting and attack wolves of their own.

One, shorter and burlier than the other, slashes a wolf across its face and that mirrored beast skitters backward with a howl.

The second man tries to skewer a wolf, but his target twists away from his blade and then ... it savages his forearm with its teeth. He screams in pain and drops his sword.

Quintus sees two of the wolves moving to flank Ognimir and Damir, which separates them from the scrum.

The stone and the bolt glance off separate wolves with ringing crystal noises. Each wolf seems to stagger with the impact, then all the wolves leap to attack.

There are seven wolves. Two turn upon the swordsman who dropped his sword. Three lunge for Ognimir and Maple. Two go after Damir and his steed.

The mirror wolves are efficient killers.

Ognimir and Damir are thrown from their mounts as the wolves savage the horses, who scream in terror. They don't see what happens to the wounded swordsman, but Danill and Ciriaco watch in horror as they mechanically reload their missile weapons.

The remaining swordsman recovers from a moment of shock, and frantically hews at the wolves who are savaging his prone comrade.

With a mighty stroke, he shatters one of the pair into a cloud of glittering tiny fragments that slowly drift to the ground; the afternoon sunlight gleams in rainbows in the cloud. The other mirror wolf leaps aside from the ravaged corpse and crouches, snarling.

Danill's timing is good: Ognimir and Damir have had their winds knocked out, they lie crumpled on the ground a few yards from the gory bodies of their horses, whose grievous wounds emit plumes of steam into the dry and chilly autumn air. As Danill sprints toward his prone companions, he distracts the FIVE wolves that are poised to attack them.