(Author's Note: Part 2 of History of the Creche Wars, following the Book of Amonkari.)

In the face of invasion, We changed, all of Us. Tablack changed most, like He'd been waiting for this conflict all His life, but We all adapted, in big ways or in small, to the invaders who continued to come. Those who couldn't fight danced with Nymphale upon the winds of escape. Some of Us experimented with new techniques, hoping to find a way to drive the invaders away. I Myself walked this path, sensing a power in coordination, though it meant many a trip to poor Lantra. Brother Aslarn changed least, I think, still speaking with whoever He could to further His aims. But even He could not discourage Our invaders.

We knew it to be true that lasting harm between Us was more or less impossible, else Amonkari would have ended Tablack an eternity before We knew of the other creches. Thinkers later found it to be a safeguard placed by the Son on all born from a creche, but even in those early days the worst We truly feared from the invaders was a painful period of immobility in regeneration. It hurt the ego, certainly, but I never really took any of My defeats to heart, unlike the warriors who continued to roam Our world.

The invaders had little interest in Us, it turned out. Me, My brothers and sisters, We had little to offer the roaming bands of fighters with Their magic and Their weapons. We had no trinkets worth taking, no champions worth challenging, and before long We became too troublesome to chase. In those days, They called us "the Runners," and They came to Our home to fight each other. I suppose My habit of leading opposing mobs of invaders into one another backfired somewhat, but for the most part We could avoid the attention of the beings Aslarn called "Our visitors."

But as We changed, so too did Our invaders, and so I became the first of My brothers and sisters to leave home.

***

I grinned at the giant She-Savage at the edge of the horizon, and She glowered back as She had a thousand times before, Her eyes gold and gleaming with fury.  She howled, and the voices of Her kin raised with Hers as they always did, a chilling, jarring cry that once chilled My blood, but now just sent it racing in anticipation of another grand chase. She pointed, and at Her command a dozen hulking warriors charged towards Me, Their strange, hairy cloaks billowing out behind Them as They came for Me, as They Had hundreds, thousands of times before.

The chase would end, as always, with two packs of Our visitors running into one another, and losing Themselves in a skirmish. The warriors wanted Me only as a guide to a real battle, and I be only too happy to let Them find one without Me. I guided the Savages into the Bearded, and I swear I heard gratitude in Their war cries as They clashed, strange rock armor meeting strange bone fangs.

I slowed to turn, and watch Our visitors at Their games, and nearly had My throat sliced by a serrated bone blade. I remembered Nymphale's teachings, flipping quickly backwards across the grasses, and stared at My attacker.

"Your brothers and sisters be having all the fun without You, Savage," I called to the gold-eyed woman, surprised. I wasn't the only one, I noticed. One of Her kinsmen looked over, His eyebrow arched in askance, and a tall Bearded, axe in each hand, grunted in offense.

"You have mocked Me for far too long, Runner. For years You've smiled and fled like a coward, acting like You've triumphed," She growled at Me.

"That's what They do, sister," a golden-haired Savage called, swatting aside a blow using a massive two-handed blade. "Come and get an actual fight. We saved You the short one."

"I'll have Your legs for that, pretty boy," growled one of the Bearded from somewhere in the melee.

"No," the She-Savage said, Her eyes fixed upon Me. "Today, Runner, I shall have Your head."

"Today, You be having My dust," I said, before turning and sprinting away.

***

With the teachings of Nymphale, I was faster than the She-Savage could ever be, and I sought to show Her that. I laughed as I traced circles around Her, ran Her through every pack of Our visitors I could find, danced just out of Her reach for hours at a time. No matter how I teased Her, what ends of the creche I ran to, what barriers I put in Her way, still She came, in Her slow but seemingly unstoppable pace. Even the invading warriors did little but slow Her down. She pushed past or leapt the masses of Silvers and Stones and all the rest, and when one of the Red Eyes thought to hold Her to force Her to stop and fight, She turned in a rage and cleaved Him from shoulder to hip in a single blow. After that, the visitors started to move when I led Her towards Them.

"Be You alright, Volkh?" Aslarn asked Me as I paused for rest on the opposite end of the creche.

"I be fine, brother," I said, smiling at Aslarn. "She be getting bored soon enough, same as all the others."

"It be six days since She started chasing You," Aslarn said flatly. "She not be getting bored, I think. And You, You not be rested in all that time."

"I be fine, brother. She never be catching Me."

"Not unless You be falling over from exhaustion first." Aslarn frowned. "I be talking to Her, seeing what the problem be."

"The problem be She be crazy," I huffed, before cringing as I heard the notes of Her war song on the horizon once again. "I be going now."

"Brother, something be wrong," Aslaran called, and hearing something odd in the She-Savage's voice, I turned to look. Though not near as graceful as Nymphale or even I, the She-Savage was definitely spinning as She moved. And She was definitely moving faster.

"Oh, Dynara," I muttered, before turning to run.

***

I awoke to colors, swirling and incomprehensible, stretching out as far as I could see. I trembled as I stared an unfathomable distance, a hundred, a hundred hundred times past the point where My sight would have ended at the distant golden skies of My creche. I was dwarfed in the endless space, with only clouds of eerie, unfamiliar colors to mark My place.

"Lantra, what's happened to Me?" I asked, frightened. I could barely feel My body, let alone move it in any meaningful way, yet still I moved through the alien emptiness. Perhaps this was some illusion, brought on by My pain. "What did the Savage do to Me? Did She take My head?"

"I did take Your head, Runner," a female voice said, and it took Me a moment to recognize the voice, for I'd never heard it before with any note of satisfaction. "I took the rest of Your body with it as well."

"Savage! What did You do to Me? Where are We?" I couldn't keep the panic from My voice. I knew now where I was, for Auseklis had spoken of this place when He came.

"This is the space between the creches, the emptiness We warriors travel to get to Your dull little homeland, and that We have to travel to get back to mine," She said.

"You be taking Me from My home? You be taking Me out here? This place be awful!"

"You think so, Runner?" The She-Savage chuckled. "It was scary for Me too, the first time. But after the fifth, sixth time, it just becomes boring." She sniffed softly. "Not that You will have to make this journey again."

"Stop this, Savage. We do not belong outside our creches! Dynara forbade it!" I shook in the golden-eyed warrior's grip, but quickly stilled as She growled in frustration.

"Dynara is gone, Runner," She said, bitterly. "There shall be no punishment."

"This is still wrong, Savage. I have brothers and sisters that I must be with. What do You even want with Me? I am no warrior!"

"You are right, Runner. None of Your creche are warriors." The Savage sounded smug again. "But I have conquered Your wind-running trick, and finally found something of worth to take from Your empty homeland. You shall be the trophy that is the symbol of that victory."

"A... trophy?"

"Yes, little Runner. You are a trophy, that I bring with Me back home, where You shall stay until the day Dynara finally returns." She gave a soft chuckle, giving My broken body a little squeeze. "And until that day, You belong to Loboshi."