Renia nodded as John spoke. Warning the other villages would be a good idea. She just hoped those villages would be open to housing a few refugees for a day or so. There was a chance that those villages would not wish to risk Nirvia’s retaliation, but Renia knew John would know the risk and take precautions.

“Yes,” she agreed as he finished speaking. “A few weeks is not much time at all.”

*****

The next few weeks seemed to fly by. Renia kept up her work with the Doctor, and together they managed to track down the few families left with hidden children. It turned out that Renia had a lot of work ahead of her. Each family insisted that their children be taught to shift forms before they tried to leave Edren. It made sense: birds were easier to smuggle out than children. But most of the kids needed over a week to learn to shift both ways. A couple lost control of the form for a while. But in the end they all had a form under their belt, and Renia and Jonathan managed to help any who wished to leave out of the city unnoticed.

A surprising amount of Alterions chose to stay. Even the old and the sick seemed determined to stay and help. Renia had to insist on getting anyone out who could not reasonably expect to fight. Over half the city remained by the time their evacuation was carried out over those two weeks. And if the human soldiers noticed the sudden decrease of population, they said nothing of it.

Renia and Jonathan spent most of every day trying to help the Alterions get ready, and by night they continued to plan for the upcoming battle. When they finally called it a night, Renia usually lay awake worrying. She’d been in her share of battles, but this was the first time she had been in one of this scale on her own. Granted, John was there. But Renia felt strange fighting without another Rebel there with her. She missed Bella more than ever when she thought of how this battle might turn out. Bella would have known how to turn this situation to their advantage. And Kade would have known exactly what to do with the civilians.. What was she doing here? Could she really expect to win this battle with only herself and Jonathan and a number of Alterions who could barely shift?

Time was growing short. In a matter of days, maybe even hours, Nirvia would attack. And Renia wasn’t sure she was ready.