[Eshandist]

Tikno looked around at all the men, who were converging on them with whatever weapons they had, pitchforks, shovels, anything they could lay their hands on. Tikno sighed and shook his head. Sometimes he wondered why he protected these ignorant peasants.

As the crowd converged, Tikno moved quickly to block the path to the doorway where Rail had disappeared.

"You are not going to get past me." Tikno spoke calmly, but his voice carried to the farthest man in the crowd. Most of them stopped, fear lighting their eyes. Good, they had caught his meaning. Some of the more persistant, or stupid, pressed forward. Tikno sighed again, the immediatly caught flame. He spread his arms, and the flames on his body grew hotter, blasting wave after wave of heat outwards from him towards the crowd. The humans flinched back, shielding their eyes. Tikno surveyed them with calm eyes, then clenched his fists allowing the fire on him to die down, but not go out completely.

Two great crashes, and the men from inside flew out threw the walls to land behind Tikno. The rest of the crowd watched in horror as the one man was contorted and killed. A vast roar of outrage poured forth as the crowd again surged forward. But Tikno was ready and again the flames on him leaped into inferno, literally blasting those humans who were too close back and stopping the rest in their tracks. Once again, Tikno spoke calmly to those around them, but all could hear.

"Rush us again and it will go ill with you." Tikno glanced backwards, checking to see what progress Rail was making.