The road to Paden was a long brown line drawn through miles of grass. Pegasus balanced himself atop Aikel’s head and faced the back of the group to lessen the chance of anyone sneaking up on them. He only saw Yousei from the corner of his eye, as she wasn’t walking far behind Aikel, but he saw straight between Kyri and Himeki’s heads.

There seemed to be a stifling silence between them. After a moment, Himeki looked over and mumbled, "I’m really sorry…."

Kyri suppressed a giggle and told her, "You said that already!"

"But I mean it! I had no idea that little bottle would make me that wasted… and…."

"You said that already too."

"Yeah, but…."

Pegasus could sense Aikel rolling his eyes. This seemed like the millionth or so time that variations of that same dialogue had been repeated.

"Just try to remember not to sing next time!" Kyri was saying. "Or at least don’t sing that ‘Ninety-nine Bottles of Beer on the Wall’ song so loudly and so off-key…."

"What’s that?" Yousei asked.

"Hmm?" Aikel responded as he looked in the direction she was pointing. The most of the grass beyond the trail was at least the height of his waist. He could see a gap where it seemed like something was on the ground pushing the grass aside.

"Can you tell what it is, Aikel?" Pegasus asked; he was answered with a slow head shake. Aikel started to step forward, but Yousei lunged for the edge of the trail. She vaulted up on her spear and balanced on its point for longer than what seemed possible.

Pegasus heard Kyri whisper, "How does she do stuff like that?"

"It’s a faery thing," Himeki answered.

Yousei landed back on the trail. "I think it’s a hurt animal."

"Oh…?" Kyri mumbled sadly. She started to head for the grass, but Aikel made sure to get in front of her. As he approached the thing, Pegasus could see its brown fur rising and dropping with heavy breath.

Aikel pushed the grass aside and immediately swung his arm to fend off the oncoming blur. Pegasus took flight from start as the creature was knocked back.

Her already tear-streaked face was flooded as she erupted into wails.

"Aikel!" Kyri snapped as she shoved him back. She approached the creature, the small centaur, and knelled beside her. "What a meanie he is," she mumbled, "hitting a poor little child, especially when you’re already hurt."

Aikel’s attempt to speak in his own defense came out as a few meaningless stutters, so he only stepped out of the way as Yousei and Himeki approached. They watched Kyri and Unicorn cast a spell on the girl. The bruises that were scattered over her skin faded, and her wailing quieted to sobs.

"Oh, don’t cry…" Kyri cooed. "It’s okay now; don’t cry…." She pulled the girl toward her and hugged her.

"She’s awfully young to be out here by herself…" Yousei thought. "She looks about… ten? Maybe?"

"I wonder what happened…" Himeki said quietly.

"Shh…" Kyri continued. "It’s okay; don’t cry…." She began to sing very quietly. The others couldn’t make out the lyrics, but the song had a comforting melody.

The girl slumped a bit and stopped sobbing. Kyri stood and helped her to her hooves. The girl tried to wipe her tears away with the back of her hand, but she only smeared dirt over her face. Kyri took a spare piece of cloth from her pack and gently cleared off the mess.

"Now what’s your name?" Kyri asked, laying her hand atop the girl’s short orange-brown hair.

The girl sniffled and answered, "I… I’m Gelrini."

"What happened to you? Are you lost?"

Gelrini nodded. "I…. My papa was leading the sasen today…."

"Sasen?" Kyri asked.

"Uh-huh… and I wasn’t supposed to go, because… ‘cause I’m too little still…. But I really wanted to go watch so I could learn how to be a good hunter just like my papa and my big brother Corl…. So I followed them."

"Mmm-hmmm…" Kyri mumbled sympathetically.

"When they saw me, my papa yelled at me for being bad, and he told Corl to take me home…. Just when we got to the top of the hill next to town, Corl turned around and told me to run…" she started to sob again. "He told me to hurry and run as fast as I could… and don’t stop for anything until I got to a big trail in the plains…. I… I ran as much as I could, and, and I fell down lots… and I don’t want to run anymore."

"Oh, you were real close to that trail," Kyri said softly. "Why did your brother tell you to run?"

"I dunno…."

"Oh…. What did he do after he told you to run?"

"I don’t remember…. I think he hurried to restring his bow…. I had to run though."

"Hmm…." Kyri sensed that Aikel was about to speak and glanced in his direction.

He was silent a short moment before asking, "To get to your town, you had to go up a hill, and then down it?"

"Uh-huh," Gelrini nodded.

"When your brother was taking you back, were you able to see the town before he told you to run?"

"No, I don’t think so…."

"Do you think he was able to see it?"

Gelrini stopped to recollect. "I think so. He was at the very top of the hill and I was behind him…."

"Hmmm…" Aikel turned and sent his vision off into the distance.

Kyri wiped the tears from Gelrini’s face again. She looked at Aikel for several seconds; she saw reflections of smoke, flames, and blood in his eyes and knew what he must be thinking.

"I don’t know what to do…" Gelrini murmured. "I want to go home…."

"We’re not very far from a town," Kyri said. "It’s not your town, but you can get something warm to eat there, I’m sure. Wouldn’t that be nice?"

"Uh-uh…" Gelrini answered, starting to cry again. "I want to go home."

Kyri’s face saddened. After a moment of hesitation, she looked up toward Aikel. He looked at Gelrini and sighed. He glanced at Yousei and Himeki to make sure they wouldn’t object, and he said, "Let’s go…. Let’s take her home."

* * *

"Oh, my god…!"

Aikel’s voice had risen to a higher pitch as he suddenly stopped shoving through the high grass of the plains and backed up, pushing everyone else back with him.

"What’s over there?" Gelrini asked.

"Um…" Aikel turned around and Kyri noticed the paleness of his face. "N… nothing," he said to Gelrini. "There’s nothing over there."

"Then why did you stop?"

"It was just, um, a… spider…. There was a spider over there in the grass."

"That’s not nothing…."

"It’s as big as your head; let’s go this way." Aikel started pushing her away from the point of interest. Kyri notice that Pegasus, who was on Aikel’s shoulder, looked equally shaken; his eyes still followed that area of the grass.

"I get the feeling he’s not really that arachnophobic…" Yousei said in a voice too quiet for Gelrini to hear.

Being taller, Kyri could see some of the grass that had made Aikel stop so suddenly. It was splashed with red. "No, he’s not…."

"This way now, to get back on track," Aikel said with forced cheerfulness as he herded Gelrini back into the right direction.

"I see a tree way over there," said Pegasus. "Why don’t we stop and rest when we get there? You’re all looking kind of tired."

Aikel only nodded, but as they finally started to approach the tree, Gelrini said, "There!"

"Hmm?" Himeki asked.

"That’s the hill!" Gelrini was pointing. "We’re almost to my home!"

"Should we stop and rest still…?" Pegasus asked, looking at Aikel as if he were telling his friend what to decide.

"Yeah, definitely," Aikel answered.

"But we’re so close…" Gelrini reminded.

"Yeah, but…" Aikel fidgeted.

"You have more legs than me," Yousei said to Gelrini as she fell into a sit in the shade of the tree’s foliage, "and all of you have longer legs than me…. I’m not moving until I’ve rested."

"Oh…" said Gelrini.

"Now is a good time to use some of that food we bought before we left Semita," Kyri said. "Do you want any fruit, Gelrini?"

"Pear?" Gelrini asked as Kyri pulled a pear from her pack. The pear was tossed to her, and she immediately munched into it.

Kyri passed out one piece of fruit to each of the others and sat down beneath the tree. Aikel and Pegasus were sitting apart from the others, and Kyri took Unicorn over to join then as inconspicuously as possible.

"What are we going to find when we get there?" she asked quietly.

"Something unpleasant," Aikel answered darkly.

"I don’t suppose you can be more specific…."

"Do you really want me to?"

"In the grass…. Did you see what I think you saw?"

"I hope it wasn’t her brother."

Kyri started to speak, but she couldn’t think of what to say. She saw Pegasus perk up. He spread his wings and went off in Gelrini’s direction. She had noticed their seclusion and had begun to regard them curiously. Pegasus meant to help Yousei and Himeki distract her.

"Are… are you going to eat that apple?" Kyri asked Aikel, "or should I put it back in the bag so that it isn’t wasted…?"

He started to raise the fruit to his mouth, but instead he sighed, shook his head, and handed it to her.

"Are you sure? You look like you could you some food…." His face looked pale to her.

When all the fruit was eaten, they stood back up and climbed the hill. Kyri noticed that Aikel tried to stay in front of Gelrini, but as they approached the top, she got around him and ran ahead. She cried out happily as everyone caught up to her at the hill’s zenith.

Aikel gave half of a sigh, but he stopped, as if he’d decided that it was too soon to be relieved. His face betrayed him, however, and regained its proper color.

The village was small. Most of the buildings were large round tidy huts. A few important-looking buildings were made of wood instead. There were a few tall fences or small gardens. There were crops beyond the buildings. The horizon was lined with ocean.

Kyri saw Yousei’s antennae twitch as she looked over the village. She mumbled something that Kyri couldn’t catch.

Gelrini lunged forward and loped excitedly down the hillside.

"Hey, wait!" Yousei shouted after her. She jumped after her and plunged her spearhead into the ground to vault forward. She landed with too much momentum and rolled to the level ground.

Aikel ran halfway down and covered the rest of the distance with a deliberate slide. He reached down to help Yousei up as Kyri and the others reached them.

"Thanks…" Yousei muttered, rubbing her head. She looked in the direction in which Gelrini had been running, but the little centaur was out of sight. Kyri walked past everyone and trailed after her.

"G…Gelrini…?" Kyri asked tentatively as she crept through the door that she’d seen Gelrini pass through. The main room covered an entire semicircle of the building, except where another segment of the hut jutted out into its space. Sunlight beamed through the window in the far side of the wall. It’s illumination was cast across the table and over the stuffed toy that was laying upon it before it spilled off onto the floor and stopped a few feet before it reached Kyri’s shoe. It emphasized the grooves in the floor, where something seemed to have skid erratically.

The sound of nimble hoofsteps upon the wood drew Kyri’s attention to the short hallway that began in the middle of the main room. As she approached, she saw that the door of the larger of the two rooms was slightly opened. She pushed on it just in time to see Gelrini push a curtain aside and emerge from the portion of the room that it blocked off. The long loose red shirt that she’d been wearing before was bundled up in one of her hands. Her belt, which she may or may not have been wearing before, had many little pouches attached. Her shirt had been replaced with a tighter leather shirt that only went halfway down her torso. Its borders were off-white and fuzzy, as were the wristbands she slipped on as she stepped over to small the table in the corner.

"I… can’t find my mother."

She spoke with such an uncharacteristic softness that it took Kyri a moment to release she’d been the one to speak.

"Even if Corl and Father were still hunting, she should be here…." She laid her hand upon the sole occupant of the tabletop: a slingshot. It had a long enough handle that it could almost be considered a staff-sling. The end of the handle was sharpened. She plucked at its rubber band and inserted it into the loop on her belt.

She turned toward the door and looked at the portion of the room that was closed off by a second open curtain. Judging by the quiver of arrows in the corner and various other things that didn’t look like Gelrini’s, it was where her brother slept.

Kyri followed her slow quiet steps back into the main room. Gelrini saw the stuffed toy that was on the table and went to pick it up. She held it in front of her, studying it with an expressionless face, and Kyri saw that it was supposed to be a rabbit. It was white but had become dirty as all things used by children eventually do. Gelrini brought it to her chest to give it a one-armed hug before she placed it back on the table and took the first of many steps away from it.

Aikel spotted them as they emerged from the hut. He made eye contact with Kyri and mouthed, There’s no one here. Kyri nodded enough to let him know she understood. She saw that there were animals near some huts. The wide-eyed goats, sheep, or geese pressed themselves against the far corners of their pens and trembled. Observing more closely, she saw small things she hadn’t noticed before in her hurry to chase down Gelrini. Signs that something resistant was dragged at one portion of the ground. A splash of dark red at another. A broken pieced of wood. A stained knife that laid discarded upon the dirt. An entire collapsed wall in one hut that could not be seen from the hill.

As they converge upon the center of the town uneasily, Aikel felt his foot stick to the ground. He looked down with disgust and dragged his foot away from the glob of a slimy dark gray substance that was on the ground. He noticed that Himeki had spotted the glob as well; she shared his disgusted look but remained silent.

A shriek! Aikel look up in time to see a shadow pass in front of the sun. Everyone was splattered by mounds of the gray slime. Aikel heard Gelrini wail and the others gasp. He fought against the slime, only tangling himself more. He then noticed its odor. Its overwhelming stench was overpowering, and he tried not to breathe. When he finally had to inhale he saw shadows and fuzzy shapes surrounding him. Then it was only blackness.