The plains were somewhere that Janice did not want to be caught barefoot. Even when the heat of the day raced into the unbearable, she still wore her heavy coat and trod very very carefully. She knew just from the dust that brushed across her forehead that there were Things here. There were Forces at work that she did not want a part of.

It was the first time she had been actually, legitimately frightened by the past, by the ages. She tried to lock herself up tight against the feelings that flooded the plains. She could feel the blood that soaked the earth; years and years and centuries of bloody wars had been fought right under their feet. She could hear the screams of men and women dying bravely or cowardly in battle, in birth, in horror.

And she could feel the forever-pounding of horses' hooves.

But more than even any of that, she felt the Things, the Forces.

Marley asked her daily what she knew of the plains, but Janice wasn't about to answer. They were too near, too obvious, too aware of their presence here, trespassing on what felt like sacred land. They were of the Those That Stayed, to borrow the word, and they were Not Welcome.

Not that that had stopped them.

Janice watched the horizon in the direction that Feivel had gone. She wanted him to come back. She felt safer when he was there, nearby. Though if she thought about it too hard, she knew she had no reason to. The Things had been very nearby when General Farrows had imprisoned the lot of them. That meant they had a direct conduit into him if they wanted it.

This very idea made Janice uneasy.

Suddenly, there was a plume of dust visible on the horizon. Kendra came up behind her and perched on her shoulder, though she didn't fit nearly so well anymore. She was too big to fit completely, and too heavy for Janice to support her, though she didn't want to shoo the saa away. Janice glanced up at her, and Kendra smiled down.

~You're worried,~ she said cheerfully.

"You would be, too," she answered quietly.

~Marley knows you're hiding something.~

"Marley's very observant. I'm not telling you, either. You really shouldn't have to worry about it."

~If it concerns you I do,~ Kendra answered earnestly, glancing down at her bond with huge spring-green eyes.

"It's not me. It's this place. I don't like it. There's too much..."

~Yeah,~ Kendra agreed, and Janice turned to stare up at her. ~What?~

"You feel it?"

~I feel something,~ the saa admitted. ~And I'm not touching it. Scares the daylights out of me.~

Janice sighed with relief. "I can only imagine what would happen if you started rearranging everything around here."

~I get the feeling they'd cosmically lynch me,~ she cracked.

"Hmm."

By now, the plume of dust was identifiable as a rider on a horse, bareback, but as far as Janice could tell, they all rode bareback. This didn't identify the rider as Feivel or an interloper. "Go tell Marley," she said quietly, and Kendra lurched from her shoulder and took to the air with a flitter of wings.

She watched the horse pull into definition across the squiggles of the radiant heat rising up from the parched, drying grasses. That was the horse Feivel had left on, wasn't it?

As it drew closer and closer, it did not alter its course, and the rider moved in such a way that he appeared practically attached to the horse's back. They moved and swayed and lurched as one. She was fascinated and horrified by it. She was terrified of horses. She'd felt the pound of their hooves into the earth one time too many.

A sharp, clear whistle sounded across the plain, and the rider answered it. The answering calls sent knots into her stomach, her gloved hands wringing nervously before her. She knew what those sounds meant, knew what they imported. She'd seen enough groups of the Those That Stayed cut to pieces by riders with those whistles.

But there was no way they could outrun a horseman, and Janice didn't dare try to fight one off. So she stood and she watched and she waited. If she was to die, there wasn't a damned thing she could do about it.

The horseman slowed as he neared, and Janice noticed that his earrings were not fluttering in the wind behind him. Which meant it was Feivel, or so she guessed. She hurried towards him, hitching up her skirts just enough to run through the thigh-high grasses.

"Feivel!" she called, and the horse slowed to a walk.

"We have a problem," he answered cryptically.

"Feivel we--" she tried, but she was out of breath and suddenly frantic from the horror that those whistles were leaving in her heart. She looked up at him, struggling to get a hold of herself. "We have to leave. We have to keep moving. Don't let us stay here! Please!" she begged him.

He smiled down at her, reached a hand out and touched her hair. She was shaking. Too long out here was going to drive her to madness and... and... his thumb reached under her veil, stroking her cheek gently.

"Shh," he told her, even as she started to lose herself in his feelings, hard as stone and hot as a brushfire. She felt her eyes flutter shut, even as he pulled his hand away from her and she felt herself start to sway in the way he felt about finally riding horses free and open as they had been meant to be ridden.

But that swiftly drove towards his time acting as a channel for the Things, and the horror was enough to snap Janice out of it.

Her mouth worked furiously, but no words fell from her lips. She looked up hopefully at Feivel, demanding as silently as she could that he listen to her! They looked at each other for a long time, and Janice began to feel things welling up to say that this was not the time for. They began surging towards her lips, and she bit her tongue sharply, only to be relieved when Kendra appeared nearby.

~Marley's waiting for us,~ she said quietly, clearly aware she was interrupting something.

Feivel nodded and nudged the horse forwards. Janice watched him go, still feeling nothing but terror in her soul, an overwhelming, chilling terror at everything around them, no matter how innocent it all appeared.

~Janice?~ Kendra prompted, half-turned back towards the camp.

Janice wiped her eyes roughly with the backs of her gloves and nodded, swallowing what she could of her fear and hurrying after them. Kendra looked at her oddly, and all she could bring herself to answer was, "It's complicated."