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The ghost that left his mark on the tribe seemed to sigh with relief when he vanished. And when he did, it wasn't just Mahno that noticed it. The others were kind of creeped out.

"That was... it?" Asked CharnBat. Vanya nodded, and they saw that the whole of the room where they sat during this night had been sucked clean of any color. Each of the Ferilons privately was glad that they themselves hadn't been bleached!

Exhausted, Vanya announced that he needed to rest after that. He wasn't sure when he'd wake up. Sometimes he would sleep for years at a time. They hoped that wouldn't happen this time... There was much to learn.

As a tribe then, they wandered for a little while with Vanya. They left their territory - knowing they would be coming back some day - and escorted him to where he said he'd had a large amount of land and buildings. A city known as Behat. The distance they wandered was large. It took them more than four years to travel it, too, because while there were roads, they were not in good repair. Plus, Vanya towered over the small Ferilons. Even though they stood upright, the tallest among them, Thoihra, came merely to his thigh. Vanya had to slow down to accomodate the pattering limbs behind him.

But the travel was good. It was enlightening. They found communities of other Ferilon living near the ruined roads, watched Steeds fly overhead in their great colorful herds, and they learned the history of the world they traveled.

Not every one of the tribe really learned everything. They each enjoyed some aspect more than others. Thoihra was entertained most by the exploration of the world. CharnBat would have been an ideal healer, had she been Zekiran. Caiva was interested to note that they used to race the Steeds, he was enfatuated with them. BoHam learned to read, and read everything she could find - that wasn't rotted away or dust - about Animal Mastery and how food sources and environment played key roles. Nhieutay ... wanted to be a superhero.

"Why would you say that?" Asked Mahno, whose own delight in arts and politics was fulfilled by many records. "They were only popular for a little while."

"But they did amazing things," Nhieutay said. "I can do that. We all can. Look at us, we're a natural group!"

With the typical stolid expression on her face, BoHam dismissed the cold-controller with a sigh. "You go do that then... We'll be waiting for you."

"Who would you save, exactly?" CharnBat asked.

"Well - I ... That.... hrm." That kind of put the stop to that line of thinking. But he was still eager to see what new things they would find. He wanted to explore a bit.

They did so, on their way home. It took another six years to return from Behat to Nuark. In their own way, they had adventures worthy of recording. They did record them too, in a kind of song they shared. Ferilons would yip and bark, whine and purr, but they could add language to all that noise too. Their new history - the tribe of immortal freaks - would now be told as an ongoing tale.

"What will we do with the new herd, if there is one?" Asked Mahno. "We can't scare them off," he glared at Nhieutay and the icy-colored feri'taur clamped his mouth shut. "So what now?"

"If there is one. We should find out first." Thoihra flexed his wings. But BoHam put a stop to that.

"They patrol their territory by flight, Thoihra," she reminded him. "If they see something new in the sky with them, they'll attack you."

"And I would attack right back," he said, his dark crimson-violet eyes glowing a bit with the heat power he had.

"I don't think that's the best way to deal with them..." CharnBat said. "We could be more ... sneaky."

The two females looked at one another, and a kind of grin crept across BoHam's muzzle - it was hard to read because of her mouthparts. But they'd long since gotten used to it. When she spread her palps and raised the inner jaw like that... was a grin.

"Between you and I we could ... begin to pursuade any small herd to leave on its own," BoHam said.

"Obstinate Steeds don't cooperate well," Caiva pointed out.

"That's why we have you 'convince' them." CharnBat purred. She slunk up to him and wrapped herself around his torso. She'd be going into heat sometime soon, perhaps they'd have kits? Their new physiology of immortality came at a cost, they would have offspring but they would also be rare. Instead of coming into heat every year or so, the females noticed they alternated about every six or eight, plus they didn't come into heat the same season.

"I still think I could just fry them," Thoihra muttered, but he knew that would be folly. Mahno also knew that.

"I would say that our abilities," he glanced at the group, "make us uniquely suited for this. So Caiva, we'll be superheroes if only subtle ones."

With glee, the group made its way toward the herdlands. Well, perhaps glee was too strong a word. Determination. They figured that if BoHam could get any information from the steeds nearby, they would be able to get the location of the other herd more easily. If they couldn't pry that information from the steeds thick skulls, then perhaps they'd just sneak around the valley until they located it. There were only two real possibilities that the ferilons thought the herd could take.

One was to the other side of the valley, where the land was rugged and difficult but livable, and the other was the once-urban setting of Nuark. BoHam got herself down to the edge of the valley, where the trees began to thin and the bright green grasses and low shrubs took over. There was precious little cover, especially for a creature as brightly colored as she. CharnBat offered to 'change her colors' for her, but the violet striped feri'taur declined. She operated with stealth, she'd been their best hunter for years.

But hunting voles and rabbits and mice was something different than this. Ferilons weren't necessarily the top predators in the forest, nor were they on the bottom of the food chain. But no animal enjoyed its privelege outside that food chan as much as the Steeds did. They were bred long ago to have a fierce self-reliance. To have strong instincts but to take commands from their leader properly and quicly.

When the scout caught a whiff of the ferilons up on their promontory rock, he gave a warning knicker. When the ferilons didn't leave, he shrieked down to the herd stallion.

All the fur on BoHam's body stood up with that sound. It was uncannily like a death scream, it'd certainly put everyone on edge. The steeds all bolted toward whoever was biggest. In most cases that meant foals went to their mothers, and in the mother's cases, they went to a big bundle of danger.

The herd leader. Sable and crimson, with an eerie look in his eyes. BoHam made sure that her powers of animal coersion were working. Either they didn't see her, or they didn't care. The steeds, once rousted into groups of ten or eleven each, sent what appeared to be their biggest member to the stallion. It was almost like a military play.

Unfortunately, the Zekirans never had wars like this. They were never organized in troops and squadrons the way these steeds were.

Thoihra wanted to get to BoHam, but he knew that would give away her position. So they set about preparing to defend themselves, from the batch of flying steeds who now rose into the air. The big black one at the point, followed by six large impressive others. Two were female, showing that these steeds never got it into their heads that they couldn't have females fight. While they got into the air, though, BoHam crept further into their territory and started looking for the bat-winged foal.

Of course, he was nearly on the other side of the valley by now. But she was quick, and as long as the steeds thought all the danger was coming from the rocks, she was relatively safe. At last, while the steeds above were shrieking and whinnying and dancing their sharp hooves in front of the other Ferilons, BoHam made it to the group where the foal stood.

He was smaller in build than most of the feather-winged ones, which confused her. It was plain that one of the mothers brought him into the world, though, because her markings of pale dust colored dots were echoed on his hide too. So it would be the mother that BoHam needed to investigate.

Calmly, quietly, BoHam reached out with her mind powers. She reached the animal's mind, and rummaged around in it for any signs of the male that'd sired her odd-winged foal.

"Got it," she whispered, and immediately started back.

While she did that, though, the boys and CharnBat were having a field day defending their rock. Thoihra had taken wing, but not left the safety of the woods. The big wings on the steeds meant they couldn't follow up there. His heat vision left one steed with a burning wing, and another with a charcoal stripe across his flank. Even so, neither of those steeds gave up any air, they continued to harry the group until they heard BoHam's chirp from the other trees behind them.

Abruptly, then, they broke off their attack. NhieuTay let loose one bolt of cold that froze the feathers right off one steed, and they tumbled to the ground - without breaking anything, it seemed. It would be a while before that one flew again, though. With the vanishing act that the ferilons did, the big black stallion decided it was time to return things to normal. He flew down and tested the air with his big nostrils, and then snorted the all-okay.

"Dumb beasts," NhieuTay muttered. "Did they get you?"

"No, I wasn't seen. Thank you," BoHam breathed, still gasping from her gallop there.

"And did you get the information?" Mahno asked.

"I did. They're in the city, but they're very few. She thought her mate was lost, that was the impression I got." BoHam told them.

"Then we need to get back up to Nuark," Thoihra said.

"Maybe if we chase the batwinged ones down into the valley," Mahno pondered, "the feathered ones would drive them away for us."

"There's a thought," said one of Caiva's heads. "But we can't be sure they wouldn't just team up. That happens with those things."

"It would depend on if it's a very small herd or not," said CharnBat, "but if it's that small we don't really need to worry about it anyway."

"Five or six won't make much difference to that herd," Thoihra said, nodding. "It's worth it either way. These feather-steeds won't be going anywhere, and they can't come into our woods anyway. They know that much."

"They're dumb as rocks otherwise," muttered Caiva. "Let's get our sleep and head out tomorrow. Today's gone anyway."

The herd turned out to be tiny. Six in total, and one of them looked to be older than the rest by a bit. One foal, that was all. It didn't look as though there were a dominant male in this group, and BoHam confirmed that with her powers. "They look to the eldest, then there are two other females, that foal, and the two brothers. Too small to survive on its own, really. No wonder the one boy there," she pointed to the one with greyish green wing sails, "went for better pickings than these old nags."

Caiva got a strange look on his faces, and started slinking toward the herd.

"What are you doing?!" CharnBat hissed.

"I'm going to catch one. We could ride them." He continued to slink until Thoihra wisely intervened with a sweep of his many wings. Depositing himself between the herd and Caiva. "You're no fun at all."

"We aren't here to have fun," Thoihra pointed out, with a worried glance over his shoulder at the herd. They surely were going to scent the group sooner or later. "We're here to move this herd."

"Who's to say that I couldn't get them to move that way?" Caiva said, and even CharnBat snickered at that. Given Caiva's typical addled energy it was entirely possible that the two headed Feri'taur could move the herd all by himself. He had help after all...

The group watched this herd for a few days. The elder of the steeds seemed wary of their presence, but did nothing but occasionally stamp her hoof on the old cement angrily.

Once they had a good idea of where they slept, how they made their way through the ruins, and where all the good hiding places might be, the tribe was about to launch a herding run. They would make lots of noise, Thoihra would swoop around in the air zapping things behind and to the sides to get the group running. They'd be able to pen the steeds into an area where the overhead was too low to take off, so they'd have to run down into the valley. Steeds, as BoHam would point out occasionally, weren't all that incredibly bright. If they were urged to run instead of fly, then she'd make sure they didn't take off.

Everyone was in position, and then...

The six Steeds erupted into a panic. So intent on their targets were the tribe of ferilons, however, they didn't see what it was that startled them. But as that was a good a cue as any, they began their run toward the herd. BoHam blasted the eldest with her most fervent animal controlling power - stay on the ground! it'll get us if we fly! stay on the ground! - and kept running as hard as she could to keep up with the big animals.

Thoihra was the first to notice what it was that had startled the herd. He was up in the air, still preparing for his first dive, when a shadow passed over him and blocked the sun briefly. He only noticed it because he was always so warm in the sun... It was no wonder he wanted to get rid of all that hot energy! But what was it that could have --

He turned to see a gigantic shape - well, gigantic compared to the ferilons and steeds, anyway. It was dark blue against the cloudy sky, with great segmented leather wings rather like those on the steeds below. A long neck, a pear-shaped body... long tail...

"What is that thing?!" Thoihra screeched, and plummeted to the ground. It was the first thing he could do, he just wanted to get out of its way. The steeds below continued their frantic run anyway, regardless of the presence of squawking ferilons. Right down into the tunnel of trees, where they'd either run out of energy or head all the way to the valley. Either way, the ferilons knew they wouldn't be returning to the ruins.

But why was Thoihra panicked too!?

He flew, wings pumping in all directions, yet somehow zipping in only one. "There's - a - thing!" He panted, and tumbled to the ground near the others. CharnBat was the last to show up, she'd been at the head of their tunnel with her powers at the ready. She slithered up and looked around.

"What just happened? Did we do that?"

"No!" Thoihra gasped. "There's something else up there! Big!"

"You are the biggest chicken known to ferilon kind," Mahno muttered, and started walking out toward the ruins again.

"Well I could say something about you being the biggest pussy but that'd be an insult to the girls!" Thoihra yelled.

Both of Caiva's heads looked at Mahno, who shrugged.

"Is this how you use the things I taught you?" Asked a low, masculine Zekiran voice. The group spun, seeing the tall dark-skinned humanoid from their past, and rushed him as a group-glomp.

"Vanya!" NhieuTay called loudly, "it's Vanya! Thoi!"

From beyond one of the overgrown walls, they could see his wingtips moving, "well that's just fine," Thoihra said with a grumble.

"What's wrong with him?" Vanya asked.

"Oh, he's just pissy because someone chose Caiva instead of him to pair up with next season..." BoHam said with her strange 'grin'.

"Well they're acting like old partners already," Vanya muttered.

"So you've come back, with... a gigantic... monster?" Thoihra finally said, coming out from the shadows and greeting their mentor.

"He's not a monster, he's Ruarth. A dragon." An odd look passed over Vanya's eyes, "oh, that's right, this is the timeline without them. Heh." He shrugged, and added, "you shouldn't be so shocked, it's rather similar to you, Thoihra."

"It's huge," the flighted ferilon said simply. "Anything bigger than me in the sky is a monster."

"That's sensible." Vanya said. "So - what ... exactly... did I miss?"

"You didn't miss, in fact you did what we'd been trying to do for days," Mahno replied. "Chasing the steeds down into the valley so they won't interfere with any more of our territory."

Suddenly Vanya got a strange guilty look on his face. "Oh. Steeds. Yes."

"Why are you getting all-" CharnBat started to say, but then she perked up and looked down toward the valley. "What's happening?"

"I think... That Ruarth just killed and is now eating one of those steeds you were talking about..." Vanya said.

"That's fine with me," NhieuTay muttered.

"Anything that keeps them from our territory, right?" CharnBat said with a bit of a grin.

"I had never really noticed your incredible cruel streak, CharnBat," Vanya said.

"I wonder which one it was," Caiva said, pushing his noses into the air and sniffing, as if he could tell that way.

Vanya's eyes glossed over a little, and then he said, "a big spotted brown one."

"That would be the elder," BoHam nodded. "Without her, the others will head toward the valley. I gave them a very strong impression of where to go."

"Then our mission was a success?" NhieuTay said, proudly. "See, I told you we were ideal as a group!"

The others rolled their eyes in exhasperation.