"I don't see any bows," Sarraya noticed, as Tarrin realized she was starting her run. "How did you catch it?"

"The same way we catch anything," she shrugged. "You sneak up on it using the brush as cover, then jump up and run it down." She pulled out her short sword. "This is the only hunting weapon a Selani really needs, Sarraya. The only thing in the desert that can outrun us are inu and kajat, and even they can only do it for short distances."

"I remember seeing some Selani use javelins," she noted. "Remember, Tarrin?"

"Javelins are safer when you're going after chisa or a large flock of sukk," she answered. " Chisa are big, and they'll gather into defensive circles when we attack them. If there are enough sukk, they turn and attack predators in a large group rather than run. Even inu and kajat won't attack a large flock of sukk. Remember the inu we saw a few days ago?" she asked, and Sarraya nodded. "They were stalking that small flock because they knew that a flock that size would run rather than fight." She reached down and picked up one of the severed feet of the big bird, showing Sarraya its very long and wicked talons. "Believe me, Faerie, you do not want to be on the wrong side of these," she said with a slight smile.

"It looks like it would be something of an educational experience," Sarraya noted, which made Allia laugh. "How did the Selani come to tame them?"

"Actually, it's not very hard," she answered. "If you can get a sukk egg, even a wild one, you can tame the sukk when it hatches. It imprints itself to the first thing it sees, thinking that that is its mother. It will follow you around, and you can train it to prepare it for life in the tribe's flock. When it matures and separates from its mother, it remains in the flock. Even if that flock happens to with be a Selani tribe," she said with a smile.

"What about the eggs the sukk lay in your flocks? Do you have to get those too?"

"No, the mother will teach the baby everything she was taught herself," Allia answered. "Once you train one, it will train all its babies. Sukk are actually rather intelligent. That's why they'll turn and attack predators when they have sufficient numbers. They've learned that numbers give them strength." She laughed. "I've seen a flock of sukk attack kajats before," she said. "They confuse and fluster the kajat while they shred its legs with their talons. The kajat never fails to kill one or two of them, but in the end, it's the kajat that comes out on the worse side of the bargain. Once they're incited like that, sukk will actively defend the bodies of dead flock members for days, ensuring that any predator that kills one of their number won't have a chance to enjoy the spoils of its labor. Every kajat learns the hard way that ambushing a large flock is a very bad idea. Look closely at the next kajat we see's legs. You'll see the scars."

"I'm sure it's quite a surprise for it," Sarraya grinned. "Things that big aren't used to being pushed around." She said that while giving Tarrin a sidelong glance.

Allia gave her a knowing smile. "Even the mightiest kajat can be felled if enough rock mice stand together," she said in a cadence that said it was one of the Selani's sayings. But she too gave Tarrin a sly look, which made him snort shortly.

"If sukk defend the dead, how do javelins make it safe to hunt them?"

"They only defend if they're excited into fighting," she said pointedly. "When you hunt a large flock, you kill a sukk from cover. If the flock doesn't know it's being attacked, they won't defend the carcass. Sukk do occasionally die from natural causes, so when you spear one, the rest of the flock thinks it succumbed to some disease or something like that and leaves the body behind."

"Clever," Sarraya said appreciatively.

"After so long in the desert, we've learned how things work," Allia replied with a light smile.

Like that was opening the gates of a city, Sarraya and Allia began to open up to each other a little. Now that she wasn't trying to lace her conversation with barbs and comments, Sarraya was managing to hold a conversation with the Selani. Tarrin quietly withdrew himself from them to let them get to know each other all over again, and to avoid becoming a common target. As was his habit, he climbed the rock spire and sat down at its top, a surprisingly wide top that was worn generally flat by the scouring wind, and looked off to the horizon. It was too far away to see the Cloud Spire quite yet, but at least it would be a relatively easy journey. The land between them was more or less flat, with many rock spires, and there was alot of scrublands. He did remember one expanse of boulder-strewn barrens, but it wouldn't take them more than half a day or so to cross it.

He wondered how Jesmind and the others were doing. By now, Mist had to be going stir crazy, and was probably becoming something of a threat to the Sorcerers in the Tower. Jasana was probably still being punished, and Jesmind and Triana both had to watch the girl like a hawk to make sure she wasn't trying to weasel out of it. He still regretted not seeing his children and saying goodbye, but things had been rushed, and Jesmind had taken up what little free time he'd had, and Jasana was still being punished. He doubted that Eron would particularly care if he said goodbye or not; Eron was a typical Were-cat child. His mother was the only thing that truly mattered to him, the absolute center of his very young life. Tarrin wasn't angry or sad about that, because he understood it. Besides, Eron liked him and had shown some affection, and in a Were-cat child, that was the most for which he could ask. And the unusual circumstances of the situation probably made it very hard for Eron to rationalize showing love to a human. Eron had never seen his father as a Were-cat, and Tarrin had a feeling that that would make a significant difference in how the child behaved towards him.

He felt a familiar surging in the Weave that immediately centered on him; it was Jenna, and Jenna could find him much faster and more efficiently than Keritanima. She locked in on him almost instantly. He looked to where he felt Jenna's will exerting itself against the Weave, where flows pulled free of the strands and quickly wove themselves into a perfect image of her young, attractive appearance. The eyes of that projection opened, and she smiled down at where he was sitting. "Brother," she said grandly, walking over to him. "That's quite a view," she said. "I didn't know the desert was this pretty."

"Some parts of it are breathtaking," he said calmly as she sat down beside him. "Kerri told me what happened. How has it been?"

"Don't even start about that," she groaned as she had her projection sit beside him. "It's a nightmare, Tarrin. A nightmare! They dumped a mountain of problems on me from before, and the nobles are all starting to get combative and sneaky, and if that wasn't bad enough, the people in the city keep wanting to riot," she said, blowing out her breath. "Some fanatic out there is whipping them into a frenzy in the main square every day, and I have to go out there and break things up to stop it. I actually had to break them up with Sorcery today," she growled. "They can't catch the inciter, and Goddess I wish they would. I intend to peel off his skin in little tiny strips."

"I've had a bad influence on you," he teased with a smile.

"I guess you have," she grinned in reply.

"How are Jesmind and Mist?"

"Mist is getting cranky," Jenna frowned. "Triana's been splitting her time between us and Jula, and she spends most of the time with us keeping Mist from killing people. Jesmind's been a little short-tempered, at least a little more than usual. I think that's because of Jasana," she mused.

"What's she doing?"

"Moping and crying alot," she answered. "Whatever Jesmind and Triana did to her had a big impact. I think Jesmind's upset at what they did to her, and it's making her waspish."