This time the gnashing, ravenous spectre of bones and fire did not come alone. As the delvers recovered from the marauding of ghosts-- checked Daybreak for wounds, dressed the scrapes Jasmine had acquired in defending him, took stock of their position and judged their choice of campsite unwise-- Veda became aware of a rising shriek in the wind. Nothing unusual for the Moors, save for its closeness. It came with a rumbling, a shifting of the ground beneath her hooves. She staggered one step backward, and the stones errupted.

The beast that emerge was almost a Courser-- spectral and yawning, bathed in the crimson light of the distant Harvest Moon, and pursued by a familiar set of blazing jaws. 

"RUN!" Veda screamed. A cry which had become all too familiar these last few weeks, with this malevolent evil always chasing after them. There wasn't time, this time, to gather Daybreak's litter and break for the hills. There wasn't time to seek shelter in the ruins, or to care overmuch about the charger which pursued them, nipping hocks and hides and leaving raw red marks torn through pelts. All the girls could really do was run. 

Out of the corner of her eye Veda saw Daybreak swallowed by the Skull, and Darling after, when the little drake launched herself at it in vengeance. Then she saw Kelpie disappeared into another fissure in the earth. There one instant and then not, vanished in a mess of tangled hair and chased by the rattling of her terrified serpent. Veda pushed a little harder. Her shoulders burned, her bowed neck ached, and she put every ounce of desperate need to survive into the sight of Jasmine chasing at her heels.

Until Jasmine wasn't. 

"Wait, Veda--" Jasmine started, but her voice cut off with a strangle. In spite of herself Veda skidded to a halt, wheeled around with a cry of, "Jas--" only to choke on her words. She found the spectre with its fangs burrowed through Jasmine's throat. There was blood already, running rivers down her neck and shoulders, her wild eyes hazed with the promise of what was to come. There was no changing it, now. Just as Pythia had foreseen. 

"No..." Veda whispered. Her eyes met Jasmine's, and for an instant she entertained ideas of heroism. Then the looming ball of fire cut into view against Jasmine's back, and real life took over. Run. Run. Run. It was run now or they would all feed the fires above. There was nothing here but hate and death. Nothing but sorrow. Nothing she could do to save her friends... "I'm sorry..." Veda's voice broke as she turned away again, tearing her eyes from the gore and the fire and running all over again. She would leave this horrible place behind. She would find her sisters. She would forget.

She would forget.