The grass itself rose from the ground and tried to grab the ostriches’ legs. They screeched and bolted, forcing Nakato, Phirun, and Thabit to hold on for dear life. They thundered into the village square and split up as they passed a massive tree that, to Phirun’s memory, hadn’t been there less than two weeks previously. Phirun flung himself off the bird, and landed hard on the dirt. Thabit jumped off easily and was ready to chop away the branch that swung toward them.

Phirun stared in horror as the tree moved its many limbs back, preparing to attack them. He scrambled to his feet and fled to where Ham and Hrag lay immobile.

Thabit jumped through the air and parried branch-thrusts with his blades. He laughed and used the tree to propel himself up to its crown, where he moved about in a dance that should have been deadly and graceful, but managed to look stupid and clichéd.

Nakato rode the ostrich through the town, and when it finally calmed down, calmly dismounted and walked toward the now distant huts.

Ham lay on the ground, unable to move for the icy bonds around him. He was ignoring them, however, and instead was concentrating on the lots of little red-and-black bugs that were crawling around near him. They didn’t seem happy to see him.

Hrag tried to drag himself closer to his assailants, but his leg hurt worse than a hive full of bee-hornets when he moved it. He winced and stayed still.

Ganymede sweated in the heat. He didn’t even try to move beyond standing there and keeping Ham tied up.

Neros twirled around to face the sudden tree, and with one hand summoned a stream of water to intersect Hrag’s next attack. “What the…?” he began, watching the two ostriches tear out of town, and Thabit fighting the tree. He ignored Phirun, thinking he was just another terrified villager (and, oddly enough, he was technically right).

A laugh cut through the confusion like a knife. It was high pitched, hysterical, and had an odd edge of annoyance to it. Nakato was too far away to hear it, but she would have recognized it as a warning of a storm to come.

Of course, the storm was already here. The fire heated and dried the air to a worse-than-desert climate, and that was all that Apiyo needed. Wind howled around the once burning houses, picking up dirt and dust and sand and heavier things. The mistress of the weather herself descended from a lofty position in the clinging smoke, and settled on the ground an appropriate distance from the tree.

Thabit lost his footing and fell off the tree. He picked himself off the ground easily in time to chop another branch away.

Eshe and Abungu twirled out of the trunk of the tree.

“Well, well, well. What have we here?” asked Eshe.

“Kamenwati’s brother Thabit, is it?” continued Abungu.

“Hello?” asked Thabit.

“Ah yes, the man of the hour. Why don’t we strap him down?” Eshe grinned.

“Don’t try to move. It’ll only make it worse,” warned Abungu as a large number of vines overcame Thabit’s defense and bound him to the tree.

Thabit struggled, but he couldn’t escape. He could barely breathe.

And then when one thought things couldn’t get any more confusing, Kamenwati appeared from behind a house. “Hello, brother.”

Neros decided that now would be a good time to neutralize his previous opponents, so he wrapped a thick watery rope around the two fire-makers. He nudged Ganymede, who froze them together.

Hrag raged, but everyone ignored him.

“Well, this’ll be fun,” commented Apiyo, seeing the two newcomers. “More variables.” She paused. “Plus C.”