Mary awoke to the frejn standing over her, a bottle of Consciousness in his hand. She blinked once to clear blurry eyes, then stood and thanked it. Outside the wind howled as it always did, the constant rush of dust eternally whipping against the red landscape. Mary heard the mounts whinny, and, noting the absence of a third, wept. The day was young however, and she steeled herself against the loss of her beloved jurgammersman. There was much travelling to be done, and no time to be wasted. Not much to bury anyway.

The tent came down with ease, and once breakfast was had they set off once again into the Red Wastes.

None saw the humanid come snuffling out of the mist. A dead jen hung in its pack. It felt the ground, simple but clear thoughts holding Conjunction.

Followers
one minus
All were here.
missed?
morning.
beans.
shadow.
eateateat
mustmustmust
energy is the soul of all being
go.

The being ate, tearing off large strips of meat and consuming them through its stomache-hole. Then it sifted off into the wastes, following the tracks of Mary and Frejn.

League after league of gray iron dust assailed the travelers, pushing ever onward into the cracks and folds of their beings, lacing their bodies with the rotten remains of long dead civilizations. Great running lights ran every hundred miles, and at these they would stop, cherishing the last vestiges of hope humanity had left on this world. At the second such light they made camp. Frejn dissapeared once more and Mary set up Tent. Throwing the remains of her dinner into the wind, she attempted to sleep. Before she could drink of it, a vibration reached her ears. A dull rumble on the wind, a trembling in the ground. Something large was approaching. Mary stepped out of the tent. Nothing in sight. Of course, that meant nothing in the Maur. Things came and went here with nary a sight, and to see was not to know what was truly there. A clanging joined in, and Mary stepped out of the tent, curious. There. By that crater, that unholy edifice of the old days, therein lay the sound. Ash crumbled beneath her feet as she climbed, the noises growing louder and greater in number. At the rim, She-Who-Searches-For-Her-Husband looked out and beheld the source of the noise.