Seto didn't realize he had slept until he woke the next morning to sunlight creeping under his eyelids. Yawning, he sat up and looked about. The desert dawn was arriving, but the group showed no signs of stopping. He dug a burnoose out of his pack to shield himself from the growing glare.

The familiar feeling of talons gripping his shoulder returned as the falcon landed. She seemed to have forgiven him for his rudeness the night before, although he didn't much care. "The Akanep say that if we keep moving, we can make it to Suresh before noon," she told him.

"Mmmmg," he grunted, still drowsy.

The falcon sighed and looked around at the rather monotonous landscape, broken occasionally by rocks dwindling in size, midgets compared to the looming Ashbaúdi hills that were receding into the distance as the group progressed. The desert was becoming less rocky but more hilly, the stony plains giving way to rolling dunes.

They crested another dune and met a sight that was like a slap in the face. It was as if a giant hand had suddenly smoothed the wrinkles out of a crumpled quilt, and so in front of them there was a vast plain of immense proportions, flat and absolutely empty.

"The Plain of Adcha," whispered the falcon in an awed voice. "This is the site of a great battle that took place many years ago between the Akanep and the Renunep. Countless warriors were slain on both sides, and the brutality and inhumanity seen here is unmatched to this day. It is where life died."

All was silent as they descended onto the desert floor. Dust devils danced around them as the wind whispered words that could not be made out. A cold shiver ran down Seto's spine. He could feel the pain of the lost souls who had died here, feel them crying out for help. But there was an impassable barrier between the worlds of the deceased and the living, and it was wearing thin as the spirits of the dead beat against it, screaming for mercy.

Yet all was silent. All was still. The quiet pressed up against Seto's ears and nose, smothering him and making his skin prickle. It was everywhere.

The Akanep did not show their nervousness on their faces, but they cast wary glances around them every minute or so, urging their mounts forward a little faster than usual. Some of the youngest children were whimpering softly and clinging to their parents.

The wind breathed its hot breath down Seto's neck, swirling around him invisibly.

Suddenly Azar halted, her nose twitching as she tested the air. She sat erect in the saddle, tensed and cautious. The wind carried a foul scent to her nose, making it prickle and burn. Baring her teeth, she turned to her comrades and said, "Nanem eshek ke Renunep." The Vipers are here.

The group sprang to life, the horses tossing their manes in the wind, stomping the sand with their huge hooves, and snorting nervously. Their nostrils flared as they smelled the fear on the wind. Their riders moved into defensive positions, hands on their sword hilts. A.N. Don't you just love the word "their"? Hehe ok I'll stop now.

All was silent. All was still.

Except…

There was something moving atop a sand dune to the east. Something small, a dark blot on the landscape, but something nonetheless. Too large to be a human… No, wait, it was a person on a horse… And now the blot was being joined by at least twenty others like it, lining the top of the dune where it met the sky like stitches in a blanket.

"N'gem aata," whispered Azar. Silently, every Akanep warrior drew an arrow from their quiver and put it in their bow, ready to fire.

In a single rolling surge of black, the attacking riders charged toward them. As they drew closer, Seto could make out that they wore white objects carved from stone around their necks… with a sickening stomach lurch, he realized that they were not stones, but bones.

The rider at the head of the Renunep displayed a headdress that was a human skull, its hollow eye sockets staring eerily. It was tattooed with strange designs and adorned with violet feathers and jeweled beads. The Renunep carried strange curved swords that glinted in the sunlight. To Seto's alarm, the Renunep archers were lighting their arrowheads on fire, nocking them in their bows, and letting them fly. They sailed into the sky in a flaming arc, whistling towards the Akanep. All of the Scorpions were smart enough to drag their horses out of the way, but Yugi was not so lucky. A burning arrow landed right next to his horse's back hoof, and the horse bucked and reared, writhing in fear. Yugi held on for dear life as his horse went into a fit of fright, its eyes rolling wildly.

In a split second, the Vipers were upon them, snarling, whooping, crying out with unearthly screams that sent chills into Seto's heart. The two tribes clashed with a ferocity unmatched by anything he had seen before. Baring their teeth menacingly, the Akanep charged forward to meet them, swinging their swords. The harsh ring of metal on metal grated on the air. The horses' flying hooves stirred up clouds of dust that made Seto cough and clouded his vision. Screams of pain and yells of triumph soon erupted from time to time as blood spattered on the white sand. Sweat gleamed on the horses' shining coats, and the warriors' chests heaved with exertion. Flame was everywhere, crackling hungrily. Mixed with the dust, the smoke stung Seto's eyes. He struggled to disentangle himself from the fray, but he was trapped in a net of bodies, horses and humans, battling with pure venomous hatred in their eyes.

Sliding through the skirmish like oil on water, a one-eyed Viper with a murderous glint in his remaining eye charged toward Seto, his much-used battle-axe out in front of him. Gritting his teeth, slightly dazed that he was in an actual battle, Seto clenched his fist around his Millennium Rod and nudged the coil of power into a whip, wrapping it around his attacker's torso and jerking the Viper to the ground. His horse panicked and trampled him. Seto turned away, feeling sick.

The Akanep outnumbered their adversaries, but they had not bet on the power of fire. Some of the Scorpion horses were shying away from the flames, a few even stumbling or trying to throw off their riders. To Seto's horror, he saw that Yugi's horse was out of control; part of its tail was on fire. It bucked and screamed in fear and pain, trying to shake off the flickering orange demon. But a group of three Renunep, fighting back to back, were blocking his path. Steeling himself, he wheeled his mount around and charged right into the middle of them, using the Millennium Rod to create a shield around himself that blasted the attackers away from him.

Azar, who was also glancing at Yugi with concern, ran through one last Viper before coming to Seto's aid. He was amazed once again at what a superb fighter she was; she moved so easily through the motions and wielded her sword like a third arm. She came through the opened that Seto had created, and with one giant, heart-stopping leap, pivoted out of her saddle to land lightly on Yugi's horse's rump. Grabbing the boy and slinging him over her shoulder like a sack of potatoes (Seto would have smirked had the situation not been so dire), Azar cut the burning harness free from the horse with a few swift strokes. She guided the horse bareback over to Skull-Shatterer and remounted him with Yugi behind her, clinging to her with his eyes shut tightly. With a feral yell, Azar wheeled Kaizahur around and plunged right back into the midst of the battle.

The Vipers were outnumbered, but they fought with such a cunning swiftness that their attack was effective enough to successfully hinder the Akanep. Even as members of their tribe were being cut down, each and every one of them had the same creepy, mirthless smile on their face. Baring spooky pointed teeth, their violet eyes gleamed with malice. They seemed to be enjoying themselves as they fought to the death with their mortal enemies.

But this was no place for young children. Even the six year olds were skilled at controlling a horse, but they were not ready for such a dangerous situation.

The falcon, who had not moved from his shoulder the whole time, echoed his thoughts aloud. "We need to get the small ones out of here."

Seto nodded. "But how…?"

"Some kind of diversion, perhaps…"

Out of the blue, a shrill cry split the air. "Hiyahhhhhhhhhhh!" screamed Suzuko as she guided her white-eyed mount straight toward a knot of fighters. Mokuba was holding onto her tightly with his head down, plainly frightened for his life. Seto had no idea where Suzuko had just come from, but as he saw her ride straight toward the warriors, he was mildly impressed at her courage. Or maybe it was just stupidity…

Plainly surprised, both the Scorpions and the Vipers stopped what they were doing for a moment to stare at the small, fiery-headed child who was galloping toward them and screaming bloody murder. This split second of stillness was the break that Seto and the falcon needed. Taking off like a shot into the sky, the bird shouted something urgently in Akanep. All of the children, accompanied by some of the older adults, broke away from the fight and made a mad dash toward the distant tents.

It took a second for the Renunep to register this. Pure rage slashed across their faces, uglier than the worst scar. The one-eyed leader roared something and pointed his sword at the fleeing riders. "Nggre theke!" he snarled. After them!

The air was filled with dust and the thunder of hoofbeats, a deafening roar that overwhelmed all of Seto's senses. He urged his horse forward, trying to steer it frantically, but it shook its mane imperiously and galloped off as if it knew the way to go. In fact, it probably did.

His horse ploughed through the fracas, its nose leading the way as its sensitive nostrils quivered. It whinnied suddenly and without warning, reared up onto its hind legs, lashing out with deadly hooves. It felt like someone had just tipped the world sideways and Seto was falling off. He realized he had closed his eyes, and opened them a little ways to see his own horse smash a Renunep warrior in the face with one diamond-hard hoof. Feeling sick, Seto buried his face in the horse's neck and knew that it meant death to get into the way of an Akanep warhorse's hooves. But it was still a human being…

Shake it off, something inside him growled. Who cares? They were going to kill you anyway.

His stomach turning violently, Seto forced the feeling down and pushed the bad thoughts away, concentrating on staying on his horse. It seemed like an eternity that the rampage continued, but finally the Renunep's unearthly war cries faded as they retreated back into their territory. The horses, their sides heaving and soaked with sweat, rounded a dune and jerked abruptly into a rough canter, then a bumpy trot, then finally a walk as they reached the beautiful Akanep capital of Suresh, the City of Wreaths.

There had never been a more welcome sight.