Ok, so, I have no real excuse for the chapter being so late. It would have been in yesterday except that my account wouldn't work. It was very frustrating. Anyway, I don't know anything about Gypsies - I didn't do any real research - so let's assume that the Ravi are notmy version of Gypsies, but instead something completely different. Also, I'm positive I missed something when I was editing, so can someone tell me where it is? Thanks.

Recap: Serena of Springwood's parents have been mysteriously kidnapped and, after falling ill because of poisonous berries, she had been taken in by a Caravan of Ravi

Serena awoke suddenly as everything around her began to jerk and rustle. The floor was moving!

It took her awhile to realize that it was simply the Wagon moving off. Her heartbeat went back down and she took a deep breath, rolling her eyes at herself a little. She glanced around the Wagon. The same neat, ordered vision greeted her, except for the little corner full of scarves and glass balls – in the sunlight, they gleamed even brighter than before.

Next to the scarves was Elli, propped up on a cushion and sewing up a hole in a dress. Sitting across from her was a boy who was throwing a bright green ball straight up in the air and catching it, over and over. Then, while the green ball was in the air, he threw a yellow one and caught the green one, threw it, caught the yellow one, threw it…

"You're awake."

Serena was startled out of her mesmerized state, and blinked stupidly at Elli for a moment. "… yes… I am."

"Well, maybe not awake." Elli giggled. "Are you hungry?"

Serena nodded. Elli stood up – stabilizing herself easily in the rocking Wagon – and sat down next to Serena, propping her up on some pillows. She handed Serena a thin slice of something that looked like bread, but smelled strongly of nutmeg and cinnamon. It was warm, and melted on her tongue.

"It's netcha. Good, huh?"

Serena nodded, and ate the rest quickly.

"Mother said to give you two slices and some water. We have to keep your stomach settled."

Serena nodded again, content to let Elli talk. The boy in the corner had barely looked up since the beginning of the exchange. He added a blue ball, and began traditional three ball juggling. Serena had always been jealous of people who could do that.

After she finished her breakfast, she dozed off again. She felt so inexplicably tired, even after three days of sleep. When she woke up again, the boy had left and Elli was reading in the corner. Serena lay back and stared at the canvas that covered the roof of the wagon. She felt leadenly heavy, like she couldn't possibly be strong enough to lift her little finger. Just to test, she lifted her hand, and was almost surprised that her armed worked.

Suddenly, a gray-green scarf fluttered into her vision and a spark of fear shot through her. And the memories of the moonlit chase through the forest returned, her parents gone, her shawl lost, her feet blistering and her mouth dry. Serena's heart pounded with the memory and she gave a dry swallow.

People she didn't know… she was trusting people she didn't know, complete strangers. She took a deep breath and tried to be rational. Her father couldn't have meant everyone she didn't know. There were some people she knew who she couldn't trust – like the stable boy, who put a frog in her drawer once. And, really, right now she had no choice. They seemed like nice people.

But her heart continued to race, and her palms became sweaty, and it was a long time before Serena could fall asleep again.

The next day, Serena woke up feeling much better. She asked Elli if it would be alright if she got out of bed. She suddenly felt like she had to stretch her legs. Elli helped her up and supported her as she walked carefully around the moving wagon – not very promising first steps, and days in bed made her overwhelmingly dizzy.

But when they stopped later that day for a quick lunch, Serena climbed out, and walked around the Wagon a few times, smiling with joy as the knots in her muscles released. For a few minutes, the fears that had barraged her constantly vanished. She took a deep breath of fresh air, and didn't want to ever go back into the Wagon. Finally, everyone was done eating, and she was helped back in, and sat down once again on the bed she was beginning to loath.

Noticing her boredom, Elli convinced the boy – her brother Ran – to teach Serena how to juggle. Serena spent the rest of the day tossing a ball up and down, then two, and trying to overcome her shyness with the older boy. She was beginning to get the hang of two – which is unexpectedly hard – when the wagon stopped for the night. After dinner, she went back to bed, and fell asleep quickly, surprising herself with how tired she was.

When she woke up, it was to noise and heat. Shadows of people walking outside were projected into the canvas, and the rowdy voices of a crowd surrounded them. Someone had closed the flaps at the back of the Wagon, and the only air getting in was through the bottom, in the gaps between the canvas' ties to the wagon's frame.

Serena sat up, groggily confused. Elli, forever cheerful, laughed.

"We've reached Chitret, Rina."

Over the past two days, Serena had gotten used to her assumed name. "Chitret?"

"We're stopping to do a show."

"Why are the flaps closed?"

Elli smiled. "It keeps the mystery in. If people saw how boring it was in here, they wouldn't come and see us." Serena snorted . "And it keeps the dust out."

Serena didn't say anything. It had suddenly occurred to her that Chitret was the end of the road for her. After this – she would find a way to get back home. Maybe her parents had escaped. Maybe they were looking for her. Maybe…

Perhaps she could sell her jewelry and buy a carriage ride back to Springwood. Did they have those for that long a trip? Maybe she could join a traveling group that was going that way. Or she could buy shorter rides, from city to city. She would get home somehow.

She glanced over at the box with her jewelry in it. Mara had told her where it was, but Serena had left it there. She didn't have any real reason to move it, or any place to move it to.

"Elli."

"Um-hmm?"

"When am I leaving?"

Elli paused. "I don't know."

"Oh."

They passed the next half hour in silence. Finally, the Wagon stopped and Mara came around to open the flaps. Outside was a long, empty expanse, mostly dirt and grass. But already, other Wagons had begun to unload bright cloths and signs, almost as if pulling a fair out of their seemingly normal, but for the symbols and words painted across a few of them, dust-covered Wagons. A small crowd, mostly children, was watching.

"Up and at 'em, girls!" Mara began to tie up the flaps of the wagon. "Rina, would you mind helping us to set-up?"

"Of course not." Serena smiled, mostly relived that she wasn't being immediately kicked out of the Caravan. Not that she really expected it to happen, but her fears had, of recent, begun to fiercely outweigh her logic.

Serena stood up, carefully, glad that her legs didn't immediately buckle under her. She stepped carefully to the ground, helped by Mara, as Elli pulled nine short but sturdy looking wooden poles out of the Wagon.

"I need to go supervise the food stall. After you take those over to Larn's Wagon, came back and have some breakfast. Your brothers are setting up the signs and your father is helping Larn to set up the layout." Mara spoke quickly to her daughter, smiled at Serena, and headed off toward a group of women.

Elli picked up one of the poles, and gestured for Serena to take another. "These are the poles that will hold up the main stage. Larn is the head of our Caravan, and he is given the privilege of keeping the baseboards of the main stage in his wagon."

"He has a whole stage in his wagon?" Serena picked up the foot-long pole and was surprised at how heavy it was.

Elli laughed. "No, it's in four pieces and he stacks one on each wall and two on the bottom of one of his Wagons. His family has two."

"Because he's the head of the Caravan?"

"No, his family has just always had two. Some do. Sometimes they're gained as part of marriage agreements, or a family buys new ones when we reach a city. There's a family with four Wagons, but they have eight children and an aging grandmother to take care of." Elli shifted the pole in her arms. "We have two Wagons, actually. Well, we share it with another family, but it's where my brothers have slept this week."

"Oh! I'm sorry. Did I throw them out?"

Elli glanced back over her shoulder. "No, not really. Well, it wasn't your fault. And they don't mind – the other wagon holds some of the costumes, and the Wagon is much softer than ours."

A little while later, they reached Larn's Wagon. It was in the very center of the long, long arc that had formed all along the edges of the area.

"How many people are in your Caravan?" Serena looked up and down the arc.

"I'm not sure. Maybe a hundred or so… a hundred and twenty? Maybe more." Elli set her pole down, and Serena did the same. The Ravi girl shouted at four men who were pulling a large plank out of the middle Wagon. They turned and nodded, then continued their task. Elli and Serena walked back to pick up more of the poles.

"Are all Caravans this big?" Serena hadn't seen much of it on the road, and it seemed impossible that such a large group could travel so quickly.

"Well, most Caravans are smaller, but about thirty years ago, our Caravan and another Caravan…"

Serena unconsciously tuned out Elli's speech about the Caravans' combination, her attention caught suddenly by the flurry of activity going on around her. The Wagons, at least thirty of them, had created a giant semi-circle in what seemed to be a clearing at the edge of a large city, carved out from the dense forest beyond the Wagons.

But inside the semi-circle, a different kind of forest was growing. Stalls and stages were popping up in what at first seemed random, but slowly sorted itself out into rows and columns. Serena spotted Gan, briefly, pointing a group of people carrying a myriad of scarves toward the correct area. People, who had seemed normal but for the darkness of their skin, popped out of Wagons wearing elaborate costumes, bright gold jewelry, and strange face paints. Plain wooden frames quickly became brilliant stages, mysterious alcoves, and inviting stalls. Delicious scents began to waft from behind curtains; food, drink, and incense combining into a strange, but not unsavory, odor.

As Elli handed the last pole to one of the men, she turned toward the spectacle in front of her. "Amazing, isn't it?"

Serena nodded. "I've never been to one of these… these… what are they called?"

"We call them performances or shows. There isn't a real title for them. They aren't part of our real culture." Elli turned back toward her family's Wagon.

Serena glanced toward her. "What do we do now?"

"It's time for breakfast. Then, if my mother doesn't find us, whatever we want!"

They had two slim pieces of netcha apiece, and some fresh milk someone had bought in the city. Once they were finished, Elli pulled Serena toward the festivities. They wove their way through the lanes, past practicing dancers and half-covered crystal balls, costumed women applying purple powder to each others' faces, people setting up beaten-looking pewter cans and small leather balls.

Elli pointed out the main stage, already half-way constructed. The posts were placed in rows of three and the four pieces of the stage attached to them. Elli explained that there were holes in the stage and the poles, through which the screws could be screwed in and out easily.

Suddenly, Mara appeared out of nowhere, holding a heavy back cloth with fake-looking 'diamond' pendants hanging off the edges. "Girls! Can you take this over to our stall and begin setting up? Thanks!" She dumped the cloth in the girls' arms and hurried off before they could say anything.

Elli rolled her eyes jokingly at her mothers' back. "She found us."

Serena giggled.

Elli spotted one of her brothers darting around a stand. "Ward! Ward!" He whipped around, surprised, then annoyed.

"What?"

"Where's our stall?"

"What?"

"WHERE'S. OUR. STALL?" Elli yelled. Her brother hadn't come any closer.

"Down three, up two that way." Ward ran off.

"Down three, up two?" Serena asked.

"Down three stalls, up two stalls." Elli walked in the direction her brother had pointed, pulling Serena with her. "It's a grid system… sorta. If we were perfect, our stalls would create perfect lanes. But usually, in the process of setting up, we end up forming little side alleys, and lots of people are only visited by the extremely lost. My father and Larn made up some complex system to make sure that it the stalls switch around."

"What kind of stall is this for?" Serena twirled one of the glass balls.

"My mother tells peoples' fortunes." They turned the corner and saw the stall and two teenage boys, one of whom was Ran. "Ran! Tai! I thought you were putting up signs." Elli smiled at her brothers.

They had already set up a table and were piecing together a seven or so foot tall frame. "We only put up three before mother grabbed us and ordered us over here." Tai, the older one, answered. "Hello. Rina, right?"

Serena nodded, desperately trying not to blush. She wasn't around boys much – at least not any boys she hadn't know since she was born, like Jim whose father ran the farm. He was normal – she could talk to him. She could pour water down his back. But with boys she didn't know… Serena tried to suppress the fear that shot through her… she could barely nod. She sighed and tried to control the rush of embarrassment and fear that had come with her thoughts.

"I suppose we're supposed to set up the table. Mom gave us the table cloth." Elli began to set the cloth down on the table, drawing Serena out of her reverie. "Did either of you bring the Ball?"

"No." Ran turned back to the frame.

"Great. Ok, Serena, we need to go back to the Wagon and get it." She turned away from the table.

"Ok." Serena squeaked.

They worked their way back to the Wagons.

"The Ball?" Serena asked. She had noticed the way they had said the word, as if it were capitalized.

"It's a family heirloom. Our family has a history of Fortune Telling. My Great-Grandmother was famous for it. People said she could tell someone's future just from looking at them. Her father gave her the Ball."

"Really? I always wondered if the whole idea was real or not." Serena glanced at Elli, surprised.

"Oh, it is! Well… sometimes. My grandmother inherited the Ball and the stand, and my mother inherited it from her. I'm not sure about my grandmother, but I know that my mother doesn't have any actual skill. She guesses most of it, or makes up something general enough to believe. For example, the whole 'Tall, Dark Stranger' thing." Elli shrugged.

"What about you?" Serene asked quietly.

"I don't know… It's said that such talent skips a few generations… But…" Elli trailed off.

They continued on in silence. When they reached the Wagon, Elli climbed inside and passed first the glass Ball Serena had seen before, and then a small circular stand out to Serena.

Once they returned to the stand, they spread the cloth out, the glass balls on the ends forming a sort of fringe around the table. They set the Ball, the much larger version of the table cloths' fringe, carefully in the center. Elli draped a thin, purple scarf over it, and they stood back to admire the table. A moment later, the two boys finished putting up the frame.

"Where's the Stall Cloth?" Ran asked.

"In the Wagon, I suppose." Elli replied.

"I thought you were going to get it." Tai said.

"Ha!" Elli exclaimed. "Now we're even!" She giggled.

"Well… can you get it?" Ran asked.

"No! You get it yourself." Elli snorted at her brothers.

"Fine, we will." Tai said, angry for no other reason than he was talking to his sister.

Serena smiled as they walked away. "Is that what it's like to have siblings?" She asked.

"I supposed so. You're an only child?" Elli shrugged.

"Um-hmm." Serena nodded. "What does the Ball do?" She asked, changing the subject. She still felt paranoid talking about herself.

"Mostly it provides extra atmosphere. In someone with a real gift, it can be used to bring forth images or as a vessel to channel power through. Sometimes it was used to store spells or prophesies. It's said that my Great-Grandmother gave a prophesy, once."

"A prophesy?" Serena gazed intently at the covered Ball, a chill crawling up her spine.

Fortune Telling and Prophesies were very different things. Most with the ability to see into the future couldn't prophesize. Anyone who could do so earned at least temporary fame. Those who had more than a few recorded foresights became famous worldwide and for all time. Prophesies were about fate, things that could not be avoided. They were usually made long before those involved were born, and had foreseen everything from someone breaking a chair to the fall of empires. But they were notoriously vague. Many warned of future dangers and those who could prevent them, but not whether or not they would succeed.

"A prophesy." Elli stared at the Ball too, as if she could draw out the secret with the sheer power of her gaze. Then she shook her head, pulling herself out of it. "But it's just a rumor. And in a Ravi camp, you can barely trust the things that come out of your own mouth." Elli grinned, back to normal. "But, come. We have the rest of the day in the midst of a Ravi performance, show, carnival, whatever you want to call it. And you've barely seen anything!"