The usual disclaimer... based on the Swept Away RP continuity, don't own canon characters, they belong to the Big Mouse, and so on...

They seemed to stretch into forever, those few miles to the rapids, however hard and fast N'sheki's hooves pounded the earth. The mare's neck reached out with every stride, and her nostrils were like huge round spoons. Her leads changed with the twists and turns of the trail, and she shied momentarily as a slew of Deere came down in the opposite direction.

Mii'Auww hauled hard on the right rein and spurred her mount through a gap that opened in the fleeing herd. She then gripped the saddle bow as N'Sheki leaped a log in the path and landed with a thump; flecks of foam sprayed from the animal's mouth, white as the lather on her neck. Nick and Wally were ahead somewhere, trying to ferret out a trail free of flames and not completely lost in smoke. Mii's heart skipped a beat as N'sheki coughed and stumbled; again she hung on for dear life while the mare recovered herself and blew out another mouthful of spume, now tinged with smoke and cinders.

They had to slow as they came to a incline covered in loose scree which was absolutely treacherous for a horse and would have been insane to take if all the alternatives hadn't been "inferno". Mii popped N'sheki's rear with a rein end, and the mare finally went over, forelegs braced ahead of her and hind legs gathered and skidding. They reached solid footing with a spray of gravel trailing them, and resumed the tantivy.

She could hear the thumping of a helicopter's rotors now, above the roar of heat-stirred air. Wally's belting voice assaulted her right ear, "Clearing in 100 yards! Go left again, wind's not blowing that way now. You can stop there a minute."

Mii'Auww hauled the mare over, with a yank of inside rein and a furious application of outside leg. N'Sheki came to a plodding stop on a patch of grass, then dropped her head and gave a big bellows blow. Mii reached down and felt the mare's neck; it was lathered and hot. A thought pushed its way to the surface of her mind: What can I possibly do here?

She opened her canteen, took a swallow and poured a bit more over N'sheki's head and neck. Her mount stood still now, still breathing hard and not presently inclined to give any further attitude. The helicopter was still dopplering in and out, visible in flashes, then sinking beneath the treetops. His hoist line finally went taut, and he flung something eastward. Mii didn't see what it was, and the smoke was making her eyes smart. "Nick? NICK!? What's going on there?

"He finally got ahold of Dusty." the spirit called back. "He's landing now." Wally snorted. "And he's gonna be pissed."

Well, "pissed" has basically been Blade's default state since – I bought the farm." Nick spat back tersely. "You never knew him any other way BUT pissed."

Mii'Auww dismounted, then spilled a bit of water into a cloth. She wiped out N'Sheki's nostrils and mouth, and the rag came away near-black. She muttered, then checked the mare's legs and feet. N'Sheki's hooves had a few new nicks, but no cracks or bruises in the sole, gods be thanked. Mii walked the animal around in circles a few times, not wanting her to stay still too long and stiffen up. Nick darted away again, and Wally apparently wasn't finished with him, so he followed. Finally, she poured a little bit of water in her cupped hand and let the mare lick it out before allowing herself a swallow. The effort that N'Sheki had put out had not left her limping or sore. At least, not this time.

Why were the spirits away again? Did they want to get a few more licks in on each other, or was what was coming next something they didn't want to miss? She looked up towards the trees; the winds were blowing favourably for her, but were driving the conflagration in the general direction of where she had last seen Blade. It was as if she was watching a wall of flickering soldiers march inexorably over the forest canopy. That there was so much she was missing and couldn't get to see – THAT was the most frustrating thing. Mii firmly put her mind back on her mare, pausing in the walk to feel her mount over once again. N'Sheki's body temperature and pulse rate were settling back to a resting level, and there were no respiration problems, Mii's biggest concern in a smoke-filled piece of Hell.

Then, during a momentary lapse of wind, she heard things. Voices. Raised, angry voices. But neither of Nick, or of Wally. They were enough for N'Sheki to fling her head up, snort and sidestep a little as they came to her over the fire's crackle. Mii was able to make out two sentences in particular.

"Go win another trophy!"

"I can't!"

That saying the mountain people had, about cats in bags. Why would someone put a cat in a bag? Well, no matter, THAT feline was now not only out but snarling, spitting and hissing for all it was worth.

Then, as swiftly as they'd departed, Nick was back at her side. "Find some cover. Blade's lifting off for a peek."

Mii's eyes darted around. She and N'Sheki were in the middle of bare ground. Exposed. Then she saw a dip in the land's contours, and dragged the mare towards it. She bore down on N'Sheki's withers with one hand and tugged on her near-side rein with the other. Hopefully the mare would remember that part of her training, though she would probably resist while on a downslope. After a half-rear of protest, rewarded with a sharp tap on the shin for emphasis, N'Sheki finally went down on her knees and onto her side. Mii lay across her neck. Blade's attention would be more on the trees and the flames' progress than on anything beyond, but why take a chance?

When the rotors faded again, Mii raised her head and dared a skyward glance. There was blue sky... and smoke. She pulled N'Sheki up again, and saw the fires leapfrogging towards where the voices had come. A helicopter could flee, easily.

A plane? Not so much.

Wally finally returned, but with his usually peevish face even more drawn and pale than Mii supposed usual for a ghost. "Blade's not going anywhere. He's staying with Dusty."

Nick's eyes widened, but he nodded. "That's the Blade I always knew. I knew we'd be back together someday... but today?!"

"What do they think they're going to do there?" Mii'Auww butted in sharply.

After a long sigh, Wally answered. "There's an abandoned mine there. They're going inside and hoping the burn-over will spare them. But at the rate that fire's going, and the duration I... believe it will have...they might just be reduced to slag in there."

"Like the people in Dresden."

Nick and Wally turned as Mii spoke. "Dresden? How do you know about that?"

I've gone to the mountain people's school." Mii's fists clenched. "In their history classes, we learned of their wars, how people who went into the bomb shelters in Dresden – the human's Dresden - were literally burned to ash because incediary bombs were used. I don't know if it would burn THAT hot here, but with how dry it is..." her eyes went to the flames now encroaching on the edges of the mine site, and then went diamond-hard. "That...white-coated bastard. His choices... his vanity... it all led to this."

Wally's look was stone-cold. "The only reason I wouldn't wish death on Spinner is that then WE'D be stuck with him, but you've already heard that."

Nick was muttering something in Spanish. The vehemence of it was such that no translation was really necessary, let alone repeatable. He then came back to English. "Dammit. Dammit to Hell and back. What can we do?"

Wally took a long, considering look back towards the inferno. It was moving fast. "If that smokejumper crew were here," he began... "they could start a backfire about... thataway." he nosed in a northwestern direction. "It might stop that blaze from burning over completely. But unfortunately, they're tied up elsewhere right now. The fires would have to be set with exact timing and within a certain window." he paused, looking back at the quiver on the mare's saddle, then straightened his face as if to suppress some outlandish notion.

Nick wasn't missing it. "Wally, you got that "schemey" look on your face. Just spit it out."

"Wwwwell..." the Orion-ghost turned to Mii'Auww, "Mii... what shape is your horse in? Is she up to another big run?"

Mii looked back and felt N'Sheki's neck again. "Her pulse is down, and she's breathing OK. She recovers quick."

Wally looked away for a beat, then turned back to look Mii in the face. "Mii... I know, it's kinda late to ask this... but do you trust me?"

Mii'Auww froze, staring ahead. "Trust you?"

Nick took on a blank look as he did the math. "Wally, there's a hundred thousand things that could go wrong with this."

"A small chance is better than nothing." Wally shot back. "But ultimately, it's up to her."

Mii stood a moment, hand on the saddle bow. There was not an inch of her or N'Sheki that did not already reek of smoke and her eyes stung and watered with it. She turned... and withdrew the unstrung horse-bow from its bag, along with its string, then notched the string at one end before bracing the lower limb of the recurve against her ankle. The other string loop was dropped into place, and she inspected it briefly. There were eighteen arrows in her quiver. Six were signal arrows.

"Watch my horse." she said to the ghosts, and turned towards the edge of the wood, the six signal arrows in hand, where she saw a hot spot had flared. She held out the arrow tips, touching them to the flames. They started smoking. When released, the rush of air through the "whistle heads" of the arrows would make them burst into flame, and the pitch in the shaft would keep them going. Mii trotted back and swung herself back into her saddle. N'Sheki jerked her head up and popped her tail, but otherwise co-operated.

"Wally?" she turned as she secured her reins. "Lead the way. Tell me where to shoot."

Nick looked on, for once, he was blank. Wally turned to him in passing. "Go. Be with your bro. He's going to need all the support he can get, and the other guy too. We've got this."

The helicopter-spirit lingered for a beat, watching Mii turn her mare uphill with Wally forging ahead, then darted back to the mine.

"You have six of those fire arrows, right?" Wally ranged out ahead while Mii got her bow and arrows in hand. She would have to control her mount with leg and seat aids from this point. "From this point, the wind will be blowing in the right direction, but you have to do this in a one-minute window to get the timing right. Normally a whole crew would be doing this. Yeah, it sucks."

"Right." Mii applied her calves to N'sheki's sides, prompting the mare into a canter, following Wally directly. The Orion-ghost called back circling a large pine, "At this point, just go like hell and get ready to shoot."

N'Sheki lunged as Mii dug in her heels and yelled. As soon as the mare reached a stable gallop, Mii notched the first of the smoldering arrows. "Here!" Wally rebounded off a heap of dry brush on the off side of their approach. Mii alinged her bow as she drew, and let it fly. The arrow whistled and flared brightly before it hit home. Wally indicated another point almost as soon, and she was literally past it when she turned in the saddle and fired a backward shot. Mii was aware of her outside leg burning with the strain of bearing down on the mare's heaving side, keeping her on track. They weaved through the pines to the east, loosing a third arrow at an old dead tree trunk. It landed with a THUNKK!, but they were already too far downtrail to hear. With the mare's foam-flecks again hitting her breeches, Mii'Auww readied another arrow, and shot it over a ravine into another conglomeration of brush. Two more to go...

N'Sheki collected herself and leaped over a dry, steep-banked streambed, causing her rider to clutch at the pommel once again. The mare's ears were pinned flat against her neck, and she lashed her tail as she was once again pressed uphill, through a stand of mature conifers that looked to be well past their peak. The cracking twigs and dust stirred up by their passage only reminded her how much fuel there still remained for the burning. A wave of fleeing balsa thrushes zipped across their path, and N'Sheki shied. Mii kicked her forward again, just as Wally called out "fifty yards on the right! Forty! Thirty! Twenty! LET GO!" The fifth arrow found its nest in a rotting old pine, heavy with resin. Now just one left.

Notching the last arrow, Mii squinted as they once more headed into smoke, trusting in the tail of Wally's comet. The mare coughed as she ran on, and nearly tripped over a root. The next word from Wally came as they reached the hill's crest. "Now, that tangle there, and you've done what you can. Take the river route back down, fire hasn't reached there yet."

The final arrow whistled home, and flames reared from the parched brush. Mii took up the reins in hand again and turned the mare back downhill. The west side of the hill was steeper, and N'Sheki skidded on her haunches through the dirt. They hit bottom scrambling, and cleared another gap.

About ten yards after, N'Sheki stumbled one more time, and this time, Mii'Auww went flying over her head. The mare braked as her rider somersaulted over and went down slightly to the near side on the rocky path.

The sensation of seeing the ground coming to meet her was the last thing Mii'Auww would remember for a while.