Merida was gaining on the cloaked figure-a mere five or six yard away now. Suddenly, the woman made a sharp turn to the left into a thick growth of trees. Merida was sure that she turned into the same place, but there was no one in sight. After a minute's more hard running without sight or sound of anyone, she slowed to a halt and began examining the ground and the surrounding trees and bushes, hoping for some way to track her. When she turned around, she found-"A wisp!"

Hardly daring to breathe, she adjusted her bow and quiver slung over her shoulder and stepped gingerly toward the small blue light hovering before her. As she got closer, it vanished, and another appeared a few feet from her. She felt a rush of excitement and wonder running through her. Whatever she and Jack were getting themselves tangled up in, wisps could only mean that their fate had something big in store for them.

oooooooooo

After following the wisps for about a mile, Merida started hearing shouts. She quickened her pace, making sure she still didn't outrun the trail of blue lights. As the trees thinned out at the edge of a road, the wisps disappeared entirely. An inky black horse ran past. That couldn't be good. Sure enough, as she ran into the road Merida saw five of the dark creatures surrounding a young man and woman. The man was holding something like a pickaxe, and the girl had a large branch in her hands; they looked exhausted. How long had they been fighting off these beings?

Merida quickly got her bow, pulled an arrow from her quiver, nocked it, and aimed . . . where was she supposed to shoot a horse that seemed more spirit than animal? Could it even die? Not knowing what else to do, she aimed at a horse's breast and released. The arrow was true to its mark, but passed right through and embedded itself in a tree. The horse seemed to explode in a cloud of black dust. Merida shot three more in rapid succession, and was aiming at the last one when it seemed to disintegrate of its own accord. The other girl was standing where it had been, branch poised for battle. She then lowered it and bounded over to Merida.

"Thanks, er-"

"Merida."

"Thanks, Merida. Those things came out of nowhere and they wear you out pretty quickly. Have you ever seen anything like those before? What are we gonna do?" She bounded back and forth between Merida and the tall guy with the pickaxe or whatever it was. "We've got to find out if there are more out there! Oh no, the town! We have to warn them! We have to-"

"Whoa, slow down there." The young man gripped her shoulders for a moment to stop the girl's constant movement. He took off his hat and ran a hand through his blond hair. "But, uh, back to your first question-" he turned to Merida. "Do you have any idea what those were?"

"I don't. I'd never seen one till today."

The girl nervously ran a hand over one of her orange braids. "This is really not good. Those were so scary! I mean, they didn't look scary, but for some reason just being around them made me feel . . . well, scared. Oh, I'm Anna. This is Christopher."

"It's Kristoff."

"Kristoff."

"And yeah, I felt it too. It felt like some kind of magic-dark magic."

Merida slung her bow back over her shoulder. "Okay, so we're dealing with black dust horses that can magically make you feel fear just by being around them." She wanted to find Jack, but he could fly a lot faster than she could run and could be anywhere by now. She thought of all the people living on the edge of the wood. "Let's go to town to warn everyone." She turned and ran down the road, Anna and Kristoff at her heels.