Thunder rolled languidly across the sky, slowly chasing lightning flashes that briefly illuminated the room. Waking up, the girl had no idea of where she was, nor who she was. At a glance she appeared to be in a stable, hay and bags of feed that had broken open littered the floor. A soft cheep startled her and she leapt up to find it's source. The green flit squirmed her way from a fold in the tunic she wore, looking quizzically up. "Prynne..." The name came unbidden from her mouth as the the girl lifted the firelizard to eye-level.

"Where am I?" she asked the creature, as if it could give an answer. Nothing came to memory when she thought, and a painful bump on the back of her head hinted at some sinister occurrence that had placed her here. Footsteps came from outside, along with low voices. Frantically the girl looked around for a hiding place and dove for a pile of dry hay, burying herself just as the door opened.

A man's voice, "Are you sure you saw someone? This place has been abandoned for quite some time."

"Yes I am! I swear, there were two men carrying someone smaller. It looked like a girl with that long hair." This one was also male, but his voice was lighter, probably younger than the first.

"Did you see what they looked like?"

"No Da, it was dark and raining. I was lucky to have seen them at all."

A soft touch on her leg drew the girl's attention downward, where she saw a tunnel snake winding it's way around her ankle. She scrambled from the straw pile, screaming. Both men nearly went running through the door until they saw her as she tried to get the snake off her foot. "Hold still girl, you'll get bitten!" The older man had to nearly sit on her to keep her from moving as he grabbed the tunnel snake and threw it out the door. A green flit dived at him, flapping her wings in his face and screaming. "Shards! Call you flit off girl!" he shouted, bringing his arms up to protect his face. "Girl?" The flit stopped and flew to perch on the girls knee, crooning worriedly. When the man picked himself up he saw that the child had fainted, her face ashen.

"You killed her Da!" "She's not dead," the older man said, kneeling down to pick her up. "only unconscious. Let's get her inside." They hurried back in, the younger boy holding his jacket over her to keep her as dry as possible.