To Kellen’s surprise, the next few days passed quickly and with relative enjoyment, compared to his first few in Oras. That was mostly because no giant bears or birds had tried to eat him, but beggars couldn’t be choosers. Everything else fell into a grueling pattern. His rear end and legs soon grew used to the constant, all-day riding and channeling his mana removed most of the pain that lingered. To make up lost ground, Tama pushed them from before sunrise past sunset into true night. Three days later, after a quick scouting mission from Shinopah, and two others Kellen came to know as Cohwea and Clouds that Burn, they learned the slavers were once again less than a full day ahead of them. Eager to catch the group, the only stops they made were to water the horses and refill their canteens when they passed by the little creeks and springs of the plains.

The landscape remained the same — dry rolling plains broken up by what seemed random spires of rock sprouting out of the ground like worms of red stone wiggling toward the sun. When he asked Nokom how far they traveled each day, she had no term of measurement, like a mile or a kilometer. Even though he couldn’t count the miles, Kellen realized how vast the Thunder Plains must be. Tama voiced her worry that they would soon pass into the foothills leading to the Earth Badger Empire mountains. Each day, Kellen looked for a telltale smudge of gray on the horizon, eager to see something besides red rock and golden grass, a familiar landscape from home. Despite Tama’s concern, they hadn’t yet come into view.

As hard as they pushed the storm horses, Kellen worried the animals might go lame, or at the very least, end up with saddle sores. Nokom explained that the value of the storm horses lay in their tough hides and endurance as much as their horns. They could go for miles on little water or short grass as well. This led Kellen to believe they were normal horses, or at least other animals similar to horses in Oras, which Nokom confirmed.

Their lengthened days on the trail cut into Kellen and Vex’s training, too. Each night when they finally stopped, Tama excused Kellen from his share of the camp-making duties in order to squeeze in an hour of lessons with Nokom. Most of the time, Nokom put Kellen through the steps of the dance she’d shown him. Although Kellen’s country line dance did the job, Nokom claimed he would need to learn many dances, thus her insistence he step outside his comfort zone. A week earlier, the embarrassment of learning a new dance in front of nine women would have mortified Kellen. Instead, he found the dance required his full attention lest he suffer the wrath of Ira’s nips or Nokom’s knuckles. The others paid them little mind as they took care of the storm horses each night, anyway.

Kellen didn’t dare ask Nokom, but felt he’d made improvements. Aside from the dances and mana shaping, he practiced channeling his mana throughout the day on horseback, a much harder task due to the horse trotting or cantering across the grasslands. It was like wearing a weighted vest while trying to tread water at the same time: a frustrating and struggle-inducing pastime. It must have done some good, though. Kellen could now form and hold a short spear-like ray of golden sun mana and conjure a shield large enough to protect two people. His spear sputtered and flickered like a bad light bulb, leaving Nokom less than satisfied despite his progress. His shields, however, shone bright and solid, earning praise from Vex, a nod of approval from Nokom and even — unless he imagined it — a few almost-impressed glances from the younger warriors of the band.

Except Shani, of course. Every bit of progress Kellen made seemed to irritate her further, even if her open hostility faded somewhat. Kellen still hadn’t quite picked up on what Nokom meant by her path of destruction. No other conversations he’d been part of or overhead gave any hint. He guessed someone she cared for was among those taken. If he’d been more confident in that answer — or more confident in talking to an intimidating person like Shani in general — Kellen might have tried to tell her he understood. An hour didn’t go by that he didn’t worry about Allison. It took all his willpower to focus on training and he only managed it at times by telling himself his lessons were meant to rescue her.

His second guess centered on an obvious truth: Shani was not a beastcaller, and neither was Tama, even though Nokom suggested the power could be passed down through blood. The old woman had also made comments about Gray Dawn’s bloodline failing, which sounded like something more than the band falling on hard times. From what Kellen pieced together, Gray Dawn was somewhere near the bottom of the totem pole in terms of societal standing among the Horse Tribes. Rank seemed based on overall size as well as the strength and number of beastcallers a band or tribe had.

When they rode at a canter, the group spread out in a v-shape, almost like a flock of geese flying south for the winter. This prevented anyone in the group from eating dust but made conversation a trial that wasn’t worth the effort. Aside from conversations with Vex, Kellen spent a large portion of the day unable to speak with Nokom and ask his endless questions. It seemed each thing he learned left him wondering more and knowing less. Sometimes Kellen asked them aloud to Vex or Vex could sense them through their bond — another topic Kellen wanted to know more about. The fox’s answers were all over the board in terms of probability of truth. Vex claimed to be an expert on everything even though he was less than a week old by Oras standards.

“We don’t know I’m only a week old,” Vex said when Kellen brought this point up. “I’m probably the reincarnated mana of a Paragon-strength Mana Beast with huge wells of untapped power just waiting to be unleashed.”

“But if you don’t remember a life like that and if you had huge wells of untapped power, wouldn’t we sense it?” Kellen asked. He secretly enjoyed their playful arguing, but to tell Vex would only encourage further outrageous behavior. It seemed obvious to Kellen that Vex’s Great Before was of course not Earth, yet whenever the place was referenced, Nokom seemed to think newly-born Mana Beasts and spirit travelers both came from there. Riding all day made his mind drift to the mysteries of Oras, especially how they might reveal a way back to Earth.

“Maybe one day it will all come rushing back and I’ll advance all the way to Paragon in the blink of an eye,” Vex said. “What do you think I’ll look like? I bet I’ll have a longer tail. And a mane! I could totally rock a big flowing mane, don’t you think?”

Kellen laughed. “I don’t think advancing works that way. Nokom says it could be months before you reach companion-strength. You’ll also need a neck before you can have a mane.”

He didn’t say it, but in his heart, Kellen hoped that months from then, he’d found both Allison and a way home. He tried to hide these thoughts from Vex. Sometimes, inklings still leaked through. In that moment, Kellen could see they had again. He focused all his thoughts on pizza but it was too late.

“You’re still thinking about going home,” Vex said in a dull voice. The little fox slumped in Kellen’s lap and even his fluffy golden fur seemed to deflate a little.

“Vex, it’s not because I don’t want to stay with you,” Kellen said. He felt like the world’s biggest jerk whenever the topic came up. “I don’t belong here. I need to get Allison home.”

Kellen knew at once he’d hurt Vex. The fox hopped off the horse and shifted into his bat form. “I’m not some kind of pet,” he said. “If you don’t belong here, what does that mean for me, that I shouldn’t exist?”

“Vex, no that’s not…” But it was too late. Vex flew away to join Ira. Both of Kellen’s hearts sank, the one that pumped blood through his body and his beast heart. He wondered why he always disappointed those close to him.

Shortly after, they called a brief halt. Kellen kept to himself, stretching his legs and checking his storm horse’s bridle and saddle. After days of constant time together, he no longer feared the animal would impale him with a flick of its head. The storm horses were quite gentle and calmer than regular horses. When there were no threats nearby. Kellen had seen the way they kicked and swung their horned heads in the fight with the bear. He hoped to never be on the receiving end of their anger.

Storm horse in good shape, Kellen wiped his nose and eyes yet again that day. The wildfire smoke seemed thicker than usual, though they’d never come across an actual fire in their days of travel. Kellen’s sinuses hated it. The irritation stopped each time he refreshed himself with mana, but Nokom had also taught him how to fill the mana stone dropped by the bear. That left his beast heart at only half full — the minimum Nokom wanted his reserve to be in case of sudden danger. Kellen sniffed and wished for allergy medicine for not the first time.

To his surprise, Ira walked over to him, accompanied by a sullen Vex. Back in his fox form, he only bounced high enough to move, missing his usual pep. Kellen sighed and prepared for a lecture from one or both of the Mana Beasts.

“I do not know what words were said between you two, but they must be resolved,” Ira said. “Your feud is a danger to yourselves and the whole band. You are an extension of one another — two in one.”

“I’m not the one who doesn’t think that,” Vex muttered.

“I wasn’t trying to hurt you,” Kellen said.

If Vex had arms, Kellen thought he would have folded them. “Well, you did.”

“Do you at least understand where I’m coming from?” Kellen asked. “My whole life —”

He stopped mid-sentence, sensing a change in the group. Ira’s ear raised his ears and sniffed the air. His attention focused on the east. A dirt devil swirled over the grass, followed by a breeze laden with dust. When Kellen opened his hand, ashes landed on his palm. The heads of the storm horses shot up and they snorted nervously.

“Is that thunder?” Vex asked no one in particular. “Do you guys hear that?”

All at once, the women started shouting and swung back into their saddles.

“What is it?” Kellen asked Ira as he beat his wings and rose in the air.

“Fire Bison stampede!” The coyote shouted. “We must run!”