As Norch stood at the base of the mountains, he could now see that what he had thought were impossibly arched mountain tops were, in actuality, just impossibly arched mountains. He supposed they weren't mountains at all, but huge rock pillars that leaned and twisted and interwove with each other for further than he could see in any direction, including up. Snorting behind him told him that Kei Ta had thrown herself into the dirt and was kicking up puffs of red dust as she twisted around on her back. Norch hoped Benjamin had rescued the packs this time. In the distance, somewhere among the huge bases of the columns, something else was kicking up puffs of dust. He pulled out his far eye to get a better look and had just time enough to see something large and black before Nae Xali flew in front and tried to peer back up the far end. He sighed to himself and he tried to move the far eye further up, but she wrapped tiny insistent hands around her end. Half-heartedly he tried wiggling it free from her grasp, but while his efforts dislodged a minor snowfall of glitter from her wings, she herself remained unconcerned while continuing to gaze up the wrong end of the tube. Wearily he let go and she took off back towards The Jemily with her prize. Behind him, Kei Ta sneezed and lurched back onto her feet.

"Hey," Norch called back, "there's something up ahead."

Benjamin and The Jemily joined him, the Jemily shading one set of eyes with a hand, while the other set remained unshaded, squinting into the mid-morning sunlight. The thing approaching looked for all the world like a big fuzzy black worm. 

Beside him, so close she was almost in his ear, gNat murmured, "Not something, someone. It's a Scattercolumn."

It weaved towards them on multiple feet, and Norch was unsure if he should be alarmed or not. gNat said nothing more, in fact, he wasn't even sure if she was still there or if she had flown back towards Nae Xali, but he felt certain she would have said something if he was supposed to be alarmed. The Scattercolumn stopped about six feet from them and stood rubbing together two fuzzy knobs Norch thought might be its arms. It seemed anxious in its rubbing but it said nothing and neither did they. Not for the first minute, nor for the second. Somewhere in the third minute, the Scattercolumn broke the silence.

"You need to clean that up," it said, waving a fuzzy stump at the forgotten pile of glitter.

Norch glanced at it, then at Benjamin, who shrugged.

"Sure," Norch said, "of course."

"No, really," the Scattercolumn interrupted, "you need to do it now. You have no idea how impossible that stuff is to get out of the dust around here. It will blow into the columns and if it gets into the columns, I'll be cleaning it up for weeks, maybe months. Last time a flight of Fairstash burst out around here, it took me seven months to collect and dispose of all of it, and I'm not even sure I did. I swear I still have glitter between my crochets."

A little bemused, Norch knelt by the offensive pile of sparkles and tried to scoop them into his hand.

"No, not like that," the Scattercolumn said. "You'll just put them everywhere if you do that. Oh, move over, I'll do it."

Norch backed up quickly to make room, almost tripping over Kei Ta who had been standing  directly behind him. Again. He watched as the Scattercolumn used its tiny hooked feet to rapidly and carefully collect and hold the glitter. It dipped its arms into a fur pocket Norch hadn't even noticed and produced a tiny ball of webbing, which it unrolled and hastily began rubbing its feet against. When finished, the webbing looked more like a Fairstash wing than a web. The Scattercolumn rolled it back up and tucked it back into its pocket. Norch thought it might be a different pocket than the one it had come out of. It waggled some of its prolegs and made a disgusted noise. Nae Xali crept forward on the ground, trying to inspect the creatures feet.

"Well, what are you?!" the Scattercolumn exclaimed when it caught sight of her. "You aren't old enough to be away from the swarm!"

A flush of embarrassment crept up Norch's cheeks and he cleared his throat. "She's, uh, showing us the way."

"The Way?! The way where?! The poor thing is barely old enough to fly and you have her out here chasing ways? Humans, I swear, no sense among the lot of you."

Its scowl took in both him and Benjamin, then her attention turned to the Jemily. "And you, once you would have known better."

The Jemily, who had also been staring at the Scattercolumns feet looked up in surprise.  "Why? Do you know us?"

The Scattercolumn looked sad for a moment. "No, not the both of you. Only the one. You wouldn't remember."

It turned around. 

"Well, come. I'll fix you something to eat," it said over its shoulder.

 Benjamin wrinkled his nose.

"What do you figure a Scattercolumn eats?" he whispered.

When it glanced back to see they were following, its eyes fell on Kei Ta. "That thing doesn't have fleas does it?"

Only one, Norch thought. But gNat seemed to know better than to show herself.  Much of the discussion on the way to the Scattercolumns home involved assuring it that Kei Ta did not have fleas.

"Are you certain? It seems itchy?"

"Just stupid," Norch assured.

Benjamin rubbed Kei Tas nose. "Don't listen to them. You're a great beast."

Nae Xali rode atop the "Great Beast", which meant Kei Ta spent half her time with her head turned backwards trying to nuzzle her rider. It also meant she spent half her time bumping into Norch because she wasn't paying attention to where she was going. Great Beast indeed. The Jemily spent the majority of the walk starring up in wonder at the massive stone bridges above, or poking about amongst the dusty columns.

"Stop that," the Scattercolumn snapped every time the Jemily stirred up a dust cloud. 

And every time, the Jemily would obey. For about five minutes, then another wave of amazement would have it out poking among the columns again. Norch was relieved when they reached the Scattercolumns home, which was inside the base of one column.

"Inside," it said. "Close the door behind you."

It was quit cozy inside, with little glowing rocks hung up in webbing that draped the ceiling. It was almost like a star filled sky indoor. Nae Xali flew up to examine them. The Jemily, enthralled, made a move towards them but a ripple formed down its center, its two halves momentarily more distinct.

"You remember this place, don't you?" The Scattercolumn said, more than a little pity in its voice.

"No," said one.

"Yes," said the other. "Maybe. I don't know."

It stood looking so forlorn that Norch felt a twinge of something inside for the poor creature.

"Nevermind," the Scattercolumn said, waving its arm. "Here hold this while I put on tea."

It rummaged in its pocket and came out with small round lump of fur which it thrust into the Jemily's arms. The Jemily stood frozen, holding it at arms length and it was only when it moved that Norch realized it was a living thing. The Scattercolumn moved about, putting on a kettle, and pulling out containers of weird leafy looking things. Benjamin made a face that, thankfully, the Scattercolumn missed.

She called back to the Jemily, "Don't mind if he fusses, he's just hungry. He'll settle down once he's fed."

Flecks of gold in the round furry ball the Jemily held, matched its parent.

"He really is a good little scatterbug," the Scattercolumn said, stopping to nuzzle her offspring. "Isn't that right, Faces the Stars?"

Faces the Stars made a gurgling sound, and its mother went back to her work.

"You can all grab yourselves a bowl from that cupboard," she indicated with a wiggle of her back claspers, "but not the glass ones. The clay ones should be fine. We'll eat in a minute and you can tell me about yourselves. I'm Sips Tea With Peace, by the way, but most people call me TeaPea."