Irene and the other warriors of the mountain clans wasted no time attempting to talk to the visitors. They pressed up the hill fighting the red and purple water swirling around them. When they finally broke free of the water, the other shelters were beginning to flicker as the foreign magic users began to exhaust their wells. The man with the big hat came up to Irene and the warriors behind her tensed. He said something Irene couldn't understand took off his big hat and bowed.

Irene bowed back not knowing what else to do. A strange noise caught her attention. The last bubble of the visitors was the largest for a practical reason. There were more people in it but the creatures took up far more space. They were very large, had four legs, a lot of hair going down their necks and one horn on the forehead. Strange things were strapped to some of their backs and she could see long tails swishing behind them. 

A smaller voice caught Irene's ears. She visually shifted through the visitors and found the source. It was a little girl cooing to one of the animals. She wasn't the only one. There were a large number of children with this group. Small children not even old enough to be apprenticed in magic.

The man with the hat called loudly in his strange tongue to someone in the back. There was a slight commotion as one of the creatures reared when another swell of water crashed into the cliffs behind them. A man quickly handed the leather fastenings connected to the strange device strapped to the animal to another person in the group. He cautiously approached the frightened animal which was throwing its head back and forth. Irene couldn't help but notice how sharp that horn appeared to be and saw this could turn the situation from bad to worse. 

The man appeared to have the animal calm as it allowed him to lay his hand on its snout, then another streak of light descended from the sky. Shouting ensued as the creatures began to act nervous but thankfully none reared. The streak of light lit the forest red as it soared over them and crashed somewhere in Aoilth territory beyond their sight. The children shrieked and ran off the path into the forest. Some of the adults left their posts with the creatures and went after them. Frightened anew the creature threw its head and the horn pierced the man's flesh. It sliced his neck but Irene couldn't tell how serious the damage was as the animal began thrashing again.

Someone from the visitors cast some sort of spell. A red ball of light entered the animal and it fell to the ground and didn't move. With the commotion settled a circle quickly formed around the injured man. Frantic talk among the visitors and shaking of heads gave Irene an idea of what was being discussed. They were out of magic to help the man. 

Someone pulled rags from a pack they had and pressed them to the bleeding face of the man. He groaned as blood gushed down his face and throat. Irene pushed forward with her gem in hand. Her natural reserve of magic was completely drained and would take at least a month to fill but she did have a bit of magic left in the gem. The visitors let her kneel before the man and take his head in one hand. 

Irene wasn't the best healer. Healing magic never came naturally to her but she knew that in her group she was the most skilled with it. A flash of golden magic encircled the blue gem as Irene cast a spell and bound it to the man's wound. The bleeding stopped but the wound was far from healed. She managed to shrink the gash slightly but it was still raw, red and puffy. Deciding to save the rest she cut off the magic stream. The man would live for now but unless they got him to a skilled healer in the village it might fester. There was nothing she could do about the blood loss and he passed out.  

The man with the big hat clasped a hand on Irene's shoulder and spoke in a soft tone she took as thanks. She simply nodded as a group of four gingerly picked up the injured man and tied him to one of the animals. That couldn't be comfortable to be slung and tied to the animal but he didn't wake. Adults came back from the forest carrying the smaller children who'd taken off. 

"Now what?" asked Xander. "I don't want those animals anywhere near my village."

"We will take them to ours. We have the space to contain these horned demons," Irene said as she wiped the blood of the man from her hands. "You should escort your people home then make for our village swiftly after reporting to your king."

Xander nodded and looked towards the sea. Whatever had fallen from the sky discolored the sea as far as their eyes could make out. That was another blow to clan Aoilth. The famine in the land made it hard enough to grow grain to support everyone but with their access to the sea they were just barely able to keep everyone healthy.

"Stay until I return," Irene told them. Her guardian grey hawk had never left her shoulder throughout this ordeal. Sensing what she wanted to do the hawk squawked and took flight from her shoulder. He landed not far away and with a flash transformed into a hawk large enough for her to ride. Irene settled herself on its back and the hawk ran toward the cliff and with a jump took flight.  

Irene always loved to fly. Her heart felt as high as the stars as the wind tore at her clothes. She'd often wished that warriors didn't shave their heads so she could have felt the winds whip through her hair. Today she felt none of that. Irene took the hawk as high as she could and circled the bay while looking as far as she could. The discolored water extended farther than she feared. It was ringed around the entire coast. She brought the hawk farther out to sea were the water was still blue and got down lower.

A sharp toothed fish was apparently curious and swam into the red and purple waters. The animal began to thrash before rolling belly up clearly dead. Having seen enough she turned back to the island with the feeling of stones rolling in her stomach.

"Irene!" Zak rushed to her as they landed. "The man with the big hat knows the writing of the scribes!"

"What?"

The man with the hat looked up at their approach as Zak led her to the group. The warriors of the island sat in a line across from the man with the hat. Using a stick the man had written something in the dirt. Irene didn't read scribe language. None but the scribes could as they guarded their secrets closely. They recorded the history of the clans and chronicled the life of the current Thane and the wars of the clans. All records were sealed and held in an archive only the scribes had access too. The rest of the clans wrote in common speech and were forever barred from the archives without permission. 

"We must get them to the scribes."

"What did you see?" Holie asked.

"The water is tainted up and down the coast and it extends far beyond what you can see from here. It's deadly; we must warn people to stay out of it. I want you to bring up the rear with Corith and Web. Zak you'll lead with me."

Holie ran to take her place with the other warriors. The man with the big hat barked orders and his people began to try and set up a camp. The woman who had the pack pulled some tan canvas out of it. Another man was collecting branches for what she assumed would be a fire. As the orders were being carried out the man with the hat came to her. Zak was standing close by so he heard all the words of the man.

In a heavily accented voice with poor pronunciation he said in the common tongue of the mountain clans, "I be Brigadier General James Ruggles." He placed his hand on his chest and tapped twice while repeating Brigadier General James Ruggles.

"He speaks our tongue," Zak came closer. "Where are you from?"

Irene looked at the man she knew now as Brigadier General James Ruggles. He was about their age maybe a year or two older than Irene and Zak's twenty-eight springs. The man bit his lip and shook his head.

"I don't think he fully understands." Irene told her second in command. "Irene of clan Aoilth." She tapped her chest twice as he had done. She turned to Zak and her look clearly said what words didn't need to.

"Zak of clan Aoilth." He tapped his chest twice too. "Make him tell his people to hurry and follow us. I want to get home and check that everything is alright." Zak was newly married and his wife was already expecting their first child. She understood his need for haste. Irene wanted to drop these people off and go searching for whatever had fallen from the skies. 

"Brigadier General James Ruggles," Irene pointed to his chest, then to her chest and then the woods. She turned her back on him and Zak did the same. They walked away a few feet and then looked back. Holie and the others raised their weapons and pumped them in the air twice as the signal they were ready. James nodded and said something in a loud voice. His people began to repack and work to get the animals and themselves in line.

Irene led them all to the forest path. Xander took his warriors across the water back into their lands. They didn't have enough magic to sink the stones so the bridge had to be left for now. Irene had enough magic left in the gem to open the doorway to the village. There were other entryways to the village that didn't require magic. She didn't want to take them for two reasons. First those areas were heavily trafficked as people went to and fro about their concerns whether it be working or visiting family in allied villages. Irene wanted to keep the news of the visitors as quiet as possible until she informed her father.  

Reason two were the demon creatures; they were too large to be sent through the common entrances. The one they were going to was huge because when the warriors went to war it was used as the exit so everyone could depart fast. It wasn't guarded otherwise though as it was cut off from the rest of village. Huge blocks only high ranking warriors knew the secret to open separated it from the village.

The trek was pretty far from the ocean and on an incline. Soon some of the visitors were panting as the altitude began to take a toll. They rested as much as Irene dared. The adult visitors and warriors took turns carrying the children. Their pace had to be slowed for those children who had to walk as there weren't enough adults to carry them all as some of the visitors had to lead the creatures. With only one adult for several of the creatures this also slowed their progress as some of the animals tried to wander off into the forest. They needed not only to get back to inform her father of the visitors but also to make sure the village hadn't sustained any damage from the barrage that descended from the sky. Unlike the landscape they had just come too.

"Heavens help me." Irene breathed as they came upon a crater. She sat the child she'd been carrying on a nearby rock and got closer to the site. No fires had broken out which was strange as the ground and foliage was smoking. Dead animals littered the ground around the crater. Inside the crater was a round object the size of a medium boulder with pulsating light under its surface. The surface of it was the same color as the now red and purple ocean water. They stood at the rim of the crater looking down upon the destruction. A small squirrel clearly curious and not cautious ran into the crater only to fall dead among the strange fumes. The body was suddenly struck by a tentacle like thing that shot out from the object and drew the small creature into itself then disappeared. 

Alarm and dread shot through Irene. Surely this thing couldn't be a star. It ate the animals what could it do to them? 'How many have fallen to the ground,' she wondered.