When they got to the barn, the horses were ready to go. Endermon could smell the remains of Shiloh's perfume, so she figured in between the first light of dawn and when they woke up, she must have been busy.

Once they had saddled up, they noticed something was off. It wasn't until they had been riding a while, that Dresden suddenly called out, 'Hey, where'd the spooky chick go?' Endermon bristled at that, but otherwise kept silent. Rutus said her carriage wasn't there either.

This struck Endermon as odd. Shiloh's driver had always followed them. Endermon was so preoccupied that it took Rutus nearly shouting her name to realize there was a very obvious tree branch pointing in one specific direction.

They did that for the next several miles, and soon, even though most of the desert looked mostly the same, they saw the area where Dresden decided to take a swim. And miraculously enough, the area was nearly undisturbed. There were human shaped indents in various places.

Dresden grumbled about it not being funny, but the other two disagreed and laughed anyway. Once they could breathe again, Endermon pulled out the map. Quietly asking the animals if they were headed in the right direction, her horse pawed the ground.

Endermon couldn't believe that she missed the very obvious wheel tracks. Endermon pointed at them and called out that they should follow them for a while to see where they went. The others agreed. They followed the tracks until they disappeared. And a while later, the familiar sounds of large black stallions pulling a carriage in it could be heard rumbling across the desert.

Soon enough, it was time for lunch. They had been traveling for hours, and after passing around the magic flask, started making a quick lunch that would sustain them for at least the rest of the day's riding.

While they were eating, they looked at the map, hoping they were getting closer to, anything really. They found they were actually quite close to an encampment. Yes it meant tents, but also excluded sleeping out in the open desert.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

Of course knowing they needed to make it there by nightfall, meant there would be not much downtime. So taking one last drink from the flask, on they rode. Endermon knew she was pushing the horses more than they were comfortable with, for which she kept apologizing.

One time she forgot to say it in her thoughts, and accidentally said it out loud. To which Dresden asked her why she was apologizing, it was just a dumb animal. His horse, didn't take kindly to that and promptly bucked him off.

Taken by surprise, Dresden went toppling over the horse's head and ended up flan his back, with an angry horse's teeth all up in his business. Rutus and Endermon had stopped to watch. Finding himself once again fearing for his manhood, he was nearly begging them to get the horse to stop.

After watching this go on for a moment or two, Endermon asked what it would hurt to try to apologize. Rolling his eyes and still trying to save his privates, he muttered a very insincere apology. When the horse landed a foot right between Dresden's legs, Dresden begged the horse to forgive him. With a final stomp and a whinny, the horse stopped. Getting up, Dresden actually apologized and quietly got back on the horse. He was strangely quiet for quite a while. Hmm, I wonder why.

When they finally got to the encampment, it was nearly dusk. They set about asking for someone in charge. They didn't want to be rude or end up having to sleep outside. They also didn't want the horses to suffer.

Excusing herself, Endermon took the horses to where the camels were resting. She asked if they understood her. She didn't know if they had different dialects. She needn't have worried, though tired, they communicated just fine.

They told Endermon who to look for, what to say to get them on her side, and if they were still suspicious, some of a specific type of fruit that only grew in one place, but they happened to be obsessed with it.