The two deformed mythological men paced around the thickest part of the tree cover on the west hill. They seemed to be looking for something. Arlendr and Solveis stared enraptured at them. It was like watching a suspenseful play; you can’t look away. Like a performance too, it didn’t seem quite real. It didn’t seem like a scene which the children could interrupt or be part of. Maybe when they looked away it wouldn’t be there anymore.

The siblings watched as the two men paced around and around. The horse-hu would send the eptill man a little distance off. The horse-hu himself would climb a tree or poke through the brush. Then, the eptill would return. The two of them would converse in frustrated grunting tones. Then it happened again. After a few repetitions, the horse-hu grew frustrated and kicked a nearby tree, chipping a big chunk of bark off. He also left ruts in the earth beneath him where he had been stamping a hoof.

After some minutes of the repeating scene, the performance was broken by someone approaching the stage. Arlendr and Solveis both turned away from the two intruders and to the noise coming from the opposite direction. Loud noises of crushing twigs approached.

Arlendr turned back to see the horse-hu signal to his partner. He waved his hand toward the shore in exasperation. The two intruders ran and glided off in the direction of their boat, hidden among the rocks at the shore.

Arlendr, no longer content with just watching the scene, needed to be a part of it. He half jumped, half climbed down the tree, and then he sprinted off after them. Solveis had been listening to approaching noises, most likely her young companions coming to see what’s up. Arlendr’s tree crashing noises brought her attention back to him. She watched him sprint out of sight and past the trees.

Solveis had a sudden flash of realization about the imminent danger of the situation. It was reality that there were dangerous people being in her home for some unknown, nefarious reason. They had been so near to her and her people. It hit her all at once. Her heart beat hard. She was sure that her face went flush. Girselle and En weren’t her favorite people, but even so she grew very uncomfortable at the idea of them walking toward the action. – But then – Arlendr was running toward the action! So stupid, always so rash! She’d like to stop him, but she knew it was too late. She could at least stall her companions until the danger was fully gone.

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Solveis got down from her tree. She noticed on her way down that the blue birds were all rushing toward the place that the horse-hu had been. They were flying in crazed, frantic patterns. They must have been as scared as she.

Once down, she met her friends and chattered at them, stalling them from going out to the beach.

“Arlendr told you not to come. He’s gonna be mad,” Solveis scolded Girselle and En.

“We got bored,” Girselle sassed back. “What’s it to you anyway? Where is your little brother anyway?”

“How come you didn’t come back?” En asked in genuine nervousness. “Was someone making those noises?”

“I’m gonna go see for myself,” Girselle announced as she walked towards Arlenrd’s noises.

Solveis was about to shout ‘No!’, but then she realized that there was probably no danger anymore anyway. It might also be good for them to see the intruders, that they might also have a real understanding of the danger.

Solveis ran out to the beach, toward where the intruders had stashed their boat last time. She was closely followed by the other two. The two intruders were getting in their boat. They were closely followed by Arlendr who had one hand full of stones, and was throwing them.

Girselle and En stopped in their tracks, surprised by what they already conceptually knew they should see.

“Yeah. It’s crazy, right?” Solveis commented back at them.

“Not a lie then?” En verbalized accidentally.

“Oh – well. They should just leave,” Girselle verbalized flippantly, not meaning anything particular, but saying words anyway.