For eleven days, the tribes camped there, exchanging feasts, hunting together, and finding things to trade. Yorgh was gratified at how his advice was accepted by both sides, even though in fear by one of them. The Raydowers looked uneasy whenever he casually talked of traveling back with them. There was only one untoward incident, which was quickly hushed up. As Yorgh was told the tale, Vaneen had taken Jayn to swim in the secluded bend of the creek. Somehow or other it happened that only the Hunter girl had dressed when she shrieked that she heard a ponadu in the woods. Yorgh remembered the way Jayn's dark robes had fitted over the hips, and wished he had been there to see. Then he thought of her kitchen in the mountain village, and said no more on the subject. When some of the Raydowers became friendly enough to talk, however, the story of his escapade with Vaneen got around. Yorgh caught people glancing askance at him every time he turned around. He went to old Tefior. "I suppose you have heard it all," he said. "If you do not think it best, I won't come to your fire to see Vaneen." The chief looked over Yorgh's shoulder. "Perhaps ... for the time being...." Don't know why I took that for an answer, thought Yorgh, staring across the flatland the next morning at dawn. Suppose I tell him the Raydowers call us married? Would he just say their law doesn't count? Vaneen looks kindly at me from a distance, but she hasn't spoken. He chewed moodily on a blade of grass, thinking that he heard a distant herd of kromp moving. Then his head jerked up as a great flame ripped across the sky. VI There were shouts behind him in the camp, and he saw motion about the borrowed tents of the Raydowers. A huge, gleaming thing sank down to the plain on a cushion of smoke and flame. The fires disappeared as it touched ground. A moment later, the thunder died out. Yorgh became aware of someone yanking his arm. "Come on!" yelled little Puko. "I have a wolly for you. You can flee to the mountains!" Yorgh looked around, and most of the talk and bustle ceased. People, finding themselves still alive, stopped to stare at Yorgh. He saw a group hurrying over from the Raydower camp. Why don't they look to Tefior or Jayn? he wondered peevishly. The first words Jayn spoke when she panted up with Ueln and others of her people were, "You were wrong to go up there!" "I do not think well of it," Tefior agreed sadly. "This is what comes of violating the shrine!" shouted one of the Raydowers. "The spirits of the Old Ones have come to avenge themselves upon us all!" "No!" roared Yorgh. He stared around at them, then out across the plain where the great, gleaming thing stood upright with wisps of smoke curling up from the grass at its base. "I brought it upon us; I will go!"