They would wake, have some food then head south to Phoride, and they wouldn't stop walking until it was almost pitch dark night. They only had one pack between them and they took turns carrying it. Every several hours that elapsed, one would hand the pack to the other while they walked. They were making good time and were covering long distances with each day that they walked. They never stopped to eat food, they ate while they walked until they reached the Serpent Strip; the land of the leper race. In the three days that Boyce and Lloyd travelled from Sedara, they covered over one hundred eighty kilometres (a remarkabl sixty kilometres per day, of walking). The men cast their eyes on the city of Palatka, sitting in the distance on the floor of the Serpent Strip. It wasn't an impressive city, made up of squat clay buildings that were cube-shaped. Yet, there was something about the whole place that made Lloyd and Boyce feel very ill-at-ease. Boyce thought that they felt that way because of the hermaphrodites' renegging on their agreement passage, signed with Besten. He was afraid that the Palatkans would be the same way. Lloyd was more optimistic about this leg of their journey. He told Boyce that he shouldn't jump to any conclusions about trusting the Palatkans. Nevertheless, Boyce was hoping to convince Lloyd to circle around the Palatkan territory. He argued that going around the Serpent Strip would only take an extra day's journey, but he believed it would be peaceful, as-well-as uneventful. His other argument was the notion that they could replenish their supplies with wild fruit and they could kill game for food, along the way. Lloyd finally agreed to Boyce's prodding suggestions and seeing that his judgement for such things, throughout the course of this trek, was indeed good. Off to one side of the rock mound on which they stood they found an old lion's den. There they secreted their pack and they went to sleep. The trip would be more or less uphill for a while since the Krolalin Range split into two parts; a smaller chain running all the way south to Pomperaque and its three rises of land surrounding it: Bimini Hill, Canon's Butte and Mount Benitar. They knew that they were close to their destination, now just a week's journey away. They weren't going to take the chance that the Palatkans would turn on them, as well. Tomorrow they would circle the strip, endeavouring to avoid further injuries and wear to their bodies. CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE It was in the morning during the men's second wave of sleep that was coming over them in the before-dawn hours, that a cawing shriek was heard coming from overhead. The sun wasn't out yet, although it wasn't totally dark. The men had, at least one hour of sleep left to them before they were to wake and make their way around the strip. At first they tried to ignore that squawking but it soon became so frantic and intense that they could no longer bare it.