Quartes, as was way, had stood waiting, still as the trees behind them, as the riders finished their approach.  His grey cloak, hood drawn up, blew about him int he currents of winds, furling and snapping like his own canopy of leaves.

Keto for her part shifted her weight from leg to leg.  After a time she had stopped, sat, and drew out her with the intent of playing.  She paused frequently though, glancing out over the fields.  The riders continued to near and she looked for details in them.  The shimmering of the Taikeet’s feathers continued to dazzle her vision and it was only in the last minutes of their approach that she could make out the difference between rider and mount.

Like the Landian, each of the pair of riders wore cloaks, theirs intertwined with the feathers of their avian mounts.  The shimmering blurred the line between mount and rider, and while Keto could see the eyes of the birds, the large orbs flashing between her and Quartes, she could not say the same for the riders.  Intricate masks, painted in an array of color and patters, hid their faces and while their were slots for the eyes and for their mouth the shadows hid any features within.  It was Keto’s best guess that they were both Hunai but they could’ve easily by young Aenesi by the size of them.  The bulkier and taller of the two riders carried a large spear, it rising up now to balance against his shoulder and reveal a glinting head and an array baubles and tassels that hung from it.

The slimmer held a smaller spear, one which he pointed unnerving at Quartes as they pair neared.

Keto stepped closer to where Keid rested and brought Ras once more to her hands, one holding the scabbard and the other on the hilt.

She waited for the pair to slow and dismount but they brought their avian mounts closer with seemingly no intent to stop.  It was only when Quartes shifted, brushing aside the hem of his cloak to reveal his own weapons, the the Riders stopped.  The birds chittered, the notes higher than keto expected for such large creatures.  As the Taikeets settled, Keto glanced from the Riders and back to Quartes.  As best she could tell the rider’s masked gazes were only for the Landian.  None of them spoke and the smaller rider continued to point his smaller weapon at Quartes, it’s single bauble swinging back and forth, first towards the Landian and then away.  A sliver of blue metal hung from the tassel.

Finally the larger of the two shifted and buried his spear in the dirt.

“We are here to offer awareness and a chance,” spoke the smaller.  His voice was muffled by the mask but to Keto seemed to carry no fear to be before the Last Landian.  For his part Quartes’ hood shifted and the Landian waited.  “You are Lehn…”

“I am Quartes,” he interrupted.  The smaller rider started and his counterpart reached back for his spear but paused at a wave of his superior.

“…a hunt has been declared against you.  The turn of the world shifts back towards destruction and we will not let it happen again.”  The rider paused then but Quartes gave no indication of offering question or comment.  Keto for her part had plenty but had decided that this was not an occasion she wanted to interject in.  “You are offered a chance to travel with us, to allow sacrifice in order to forestall our doom.”  Another pause and then the rider gestured to his larger compatriot.  “Many such as this one hope you instead will allow for the challenge of the hunt.  Two sunrises you will be offered to choose a path and then our bands will come to ride you down and our Taikeets to pick your bones clean.”  His message delivered the rider lowered his small spear and his masked gaze waited.

“Go back to tribe chief and and let them know that I will not be sacrifice willing or otherwise.”  Quartes straightened and Keto watched the larger rider reach for his spear once more.  Perhaps jumpier than their voices had let on.  “Remind them that I have slain Dragons, and my tale does not end to anything less than the first of that vile kind.”

The larger rider looked to the smaller and then spoke, his voice deeper and Keto wondered how hard he worked for it to sound menancing.  “I looked forward to spilling your blood.”

“I will water Illithiust with yours,” Quartes interjected, his own voice laced with a growl.  “You would not be the first, and if you believe may death will be your salvation, then you and your tribe chief will not be the last.”  The Landian’s hooded gaze shifted back to the smaller of the two.  “That spear you will leave.  The shard you affixed to it, it is mine and I do not relinquish it to you.”

For a moment none of trio said or moved further.  Then the smaller rider held the small spear out to his side and dropped it.  The larger reached for his own, and Keto tensed.  However they held to their stated timeline, turning their strange mounts about and riding back the way they had come.  Quartes waited, watching them go.  Keto still clutched Ras, taking a breath and forcing her grip to loosen.  With a last look to the departing riders, Quartes stepped to the discarded spear.  He reached down and pulled the bauble from the base of the head.  A scarred finger traced the blue grey shard of metal and then returned it to its kin in the pouch on his belt.

“Get what rest you can” he started as he looked to Keto, his pale eyes hardened stones within his hood.  She nodded, though not entirely sure why.  “Their customs counts sunrises, not full days.”

“So their two days is just one and a night,” the tremor in her voice annoyed her but Quartes simply nodded.

“We’ll move during the night.  Try and lose them.”

“They had a Shard of Lehn,” she commented, turning as she followed him back to their camp.

“It has been a long endeavor to find those that I have but I have no found them all.  They are supposed to be together, it’s how I’ve found most over the years.”

“Do you think they have more?”

“We’ll likely know in a night and a day.”