Blackened pillars lined a cave of spice and smoke, the latter coming from the very center of the opening. Avery hoisted her coal bucket onto her elbow and pulled herself up onto the flat rock ledge that led to the Higue's cave. Whatever she had seen at the Burning Ridges was still fresh in her mind, and the Higue was the closest person she could tell at the moment.

The 'Higue' was a nondescript elderly queen who's real name was Caila, 'Enchanting Woman' in Magmese. Back in her younger days, her fur had been a shade of blue overlayed with grey, such that it looked like smoke, and her differently-coloured eyes-one blue and one teal-had been as bright as the stars that powdered the sky at night. Now, however, the blue had all but faded from her fur, and her bones poked through wherever they hadn't poked through before.

Avery wasn't afraid of Caila in any way. No one was, really, unless they had slighted her in some way. Caila had been a shaman before the war had even started, though no one knew where or why she had even become one. Some said she'd had a family once, but her kittens had all died young, so she sought comfort among the spirits. Others said she was actually being possessed by a spirit herself and it was the spirit, not Caila, who spoke everytime someone asked her a question. Yet others said she was one of the 'damned ones', those who had been experimented on by Schaefer's insane medics and left for dead. Whoever she was, Avery didn't care. Her family had traded with Caila before, and Avery was continuing the tradition out of habit. Caila didn't expect to be repaid in exchange for her services, but many who visited her paid her out of gratitude, in the form of herbs, fresh game, firewood or even various minerals they found along the riverbanks.

That being said, bonk coals were probably a bit much, but it would have to do for now when the visit was very much an ad hoc one. Besides, she didn't need that many at any one time.

Avery stopped awhile to check on her goods. Today's harvest of bonk coals had been excellent, the quality worth the discomfort and danger, but the sight of the ancient-shaded tom and queen and the sight of the former's prone body haunted Avery. It seemed like something right from the darkest, most terrifying pit of hell. Had Moira, the old Bloodseeker captain, been around, Avery would have likely discussed this with her, but now, the new Bloodseeker captain was a tom named Eiric, and she did not feel as close to him.

Sighing, she decided she better get this over with and padded into the cave.

-

The Higue was just removing pots from her kiln when Avery showed up.

"I have some very good bonk coals for you, ma'am". Avery and many others called the Higue 'ma'am' when they addressed her. She seemed to like it, or at least, not mind it much. If she had, she would certainly have let them know early on.

"Are there any lesser-grade ones"? Caila asked.

"Lesser-grades? Why would you want them"? Avery asked.

Caila turned her grey head and looked slyly at Avery. "I know conventional wisdom, at least, from a blacksmith's point of view, is that hotter is better. But you, my dear Avery, deal in metals. I deal in earth, clay and glazes-glazes made from crushed bones, sand, borax and any mineral I can pull from the river and grind down. But the real secret is not the recipe for the glaze, but to fire it at just the right temperature, and to get the right temperature, guess what the secret is"?

"What"? Avery asked, glancing at the rows of memory pots that lined the walls of the cave, some plain and some decorated.

"Dung".

"Dung"?

"You call it 'poop'".

"You mean like white splatters? Wet poop"?! Avery was shocked, and very much so. The Alien Raybeak who lived on Planet Magma were proud of their neat system of digestion; indeed, some felt compelled to call it a noble process.

"Sometimes, but those white splatters-the sea gulls especially-are too far away for me". Caila then bent down and kicked a pile of dried moose poop towards Avery.

"Eeewww"! she almost screeched, backing away.

"Don't 'eeewww' me. You birds can't smell worth dung-pardon the pun"! Caila begin to mold moose dung into little mounds. "These little moose patties burn steadily, and slower. I can get the most gorgeous glazes you've ever seen". She paused and looked up. The blue eye was steady, but the teal one looked Avery up and down as Caila took in the Raybeak pullet in front of her. "Hey now, what's wrong with you"?

"What do you mean"? Avery lied, even though there was no use doing so.

"You look sick, like...no, not the runs again. Isn't that what you call it when your pellets go soft on you"? Caila asked, then begin to regard the pullet with a renewed intensity.

Great God, how could she tell? Avery thought to herself, and for a moment she considered slapping herself for that thought. How didn't the Higue know, after all? Alien Magma didn't earn their nickname of 'cat spirits' for nothing. Their telepathy was strong enough to sense emotions and thoughts from the deepest parts of the mind, and though none would say it aloud, they always hovered between disgust and worry when it happened. A pellet seemed to fly up from her gizzard at the thought.

"Oh my...pardon me ma'am. I didn't mean to yarp right here"!

"Don't be ridiculous", Caila assured her, then picked up the pellet in one forepaw and plopped it on top of a moose patty. "You don't mind, do you"?

"Mind what"? Avery asked.

"Me using your pellet. I have a hunch that this combination could be-how should I put it?-quite dynamic in the kiln", Caila answered, wagging her straggly grey tail. "You don't know how long I've been trying to get a matte glaze. All of them have come out shiny so far".

Avery hadn't the foggiest idea what the Higue was talking about, but there was one thing they had in common: They were both artists. "Sure, help yourself".

After Caila had put the moose patty and the pellet in the kiln, she turned back to Avery. "Well, now that you've yarped your pellet and are looking a tad better, come sit by the hearth and tell me what's on your mind".

Avery took a deep breath before responding. "I'm here about-two Alien Magma".

"You don't say"... Caila turned around from fluffing a pelt she had dragged nearer to the hearth for Avery to sit on. The Magmese Alien Raybeak got along with the Alien Magma fairly well, even interbreeding every now and then. Too many young cocks and pullets had been captured and made to work under deplorable conditions as messengers during the war, and so they were just as affected as their felinoid friends. "Why would two Alien Magma suddenly interest you? Unless... you're jealous"?

Avery's feathers puffed up in indignation at the teasing remark. "Because our bloody president has already shown interest in them before any cougar, fox, moose, deer, Alien Magma or Alien Raybeak did", she snapped, still annoyed.

The hackles on the Higue's back rose in a small cyclonic fury. "What are you saying? Schaefer has come down to the sticks"?

"No, not him, and that was years ago either way", Avery corrected. "And I didn't see his soldiers either. Hell, these two look nothing like anyone here".

"Are you saying that"... The Higue gasped and seemed unable to go on. It wasn't uncommon for certain coat colours to be rare, but she knew Avery wasn't talking about just any rare sheen of colour...she was talking about...

"Him", Avery murmured. "Yes, I saw him".

Caila's teal eye went to the left, and her legs begin to wobble like jelly. "You can't be serious"! she hissed, but even as she said those words, she knew that the Alien Raybeak was telling the truth. For this sort of thing to happen-something had gone very wrong somewhere.

"I've never, in all my long years"... Caila's breaths came in fast pants and she eased herself onto a heap of hare pelts. "Alright, tell me what you saw and what you heard". She knew Avery would have gathered a fair bit of information, what with her hearing being so sensitive.

And so she did. The fire had begun to burn low by the time Avery finished and Caila got up to get some more kindling.

"Are you sure you don't want a bonk coal, ma'am"? Avery offered, simply to break the long silence with which the Higue had greeted her story.

"No", Caila growled softly. "Why waste a good bonk coal on a hearth fire? I have fur. There's no need for such a hot fire in my cave".