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Kyrie shrugged. "It's their culture, their values," she said simply. "It ingrained in them as solidly as your values are in you. 'Might is right' is their way of life. Be prepared to have to prove our strength to earn the right to pass through their land. They might challenge one of us, they might challenge all of us." She shrugged again. "There really is no telling. They're rather whimsical."

"Cheerful," Kaito commented again. Then he pressed, "What about the Earth Elves?"

That made Kyrie smile. "Cautious but friendly. And by cautious, I mean they may just ask to look into a bag or two to prove that what you say you're doing in their land is the truth. There's a chance that since you're with me, they may not check your stories since they know me so well, but they just might. Still, they're rather polite about it."

"Well, it definitely sounds better than the White Elves," Daeron chuckled.

"Infinitely," Kyrie grinned.

Suddenly Iorlas frowned. "Am I the only one," she murmured, looking around, "or does anyone else smell smoke?"

Kyrie wasn't at all concerned.

"Just past this next hill, there are a few houses," she told them with a smile. "It is morning, when most people make their bread and such, and it is still cool, even if it is spring now. It'll just be their fireplaces, I'm sure."

Iorlas wasn't completely convinced. It didn't smell only of woodsmoke .... but then, she couldn't be sure that it wasn't just her imagination. Still, it did smell like something that had, a long time ago, been a very familiar scent to her.

"Do you know any of the people there?" she asked instead, pushing aside her worries.

"If any of them are the same people as the last time I was through here, yes," Kyrie nodded. "Admittedly, the smokey smell is stronger than I've ever smelled it before, so perhaps the settlement's grown since then."

She shrugged. "It's been a few centuries, after all."

"That's true," Kyrie laughed. "Anything could happen, and it doesn't take long."

As they made their way up the hill, closer to where Kyrie said the houses were located, the smell became more pronounced, even to those who hadn't even been able to smell the smoke earlier.

"It smells kind of ... bad," Andarien said hesitantly, the odor making him feel a bit nauseous. He had no idea what it was, he had never smelled anything like it before.

By this time, Kyrie wasn't smiling anymore either. She was muttering to herself in a language that only Iorlas and Andarien could understand, but they didn't look comforted by what she was saying.

"Maybe you should prepare yourselves," she told the group just before they reached the top of the hill, where they would be able to see what was beyond it. "Just in case."

"Prepare ourselves for what?" Andarien asked with a frown.

Kyrie shook her head. "The worst."

"Nothing yet," Earendil murmured apprehensively. They were very nearly to the top of the hill, and it was only a few more seconds before everyone could see the cause of the nauseating smell.

There was a row of houses just beyond the hill, four of them, one after the other, but all that was left of them was wreckage and rubble, blackened by fire. Smoke still rose from the ruins, thin and pale, evidence that there were still fires smouldering within them.

That wasn't the end of it. There were bodies on the ground as well, charred corpses, and though most of them didn't show anything beyond the blackened flesh and protruding bone, a few of the less burned ones showed blood, and one had a spear sticking out of it.

The people weren't the only ones who were dead, either: a few horses, some cattle, some sheep, even a few dogs were scattered around the houses, some of them burnt, some of them not.

Earendil's first instinct was to gather his family into his arms to hide the sight from them, but Andarien was too tall, and he couldn't help but stare in shock at the sight in front of them.

Iorlas's eyes were fixed on the horrific scene in front of them, both hands clamped over her mouth, and Daeron was holding her to himself, stroking her hair and murmuring to her calmingly. Lancaeriel was holding one hand to her forehead, her eyes closed as if she were warding off a headache. Shiro and Kaito had turned quite pale, and Wren was looking over the scene, white-faced and tight-lipped, her blue eyes bright with outrage.

Kyrie was also scanning the area, her eyes narrowed with fury. There was no movement aside from the wisps of smoke that rose from the blackened houses, and only the wind blowing through the trees around them made any noise.

"I'm going to check it out," the half-blooded woman announced quietly, so calmly it seemed as though the sight in front of them had not fazed her. It was nothing more than a facade, however: beneath the surface, she was raging. She started down towards the ruins, drawing her sword and holding it defensively in front of her, just in case. She hadn't survived this long by not being careful, after all.

Silently, Wren followed, drawing her own sword as well; and then Iorlas started forward, causing Daeron to hurry after her.

Shiro and Kaito didn't speak, but both of them sat where they were. Shiro put his head in his hands, and Kaito knelt beside him, putting one hand on his shoulder in silent comfort.

Andarien still couldn't tear his eyes away from the gruesome sight. "What happened?" he asked at last in a strangled whisper. "Why would someone do something like that?"

Andarien didn't care that he was taller than his mother now; he let her hug him and even hugged her back, desperate for any bit of comfort he could glean from her.

"How could they ever justify something like this?" he breathed. "This is ... this is just carnage ..."

"You would be surprised at what people will tell themselves so that they can feel as though they have a clear conscience," Lancaeriel spoke up sadly. She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "Perhaps when Kyrie is finished looking around, we may have some answers."

"I wish there were something I could do to help," Earendil said softly. "But I'm no good at tracking. And it's probably best not to move anything until Kyrie's finished looking around.

Indeed, it seemed as though Kyrie was trying to piece together what had happened: she was examining the ground around the bodies, tracking footprints and examining wounds and various debris strewn around the area.

Daeron on the other hand was an excellent tracker after all his years in Haven, hunting both slavers and animals, and after hugging Iorlas extra tightly, he left her alone so that he could help Kyrie piece together what had happened.

Iorlas began to wander, her hands clasped anxiously to her chest; but then suddenly her expression changed from worried and disgusted to surprised. She whirled around as if looking for something, her brow furrowed deeply.

"I wonder what's up," Earendil murmured softly, watching her.

"Very possible," Earendil agreed, watching his sister-in-law curiously to see what would come of her agitation.

Very quickly, Iorlas stopped going in circles and approached one of the smouldering houses' remains. She hesitated, leaned one ear towards it, then called out and waved for the others to come join her.

"Hurry!' she called, her voice nearly inaudible even in the short distance between her and them. "I hear something!"

Earendil frowned. "What ..."

But without finishing his question, he hurried down the hill, Shiro and Kaito running after him.