"I understand your caution," the stranger said. "I really do." He agreed to Annie's father's demands that he do as told, then -- as he was departing under Paul's escort -- he looked up to Annie, smiled, and said, "See you again soon, I hope."

Annie tried not to smile but failed. She was happy the man couldn't see her expression what with the sun to her back. Looking to Paul, though -- standing off to one side enough to [i]not[/i] have her in silhouette -- Annie could see that that man who yearned to breed with her when she came of age [i]did[/i] see the smile ... and didn't like it. The smile faded, but as the pair headed away up the trail, it returned again. 

"[i]Annie![/i]" her father barked. She looked to him sharply, realizing in the back of her mind that he'd already called her at least once, possibly more. Bran told her, "I need you to go with the search team heading north."

She pointed a hand toward the trail and the departing pair of men, beginning, "But shouldn't I--?"

"[i]No![/i]" he cut in, adding, "You [i]shouldn't.[/i] You should do what I told you to do."

She nodded to him reluctantly, took one last look at the handsome stranger walking up the trail, then descended from the boulder to join the team of three heading up the pebble beach to the north. Over the next five miles, they would find only scattered, infrequent debris before finally coming across three bodies in close proximity to one another. 

It was a gruesome sight, not because they were dead but because they were already being fed upon by predators and scavengers: a single wolf and several crows which the canine couldn't give a moment's notice ate upon one corpse, while the other two -- a couple of dozen yards away -- were being devoured by a variety of sea birds and dozens of crabs respectively. It was a prime example of Mother Nature at work, Annie mused to herself.

"We go around them," the leader of the search team ordered. When one of the others asked about killing the wolf -- they hunted the flocks of a village with whom Annie's Clan traded -- the leader said, "No, leave it be. Maybe this will sate it for a while."

They headed up from the surf, bodies, and [i]diners[/i], circled around the scene, and continued onward. They found one more body half a mile later, this one being eaten exclusively by sea birds. Again they passed by at a distance and continued onward. They'd covered another five miles before they turned back; once they had to wade out into the surf up to their chests to get around a rocky outcrop, while another time they'd had to climb up and over a short, moderately steep cliff to continue onward.

Darkness had fallen by the time they'd returned to the village.

[center]++++++++++++++++++++[/center]
Paul had called out to the other villagers before him and King to clear a path. It was an order they obeyed immediately upon seeing the stranger he was escorting at spear point. The quarantine hut was the first of the structures they neared, a good hundred yards from the rest of the village. They hadn't had to use it in over ten years, the last time that a visitor -- a friend, not a stranger -- had arrived at the village with a fever and sweats, two of the Bug's symptoms. He'd turned out to be just fine and continued to visit the village for trade even today.

"In there," Paul said, jabbing his spear in the direction of the hut. "I'll have food, water, blankets, and clothing brought to you."

Paul didn't bother to inspect the hut first, and both men leapt in surprise when -- upon King opening the door -- a raccoon leapt at them, hissing, before hurrying away, followed by her four younglings. Inside, King wouldn't find much: four walls, a reed floor, a ceiling that leaked when it rained, and a bed mat that now smelled of the [i]camp robbers[/i]. 

"As Elder Bran said, if you do as said, you will be fairly treated," Paul said after King had entered the hut. He added, "This is not punishment. This is not imprisonment. This is quarantine. We cannot chance the Bug or anything else getting to our people."

If King had nothing more to say or ask, Paul would close the door and post up on guard outside. If the stranger [i]did[/i] have more to say, he would do his best to respond.