As Sabine and Rydis waked off to the side to receive their thanks from the head of the butchermen, and Signy stalked Miluyasha, Adisa (who was just outside the hostel) heard the first cries of alarm and awe.  Children mostly, meaning it was not truly a threat, but it had attracted their attention.  Gautirr frowned, and shook his head to Miluyasha, and stopped another of his men from rising to go look.<br/><br/>It wasn't long before a small crowd started gathering, and the whispers were heard.  Fear and awe murmured with quiet words, and several people steeped inside the longhouse to pray, hiding from whatever sight had troubled them.<br/><br/>Those who stepped outside to see were treated to a strange thing indeed: a herd of horses, riderless, yet bearing saddle and furs, walking  slowly towards the east.  not one or two, but a full two dozen, many thin and struggling, others better fed and yet exhausted.  Many were wounded - long, deep gashes that bled little, black and gangrenous, in patters of five, like the hands of a man....but a man of such size they would have stood taller than the horses by another half of a man's size.  And half of them had coem from a nearby village - the furs and gods-signs and talismans were too familiar.<br/><br/>Signy would have recognized the men who had owned those horses....<br/><br/>