Morale was again reaching a low. It would become dark soon, and another day would be lost. Almost certainly the grain peddler had beaten the Patrol to Pebblebrook by now; perhaps the Patrol could regain the scent for him there. But what if he bypassed Pebblebrook altogether, or had allies there that would lie for him? It was easy for arguments over this uncertainty to roll through the Patrol. As the cold rain fell and started to freeze on the forest floor it became easier and easier to blame Lea for failing to find the mouse, rather than accepting that the skill of the grain peddler to elude them was far greater than any of them anticipated.<br/><br/>Twilight was shadowed in a blanket of dull grey. The temperature was dropping. The colors of the forest were beginning to merge into the brownish grey of darkness, but then Lea spotted something. Mawgwa dismissed it as another one of her wild goose chases; that girl would chase any shiny that crossed her eye.<br/><br/>But this time Lea’s eyes and nose were true. She had found something, though it wasn’t what anyone was expecting. Lea had discovered the grain peddler’s cart, overturned with its cargo spilled into an elongated pile of fresh grains. Not far from the cart was the peddler’s wide-brimmed straw hat, strewn upside-down on the ground.<br/><br/>“What happened?” Lea asked to know one in particular.<br/><br/>“Something got him,” Mawgwa answered with the grave tone of an old soldier; one who had witnessed much death and suffering, and was now immune to its trauma. “No tracks in the mud,” Mawgwa looked upward, “an attack from above, perhaps.”<br/><br/>DeeDee unsheathed her needle at Mawgwa’s words and arched her neck skyward. Baba urged calm through a mumbled maw of chewed herbs. Mawgwa joined DeeDee in vigilance, touching tails as a signal of camaraderie and teamwork among fighters; a silent promise that one would not leave the other. Despite Baba’s reassurances, Mawgwa and DeeDee were in no mood to be ambushed as the grain peddler clearly had been.<br/><br/>Baba, with Gwendolyn’s orders swirling in his thoughts, ordered Lea to make a search of the grain peddler’s cart. “If he is who I think he is,” the Patrol Leader said, “he will have been transporting more than just grain to Pebblebrook.”<br/><br/>But as soon as Lea began her task, DeeDee’s shrill voice raised an alarm.<br/><br/>“SNAAAAAKE!”<br/><br/>The reptile struck at her quick as an uncoiling spring, and it was only through a massive push from Mawgwa that knocked her to the ground that kept her from being snagged. The snake meant business, and the Patrol was outmatched an unprepared to fight such an adversary.<br/><br/>“Run!” shouted Baba, knowing that at this point the Patrol was outflanked, and the cart and its spilled contents weren’t going anywhere. Both DeeDee and Mawgwa were hesitant. DeeDee was already back on her feet. “That’s an order,” Baba repeated. “Run!”<br/><br/>Mawgwa shot a look at DeeDee. He would follow Baba’s orders; he just wanted to make sure DeeDee would, too.