"I'm telling you, it's not like there's anything that will kill us for knowing about it," the first of the two insisted, maneuvering back towards the covered cart.<br/><br/>The other started to reach for his weapon his again when his steed stumbled, nearly sending him tumbling as he tried to re-steady the animal once more.  Once ready to deal with his idiot companion, he stopped dead in his tracks.<br/><br/>A very lifelike stone statue lay on the ground, near the covered cart.  The horse was in the middle of bolting, one stone foot still caught in the stirrup as it reared and flailed about, wide-eyed and panicked, not quite able to reach the statue to smash itself free.<br/><br/>"QUICKLY!  CALM THAT BEAST!" one of the merchants yelled, not thinking that perhaps his outburst would only make things worse.<br/><br/>And make things worse it decidedly did; in the near-silence of the convoy the shout was the trigger to looming bedlam.  As though a boulder thrown into a still pond, the initial frenzy spread ripples outwards from the sudden petrification, one steed's fear becoming rapidly multiplied among the others.  While several mercenaries tried to restore order, the unnatural hysteria unleashed among the animals forces most to focus more directly on their own animals than the others, until the mules pulling the carts burst into a desperate run, trying to escape, heedless of any and all things attached to them.