With Tak and Hallen nowhere to be found, Alphonse, Fiera, and Quinta prepare for their return trip to the fort city.  With a rough-made sled of bamboo poles, they manage to gather a few things from the house... the remains of one of the intact terror birds from inside the house, for one... the others have drawn scavenger birds, fire ants, flies... there are signs of crocodiles having dragged away at least one corpse.<br/><br/>They quickly notice that they are all, perhaps understandably, hungry and thirsty.  They are able to cook breakfast before the dawn-- there's still adequate provisions at the house to corn cakes, fatback, and smoked venison, a cask of beer, dried figs.  The three of them eat heartily and are well underway by the time the sky's red has begun to fade... but they are hungry again.  The trail rations are soon consumed, and they find themselves all thoroughly exhausted... muscles quivery as from prolonged exertion, they manage the trip back in a satisfactory fashion.<br/><br/>Before the sun reaches its apex in the sky, the temperatures is high enough to raise quivering waves from the rough dirt road over each swell of the land.  Their arrival at Quinza is, at first, unremarked, until one pf the guards checking their papers shows utter awe at their quarry.  Soon, they are beset by village children and tagged along by several merchants and guards who pester them with questions, speculations, and offers of purchase for the terror bird's remains.