As if on cue, the forest outside filled with screams.

The mud-stuck caravan -- huddled at the center square of the overgrown city -- was under attack. Mothers hugged their frightened children, men and women aimed rifles at empty space in the woods, sweeping the barrels back and forth, blind to what was happening. Shots rang out and hit nothing. All they saw was the rip and shred of their wagon canopies, ransacked by invisible claws. Glass shattered, cans and boxes tumbled out onto the ground and tossed in all directions. Leaves rustled in the wake of moving things they couldn't see. Caravaners yelped and roared and fired their pistols, but the breath and claws at their back were nothing at all. Those shots instead came close to striking their fellows, which caused an uproar of a very different kind. Their horses screeched and fought against their harnesses; wheels and wagons cracked.

To the newly revived, this was a very different scene.

A swarm of dog-sized [i]things[/i] was attacking the caravan with hungry ferocity. They were shaped like spindly children with big round heads and frightful teeth -- almost cute, if their long thin fingers weren't curved in such frightening points. They sprang and leaped and flitted and hissed, descending upon the caravan's supply cart in alarming numbers. They shred the wagon canopy to ribbons, broke open canisters, spilled food and destroyed supplies. While the caravaners shot and swung their weapons in ridiculous directions, screaming and staring at empty space, the creatures skittered around their legs and ransacked everything they needed to survive.

[b]"Can you see them?"[/b] Kelodie called from the stairwell door. He tossed a small burlap bag across the room to them; it hit the floor with a glassy tinkle. The bag was filled with shiny, palm-sized stones of widely varying shape and color. Gemstones?

[b]"You're the only ones who can. You asked why you're here."[/b] He gestured toward the confusion outside the door. [b]"That's why."[/b]

A child's screech rang out; one of the creatures had snatched up a little girl and run off with her through the treetops. Her blue dress flashed brightly as she was whisked away along the boughs. Most of the caravaners took off running after the child, who to them appeared to be floating as if by magic.

[b]"Those things can be captured with the stones, but only the once-deceased can do it. I don't know how they work, I haven't died just yet, but the others seemed to figure it out quick enough."[/b] Kelodie was just as cheerful as ever in the face of the terror outside.