"Ugh! What's that awful smell?" Holly gasped, screwing up her face and holding her breath as the team ran the last stretch of the way to the bank of the lough.

Conall sniffed the air and immediately identified the culprit. He couldn't contain his laughter as he tried to tell her and ended up rolling around on the chariot floor.

"What're you doing Conall?" she cried, staring down at the wolf at her feet in disbelief. "There's no time for playing! I can hear a chariot coming up behind us through the bog. If it's Nyfain that'll be the end of it for us. You know how much horses love the Cumhaill horse mistress. All we need now is for Cathaoir to get wind of her."

That made Conall laugh even harder, until Holly's prize stallion let another one go. He decided it would be wise to change back to human form in order to escape the keener sense of smell he usually enjoyed as a wolf.

"Good idea Conall. You don't want to scare the others," Holly said, grimmacing at the stench.

"It's not because of that, " Conall sputtered and doubled over with laughter. "It's your Cathaoir. He's making such a stink, my wolf senses couldn't take it any longer."

"Cathaoir!?? I warned that bolloxing stable boy not to feed him too much corn!" she groaned and playfull batted Conall for laughing at her horse. Then her eyes lit up as an idea came upon her.

"If we keep the others downwind of us, the yellow ribbon'll be ours to be sure!"

"Oh that's evil sis!" Conall chortled and held his nose as Cathaoir continued to live up to his part of her wicked plan.