Roisin trots along the beach, following the ruts of the chariot that went before us. I begin to notice that there are other marks in the sand. Some of them look like horses' hooves, following in the chariot's path. There are other ones that look like nothing I've ever seen before, leaving a line of scalloped tracks almost like a fish might make with their fins if they could walk on land. These tracks lead into and out of the woods.

A really bad smell wafts out from the trees. Roisin shakes her head and snorts.

"I agree! Let's hurry away from here!" I give her a kick at the same time that a strange and eerie cry floats from somewhere behind the trees. This cry is answered by another and then another.

Roisin adds her own shrill whinny, then she comes to a jerky stop. The momentum of her gallop and the sudden halt throws me in a somersault into the air, flying over her head. I hit the sandy beach flat on my back. All my breath is knocked out of me. I sprawl there, stunned.

I sit up just in time to see a strange procession coming out of the woods. Right towards us! There are about a dozen of them. Heads and shoulders like men, bodies like horses, tails and all, and instead of legs they have scaly fins.

"These are not the Daoine Maite!" I say to no one. Lucky for me and Roisin, they cannot move very fast on land with those stubby fins for feet. I jump back onto my pony's back. She doesn't need me to coax her to run. We leave the monsters behind and gallop northward.

Daoine Maite = the Good Folk.
Nucklelavee (Nuchlavis) = Scottish sea fairies. Ill-tempered, hideous in appearance, and extremely malevolent toward humans. They usually appear as half man, half horse with fins for feet and they smell like rotten eggs and old dead fish.