My lover, the Night Raven, and I look forward to a day spent in shared pleasures. Astride behind him, I nuzzle his neck, whisper and nibble at his ear, and tease him by wrapping my bare legs around his hips, all this as the rhythm of the horse's easy gait rocks us into a hot and dreamy daze.

We cross the river three times for luck, to and fro, to and fro, to and fro, then we ride slowly into the woods to find a safe place for our lovemaking. In the middle of an open meadow, at the top of a little knoll, there is thick grove of pines.

The horse is stripped of packs and tack, and set free to graze. Anyone who saw him would take him for a stray. Behind the curtain of evergreen boughs, we are unseen and all-seeing, with a long view of the surrounding meadow, over the gently rolling green all the way to the river and even as far as the line of trees alongside the road.

Hadaig throws off his brat and kicks off his boots. I crouch down and comb the ground with my fingers, picking out pine cones and sharp twigs. A sweet perfume rises from the crushed brown needles that will be our bed. Warm and damp with longing, I turn to admire my lover's sleek form.

Something catches my eye, streaking across the meadow. A huge brown and white bull!

"Pox and pus!" Hadaig reaches for me and I spin him around so that he can see too. "Look there, isn't that the bull you sold at Tara?"

As 'Daig and I stare, a rider comes into view, in hot pursuit of the runaway beast.

"Strange," Night Raven remarks. "That bull was bought by the Rian of Niafer. The rider wears no clan colors. A fellow renegade, perhaps? Has someone else stolen the stolen bull?"

Bemused, we watch as the bull leads his would-be captor on a merry chase all around the meadow. Then, much to our horror, both bull and rider charge straight for our piney knoll.