I forget Keu is head and shoulders taller than me. I forget he is twice my weight. I forget he has that godsforsaken arm that could kill me with one swat. All I know is what I saw. Him, bare bellied, sweating and tangle-haired, standing close by Winter Mist. And what I heared, my faithless wife's giggle. I thought I was the only one who could make her giggle that way.

The red fog gets redder after I smash into Keu. We both go flying into a thornbush. That only makes us both madder. At first he only seems to want to push me off him without fighting back. The ugliest words I ever knew come pourin' out of me. In the middle of my fury, I laugh like a loon, thinking me a poet of foul language. Still laughing and cursing up a storm, I draw back and punch one fist smack in the middle of Keu's face and another one wham upside his head, one-two. There's a good sharp CRACK! Blood flows from his nose. He roars and grabs with both hands for my throat. I hop back and kick one leg up, aiming with evil intent meant to forever ruin him as a man. My foot hits hard and all his breath leaves him in one big whoop, but he don't even bend. Now there's fire in his eyes for sure! The monstrous weavings of sinew and muscle on his big arm are dancing and popping like they want to break right through his skin. He gives a great, grinding groan and grabs hold of my shoulders, which surprises me because I was ready for him to throw a killer punch. He throws me backwards through the air but I land on my feet, bounce back and ram him against the gnarly tree. Now its his turn to crash a fist into my face. Blood spatters everywhere. I can only see from one eye, the other one is blinded with purple. I rush at Keu again, he tosses me back, and I run at him once more.

Something stabs me in both my ears and makes me fall to the ground. Keu falls too, throwing his arms up over his head. A banshee is screaming!

I can't move until it stops. It goes on forever. The world has split open and we all must be dead. No, finally it stops and I can breathe again.

Keu and I get up at the same time. All our anger is spent. We glare at each other with poisonous sneers but the fight is done. I spit blood and a tooth at Keu before I turn to Winter Mist - she who was the cause of it all!

"It wasn't what you thought," Keu sniffs, dabbing at his broken nose with the edge of his leine. "We were coming out of the cave by another passageway. Somebody was searching in there but they didn't find us - or this either." He kicks at a sack on the ground. It makes a pleasant metallic clink.

Winter Mist says nothing but scoops up some moss from by the crooked tree and offers Keu a handful. Lovingly she presses the other handful to where my face took the worst punishment.

"Searching? They aren't after us! They're out to find the Rian of Niafer, who's been taken by someone." I tell the rest of what I saw and overheard from my tree roost.

The baying of hounds very close by sends us scrambling for where my cunning wife hid her horses, then we're off, fast and quiet as can go, to meet Da and the rest at the Sea Hag.