*it's true, there isn't: Jei has just slipped down the hole at the base of the Willow's trunk just as a silvery glow lines the tips of the mountains to the east*


*and it isn't many minutes later -- maybe five, maybe ten -- when something that might have been a cry floats back from the direction of the tree -- a cry or perhaps an eerie wail.... or maybe just a lonely, random thestrel somewhere in the forest beyond.....*