FORESHADOWING The air felt damp. Above the interlaced branches grey clouds brewed, bottling up the impending rain. The small group followed a rock bed through old trees, scaring up thin birds from the bordering brush. Silver, with a growl, leapt after each one, but the sparrows and the wrens flittered away before her agitated jaws. Jack knew Inara was angry with him. Did he have the right to ask her to make Krimble break his silence? Even if it meant finding Knell? No, he had to find out what the demon inside him wanted. If the woman in the odd house could tell him how to get rid of it, then giving Krimble the ability to talk was worth it. She rode with hunched shoulders, allowing the shambling corpse to walk, with his stiff limbed gait, beside her down the rutted path. The thick rubbery skin of the mushrooms Jack ate stuck to his teeth, and the stalks and umbrellas were sour, but they sated some of his hunger. He discarded the idea of offering some to Inara; he could not take her accusatory glare any more.
