Flashback to another view of the strange omen

Rogue paused in the middle of pulling on her frayed green bikini bottoms. In the distance she could see the vast rocky spire that was the home of the Four Clan. The flat top of the Baxter Tower was guarded by sheer cliffs that would take days to climb, and flocks of dactyls that would attempt to eat or drive off anyone that attempted.

Beneath the summit the Four Clan had marked their territory. A huge horizontal and vertical line crossing at their centers was melted from the rock of the cliff face. It was like the X-Tribe's own symbol but rotated. A third line of melt joined the top of the vertical line to the leftmost part of the horizontal. The strange arts of the leader of the Four Clan had been used to color the gashes blue and mark the surrounding rock white.

A dark cloud was forming in front of the Four Clan's rune. Rogue's eyes were sharp, the eyes of a hunter, but even she could only just make out a few of the larger individual pterodactyls that made up the dark cloud. Above the cloud something else was clearer, its enormous sizing dwarfing the other dactyls and making it visible even from this distance.

"The Four Clan return from the north. Ah see the fantastic Karr."

Psylocke paused in tightening the red leather belt above her hips to look at the Tower. She quickly spotted the huge pterodactyl Karr upon which the Four for whom their clan was named rode together.

"What is--"

Even as Psylocke began her question, the appearance of the black flock of pterodactyls suddenly changed completely. The flock twisted and turned about itself and suddenly took the shape of the Four Clan's symbol. But even as they watched in wonder a trio of enormous spikes exploded out from the top of the rune, dactyls spiraling upwards. At the same time the Four Clan's symbol grew fainter as the number of dactyls forming it decreased and they plunged down towards the base of the Baxter Tower.

The Four Clan's rune dissolved before it, or rather the dactyls forming it, struck the ground. But the trio of spikes only rose and grew denser. Three black thorns in the sky, full of menace. The middle of the three thorns was aimed for Karr and as the X-tribeswomen watched the dactyls that formed it flocked around and over Karr. Then as suddenly as the Four Clan's rune had disappeared the three thorns were gone.

"Spirits protect us!" Rogue exclaimed.

"It is a bad omen. An omen of malice and danger. One clearly connected to the Four Clan."

Psylocke wrapped her arms round Rogue's bare belly with the familiarity of a lover and rested her chin on the taller woman's shoulder to study the Tower. Rogue realized that her lover was offering her comfort and at the same time seeking it. She relaxed a little into the embrace.

"Danger? Danger to the Four Clan?" Rogue paused a moment as she realized who exactly had witnessed the omen. "Or danger from the Four Clan?"

"I do not know. Perhaps both? We must consult the Wise Ones. Perhaps we must even warn Richards and the rest of the Four Clan."

Psylocke fell silent, deep in thought. Though she heard thoughts she was not a Wise One yet. The Four Clan was as small as its name implied. But it numbers were swelled by bond-slaves - women who had been gifted by their tribes, or in a few cases had gifted themselves, in gratitude for the Four Clan's cunning aid. She did not voice her theory that the omen presaged the appearance of a new tribe, one that would conquer the Four, impossible as that seemed. Or that the three thorns was the mark of this unknown tribe. No, the interpretation of auguries was for the Wise Ones and she would bide her time until they spoke.

Rogue paused many breaths watching the Tower but the blue sky, green jungle and grey rock spire kept their counsel from her. With a sense of foreboding she dismissed what she could not affect. She turned her back on the Tower to kiss Psylocke and, reluctantly, broke their embrace to resume dressing.

They would cut their first harvest of bloody meat from the trex corpse quickly. Then they would travel with much haste and little caution to the Burnt Place where the X-Tribe made its home amongst the sky-metal remains of the Nightbird and report what they had seen.