Prologue
The wind had taken on a comforting somniference, no longer the enemy, but part of the Outback, just like the witchery bush and jackdaw grass, which had become too dry to eat.
Lay down… it whispered. Lay down and go to sleep.
But the small, white pony did not, for if she did, she wouldn't be here when her little girl came back to get her.
She stepped around the body of her compatriot, a brown gelding who'd lain down last night and taken a last, sighing breath at dawn. The other horses had moved away, but the small white pony stood vigil over her friend.
A cloud of reddish dust marred the clear, cloudless horizon. As it moved closer, the hum of an engine drowned out the buzzards which circled the brown gelding, frustrated she kept chasing them away.
Out of the dust appeared a
