Fairuz crept toward the cave, his pace growing slower and more cautious the closer their group got. Shail found it hypocritical since the older male said he wasn't afraid of anything. They were all idiots, but from time to time, he didn't mind it. He too felt a strange drive to go where he'd been told not to. In the open space between the cave and hill, he felt a wind pick up as if in warning. Shail looking to the sky, but he seemed to be the only one distracted by it. Then, he was more sensitive than most to a sandstorm's bite.

"Hey you stupid monster! We aren't afraid of you!" Fairuz yelled some three feet away from the cave's entrance. When nothing immediately happened, he grinned with confidence and waved the other boys up with him. He pulled a rock from the inner folds of his clothes and tossed it in. "Don't you know the time of magic is over already! Humans aren't some ants anymore. We won't be beat!" Or at least, he seemed to think he wouldn't.

Shail found himself throwing rocks with the rest of them before Fairuz dashed into the cave himself, laughing like a madman.