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Page 288

| able at least to protect her face from the dreaded rays that were never-ending during the day. It was hard to believe that she had witnessed a storm at all. As she gazed down at the ground over which her horse was now traveling, she could see wide cracks, and when the horse traveled beneath the widespread branches of gum trees, the fallen leaves beneath them crunched and sprayed dust in all directions. |

| Although it had only been a few days since the torrential rains, the parched earth showed signs of the beginning of a drought. She couldn't help but recall the time Ashton had told her about the Aboriginesthat they set fires in order to frighten animals out of the forest and onto their spears for food. If the natives set a fire now, it would spread quickly, burning everything in its wakeperhaps even The Homestead! |

| She forced such terrifying thoughts from her mind, and her eyes lit up when, just ahead, she saw grazing sheephers and Ashton's! Home! She was almost home! |

| Then something gruesome and heart-stopping made Sasha grow pale. She was now close enough to the sheep to see that things were not right. Several were on the ground, blood covering their heads. |

| Even as she stared at the flock, she witnessed a sight that seemed too grotesque to be real. Several crows suddenly appeared from out of nowhere and landed on several of the surviving sheep's heads. Their talons sank into the sheep and held steadfast when the frightened animals began bleating and |

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