Just as she curled up and settled to the ground, a strange tingling entered her mind and a tugging wind ruffled her fur, though there was no breeze under the trees. The panther sat up in a half-crouch and batted at the air, her hackles raised. Sniffing the air revealed nothing unusual upwind. There were no strange sounds, but the bird calls that broke the hot stillness proved no clever creature crept up on her undetected. She dimly remembered this feeling from when she was young, and mysterious humans called Breathstealers had torn her from her family with their magic to perform deeds for them. She had hated it then, but been powerless to fight their summoning.

She grunted with rage and fear, startling two young deer nearby. Distracted though she was, she saw that they had not even noticed her, tense and half-crouched within easy springing distance. Quick kills, if she were free to care about such things. But she vanished entirely, startling the deer even more.

The tingling in her mind subsided: the panther saw that she was far from home, on a hot plain of pale grasses and occasional trees. Clouds massed in the west, heavy with thunder and rain. Even the air smelled different, filled with the odor of unknown creatures and dust. She staggered, queasy from the sudden change, from the weird magic that had brought her from the dark jungles of Urborg to this strange place.

More magic followed. She had not even recovered from the sickness that threatened to overwhelm her, when a black mist entered her mind. The misty form moved with disturbing speed, washing through her thoughts like an unseen serpent rushing through grass. It flooded her mind, blocking out the grass, the clouds, and even the sun. Finally, the shape became clear: a man in tight, brightly colored robes, a shaman, both like and unlike the Breathstealers.

Remembering the painful days of her captivity, the panther struggled like a warthog in a pit, but the shaman's hold over her mind allowed no escape, and her hatred was forced into a tiny corner, powerless. The man spoke and threw smoke at the panther, and suddenly she felt very, very hungry for goats--as if her mate had just asked her to hunt goats with him; as if her cubs demanded goat meat and nothing else. It seemed so reasonable, even though she didn't care for goats. When the shaman pointed into the grasslands, toward a large tree that stood alone, the panther leapt to do his bidding.