Mal stood against the porch support, his body curved as if weighed down on one side. He held a metal cup in one hand, watching the setting sun across the horizon. Jayne exited the bar, sniffing, puffing his chest and then spitting as far as he could into the dwindling darkness. "Mighty nice," Mal commented, following the trail of the spit wad with his eyes.

Jayne sniffed again, smiling proudly and hooking his thumbs into his belt and falling back against the side of the building. "What'reya watchin'?" he asked, squinting at the sky.

"Sunset," Mal replied, taking a sip of his rotgut.

Jayne quirked his mouth, tilting his head and looking at the top curve of the sun over the hill. Mal rolled his eyes. "Or maybe I'm just watching the marchers."

"Marchers?" Jayne asked, craning his neck. He saw them then, moving through the foothills. They were carrying torches, moving slowly, heading away from the village that had granted Serenity docking. "Huh. Where you suppose they're goin'?"

"Bartender told me there was a war going on."

Kaylee slipped her way onto the porch, digging her hands deep into the pockets of her jumpsuit. The cold was coming with the night. She shivered, exhaling a thick cloud of her breath as she tried to latch on to what the men were talking about. "War," Jayne asked. "Who 'tween?"

"Some folks got a beef with some other folks," Mal replied with a shrug, deciding not to get into the details with someone like Jayne. "'Tender says they've been sendin' troops for months now."

"You talkin' local politics with the locals?" Jayne asked.

Mal shrugged. "In a roundabout way. Asked why there was only bread to eat on the menu."

"Why was that?" Kaylee asked quietly, finally alerting both men to her presence.

Mal pointed at the marchers, who were now almost out of sight. "Sending their men off to war. No one to tend the fields, no food gettin' to market."

"The women can't farm?"

Mal smiled, trying not to be condescending. "No 'fense there, Kaylee, but the women of this world a