As she walked away from her cart Erek went to collect his son from his family, he was not putting his son through any of his father’s whims, not as long as he could help it. Kaya walked to the people that she knew, she tried to tell them about what Rollins told her, she tried to explain that Rognvald was drunk in more ways than one. But, the gossip of the Blue eye was faster than Kaya’s words were, the gossip was so fast that before Rollins and Erek had all of Kaya’s things packed up to travel, the news had reached every listening ear, it even touched the ears of the non-listeners. As soon as Kaya started to speak the people would either turn and walk away from her or they would respond by saying, “that Blue eye is a curse.” Some of her friends listened, some of the people had sense enough to know that Rognvald was a disgrace and a poor leader. With Oscar covering up for him he had been drunk every night, he even howled at the moons one night, Oscar did his best to cover that one up

It was a few weeks before they were inseparable, they found a place in the Land that was theirs, they maintained its borders and beginning with that years mating season, they started their first litter. The years passed, they raised litter after litter of cubs and were happy with their lives together. Then the two-legs came, they came in droves with horses and things the leopards didn’t understand, the two-legs never came this far out into the wild. The male leopard was a great hunter and provided for his family the best he could, the female was a passionate mother, she raised the cubs and taught them everything they would need to survive. Then the night came when her mate did not return, it wasn’t unusual for him to be gone for a day or two, but something on the wind told the female to go looking for him. She had learned from her mistakes, her first litter was hidden poorly and the lioness didn’t have to work hard to find that litter, she would not make that error with this litter.

In a time so long ago, in a world that was much different than it was today, the Land was also different. In this age there were two continents on this world, two huge land masses that were close enough to each other that a strong swimmer could, possibly, make the journey. They were sisters, these large continents, and they sat in the middle of a planet covered in water, they were the only large stretches of land on this world. There were hundreds of small islands, as well as a dozen midsized islands, none of which were large enough to call continents. The water between them was happy, it flowed freely between the sisters, many marine animals, along with a few mammals, called this sea home. Mostly small and medium sized animals lived in this sea, during specific times each year, pods of killer whales swam through the waters that separated the sisters. These whales culled any weak animals from the ecosystem. The only predators that called this sea home were small sharks, this sea was t

The boys went back to helping Erek with the setup, Erek was nearly done before the two came back from ogling the girls. Kaya sat on her cart with the baby, she will unhook the horses when Erek was done setting up the tent poles, they had each fallen into roles without any of them realizing that they had. Talia was the healer and that would not change, she also helped with the baby and foraged for food. Rollins was the expert and had the final say on the food they ate from the Land, as well as being the navigator and a successful hunter. Erek continued his subdued manner, he was a great help with lifting and carrying things, he was learning everyday but kept most of his thoughts to himself. The boys, Gorman, and Lorne were passable hunters but they lacked the self-discipline to be good hunters, they were young and acted like they were children sometimes.Erek walked over to Kaya after he was finished with the tent poles, the boys were stretching the buffalo hides over the poles as he p

The morale was low, people were suffering from sore feet, twisted ankles, even broken bones were not uncommon on the road. The attitude of the people was shifting, the helping people they once were slowly turned into selfishness, the sharing with neighbors, the caring for others way of life they had all lived was dying. The people who walked were the most upset, they had to sleep on the ground, some with little to no shelter to speak of, they saw the big carts of the leadership and were envious and jealous of their position. The tempers of the travelers flared up more often now as well, fights over pieces of land to sleep on, shoving matches over food, and yelling at one another were increasing among the travelers. Tensions ran high every day, every day there were new injuries or equipment failures, predators killed livestock. The horses they relied on struggled under increasing burdens. The caravan was a time bomb and Rognvald was its short fuse.None of the people in the caravan kne