"Faesha Ona? How did the creature get into the Vale of Dawn if it was a sacred place?"

"The Darkness has always been in the universe, Hameia," Ona said. "That one has forever sought to undo what Light has made, to turn the hearts of the Faithful from love to hatred. That place, though sacred, was opened to Darkness that Faithfulness could be demonstrated and rewarded with the blessings of Righteousness and Power."

"Oh," Hameia said, looking down at the marks she had drawn in the dirt with her finger. She furrowed her brow thoughtfully a few moments then looked up. "Why would anyone want to do that?"

"Because that is what the Darkness is, Hameia," Ona said, her voice becoming hard as steel yet soft as a whispered breeze in the long grasses. "It is hate. It is what we strive against always."

Hameia nodded, her eyes suddenly hard and unfeeling, her face an emotionless mask. "Then forever will I hunt it down. I will give it no quarter and give it swift death when I come to it."

Everyone seated around the fire paused and looked at the young girl, daughter of Thured, the High King's elder brother. It had been said at her birth she was unlike anyone else born of their people and now that gift was beginning to manifest itself in this ten year old girl. Ona blinked then looked closer at her. She was well formed for a child her age though of average height. She was also beautiful of face and had long, dark hair held back by a simple brooch of leather and wood. Her big, deep brown eyes were usually mirthful yet often thoughtful and her graceful, upswept ears seemed to hear every whisper of the plain.

Now those eyes were hard and cold, like winter soil on the high plateau of the Mountain where the elders were buried. Her ears too were more rigid than usual and her full lips firmer and more set. For a moment, Ona could see the woman she would become and smiled without humor. Perhaps the Dream of Enar would come to pass in her lifetime after all. Shaking the thoughts of the prophesy from her head, she smiled warmly at Hameia who likewise seemed to have settled back to being herself.

The High Queen knew everyone else had seen it and wondered if her unborn son had felt what she had and reflexively draped her arm across her swollen belly. Something deep in her soul told her he had and that he himself would be part of what was to come.

"I think," Ona began, looking around at the other women gathered with her, "it is time to rejoin the men. Tomorrow morning will bring us new light and new life."

"Is it time, my Queen?" Ona's attendant, Raelua, asked, her eyes alight with joy.

"Very soon, my friend," Ona smiled. "Very soon. Help me stand, Raelua."

Raelua nodded and stood, reaching down to aid her Queen. Ona smiled again and reached up, still nimble enough to get her feet beneath herself quickly and stand. When she was standing, the others began rising as well, Hameia being the last one to stand. Ona nodded once and turned, leading the women toward the center of the camp from the water’s edge. Hameia paused and looked back at her scratches in the dirt then shrugged and quickly caught up to the others. A few moments later, the three men who had been nearby ensuring the safety of the women also followed. As they passed by where Hameia had been sitting, one called Rethakh paused and looked down.

“What is it, brother?” one the other men asked.

“Look,” he said, pointing down. “I’ve never seen such a thing from a child.”

The other men walked back to where Rethakh stood and looked down. There in the dirt was a very well done drawing of a tiger.