“Does this happen every five years?” Athlan asked.

“Yes,” Kathlak replied, “but the next meeting will take place in Bear Hunter territory, and the one after that will be in Reindeer Hunter land.”

“Is anything important likely to happen?”

“No, not really.”

“Why bother with it, then?”

“It keeps Dahlaine happy.”

“Oh. I guess that sort of makes it all right.”

“I’ll let him know that you approve, Athlan,” Kathlak said with no hint of a smile.

“Ah—I don’t know if you need to bother him with that, Kathlak,” Athlan said a bit anxiously. “He’s probably busy right now with other things. Why don’t we all just forget that I said anything at all about this?”

“I suppose that if you really want us to do that, we’ll just let it lie, Athlan, but if you think that your opinion is really important, I’ll bring it to his attention the next time I see him.”

Athlan was squirming by then, but he had learned a few things that were quite important during their little exchange. First of all, it might not be a bad idea to think things through before he started making suggestions, but even more important, he’d learned never to cross Chief Dalthak’s grim son Kathlak if he could possibly avoid it.

By the time Athlan reached his fourteenth year, his growing reputation began to attract the attention of the fathers of young, eligible girls in the tribe, and those fathers spoke frequently with Athlan’s father, Athaban, about certain “interesting possibilities.”

Athlan took to the woods at that point. His mother had died when he’d been very young, and he’d become quite comfortable living with only his father. Someday, perhaps, mating might be appropriate, but for right now he chose freedom instead. He roamed out in the forest alone with only trees and animals for company, and that suited him right down to the ground. His skills as a hunter increased tremendously during those years, and he found that if he moved slowly and quietly through the forest, the animals didn’t even notice him.

It was about midmorning on a glorious summer day when Athlan was moving through the forest near the coast when he saw a stranger smoothly paddling a canoe northward some distance out from the beach. The stranger was quite obviously not a member of one of the Deer Hunter Tribes. There was no fringe on the sleeves of his buckskin shirt, and no beads sewn to its front. Athlan was quite certain that he was out of sight, but the stranger laid his paddle down and held up his hands to show Athlan that he was not holding his bow.

Athlan was curious enough not to just fade back into the forest. He slung his bow over his shoulder and held out his hands to show the stranger that he wasn’t feeling hostile, and walked on down to the edge of the water. “I am Athlan of the tribe of Dalthak,” he called to introduce himself as the stranger paddled in closer.

“And I am Longbow of the tribe of Old-Bear,” the stranger replied in a quiet voice. “I come here in peace, and I have no hostile intent.”

“Welcome, then, to the Domain of Dahlaine of the North,” Athlan greeted the quiet stranger.

“I am from the Domain of Zelana of the West, and I thank you, Athlan of the North.”

“Do you think we’ve managed to pile up enough formality yet?” Athlan asked.

“I think we’ve covered the requirements of stuffy,” Longbow agreed with a faint smile.

“Come ashore, then, and we can talk about the weather or something.”

Longbow smoothly drove his canoe up onto the sandy beach and stepped out.

“Are you just exploring, or did you want to have words with one of the local chieftains?” Athlan asked.

“I think you might be the one I came up here to see. You’re a hunter, aren’t you?”

Athlan shrugged. “It gives me something to do when I’m not busy sleeping or eating. Was there something you wanted to know about?”

“Have the creatures of the Wasteland been nosing around in your territory at all?”

“I’ve heard about them occasionally, but I’ve never actually seen one,” Athlan replied. “Let’s get your canoe out of sight and then go back into the forest a ways. Standing right out in the open like this makes me just a bit fidgety.”

“Oh? Is there somebody you don’t want to encounter?”

“I’m not in trouble or anything like that. It’s just that I’m not ready to settle down just yet. I’m a fairly good hunter, and there are some older men in the tribe who think I’d be suitable to mate with their daughters so that I could provide food for their families while they just relax and let me do all the work.”

“That does seem to crop up now and then,” Longbow agreed with a wry smile as he took hold of the front of his canoe.

They pulled the canoe into a patch of bushes and then went on back under the trees. “Now, then,” Athlan said, “what is it about the creatures of the Wasteland that concerns you? From what I’ve heard, they’re nothing but midgets that go sneaking around in the woods—probably looking for things to steal.”

“It goes just a bit further, Athlan. What they’re really looking for is information, and they don’t want us to know that they’re intruding into our territory. They may look like nothing but people, but they’re not people at all. Actually, they’re servants of the Vlagh.”

“I’ve heard about that one, but I thought that it was just a story that somebody made up to frighten children.”

“It’s not a story, Athlan. There really is a thing called the Vlagh, and it wants to rule the world. That’s why it’s sending the little ones into our lands to find out if we have any way to resist when it sends its warriors here to conquer us.”

“How did you happen to find out about all this?” Athlan asked a bit skeptically.

“They killed she who was to be my mate, so now I kill them every time I encounter them. If you ever happen to come across one of them, be very careful. If you let them get too close to you, they’ll bite you, and you’ll die. They have venomous fangs, and their venom is deadly—even if they happen to bite one of their own friends. The shaman of our tribe has studied them for quite a while and he showed me how to take the venom from dead ones and anoint my arrowheads with it. The tiniest scratch from one of my arrows kills them instantly.”

“Would it kill a deer in the same way?” Athlan asked.