Description

Taye is a young man of fifteen summers who struggles to attain the status of a Senior Pyean Warrior. His father is the best hunter in the village but Taye feels he is a disappointment to everyone. Taye is an excellent tracker. He can find his prey, but killing it is another story.

Taye takes on the challenge of entering the desert alone for a hunt that can last no more than ten sleeps. If he returns unsuccessful, he will never be able to become a Senior Warrior. He must capture and bring back a matiki. Dressed in only a wetzel fur on his lower torso and carrying only a tri-pointed spear as a weapon, he enters the desert.

Taye finds a matiki, but fails to capture it. He has seven more sleeps left in his quest, so he decides to track the matiki into the plains where the hostile Zackets live. Alone in territory he has never seen, he faces thunderstorms, flash floods and even rescues a Makai girl. He feels honor bound to escort her safely to her people in the mountains, even though he has never been there either. His only knowledge of the Zacket and Makai people and their territory came from talk around campfires with Pyean warriors.

Slowly his mission drifts from a position of glory for himself to a quest that will bring peace. As he begins to question everything he has heard about the Makai people he is challenged to rethink his evaluation of the Zackets as well. Before he can help anyone, he must first escape. He can't fight his way out of this one. He only has one weapon left; the voice of reason.