The leaves were off the trees and the cattails at the edge of the lake were bursting their tops and the wind was blowing the fluff bound seeds out across the water. Her wolf, Bold Walker was sitting at her feed as she absent mindedly scratched behind his ear.

Feather-in-the-Wind’s mind was slowly drifting across all the adventure and growth that she had experienced since being rescued from the cave of the Condor and joining Taelo and his team.

She had participated in establishing the Northern Elk Clan and in building the grand lodge and compound in what turned out to be the original valley the Elk Clan had started.

She was now a permanent and accepted member of Taelo’s team. She had been on the Journey of discovery when they traveled east. It was on that trip that she had first observed the mount. They had traveled much of the journey riding on their mounts.

The team had just returned from their journey to the north and across the ice bridge to the world beyond.

She had faced the giant brown bear and had almost lost her life. The journey was her journey into her mature life.

The team had faced battle with the sky eyes and had won. She had helped save Taelo from almost certain death when his sled went into a fathomless crevasse in the ice.

The team had returned with more than one hundred people from that far land.

She had expressed her desire to lead the new sub-Elk clan that she had named the Eastern Elk Clan. She had Taelo’s and the team’s support but she did not think that would be enough.

She was young, she was an adopted member of the Elk Clan, she was the wrong gender and had the smallest physical stature of all the people in the Clan.

She had come to the realization that Running Stag, saved by Taelo from the cannibals was the soul mate she had always dreamt of meeting. He came out and sat with her as she waited to be summoned by Wise Owl the Elk Clan Council leader.

She held little hope that she would be selected leader of the new Eastern Elk Clan.

When she was called in to the council meeting she expected to hear rejection, instead she was given the staff that signified her appointment to the position of Eastern Elk Clan leader.

She had tears in her eyes as she realized that her dreams of getting to lead a clan and finding her soul mate had both come true.