Quiet Rabbit thought about the personal loss she had lived through. Fast Skimmer her father was killed by a rhino during a long hunt. She had watched her mother weep silently as he was brought back from the long hunt.

Soon her mother followed her father. It was a morning accident when she went of get fresh water from the lake.

She resolved to have the same relationship with her mate as her mother and her mate had. She knew that it was not how long they had each other but that their souls had touched.

Then her grandmother let her know that they were following White Swan and her family into a new Elk sub-clan.

She had been focusing trading for dried food so that she and her grandmother would be able to survive the coming snow cycle.

In the new clan she became friends with Busy Bee and Talking Wren.

They learned to hunt together. They were terrible hunters. Quiet Rabbit asked her friend Taelo if he would teach them to hunt.

Taelo and Golden Hawk his cousin gave them hunting lessons. She learned to hunt with the sling and how to defend with the spear.

She slowly realized that her feelings for Taelo were more than just friendship. He however seemed not to notice.

Then White Swan suggested that she participate in the first long hunt that would have both men and women hunting together.

Quiet Rabbit immediately accepted. Taelo would be on the same long hunt.

She won a race that placed her as Taelo's hunt partner. She learned the secret hunting technique that she later learned White Swan had utilized to capture her mate.

In the following days, her connection became ever closer to Taelo.

They returned to the Clan as the team that had sent the most meat back to the clan.

On the return she was walking next to the person that she knew she would walk with in the same close relationship that her mother and father had shared.

Quiet Feather stood up and walked along the beach and thanked both of her parents for giving her the foundation on which she now stood.