That had been a good meal, I was content with a full belly. Tanris and I hoped to return soon if we could do so without some kind of hassle.

He spent some of the time while we traveled informing me about the court. It was only then that he said he was taking me to see the High Lord. I turned a bit in the seat and asked him why? His reply was quite simple, "If you are the one in the prophecy, he needs to know."

There wasn't really anything that I could say to that, so I just relaxed in the seat as much as I could and looked out across the open grasslands. It's not the first time I've seen grasslands like this, I grew up on the western edge of the region that we call "America's breadbasket".

Yeah, I know the grasslands well enough, I spent my early years on the east side of the town of Kirwin, Wyoming in the Shoshone National Forest. Kirwin used to be a mining town long ago, but it's a historic site now. There used to be a post office, but it closed down long ago.

Kirwin itself isn't very far from the edge of the Shoshone Forest, and there's plenty of open land once you leave the forest behind.

We ended up moving to Casper, Wyoming, when I was ten or eleven. My mom's mom had lived there for most of her life.

So, yeah, I know about grasslands and how extensive they can be. Even standing on the seat, I can't see an end to the grass ahead of us.

There's a bit of rise and fall to the ground here, but not much, it's pretty much perfect for farming or raising herd animals like cows or sheep.

We continue to travel along the road heading east for several hours, then as the sun is almost ready to set, we pull into a small camp site. Someone at some point in time created a decent fire pit here and there's a small building behind the pit as well, likely a sleeping area.

While we're unhitching the krants so they can graze through the night, I learn that the mountains we descended from earlier are called the Sky Claws and that they are the second highest range on this specific continent. I can smell a large body of water somewhere behind the cabin.

I looked over at Tanris briefly, then asked, "Is there a lake or something near here? I can smell water not far away."

Tanris grinned as he set the last krant on its lead and nodded, "Aye, a small lake behind the building, about ais'lond'ler k'neks, I think."

I laughed, then headed over to my bag, where I pulled out a small spool of very fine fishing line I had brought along. After a quick glance through the other items in my backpack, which was a fair bit lighter since all the food had been destroyed or spoiled, I closed it up again.

I had barely made it past the small building when I found the perfect branch for a simple fishing rod. I picked it up and continued walking.

It took me several minutes to reach the small lake, relying on my sense of smell, as I had to wind my way through the tall grasses growing here. This was not as easy as it might sound, as the grasses in question were all about eight feet tall, so it made it hard to see very far ahead.

Once I was near the lake's edge, I found a nice, large flat rock just above the shore and sat on the edge hanging over the water as I slowly tied some of the fishing line tightly to the end of my simple pole. I used my knife to cut the line at a nice length, then knotted that end of it.

I had known that there might be a chance for me to do some fishing on my vacation, so I'd packed the line and some basic hooks. I suppose I could have brought an actual modern fishing pole with me, but I had chosen to do things as naturally as possible if the opportunity arose.

I slid one of the hooks through a tiny gap in the knot I had made, then tightened it again so the hook wouldn't slide out.

Once my pole was ready, I cast the line out into the lake and waited to see what would happen.

People must not fish here often, I guess, as I got the first bite on my line less than five minutes later. That turned into a heck of a battle, as I caught flashes of a green and gold monster of a fish, easily three feet long, possibly a bit more, trying to get away from the hook in its jaw.

After what was likely perhaps ten minutes of straining on my part and escape attempts on his part, I finally landed the darn thing.

I'm not sure just how long I sat and stood there fishing from that big flat rock, but I was having all kinds of fun.

By the time I decided to stop, it was truly night, although the first moon could be seen rising in the east. That gave me enough light to be able to see around me somewhat, and even from this distance, I could smell the krants, or more specifically, their droppings, in the distance.

I looked at the top of the rock next to where I had been standing. Nine fish were laid out there, all but two bigger than the first one.

I shook my head, then used several hooks to string the fish onto the line and temporarily tied off the other end.

Carrying my homemade creel holding the nine fish, I slowly walked back toward the small camp site with a big smile on my face. I haven't been able to catch that many fish of that size in one place since I was about seven or eight, I think, and that was with dad's help, actually.

I could smell the fire that Tanris had started a fair bit before I strolled into the camp itself, then dropped the fish on the wagon seat.

"Hey, Tanris, how about cooking some nice big fish for our meal?" I giggled as I spoke, then again as he stalked over to the wagon to look.

Tanris continued to teach me bits and pieces about the lands of this world, especially the ones on this specific continent, "Great Roams". It seems that most of this continent is covered in grasslands like this. According to Tanris, roughly 85% of the total land area? Wow!

What made it even more stunning is that that total includes the few actual cities on the continent, the biggest being Nur`li'sa, "Small Home".

Tanris then went on to tell me that it would take us most of a ten-day to reach Nur`li'sa, maybe longer depending on how fast we travel.

We had a great meal that evening of baked fish and vis'nif. I learned the fish were a type known as kraf'nelg, common in many lakes.

After setting down simple ground covers and grabbing a couple of blankets, Tanris and I talked under the stars until sleep overcame us.

I have no idea where Mak'Ris had wandered off to, but he returned in time to have two of the fish as his dinner while we relaxed.

To this day, I'm not sure just what woke me up at that point. All I know is that I came rolling out from under my blanket, knife in hand and flipped out to its full and deadly length, to see Mak'Ris standing a short distance away growling at something or someone beyond the firelight.

I heard Tanris as he rolled out of his blanket, grumbling about being woken up again, then I saw him pick up a heavy branch. Now, I'm a fairly tall person by Earth standards, but there is not even a snowball's chance in hell that I could have picked up the branch he did one handed.

All three of us stood ready, facing toward the road passing by to the east and west, then waited to see what would happen.

What did happen was a woman appeared, riding a mount similar to the krants, but a bit smaller in size and a pale blue in colour.

"I come in peace, hoping to find the Lady of the Stars that was foretold. Our seers said she had arrived and would be near this place."

Oh, shit, just what I don't need right now, someone looking for me to help nail the prophecy into place. I sighed and lowered the knife.

"I am she. If you come in peace, you may be welcome here by our fire," I replied to her. "We have fish caught from the lake nearby."

The woman stated, "I am Ven'las, seventh rider of the eleventh tribe of the Ingis. Thank you for allowing me to share your camp."

Tanris laughed at that, dropping the big branch on the ground as he moved forward to get a better look at the woman on her mount.

"Ahhh," he said, " a rider of the Ingis. You can tie your kur'ras to a tree over there, it's best that it stay away from the krants."

I looked at Tanris and asked, "A rider of the Ingis? What do you mean?"

Tanris chuckled and explained, "The tribes of the Ingis are scattered across a great distance, both north to south and east to west. Each tribe has roughly eight to ten riders, all of them being women as the women seem to get along with the mounts better than the men. With thirteen tribes at the last count, which was taken seven of our years ago, that means there are roughly 100 riders among the tribes, perhaps 150."

He said this using the terms from the common tongue, "ais'lond" and "ais'lond'ler" for the numbers. I had to think a bit to translate them.

"Okay, so they have riders. What makes these riders so special, Tanris?" I enquired.

"It is simple, Theona; each of their riders, by the time they are adults, can kill a target by firing a bow, while mounted, from a great distance."

I giggled, then said, "That kind of reminds me of some folks in various stories I read as a child. One of the better stories was a fairly long one, describing the adventures of a group of people as they journeyed across various lands. One of those lands, Rohan, had excellent riders."

Tanris' head snapped around, "Ro'han, you say? That is strange, we have a land on the other side of the mountains back there by that name." When he said back there, he was pointing back the direction from which we had come, the mountains were still visible in the distance.

"Really?" I giggled. "That is odd, as the Rohan I mentioned is only a place within a story, not a true place. I learn much from you, Tanris."

The woman had laid a ground sheet of sorts and a blanket down by the end of the wagon closest to the road and was soon asleep.

It wasn't until I was back under my blanket, slowly drifting toward sleep again, that I realized he had pronounced Rohan differently.

Once we had had something to eat in the morning, Tanris' porridge again, we set off eastward with the woman riding with us. She had tied her mount to the side of the wagon opposite where the remainder of the meat was still hanging, then relaxed as we started moving.

I was quite surprised at how easily she handled the bumps and jolts of the road, I guess it's all that experience from riding.

There were only four fish left, I'd had one, Tanris had had two and so had Mak'Ris. The woman had gone straight to sleep after joining us. The four remaining fish were in a long, narrow box, just big enough to fit them lengthwise, but quite deep, deep enough for a dozen of the fish.

We'd been travelling for a few hours when there was a shout of "Ho! The wagon!" from somewhere behind us and to the north.

Tanris stopped the wagon and we waited for a short while before we spotted someone riding a large cat, not quite the size of Mak'Ris.

Mak'Ris shook his head, sighing, "One of my people's lesser cousins, some of them let the Warl'kel use them as mounts."

"So this person is from the Warl'kel, Mak'Ris?" I asked.

"That's one way to look at it, I suppose," he replied. "More correctly, the people are the Warl'kel, the Thorns of War."

"Interesting name. Is there a meaning to it?" I asked again.

"Yes," he answered me, "They are one of very few armies to have lost so few battles in the last thousand years."

"Hmmm... so strong and fierce, tough as nails and very, very hard to beat, huh?" Mak'Ris didn't bother to respond.

By this time, I could more clearly see the person approaching us. Even on the mount, he looked to be about my size or close to it.

He stopped near the front of the wagon and carefully dismounted, then looked up at us. He seemed to be looking at me rather closely.

"I am Kron'gar the Bold, I have come seeking the Lady of the Stars. I was informed by a seer she would be in this general area."

Not another one! Is this crapola ever going to end? Or am I doomed to fulfill that damned prophecy or die in the attempt?