Two young boys stood looking over the vast desert surrounding Sorrow's End.
"One day," the younger of the two said, looking up at his older brother, "I'm going to go out there. I'm going to see the world!"
"Are you?" the older one asked with amusement in his voice, affectionately ruffling his brother's hair.
"Yep! I'll become just as good a hunter as Rayek is and then we'll go off to explore together!"
However, the young boy never became a hunter, and Rayek never once looked in his direction. It wasn't fault, really; the boy never once considered actually asking Rayek if he would train him, and Rayek – so used to being the only hunter of the village – never realised that there was a young boy who dreamt of hunting. So time passed and eventually the boy settled down to become a farmer like his parents and older brother, and then everything changed.
Strangers came to the quiet oasis and when things had settled again Rayek was gone, he had left the village; unable to accept that the beautiful healer Leetah had recognized the newcomers' bold young chief, Cutter, and that his place as sole hunter was irrevocable gone with 17 new hunters to take his place.
For seven years, the two tribes lived in peace. Leetah gave birth the twins; bold wolf blooded Ember, destined to one day follow in her father's footsteps as chief of the Wolfriders, and gentle mystic Suntop, destined to, become something else. Everybody thought this peace would last forever; it wasn't to be. One day, to everyone's horror, humans came to Sorrow's End.
Cutter and his friend, the stargazer Skywise, left in search for other elves and for some time life went on in the village, until that horrible day when Savah, revered Mother of Memory, had her soul abducted by an unknown force and fell into a deep trance. Suntop – sweet gentle Suntop – had a warning for Cutter, and the Wolfriders would bring the boy to his father at whatever cost. They were going to leave and Leetah with them. The villagers were confused and frightened; how would they manage without their healer? And, perhaps more importantly, who would now protect them? For many years, they'd had Rayek to protect them, and then they'd had the Wolfriders, now they would have no one.
It was at that moment, when fear and confusion reigned, young Dart, son of the archer Strongbow and the tanner Moonshade, stepped forward and declared that he, spindly half-grown youth as he was, would train the villagers to become hunters themselves.
Lutei smiled to himself; for many years, he had fought to forget his old dream of becoming a hunter, but the dream had never really left him, he would take up Dart's offer to train. Sure, the youth was only a few years older than he had been all those years ago when he had proudly told his brother that he was going to become a hunter one day, but only a fool would underestimate him; he was the son of Strongbow after all.
And so it passed that the boy who had dreamt of becoming a hunter, but given his dream up, finally became a hunter indeed. When three years later the small band of hunters were preparing to leave the village to bring aid to the Wolfriders, Lutei went over to his brother who – as usual – was digging in his garden.
"Told you so." He said.
"Huh?" Ohler asked, looking up at his younger brother.
"I told you I was going to go out there and see the world. Now I am."
"Indeed you are, little brother."