A thin line of smoke faintly lit against the night sky was the first sign of civilization that they had seen in over five months, and when they saw it they altered their course to head directly for it. There was no telling what reception they might receive- they were entering unknown territory- the disposition of the nightside tribes on the dusk-side of the black winter was unknown. They could be ...

Kerron narrowed his eyes and a sheen of starlight ran across the edge of his knife. He lowered himself deeper into his crouch and tightened his leg muscles in preparation for the leap forward they would soon have to take. The bear, massive and white, like a living mound of snow, made a low growl, very much like that of a dog. The growl an animal made before an attack was launched. The lips of the ...

Salazar gave Kerron not even a moment to regain his wits. "Come on, Kerron, we must get moving. This was a supply caravan, not a scout, which means we're farther behind their forward elements than I dared to believe. We must be hasty, for there will be others not far behind them." Kerron's mind caught up with the events that had unfolded around him and he gasped aloud, the knife stumbling out ...

They left the camp with neither fanfare nor goodbyes, which suited Kerron well. The family structure of the night-dwelling tribes was in many ways reminiscent of certain desert animals. Close relatives gathered in small familial groups known as cribs. The exact makeup of these packs varied from family to family, but they were usually led by a crib-mother, often but not always the birth mother or g ...

Embers were all that remained of the campfire, usually kept blazing throughout the night, but now left alone and unfed to run down to ashes and fragments. Asherei, Kerron's tribal leader, used the end of her walking stick to prod a few of those fragments, exposing unburned segments of wood to the flame, which flared briefly as it found fresh fuel to consume. The sky was now so light that the added ...

The dirt on the ground shifted to either side of the end of the stick as it passed over, small mounds of earth created on either side of the tiny trench that was formed by tip of the crude tool. If he looked closely,Kerron could see the individual grains of sand that formed the pattern he was drawing, tiny multicoloured fragments of rock, but with his face so close to the ground the pattern itself ...