When Seer Henning proclaimed that a great predator would come to hunt and devour the people of Everbloom, his words were dismissed by the other Elders of the Eastern Wind; they called him senile, a doomsayer and a fool. But Rowan knew better.

For the people of the Eastern Wind had become weaklings. They did not stalk the woods; they did not hunt and kill as a predator would. They ate fruits, and roots, and domesticated beasts that were little more than meaty crops to be harvested. They were prey. And surely, a forest full of such enticing prey – eventually a predator would catch their scent. It was inevitable; only a matter of time, just as Seer Henning had said.

Rowan knew it was up to him to do something; noone wanted to listen to him – he was just a fresh initiate, after all – and so he had to step up to this looming threat. But to fend off a great and unknown predator, Rowan would have to become an even greater predator himself. And to become a great predator, he would need to become a great hunter – a hunter no prey can escape. He already knew how to hunt that which stalks the forest, but he would need to learn how to hunt that which crawls underground;

that which wanders the open lands;

that which soars through the skies;

that which life has already left;

and that which has yet to possess life of its own.

And he would need to learn how to hunt man.