Ihriye put the finishing touches on the manuscript she’d written and sighed.
it had taken longer than she’d liked, but her gift was finally complete. All she could hope for now was that it would be appreciated.

The young Rokea had searched long and hard before finding an empty book. And she hadn’t wanted some run-of-the-mill spiral notebook. That would have just looked tasteless. No, she’d hunted and snooped through every merchant’s cart and table she’d found. To her mind, it was pure luck that one of those merchants had just happened to have a blank book bound in beautiful black leather, each page’s edge glittering in silver. And really, given the history she’d so painstakingly copied onto those thin, parchment pages, the colors had seemed appropriate.

For a moment, Ihriye sat, holding the book and staring at the cover. She’d painted the phases of the moon onto the cover in silver paint. And spaced between the phases, she’d painted the glyphs for the changing breeds. Each glyph was a different color. Red for the Garou, the blue of the ocean for her own people, brown for the Ratkin, gold for the Mokolé.... Wolf, shark, rat, crow, lizard, the glyphs seemed endless. She’d even managed to dredge the glyphs for the peoples who were no more out of her memory. And that too was appropriate. After all, one could hardly write a history of the War of Rage and it’s aftermath without paying respect to the ones the wolves had slaughtered. Every word of the history had come bubbling back to the surface of her mind as she’d written. And she’d managed to make it all fit into the one book. It was a work she could be proud of.

Shaking herself from her reverie, she snatched the bit of tissue paper she’d reserved to wrap the book. And once wrapped, she gave in to the desire to decorate it in ribbon and a flower or two. To her young eyes, it looked pretty. Whether or not its recipient would agree was an entirely different story.

Enough, she chided herself, clutching the gift to her chest and rising gracefully to her feet. It was time to go and present her gift to the Five Claws. Hurrying, she quickly slipped into place in the stream of people who all had gifts to present. As she neared where Yu the Five Claws sat, regally accepting each gift, she felt herself tremble. Oh, this was a strange world for a lone and lost Rokea to be in. And the Five Claws so resembled one of the monsters that she’d once been sworn to fight. But in spite of a fearsome appearance, she’d heard he was gentle, kind, and not at all like the Wyrm-things he resembled. Still, she couldn’t help the chill that raced up her spine.

And then, it was her turn to present her gift. Taking herself firmly in hand, she lifted her head, managed to keep her scarred face from crumpling in terror and in a soft voice, said, “I give to you one of the histories of my kind, Lord. I hope you will like it.”

Then, with a bow, she placed her wrapped book off to the side of where the Five Claws sat. Straightening, she bowed again, managed a shy smile and then hurried away.