Subject: Re: Approaching the Prisoners

"The Tall Grass is the land beyond our own. It is the territory of the Animal Gods, and it is where the Sunset People's caravan disappeared. No one with wisdom enters the Tall Grass willingly. Those who do so without the favor of their gods rarely re-emerge. The best those who disappear can hope for is a quick death from the bite of a viper. The Grass Children devour the souls of those less fortunate, leaving their bodies to wander forever through the swamps. Others the gods choose to play with, or consume, or enslave.

Buchek touches the ruined side of his face. "It was in the Tall Grass that I was given this. I thought--hoped--that the fact that I survived the Tall Grass meant that I was favored by Kipshaa. Now I am not so sure. Perhaps Death spat me back for its own reasons." He shrugs. "Perhaps it was chance."

Visibly changing the subject, Buchek says "I am troubled by what this man said. He said something about the Buffalo Marshes being a part of his tribe's lands. The marshes are several days travel from the Cushat's traditional lands. If the Tossucat has grown so large that the marsh dwellers are a part of it, his power is even greater than I had feared. I only hope that this man was tribeless, and sought refuge with the Tousscat."

He pauses for a moment. "He did not seem like an evil man. I was surprised. I thought that any that followed Tossuc would have been tainted by his evil, or killed out of hand. What the man says of the Vegetable Eaters stealing our ands is true. It the man leading the coming assault were someone else...I

would not oppose him. What he seeks to do is just, and the dream of the People reunited is a good one. With Tossuc's evil lurking in the heart of the One Tribe, though, it is sure to collapse, and perhaps destroy the People along with it.