Glowing in the firelight Nina held her newborn and danced with her husband celebrating the birth among their people. Suddenly the demon they all feared stood before them. The young mother retreated as her husband attacked, but the demon killed him, snatched the baby and flew away. Nina left never to be seen among the people again and from that time the young began to question the limits of their world. They would stand at the edge of the world looking across the vast forest amid the roiling clouds and ask why the people were unable to multiply. Were the legendary clan of traitors which left the world in ancient days annihilated in the outer spaces, or were there now other people somewhere out there? Could that ancient schism be mended and save the People from extinction?The elders, custodians of the People's story on the holy wall and scrolls, tried to maintain the ancient order forbidding such questions on pain of banishment. But finally, to avoid revolt and chaos, they banished the charismatic, young leader, Ordupah, with his wife, Meeshah, and followers, to the outer spaces on a quest never to return unless they indeed found other people.Nine months later Ordupah's and Meeshah's faith in the quest was severely depleted, all of their party having died along the way and Meeshah now pregnant nearly full term. But, Meeshah kept Ordupah's spirits up by urging him to continue dictation of his life scroll as she wrote.Pressing ahead, they found an astounding camp full of strange objects. Terror seized them when large, pale creatures in the general shape of people came into the camp babbling sounds but unable to speak words. Ordupah and Meeshah began to retreat, but stopped when the creatures uncovered the holy wall like the one back in their world. It bore the very myths that had propelled them on this quest and also revealed the lost lineage of the ancient traitor remnant. Could these creatures be descendants of that remnant left here as keepers of the wall?Against Meeshah's fearful warnings, Ordupah risks contact with the creatures and gives them some of his words; we delve into the past of these strange ones and find Nina creating connections between them and the People; we discover an ancient prophecy upon the wall which seems to focus on the child in Meeshah's womb and which moves her to violently attack the creatures, triggering her labor. Will the creatures steal their words, consume Ordupah's life scroll and devour the heir? Group discussion guide included.
