Prologue

The ground did summersaults, the fronds of the ferns blurred against the forest undergrowth, and then there was a sickening sensation as the rocky bottom of the hill raced toward Tse. No good! He thought, I am dead; A dead hatchling. Three weeks out of the shell, my life ends!

Suddenly, something began to soften his fall - a pile of dirt? A cushion of dust? What was it? Time slowed. His short life flowed by him - every second of it from his first memory...