Fiona’s mom was the druid of a group of Cynthia Plains Riders, called the Owl of Life. The reason that the group is called that is because once in the middle of a blizzard, many hundreds of winters ago, a owl appeared and showed the group where to set up camp. The next day it was still snowing and the owl showed up again. The group spent the whole winter following that owl. There totem is a owl and many people of their group sew owls on their clothing. The Cynthia Plains Riders believe that druids are specially chosen by Cynthia. Being a druid is not passed down. When Fiona was about ten winters old she was taking care of the cattle when wolves came to eat them. She calmed the wolves down and got them some deer meat. When the next person came to watch the cows he saw the wolves and went to tell Fiona’s mom, whose name is Oyunbileg which means gift of wisdom. Oyunbileg proclaimed Fiona a druid. Fiona started training to become a druid.

The boy that went to tell Oyunbileg was named Jackob. He asked Fiona what she was going to do for him for telling the group about Fiona’s talent and Fiona says that he has the greatest prize, her heart. Then he says that she has his heart too.

Angeni (which means spirit) is Fiona’s brother. He 3 years older than Fiona. When Fiona was 14 years old, Angeni was in love with a woman in the tribe. There was another brave who was also in love with the same woman. Angeni and the other brave fought, Angeni killed the other brave. Their mother exiled Angeni from the tribe and the Cynthian Plains. No one has seen or heard from Angeni in eight years.

Ten winters later he goes with the annual group to sell horses in the city. Usually the group is only gone for a little while. After the usual time has passed and the group still hasn’t shown up a meeting is called. The chief, Fiona’s mom, Fiona and the two oldest people of the tribe meet to discuss what should happen. They agree that someone should go after them to find out what happened but they can’t agree on who. The chief and one of the oldest people said that a strong warrior should. Fiona and her mom think that Fiona should go to prove her love of Jackob. The other oldest person can’t decide.

That night the five of them have a dream. In the dream there are two people searching for the same thing. The strong warrior dies but the druid lives. They decide that the dream came from Cynthia that Fiona should go and if Cynthia approves of Fiona and Jackob’s love then Jackob and Fiona will survive and others. If Cynthia doesn’t approve either Fiona or Jackob will die.