The Snow Leopard Cub

They were the stuff of legends. Tales to frighten adventurous children away from the dangerous mountain reaches. They were The Winter People fierce and strong and-some whispered-magical, surviving as they did in the realm of the snow leopards, high in the snow-locked mountains. None in generations of generations had seen the People, though the bold and foolish alike claimed to have encountered signs of their passage on the slopes of the great mountain. And then the weather shifted and the once-thick blanket of snow shrouding the peaks crept higher and higher, leaving the mountain bare, uncovering a path leading to the doorstep of legends, in truth hardy, peaceful people now vulnerable to the curious, the interested, and, finally, the ruthless, bandits invading from the south. Anya, the chief's daughter and the last in the line of hereditary rule, survived the brutal attack, but not unchanged. The Winter People had no word for "vengeance," but her heart sent her on a quest to find it.