BFT # 1 (beginning) Table of Contents Image Title: Goldenfur Leader BFT #10: On Being a Leader I knew not that change was coming. As a Goldenfur I should have known. Besides the size and beauty of the sky, the coming of the sun each morning, and the strength of the earth beneath our feet… there is only one thing that remains the same – that everything will change. Reflections of Mootill Excerpt from: The third book of Goldenfur The sun was heavy in the sky; soon it would roll off the edge of the earth to sleep with the stars. Mootill wished to share this setting sun with Oomba the wise one, something he often did when his mind was troubled. His mind had never been more troubled than this day, the eve of Chandralee, the rare time when not one but both of Mernac’s moons were full, the eve of his becoming the leader of his village, the eve of the day when his decisions and actions would change his life, nay, would change the lives of all in Mernac. But that was in the morning, tonight Mootill needed to find Oomba. Mootill knew that once the sun began to disappear, Oomba could be found at only one place - the summit of the Oontrill Shrine. For countless generations this had been a place for peace and solitude, a shrine for reflection and thought, a mound made from the earth herself, that with the coming of night only Goldenfurs could share. By the twilight of the setting sun and by the flickering light from the torches that the Brownfurs were just beginning to light, Mootill made his way down the path that led through the lairs and dens that made up his small village. At the end of the path he would find the Shrine. The Oontrill Shrine was almost a mountain itself. Made of packed earth and stone, it was carefully decorated with patches of flowering Tiko plants and perfectly trimmed Kooja bushes. The thorns of the Kooja bush began glowing dimly with the coming of night. It is said that the blue glow is really moonlight pressed into raindrops by Siberlee, the Mother of Nature and that this special rain will fall only on the Goldenfurs' Shrines so that the Kooja bushes could drink the drops and then be able to softly illuminate the temple at night. Siberlee, is there no limit to what you can do, mused Mootill as he reached the bottom of the shrine. He smiled to himself knowing his thought was a conditioned response to all the training he (and all Furs) received from birth. Mootill had seen Kooja thorns glow on wild bushes beyond the edge of his valley. Those were not on any shrine and still they glowed… Mootill thought as he began to climb the Fur-made mountain that was the Oontrill Shrine. He wondered, What other Goldenfur tales and lore may be flawed. The Rest of the Story

----- Everything until no was the prolog - now the real story begins - Rick