Chapter 4

Bracken helped feed the next herd of gippens, his mind went back to other events that surrounded his youth. He recalled the change that had slowly come to Nerkush-a change which had even reached south to the quiet community he had grown up in. It had been a puzzle to Bracken what had caused it.

He remembered one man in particular, a man whose odd ideas had been part of that change. Now it seemed like the pieces of this haunting puzzle were coming together. Somehow Bracken felt that part of the key to his search lay in the past. Something remained hidden in the mystery that surrounded that man--the esteemed but peculiar Astro-Gazer, Frim Lieter. There was much about him that Bracken didn't know, much that had happened to this man while Bracken was growing up that no one knew about.