It was a new land. It challenged. Floating Cloud held her young granddaughter and told her that her mother had gone to the land of the ancients to be with her mate.
History was repeating itself. She had to raise her daughter by herself when her mate had been killed by a wooly rhino. It had been hard, but she was young. Now she faced the same challenge, but she was already considered very old.
Her daughter had worked hard to provide for Quiet Rabbit, but the accident had taken her to where she had wanted to go.
The end of the hunting season and the gathering of the Clans was almost upon her. She and her granddaughter worked hard to have goods to trade. This season she would concentrate all her bargaining on getting enough dried meat to survive the winter. She could not plan beyond that horizon.
Her worries diminished when every morning she found enough game on her fire ring. Someone was secretly providing her with enough for two good meals a day.
When White Swan informed her that Gray Fox Running was to become the leader of the Elk Clan. She asked to also move into the Elk Clan.
The food that she had worked so hard to accumulate was passed out so every family in the Elk Clan had the same amount and would face the same survival odds. She was devastated.
Hope slowly came to her as she still found the small game for two meals at her fire ring. She now thought she knew who the generous person might be.
The chances for survival seemed to be increasing but the Elk Clan was without a winter shelter.
The snows started before the clan had reached the coast where they hoped to find the shelter they needed.
White Swan found a superb winter home location and marshalled the Clan to build the main shelter. She selected a prime location and expended extra effort to insure that she would have the shelter she and Quiet Rabbit need.
She watched as Quiet Rabbit became a leader among the younger group. She was proud when she watched as Quiet Rabbit and her friends led the effort that helped Taelo set up a huge fish trap in the bay. The Clan not only survived the winter but became rich in dried fish and in the access to year round buffalo.
White Cloud knew that her daughter and her mate would be looking down proud of their daughter.
She was in a place in life that she could not ask for more.
