Southwestern Africa, 1864 AD
Luwi stalked with practiced silence through dry grass that grew high as her waist. With her spear in hand and a sheathed machete on her hip, she followed the lead of her two spotted hyenas, Kamfunti and Muzowa. The animals’ keen senses of smell would guide her toward potential game, and their bone-crushing jaws could be every bit as lethal as her iron-bladed weapons. Ever since she had raised them from cubhood, Luwi had found them to be far more dependable companions than any people she had known.
