I really wanted both of my girls to be surprised.I told the girls to go check out the horses. I went into the barn with Manuel and George. We emerged ...rom the barn with three sets of blankets, saddles and reins. Grace and Kim both asked me what was going on.I gave Kim a kiss on the cheek and said "Happy birthday, sweetheart. One of them is yours. You get to pick first."You could have knocked Kim over with a feather. She scrambled over to the horses and picked her favorite: a very handsome filly. Spread ahead of them, like a frozen herd of gnu and antelope, were the first permanent manmade structures Glade had ever seen. And there were so many of them. From the distance they resembled ant-hills arranged in an unusually regular design. As their procession approached, they could be identified as circular structures of mud, rock and wood topped by straw roofs and through the roof of every single one of them wafted a thin trail of smoke. The buildings were not all the same size. Most were. When you study it, you will see an incredible lady. She never married because the love of her life was killed at the Battle of Midway almost 60 years ago. You’ll see in the portrait the Navy Cross and other medals for valor he won that day.” Arnn paused for a moment and then continued, “Beyond that, though, the portrait is an original Vance, and virtually priceless in its own right. This portrait will hang proudly over the fireplace in the new library.“But there’s more,” Arnn continued. He took. He said Mathias felt it was his duty because his daughter and a few others from his pack had used them as payment for services rendered by Lilitu. Marcus told me that he was working with my father to provide counseling for the three humans and even had employment opportunities should they be unable to go back to their formerly peaceful lives. It made me very glad to know good, responsible people actually existed and could be counted on to help others.Moving out of the water, I shook myself off.