Until Leaping Elk asked me to negotiate a trade.
The negotiations had taken nearly a year to complete. Then Snarling Jaguar didn"t come north to make the trade for another six months. He arrived a few days before the negotiations to settle the border dispute with the Eastern Empire, one journey easier than two.
Snarling Jaguar had brought a domesticated tiger from the Imperial Menagerie, the Jaguar Family having bred the collection of exotic animals for ten generations. Everyone thought the tame, talented animals priceless, the equivalent of an Imperial Sword. With their talents, a man might garner for himself the influence and power of an Emperor. With the help of one, the first Emperor Jaguar had usurped the Southern throne.
While talismans were illegal in all four Empires, the animal
