The Book

The Hook

In the harsh expanse of the Eastern European steppes during a continuing Pleistocene ice age, a newborn girl is brought to the gates of a sanctuary built around sacred hot springs, her skin marked with flowing silver patterns that pulse with the light of forgotten stars.

Born where realities converge in crystal caverns beneath the permafrost, Diana possesses abilities that allow her to communicate with the megafauna that rule the mammoth steppe—woolly rhinos, cave lions, and the ancient dholes that become her protectors.

But her gifts attract dangerous attention across the frozen wilderness—including from her father, an ambitious scholar whose amber-walled compound stands as a monument to his desire to control rather than coexist with nature's power.

As Diana comes of age among the keepers of ancient wisdom, she must master her unique connection to the living world before her father's alliance with nomadic hunters destroys the delicate balance that allows humanity to survive in this unforgiving epoch.

In a landscape where survival and sacrifice are interwoven, Diana's confrontation with her origins will determine whether humans will learn to live in harmony with the primordial world or seek to dominate it through forces they cannot truly comprehend.

The World

Set in a continuing Pleistocene world on the mammoth steppes of Eurasia where the last ice age never ended. Homo sapiens co-exist with Neanderthals and Denisovans and the ice age megafauna in an alternate timeline where humanity has adapted to nineteen millennia of unbroken winter.

Key Elements

• Diana's Nature: Born after Marya's mystical experience in the crystal caverns, her unique nature becomes tied to the migration patterns themselves. Her silver markings correspond to the sacred geography, and as she grows, she intuitively understands which routes to take and when.
• The Crystal Caves: A winter refuge where geothermal activity creates warmth and the sacred waters hold their mysteries—the site of Diana's conception and her ultimate confrontation.
• The Monastery: Built in an ancient meteor impact crater, this sanctuary of warm springs becomes Diana's home and the community she must protect.
• The Megafauna: Woolly mammoths, woolly rhinos, cave lions, dholes, and other ice age creatures share the landscape with humanity, some as allies, some as threats.

Core Conflicts

The story explores fundamental tensions that drive the narrative:

Harmony vs. Control

The nomadic, adaptive lifestyle represents harmony with natural rhythms, while Anton's academic approach embodies the desire to control and reshape the environment for human dominion.

Distributed vs. Centralized Knowledge

The monastery's healers represent knowledge that belongs to no single place but flows through the landscape like water. Anton's academic approach seeks to collect and control this wisdom in one location, to possess rather than steward.

Memory and Landscape

"The waters remember"—the entire landscape holds memory. Migration routes preserved for generations, seasonal changes that follow ancient patterns, and sacred sites where past and present converge.