In the five queendoms, the kotti is a sacred animal, believed to possess magical powers. To young Hynkkel, the kotti Mieu is his treasured companion, his friend, his kin…until she is cruelly taken from him in a drunken rage by his violent brother, leaving Hynkkel’s heart as barren as the deserts of his homeland.

Commanded by his father to Solo—to travel into the unknown in a test of survival—Hynkkel sets out with little more than the red-gold sandcat pendant, bestowed upon him by a woman, worn around his neck as a reminder of his loss. He begins his journey with nothing…

But his trek will bring him to a cave where he will enter the secret world of the cat…

And to a trial that will mark his destiny.

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Hynkkel is no warrior, though he comes from a House of warriors---to the eternal disappointment of his father. So while his strong and skilled brother gains all the honor, Hynkkel is little better than a servant. When his father finally allows him to solo (a wilderness survival test that bestows the status of an adult), he encounters some of his world's largest predators, the sand cats. But rather than perish beneath their claws, he strikes up a friendship . .