Synopsis: “Time seems to be running out for the four dominant species of this unnamed planet. The great, bird-like Shimeyu, stratified, scholarly and secretive in the extreme, are expanding their range, according to the other species: the Chiyaha, squirrel-like, clever but easily distracted and prone to trouble, the Madhai, salamander-like Masters of Horse, and the Beruliy, a type that none of the others have heard of before, something entirely new which has arisen on this world. The seas are receding, resources are becoming rare, and the first three of these species have yet to realize that none of them can long survive alone--and even banded together, they may not be able to out-compete the remarkable Beruliy and their newest invention: the bow. "The Challenge of the Rose" begins the story of the travels of a group of improbable partners back to the home of Rumau the potter. Yre, a Shimeyu, Judge of the Archeological Society and an outcast with a shameful secret; Rumau, the potter, who mistrusts the motives of the great Shimeyu Societies and is desperate to get back to her home before other Shimeyu bring the bow and so-far-unheard-of warfare, and the Beruliy Mignette, the only person who can get the group through the one land no other group dares cross: The Great Rose Forest, Mighette's home.” (publisher's synopsis)