it well.

And yet, to give credit where credit is due, I must admit that I owe a
great deal to that gray-beard, Maka, the star-gazer. But for him,
perchance, the name of Strokor would mean but little, for 'twas he who
gave me ambition.

Truly it was an uncommon affair, my first meeting with him. Now that I
shake my memory for it, it seems that something else of like consequence
came to pass on the same occasion. Curious; but I have not thought on it
for many days.

Yes, it is true; I met Maka on the very morn that I first laid eyes on
the girl Ave.

I was returning from the northland at the time. A rumor had come down to
Vlama that one of the people in the snow country had seen a lone
specimen of the mulikka. Now these were but a myth. No man living
remembers when the carvings on the House of Learning were made, and all
the wise men say that it hath been ages since any being other than man
roamed the world. Yet, I was young. I determined to search for the thing
anyhow; and 'twas only after wasting many days in the snow that I cursed
my luck, and turned back.

I was afoot, for the going was too rough for my chariot. I had not yet
quit the wilderness before, from a height, I spied a group of people
ascending from the valley. Knowing not whether they be friends or foes,
I hid beside the path up which they must come; for I was weary and
wanting no strife.