Musalodi Siningwe

First scene of the first book! Salo is heading out into the grasslands, followed by Monti, who whines about being bored and wants to go back, but Salo counters his worries and tells him that if he's going to follow people, he should make sure he can keep up. He tells Monti that he's going to let him in on a secret if he promises not to tell, which Monti does. Eventually, the pair come upon a monitor lizard climbing down from a tree, which scares Monti, but Salo explains that she's friendly, coming over to scratch her under the jaw. She was badly injured when he found her, he explains, with the mind stone in her head corrupted, and he's helping her recover.

Salo lets Monti feed the imbulu milk as he checks her over, first looking at her physical injuries and then using his talisman to scan the prose in her mind stone. It was badly corrupted when he found her, disabling most of her tronic abilities, and the waveforms of her mind are still a bit out of sync, but it's much improved.

Salo asks Monti, delightedly feeding the lizard milk, what he thinks of her now. Monti thinks she's beautiful, and wishes they could bring her back to the kraal. That's why they have to keep her a secret, Salo explains; the rangers at the kraal would kill her if they knew she was here.

As if on cue, a stick cracks in the distance, and Salo knows it's too late; they've been discovered.