Tribes of Qi — William Rubel

At the annual Dragon Festival of the tribes of Qi, a young rat named Peyo defies tradition and declares his intention to seek the forest rat shaman. With his childhood friend Yao, and the lady Genji of Gong, Peyo embarks down the River Fluvinus in a cedar bark canoe. Meanwhile, on the High Ice of Zham, Chloe refuses a marriage offer from the Chieftain's son. Forced to become the successor of the solitary village healer, she attempts the dangerous crossing of the O-po-po Ice Ranges to Ixi Valley, abode of the three Ratrixes. The rats of Qi are about to realize that they live in the time of Myth... and that the world is the Myth... and the Myth is alive!