The Apprentice Tattoo. Guardians of the Circles: Neolithic fantasy series. 1. Summer has failed to arrive. The tribe's barley crop is rotting in the fields. From the great stone circle, Spirit Messenger Albyn speaks with the ancestors, finding that the Spirits of the Elements have turned against the tribes of humans. The ancestors prophesy that only two people can heal the rift between man and nature, a reluctant Spirit Apprentice called Col, and Talla, a freed slave girl. When Col and Talla's lives are threatened, Albyn sends them on a journey that will change their future, and their world… if they can meet the challenges of the elements of earth, air, water and fire.