Soaring through the a cloudy gray-blue sky, Mithra used the air currents to her advantage. The wind slid across her great feathers as she banked through an updraft to gain altitude in search of a stronger tailwind. Ahead, a forest spread out before her, a sea of green textures. Behind her raged the fiercest battle ever to stain the fields of Erdas.
In this dire hour, Tellun had finally summoned a Grand Council. If all the Great Beasts and Legendary Beasts would stand together against the madness of Kovo, Gerathon, and Zeke, the outcome of the battle would be more certain. This meeting was too vital to miss.
Below her, in the distance, the clearing came into view. Much of Stetriol was desolate waste or jagged red mountains. Only Tellun could have such a brief time. Stately trees surrounded a flat meadow where tall grass rippled in the breeze. A shallow stream meandered across the clearing, its bed a treasure trove of polished pebbles. A few bulky boulders added character.
The other beasts were there-all except Kovo, Gerathon, and Zeke, who had predictably shunned the proceedings, and Mulop,who would participate from afar. The octopus preferred not to travel, which freed the others to gather in noncoastal.
Trimming her wings, Mithra plunged toward the meadow, the exhilarating speed focusing her thoughts. Until now, as a whole, the Great Beasts and Legendary Beasts had chosen neutrality in worldwide war. They had not met in a Grand Council since the early days, when Kovo, Gerathon, and Zeke appeared less directly involved and the Devourer was just beginning to reveal his unquenchable lust for world domination.
Mithra alighted on a fallen log an instant before the appointed starting time. Her claws gripped the decaying wood much as a lesser hawk would cling to a branch.
"Greetings Fearlesswarrior." greeted Banja the Snow Leopard.
There were thirty-three of them.
Tellun raised his head high, the tips of his magnificent antlers overtopping even Dinesh. "Let us begin," the elk announced. A hush fell upon nature. Even the nearby brook seemed to run quieter. Mithra looked up at their, trying to hide her succumb her sense of awe. Of all the Beasts, Tellun and Atalanta the Mountain Lion was the hardest to read.
"It is time to go, for we will appear as spirit animals and we will help Erdas once more." said Atalanta, she narrowed her golden eyes as she said. "Whatever we like it or not."
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Throughout the battle (all the other Beasts had sacrificed their lives already, now it's Mithra against Zeke) Mithra watched high above the sky. With a wild screech, she lunged for the rattlesnake.
"This war had went to it's end!" she declared.
The rattlesnake let out a hiss of fury, when she hooked her talons around Zeke's neck.
Mithra found it hard to breathe as she flew to the injured Evertree.
Then the presence washed over her, like sunrise, new life, and the cleansing calm that follows the mourning.
The cries were distant, muted, fading.
Mithra could not open her eyes, but she felt the warm breath of the nostrils near her face.
Then, reaching out with her remaining senses, Mithra discovered that the fifteen Great Beasts and nineteen Legendary Beasts were already gone (Zeke is no longer in her talons).
But she could hear Atalanta's golden voice speak.
"Rest for a season, noble hawk. You have served Erdas well. As you serve her again."
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Mithra rested in the tranquil stillness. She had no desire to rouse her mind. Time lost to all meaning. The silence was peaceful and good.
And then, as if dawn had broken, there was a light. A great radiance exploded around her, shifting and liquid, noisy with the gasping of human voices.
Mithra opened her eyes, startled by the brilliance, and in it she saw the lean, light-skinned, tattooed face of a girl, wise but fiercely brave. Her deep blue eyes watch her with astonishment.
Interesting, Mithra thought. With a flurry of wings, she leaped up to the girl's shoulder and gently pinched her claws into her skin.
YOU ARE READING
Spirit Animals: The Founding of the Sixteenth Beast
FantasyA young girl named Estrella, who lives in Trunswick. Cared in the Earl's family. But unknowingly of her parents, her four long-gone brothers, and Finn. Her brother. But when she had her Nectar Ceremony, she sommened Mithra the Ferruginous Hawk, Guar...
