Prologue

From the night sky it fell. Elegant and black. Like a single droplet out of the vast dark space above the world, tumbling downwards into the realms of men.

Seamus, walking along the high cliffs of his kingdom, did not see it until it impacted the ground before him. He stumbled back, landing on his bottom with a cry.

“What in the name of all the gods?” He scrambled to find himself again and looked around for any help. The palace was some great distance to the North and he was totally alone.

It moved. A black slender mass it stood up, unbothered by the plummet it had just endured. It looked about itself, green eyes flashing like two small sickly stars in its head. Its thin mouth hung open, panting in the new air.

Seamus beheld its form. Like a man, only taller. It stood two heads over him with the slenderness of a sapling. Its head, long and smooth, was crowned with a pair of giant antlers, the same color as its black gray body.

“You.” His mind flashed images of murals he had seen his whole life. “It can’t be you.”

The figure froze, as if it had only now just become aware of the crowned man before him. It looked him up and down, then to the coastal cliff’s ending to its right. A vast ocean stretched beyond. Then it looked to the left, towards the tall elegant palace to the North. Something came into its eyes that felt as a great understanding.

“Are you him? Tell me before I cut you down!” Seamus drew his sword, stumbling through the action due to his growing excitement.

The figure only held up a long bony finger, in a gesture of halting. Seamus froze. The figure stooped low and began scrapping out an image in the mud.

It was hard to make out, but Seamus saw that it was making two images. On the right was something like a man, but naked and with a head shaped with a long snout. The other, on the left, a serpent like creature with four legs.

“What are you-” He cut himself off when the creature suddenly arose.

It pointed to the image with one hand and lifted the other to the sky. Then it spoke. A gargled wheezing sound.

“Atla Beaos.”

The ground shook and thundered. The cliffs felt as though they might split and Seamus was thrown to the ground. Trees about them fell and the sky above swirled with clouds, blocking out the stars.

Then it stopped, just as sudden as it had started. Seamus looked about himself in a panic, then at the figure.

“By the gods. It is you.”

The figure, taking a step forward, knelt before the king.

“All I ask,” It spoke again. “Is that you heed my teachings and I will give you the world.”

Seamus stood again, looking over the figure. Something stirred in his spirit. The world was about to change.