Prologue: "By Magenta Moonlight"

On the First Day,

The Gods created the Earth.

On the Second Day,

The Gods created the Primordial Beasts, and gave them dominion over land, sea and sky.

On the Third Day,

The Primordial Beasts gave birth to Man, and all lesser wild beasts.

On the Fourth Day,

The Gods passed over all other creations, and chose Man to be their successors.

On the Fifth Day,

The Primordial Beasts and the wild beasts, angered, made war on Man. Man, in turn, cursed the Gods, and their birthright.

And on the Sixth Day, 

The Gods sent fire from above to punish all Creation. And thus, from that day forward, Man and all Beasts, wild and Primordial, learned to live in harmony, absent of any love or grace from the Gods.

It was a calm, still night. The pale, silver-white moon Amnestia hung overhead, its vibrant pink sister Alsanna lazily orbiting the larger lunar deity. Together, the heavenly bodies illuminated the night with an eerie pink tint. Yet even with two moons in the sky, the shadows cast in the night were still especially deep.

For the small farming village of Zab, tucked in the shadow of the Dumaz Mountains, darkness fell especially fast, and the shadows were so deep the village had earned the nickname “Town of the Abyss”. On this night in particular, most of the village bumpkins were already retiring to their huts, if not already asleep. Most.

“I told you we should have left with everyone when the sun was set!” A girl’s voice chided.

“Which of us wanted to watch the sun set on the lake to begin with, I wonder?” A boy’s voice retorted.

Honestly, Kai wondered how he had put up with Isha’s pestering for so long. They weren’t just neighbors, and calling them childhood friends seemed inadequate. Born weeks apart, their mothers themselves had been childhood friends, and they had raised them together. The women often teased the two of them about how they had been together for everything, from baths, to naps, and most embarrassing, diaper changes.

Even now, fifteen years later, with Kai spending most of his days learning to smith at the village forge, Isha never seemed too far. Whether it was coming by to nag him about some trivial matter or bring him some dessert, she always found a way to come and distract him from his work. When he’d complained about it to the smith, Old Gren, the old man had just laughed and shook his head.

“Boy, there is more to life than smithing,” he said. “And sometimes a nagging annoyance is actually a welcome blessing. I only hope you realize that before it’s too late.”

“Are you sure the lantern is enough?” Isha’s voice snapped Kai back to the present moment. She had wrapped her arms around his, pressing up against him. Returning late from the annual lake festival, the two were clad in nothing but their swimwear. For Kai, that was a plain loincloth. Isha’s was dyed a vibrant blue and adorned with seashells, as was the cloth wrapped around her chest. Her chest, which squished and began to envelop his arm as she pressed in closer.

He blushed at that, but groaned at the question. “Yes, it will be fine. You know the Law, ‘Every Beast will Fear the Flame.’”

“I know, but…” Isha whispered. “But is that really enough?”

The simple candle lantern they had brought did a fair job illuminating the wooded trail, the orange light dancing across the cedar and cypress trees. Kai was loathe to admit it, but deep down, he was also worried about the lantern. The Law was relatively new; it had been implemented when they were children. He really had no point of reference for how the world worked beforehand, apart from what his parents and the elders said. And there were whispers from other villages, like P’lai to the south, that the Beasts didn’t always shirk from flames…

Isha suddenly stopped walking, yanking him back by his arm.

“Kai…” She was looking down, her voice a whisper.

He followed her gaze. The lantern light illuminated the distinct outline of a set of animal tracks crossing the trail. There was no mistaking the two-toed, bird-like footprints as anything other than the tracks of a Primordial Beast. Fresh tracks.

Isha pressed closer. “Kai!” At the edge of the lamp light was a dark mound. Holding the lamp closer, the light revealed it to be a pile of animal droppings. Still steaming, flies buzzing around it.

An icy cold sensation crept down Kai’s whole body. These tracks are fresh, he thought. Very fresh. They could be anywhere.

He took a step forward, peering past the dung, and shuddered. Emerging from the shadows like an omen, another set of tracks crossed the first.

“There’s more than one,” he whispered. Without even thinking about it, he pulled his arm from Isha’s grasp, before promptly wrapping it around her, holding her close.

“I thought the governor sent for a Venator a week ago?” Isha whispered.

Somewhere off in the forest, a hooting call, like a large owl, rang out. Clearly the governor’s hunter hadn’t arrived, or had failed.

“Come on, let’s hurry.”

The two hurried down the trail, taking care to be quiet. Isha was hardly successful. Her heavy, panicked breathing sounded as if she was on the verge of a breakdown. They had heard the stories about the Primordial Ones. Rather, they had heard nostalgic fairy tales about coexistence told by the older generations, and they had heard the horrifying accounts messengers from the capital delivered. How could any sane person have ever lived alongside such monsters?

As the couple continued down the trail, they could make out the trees thinning. They were approaching the edge of the forest.

Safety, however, was still out of reach. Beyond the forest was nearly a mile of fields, fields of barley, flax and sesame. The lifeblood of the village, but not the best cover.

“Wait.” Kai stopped, releasing his grip on Isha. Pulled over on the side of the trail was an abandoned cart. Kai hadn’t really paid it much attention when they had passed this way before. It wasn’t the carriage itself that caught his attention, but the unburnt torch affixed to the side.

She might have a point, Kai thought, looking at the lamp. While he would much rather have a spear at his side, surely the Beasts would fear the flame of a torch.

He heard Isha shuffle after him as he climbed atop the cart and tried to pull the torch from its restraint. It was fastened in place with rusty metal clasps. It took multiple harsh pulls before the torch broke free with a splitting CRACK!

Kai looked up, out into the night, straining his ears for any sort of sound. Nothing. He gingerly removed the glass that encased the lamp, setting the torch end in the meager flame. After a few seconds, the torch crackled to life.

“This should be-” Kai began as he turned around, but the words died in his throat. Isha was gone.

“Isha?” he called. He jumped sown from the cart, running back to where she had stood. She hadn’t been more than a dozen paces behind him. Nothing.

“Isha!” he called, desperation in his voice.

He took another step, and felt a wet, squelching sensation beneath his sandal. Kai felt a knot in his chest creeping up his throat as he looked down. He could see Isha’s dainty bare footprints, small and almost childlike compared to his. Then, just two paces over, they were lost amid a flurry of scuff marks. Signs of some sort of struggle. Raising the torch, Kai could see a long, continuous depression in the dirt, heading back into the forest. Something large being dragged.

Heart pounding, Kai lifted his sandal, dreading what was beneath. He had stepped in some dark, thick puddle. He touched the puddle, and his fingers came away smeared red.

“ISHA!” Kai dashed into the woods. The torch was a more effective light source, illuminating the drag marks plainly. It also revealed the two-toed footprints alongside it. And the blood. More blood.

Tears came to the boy’s eyes as he plunged deeper back into the woods. He had no idea what he would do when he reached the end of the trail, he had nothing but a torch, still uncertain how effective it would be. But the knot in his chest had been replaced with a burning ache.

Again, he called Isha’s name. But this time, he got a response. Between the pounding of his heart and his own panting he almost didn’t hear it. He stopped and listened. It wasn’t the girl’s voice that he heard, not a scream, nor a word or a whisper. But that eerie hooting cry again.

For a moment, Kai froze. Listening. Then, more hooting from within the forest. But it was noticeably closer this time. Then it came again, only this time, it came from behind him. Then off to his left, then to the right.

Too late it dawned on him: I’m surrounded.

The hooting kept growing closer, louder, more intense. Even with the torch light, he couldn’t see them, but with his ears alone he could map out where each Primordial Beast was. They were circling him, in a tightening formation. Like a noose.

Finally, he saw the eyes. Five pairs of eyes, glowing pale yellow in the torch light. Despite their glow, they were cold, unblinking things. As they closed in, the silhouette of their bodies could be perceived.

They were bipedal creatures, with a horizontal posture. A curved, birdlike neck on one end, and a long, sweeping tail that ended in what looked like a fan of feathers.

Kai had never seen these kinds of Primordial Beasts before, but he had heard descriptions of them before. They were called dromaeosaurs, or “Los Raptores” by the capital scholars. Raptors.

He cast a glance down at the dinosaur’s feet; just as the scholars had said, they only left two-toed tracks because their third, inner toe ended in a curved, sickle claw they kept upright.

“Back! BACK!” he shouted, thrusting the torch out at the dinosaurs. He immediately regretted doing so, for as the light exposed them in greater detail he could see the blood. Blood on the snouts, blood on the claws, blood smeared in the pale gray feathers that coated their bodies.

The beasts hissed and recoiled at the flame, flapping their winged arms in alarm. Kai felt a surge of confidence, and more, rage at the sight. He suddenly felt emboldened to take the offensive. Again he thrust out the torch, and again, the raptors retreated. Again, and again, the beasts hopped away, squawking.

Until they didn’t. After several thrusts of the flame, the beasts stopped shying away. Kai lashed back out, shouting more, to no effect.

“Get back!” He shouted again, kicking dust up at the nearest dromaeosaur. That got a reaction, but only a half-hearted back step.

The torch isn't enough, he thought in a panic. They don't fear the flame!

Then, the nearest one began to advance. In the torchlight, he could see its pale, scaly face, and the mane of downy feathers encircling the neck. Both were smeared in blood. Isha’s blood. Its maw opened, revealing dozens of needle-like teeth.

I'm dead.

And then the dromaeosaur disappeared. In an instant, it was yanked backwards, out of the torchlight, by an unseen force. It disappeared into the night, shrieking in terror. A pair of two-toed footprints were the only evidence it had existed at all.

The rest of the pack immediately dispersed, squealing and shrieking as they fled into the night.

Kai slumped to his knees, staring at the tracks.

“I-Isha?” No response. The forest was silent. The burning ache in his chest threatened to overwhelm him, while tears blurred his vision.

She's gone.

He wanted to cry, to yell, to curse, to wallow in the sudden despair that gripped him. One thought kept him from doing so: There's something else out here.

So he forced himself to stand up. Raising the torch, he stepped toward where the raptor had disappeared. Just a few paces behind it, was another set of footprints. Enormous, three-toed prints, each wider than Kai’s chest.

Something, some predator, had been lurking just beyond his sight, and without a sound, had snuffed out the raptor, and left.

The silence. The ominous, menacing silence.