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SPOILER-STOPPER LLAMA
This article contains plot and/or ending details.

"I will help rescue your spirit animal, or die trying."

–Book Quote, Grif to Anuqi[1]


Tales of the Fallen Beasts is the second special edition containing short stories of six of the Fallen Beasts: Halawir, Rumfuss, Suka and Arax, Kovo, and Gerathon. Depicted on the cover from left to right are Halawir, Suka, Kovo, and Gerathon.

Official Summary[]

CAN A DESTINY BE STOLEN?

All across the world, legends are appearing. Great Beasts—once the most powerful beings in Erdas—are being summoned as spirit animals. Bonded to special kids, they unite the human and animal worlds.

But a mysterious stranger is hunting these legends, just as they are reborn, and he's crushing anyone who stands in his way.

These are the stories of those stolen legends, and of the young heroes who will stop at nothing to get them back. These are the Tales of the Fallen Beasts.

Plot[]

This book follows the Fallen Beasts and their partners before the Fall of the Beasts series. Each story focuses on one Fallen Beast.

Halawir

The fallen Great Beasts have begun returning to Erdas. Halawir the Eagle is the first to arrive, emerging out of darkness in a purple radiance. He soars, lunging playfully at a seagull, though he doesn’t go in for the kill. He dives down, skimming the surface of the water and over a sea trader’s boat.

Suddenly, a net falls over him. Halawir, overcome with panic, desperately tries to squirm free of the net, but only succeeds in further tangling himself. A girl’s parents are overjoyed that their daughter summoned a spirit animal, and that lucky, summoned creature happens to be Halawir himself. Cordalles–the girl who summoned him–and her parents are shocked when they realize who she summoned. She reached in to pet him, and Halawir is paralyzed, wishing that he could claw her eyes out, but their bond won’t allow him to. While he’s distracted, the mother puts a leash on his foot, but she doesn’t escape without Halawir slicing her with his beak.

As soon as he’s released from the net, Halawir takes off. He flies to the end of the leash and tumbles back onto the deck. Cordalles is there to calm him down and she asks her parents about their bond, imagining what powers he might give her. She turns to Halawir asks if they’ll begin to work on their bond, and responds by flying up and going to the bathroom on Cordalles’s head.

As punishment, Halawir is locked in a small room, barely large enough for him to stand. Cordalles comes in, drying her hair after washing it. She attempts to persuade him into passive state, and Halawir is confused at first, but turns away defiantly when he realizes what she’s trying to get him to do. She gives up and tries to assure Halawir that she understands what it’s like not to be trusted. He doesn’t listen.

Cordalles’s parents decide to stop at Greenhaven so that they can get some advice from the Greencloaks about what to do with Halawir. Cordalles insists that she can feel their bond, but Halawir knows that this is a lie and closes his eyes when she asks if he can feel their bond. Her mother seizes the moment to throw a sack over Halawir’s head, tossing him into an even smaller cabin than before. A sailor comes in and ties his leash to a post and leaves him food and water, backing out to allow Cordalles’s mother to come in. She unveils her real plan to leave him with the Greencloaks and leaves. Halawir listens to Cordalles’s pleas to let her see him, but when her parents protest against this, she runs away crying.

Halawir remains trapped in the room for days, thinking about how he might escape, until one day an excited cacophony rouses him. The ship docks, and he thinks that they’re in Greenhaven, but when the ship quiets down again, he whips his water bowl at the door, miffed that they left him behind. Cordalles comes in, exclaiming that her parents wouldn’t let her off the boat in their quick stop before Greenhaven. She reveals that she stole the spare key to visit him more often and that she’s going to sneak him out with her when they dock at Soussia.

Cordalles returns the next night to show Halawir a set of jesses she’d created for him. She talks about how someday, their bond will grow, and the eagle won’t just fly away whenever he’s let off of the leash. She puts the jesses on him, and Halawir hops onto her shoulder, allowing her to take them onto one of the lower decks. He flies around a bit to stretch his wings and then returns to Cordalles, still plotting his escape.

For many nights, they sneak out together, and Halawir relishes the freedom. That is, until they dock in Soussia, and when everyone leaves the ship, Cordalles fetches him. She pulls a dark cloak to conceal him and takes him off of the ship, flinging the cloak away when they reach land. She tells Halawir her plan to purchase a green cloak for when they reach Greenhaven and they blend into the crowd, searching for Lukasz’s stall. Halawir senses somebody watching them.

Cordalles approaches a Zhongese girl named Raisha, asking where they can find the stall. She offers to guide them there, complimenting Halawir, pretending to mistake him for a hawk. As they struggle to keep up with Raisha, Halawir lends Cordalles a touch of their bond’s powers to help her through the crowds. She notices this and shoots him a sly grin. They arrive in an empty alley to find Zerif. Halawir is wary of him, despite them being allies in the war, for a supernatural spiral pulses beneath his skin on his forehead. When Zerif addresses him as an “old friend,” Cordalles is surprised. He pulls out a glass vile with a dark, worm-like shape wriggling inside. Raisha grabs hold of Cordalles, who protests furiously. Halawir flies to the end of the leash, unsure of what to do, questioning Zerif’s alliance. As he approaches, Halawir realizes that whatever Zerif is doing, it isn’t good, and prepares to peck out the man’s eyes. Cordalles then whips the jess away from her, setting Halawir free.

He begins to fly away, finally free, but then he remembers how Cordalles had let him go and goes back for her. He dives into Raisha’s head, digging in with his talons and tearing at her hair, slashing at her hands. She lets go of Cordalles, and the girl runs with the might of Halawir driving her forward. Halawir hangs back and tugs at Raisha’s hair, half of his attention on her and half on Cordalles. If only he had three halves. Zerif materializes beside him, pinning his wings to his side and tipping the contents of the vile onto Halawir. It digs into his skin and wriggles it’s way into his forehead where it stops. Cordalles returns, but Zerif grabs her by the neck, unsheathing another vile, only to have it knocked from his grasp. A figure with a red cloak appears, and questions whirl through Halawir’s mind. Before he can discover the answers, he’s overcome by fog, and the last thing he sees is the look on Cordalles’s face as Zerif closes in.

Rumfuss

Devin Trunswick is in an inn. He’s been on the road ever since he was bailed out of jail in Glengavin and is running out of things to sell. He’s shocked and angry at the price of a room and lashes out at the innkeeper, who lashes back. He offers to trade a ring for a room, but the innkeeper will only barter for the sword. Devin exaggerates the sword’s value and insults him. The innkeeper asks Brutis, a huge man, to throw him out into the mud.

He walks through the rain for awhile, ignoring the cries of a bird of prey, the muck, the mugginess, and the gnats; when the sun begins to set, he sets up camp and starts a fire.
Rustling comes from the undergrowth nearby. Kunaya emerges, having followed Devin after leaving Conor, Abeke, Meilin, and Rollan. He calls her Yaya for short.

Without warning, a girl appears, asking to share his fire in exchange for bacon. Devin gestures for her to take a seat. She tells him that she’s been travelling for awhile to Trunswick for a celebration. The Earl of Trunswick’s son has summoned a spirit animal, and Devin thinks at first that she’s referencing him when he summoned Elda, but she tells him that Dawson is the one who a summoned a spirit animal—a great beast. Devin is stunned, taking the now-charred bacon off of the pan. The girl is startled by a cry of the same bird of prey that had been following Devin, and before she leaves, tells him that her name is Raisha.

Devin decides to direct his travels in the way of Trunswick to visit his brother. When he arrives, he immediately notices a woman at the center of town, locked in the stocks, being tortured. He picks up his pace, approaching a guard at the manor’s gates. He tells a lame, cliché joke that the guard grouses at before telling him that he lives there. The guard says basically says that the Earl told him not to let Devin in and that he’s sorry for not being able to let him in. Devin apologizes, too, and kicks the guard in the shin and rushes through the gates.

He reaches the manor, awing over the grand hall. Dawson enters, his expression deadpan. Devin admits that he forgot how rich they were when gazing at the opulently decorated hall. At first, he asks why he traded it all for adventure, then a goofy grin breaks out and he cries “Take me with you!” and the two brothers embrace. Devin senses his father approach. The Lord basically tells him to get out, furious to see him. Dawson stands up for Devin, but their father simply questions where his gift for Dawson is. He explains that he sold everything just to get to Trunswick, but he tells him to give the sword as a present, but when Devin unsheathes it, it’s apparent that the sword is broken. His father insults him. Dawson calls forth Rumfuss, the Great Beast that he summoned. Devin makes fun of him for summoning Rumfuss, and Dawson and their father kick him out.

Devin knows that he messed up, and he goes and sits in an alleyway. When he goes to leave, Karmo is there, blocking the exit. He attacks Devin, punching him in the face without warning, and Karmo sends a bolt of electricity through him and gets in a head-butt. He exclaims that Devin left him in prison to listen to Lord MacDonnell sing songs about his hare. Devin apologizes, catching Karmo off guard, and he apologizes, too. He explains that he’s looking for Dawson to save from Zerif, who’s hunting the Great Beasts. Devin tells him that he might be able to sneak past his father’s guards, but Karmo says that they’re ruthless, looking up that woman in the stocks for suggesting that the Lord should be put on trial for his war crimes. Devin conjures a plan to get to Dawson.

Devin approaches the stage where the woman in the stocks is located. He lies to the guards and the crowd and says that he’s here on behalf of the earl. Devin continues on, saying that his father would be there himself, except that he doesn’t like to get his feet dirty, emphasizing the point by asking how muddy it is to the townsfolk who are standing in the mud. His father is such a generous man, gifting him with items that are worth enough to feed a family to a month, and while he wore silver around his belt, families around Erdas were starving. The earl joked about the mastiffs being better than the townsfolk and was generous enough to hire the old Conquerors as guards. They definitely don’t hold any grudges against the Eurans, though. Devin says that it’s good to heal old grudges, like the ones the townsfolk have from being jailed or having loved ones jailed. But of course, everyone can agree that the earl did the right thing, jailing people for speaking about what they believed in. Devin grins his most annoying grin, concluding with talking about how his father’s raising the taxes to feed and house the old Conquerors to keep him safe, and how generous he truly is.

His speech sends the townsfolk into a fury. The guards desperately try to quell the uprising, but they’re forced to call for help from the guards at the castle, leaving Devin a shot at sneaking in. He finds Dawson on the roof, the spot they always used to sneak to when they shirked their father. They talk before settling into a comfortable silence, until Devin realizes that his brother is silently crying. He’s feeling guilty about helping the earl and Zerif kidnap Conor’s mother to get the Iron Boar. Devin admits that he shouldn’t have left Dawson and invite him to come with them, not heeding him of the danger he’s in with Rumfuss.

He rushes to find his father and runs into Raisha on the way. She asks for directions to a parlor near Dawson’s room, but Devin pushes her questionable presence from his mind and confronts his father. He finds him in a dining room with Zerif. Devin warns his father what Zerif is here for, and when he draws his sword, Zerif says that they’ve really fallen on hard times. It’s only then when Devin realizes just how poor his father has become, but he promises that he won’t allow him to hurt Dawson. His guilty father says that they’re only there for the boar. Devin is confused when his father says “they” since he thought it was only Zerif, but suddenly remembers Raisha’s odd presence in the manor.

He rushes to Dawson’s room, where Raisha is standing on the roof, blocking Dawson’s exit. She unsheathes a dagger as Devin unsheathes his broken sword. The two are evenly matched, but just as Devin warns Dawson to get ready, the talons of Halawir rake across his back. Raisha takes the chance to kick him in the stomach. Zerif approaches, climbing out of the window. He steps toward Devin, grabbing him by the throat and holding him over the roof’s edge. He threatens to drop him if Dawson doesn’t take Rumfuss out of passive state. Devin tells him not to do it, reminding him of all of the bad things he did to him, but Dawson only remember the good times and releases Rumfuss. Zerif whips a vile at the boar and summons him into passive as soon as the Wyrm takes hold of him. He then drops Devin, who twists through the air like a cat–a wildcat–and lands on four feet before blacking out.

When he wakes, Dawson and Karmo are hovering over him, silhouetted by the fire that engulfs the manor. He embraces his brother, who can’t feel Rumfuss anymore. Karmo tells them that he can bring them to some people who want to stop Zerif, and they leave Trunswick, still able to see the fire for miles as they travel together.

Suka and Arax

Anuqi is standing on a rocky crag, watching a foreign figure stumble in the snow of Arctica. It’s her turn to stand watch and make sure that nobody comes to Maliak, but she didn’t always stand sentry by herself. Her spirit animal–Suka the Great Polar Bear–once stood watch with her. She continues to watch the stranger, knowing that she should go and report him, but does it with reluctance, calling her family “traitors.”

She walks into her parents’ tent, only to have her mother shove a note in her face, but Anuqi, like most of the Ardu, haven’t yet learned to read Common. The messenger she’d seen from afar, a Euran man, reads the message aloud: To Anuqi, spirit bond of the Great Beast, Suka. We can help restore what has been taken from you. Meet me at the last day of the waning moon, at the Smiling Fox Inn, in Radenbridge. Sincerely, A friend. Anuqi thinks that it’s a joke, but her parents immediately refuse without taking into account what she thinks. It was just like when Zerif and Raisha came, asking for Suka in exchange for money. Her parents refused, grabbing a few armed friends to drive the strangers away, but Zerif summoned the other Great Beasts he’s already stolen. Suka ran in to help, but Raisha threw a vile at her, and Anuqi screamed as their bond broke. Suka walked over to join Zerif, and Anuqi’s parents accepted the bag of coins in exchange for the Great Beast.

Back in the present, the Euran messenger offers a bag of coins to help pay for Anuqi’s journey. Anuqi’s parents hustle the man out. Her parents try to dampen her hopes of finding Suka, but Anuqi refuses to give up. She rushes out the door, lying when she tells them that she’d going to check the snares, thinking about whether to go to Eura or not.

She makes her decision. Anuqi goes back to her parents’ tent to find them already asleep. She gathers some necessities, the bag of money, and puts some skins in her bed to make it look like she’s sleeping peacefully, when really, she’s on her way to restore her bond with Suka.

Anuqi arrives in Radenbridge, feeling out of place as the only foreigner there. She reaches the inn, and a small man brings her a bowl of soup with a note folded underneath, but she’s unable to read it. The man comes back, annoyed when he finds out that she can’t read. He reads the note, telling her to go to the top floor, to the last door on the right, and knock four times.

She goes upstairs and knocks. A woman with a crossbow opens the door, but she lowers it when she sees who it is. She ushers Anuqi inside of the bland Euran room. A small boy sits on the corner of the straw bed. The woman thanks her for coming, introducing herself as Talon and the small boy as Grif. Anuqi is underwhelmed by them, voicing her opinion of their poor appearance, since she expected a fighting force. Grif holds up a tiny fist and tries to make a menacing face, but Talon just laughs, and Anuqi can’t help but chuckle. He brags about his smallness coming in handy and how he was the one who discovered that Raisha was in Radenbridge. Anuqi’s miffed that Zerif and Suka aren’t even there, and she asks why the odd pair even wants to help her. Grif explains that he summoned Arax, but didn’t even get to touch him before he was taken by Zerif.

Anuqi considers helping them. When Talon tells her that she can leave of her own will, she leaves just to test whether she was telling the truth or not, and Anuqi returns. Talon explains that Raisha is camped outside of town with a group of mercenaries, waiting to strike at a ceremony where children who’ve summoned spirit animals are being asked to join the Greencloaks. They sit down and begin to formulate a plan.

Radenbridge is crowded, ready for the ceremony to commence. Along with the noise of the crowd, livestock and animal calls pile on top. Anuqi is wearing new clothes to disguise her and make her look like a typical Euran. She eases herself into the crowd, approaching the stage and sending an askance glare at any burly men that could be mercenaries. She even spots Raisha at the edge of the crowd, ordering around the mercenaries. The mayor gives a speech, and when he’s done, a middle-aged Greencloak who doesn’t look like he can hold his own steps up toward three children: a boy with a yak, a tall girl with a tree frog, and a smaller girl with a Great Dane. Just as the Greencloak begins to speak, chaos breaks out.

The mercenaries attack. Raisha feigns shocked innocence, piquing Anuqi’s hatred for her. Talon emerges from underneath of the stage, grabbing two of the children with their spirit animals and taking them away from the mess. The constable and the Greencloak draw their swords, and Grif unleashes the animals in the market, causing even more chaos than before. Anuqi reaches the last girl who summoned a spirit animal, the one with pigtails and a Great Dane. The girl takes Anuqi’s hand with reluctance, and they run past the crowd and find Talon, Grif, and the other two children. Grif has succeeded in cutting the mercenaries’ horses free, which will slow them down if they try to chase them. They run through the town gates, which Grif also succeeded in loosening the screws on the winch. This also slows down the mercenaries as the gate closes in front of them.

Anuqi takes the lead from there, shocked that their plan had actually succeeded so far. When Talon and Grif had been preparing their tricks for the chaos of the ceremony, Anuqi had been plotting their path of escape, since she knew a lot about tracking from her days of hunting and tracking in Arctica. She asks what the pigtailed girl’s name is, and she says that her name is Maena. Maena asks when she’ll be able to go back to her family. Talon responds, telling her that she’ll need to stay hidden until Raisha and her mercenaries inevitably bypass the town. Anuqi leads them through a shallow stream, to which Maena complains about as her feet grow freezing. Anuqi tells her that it’s to cover up their tracks, but Talon believes that the mercenaries are probably experienced hunters who are competent trackers and it may not stifle their progress too much. They find a large boulder with a hollow behind it and instruct the Marked children to stay there until an hour after Raisha and her goons pass them. Maena wraps Anuqi in a hug of thanks, and she assures the girl that she’ll be okay. They back out and cover the opening with a large fir branch and set off, leaving extra prints to trick the mercenaries into thinking that the Marked children were still with them. Talon complements Anuqi’s cunning and warns them not to be too thorough, as they want to lead the mercenaries to the Greencloaks, not lose them entirely. The mercenaries gain on them at an alarming rate as Grif begins to loose stamina. He urges them to leave him, but the girls refuse.

When they stop for a moment to rest, Raisha materializes from the trees, holding a dirk to Talon’s throat. She commands Talon to drop the horn meant to call the Greencloaks and tells Grif and Anuqi to run, but they refuse to leave their friend behind. When Anuqi does decide to run, the mercenaries have already closed in on them, and her foot gets caught under a root. When she realizes that she can barely walk, she gives in and allows the mercenaries to tie her up. Raisha says that she’s bringing them to Zerif for questioning, and nobody speaks. When Anuqi’s ankle wrenches again, she blacks out from the pain.

Talon, Grif, and Anuqi are put into cages in a wagon with a myriad of stolen spirit animals who are also in cages. They’d had to walk all the way to the wagons, which was excruciatingly painful for Anuqi and her sprained ankle. They try to escape to no avail, and Anuqi is unable to reach the weapons just beyond the reach of her cage. Talon, however, frees a robin and convinces it to drag a pouch near the weapons just close enough for Anuqi to grab it. Inside of the pouch is Zhongese blast powder, which can be used to blast off the locks on their cages. Grif offers to do it. He succeeds, blasting the lock off of his cage and grabbing an axe to chop a hole in the floor of the wagon. Grif takes the robin and waits for them to pass over a mud puddle before jumping through the hole.

As dawn breaks, Anuqi and Talon hear a war horn. The Greencloaks have arrived. They can hear as a fight breaks out, listening to the clash of swords and thuds of arrows hitting the wagon. Talon tells Anuqi to say to the Greencloaks that the don’t know each other if they come to the wagon. Anuqi doesn’t question why.
Suddenly, Grif appears, having stolen the key to their cages from the mercenaries. As soon as they’re freed, they run to the woods, watching the battle from a safe distance. They see the Keeper fighting and watch as Keith points an arrow at Raisha’s heart. She surrenders.

Anuqi leans on Grif as they vamoose from the scene. Talon tells them that she has some friends she wants them to meet who will do whatever it takes to get their spirit animals back.

Kovo

In Maktaba, Ananda is trying to calm Takoda, a younger, angry monk. He just got into a fight with Sudo. The boy had teased him, and Takoda had jumped to defend himself. His robe is torn and his bruises begin to hurt as he calms himself down. He expects to be punished, but Ananda embraces Takoda, then asks what he would’ve done when he got angry at home. He confesses that he would’ve run until he couldn’t run anymore, as it helped to clear his mind and forget his anger. They go and sit on the stairs to the temple. Takoda reflects on how there aren’t any fields for him to run in, and Ananda confesses something to him, too: she also likes to run with her spirit animal, Nambi, but the monastery is no place for a giraffe. When Takoda asks why she’s even there, she admits that it’s to heal, just like him. She assures him that someday, they’ll both be able to run again.

Switching the subject, Ananda assigns Takoda to his punishment, which is taking over Sudo’s post in the west tower and strike the bell thrice. It’s a long climb, so Takoda gets right on it. He’s easily winded by the climb, having not run in over a year. As he does, Takoda remembers his parents and counts the number of steps he ascends. He reaches the top, catching his breath before wielding the large mallet and striking the bell twice. Before he can strike a third time, he suddenly feels very dizzy and watches the sky darken and a bright flash light up the world around him. When he goes to strike it again, he sees a terrifying face reflecting in the bell. Takoda spins around, watching as a gorilla steps into the light. He spins around again with the mallet, smashing it into the bell in hopes that it will scare the gorilla away. Instead, it presses it’s hand against the rim of the bell, stopping the ringing sound. It’s only when Takoda takes the time to think that he realizes that the only gorilla with eyes as red as those is Kovo the Ape and that he summoned the worst Great Beast to ever live as a spirit animal. He screams into Kovo’s face, and Kovo screams back. Many monks arrive and hustle Kovo away.

Kovo is locked in a silo in Maktaba’s granary. Takoda and Ananda sit together, and she breaks the news to him that they’re bonded. He doesn’t want to believe it and continues to shirk touching Kovo to secure their bond. He fears what fully bonding with Kovo might do to him and if it’ll make him evil, too. He can hear the gorilla pounding on the granary walls. When another wave of pain washes over Takoda, Ananda goes to get Kovo. When she unlocks the door, the pounding stops, but she begins to scream. Takoda rushes to help her, but he’s relieved to find her unharmed, discovering that Kovo is actually the injured one. His knuckles are bloody, and he’s drawn smears across the walls from pounding his fists against them, which confuses Takoda, since he’s always believed Kovo to be the smarter Great Beast.

Ananda rushes to get help, leaving Takoda and Kovo alone. The gorilla holds a fist in his direction, then makes a sign to him that indicates that they’re the same. When Takoda denies this and goes to walk away, Kovo draws something on the floor with his blood again. Takoda realizes that Kovo has drawn a picture of enormous jaws, wide open with bared teeth; within each mouth is a spiral.

Ananda returns with an ointment, ordering Takoda to clean the gorilla’s wounds. She tells him again that they’re bonded, and perhaps he’ll bring out the best in Kovo before leaving. Takoda dips the rag in the bucket and reaches out to clean the bloody knuckles, but Kovo tears the rag from him and holds out his fist, an invitation. Takoda tentatively reaches out his own fist and presses it to Kovo’s.

Takoda wakes abruptly from a nightmare that morning. He asks Kovo if he can feel their bond, but he looks away, disinterested, pointing at the door. When Kovo continues to grunt and point, Takoda gives in, getting up and walking to the west tower. He chains Kovo to the bottom of the tower, but the gorilla insists on coming with him, so Takoda releases him, and the gorilla bounds up the steps, looking out at the horizon when he reaches the top. On the way down, Takoda asks about what powers he’ll get, but Kovo doesn’t reply.

Later that morning, Takoda watched Sudo, who shirks him and Kovo. When Kovo passes the older monk, he grimaces as though smelling something foul, and many monks laugh at Sudo. This seems to please Kovo.

Ananda comes to Kovo’s room near midday with a scroll and charcoal for Kovo to draw on and a new, blue robe. Takoda is excited about the luxurious garment, asking if he should wear it to meditation, but Conor and Briggan interrupt, nearly overcome with anger at Kovo’s presence. Conor explains that they need to come to Greenhaven with him as Zerif is hunting the Great Beasts. Kovo is eager to go, pulling Takoda away from his brief hug with Ananda and running after the Greencloaks.

When they catch up to Conor and Briggan, they spot Halawir flying overhead. They jump into an aqueduct below, climbing over the channel’s edge in a rush to get ahead of Zerif. The reach the entrance to the infirmary, spotting Halawir flying overhead once more. To get away faster, Takoda leads them through a secret passage that takes them to the granary and out through the mill. They stop in front of the wheat fields just before Rumfuss comes barreling towards them. Kovo wants to stay and fight, but Conor urges them to get away before more Great Beasts appear. They flee uphill and sprint along the perimeter of the monastery, loosing the boar just as Arax appears at the top of the rocky slope the group was ascending. When trying to get away, Takoda slips, but Kovo grabs Arax by the horns and sends the ram tumbling downhill. Kovo picks up his summoner and carries him from there. They make it to the river where Conor and Kalani had docked. He yells at his fellow Greencloak to prepare the ship, and they dash towards the boat, only to have Suka emerge from the water, blocking their path. Kovo goes to fight her, but the polar bear disappears in a flash of light, summoned back by Zerif.

The man appears behind them, blocking their escape, his chest bare to flaunt his many tattoos. Kovo picks up Takoda’s satchel, which fell off when he fell of the gorilla’s back. Zerif unsheathes a vile, and everybody stands, waiting in trepidation to see what might happen. Takoda screams for them to run, reaching the boat with Kovo and taking the rope from Kalani. She takes a spear from the wooden floor and hurls it at Zerif, except Conor gets in the way, leaving a wound on his wrist. Briggan knocks Zerif to the ground, but he picks the wolf up by the scruff, raising the vile to Briggan’s snout. Conor crashes into Zerif’s side before the vile’s contents can spill on his spirit animal. Zerif drops both Briggan and the vile, and a worm-like creature slithers out towards Briggan, who scrambled away from it. Conor strikes the worm with his axe, to no avail, then makes a break for it down the dock.

Kalani treats Conor’s wound as Kovo puts the satchel back over Takoda’s neck. They watch Zerif wave at them from the shore as the boat departs, smirking. His odd demeanor bewilders them. They hear Conor drop his axe. The half of the worm-like creature he’d split with his axe is crawling over his hand and slithers into the wound on his wrist. Everybody is shocked. Conor clutches his wrist to his chest, saying that they must get to Greenhaven. He has a feeling that things are about to get even worse.

Gerathon

Deep in the jungle there lies the Mire, a Greencloak prison in Zhong. Raisha, after being caught by Keith and the Keeper, was sent there for a thirty-year sentence. She carries a yoke across her shoulder with two full water buckets on either side. She wonders about what creatures may be lurking in the forest surrounding her and what would happen if one tried to kill her—she settles on assuming that the guards would somehow intervene, as death was a form of escape. Urban, her guard, urges her to pick up the pace, sitting atop his mule, Lucky. Raisha reminds him that she’s only twelve, and he rebukes that she’s old enough to commit adult crimes. She insists that she was used, but Urban retaliates again by telling her that the crime of tearing spirit animals from their rightful partners is a despicable crime, and after he reminds her of her thirty-year sentence, the sit in silence for a moment. He tells her to accept her crimes and shape up. Raisha doesn’t answer.

In the silence, Raisha contemplates her plan to escape: pretending to faint and when the guards are distracted, making a run for it. She starts to become so exhausted that she wonders whether she may actually faint and lose her chance to escape, so she looks around for a good spot in the jungle to run. A root trips her, and when Raisha crashes to the ground, she pretends to faint. Urban tried to get her to move, but Raisha manages to convince him that she’s fainted. As they’re about to tie her to Lucky, the Greencloaks turn their backs, and Raisha makes her move, sprinting into the forest. Urban takes chase, yelling at her to come back before she’s hurt. Luckily, as Raisha charges through some vines, she’s caught in a net meant to stop escapees like her. Urban finds her and explains that there are traps everywhere, surrounding the Mire.

After that, Raisha is relocated to solitary confinement in the wet cells, the very bottom of the Mire, which is always filled with a few inches of water. Since she’s no longer able to collect her own water, she’s forced to lick it from the walls until the jailers come and give her fresh water and stale bread. She sits on her cot, crying and cursing at herself for getting caught and remembering the adventures she used to have and would have no longer. She wonders what it would’ve been like if she hadn’t joined Zerif, wallowing in self-pity.

Suddenly, the sky darkens. Raisha feels an odd tingling, and a blinding light obscures her violin, followed by a boom like thunder. A cobra appears in her cell in an undulating mass. She realizes that she must’ve summoned a spirit animal, and so she touches the cobra, cementing their bond. When she realizes that it’s Gerathon, she’s stunned, but the clink of keys outside of her cell snap her back to reality, and she urges Gerathon to hide, picking her up and helping her through the shaft.

Payu and Urban appear, growing suspicious when they find her standing atop her cot. Raisha lies, telling them that she heard rats going crazy and climbed onto her cot to avoid them, moving it below the shaft to scare them away. Still leery, Urban tries to convince her that it’s no crime to summon a spirit animal, and when she complains, he tells her that she’s lucky not to be hanged for her crimes. He tries to sympathize with her after Payu leaves about her situation with Zerif using her and says that they can help her. Raisha considers for a fleeting moment before sneering at him. Undaunted, Urban leaves. Alone again, Raisha wonders when Gerathon will return, and whether Zerif will come for her and steal the serpent. She tries to convince herself that there was no need to tear them away from each other, and decides that if he were to try, she and Gerathon would stop him.

That night, Raisha wakes to a hand covering her mouth. A man, Dorell, claims to work in the kitchen for the Greencloaks, but his loyalties lie elsewhere. At first, she refuses to admit that she did indeed summon a spirit animal, but after he explains that he can help her escape, she reconsiders, questioning which was better: staying in the Greencloak prison or risk finding Zerif. Gerathon drops from the window, deciding the matter for her. Dorell is shocked by the serpent’s appearance, and he leads them both out of the cell and down the corridor. They wade through deeper water, and Gerathon hitches a ride in Dorell’s shirt before they’re forced to swim. They eventually make it to a flight of stone stairs and rush through multiple rooms, a corridor, and down a narrow stairway. They make it outside into the warm, night air and to the only boat on the skiff. Dorell had already sank the others.

As they push away from the dock, Raisha looks back at the Mire, wondering how long it would be before the entire thing was consumed by the bog. Dorell says that they’re on their way to Wan Digal and should reach it by sunrise. He then attempts to pry Gerathon off of his shoulders, and when she brings her coils tighter around his neck, he tells her to go ahead and kill him, see how the fare in the swamp alone at night. Gerathon releases her coils. Dorell tells her that after they reach Wan Digal, they’ll head for Xin Kao Dai. Raisha wonders how far behind the Greencloaks are and thinks about Urban and if he actually saw something special in her. She quickly pushes the thought away. Dawn draws near. Dorell reveals that they’re close to Wan Digal and that the Greencloaks are most likely well behind them. Raisha puzzles out that he has a spirit animal, but Dorell gives no clear answer.

The moment their boat hits the dock, Gerathon attacks. Dorell is prepared, jumping away just as Gerathon lunges, striking his boot twice. His spirit animal–a marsh harrier–joins the fray. Raisha grabs the paddle and whack Dorell at the back of his head as Gerathon continues to strike at him. Raisha attempts to similarly whack the harrier, but Gerathon takes care of it, striking thrice. When Dorell questions with his last breaths why she did it, Raisha says that she trusts Gerathon. She jumps onto the quay and tosses Gerathon over her shoulders like a loose scarf and ran. With the dawn light in full swing, the fisherman at the dock have already spotted her and take chase. Raisha darts into an alleyway when she exits the dock, but an unseen assailant throws a sack over her and uses a chemical to render her unconscious.

Raisha wakes to find her head aching and her arms bound. She’s been laid on a bed in a small, poorly-lit room. Zerif materializes, and Raisha is excited to see him, but also dreads what he may do with her. He tells her to drop the act and states that she killed Dorell and his harrier. She explains that she didn’t know if she could trust him and went along with Gerathon. Zerif then thanks her for her past service and agrees that she’ll be able to work for him again... and then he opens his palm to reveal a parasite. The Wyrm’s parasite. Raisha screams for Gerathon. Zerif ignores her, explaining how he always sensed that she had the potential to summon a spirit animal and that her imprisonments had only been a minor setback until she’d smuggled herself out. Raisha continues to cry and scream and frantically lunge in her restraints. Zerif assures her that all of her worries will be gone and places the parasite onto her forehead.

Just before her will is taken, she hears Gerathon trying to break free of the basket she’s been shoved in and cries out an apology. In her last moments, Raisha remembers the faces of the others whose destinies she helped steal: Cordalles, Dawson, Grif, Anuqi. She realizes that Zerif had never respected her, only used her and waited for the moment that he could steal the spirit animal that she would inevitably summon. Raisha wailed in despair. Then, the emotion dissipated. The last thing she saw before the darkness consumed her was Zerif, her heart swelling with primal devotion for the man responsible for an era of pain.

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Spirit Animals (Series 1)

Fall of the Beasts (Series 2)

  1. Part 3: A Chill Wind, page 93
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