Tales of the Deities I: Beginnings

A rewrite of Tales of the Deities: Nocte Cor's Quest by Claweight (me).

Prologue
"Equinox."

The black-feathered eagle, barely noticeable in the darkness from his perch on a rock, raised his head to stare at his comrade, an equally black-furred and light blue-eyed hyena. His grip on the scroll he held between his talons loosened.

"Ah. You are ready?" Equinox blinked tiredly but hopefully, his voice betraying a note of pride, only to feel his hopes fading at Nocte Cor's grim expression.

"Sir Gilbert is dead."

Equinox sighed, his voice sinking back into its usual world-weary, deadpan tone. "And how did that happen?"

"The usual. Phantom ambush. They're getting more and more confident, more and more daring with each successive kill." Nocte Cor sat down and studied Equinox's facial expression with a scowl. "What's the matter with you? I remember you used to weep for hours upon each and every arrival of another messenger, delivering the news of another death. Just last week I told you your own alpha, Valentina, died, and you made barely a sorrowful noise at all."

"Grief turns to resignation faster than you know when it happens over and over again," Equinox replied, seemingly unfazed by this criticism. "I've been desensitized. This unfortunate drain of emotion that has happened to me also takes a toll on my reaction. You should know that by now..."

"You didn't even know Juno, and still I heard your pitiful sobbing carry on for an annoying amount of time," the hyena retorted. "You don't seem to care at all now. You've taken no action. Nearly half of the alphas have died or are missing. Jamaa's going into conniptions right now, not only because so many of their promised guardians are gone, but because Sir Gilbert was a brilliant beacon of light all his own. He was our hope, Equinox. He was the greatest general there ever was."

"If he was so great a general, why did he lose to a predictable, scheduled phantom attack?" Equinox snapped. "A true general would have easily predicted such an ambush. The phantom attacks are not irregular. They are scheduled and predictable, Nocte Cor. The Sentinel is a fool, you know? He acts like he's all that, but he isn't. He isn't as clever as he says."

"You're the only one I am associates with who knows what the ancient Ice Rookery Calendar and its significant dates are. How was Gilbert supposed to know?" Nocte Cor looked ready to drown Equinox in the nearby stream. "Besides, the phantoms have divided into several factions. Most of them are nearly impossible to track. Their attack sites are unpredictable."

"I don't want to talk about this anymore," Equinox sniffed, shifting his weight from one foot to the other impatiently. "What matters is I've created a map marking the suggested route you take to traverse all of the lands effectively, find the deities, and convince them of their fate." The eagle released his grip on the scroll and tossed it to the hyena, who caught it with her front paws and nodded, despite seeming somewhat reluctant to end their previous argument. "I won't let you down."

"When are you departing?" Equinox queried.

"As soon as possible," Nocte Cor replied grimly, placing the scroll on her back between the folds of her curled-up wings. "I'll leave here on foot, but travel by my wings when I can."

Equinox nodded slightly. "Very well. Good luck."

His companion nodded back and turned away from him to trot down the thin, beaten path of unpaved soil from which she had came.

"And may Mira light your way," Equinox called, but Nocte Cor had already disappeared into the night, her journey begun.

Chapter One
WIP