Awakening

Season One, Episode One of Where the River Runs. Enjoy!

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Syllder blinked rapidly. Had he heard that correctly?

I-I can't believe this, he thought. An ancient evil, deep beneath the mountains?

He felt a wing nudge him. It was his friend, Eaya, and she looked just as confused as he felt.

"Do you think Mai'ga is making this up?" she whispered to him.

"I-I don't know," Syllder admitted. "She could always be crazy, of course, but something inside of me says that it's true. . ." His words trailed off and he looked away, secretly dreading Eaya's reply.

"Well, she knows the consequences if this is all a lie." Eaya's wings twitched thoughtfully, and her large ears swerved towards Mai'ga. The elder was desperately trying to convince a few of the older stags that she was right, but they didn't seem to believe her. Secretly, Syllder didn't blame them.

''The perytons have lived peacefully in Shag'aih for hundreds upon hundreds of years. And now suddenly there's an ancient evil buried deep beneath the mountains?'' He had a hard time wrapping his head around the thought, but he didn't completely doubt Mai'ga's word. Although she was fairly scatter-minded and dreamy, she was wise and had learned much from her long life in the mountains.

"I'm going to go ask Rerry and Flick what they think," Eaya announced to him. Syllder nodded and watched carefully as she made her way to their two other friends.

He quickly found himself lost in his thoughts once more, though a familiar voice snapped him back into reality. It wasn't Eaya's voice or his sister Payx's voice, but the voice of their herd's lead stag. He stood behind Mai'ga with his mate at his side.

Eaya came back just as he began to speak. "What does Terro have to say?" she muttered disapprovingly, glancing at the huge stag.

Syllder shook his head. "I'm not sure. I bet he doesn't believe Mai'ga though."

"Yeah," Eaya replied with a snort.

For a while they were quiet, listening to Terro as he spoke.

"For many of you, life in the mountains has been all you've known," he began clearly. "I know that some of you feel very attached to this place, and some of the elders even believe that the very stone we are standing on is sacred."

"Obviously not," a jeering voice interrupted, "if there's something evil underneath!"

The voice belonged to Eagho, who was very well known as a bully and a thief. He was young, not much older than Syllder and Eaya, and he often bullied the fawns, not to mention Syllder and his friends as well. Syllder scowled at Eagho and his small band of followers. Eagho was bad, but there was one young doe who was the worst to Syllder. When his friends weren't looking, she kicked him with her small, sharp hooves and ripped his feathers out with her teeth. She threatened to kill him if he told anyone what she did to him, but Syllder longed to tell Terro or even Terro's mate, May'ra, of the doe's treachery.

Unfortunately, she also watched him constantly. Right now she was glaring irritably at Eaya, but she had Syllder in her sight. Syllder fought the urge to shrink backwards and disappear into the crowd.

"Quiet!" May'ra snapped, glaring at Eagho and flaring her impressive wings. "Mai'ga's words might not even be true."

An uncomfortable silence followed. Mai'ga looked hurt, and suddenly Syllder remembered their relation. Mai'ga was May'ra's mother, and the former lead doe of the herd.

Terro dipped his head, showing off his impressive rack of antlers. "But we musn't take any chances, just in case," he grunted, ignoring the crackling tension between May'ra and her mother.

"Of course we shouldn't," May'ra agreed shakily. Syllder could easily detect the fiery anger in her voice.

"So what are we going to do?" called a doe from the crowd.

May'ra opened her mouth to reply, but Terro waved his wing dismissively, cutting her off.

"We are going to leave."