“The agency carefully monitors the activities of the most dangerous beasts. The nightwings number among them, both as individually powerful creatures, and as an overwhelming force when taken in aggregate. They have acted peacefully for centuries, and maintain the balance of power in the mountains without our intervention.”

~ Bek Trent, M.A.S.O

Night had fallen again, chill and crisp. Ice limned the leaves, a white halo visible as fractured sound to the bat. He had promised the vampire that he would deliver his message to Zien before taking wing to the colonies, and he had done so, pausing only long enough to collect a new message and set the wolf on its path to the humans. Now, his broad ears flared wide, tiny nose wriggling as he considered the gaping crevasse that was once his home. It was still, silent as if abandoned.

Squeaking sharply, the bat cocked his head, listening. There was nothing around him but leaves and the thick cones growing in the evergreens. Against the backdrop of reflected sound, the crevasse alone lay silent. But as the moments passed, it did not remain so. Gradually, a great head appeared, nearly invisible in the night except to a beast that searched with its voice.

Singing greetings now, Itoru dropped from the tree and hurtled towards the crevasse, finding a foothold there not far from the edge. Deeper inside, he heard the shuffle of a thousand wings, squeaks and chitters and the voices of his kin. Yet he remained, peering downward at a creature easily a hundred times his size, with ears each as wide around as his wingspan. This was one of the nightwings, the greatest of bats. The beast chirped Itoru’s true name, throat fluttering in the night, and then asked, “What news?”

“East and North both have fallen,” Itoru chirped, “Danger comes.” The greater beast’s ears twitched, and it blinked understanding.

“What remains of the North is here,” it screeched softly, “come three days past. Our srinn has given them leave to remain here. How do you know of the East?”

“The vampires.”

The larger beast let out a low hiss.

“This explains much. Itoru, one of our kin from the East came alone hours ago. He demands the Right.”

“This is impossible.”

“Our srinn cannot refuse a direct challenge. She has called the colony into the caverns to prepare, and it will be only days until the challenge takes place. Until then, the newcomer remains in the main cavern, a guest of the colony.”

“It breaks with the accords,” Itoru screeched indignantly.

“As we all know, but if the other colonies are gone, the accords will soon be no more.”

Itoru puffed his chest, but did not argue. “Was the North destroyed by Zara?”

“So they say.”

“Then I must speak with our srinn.” With a soft chirp, the larger beast gestured him into the cavern, and Itoru went. He knew the labyrinthine space by heart, and though every chirp brought its cavernous walls into sharp relief, he needed sound more to navigate the hundreds of bodies that swarmed around him than the stony walls. Greetings were called, observations, questions. He answered them with his chattering song, spinning through the narrower spaces occupied by the smaller bats until finally he spread his wings wide in the main cavern.

The mighty srinn of nightwings perched there, watching the motion of the cavern with still, dark eyes. Even for a nightwing she was aged, though the darkness hid the gray that circled her globular eyes and vulpine muzzle. Hearing Itoru’s song, her massive ears swiveled and she loosened the gnarled claws that held her wings tight over her face to stare at him.

“Messenger,” her screech echoed in the cavernous space, but those around them knew better than to impose on the srinn’s privacy, and turned away. “The tree wolves have sent you?”

“My srinn,” Itoru hummed, coming to hover before the larger nightwing, “the tree wolves send word that they are en route. They have discovered a human with the powers of a nerske, and bring it to retrieve the Dawn.”

“Then the time has come.”

Itoru said nothing, and the nightwing paused a moment before unfolding one wing to scratch behind her ears. “You have met with the vampires?”

“I have, my srinn.”

“Do they know the North has fallen?”

“And the East.”

“Indeed.”

“And the sole survivor from the East has challenged you to become srinn,” Itoru chirped, fluttering up and down in agitation.

The nightwing’s globular eyes narrowed for a moment. “Indeed,” she crooned again. “He is a nervous beast, but I am far past my prime. I believe that I will lose, messenger.”

“Danger comes, my srinn. The vampires warn that the Zara come for our colony next. Now is not the time—”

“So be it. It might do us well to have a stronger srinn. I am weary, messenger. But I will ensure the tree wolves are welcome here. Once forged, the alliances of the colony cannot be easily changed. They will have the Dawn, and we will fight with them against Hess. Carry my message to the srinn of tree wolves. I await them here, and I will keep the secret of the nerske. We must not have Hess learn that such a human exists just yet.”