Coyote Lady and Raccoon Boy strode through the Storm Horse winter camp, though of course none of the passing people knew they were there. Even the occasional Beastcaller and their bonded Mana Beasts had no idea the primevals walked among them. Their moccasins left no tracks in the snow or mud. The closest hint the passersby had was a tickling instinct to part just far enough from their chosen route so that the pair could continue their course without weaving through foot traffic. Like most times they talked, Coyote Lady and Raccoon Boy were arguing.

“Look, I’m impressed that he’s not dead, I’ll admit it,” Raccoon Boy said, waving his furry little hands in the air in between bites of flatbread he’d stolen from an Earth Badger trader. “I’m even more impressed he tracked down his sister without getting killed.”

“But?” Coyote Lady asked, glancing down at her friend.

“But out of all the Beastcallers in all Oras, you’re really going to tell me he’s the one that’s going to help you find Her?”

“Yes,” she replied, hiding a smile. She knew her answers would drive Raccoon Boy crazy. A moment later, he rewarded her with an irritated growl. She swished her busy tail in satisfaction.

“You know I don’t like it when you’re clever.”

“I’m always clever,” she said, adopting the emphasis he’d been using a moment before. “What you mean is, you don’t like it when you don’t know everything.”

Finished the last of his flatbread, the shorter primeval rubbed his paw-hands vigorously to remove the crumbs. “Please enlighten me, oh favored granddaughter of the Wild Mother,” he said in sarcastic reverence. Raccoon Boy never let his pride get in the way of his impatience.

This time, Coyote Lady did smile, revealing a pair of long canines as her lips parted. It quickly faded. “I think She brought him here,” she said. “It explains many things.”

“Huh,” Raccoon Boy said. “That just makes more questions. Why?”

“I don’t know,” Coyote Lady said. “And I hate not knowing. But things happen around him, coincidence or not. All these things going on, aren’t just random—”

A blinding flash of lightning smote the winter sky, cutting off the conversation. Every human being in the winter camp felt their hair rise and electricity crackle in the air. An instant later, a thunderous explosion shook the earth and heavens. People screamed and fell to the ground, wrapping their arms over their heads like children cowering before an angry parent. Throughout the camp, Mana Beasts of all forms and strengths cried out from the overwhelming surge of raw mana that accompanied the lightning and thunder. And then it was over.

Coyote Lady grimaced and blinked. At her hip, Raccoon Boy rubbed at his eyes and groaned. Even the primevals weren’t spared the effects of the mana detonation.

“What in the name of the Mother was that?” he asked.

As the flashing spots in her vision cleared, Coyote Lady raised her head. The winter camp of the Storm Horse tribe was nestled in the southeast corner of the Thunder Plains. Many of the tribes had other winter quarters but here, the strongest tribes with Elders and Paragons held council until the snows melted and the grass on the prairies turned green with the spring.

Towering hundreds of feet over the spires of rock called the Wind Bones, the totem of the Storm Horse watched over her people. No one knew if it was made of wood, stone, or something else, but in the thousands of years the totem had stood, it showed no sign of weathering or age. Each of the seven factions had a totem marking the god or goddess of their people. They were sacred sites, full of strong mana, where the most powerful Beastcallers gathered to guide their nations.

Craning her head back, Coyote Lady looked at the horse’s head crowning the totem tower. Thick gray smoke rose in a plume from the rearing horse’s head. More poured from its nostrils, almost as if the Storm Horse drew breath on the cold autumn morning. Even Raccoon Boy found himself at a loss for words.

A moment after Coyote Lady, people all across the camps raised their eyes to the heavens and saw the smoking totem. Their cries of fear mingled with the confused roars and screeches of all the nearby Mana Beasts. All but the youngest children recognized the sign. They had awaited it with dread for hundreds of years, kept the tales between each generation lest none forget the coming of the Fourth Noctun.

“And the Wild Mother will smite her children and lay their powers bare,” Coyote Lady whispered the ominous lines. “And they will become as empty as the stalks of corn blown in winter winds.”

“Do you think…” Raccoon Boy trailed off, losing his words again.

Across Oras, six other totems like the mighty Storm Horse stood, representing each of the Wild Mother’s other children, the gods and goddesses who had once walked among mortals and shared rule of the entire land. If the prophetic words concerning the signs of the Fourth Noctun were indeed coming to pass, something similar had just happened at the totems as well. Coyote Lady suspected as much. Unfortunately, her suspicious usually correct.

“We need to find out,” she said. “Gather the grandchildren while I see for myself.”

Raccoon Boy looked up at her and nodded, fear plain in his normally mischievous features. “We’re running out of time.”