It was a day like any other for Echo. She woke up, blinking her luminous blue eyes. They shone through her mask like stars in the night. With a luxurious stretch, the silver-pelted doe stood up and glanced around. The blue and green feathers atop her head, which took the place of antlers, waved in the breeze. With a sigh of utter contentment, Echo set off with a trot to the Pond.

"Echo!" came a voice through the trees. Echo spun around to see her friend Sugar cantering towards her. They greeted each other with a nuzzle and settled down next to each other.

"So what's on the agenda today?"

Echo thought for a moment, and then replied, "The usual. A little frolicking, a little dancing, a little sleeping..."

The two friends laughed. As simple as these activities seemed, they never got old. Especially when you were doing them with a friend. Echo traced her hoof in the water absently and listened to the sounds of the frogs, and the birds, and the cicadas...

"Wait..." Echo's ears pricked up, and she listened hard. But to her surprise, she didn't hear a thing. It was dead silent in the forest, besides Sugar's chattering.

"And then I was like, WOAH. Don't you dare wave that stick towards m-"

"Sugar, be quiet for a moment and listen." Sugar pricked her ears up, and shook her head.

"I don't hear a thing!"

Echo looked around nervously. "Exactly."

Just as Echo was about to stand up, rain started to fall from the sky. The two friends shrieked and ran for cover. In the darkness of the Old Oak, the silence was even more worrying than before. Sugar and Echo curled into each other for warmth, and waited the storm out.

"This weather is so abnormal for the forest...it's ALWAYS sunny here..." mumbled Echo, mostly to herself.

She looked at Sugar for reassurance, but was surprised to see a look of shock on her face.

"Sugar, what's...oh my gosh..."

Echo trailed off, staring in the same direction as Sugar. There, on the ground, was the body of a Nameless. A huge chunk of the deer's flesh was completely missing, and two of the legs were bent in impossible positions.

Echo and Sugar stared in stunned silence. With a whimper, Sugar buried her head in her friend's fur.

"But...why?"





Well, that's all. This is just the prologue, I"ll be posting Chapters 1-10 on my deviantART account:
http://nikki-smash.deviantart.com/