The War of Elevens| Book 1 of the Space Thief Chronicles

Between| Anastokkit; Padaken

The Bria Hungarian word for cataclysm is anastokkit. The Anna Maen word is padaken.

Cataclysm crashed into the Western hemisphere of the Shifter World hard.

In Anna Mae, famine had never spread faster. Crops were destroyed in the span of several days as the monsters dragged their talons, fangs, and bodies through whole fields. Altars to the crop gods popped up on the sides of dirt roads, and when the beasts came to inflict their nightly terrors, storm shelters were opened and people didn't come out for days. As the days wore on, more crops were leveled, markets were destroyed, and horses were slaughtered. In a week, food became so scarce and the water had become so dirtied by the beasts's waste that people could no longer ration what they had with others. Water was the next problem; more people died of thirst or from drinking dirtied, diseased water than the hands of the beasts themselves.

On the southern border of Bria Hungary, where a river sliced through a dense forest and marked the northern tip of Anna Mae, hunters rallied, sharpening swords and practicing their magic. One beast splashed in the river, and a young man sent a blast of fire from his hands to kill it. He missed. The fire latched onto a tree on the bank of the river instead, sending the tree tumbling as it drowned in flames. That was how the wildfire that killed three thousand Fae and Shifters began.

The beasts moved north to strip Bria Hungary of its color.

Bria Hungary was a colorful country. Women walked with bright dresses made entirely from feathers that trailed along pastel-stained cobblestone streets, and men wore neon-colored ties. Spires rose in the same vivid array, spearing a sky that had the most beautiful sunsets in all the Shifter World. House-sized mushrooms glowing a hundred lavish colors sheltered the cities.

Over the past few days, a sad gray-blue hue descended over the southern half of the nation. The mushrooms bending over cities lost their glow, and the grass wilted from a strange substance choking the ground...meadows turned blue, cities turned gray, and people locked themselves inside when beasts slithered through towns, causing the same damage a hurricane or a tornado would create. No one saw these monsters in their full glory....people caught sight of a giant wing, or a scarlet beak, or chartreuse eyes, or a long tail..but never a full body.

The beasts continued to move north. Towards the Bloom Congregation Center. Towards Elliott Way.