Prologue

Silvery moonlight shone through the great trees. A tiny mouse was searching the forest floor, hoping to find something to eat. One of it´s ears twitched; there were noises not far away. As the noises grew louder, the mouse dropped the leaf it was searching and hid inside one of the many bushes. At that same moment, a black tomcat shot out of the bushes on the other side. Clearly he was being chased by something. Trying hard to avoid trees and rocks, the cat raced through the sea of trees. The constant running was hurting his paws and water splashed on his body as he ran through a large puddle, but he didn't stop. Suddenly one of his front paws gets stuck under the roots of a tree and he trips. He awkwardly got up and spat out some dirt.

The frightened cat looked with huge, green eyes in the direction where he came from, half expecting to immediately see the chaser jump out at him. But nothing came. No chaser nor any sounds. Relieved, the black tom started laughing a bit nervously.

"I...I actually made it"

His little celebration didn't last long, as movement in the shadows revealed that he was not alone after chaser had creeped up on the cat from the other side and looked at him with battle-hungry eyes. The chaser stepped into the moonlight and was completely visible now. A big, black bird with long legs and a blue face stood threatening over the cat who looked small compared to the bird. It slowly walked closer and let out an annoyed screech. Then, without any warning, the bird stormed forwards and attacked the defenseless tom. He leaped out of the way of the attacking creature, which then stormed into a tree. It let out a grunt but immediately turned around to face the tom again. Too worn out from the run, the cat gave up and watched as the oddly shaped creature stalked closer. The bird raised one of it's feet and slammed it down right on the cat's back, the talons digging in his skin. The savage creature then rolled the tom over on his back and raised it's head in preparation of an attack.

"Let me go, you foul creature!" The black cat yelled in agony, but the bird didn't even slow down.
Instead, it quickly slammed it's sharp beak down into the cat's right eye…