Wolf Hunting: Half a book in a few hundred words.
Firekeeper had dismounted as the trail she followed led somewhere a horse could not easily follow, and then...
With no warning at all, Firekeeper and Blind Seer found themselves not in the Preserve of Fandom, but the forests of Misheemnekuru, the Sanctuary Islands.
"What-" Firekeeper started to say, but was interrupted by a large raven fluttering down to an eye-level tree-branch. "Lovable!"
"That was less difficult than I would have thought," Lovable remarked thoughtfully, "given the message that your Derian passed on through the aridisdu at the human outpost regarding your whereabouts. Anyway, the beast-souled, the maimalodalum, asked me to find you and request that you attend upon them at Center Island."
Blind Seer shifted slightly, not quite challenging the raven, but assuming a defensive posture.
"What do they want her for?"
"They want both of you, actually," Lovable replied. "Powerful Tenderness, speaking for the rest, said to me, 'Find Firekeeper and Blind Seer. We have learned something that may interest them.' That is what he said."
"Us alone?" Firekeeper glanced back in the direction they'd come, uncertain if they could fetch their companions from Fandom. Or if that was at all wise even if it were possible.
"You," the raven confirmed.
"I would go," she said. "Otherwise I will wonder what the beast-souled wish to tell us."
"Curiousity," Blind Seer growled, "is the most human thing about you, Litte Two-Legs."
Firekeeper did not bristle at the name as she might once have. "What do they want?" she asked Lovable instead.
"I do not know. All I know is that it has something to do with the jaguar Truth."
The next few moonspans were a whirlwind of activity: the meeting with the maimalodalu had revealed that the insane jaguar Truth had requested Firekeeper in a rare moment of lucidity. This, in turn, had led to discovering a way to restore some of her sanity. At the same time, they'd discovered several talismans that bore likeness to those who'd caused all sorts of magical trouble in the past, as well as one of Truth... and perhaps most troubling of all, two entirely unfamiliar figures. Fearing that perhaps some outside influence had been manipulating all those depicted, and the possible danger that those two unknown people might pose, Firekeeper gathered a 'strange pack' to her with the intent of tracking them down.
This pack consisted not only of Blind Seer, but also the Wise Ravens Lovable and her mate Bitter, the maimalodalu Plik, a creature who looked like a blending of raccoon and man, the Wise Horse Eshinarvash, the humans Derian Carter and Harjeedian, and of course, Truth, who'd refused to remain behind on a venture that she felt concerned her greatly.
Their hunt gradually bore fruit: the two were a pair of twins named Tiniel and Isende, residents of a city-state named Gak who'd left some time ago in order to search for their heritage: their father's ancestral stronghold, and some understanding of the magical abilities he'd apparently passed on to them.
Armed with this information, they continued in the direction that the stronghold, named Setting Sun Estates, was purported to exist. What they found, however, was not a household but rather a strange copse of trees, guarded by creatures given life through twisted blood-magic.
And that, of course, is where they are rejoined by their friends from Fandom...
[ooc: taken, bent, folded, spindled and mutilated from Jane Lindskold's "Wolf Hunting". NFB for distance, but OOC welcome. I feel bad for summing up half the book in one tiny post, but at the same time it's half the book. I'd get carpal tunnel if I tried to type that up.]