The Forest of Agon

A pastiche of the modern talking animal novel, with a postmodern twist and a philosophical bent. When an otherwise normal summer morning is suddenly interrupted by the appearance of a strange dead creature beneath a hole in the sky through which snow falls, the council of forest Elders send forth a small band of travelers to venture out, beyond the point of no return, to investigate. The band is made up of four very different animals: Konath, a savage, selfish, nonempathic, and extremely cunning male red fox; Ysys, an outcast, nihilistic, rational female microbat, seemingly with a connection to the creature; Ædm, a spiritualistic male owl, who believes Mother Nature actively guides him in life; and Calœyn, a justice-oriented, group-focused female rabbit with keen observation skills. Initially split across boundaries of predator and prey, day and night, the animals find themselves aligning and arguing, finding both common ground and difference in ways none could have expected at the outset. And as they learn more, each will come to very different ideas of what the truth is, with consequences that will shake the very roots of their forest.