The Blue Hills — Steve Shilstone

In Book #5 of The Bekka Chronicles, Bekka of Thorns awakens one morning to complete silence. She looks around and notices that the only magic item she possesses, The Carven Flute, is a dead wooden brown in color instead of its usual flush yellow pink. Alarmed, she hurries from her hut and heads for the nearby bramble bower hedge, home of her bendo dreen (bramble dwarf) younglinghood. Slipping inside, she heads down the tunnel toward the Assembly Bower and encounters a pair of bendo dreen frozen in place. Carefully passing them by, she peers into the Assembly Bower and sees the rest of the bendo dreen population, some sitting or caught in the act of sitting, some standing, some in mid-stride, some with mouths wide, some posed gesturing, but all motionless, all silent. Now fully stricken with fear, she flees the hedge to return to her hut. Her steps falter, and she slows to a standstill at what she sees. What does she see? A bird. A beeketbird. Above her hut, midair, wings spread wide, hanging motionless. Thus begins for Bekka a new quest, a new journey.