1 The Manta and Titan

The children of the sky have always lived a happy and devoted life to the peaceful living circumstances they were given. However one day they started to disappear. Slowly, the numbers of them began to deplete. They're were only a few hundred left when they had to start sacrificing they're young to appease the Devourer. This great tragedy took place for more than 100 years. Then, one day a young manta called to their Creator. In response they gave this manta the ability to walk amongst man.

This young manta began to stretch their legs, going all around the continent in search of power and support. After four years they had learned the greed of man and found themself beaten and bruised in the presence of the small and feeble. They gave all they could to these youngling cast from their nests; their feathers which kept them warm, their stinger which saved them from the danger of man and beast alike, and finally their voice which gave them proper connection to their own.

After losing all but their legs they walked the face of Titan for many a day, surviving wingless eating not but what they could scavenge. Eventually they met a traveler, a masked man with a large spear-like weapon. The man saved the manta from a pack of rabid beasts. Seeing the state that the poor manta was in he gave them a handful of berries and stayed with them until they were feeling better.

Days passed as the manta regrew their feathers being cared for by their lovely new friend. Their bond grew over the five days. The mantas' condition improved so much that they begged the man to teach them the way to protect themself in their legged form. After a bit of convincing the man agreed to teach them everything in two days. However if they didn't learn it they would not be able to progress on this path of enlightenment.

So for two days and nights the manta was trained under the Crimson Teared Masked Traveler. At the end of the two days the man took manta to the same group of monsters that attacked them previously with nothing but a mundane spear. For two hours the war between the desperate manta and a group of giant bullet toads raged on. Manta found themselves moving much lighter on their legs by the time they'd decimated the group of toads.

After defeating the house sized toads they felt empowered. They flew to the masked man, this being the first he'd seen of the manta's true form. The masked man was in awe seeing the majestic form of the manta embracing him then changing to the form of the woman he'd been caring for.

Manta had told the man of her plans to take the fight to the Devourer, he told her he would help but she refused seeing it as a challenge she must take on her own. She stayed wandering with the man for a year, in search of new strength in both forms. He helped her to the best of his abilities no matter how painful it was for him to see her struggle through it all.

Just like that the year of them living happily was over it was time for her to call to her family and return to fight the battle of her life. She had met with the small remains of her family and told them that their plague would no longer stand. She had gone to find the Devourer falling into it's trap. The fight lasted all of 10 days. However she managed to get her final call out to her child before she was made the next prey of the Devourer.

The child heard his mother's echo and told the father. Tears streamed his cheeks as he began to put his mask on once more and told his child to go find the other manta's. They tried to argue but father shut them down with a kiss on the forehead. He hastily said his goodbyes then began to hunt his newest prey.

After 42 days of searching he finally tracked down the creature that had taken his wife from him and his son. He spent an entire day hacking away at this titanic beast before he finally looped off it's tongue and saw it stream tears as he did when he heard the news of his departed wife. He then took the tongue of the beast and hid it away. Returning to his son with one less arm and bruises covering his body, he gave him a firm embrace and a reaffirming smile then fell over.

(Some say the Crimson Teared Masked Traveler still appears when the Manta people are in great distress.)