Mute focuses on a young boy from the Deer Clan named Tarka. Tarka has white hair, is a mute and is not too hot when it comes to fighting. These things make him stand out in a village of dark haired, vocal warriors. Because of this he is shunned by the rest of the clan, not least of all by his father, the clan's chief warrior.
The world of Mute is divided into clans who all worship their own sacred animal. Two of the largest clans, the Deer and Wolf clans, are at war. Tarka's farther, Oszkar, get's severely injured during the war and is forced to return home never to fight again. This shames him, but once his wife gives birth to a son, his hopes of a warrior legacy are reignited. A flame that is only to be extinguished once Tarka's shortcoming become apparent.
The fractured relationship between them both is the catalyst for why on his 9th birthday, Tarka steals his father's shield and dagger (his sword was much too heavy to wield) and runs away to prove himself.
Not long into his journey, Tarka comes across a huge white wolf. Being of the Deer clan a wolf pelt would make a pretty sweet trophy and before he realises how outmatched he is, Tarka attacks. Amidst the struggle, the wolf bites hard onto Tarka's arm, and in retaliation the boy plunges his father's dagger into the wolf's neck. The two combatants collapse and when they next awaken, they find themselves in a strange room filled with crystals and incense being tended to by a withered old woman.
The woman has a strange quality about her, and is dressing the wolf's wound with a long piece of white cloth. Once she has wrapped it tightly around the wolf's neck she begins to wrap the other end around Tarka's arm. Too weak to resist, Tarka allows the strange woman to continue. As she finishes tying the cloth, the woman starts to talk. She mentions a lot of things about fate and some sort of great darkness that Tarka can't understand in his semi state of consciousness but as she talks, he notices that the blood from his wound is turning the once white cloth a deep red. The colour seeps along the cloth, and as his eyes follow it, he sees the same thing happening the other end. Suddenly their blood meets in the middle and after a bit of magical what have you, the two are bound. You see, in order to save their lives the old woman had to bind them together so that they can share their remaining life force.
This bond allows them to communicate to each other telepathically, and do lots of other neat things. The downside is that if one dies, so does the other, and if the bond is severed, they both die. A difficult situation for sworn enemies.
After filling them in on the rules of their new bond and informing them that their union has been foretold as the thing to end all evils or some such, she sends them on their way with just the small responsibility of saving the world.
And that's a brief (though perhaps not quite succinct) summary of the beginning of Mute. And if you've managed to read this far, or just scrolled all the way down, then here is the first look at the heroes of the tale.
More artwork and story tidbits to come.
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