Keepers of the Koru, More Tales of TerraTopia

Keepers of the Koru is an epic fantasy series that opens with an appeal for help from Sequoia & the Emerald Guard, protectors of the Koru—the balance between Earth and Earth’s spirit world, TerraTopia. Dear Human Friends, Since the first Ticking when the turning of the Great Clock of Stars began, the destinies of Earth and TerraTopia have been entwined. For centuries, the twin realms have existed in harmony, the delicate balance crucial to their survival. But like a meteor scarring the heavens, prophecy foretold a great crisis. The health of Earth would deteriorate, yet unlike a true reflection, our home, TerraTopia, would suffer first. Regrettably, that time has come. Even as I write, war envelops TerraTopia, dividing its people, many challenging their allegiance to your world. With nightmarish Skaarsgard hunting any who rebel, a growing number of TerraTopians feel if they are to survive, contact between our dominions must be severed. You know as I do that the ‘body’ cannot live with the ‘soul.’ Please help us. Time is short… The Emerald Guard had long trained their hand-picked apprentices from Earth, TerraKoru, in the ways of stewardship, teaching them Nature’s secrets. These apprentices also learned from TerraTopians, who as the result of a mystical process called The Granting, selected Tokas—animals whose traits, personality and abilities mirrored their human selves. In time, the TerraTopians developed such profound connections with their Tokas that they merged, becoming symbiotic hybrids of human and animal. Drawing on this knowledge and their own deepening compassion, the TerraKoru acquired the power to transform into animals and discover nature through her own eyes. Inspired by a newfound understanding, the TerraKoru returned home, committed to preserving Earth’s beauty and life. Among their fabled ranks are rumored Pliny the Elder, Galileo, and Jules Verne, to name but a few. But despite the efforts of the Emerald Guard and TerraKoru, TerraTopia teeters toward The Falling. Earth’s deterioration has bred disease in TerraTopia, destroying the land and upending its weather. What is done to one world, impacts the other. Earth, it seems, has run out of champions. The TerraKoru-in-training who have already crossed the boundary are either missing, or worse, being persecuted for TerraTopia’s woes. StormWing, a former TerraKoru consumed by greed and emboldened with self-importance, has seized upon The Falling to usurp control. Blaming the Emerald Guard and their precious students as carriers of the disease, his campaign of distrust divides TerraTopia’s clans, driving them toward war as he secretly plans to empty their world of its resources. In his quest for power, StormWing has violated the promises made as a TerraKoru, unwittingly mutating himself and his acolytes. No longer can they retain the natural grace their TerraKoru powers enabled. Instead, they’ve splintered apart, transforming into horrifying Skaarsgard. By taking on multiple Tokas at once, the animal spirits that would otherwise act as guides in the ways of the Koru, war for control. StormWing, himself, hobbles on eagle legs while his trembling scorpion talons claw with rage. Seeking escape from his self-inflicted demise, StormWing has captured all remaining TerraKoru hoping to use them as lab rats in his desperate search for a cure. Nevertheless, he’s running out of options—TerraTopia’s guardians are all but gone. Save one. Reluctantly, NightFire, the last of her kind, emerges from hiding. She fears she is the Netherchild—the being without birth or death, the prophetic progenitor of The Falling. If she fails to act, she not only jeopardizes TerraTopia’s future, she condemns the Earth to die. She must summon help despite the danger to any who heed the call—new apprentices from Earth, her only real hope. Little can she imagine the four who her emissaries, the Dragonflies, will choose… So unfolds Book One, Part I of Soar a Burning Sky, Keepers of the Koru.