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- Herausgeber: Lindsay McCafferty
- Kategorie: Gesellschafts- und Liebesromane
- Sprache: Englisch
What risks would you take to prove you are worthy?
Vision, a seer wolf, does not always know what is real. As her life falls apart because of hallucinations and derealization, she witnesses an ominous sight at a full-moon ceremony. Or is it another hallucination? Vision will be forced to decide if she still is worthy to be a seer wolf, despite her mental illness, or if her pack is better off without her.
This is the second book in the Sparks Shall Rise epic fantasy series. A tale about learning how to face your struggles and find the hero inside yourself, even when all you want to do is run away. Contains content dealing with hallucinations and derealization.
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Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2022
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Content Warning
Content dealing with hallucinations and derealization.
Sparks Shall Rise: Visions and Illusions
© 2022 Lindsay McCafferty
All rights reserved.
No portion of this book may be reproduced in any form, including for AI training, without written permission from the publisher and/or author, except as permitted by U.S. copyright law.
To be used by AI companies, this book must be acquired legally. Downloading the book from a pirate site and using it to train an AI model does not count as fair use.
This work of fiction is not a substitute for real advice from licensed physicians, therapists, or mental health professionals. Any portrayal of medical practices or therapy is fictitious and not to be interpreted as accurate.
The story, names, characters, and incidents portrayed in this production are from the author’s imagination and are fictitious. No identification with actual persons (living or deceased), places, and events is intended or should be inferred.
First Edition (2022)
Cover, Map & Title Page designed by MiblArt
Interior formatting made using Atticus.
ISBN-13 (eBook): 979-8-9854011-1-0
authorlindsaymccafferty.com
Table of Contents
Preface
Ioriginallystartedwriting this book after publishing the first edition of “Reawakened Flames.” I stopped when I realized I needed to redo the first book. When I came back to this story, I had only written up to the climax—forty-five pages in.
Up until I was sure the story would break one hundred pages, I worried every day that I wouldn’t be able to achieve it. The story was not flowing like the first one, and I struggled to come up with new content. I managed to reach my goal anyway and surpass it.
I also worried that I wouldn’t be able to write the second book. What if I started the series and then couldn’t follow through? I had never finished one before. I always thought I would write a fantasy trilogy, but this series is much longer than I ever imagined. There are so many storylines and characters still to write about. Disappointing myself and you, dear reader, are the last things I want to do.
That is what drives me to keep working hard on this series. I guess this is a lesson in never giving up, even when you are afraid that you will fail. Keep pushing forward. You may end up surprising yourself.
Thank you to my editor, Kathy Bosman, for once again improving the book and teaching me more about writing. And thank you to MiblArt for creating another beautiful cover that surpassed my expectations, updating the map, and designing a title page.
Pronunciation Guide
Ehckrist – Eh-krist
Hanarthar – Haw-nar-thar
Landaro – Lan-dar-oh
Lythannen – Lih-than-nen
Torrannon – Tor-ran-non
Wierlling – Weir-ling
One
Intheclearing,a breeze whistled through dying grass stalks and kicked up a cloud of dust. Dead, shriveled leaves and pine needles scraped against each other in the trees. A gust of wind made a shower of them fall to the forest floor. The trees were nearly bare. Even the pine cones were gone.
All the other foliage had withered away, leaving the forest hollow and lifeless. No creature stirred. The air was devoid of any scent besides decay. A shadow fell over the forest as angry storm clouds approached.
A seer wolf named Vision lay under an oak tree. She had white fur and blue eyes.
Vision shut her eyes and ran a paw across the ground. She repeated this several more times, pushing her paw down harder with each scrape. When she opened her eyes, reality blinked back into existence.
Puffy clouds sailed lazily across the sky. Vibrant green leaves and pine needles rustled in the wind like roaring waves. Branches creaked and scratched against each other. Cicadas buzzed. Birds sang their melodies and took off in flurries of feathers.
A squirrel scurried up a beech tree, and a hedgehog nosed through the grass next to a blueberry bush. Vision inhaled the numerous scents of the thriving summertime forest. It was hot, but she was cool enough in the shade where she could feel the wind.
A curious hummingbird fluttered over and hovered in front of her nose. She stayed still so as not to scare it. The little bird studied her for a few moments and then flew to a firebush. She didn’t know why her parents had named her Vision when she couldn’t always see reality in front of her.
Sometimes seer wolves had issues called mental illness, a word they had learned from the humans. That’s what she had right now—she was sure of it. Hallucinations weren’t something every wolf experienced.
Vision stood and shook off. She wavered with dizziness. It took her a moment to reorientate her mind and her body. The hallucination had been intense—the type that was harder to break out of and recover from. Luckily, those didn’t happen often.
The intensity of the hallucinations varied. She might just see a packmate walking by when no one was there, or part of the forest would morph into a rocky landscape in front of her. A step into dew-covered grass created the illusion of a pond instead of a clearing. Other issues included hearing and smelling things that weren’t there.
Running a paw across the ground—to feel the rough scrape of dirt, grass, or stones against her pads—shaking her head, or closing her eyes for a moment normally grounded her back to reality. A sound might also snap her mind out of it.
Earlier, another hallucination ruined her hunt. Vision had been tracking a rabbit. She’d poked her head around some rosemary shrubs and saw what she thought was the rabbit sitting next to a magnolia tree. She crouched and stalked closer and closer. Then she blinked, and her prey disappeared. Twigs cracked behind her, and the real rabbit burst out from the rosemary patch. She never caught it.
Vision yawned. She hadn’t slept well last night. Her nap earlier hadn’t made a huge difference either. She checked the clearing one more time to make sure it was real. The scene remained beautiful, as it should be. Vision shuddered. She never wanted to see the forest so barren and desolate.
Following a trail, where the seer wolves had trampled the ground down so much that they created a path, she headed back to the dens. She stopped when the trail split into three.
Normally, Vision could practically navigate the forest with her eyes closed. When she and her brother, Thorn, were pups, her parents took them all over the eastern part of Lythannen until they knew every tree and stone like the backs of their paws. Now, it wasn’t so easy.
On one occasion, Vision had come to what she thought was a fork in a trail. She blindly went down one of the paths and walked straight into a tree. A sore nose and snout aside, she now sometimes questioned which trails were real and which might be hallucinations. She also had to pay attention to not follow ones created by other animals.
Vision took a breath and scratched each front paw across the ground. She gave herself a few moments to make sure she was thinking clearly. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary.
She stared at the trails and made sure she recognized them. One should lead toward the northern edge of Lythannen and Torrannon beyond it. Another trail should lead south toward the Tam River and the Dranfell Mountains. The last trail should lead east toward the dens as long as she didn’t overshoot them and end up in Hanarthar. She especially didn’t want to get turned around and go west toward the sorcerer’s keep.
Vision scraped her front paws across the ground one more time and inhaled the forest scents. Satisfied that she was present in reality, she took the eastern trail.
Two
WhenVisionreachedthe dens, relief washed over her. The ground rose and then sloped down into a circular dip in a clearing that had allowed the seer wolves to dig dens into the low slopes.
A long time ago, a den would just be used for a pregnant female and her pups. The rest of the pack slept outside. After the seer wolves gained their powers, they all felt safer sleeping in dens at night.
Vision sat on the top of the hill. The main den site was in front of her, and there were two similar dips on either side. Each site had fifteen dens, but most of the wolves slept in the main one. The pack wasn’t at the number it used to be.
