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eBook Category: Science Fiction
eBook Description: On Chorillan, Phase was the worst thing that could ever happen to a child. Someone kept the news of Chorillan's problem from reaching authorities who could help find the reason and the cure. Someone deliberately fostered fear and hatred of Wildlings, and as the generations went on, it only grew worse. Despite treatment to prevent Phase, Lucas Aidan became a Wildling. When a devastating accident separated him from his family, he fled into the forests of Chorillan. Using the skills taught him by Captain Fieran, he survived and thrived and taught other new Wildlings. He evaded recapture and survived two winters in the wilderness and learned the secrets of Chorillan--and the Wildlings who never went home to civilization. When he was captured and thrown into Rehabilitation, he became the Legend, something for the authorities and the secret enemies of Wildlings to fear. His life was hampered with boundaries, surrounded by watching eyes. Returning to the forest was impossible, so he found a new destiny--saving the children of Chorillan from the abuse, prejudice and injustice that he and his friends suffered. The government was against all Wildlings, so Lucas organized his friends and followers to work in secret, to protect Chorillan, Wildlings and the Azuli, for however long it took.

eBook Publisher: Awe-Struck E-Books, Published: 2005
Fictionwise Release Date: August 2005

This eBook is part of the following series:

• Michelle Levigne's Chorillan Cycle Series

41 Reader Ratings: Great Good OK Poor

Available eBook Formats [MultiFormat - What's this?]: Adobe Acrobat (PDF) [1.1 MB], eReader (PDB) [216 KB], Palm Doc (PDB) [204 KB], Rocket/REB1100 (RB) [181 KB], Microsoft Reader (LIT) [202 KB] - PocketPC 1.0+ Compatible, Franklin eBookMan (FUB) [226 KB], hiebook (KML) [520 KB], Sony Reader (LRF) [285 KB], iSilo (PDB) [168 KB], Mobipocket (PRC) [210 KB], Kindle Compatible (MOBI) [271 KB], OEBFF Format (IMP) [265 KB]
Words: 64626
Reading time: 184-258 min.
Microsoft Reader (LIT) Format: Printing DISABLED, Read-Aloud ENABLED
Adobe Acrobat (PDF) Format:  Printing DISABLED, Read-Aloud ENABLED
All Other formats: Printing DISABLED, Read-aloud DISABLED
ISBN: 1-58749-512-0

"Recommended reading for any science fiction fan who enjoys a well-told tale with strange creatures and a boy on his own. Talented author Michelle L. Levigne has created a fascinating world that keeps unfolding with new surprises for her fans. Enjoy. I did."--Anne K. Edwards, Ebooksnbytes.com

"What's wrong?" Jenni Aidan turned to her older son, hunched over his dinner plate, elbows up on the table.

Lucas mumbled a negative and continued staring at his food. Fresh hopper was a treat. His father had caught it while he was out preparing the forest cabin where their family would spend the summer. Why didn't it taste good?

"Misses his girlfriend." Sam snickered. The younger boy grinned, his face flushed from a day of spring sunshine, making his fair hair look almost white by contrast.

"Samuel," their father said, his voice heavy. He leaned back in his chair at the end of the table and cradled his mug of spyce. His weather-beaten face was a study in thoughts far away from the dinner table.

"Kay'li's never coming back, you dope," Sam continued, ignoring the warning. He leaned over his plate across the table, snatched a chunk of steam bread off the plate and waved it under his brother's nose. "Made that stupid blood vow for nothing."

Lucas slowly raised his dark head, fixing his brother with a glare that would have silenced the boy any other time. Sam didn't see the fire building in Lucas' brown eyes.

"Sam, be quiet." Jenni touched his sleeve.

"Lucas got a girlfriend!" the younger boy crowed, his grin wider. "Got a girlfriend who's never coming back!"

Lucas lunged across the table, fists flying. He landed kneeling on the edge of the table, his brother's plate between his knees. Sam fell backwards off the bench. He didn't bawl until he saw the blood stream from his nose.

Lucas scooted backwards off the table. He kept going, out the kitchen, through the mudroom door and out, heading for the woods. It was the only place where he felt any peace lately.

His knuckles stung. Lucas sucked on his sore hand, tasting blood where he had broken the skin, and kept walking. The smells of dinner clung to his clothes, masking the mix of shuttle fuel fumes from the landing field and the perfume of spring flowers coming from the forest.

He quickened to a stumbling half-run once he passed the cemetery fence. His head throbbed and his stomach churned and his feet took him to the spot by the river that had become a haven in the last three weeks.

Lucas reached the forest proper and felt his muscles give up half their wire-stiff tension. The odors of manmade things faded; the taint of civilization and synthetics and burning that stung in his nose and made his head ache. He took deep breaths, letting the clean smell of growing things flow into his body. Something was wrong. More than missing Kay'li and what his mother called spring fever. Lucas loved the burst of life when spring reached the outpost, but this year it was different. Ten times stronger than before.

He slowed, feeling something moving through the forest alongside him, three meters away on the other side of the bushes. Lucas was stunned to realize he did know exactly where and how far the animal was from him. He kept walking. The first thing Captain Fieran taught him was to keep doing whatever he was doing and never warn observers they were sensed.

The path opened out onto the riverbank. Lucas climbed up the boulder leaning out over the water. It had become his favorite perch, the place he came to settle his aching stomach and head, and just think. To clear his nose from sickening odors and stop the aching feeling in his bones.

The sense of something behind him vanished. Lucas slowly turned his back to the river. A booming, thudding cry echoed through the forest, rising to a shriek. He grinned and dropped to kneel on the rock. It was only a bannow following him, indulging its inborn curiosity. If bannows didn't taste so bad, and weren't so useful for keeping down vermin and larger pests around the outposts, their curiosity and tameness around Humans would have destroyed them long ago.

Maybe it was stupid to go through the forest alone, so close to dark, but he had to listen to the compulsion or get sick. Watching the flow of the water, listening to the gurgle and splash over the rocks, soothed him. All but his loneliness and the sense that something was wrong and getting worse.

Kay'li would have listened when he tried to explain what went on in his head. She would have tried to help him figure it out. When he had felt so sick from the anti-Phase treatment he wanted to die, she gave him food the Port doctors had forbidden. She had saved his life.

Jenni waited in the doorway of the mudroom when Lucas came home. She watched him, her head tilted to the side in her thinking pose, and gave him a sad little smile. She was beautiful in the shadows like this, her hair nearly black, dark eyes sparkling, her pale skin glowing like the rising moons.

"Are you hungry?" Jenni asked, when Lucas had stepped through the door past her. He shook his head. "The whole world's turning wrong for you, isn't it?"

"Yeah." His voice broke on the single word. When Jenni wrapped her arms around him, Lucas let a few tears come, relieving the pressure in his head and chest.