Spirit Runner Chapter 28 – Mouse

My husband does at least one of the editing passes all my novels go through. He’s a tough editor and sometimes harsh. He made Rootstock Saga much better than it would have been without his brutal honesty.

He always referred to the Mouse chapters as the “acid trips.” Affectionately, of course. We both have a special place in our hearts for poor, sweet Mouse.

She’s had a tough time of it in life so far. Being born with dark hair instead of fair sealed her fate as a Raven. The lowest caste at Twelvestones.

As Lothor Camran describes the children in book one:

Raven. The Firstborn gave the name to any born with the dark, man-child look. The Camran look. They were unfortunate accidents of planning, inferior and unwanted. They didn’t merit individual names. They all answered to Raven.

Mouse is a timid girl, but she is not stupid. She learned how to get by in the harsh reality she calls The Hard World.

Yonah, the white wolf only Mouse can see and hear, is her loyal companion and guardian. He comforts her through her trials in The Hard World. Fia often appears to Mouse as well, though usually in a far more snarky mood, as either a white cat or a small white dragon.

Mouse is not imagining them. She is quite sane.

Yonah and Fia are quite real. They are reaching out to her from The Misty World.

Mouse is unique. Her unnamed mindgift can open a door between the parallel worlds of mist and substance. She’s a conduit. A portal.

She’s also a truthtaster. And though she may be tentative and clumsy in trying to wield the gift, she’s also a mindrider.

So don’t feel too sorry for Mouse.

She’s going to come into her own someday.