Meredith Mansfield, Author

It’s Rose’s turn.

It was difficult to choose an introduction for Rose. She’s a brand new character BECOME: TO RIDE THE STORM.

She’s also the youngest of the POV characters, which means she’ll likely be the one to change the most, in some ways. (Also, it’s quite possible that Rose’s name will change before this book makes it out into the public.)

So, I defaulted to her very first scene. Which also happens to be the first scene in the book–at least right now. All of this is still first draft, after all.

For the third night in a row, Rose dreamed of a very odd palace. It was nothing like the palace here in Versenna, which she’d walked by more times than she could count on her way to the Temple. This palace was all open courtyards and carved arches. Totally impractical. There’d be no way at all to keep the rain or the winter chill out. But . . . other things about this dream made her think that the palace might be somewhere on the other side of the mountains called The Spine of the World. They said it was drier, there.

As on the previous nights, her dream eye was drawn to a young man. The burnished gold of his hair was one of the things that made her think this dream location might be Khatar. At least, the traders that came over the mountain pass from Khatar were the only people she knew who generally had hair that color—well, and a few people whose parents or grandparents had come from Khatar.

This time, the young man rode up to the palace on a horse only a slightly darker shade of gold than his hair, with a creamy mane and tail. Rose had never seen a horse that color, but she had to admit they made a striking pair. Then again, she’d thought the young man was striking whatever he happened to be doing in her dream.

Suddenly she sat bolt upright. “Fatherless, Weather has grown strong and true, taught and guided by blood, protected by blood and Temple. Now the time arrives to seek his lost father and complete the prophecy.”

Her father squeezed her hand. “Wake up now, Rose.”

Her eyes fluttered open and her brows knit, momentarily disoriented. Why was Papa holding her hand? Oh, right. Because she’d had the same dream, or one very like it, for two nights running—three, now. Papa was a Dream Guide, as Rose would be too, someday, and he had to touch her as she dreamed in order to share the dream so he could determine if this was a true dream.

Papa released her hand and began scribbling something hurriedly on the paper on the little table by her bed.

Now, if you want to know what the reference to “Weather” means, well, you’ll just have to read the next blog post, which will introduce another character.

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This is Gaian, Kaleran’s father. Everyone thinks he’s dead–or, well, something like dead. The events at the end of BECOME: TO CATCH THE LIGHTNING, left him with no memory of who he is, where he came from, or why he’s in the forest.

He’s basically been boiled down to a single imperative–Protect those who are weaker. And, since his character is (loosely) based on Hercules, pretty much everybody is weaker. Up to now, he’s mostly done that by removing (permanently) any bandits or other nefarious people he’s found trying to take refuge in the forest.

This isn’t really his first POV appearance in BECOME: TO RIDE THE STORM, but it’s a better introduction to who he is now.

But, then, this isn’t really his introduction, either, since he’s the main character of the series. He’s just rescued Rose–who I expect will be introduced in my next blog post–and escorted her back out of the forest to her family. (Snow is a white raven that he rescued as a nestling, earlier.)

Gaian stood in the shadow of the trees and watched Rose’s reunion with her family. At some point, long ago, he was sure someone had greeted him like that. He had an impression of a woman with pale, pale blonde hair. He just couldn’t remember who she was. Or where.

How long ago was that? He couldn’t remember that, either. Though he knew he’d been in the forest a long time. Cat was getting old, at least. Just this last winter she’d welcomed a new cat who’d come into the forest from somewhere. Gaian had named the new cat Blue Eyes for the distinctive color of her eyes. It was Blue Eyes weaving around his legs right now, while Cat stayed in the shelter of their cave, sleeping.

He didn’t feel like he was getting old himself. Well, people lived longer than cats, he supposed.

Snow, now. Gaian watched the raven amusing himself with another stick. Snow and his mate had raised how many nestlings of their own in the tallest tree at the edge of his glade? He tried to count on his fingers. Hmm. More than fifteen nesting seasons. Probably not as many as twenty. That was as close as he could reckon it, not having paid that much attention to the passing of time.

And in all that time, the only other human voices he’d heard had been bandits and deserters in the few moments before their deaths. Not once, until today, had he heard his name—or even thought of it. In fact, it had taken him a moment to remember his own name. And he still wasn’t sure he’d remembered it exactly correctly. ‘Gan’ was close but . . . not quite right.

It made him a little sad to think that. Befitting his mood, a chilly drizzle started. Gaian shook himself and raised the lion’s-head hood of his cape to keep the rain off, though that likely would have frightened Rose.

Rose was a problem, living so close to the forest. As a descendant of the Goddess, she definitely had a claim on his protection. And the forest wasn’t safe. It certainly wouldn’t be safe for her to get in the habit of running into the forest. Well, the first thing he needed to do was dispose of a couple of bandits’ bodies. Then backtrack and try to ascertain if they were alone or if there was a larger band he needed to deal with.

And . . . and maybe he’d come check on Rose a little more frequently.

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