annahoward
Cover image
Synopsis
Once the realm of light and the middle realm were one until the realm of darkness bewitched several humans to try unspeakable dark magic, and the fabric of the world was torn. And through the tears the realm of darkness is pushing through. But there are other spaces, thin spaces, where the realm of light is near the middle realm and sometimes you can hear its music calling you to come to the other side.
The traffic light at the intersection of New Main Street and Old Main Street has record breaking numbers of accidents. One day, eleven year old Kai, his best friend Ellie and his faithful boxer dog, Sebastian take pity on a possum who was hit by a car only to discover that the possum is a sorcerer among his own people. Moved by their compassion, the possum sorcerer swears them to secrecy and tells them how to lift the curse on the traffic light so that people will stop getting hurt. The three set off to return the possum sorcerer to his people and lift the curse on the traffic light, little knowing the journey that they've started has consequences that could destroy the world.
Excerpt
Suddenly, the leaves moved and a faint groan came from underneath the pile. Ellie dropped on her knees next to it and started brushing the leaves back to see what was underneath.
“Be careful! It might bite you.”
“It” turned out to be a rather large possum who turned its head and looked at them when Ellie got all the leaves off it.
“You poor thing! I wish I could help you. Will you bite me?”
“It can’t understand you, you know. Be careful!”
Kai was getting the creeps from this thing actually, as the possum had turned its head first to Ellie when she was speaking, and then back to Kai as he talked as though it was listening to them. He took a step back before he realized what he was doing. The possum turned its head from one to the other again. No blood was visible so it was hard to tell where it was hurt.
Ellie slowly stretched her hand out toward the possum when it opened its mouth…
…and spoke!
“I won’t bite you know,” it said crisply, “unless you plan to injure me further.”
