The Sea of Change Read online

  The Hidden World

  Of

  Terrafirma

  Book Two

  The Sea of Change

  Author

  Tina M. Engel

  Book Cover Artist

  Sarah Bangs

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or events, is entirely coincidental.

  Copyright @ 2016 Tina M. Engel

  All rights reserved

  Paperback book

  ISBN-13: 978-1539676676 (CreateSpace-Assigned)

  ISBN-10: 1539676676

  BISAC: Fiction / Fantasy / General

  CreateSpace independent publishing platform

  4900 LaCross Road

  North Charleston, SC 29406

  USA

  Dedication

  I want to thank Teri Bangs, my sister, editor and friend, for all the hours of work she put into editing and giving feedback on her likes and need for more information. She knows how to push me in ways that make me want to continue this journey.

  Also I want to thank my family, without your love and support,

  “The Hidden World of Terrafirma” would never had been discovered.

  Believe

  Now you see me,

  Now you don’t.

  If you chose not to Believe,

  Then you won’t.

  The world around you,

  The magic and the mystery.

  If you only knew,

  My advice to

  You…believe!

  Justin Stroup

  Table of Contents

  Prologue……………………………………………..1

  Chapter 1…………………………………………..10

  Chapter 2…………………………………………..36

  Chapter 3…………………………………………..49

  Chapter 4…………………………………………..62

  Chapter 5…………………………………………..90

  Chapter 6…………………………………………106

  Chapter 7…………………………………………127

  Chapter 8…………………………………………142

  Chapter 9…………………………………………155

  Chapter 10………………………………………..174

  Chapter 11………………………………………..192

  Chapter 12………………………………………..228

  Chapter 13………………………………………..233

  Chapter 14………………………………………..260

  Chapter 15………………………………………..276

  Chapter 16………………………………………..295

  Chapter 17………………………………………..310

  Chapter 18………………………………………..322

  Chapter 19………………………………………..335

  Chapter 20………………………………………..361

  Chapter 21………………………………………..367

  Follow author…………………………………….382

  About author……………………………………..383

  Prologue

  I was sitting on the porch of Sara and John; two fey who pretended to be human and lived in a community in the heart of Amish country in Michigan. I sat there alone on the porch, as I watched Brett, Kimberlite and Eagle, out in the field helping John irrigate the wheat. I heard Sara in the house helping their four children with school work, and Rose right there next to them, learning too.

  It had been almost two weeks since I was rescued and brought there. I was almost healed from my ordeal of being kidnapped and held prisoner by Stephan, a man I thought loved me long ago. A man I had wanted so deeply to marry then.

  The spider that bit me, at the moment of my escape, had done more damage than they originally thought. My second heart was beating for the first time in my existence, and the spider venom was causing it to beat erratically. This caused chest pains and dizzy spells. So I sat there, resting and letting my hearts grow stronger, at their own pace.

  Brett was healed completely physically, now that he and I had mended the rift that had come between us, after I was taken. But he was also injured mentally. The mental injury, or anguish that he suffered because he couldn’t stop my kidnapping, was the hardest to heal and he was still working on this, I was sure.

  Brett and I had a special bond; what kind of bond and why, I still didn’t know. It was all still a mystery to me as to why he and I had a connection, an electrical current that flowed from one to the other. When he was thinking about me, I knew it and when I thought of him, he knew it too. He knew that I was thinking of him right then, because he stood upright and looked over towards the house. I couldn’t see his face; he was too far away, but I felt he was smiling. There were still so many secrets; Brett said it was for the best. I would learn things as I grew and became stronger within my new fey body.

  You see I was not human at all. I was raised as a human for 44 human years. I lived in the small town of Pineville Washington, on the East side of the Cascade Mountain range. There in that small town, I was taken care of by fey who protected me and made sure I had the proper food to grow, while I lived in a human house with human parents.

  I spent the first 13 human years with what I thought were imaginary friends, but were really my fey caretakers. I would spend hours in the woods behind my house with these friends of mine, and loved the water; creeks, ponds and streams, and kept my feet in them as much as possible.

  I never thought much of myself. I was not really pretty or super smart. It’s not that I didn’t like myself by any means; I was just plain and that was okay with me.

  I met a man, however, when I was 20, and he made me feel differently about myself. For 10 years anyway, until one day he left me; gave no reason except he had to leave and wasn’t taking me with him. I was alone again and sought out the woods; soil, trees and water were my comfort once more. I lived a simple life, in a simple town, with simple small town beliefs and it was comfortable.

  I met Brett McNight when spring was new and life all around was waking, after a long cold winter. Odd things started to happen to me that spring. Faces in the trunks of the old trees outside my house would appear, and then be gone. I was hearing voices when there was no one around. Then things went really crazy and a tree tried to kidnap me. Yes, I know what you’re thinking, a tree? Brett saved me, took me away, and my adventure began as I started my journey home.

  Rose, sweet Rose, is the pixie who keeps me alive with the liquid that flows through her veins. She is never far from me. I never asked for her to follow me, but she does so nevertheless. She is very protective and doesn’t trust Brett totally with my wellbeing.

  Pixies are a funny sort of creature. They are fey, but different somehow. They’re what I would call a human’s fairy, only they are neither good nor evil. They just are. They have a special place in the fey world and they carry their burdens or privileges with grace. You see, the liquid that flows through their veins is nourishment for a certain more advanced species of fey. It’s nourishment for me too, but we still don’t quite know what kind of fey I am.

  Kimberlite is a rock fey. He comes from the Lava Rocks in the middle of the State of Oregon. He was the first to help Brett and me, as we headed to the east coast. We traveled in Kimberlite’s world underneath the ground. He is big and strong, and would die for me, but I see the soft spot inside him too. Kimberlite gave me a gift on our trip undergrou
nd. It was a diamond suspended on a golden chain. In the very middle of this diamond live many small lava pebbles who keep me company. They let me know when there is danger. They glow lightly in the dark, and can calm my nerves when I’m upset. They have a healing power also. What else can they do, I don’t know, but I’m sure I’ll find out sooner or later.

  Eagle is a shape shifter who chose the Eagle form to spend his life. He has a fey body, but can turn into an eagle and soar high in the sky when he desires. Eagle was the one who saved me from Stephan and his band of ruthless fey. I don’t know Eagle very well yet; he’s been with us only now and then, but he saved me and I will never forget.

  There are others who have been helping me on this journey. Queen Anahita, who is the Queen of the underground springs in the North American territory, is one. She is water fey and is very beautiful and mysterious.

  Queen Anahita and Brett have a past together. Brett shrugs it off but I believe their connection to each other is strong. What did they mean to each other and why did they part, are questions I want to know.

  She gave me a gift also; beautiful pearl earrings. When I put them on, however, they attached to my earlobes and spread onto the sides of my face, just over my cheeks and down my neck slightly, taking on the appearance of the inside of an abalone shell.

  When I need safety, it turns into a force field of sorts, a shield that surrounds me and protects me from the dangers around. I’m still learning how it works. It would be nice if it activated itself when I was in danger, instead of waiting for me to do it. If it had, maybe I wouldn’t have been captured by Stephan in the first place.

  Douglas is a tree fey. His tree is a Douglas fir, of course. He is old and wise and I think of him as a grandfather figure, I guess. He is one of Brett’s teachers. Brett spent years with this fey and they are very fond of each other. Douglas is a fey elder, and a member of the council who keep the order of fey and humans in balance.

  Unfortunately, the balance has been shaken, but there is a legend that says a fey will be born one day and she will be the chosen one. She will be the one, who will have the powers, to restore the balance to the fey and human world once more. Brett and his friends think I am this special fey.

  Douglas gave me a gift also. It’s a pretty, small barrette, made out of pieces of a pinecone, and it turns into a knife, which attaches to my hand when I handle it in a special way. It is mine and mine alone. If anyone else tried to activate it, the weapon would shred their hand. I’ve been told this anyway.

  I miss Douglas a lot. He has so much knowledge from his life time, of watching the fey grow and change during their evolution, and as humans entered the picture, the survival of both. He is patiently waiting for whatever is going to happen next, to happen.

  Then there are the Troll folk; Tobias and Tilly, with their family who live deep underground. They dig the tunnels and caverns that humans discover and explore. Well, they do some of this work; the rock fey and underwater spring fey, do their share of shaping our underground worlds too.

  Tobias helped us escape from Stephan’s band of villains, down under ground. Tobias then helped me to escape my prison cell, and pointed me in the direction to get out of the underground, in which I had been held by Stephan.

  Tobias and his family are now in danger because they helped me. I pray for their safety during this time of unrest, hoping this war between the fey families will be over soon. Then the humans will be safe once more from the fey who want them erased from this planet, and they can grow and mature as they must.

  So I sat there, watching the men out in the field. They were all covered in their human veils or glamour as Rose calls it. I still wasn’t use to Kimberlite and Eagle looking human. It didn’t seem quite natural. It was a shame we all had to cover up who we really were.

  I listened to Sara, Rose and the children in the house with their school work and cooking lessons, and wondered what was next for us.

  Stephan was out there and wanted not only to take me to my father, leader of a small section, in the Atlantic Ocean, but also as his bride. That thought brought a shivers down my spine.

  I loved him, a long time ago; when I thought he was a different man. He’s Brett’s brother, this I just found out, and was a fey full of anger and selfishness, due to what exactly, I didn’t know. Brett shared some of their past, but there was so much more to learn.

  I am supposedly water fey, Princess Emilee of a small Atlantic Ocean Province, but with many more characteristics of other fey, no one really knows who or what I am.

  Proteus, who I have been told was my true father, wanted me back in his control. Why did he want me and was he really my father? These are questions I had.

  Brett knew more than he was telling, out of protectiveness for me, so he said. I did feel deep down that he was good and I could trust him. I guessed I must if I was to succeed in this journey to wherever I belonged. Besides, I loved this fey.

  It was a sunny, warm day and I wanted to walk through the grass barefoot, but that wasn’t proper here in Amish country. Women were to be covered completely. Of course, Sara and John were not really human but they followed the rules, nevertheless. If any neighbors happened by and saw me barefoot, it could harm their reputation in the community. As I stood and walked down the steps from the porch and onto the grass below, I could see more of the fey world around me every day.

  The fey dimension was how Brett described it. You see there are many different dimensions of life on this planet and the human dimension is only one. As humans, we see only a part of what is really around us, because we are a very young life form on this planet. I say we, because I thought I was human for 44 years. I was still thinking in human terms but the fey part of me was awakening slowly.

  Now as I was getting used to this fey body and spirit, I saw more around me. I saw the fey world mixed in with the human world. I could see the other fey in flashes or flickers of movement, so quick, but I was seeing them. The fey world was so full of life and movement. Everywhere there was life, everything had a fey being that lived within it; plants, animals, insects, water, rocks and soil.

  Some were very primitive life forms, while others resembled humans and lived within the plants, water and rocks, and needed the primitive forms to survive themselves. Every tree and every plant you see has a fey that lives inside. When the plant dies, the fey’s essence, or soul, enters the air around and becomes one with the planet.

  The same with the animals; some are simple life forms, here for others’ nourishment. There are others who take on the characteristics of these animals and are called shifters. We are all dependent on each other, some predator and some prey.

  The more advanced fey can exist in the human realm as well as their own. They have the ability to cloak themselves with what they call a veil, or glamour. They can look just like any other human and interact with them as well. When I try to grasp all of this, I get confused at times.

  I guess that’s why the human population doesn’t see what is around them yet. They wouldn’t be able to hold it in their minds, and it would drive them mad. The few who have seen this other dimension and told their stories were thought to be crazy, and the stories were just that, stories, fables, myths and fairy tales. But they are all true to some extent.

  Humans put their own spin on what they see, and as the stories are told, year after year, generation after generation, the stories become twisted and distorted, but some truth remains.

  Even though I was supposed to be ocean water fey, I had been on land my entire existence. I can only describe the land and fresh water beings for now. There is an entire world under the oceans of this planet, and I will discover this later.

  At this time I was healing and learning to control my gifts and powers. I had to be able to survive on land, before I could survive in the water. So much to learn but how much time did I have, that was the biggest question of all.

  Chapter one

  We remember them well,

  Loved ones from
the past.

  They fill our memories with happiness,

  Peacefulness and content.

  We miss them so and yearn for their presence.

  Do not fear, they are not far,

  They will be with you soon.

  I stood there in the grass, looking out at the men working. I could feel Brett, the vibration there between us. It would be so much simpler if he would just admit his feelings for me. Why is love so complicated? It shouldn’t be. Maybe this is the only way he can keep us safe on the dangerous trek we’re on.

  Then I felt an arm going around my waist as Sara came up next to me. She said nothing, but stood close and looked out at the men at work. I turned my head to look at her. I saw her human veil but also the fey underneath.

  At first when I woke here, I could see that her human covering was a veil, but as time passed I could see the real Sara. She looked very similar to Brett and Stephan but I still didn’t know what fey species they were. They did not seem to be plant fey or animal fey, not rock or water. They looked similar to humans, but were not humans at all. I believed I was one of them also, not water fey, as I had been led to believe.

  “So Emilee, you decided to get up and walk off the porch alone? No dizziness, I assume?” Sara asked.

  I thought about this and realized that I wasn’t dizzy. My chest didn’t feel like something was going to rip itself out of my chest, at any minute. I chuckle a little at the thought I had; you know the alien creature that comes out of the poor man, in the movie “Alien”? What can I say; the movies I watched as a human still creep into my thoughts; science fiction and fantasy were my favorites.

  Sara gave me a peculiar look as I chuckled, since she didn’t know what I was thinking. Then she smiled and started walking towards the field, still with her arm around my waist.