Total pages in book: 140
Estimated words: 131364 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 657(@200wpm)___ 525(@250wpm)___ 438(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 131364 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 657(@200wpm)___ 525(@250wpm)___ 438(@300wpm)
A sense of movement in Eleri’s peripheral vision.
Glancing out the window of her vehicle, she glimpsed a large bird wing lazily over the desert landscape, its upper feathers a deep gray with a bluish tone. On the underside were bands of white interspersed with black. Dark eyes, with feathers of a much darker hue under those eyes.
A peregrine falcon, an extraordinary aerial hunter with acute vision, and the majority type of falcon that made up the WindHaven clan. She’d researched them as much as she could before heading toward the town that had been linked to the predatory clan throughout known history—but the falcons were as reticent as most other changelings, and all she had was scraps.
This falcon kept easy pace with her as she passed the sign that marked the town boundary: Welcome to Raintree! Where the Canyons Are Vast and the Skies Endless. The background image was of a lush forested area nestled against a towering rock face painted in the colors of sunset.
The changeling winged away at that point—and she knew it had been a changeling from the size. Changeling birds were much larger than their natural counterparts—though not as much as they should have been given their size in human form. She’d found endless online threads talking about the mass differential in certain changeling species—many had theories, but none answers.
LIAR! It was no mistake!
Strokes of green began to color the landscape as she drove deeper into Raintree and into the echoes of the past. This far out, she saw only the odd sign of habitation. From her research, the town had natural access to a tributary of the Colorado River that caused it to be somewhat of an oasis in this arid region. She saw that firsthand when she came around the corner…and into a sudden explosion of dark green.
Raintree didn’t quite fit in this landscape.
It was too fertile, too abundant. As if it had been plucked out of the Pacific Northwest and dropped into this landscape of desert browns and rust reds, an intruder that had decided to settle in for the long haul.
Shaking off the sense of wrongness but making note of it because it might be a sign of mental degradation, she lowered her speed. This seemed like the kind of place where children might run across roads while neighbors gossiped on corners.
Turned out she’d been a little too early in her caution; she didn’t see any sign of true civilization until at least five minutes later. The houses that began to pop up at that point were small and neat, with well-maintained front yards, some of which had a number of desert rocks in them.
Greenery crawled over the rock, life defying the desert Eleri had just traversed.
But the green was no challenge to the soaring rock faces striated with orange and yellow, red and pink, that rose on either side of the town. They rippled like water, the rough surface appearing smooth as glass from this distance.
Raintree, she realized, was based inside a canyon that leaned in to shadow the town from both sides; the sunlight that reached Raintree would mostly be on either end of the day rather than in the blistering middle. Add in its proximity to water, and no wonder the town had such an unexpected microclimate.
Almost at a standstill on the road now, she looked up to the looming canyon wall to the left of the town and frowned. Either she was having vision issues or someone was standing high up on the side of the rock face.
A rock climber on a ledge?
Her vision wasn’t sharp enough to make out details from so far out, but then she saw a pair of wings sweep out over the person on the ledge and sucked in a breath.
Falcons.
She understood now. They were linked to Raintree, but it wasn’t their home. That sat high above the town. She should’ve realized that; why would winged changelings want to live on the ground when they could live in a nest in the sky?
Liar! You fucking liar!
Her hands tightened on the steering wheel, the renewed roar of the memory a thunderous force…as if it had gained strength from the sight of the lone falcon who stood so high above Raintree, his confidence apparent in his stance even from this distance.
Eleri. That’s pretty. My name is Adam.
Chapter 2
Winged changelings, especially the raptors, are interesting in the most fascinating way. While their clans follow a similar internal structure to those of earthbound predatory packs like the wolves and bears, they have a unique culture built on the freedom extended by their wings.
A clan will consider itself a clan even if its people are scattered in a hundred tiny pairs or groups across the country.
Yet, despite the fact that winged changelings travel far and wide, often alone, they are one of the most tight-knit of the changeling species. Harm one and you become the enemy of them all.