by Kachi Ugo
Genre: YA Fantasy
Release Date: November 6th 2018
Summary:
Mewranters: Attack of the Sea Monster uniquely blends adventure with an engaging fast-paced writing style to present readers with an action-packed story of wits, wisdom, and sheer force of will.
Every Mew in the country is out to kill Perry, and the sea monster is calling him out to the sea. Therefore, he must quickly learn why every Mew is threatened by the existence of an eagle Mew if he is to stand a chance at saving his parents and killing the monster. On the day of his initiation, he shifts into a huge Golden Eagle. However, this is a bad thing since no eagle Mew makes it past the age of twelve. To complicate his life, his shifting into an eagle Mew has reawakened the sea monster. A tentative partnership is formed between the different clans. But when Perry Johnson realizes that this partnership could mean the death of his parents, he has a decision to make.
With every Mew in the country out to kill him, and the sea monster calling him out to the sea, Perry must quickly learn why every Mew is threatened by the existence of an eagle Mew if he is to stand a chance at saving his parents and killing the monster. If he fails, it may very well be the end of his family… and the rest of the world. This fast-paced story, with its intriguing plot and original fantastical world, keeps every zoo-going, animal-loving kid wanting more as they follow Perry’s adventure.
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THE FALL
RITUAL
Perry Johnson awoke with a feeling of dread. He knew his time had come,
and he felt he was going to fail. He had never been good at anything. Not
sports, not hanging out with friends, not even school. He wasn’t failing in
school, but he wasn’t passing either. He was average. In everything. Nothing
special. That kind of sucked. But what could he do? It was who he was. It was
his destiny.
Even as he sat trembling on his bed, he figured today was going to end
badly. Badly for him. He was certain he wasn’t going to be good enough. He had
known about the ritual for some time since Richard. He was four then. One week
after they had celebrated Richard’s twelfth birthday, the family moved to their
cliff house in Nevada. Perry didn’t know what Richard did because he wasn’t
allowed to watch, but whatever Richard had done, he had been awesome. Four
years later, Jane and Jake’s turn came. He didn’t watch, again, but he knew
they were great. Now his time had come. One week after they had celebrated his
twelfth birthday, they had moved here. It was his turn, but Perry already knew
what the outcome would be.
Perry knew he wasn’t good enough. Whatever this family ritual was, he
was going to fail it. Perry had always gotten by being average. Somehow, he
suspected that this time average wouldn’t be good enough. That’s why he was
afraid. The ritual was important—like family-tradition important. That much he
knew. He loved his sister so much. He couldn’t bear the thought of losing her,
but that didn’t stop these thoughts from barraging his mind. Average meant
failure, and failure was his one-way ticket out of the family.
“Perry!”
His mother’s voice came to him from somewhere in the cabin. “Breakfast is
ready.”
Perry had already gotten used to his small room. Still, it pressed in on
him from all sides. He had no appetite for food. Yet, he knew he must eat. It
might very well be his last meal as Perry, son of Johnson.
Perry jumped off the bed. He landed on the floorboards with a crouch,
his legs almost giving in. He had on a red shirt and blue jeans. He looked in
the mirror on his dresser. All he saw was a small, scrawny preteen. He gulped.
His heart was already pounding, though he kept his breathing steady.
The door to his room opened. Lisa, his dear sister, came in. She had a
warm smile on her face and a small broom in her hands.
“Mother
told me to do your chores,” Lisa said, mild irritation on her face.
“She did?”
Now his breathing became erratic. “Why?”
Lisa frowned at the way he breathed. She shrugged
and said, “Don’t know. Something about a big day for you. I heard her talking
with Richard.”
Perry
struggled to calm himself. He swallowed hard. “Richie’s here?” “Mmm-Hmm,” Lisa
replied, already sweeping the floor. She was eleven years old. Perry
might not
be here to watch her do the ritual next year, but he knew she would excel. She
was unlike him. Success came naturally to her, the same way being average came
naturally to him. It was who they were. Maybe, if he could get his parents to
understand this, they wouldn’t kick him out of the family when he botched the
family ritual.
Spurred by impulse and a humongous amount of nervous energy, Perry
hugged his sister and left the room. He could never hate his sister. Not even
when his parents praised her and derided him. He couldn’t even be jealous of
her.
Perry walked the narrow corridor, which opened to
the small sitting room. His heart lurched. Richard, Jane, and Jake were all
present. Richard sat at the table with Jake, while Jane sat on a couch. Mother
wasn’t in the room. But there was food on the table, which Richard and Jake
ate. There was an extra plate; his, Perry concluded. He hesitated in the
low-light corridor. Usually, when Richard came from Maine, or Jake and Jane,
their family’s inseparable twins, came from school in California, Perry felt
exuberant. But now he could feel his heart sink. He didn’t want them to see him
fail. He didn’t want to eat, but he knew he must.
A hand touched his shoulder, and he jerked away, frightened. He was in
the sitting room now, in the open, exposed. At first, he was startled. Everyone
seemed happy to see him. He felt like a spotlight was upon him. Richard, Jake,
and Jane talked excitedly, all at the same time, but he couldn’t pick out their
words. All he was conscious of was the ferocity with which his heart hammered
in his chest. He looked at where he had been. His mother stood in the doorway,
staring at him, concerned. The room fell quiet.
His
mother pointed at the table. “Eat,” she rumbled.
Perry nodded in submission, sat, and ate. He forced the cheese pie into
his mouth, down his throat. Richard watched him, silent, but Jake talked.
Talked about the weather. Talked about school. Talked about birds. Richard gave
him a sharp look when he mentioned birds, and he quickly changed the topic.
Talked about family traditions.
Jake only talked this much when he was antsy. He probably knew Perry’s
chances of success were thin and feared for him. Perry felt like crying. Why
did he have to be such a loser?
Mother roamed the house. She too was nervous. Jane gave nippy glances at
him and his food; they flickered from impatience to anxiety. Father wasn’t in
sight. But he too, no doubt, thought he was no good. Perry fought the urge to
wail out in distress and continued battling with his cheese pie and milkshake.
The air seemed to thicken as he pushed it through
his lungs. Perry didn’t get to the last slice of the crusty cream pie before
Father came into the sitting room.
He looked first at Perry. His weathered face carried deep lines on his
forehead. In these deep lines, strips of sweat lay. His blue T-shirt had a dark
V that reached from his neck. The dark stain was perspiration. Then, his gaze
shifted to Mother. “They are ready for him,” he said in a solemn tone.
It was as if a giant bell rang in
Perry’s mind. He knew he was finished. Why remain there? He jumped out of his
chair and was about to run for his room. But his mother stood, akimbo, in his
path, with a look of concern on her face. She didn’t seem to have noticed his
intentions. He squashed the urge to run and kept hidden those intentions.
Richard, Jake, and Jane rose to
their feet, a sudden reverence around their motions. They stood still, allowing
Mother to guide him towards the door with one hand on his shoulder. Father gave
way, and Perry walked into the hot desert.
Three strange-looking men stood by the metal interlocking fence. One was
old and the other two were young. But they both looked like they were from an
ancient Indian tribe. The old man sported a white shirt, a white headband, and
a white feather sticking up by his left ear. His intense gaze drilled holes
into Perry’s eyes. Perry looked away. Beyond the fence, less than ten feet
away, was an edge. Father had told him that the edge was fifty stories above
the desert floor.
Father had also told him that anyone who fell off the cliff would
splatter into a million bloody pieces.
Mother’s grip tightened on Perry’s shoulder. She pushed him gently
towards the strange men. Father and the rest followed from behind.
As Perry glanced around the yard, he realized there
was only one car beside the house. How had these men, including Richard and the
twins, gotten to the cabin? There wasn’t a highway for miles. What was going
on?
Perry caught the look in Mother’s side glances to Father. She was
uncertain. Unsure. Like she knew this was his last day as her son. But, she
couldn’t call off the ritual now that these strange men were involved.
When they were still a distance from the three men,
they halted. His mother crouched beside him, held his shoulders with both
hands, and fixed him with her most dangerous stare. Whatever she said now, he
could never disobey; not if he didn’t want to suffer severe consequences.
“Those men are here to test you,” his mother said with a brief glance at
the old man. “He’s the chief of our clan. Do whatever he tells you, and it will
be all right. Fail, and you might lose that which is precious to you.”
Perry’s
dread heightened. Lose Lisa?
“Mother?”
Perry croaked. “I’m scared.”
His mother’s fierce gaze melted that instant. She
looked at his heaving chest for a moment. Then she turned to face his father.
Her knees gave out beneath her.
“He’s not
ready,” she muttered to him, tears in her eyes.
Father picked up Mother from the ground and held
her in his arms. “There’s nothing we can do about that,” he whispered back to
her. “It’s either now or never.”
“What if
he fails?” Mother said, glancing at Perry, who now stood alone.
His father’s eyes gripped his. “Then it’s over for
him.” He said this without an iota of emotion.
Mother squeezed her eyes shut as tears fell to her cheek. When she
opened her eyes, she fixed a cold stare on him. “Do as I say.”
Perry turned away from his family. The three strange men remained
passive and silent as he approached them. The sun scorched his head. Baked sand
found its way into his jeans. He looked over his shoulder one last time. Mother
and Father weren’t looking. They were locked in an embrace. Richard and the
twins were farther behind, staring at him with glassy eyes, squinting in the
sun. The house stood behind them, the only human structure for as far as the
eyes could see. It was small, misshapen, a construction of roofing sheets. It
had been his family’s cabin for years, since before he was born. He was about
to lose it. He was about to lose everything.
“Perry Johnson,” the old man said. His voice was
unusually strong considering his age; he had wrinkles all over his face.
Perry stood before the man. “Yes, Sir,” he replied, looking up at the
man, into the sun. The man placed a hand on his shoulder and led him towards
the gate in the fence. “Do
you know what this is all about,
Perry?” he asked.
Perry
shook his head, too scared to talk.
The man made a sound, an amusing sound. “Surely, you must have an
inkling as to what purpose you have been brought here.”
“A family ritual.” Perry’s voice was lost in the
wind, but the man must have heard because he nodded contemplatively.
“A test to determine if I’m worthy to be a member
of this family,” Perry said. A sudden alarm came to his mind as they approached
the edge. The desert floor spread from underneath the cliff: a barren, dry
land. Great winds moved sand around in disorganized sweeps. “Sir, why are we
going towards the edge of the cliff?”
“Does it
bother you?”
“It’s dangerous, Sir. My father has forbidden me to cross the fence,”
Perry said, trying to look over his shoulder at his parents. But, the old man
prevented him. Perry tried to wriggle himself out of the man’s grip, but the
man clamped tighter.
“Not to
birds, it’s not,” the old man said, pausing at the very edge of the cliff.
Perry felt queasy standing fifty stories above the ground. He shut his
eyes and craned his neck away from the fall. “I’m not a bird, Sir,” he cried
out in desperation.
“Not yet,”
the man said, and shoved him over the cliff.
Perry
fell.
Fell
towards his death.
He
hurtled.
Hurtled
to splatter into a million bloody pieces.
He screamed, flapped, and beat the air. But, he fell on. The floor—his
death—rushed up to meet him. His heart fluttered ferociously. A flame of fear
erupted around his body. Ten seconds to his death. A strange feeling came over
him, unlike his earlier feeling of apprehension. Feathers sprung from his skin.
His legs turned to talons. A different kind of fear overtook his mind. More
feathers shot out of his skin.
Five
seconds to his death.
Perry flapped his hands faster, as if he could fly. The wind caught on
his hands—no—his wings! He flapped again and glided away from the cliff wall.
He was no longer falling. He was gliding, two yards above the ground! He cried
out, terrified, but what came forth from his sharp beak was a piercing whistle
that rang through the desert.
He tried to grab the sand before crashing into the ground. He tried to
push his body off the sand with his hands, but they weren’t strong enough
because they were wings. Panic stabbed at Perry’s heart. He flapped off the
ground, rising five feet into the air. The sand lodged in his skin felt like
tiny pinpricks, irritating him. He landed on talons, shaking his body
vigorously.
I can’t be a bird! he
thought. I CAN’T BE A BIRD!
Wait, maybe I succeeded this time! Did I pass the
test?!
He looked to the cliff. It was so
far away. Yet he could clearly see his parents, Richard, the twins, and the
three strange men. He searched their faces for recognition or approval, but it
was not happy surprise or awe that he saw. It was terror. His heart sank. He
was a failure again. What else was new?
Before his eyes, they turned into
huge birds. Huger than normal birds, but not different in other regards. Mother
was a white owl. Father was a blue harrier. Richard was a grey hawk. The twins
were bright yellow buzzards. The old man that had tried to kill him was a white
osprey. Perry blinked, not sure what he was seeing. They soared high above the
desert towards him.
When they got to him, they circled, keeping their distance.
He glanced down at his own body.
He was a golden eagle. He spread his wings and they each stretched over a yard
from his chest. The circling birds scampered away at the revelation of his full
form, seemingly terrified. Perry nestled his wings back into his body and sat
on the
ground, dropping his head. He felt ashamed of being an eagle. He had
failed his parents, his family. He had broken his family’s tradition. He
deserved to be expelled from the fold.
After a while, he heard his mother speak. Her voice
was firm in his mind. “Perry, rise into the air. We’re going to teach you to
handle your aerial form.”
Even though he heard her voice in his mind, he knew
it was a command, not a request. He leaped into the air, spreading his wings
full length. The air seemed to cling to his form, pushing him upwards. He didn’t
need to flap. He shot to the clouds, his shame melting into excitement. His
family and the osprey followed behind, instructing him.
About the Author
Kachi Ugo's whole life has revolved around writing. When he was twelve, while his friends still flipped through picture books and comics, he took an interest in thick, picture-less “story books” that opened him up to a whole new world of possibilities and adventures. A decade later, he writes those same books himself. Kachi Ugo is an avid supporter of YA Fantasy. For him, writing is a passion. He relishes the power it gives him to create worlds of his own where anything and everything is possible.
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