Botanical Mischief (The Cosmic Dryad #1)

World History

At a time when humans were still chasing after their prey on foot and lobbing sharpened sticks at their enemies, the Tuann were staging a rebellion against their former masters, a race known as the Osiri.

After great sacrifice and many lives lost, the Tuann succeeded, taking their newfound freedom and fleeing across the stars in a great exodus.

For a time, peace reined among the Tuann. They built their great Houses. Then an empire meant to protect them should their old masters ever come calling. They developed and evolved into a warrior race that none could subjugate ever again.

Except the Osiri were reluctant to give up on their former pets.

They saw what the Tuann had become and coveted them all the more.

Knowing the Tuann had grown too strong to be easily brought back under control, the Osiri built their own armies, comprised out of those races they had enslaved.

The Tsavitee. A scourge that swept across the stars until it encountered humans and their hero, the Phoenix.

But this is not that story.

This is the story of a group of children stolen from their Tuann parents in an event known as the Sorrowing. For years, their fate remained unknown. They were thought lost to their former people. Until one dark night, those children followed in the footsteps of their long ago ancestors and escaped.

Forty five children fled into the forest that night. Two were separated from the pack but forty three made it out together.

Pityrodia Augustensis, Gus, for short, was among them.