Sethbar – The Changeling

Synopsis

Sethbar Buntington is about to turn thirteen years old. He has been a prisoner in his attic bedroom for many years in fact, ever since his little sister, Gif, was born. However, since the cedar tree outside his balcony has grown, he has managed to escape occasionally without being caught. He doesn’t know why he can’t be like other kids; go to school and hang out with friends, and he doesn’t know why the sunlight seems to weaken and drain him, or why when the light shifts, Gulpy, the puppy, and Thomas, the cat, have shadows, but he has none. Changes are happening inside him; something is different… the mournful voices that call him at night are getting louder and more persistent, and the changes that seem to be happening deep within him are stirring his soul.

On his birthday his two best friends, the twins Bert and Lili, climb the cedar tree and bring with them their cousin Reese. Sethbar seems to make a strange connection with her. Is this a teenage attraction—because he did just turn thirteen and she is quite beautiful—or could there be something more?

Reese seems to know more about Sethbar’s changes than he does. She knows he is a Bunt and soon-to-be Lord of the Dust? She starts to teach him about his powers and how to use them. Soon, she goes with him as she teaches him how to travel through space and time when he enters into the other world where the Hunter of Shadows has trapped stolen shadows in the Land of Darkness. How can he travel through the dangerous perils of Yicktown, Pulltown, Shade County and finally into Darkness to release the trapped shadows who call through the night in anguish searching for the return of their souls? Many obstacles await and he feels it is impossible to overcome the many strange and new creatures that hinder his journey. The small purple Terbs who appear out of nowhere to confuse him with their vicious tricks, the flat-faced terrifying ground feeders who travel at phenomenal speeds devouring everything in their path, and the Frigities with blood red eyes that breathe fire; are only a few frightening creatures who imped him every step of the way. If it weren’t for the small orange Yerbs, Lubrucks, and especially his favourite little fire fairy who all seem to understand his destiny as a Buntlin and soon to be Lord of the Dust, he might have never been able to escape the Flucarnas, Drecarnas, Bumbletons or Blackballs.

Despite his increasing powers, the dangers terrifies him and he longs to return to his attic prison, but on Reese’s insistence and the horrifying screams of the lost shadows, he keeps getting pulled back into the other world whether he likes it or not. But how can he disappear into the other world and not get caught, especially when his annoying little brother, Sherk, and Sherk’s best friend, Elvis, are always trying to spy on him? And how does Reese seem to know that his little sister, Gif, is alive today because she has his shadow? If he gets his shadow back, what will happen to his sweet little sister? And why does his father never want to see him, and what happened that day he peered through the banisters from the corridor at the top of the stairs to see the black swarm of dust come in the front door then swirl all around in a tall tower of blackness before encircling his mother in a strange embrace? Why did his mother willingly walk into this shape that turned into a man?

The changes happening within him and the many unanswered questions pull him to the other world to find the truth and discover his destiny. Who is he and what seems to be happening to him? He is changing and it is happening too fast and beyond his control…