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Stellar Woods

by Don Thompson

217 pages; quality trade paperback (softcover); catalogue #02-0626; ISBN 1-55369-813-4; US$22.50, C$25.58, EUR18.50, £13.00

Young teenagers Tom and Katie Morrison move to a new city, fearing boredom and isolation. But they find just the opposite when two unusual going-away presents and a mysterious forest become the keys to an amazing adventure that defies conventional explanation.

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about the book      about the author      excerpt      catalogue info

About the Book     Fourteen year old Tom, and his thirteen year old sister Katie, leave their lifelong friends and move to a new city with worries about loneliness and boredom. But just before Tom and Katie leave town, a friend hands them two strange gifts. An apparently ordinary pair of rocks taken from an area where they often hiked and climbed together, these gifts turn out to have perplexing and powerful properties. The rocks ultimately play a key role in helping the teenagers resolve worries and restore self-confidence as they fall into an adventure that begins in a densely wooded forest behind their new house.     Following a trail into the forest locally known as Stellar Woods, Tom and Katie stumble across an old and partially buried brass plaque, etched with a cryptic poem that compels them to explore the forest for clues to the meaning of the words. They get help and encouragement from an unlikely new friend - a retired astronomer and reclusive university professor who lives in Stellar Woods. But even the professor cannot explain a bizarre phenomenon in the forest that ultimately leads the teenagers into both danger and fulfillment.     One afternoon, Tom and Katie hike deep into the forest in order to pursue a particularly promising clue. They pinpoint a single large tree that they had seen mysteriously glowing in the darkness the night before. There they discover a special synergy between a large stone within the hollow trunk of the tree and the gift-rocks from their hometown friends. Carefully fitting the stones together, first Tom, and then Katie, are eerily transformed and disappear from the forest. They fail to return home that night.     The teenagers find themselves in a faraway but strangely familiar environment where they are reunited with their friends, but under life-threatening circumstances. Tom and Katie must make a difficult rescue and somehow get word to their parents, who, with the professor, are searching Stellar Woods and beginning to fear the worst.     After a dramatic rescue and an uneasy telephone call home, Tom and Katie make plans to return, but one more hurdle appears. Katie begins to experience a strange and potentially lethal side effect of her unconventional journey. Compelled by the urgency of the situation, Tom is able to overcome doubts about his own ability to make decisions in the face of ambiguity. Under enormous pressure, by quick and clear thinking, Tom takes decisive action, saving his sister*s life and returning them both safely home. For more information about Stellar Woods please visit www.stellarwoods.com

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About the Author     Don Thompson is a new author who is writing a series of adventure books for pre-teens beginning with Stellar Woods. These books are set in current times and ordinary places, but each involves extraordinary events that defy conventional explanation.     Don moved into the world of fiction following a twenty seven year career in computer software development, and is thoroughly enjoying the change. He also enjoys music, hiking, and boating in the Puget Sound. He lives with his wife, two children, a dog, a cat, four fish and a frog in Woodinville Washington on the edge of a mysterious forest.

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Excerpts

HIKE INTO DARKNESS

    The road took the Morrisons around the island toward East Sound and near the heavily forested base of Mt. Constitution, where they planned to camp for the night. After unloading the car and setting up camp, Tom and Katie decided to explore the area around the campsite.
    "Stay within a mile or so, and take packs and water with you," said Dad.
    "Okay Dad, we'll be back in less than an hour," replied Tom.
    With that, they were off, searching the surrounding area for an interesting starting point. Tom, who always preferred to hike on smaller, less-used trails, found one to his liking nearby.
    "Come on Katie!" he said, motioning for his sister to join him.
    The trail wound through cedar and fir trees around the base of a large outcropping of rock, and then led steadily upward. The afternoon was warm and sunny, and both hikers were in high spirits as they ambled along.
    Suddenly Katie stopped. "Look!" she exclaimed, pointing off to the right.
    Someone less observant might easily have missed the cave entrance that opened not more than eight feet off the trail in a stand of trees. Thick ferns draped its small dark opening. Walking up to the cave, Tom parted the veil of ferns and peered inside.
    "Wow..." breathed Tom. "This tastes kind of familiar."
    Katie stared at her brother. "What did you say?" she asked.
    "I ah, well, it just seems like I've been here before. It seems familiar."
    "Hmm. Not to me. What do you think we should do?"
The two had been warned many times about going into caves. But this particular cave tugged at their sense of adventure like an open attic door in an abandoned house. What might be inside? Stalagmites and stalactites? An underground river? Old bones? They examined the rock, trying to determine if it looked sound. No crumbling, no obvious cracks. Solid. It was simply too much to resist.
    Retrieving flashlights from their packs, Tom and Katie slowly and cautiously made their way into the cave. Squeezing through the small entrance, they found themselves in a wider cavern littered with stones. It was very quiet and much cooler than the air outside. Shining the beams of their flashlights around the walls and ceiling revealed nothing particularly unusual. Then, as Katie's light moved to the back wall about twenty feet away, the spelunkers were faced with a choice. Two tunnels went off deep into the rock.
    "Should we?" asked Tom.
    "Let's just get a little closer before we decide," answered Katie.
As they walked along the cave floor, being careful not to trip on the stones that lay there, it became completely clear to Tom, not only that they should go on, but also which tunnel to take. He could feel it, taste it, sense it in many ways. It was astonishingly clear.
    "Katie...this is very weird. Sit down for a minute. I've got to tell you about something that happened to me the other night."
    Perplexed, Katie found a flat rock and sat down. Tom sat opposite his sister and placed his hands on his temples, rubbing them with his fingertips. When he looked up again, he told Katie everything that had happened to him that night in his room, complete with the part about the glowing rock and his strange ability to taste it. He was now convinced, against his own hopes, that this had really happened and was not a dream. After he finished the story, he noticed that Katie was smiling and slowly shaking her head.
    "I know that you might not believe me Katie. It does sound pretty strange - even to me as I listen to myself talk about it. But I know exactly which tunnel to explore. I can taste it! You must think I'm completely nuts!"
"Oh no, not really. I was just thinking - Mr. Vega, the maintenance guy at the airport; he must have been right."
    "Yeah."
    For several minutes the two teenagers simply sat there, staring back into the dark eyes of the two tunnels. Finally, Tom broke the silence.
    "Katie, I think this is all connected somehow."
    "What do you mean?"
    "I mean, well, all of these strange things - the sign in Stellar Woods about the stone, the rock in the airport, in my room, even your rock too. None of it makes any sense by itself, but I just have a feeling that it all makes some kind of strange sense together. Anyway, if we're going to get back to camp in time, we'd better move on. I know this sounds totally weird, but what I tasted before I'm tasting again, and it's down the tunnel on the right."
    Katie felt a cold shiver run through her as they slowly walked toward the right-hand tunnel. The entrance was darker than a moonless night, and coming from deep inside was the very slightest sound of water drip, drip, dripping. Then, without warning, the air came alive - alive with things, flying, leathery, fluttering things, pouring out from deep inside the tunnel.
    "Get down!" shouted Tom, as hundreds of bats swarmed out of the tunnel opening, some thudding into the explorers, flapping against their skin and hair.
    "Ack," moaned Katie, as she sank to her knees and covered her head with her hands, desperately trying to get out of the way. The sound of leathery wings surrounded her. "Ahhhrg!"
    Just as quickly as it had started, it was over. Katie looked up in time to see the silhouettes of the last bats against the daylight of the cave's entrance in the distance. It was as quiet as death once more.
    "Oh man, let's get out of here!" cried Tom.
    Silence.
    "Katie?"
    "No...if we're ever gonna check out that tunnel, it better be now," said Katie. "The bats are gone, and you're never gonna get me back in there a second time!"
    "Yeah," said Tom. "Yeah, okay."
    Once again Tom and Katie made their way into the tunnel, carefully scanning the floor and ceiling in front of them with their lights.
    They had walked about thirty feet when Tom said, "Stop. Right here. There's something here we need to look at. I can taste it, and I think I see it."
    Shining their lights upward, they discovered that the protruding roots of a tree broke up the ceiling. Entangled in the roots near what must have been the center of the tree trunk, was a small stone, faintly glowing with a blue-green cast. As the two watched in amazement, the glow intensified until all they could see was the fuzzy form of the rock, and little else around it.
    "Tom, I can taste it! It's wonderful! It's like fresh limeade!" Katie exclaimed.
    "Yeah, me too! I can't believe this!" Tom thought, with some relief, that he must be getting used to these sensations, if that was possible, because, thankfully, they didn't come with the same fear and nausea that he'd experienced before.
    Then the light became brighter, and much sharper. The fuzziness that had been there just moments before was gone. And now Tom and Katie found themselves bathed in a clear, bright blue light. It seemed brighter than the sun, and yet it didn't hurt their eyes in the least. As they gazed up at the source of the light, they began to realize that the roots holding the stone belonged to a hollow tree. They could now see the inside walls of the tree trunk as it rose above them, perhaps sixty feet into the air above the rock that housed the cave. The tree was open to the air at the very top. Tom and Katie stood entranced by the sight, neither speaking a word.
Then the light from the rock began to fade. Stunned, the teenagers stood looking up into the trunk of the ancient tree. Through the hole in the top, a small patch of sky was clearly visible. Slowly, as their eyes adjusted to the returning darkness of the cave, they began to see stars twinkling in the night sky above the tree.
    "Whoa!" exclaimed Tom. "Have we been here that long? Look at that sky! We've got to get back to camp. Mom and Dad are probably searching everywhere for us!"
    "Let's go!" yelled Katie as they sped for the entrance of the tunnel. In seconds they were back in the main cavern, dodging rocks on the floor and racing for the cave entrance. In a few more seconds they were out, bursting into the warm afternoon air.
    "But," started Tom. "But, it's supposed to be nighttime. What's going on here?!"
    Tom and Katie stood in the sunshine, amazed and confused. Just moments earlier they had been staring up at the night sky - or had they? They quickly checked their watches. They still had ten minutes left in the hour.

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Catalogue Information

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