A dystopian world. A humble journalist. An unlikely group of friends.

Gus, a young badger in the quaint commonwealth of Osgood, learned the priceless power of free expression as a child. Belly-laughing with his Grandma Birdie, they wrote stories, drew cartoons, and made jokes about whatever life threw at them, including their oppressive government, the Arete. “Laughter is my superpower,” Grandma Birdie once told him. “When I laugh, others feel like they can laugh too, and soon, people don’t feel as afraid.” But speaking out about the growing fascism within the Arete is treasonous behavior, and too soon, little Gus learns exactly what using his voice can cost him. So he pretended to keep his head down, became a model student, and earned a coveted position as a journalist for Cerridwen Publishing House.

Gus rises from his despair again and again to speak his mind through an anonymous political paper called Merridilly. Though the Arete may oversee education, restrict access to books, and push a quasi-medieval standard of science to support their strange agendas, something about the way Gus writes keeps people from succumbing to their fear. The witty jokes, the cutting remarks, and the powerful observations in his paper awaken the townspeople to their ability to act, and sharpen their awareness of what’s at stake. The words of the evasive author of Merridilly stick in the people’s minds and spur acts of resistance all across Osgood.

But despite his anonymous influence, Gus can’t halt the expansion of tyranny choking the life out of the world he loves. Friends and neighbors withdraw their trust, strange disappearances and grisly murders become more frequent, and Gus’s little sister, Lucy, is in danger of being incarcerated for her disability. Gus, though he loathes it, is forced to maintain a “loyalist lapdog” reputation to avoid discovery; he is praised by the people he despises and doubted by the ones he most admires. Is he even making a difference? Is he achieving any sort of net good in this authoritarian hellscape?

A chance encounter with a wily mother fox named Harriet leads to a startling discovery about the nature of the Arete, and the monstrous peril that awaits all those who do not bow down to tyrants. Loved ones are taken, eldritch horrors grow in strength, and Gus learns that his own father has contributed to the cataclysm. But truly courageous folk are drawn together in the face of terrible odds. Gus the faithful, Lucy the Otherworld Witness, Harriet the fierce-hearted, and others hear the desperation in the world, and answer the call. This fragile little community is the last beacon of humanity, and they will not let it be snuffed out. The better world they yearn for cannot be won without every last ounce of their courage. And with every step Gus takes, he feels the influence of his Grandma Birdie spurring him toward greater bravery.

Early Concept Art

Currently outlined to be a six-book graphic novel series.

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