Flight to Bern Village: Vastus Book 1

While a war rages in space, a revolutionary group of humans, shapeshifters, and telepaths gather to prove their races can live together in peace. They believe in peace enough to erase their memories and begin a primitive city on a secluded planet, Vastus. Generations later, conflicts on Vastus force people to flee their city. Meanwhile, a few Peace Bringers arrive on a broken-down space station to observe the inhabitants on Vastus. What they see is anything but encouraging, and they must deal with problems of their own. Vastus Station is falling apart, and the relationships between the occupants are equally precarious.

Map of Peace Island

This map of Peace Island on Vastus was illustrated by Justin Donaldson.

The trail Ani and Larissa traveled on looped back to the castle. Few people saw a need to travel further into the forest, but Ani wasn’t going to return. Between bushes and tall trees Ani and Larissa wove, remaining hidden like jittery rabbits scrambling away from a hunter’s eye. Ani pushed the horse harder. Hunger pains nagged at her stomach, but Ani didn’t dare stop. She had to get further away from Glanton. She was not going to miss her chance to escape. Ani didn’t know where she was going, but she was beyond the castle wall for the first time in her life and that was all that mattered to her.