The Golden One: Blooming

By Hans M Hirschi

Earth is threatened by humankind. A long time ago, in an effort to help protect her creation, Mother Nature created the Ohana, a worldwide league of shapeshifters, to restore and maintain the natural balance. During particularly troublesome times, she deployed her ultimate defense, a delicate yet powerful golden butterfly, to change the odds in nature's favor.

Blooming is the first book in the trilogy about Jason Mendez, a seventeen-year-old living a normal teenage life in a small town in the American Midwest. One day, Jason's world is turned upside down when he realizes the dream he had the night before was in fact reality and that he was flying through a nearby meadow.

Jason is the Golden One, called upon to avert a major crisis threatening Earth. With no golden butterfly sighted since the final days of World War II, will Jason be able to walk in his predecessors' shoes? Will he be able to replicate their historic achievements and save the planet from all but certain disaster? And what exactly is threatening Mother Nature to call upon the Golden One?

The Golden One is an exciting new fantasy trilogy dealing with urgent topics affecting humanity today.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Beaten Track Publishing
• Release date: Nov 15, 2018
• ISBN: 9781786452832

Hans M Hirschi

Hans M Hirschi has been writing stories since childhood. As an adult, the demands of corporate life put an end to his fiction for more than twenty years. A global executive in training, he has traveled the world and published several non-fiction titles as well as four well-received novels. The birth of his son provided him with the opportunity to rekindle his love of creative writing, where he expresses his deep passion for a better world through love and tolerance. Hans lives with his husband and son on a small island off the west coast of Sweden.

Book preview

Preface

My name is Jason, and this is my story. Until just a few weeks ago, I was an ordinary seventeen-year-old, going to school, getting ready for my junior prom, and primarily worrying about bad hair days and zits…

Until everything changed, and all I had known to be true became irrelevant…

When I had that dream. When Hannah, the girl no one really talks to in school, came up to me and said she absolutely had to talk to me. That’s when everything changed. Everything.

I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s take this from the top. Are you ready?

Chapter 1

I had the weirdest dream last night. But before I tell you about that, let me introduce myself. Jason here, Jason Mendez. I’m seventeen, and when school starts again this fall, I’ll begin my senior year here at Amberville High School. At last. For those of you who care about the whole popularity BS going on at our schools, here’s me: I’m a nobody. Nobody sees me, nobody cares about me. I play band, I do track and field, and while I’m reasonably good at it, my average looks, my bad complexion—I hate my acne, even though it’s not nearly as bad as a couple of years ago—and the fact that I’m awfully shy make me disappear in any crowd.

Which is fine. Way better than being a nerd or just plain bullied like some around here. I get good grades in school, but I’m not really into the academic aspects. Math, geometry, English—they all bore me. My dream is to be a landscape gardener, like my grandpa before me. He worked around here with hotels and golf courses and created some amazing works of art, just with soil, water, grass, flowers, and trees.

He died last year, Grandpa. I never met my dad. He was in a freak car accident before I was born, and I’ve been raised mostly by my mother. She’s okay, as far as mothers go. She probably wants me to study, go to college, become a lawyer or a doctor. She doesn’t understand. I just want to continue Grandpa’s work, take over his firm. Legally, it’s already mine. He left it to me, but for now, my mother runs it part-time, and we have our foreman Jake take care of the actual work.

She’s been working for Grandpa ever since my dad passed away. Not that she had much of a choice—it is our family business—but she wants me to sell it, live my own life. Mom doesn’t understand soil. She does the books and talks to customers. I, on the other hand, get dirt. I have a great understanding for soil and the power it holds to allow for growth and nourish plants—the enormous life force emanating from the earth. I remember going out with Grandpa. He showed me how he worked and how he tried to enhance what was already there, highlighting the beauty inherent to every locale, using lights, water, rocks, and additional plants, and laying paths that people would be able to follow to discover these gardens or parks.

Have you ever noticed that in most public areas, people make a beeline from one point to another? They disregard the carefully laid out paths and just take the shortcut, trampling the grass until a dirt path has been created, leading to more and more people taking that path. Not in Grandpa’s gardens. He had a knack for knowing exactly how to keep people on his paths, and he shared those secrets with me. He also understood why people took those shortcuts, and he would often indulge those needs and lay out the paths that way.

Grandpa was connected to the Earth somehow. I still remember how he’d sometimes put the palm of his hand on the ground, just listening. I’d stand next to him, marveling at what he was doing. It was almost as if he were in communion with the soil, and if I said something, he’d tell me to be quiet because he was listening to the place’s story and what it had to tell him. At first, I thought it was a bit of mumbo-jumbo, but in the end, when I saw the results, I had to agree with him. Somehow, and I have no idea how, Grandpa was communicating with the Earth, and it told him just how a garden or landscape could be enhanced.

He never got to reveal his magic to me…well, his techniques. He got sick—cancer—and passed away early last summer, just before we got out of school at the end of my sophomore year. I had really been looking forward to working with him. Instead, Mom had to get his affairs in order and scramble to hire a new foreman to take on Grandpa’s jobs.

We’ve lost a lot of business this past year, and Mom is struggling to keep things afloat. Jake is a good man, but he doesn’t have Grandpa’s talent, nowhere near, and customers are disappointed. Who knows, maybe Mom will get her wish and I’ll have no choice but to go to college. If the business doesn’t survive, I may not have anything left to take over, not that we have much of a college fund either. Gardening, while totally cool, isn’t exactly going to make me rich.

Enough of that. Let me tell you about my dream. It was the weirdest thing ever. I actually flew in my dream, through this warped landscape. I couldn’t make out where it was, because I was tiny, I mean, really small. Either that or the flowers and the plants were gigantic.

I was soaring through the air, in between all those plants with leaves so green they seemed to be magically luminescent, and I think it must’ve been a different planet because they all looked alien—oddly familiar yet totally different. The colors were so striking, so bright, and they shone like neon lights—almost unreal. And the smells and scents. Wow! Even without the colors, I’d have been intoxicated.

I don’t think I’ve ever smelled anything like it before, the sweetness of the nectar wafting through my nostrils, all kinds of incredible scents, each flower calling to me with its own unique aroma. Some were delicate, others were almost offensive in their odor, reminding me more of a sewage plant or a pile of manure than actual flowers.

I couldn’t identify any of them, but the onslaught of impressions made me dizzy. My flight path wasn’t straight, but up and down and sideways, almost like a feather dancing in the wind. I guess I was delirious from all the colors and scents.

So there I was, flying through that field, in between flowers, taking in their perfumes, enjoying the colors…but most of all, I absolutely loved the sensation of being airborne. It’s impossible to describe, but it was this feeling of utter freedom, of no cares, no worries. It was exhilarating, liberating, and I didn’t want it to end. But it did, and then my alarm clock rang.

It was so weird, yet it was the most energizing dream I’ve ever had, this empowering sensation of being in charge yet completely out of control. I’m not sure I can accurately describe the emotions that raged through me, or adequately describe the experience. I did, however, wake up starving as if I’d never eaten before, and every muscle in my body was aching. I’m not unfit—I make pretty good time in the 100 meters, not to mention all the yard work I do—but I don’t think I’ve ever had sore muscles like this before.

Chapter 2

Hey, Jason. Hannah approached me in the high school corridor as I was clearing out my locker. It was one of the final days of school, and we were about to be released into the blissful freedom of summer break. Do you have a minute? I need to talk to you.

Hannah talk to me? I just hoped she wasn’t asking me out to prom. The thought of going to prom after Courtney left was completely alien, and yeah, I just didn’t feel like going, let alone turn anyone down. Hannah’s kind of like me, invisible. Not bullied, but ignored, probably because her mother, Mrs. Salieri, is a high-profile businesswoman with a ton of influence in town and beyond, but weirdly, not very popular.

What’s up? I responded casually, trying to keep my cool.

Not here. After school. Can you meet me up by the reservoir on the far corner of the Green farm? Say, four o’clock? Hannah stepped way into my comfort zone as she talked, making it clear that no was not an acceptable answer to her request.

Uh, yeah, I guess. I had no clue what this was about.

"Good. And please, don’t forget. This is important. Really important."

The emphasis on the word sent chills down my spine, and suddenly I felt as if I was part of some spy thriller or caught in a strange daydream, and my head began to spin.

Are you okay? Hannah grabbed my shoulder to support me.

Yeah. I’m fine.

Good, I’ll see you at four, then. With that, she turned around and walked away.

I watched her leave, unsure what had happened just now. Somehow, she seemed different. Cooler, more grown-up…in charge? Not sure that’s a good description for it, but that’s certainly how it felt.

***

You came. Hannah was standing by an old oak tree near the dam of our local water reservoir. It’s on the far side of the Green farm, where the valley narrows and the wilderness and the mountains take over. Behind the reservoir is an old forest where kids sometimes go to play and scare each other. It’s an unusual place to ask to meet someone, not unheard of, though most of the popular crowd wouldn’t come here. They go downtown, to one of the hip cafés, the mall, or maybe Lincoln Park. This place? More my kind of hangout. Maybe Hannah knew me better than I knew her?

You didn’t give me much of a choice. Plus I’m curious by nature. I tried to stay cool, pretending I was unfazed by her request, but truth be told, I was a little worried. I just hoped it wasn’t the prom thing. This old oak had more scars from inscriptions of love-sick couples through the years than I cared to acknowledge.

Let’s get one thing straight. I’m not here to ask you on a date. You’re not my type.

Uh, o-okay? I offered, slightly confused. Hannah was certainly more direct than I would’ve given her credit for.

I know about Courtney, so don’t worry. And I’ll be going to the prom stag this year if I’m going at all.

I felt the blood rushing to my head. I couldn’t help it. Very few people knew about Courtney and me, but Hannah seemed to have seen right through me. It was a tad unsettling, to say the least.

How… I began, but Hannah put up a hand. For some reason, I felt compelled to do as she asked.

What I’m about to tell you might come as a shock. So you better sit down for this. She waited until I actually sat down, my back against the old oak, and then sat, cross-legged, in front of me. Somehow she looked different. I couldn’t quite put my finger on it, but it was almost as if there was a faint glow surrounding her. She had this air of confidence, of…power? I know how strange that sounds, but that’s how it felt.

Jason, you are Byeonsin, she stated flatly.

A beyond-what? Besides never having heard the word before, I found it a ridiculous notion. How could I be anything that I didn’t even know the word for? Crazy!

Byeonsin. You have the ability to take on the form of an animal.

At that, I had to laugh out loud. It was ridiculous. You mean like a shapeshifter? Hannah, you’ve either munched on a mushroom too many or you’re pulling my leg.

It was Hannah’s turn to laugh. No Jason, you’ve read too many books. There’s no such thing as shapeshifters.

Then what are these beyon…whatever you’re talking about? I was quickly losing my newfound respect for Hannah. This was all just a bit too outlandish. Crazy. Weird. Stupid.

Do you believe in magic? she asked.

Okay, that’s it. I’m out of here. I got up and turned around, leaving her. This was obviously some sort of prank, and I wasn’t going to let her ridicule me. Being a nobody in school was no fun, but to suddenly be bullied and made fun of by another nobody? I was not going to stand for that.

I heard a shuffle and Hannah crying Wait! but when I turned around, she was gone. Just like that. Now, all by itself, that would’ve been freakish enough, because the oak stands pretty much in an open field, maybe fifty yards from the banks of the reservoir. There are no other trees to hide behind, no caves or holes in the ground, at least not close enough for her to have reached them. The reservoir is pretty big and the forest doesn’t begin until way behind the reservoir. There was nowhere Hannah could’ve gone, and weirder still, where she had been sitting, a big owl now stood, wings spread, looking up at me.

Instinctively, I stumbled, taking a couple of steps backward, almost landing on my rear end. This was a big bird, a great horned owl, one of the biggest birds we have around here, and if it had wanted to, it could’ve inflicted serious harm. Before I knew it, I was on my ass again, sitting in the grass, and Hannah was standing right in front of me.

Do you believe in magic, now? She gave me a look of I told you, didn’t I? There was a big smirk on her face.

I couldn’t find any words. My mouth hung open and I was simply staring at her, incredulous. Did she just turn into an owl and back in the blink of an eye?

Yes, I did, Hannah said flatly.

Whoa, hang on a minute. How do you know my thoughts?

Byeonsin owls have the ability to read other people’s minds. It’s the gift we have.

I, uh, don’t understand… My head was spinning. This was all too much. Magic, shapeshifting, this beyon-shinning or whatever Hannah had called it. It made no sense.

Did you drug me?

Hannah laughed. No, I most certainly did not. Look, I can understand this is a shock for you, but you are a Byeonsin, too. I noticed your aura this morning in school. I haven’t seen one in school before, not this strong. We usually bloom during puberty, and we are guided by our parents. They’re usually the first ones to see the aura after we bloom. There are a few others in our school.

Bloom? Suddenly, I blushed. Did she know what I had done last night in bed?

No, I don’t, or I didn’t until now. And eww! Hannah’s face became distorted. Would you focus, please? This is important. Blooming is when your animal manifests itself for the first time, not when you touch yourself. It’s one of the most sacred times in the life of a Byeonsin.

Okay, okay. I let my head drop in shame.

I know your mother isn’t Byeonsin, so I guess your dad was. He’s dead, though, isn’t he? I nodded. Anyone still alive on his side of the family? I shook my head. As I suspected. I know your grandfather was Byeonsin. He had the brightest aura I’ve ever seen in a Byeonsin, at least around here. He was famous—the leader of our Ohana for decades.

What’s this aura you’re talking about?

It’s how we recognize each other. Look at me carefully. Can you see there’s a sort of glow around my body? I know this takes time, but even when I first bloomed, I immediately knew that my mom looked different. She seemed more powerful, more in charge. Over time, as my abilities grew and I learned to home in on my owl even in my human form, I saw the golden glow around her, and I began to see others around me who were like us. Byeonsin.

There are others like you?

Yes, there are millions of us, all over the world.

Then why haven’t we heard of you? Don’t humans know about you…I mean…us? I was still far from convinced this was actually happening, but I found it hard not to believe my own eyes.

They might have, but they wouldn’t believe it. And that’s fine because if they ever did, they’d hunt us down and they would destroy us. I’m sure you can imagine humans wouldn’t be comfortable knowing that some of us have the abilities and the gifts of animals?

I guess not, I offered weakly. I had so many questions on my mind, but I didn’t know where to begin.

Your grandfather was the leader of the Byeonsin here in town. He was a great man. His death was a huge loss. You of all people know what a great talent he had for communing with the Earth.

Is that why he was so talented?

Hannah nodded. He was a mole, and in his animal form, he had an uncanny ability to sense the land and his surroundings. Almost without eyesight, he had to rely on other senses. He was so wise.

But…a mole? I guess I couldn’t hide my disappointment. Why not a lion or a werewolf?

Okay, first things first. There are no werewolves. That’s fiction, okay? Fantasy! And a wolf here? How would that look? People would hunt it down and kill it in no time. Same with a lion. There are, of course, Byeonsin lions and wolves, but they live where those animals are a natural part of the habitat of the area. The biggest animals you’ll find around here are deer and maybe a coyote.

But a mole… How can a mole be powerful?

Hannah laughed. In time, you’ll understand. Byeonsin are not judged by their physical appearance or their size, but by their character and their ability to understand Mother Nature. Anyone can be a leader, from the tiniest spider to the tallest elephant. And our most revered leader is a delicate butterfly.

I don’t understand… I was developing a serious headache. Nothing made any sense to me, and picturing Grandpa as a mole? It was mind-boggling.

Look, Jason. You will understand, in time. Since you have no family to guide you into Byeonsin life, let me help you. I’m sure the Ohana will sanction it.

‘The Ohana? Isn’t that Hawaiian?

You’ll find in our world, we have chosen words from many different cultures. Ohana means family, and that is what we are—family. There are local and regional Ohanas, and there’s a global Ohana, which meets once every year. But don’t concern yourself with that right now. Tell me, what animal form has Mother bestowed upon you?

I shook my head. I was utterly unaware of any shapes I could change into.

You must have bloomed last night. I remember seeing you in school yesterday, and you had no aura. This morning, it was super bright, very unusual for a new hatchling. Then again, you are Mario Mendez’s grandson. That’s got to count for something. Did you have any vivid dreams last night? Any dream you remember at all?

I usually don’t remember my dreams, but since you mention it, I did have a strange dream about flying last night, like I was on an alien world, soaring through gigantic and very colorful flowers. Does that mean anything?

Hannah laughed and nodded. "You must’ve morphed into your shape last night, right after you bloomed. It’s not unheard of for new hatchlings to go out