A Preview of Carassouna: Coming Home

By Jen Hayes

Carassouna: Coming Home is a coming-of-age book that brings adventures in the 'ancient' world to life. In this ebook preview, you can read the first three chapters of Carassouna: Coming Home. I hope you enjoy it!

Carassouna Vendi is just your average 12-year old – in ancient Britain. Returning home after four years away, she finds new responsibilities and conflicting feelings. Cara doesn't know what she wants with her life: freedom and adventure, or family and security? Her father tells her she doesn't need to decide yet – but he is expecting her to stand as the clan's future chief.

Outside the walls of the hillfort, much more is at stake for her tribe; rival tribes may be seeking to take over their lands. When her clan is threatened, she must put all of her worries aside and take matters into her own hands to protect her clan, her family and her home.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Jen Hayes
• Release date: Feb 26, 2019
• ISBN: 9781999304928

Book preview

Copyright © Jen Hayes, 2018

The right of Jen Hayes to be identified as the author of this work has been

asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

First published in Great Britain in 2018

Hayes Creative Publishing, 136 Ermine St, Cambridge, CB23 3PQ,

England

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, write to Hayes Creative Publishing.

All characters and events in this publication are fictitious and any

resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

Celtic knot line art = designed by GDJ on OpenClipArt.org

I was eight winters when I left home. Not old enough to know where I was going, but old enough to know why. The bittersweet scent of thyme upon the fire still reminds me of that day.

I can smell the thyme now, even before we’re in sight of the hillfort. The fires burn constantly inside the roundhouses, providing heat and light, and I think I see a faint wisp of smoke rising in the still and sticky summer air.

‘Almost there now,’ calls my foster father from a short way behind me as he stops briefly at the river to let his horse drink; this river I know so well, every bend and every tree now reminding me of my childhood adventures.

Sent out to gather firewood or forage for herbs and berries, we would cool down from the summer heat in the clear, fresh water. I remember the sounds of splashing and laughing – our only worry whether our mams would think we were gone too long and come looking for us.

Now, four winters later, I’m almost back home. Who am I now? Who will they all be? I have no idea what to expect, and feel my stomach tighten into knots. I pull back on Morna for her to stop and wait for Solinus to catch up. 

‘You feeling a bit shook up?’ he asks.

I nod – I guess the look on my face gives away my feelings; I was never any good at hiding them.

‘Don’t worry now,’ he says. ‘They’re all expecting you – word was sent from the Wighton clan just yesterday when we stopped for the night. A clan member coming home is always a big deal. That sweet smoke can only mean one thing: a feast. And I’m certainly ready for that!’ he adds, laughing.

I give him a nervous smile and we continue on, giving a click for our horses to keep following the river.  

It’s