Tyro: TDU Series, #1

By Jyn West

The number of paranormal entities in the world are increasing and intermarrying with humans. Those humans and their friends and families are now aware of them and word is spreading. Who will help with peacekeeping and law enforcement as knowledge of their existence spreads. Who will help train local law enforcement agencies how to deal with these groups, who have until now been self-policed. With the increased numbers and expansion beyond the voluntary group boundaries of the past, an integrated human and paranormal force will be needed for the future.

Book one of the TDU Series is about Jeri. Jeri before the prophecy was given to her, before the TDU was a goal in anyone's mind, before the second prophecy confirmed the need for its presence. You are here when it all began for her and those who choose to surround her. Welcome aboard.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Jyn West
• Release date: Sep 24, 2019
• ISBN: 9781393043966

Book preview

Copyright Page

Copyright ©2019 Jyn West All Rights Reserved

No part of this book may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the Author. You must not circulate the book in any format. Thank you for respecting the rights of the Author. This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance of characters to actual persons, living or dead is purely coincidental.

Dedication & Acknowledgements

Thank you to my family and friends who encourage me daily. For believing that I could not only write the stories but finish and publish them. I could not have done it without you. Your patience and love carried me through the rough spots, and you rejoiced with me as hurdles were cleared.

A special thanks to all my beta readers and their willingness to take me on as a new author and to share your views while the work was in progress. For not getting upset when you heard, oh by the way, I made some changes three books into the series, let me know what you think. LOL I am sure there were times when you were throwing your hands in the air and rolling your eyes at me. Thanks for seeing it through. Georgianna Jonson and Dee B. you guys are the best interactive sounding boards ever. I am honored to have had you with me through the process.

My family, friends and beta readers have heard this disclaimer many times but here it is for all you new readers too.

This series is a work of fiction. If details about locations are accurate, I may have passed through or I may have gotten lucky with my description. No need to correct perceived errors in the description, this is fiction. Some facts or observations are woven through the stories but for the majority of the series, this is fiction. *laugh* I hope you enjoy the books. I hope they do inspire you to explore places you have not been, but please don’t try to find places described except just for fun, because its fiction. May the wanderlust take you to places unknown by road or by reading. Encourage our youth to learn the joy and fun of reading, a vacation for our mind that can last minutes or hours as time allows. Thanks for checking us out. The TDU Series currently has 12 books with a 13th in progress and each will be released as it goes through final editing and touchups.

About: TDU - The Series

Tactical (strategic, planned, psychological, calculated, intentional)

Development (expansion, progress, advancement, training, education)

Unit (entity, division, group, company, organization)

The number of paranormal entities in the world are increasing and intermarrying with humans. Those humans and their friends and families are now aware of them and word is spreading. Who will help with peacekeeping and law enforcement as knowledge of their existence spreads. Who will help train local law enforcement agencies how to deal with these groups, who have until now been self-policed. With the increased numbers and expansion beyond the voluntary group boundaries of the past, an integrated human and paranormal force will be needed for the future.

Book One of the TDU Series is about Jeri. Jeri before the prophecy was given to her, before the TDU was a goal in anyone’s mind, before the second prophecy confirmed the need for its presence. You are here when it all began for her and those who choose to surround her. Welcome aboard.

Table of Contents

Contents

Copyright Page

Dedication & Acknowledgements

About: TDU - The Series

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 – Tyro

Chapter 2 - Graduation

Chapter 3 - Interviews

Chapter 4 – Surprise!

Chapter 5 – The Offer

Chapter 6 – Testing, testing.

Chapter 7 – Housing

Chapter 8 – Nightmares and Missions, Oh My!

Chapter 9 – Recap

Chapter 10 – Training begins

Chapter 11 – Danny Boy

Chapter 12 – Shifter Central

Chapter 1 – Tyro

Jeri’s Story

May – Northern Arizona University (NAU), Flagstaff Arizona 

Graduation Focus Group 7pm in the Lumberjack Student Center, the menu board in the lobby reminds us. Two hours to grab a quick supper and fill out the packet of forms we got on registering for the event. With graduation less than a month away, this seminar is supposed to help us organize all the last-minute details that need our attention before walking away from our collegiate home in confidence. Sure could have used one of these before high school graduation. 

Filling out the packet and scarfing down a light supper took all of 15 minutes. Still an hour and a half before it starts. I wish Gram were here to see how far I’ve come in my 24 years. She would be so proud of me. Everything I have accomplished I attribute to her steadfast encouragement over the years. Well, and the blessings of the Gods and Goddesses, and my Shaman’s perseverance too of course. As I waited for the seminar to begin, I thought back over my early life with my Gram and Gramps.

I was born, Jeri Janae Miller, 24 years ago to Theodore and Emily Miller in San Francisco California. My father was an international corporate attorney and my mother was an international business accountant. They spent the first ten years of their marriage building their companies reputations for excellence and traveling the globe to expand those businesses. 

The eleventh year of their marriage brought an unplanned pregnancy and subsequent birth of a dark blonde haired, brown eyed daughter and fulltime nanny into their lives. Our family was multi-lingual. My mother and her parents spoke Italian and English in equal portions, my father and his parents spoke French and English in equal portions, and I was speaking all three languages like a child much older than three years of age. They realized that their cute loving little girl was special.

Everywhere we traveled animals were drawn to me, communicated with me and played with me in the absence of human playmates. My parents decided that I needed a more stable environment to learn in and asked my mother’s parents if they would be willing to have me live with them so that I could be tutored from a young age to take advantage of this remarkable communication ability. My Gram and Gramps agreed and at age four I moved to their home in Sonoma California, where my Gramps ran a winery. My Gram changed her work from office based, a financial planning company she owned, to her home office. They made accommodations so their first and probably only grandchild would have every advantage their daughter was unwilling to provide for, except from a financial perspective. 

Within the first two weeks of having me with them they noticed that I appeared to talk in my sleep to someone I called Shaman and in languages that they were not familiar with. When I was awake, they would ask me what I dreamed about and I told them my Shaman was teaching me many languages and how to look like different animals. At first, they worried that I was not sane, and they took turns watching me sleep at night to ensure my safety. They continued to hear me speaking in other languages and eventually both experienced seeing me physically change into various small animals. 

While awake I was a happy child and would not hesitate to converse with strangers when out shopping, in their native languages. My grandparents would ask the strangers what language they were speaking and what I said to them. This is how they learned what languages I had learned in my sleep. The animals on our land were drawn to me and my grandparents and the staff soon learned to come to me if something was wrong with one of the animals so I could find out what was wrong by asking them. 

A Native American who helped with the vineyard overheard them talking about the things I said while dreaming and he explained to them what a Shaman was and about dream walking. He told them that if a Shaman was teaching me in a dream walk that the Gods and Goddesses were blessing me, and it was to be celebrated not worried over. 

Though they continued to watch over me and question me to be sure all was well, as long as I was happy and unconcerned, they relaxed and accepted what they did not fully understand and suggested to my parents that I continue to be homeschooled through the lower grades until I was old enough to know how not to share my experiences with others who would think me crazy. My parents agreed and continued to pay for a tutor to conduct the homeschooling on core subjects like my peers were learning in school.

The tutor monitored the languages I was learning and made sure to have materials available for me to read and hear in those languages as well. She even found native speakers willing to Skype with me for practice if none were found locally. By age 8, I knew 13 languages. English, Italian, French, Navajo, Spanish/Castilian, Latin, Polish, Greek, Romanian, Hebrew, Yiddish, Arabic and ASL (American Sign Language). 

Age 10 brought 7 additional languages. Russian, Norwegian, Mayan/K’iche, Gaelic, Dutch, Tunisian and Rarotonga. My parents were flying back from overseas to spend the holidays with us when their plane crashed after being struck by lightning. After their estates settled, I was up 2 trust funds and owned property in San Francisco, France and Spain. I held the majority shares in both of their companies and my Grandparents were their executors and my legal guardians until age 18. After attending two board meetings, one with each company, my class load increased to include business and accounting courses of study so those running their companies would not be able to railroad me once I was old enough to participate in the companies. With Gram and Gramps both running large companies themselves, I was taught more by them than the tutor for those subjects.

Homeschool continued through age 12 and added 7 additional languages. Turkish, Finnish, Bulgarian, Czech, Cantonese, Nawat and Tarifit. My Grandparents never asked about the other teaching I received from Shaman. Somehow knowing about the ability to become animals was not an ability they wanted to acknowledge or understand. They were already on overload with the dream walking and the linguistic skills. By age 12 though, I had mastered transformation into over 16 small animals and had wandered past them in those forms without them even knowing. Always careful not to go into forest land where hunters might come after me though. 

When my Gramps was diagnosed with cancer the summer before I started Junior High School, he had no idea that the stray cat who frequently sat on his lap and comforted him was his only granddaughter who wasn’t supposed to know he was sick. It stopped coming by after he passed away and my Gram used to say she wouldn’t be surprised if the cat died of a broken heart. If she only knew how close to true that was. I was afraid she would figure out it was me if she saw a cat crying human tears in her lap and didn’t take on any feline forms for several years after that. My Gramps passed when I was 13 and I received my 3rd trust fund and shares in his Winery. Gram took over running it and retired from her own company only staying on the board to oversee things on a monthly basis.

Public school for Jr. High was a blessing that helped me recover from the passing of my parents and Gramps. I excelled in my classwork and by age 14 had added 5 more languages and 7 more animals including the falcon which remains one of my favorites to this day. The languages added were Mandarin, Papiamento, Japanese, Swedish and Nubian. Other students are arriving now for the Graduation Focus Group. Memories of high school and college will have to wait until after I get home tonight.

The seminar was an intense hour of checklists to be sure we had turned in necessary paperwork, updated resumes, and signed up to participate in the senior career fair. We were given an advance list of employers represented at the career fair and the procedures to follow to have our resumes considered before the start date in order to garner interviews the week they were in town. We had a checklist of fees and material returns needed before cutoff dates prior to graduation. There were only about 200 in attendance but in my opinion, this was the best hour spent in the past month. It was helpful and motivational and calmed my nerves and worries about potentially forgetting something critical to my success. I was able to check more than half off the lists already and about half of what was left was already in process. Time well spent. I grabbed a snack and an iced coffee on my way home. After I snuggled into my favorite recliner, I returned to my memories of the past ten years leading up to this month.

The summer before I started high school my Gram helped me talk to a lawyer and an accountant from my parents’ companies. I had been working over the summer training pets and guard dogs locally as well as providing translation and interpreting services for foreign exchange students in our area and wanted to make both abilities into actual companies to use in my FBLA (Future Business Leaders of America) assignments for High School. She helped me prepare business plans and they helped me file the necessary paperwork to start the two companies. I had to have my Gram listed as a company officer since I was still a minor, but we made an actual contract on how that would go to protect me if anything ever happened to her. We went to our local bank and set up small business accounts for each with Gram as the trustee owner on the accounts due to my age. Gram also assigned one of the financial planners from her company to help me invest my earnings. We started with the funds earned over the summer as my startup capital. Each company got 2,500. Gram didn’t realize how much I had been charging people and worried that I had stolen money from someone. I had kept a journal of all my jobs, expenses and income though. She and each of the other adults assigned to assist me were impressed. My tutor had told them she was teaching me business and accounting courses, they just didn’t realize how well I had taken to the information.

If that wasn’t a busy enough summer, I also hit puberty and encountered physical changes almost overnight that were surreal. In 3 months, I went from 5’4, 110 lbs., with dark Blonde hair and dark brown eyes, to 5’11, 160 lbs., with tricolor hair, black/bronze/copper, with gold/silver highlights. My eyes took on a heterochromia combination where the outer ring was still dark brown, but the next color was a warm caramel and the inner ring next to the pupil was golden. The percentage of each of the 3 eye colors varies with my moods and emotions. After these physical changes, all my animal forms are in the same coloring regardless of the animal. So basically, a high contrast brindle combination. Also, my skin went from pale with freckles to a warm creamy mocha like the tan base on a brindle pet.

High School was intense. I was taking all advanced classes that would earn college credits and help me graduate with an AA degree from the local community college by the time I graduated high school. I joined FBLA, Future Business Leaders of America, the very first week and was looking forward to attending a trip to the United Nations that year. After the UN trip I had my first International client for my language services, Mr. Minh was the first new client to receive one of my business cards after I had them made.

My Gram became quite ill when I was 16, a sophomore in high school. I was already earning about 2,000 a month with my companies by that time and we set up the three employees at my parents and Gram’s companies as trustees and filed paperwork to make me an emancipated minor. She wanted to be sure that if she passed I would be able to remain in our home while I finished school and we changed my tutor’s employment to that of household manager, a contracted position with defined duties to ensure that I would not end up in the foster care system. Sadly, my Gram passed before my 17th birthday. My trust funds increased to 4 and my property ownership included additional properties in Sonoma, Italy and the Caribbean.

When I graduated from High School with an associate degree from the local community college, I had added another 14 languages and 21 animals. Portuguese, Croatian, Taiwanese, German, Farsi/Persian, Pashtu, Khmer, Syrian, Vietnamese, Hindi, Lithuanian, Korean, Punjabi and Mongolian. Between the four companies I owned or had shares in through inheritance, plus my two companies, I was independently wealthy and could have retired at the age of 18. How boring that would have been though and besides, Shaman said I have a grander purpose in life and would never be truly happy if I didn’t live up to it. I knew in my heart and soul he was right and so I put the companies in good hands and moved to Arizona for college. 

Two years gained properties in AZ and WY, BS degree, 6 languages, 7 animals and credits toward Masters. The third year was spent in an internship and archeological dig in the Middle East, gained a property in Wales, 2 languages, several dialects, 4 animals and nearly a million in fees on a contract job for a Sheikh. Year four back in AZ added properties in San Diego and Mexico, 3 languages and 4 animals. Became a silent partner in an Air Charter company. Year five involved graduate studies in Europe and Asia, mainly in UK and China with properties in both. Extensive work on Chinese dialects and huge focus on meditation and martial arts. Sixth and final senior year back in AZ added properties in Belize and Chile, 2 languages, 5 animals and graduation approaching at the speed of light for both an MBA and PhD. 

Going back over my life so far made me feel like I have accomplished a lot in my life in these 24 years. If I were to add in all the work I performed in the language and animal training and the travel that went with those, it would almost be overwhelming. I truly was blessed to have survived all of that. Though I don’t share the same kind of memories other young people do, my memories mean a lot to me and helped to mold me into the person I am today and will continue to influence who I become in the future. I have no regrets. I am exhausted and though I have no Job waiting or any indication yet on what I have spent these 24 years preparing for, what the future holds for my purpose will all be revealed in good time. Time for bed now. Tomorrow we begin checking off the to do list from the Focus Group seminar. 

One more final, then graduation. The to do list is getting smaller, thank the Gods. I wish Gram was still here, she always had a way of seeing the real me beneath the surface of grades and appearances. I miss her comfort and clear sight in my life. I have updated my resume with all my skills and experience. I just have no idea what kind of job they are fit for. 

The problem is I can’t tell people what most of those skills are because they would likely lock me up in an insane asylum thinking I lost my mind. How do you tell someone that you have a spirit shaman who has been teaching you in your dreams from age 4 that you have a gift of language and physical transformation? Languages, not just human, but animal and plant life as well. Physical transformation, to any being or object for which you have DNA in your possession. Great skills to have in a multitude of situations but not ones to detail on a resume.

I have an AA, a BS and am graduating with an MBA and PhD. Most of my studies revolve around International Business Communications. That covers a lot of ground but with the skills listed and the corporate affiliations on the four family companies, it will open doors. The real question is, where are the Fates leading me and will I get to utilize any of that? My whole life so far has been spent in preparation for a mission I know nothing about, and my classes were chosen based on revealing dreams, gut reactions and faith that following them was the right thing to do. The next few weeks we have representatives coming from a couple dozen industries to tell us about those industries and for recruiting purposes. Hopefully one of those will speak to my spirit self and lead me where destiny demands my presence.

My ancient languages professor would like me to stay on with the school and work with him but after four of six years indoors I am ready to spread my wings (no pun intended) and move on to something more varied. If I could find something not just at a desk but that involved some travel or at least being outdoors for a portion of the day would be ideal, but what does that mean job wise these days? *Sigh* I better get back to studying. I will be so glad to get this last final out of the way and then I can start looking at the materials available to us on the industries that will be presenting their cases and I can submit resumes to the companies that will be offering on campus interviews before graduation.

My regular foreign language studies professor thinks I should work for the UN as a translator since I pick up languages so easily.  I have taken a different language every year since Junior High and have 10 documented foreign languages that I can safely put on a resume. I have over 60 common languages in my comfort zone and more dialects than I have kept track of. At last estimate I would guess over 100 total. 

The physical transformations I have learned from my Shaman cannot be revealed on a resume. Basically, any being that contains DNA that can be collected, I can transform into for short periods of time. I go on every nature excursion available and use it to collect samples for my collection. Some of my favorite finds are the Bengal Tiger tooth, the grizzly bear claw, an eagle feather, a whisker from a panther. I have some found on archeological digs that I haven’t identified yet and may only be able to by transforming into them. Not easily done without privacy and a large area to accommodate the creature in case it is something very large.

Having mastered the ability to add languages rapidly, Shaman tells me that as I perfect my ability to transform, I will be adding new skills soon that will expand on that ability. I am curious to know what new abilities will manifest. He asked what I would choose if I could and I told him I would like to master telepathy, healing (he has been teaching me about healing herbs and energies), and invisibility. He laughs at that one and reminds me that all can be invisible if they use their mind to its fullest potential to project that aspect of self. I don’t get that, but he assures me I will if I stay in the present and am mindful of all around me. I told him I understand some people feel invisible because no one pays attention to them but that I meant being literally seen through, invisible. And he laughs.

I have tried asking my shaman about what career path I should follow, and he just says to be patient, the spirits will guide me on the path when it is time for each phase to be followed. I asked Gram as I was growing up if Shaman was real or spirit. She said that according to the Native American who worked for them, he visits me and teaches me in spirit, but it is possible that he is also real and that if so I may meet him some day. I hope I do get