Saga of the Wind

Intro
Saga of the Wind is set in the Six Valleys, a windy mountainside caught under a monstrous cyclone called the Windstream. The Windstream is considered an Eternal Storm. Due to the severe weather conditions, no one has come or gone from the Six Valleys for centuries.

Seven years prior to the novel, Chief Mechanic Yarn and his team were swept into the Windstream during an expedition for precious Stardust, the only source of fuel for the Valley Pilgrims. Valley Chief Runzel and the Council of Elders since suspended all searches for more stardust, leaving them to survive on their large but slowly diminishing stores.

Six years later, Yarn's son Hizen becomes the youngest pilot in Six Valley history. While he seeks to fulfill his fathers dreams of adventure, he is subjected to a life of farming as a sky harvester by his grieving mother.

Plot Summary
Hizen, a teenage pilot, and his younger brother Saga encounter a skywreck survivor while out harvesting. He calls himself Thorol, and claims to be from a distant land where the sky is less harsh and his civilization prospers away from the path of the Windstream. The pair rescue the man in their flying machine and take him back to their village. The elders are wary of Thorol, as they have never known people to exist outside of their valley homelands. Thorol says he can prove his claims if the Valley Pilgrims will cooperate in building a Skytake, an enormous flying machine unlike any they have ever made. The pilgrims are divided into those who are willing to risk the precious, limited resources to carry out the plan, and those who doubt Thorol and his intentions. Saga takes an interest in Thorol and often visits him in his makeshift workshop. Thorol is cautious about sharing his inventions with the pilgrims but welcomes Saga and his childlike curiosity. Saga decides to provide Thorol with what information he can in order to see the Skytake built. The elders catch Thorol harvesting Stardust from sanctioned crops in order to fuel his inventions and realize Saga is responsible for telling him how to obtain it. Saga is punished and forbidden from talking to Thorol and visiting his workshop.

The pressure season changes and the Windstream grows stronger in the coming weeks. The pilgrims prepare for the austere weather but Thorol warns them that the Windstream is coming to destroy the village, having read the jet patterns from his workshop. The elders decide to approach Thorol about his work and confiscate what they have deemed unnecessary supplies but that night the Windstream hits. Thorol, Hizen, Saga, and most other pilgrims escape in panic to evacuation points in the side of the mountain that Thorol had identified, but many of his non-believers perish. When the torrents break much of Frorvalley has been destroyed and the remaining pilgrims are now convinced that Thorol can be trusted. Construction of the Skytake goes underway, and Hizen is chosen to pilot the small crew through the Windstream to Thorol's homeland. The night before departure, Saga goes to see Thorol one last time but sees him speaking into a strange device. He listens and discovers that Thorol is a soldier-explorer from a nation outside the Windstream, sent to mine the treasured Skydust hidden inside. When Saga confronts him he learns that Thorol has not been telling the whole truth. The world outside the Windstream is vastly populated and much more technologically advanced. With the discovery of priceless Aerium, (Stardust), many nations have tried to enter the Windstream and failed. Thorol intends to hijack the Skytake, fit to be an enormous harvester, and return to his homeland with the remaining Aerium stores. He kidnaps Saga and traps him in a cargo box aboard the Skytake.

Hizen departs Frovalley with Thorol and crew piloting the Skytake, despite his worried mother who fears the worst for Saga having gone missing the night before. When Thorol tries to take over the Skytake a fight breaks out, but Thorol has a weapon that dispatches his opponents easily. He plans to keep Hizen alive as he needs him to navigate through the Windstream. Hizen defies him but Thorol reveals that he is holding Saga onboard hostage. Saga is able to escape his holdings and the two brothers turn on Thorol, but in the struggle Saga is whisked out of the Skytake and into the Windstream, alone, afraid, and at the mercy of the wind.

Characters

 * Yarn, Chief Mechanic of the Valley Pilgrims
 * Tikari, wife of Yarn
 * Hizen, firstborn and eldest son of Yarn and TIkari
 * Brella, Eldest daughter of Yarn and Tikari
 * Saga, middle son of Yarn and Tikari
 * Amber, youngest daughter of Yarn and Tikari
 * Higo, lastborn and youngest of Yarn and Tikari