Young Arcan and the Garden of Loc

Young Arcan and the Garden of Loc is a young adult fantasy novel by Matthew R. Milson, and is the first book in the Tales From Emberthel series. It is the story of Arcan, an eleven-year-old boy who befriends a talking tree named Arborgast. When Loc, one of the creators of the world, begins to steal the spirit of life from the lands, Arcan is compelled to save his dying friend and all of Emberthel. Journeying to Loc's Garden, Arcan seeks to free the world's stolen life essence.

Biography
Matthew R. Milson was born on September 17, 1984 in St. Louis, Missouri and lived there until the age of nineteen. Of four siblings, he is the youngest, though by only three minutes from his identical twin brother Michael.

In 2003, Matthew graduated from Hazelwood West High School, and in the autumn of that year while still working at his high school job as a dishwasher, Matthew got the itch to begin writing. It was while performing the often dull and mundane tasks required of him that he found his time to think. That was when Arcan was born. Spending his time writing in the morning before his shifts, and bouncing his ideas off his brother Michael who worked the same hours as he at night, the story gradually began to develop.

In March of the next year, Matthew moved to Orlando, Florida to attend Full Sail. Without much time for writing, Young Arcan was put to the side. Upon reaching the Historical Archetypes and Mythology course, Matthew found the opportune time to get back to work on Young Arcan, presenting a simple version of the story for the course project. It was then late nights spent writing after a full day of classes until he graduated before Young Arcan and the Garden of Loc was finally completed. On his day of graduation, in addition to his Bachelor of Science in Video Game Design and Development degree, Matthew also received the Course Director’s Award for the Historical Archetypes and Mythology class.

In January of 2006, while searching for the perfect publisher for Young Arcan, Matthew happened across Avari Press a newly established publishing company devoted to the fantasy genre. In February of 2007, Avari Press contacted Matthew with an offer to publish Young Arcan and the Garden of Loc.

Plot summary
Arcan is an eleven-year-old boy who lives on an orchard tended by Orchard Trolls, in a land called Emberthel. One day, while walking through the Everold Forest, young Arcan happens upon a hill with a lone tree at the top. Deciding to take rest beneath its branches, he soon discovers that the tree can talk and becomes good friends with him, naming him Arborgast. When Arcan asks Arborgast about how he learned to talk, Arborgast tells him of the four Origins, the beings who created the world. He explains how he and five other men requested immortal lives from the Origin named Loc in the early years of Emberthel, and how their request angered the Origin, who cursed them to live their immortal lives alone as trees.

After months of friendship, autumn arrives and the leaves upon the orchard trees seem to be dying rather than changing into vibrant arrays of color. When Arcan arrives in the kingdom of Onorfell to deliver a cart of apples, he finds that the Origin may be involved in the early dying of the leaves and that it is only the beginning of terrible things to come. Worried for his friend, Arcan rushes back to Arborgast and is told of an attack made upon the Origin Loc, and how the act sparked his anger against the entire race of Men. Arborgast also tells of Loc’s murder of the other three Origins when they refused to help him eliminate the race of Men, and how he now seeks to destroy all life in Emberthel. Surrounding himself with a massive wall against the base of the Sundur Mountains, which Loc calls his Garden, he collects the spirit of life from the lands, called Essence, in a fire that burns atop the mountain peak.

Unable to persuade the king of Onorfell to send out the army, Arcan realizes that he must leave the comfort of his orchard home and journey to Loc’s Garden. Accompanied by his Orchard Troll friend Prouhet and an Embrite named Herald, Arcan embarks on a journey through the dark Everold Forest to extinguish the flame atop the mountain and return the Essence to the lands of Emberthel.

Characters
;Arborgast:
One of the six men who requested from the Origin Loc an immortal life, and whose Essence in turn was trapped in the seed of a tree and placed upon a hill in the Everold Forest.

;Arcan:
Originally from Onorfell, Arcan was taken to live on his Grandfather’s apple orchard after a fire swept through the kingdom, taking the lives of his parents. After meeting and making friends with Arborgast in the Everold Forest, Arcan sets out on a perilous journey to Loc’s Garden to set free the stolen Essence of the world.

;Fey:
A forest spirit; Daughter of the Everold, charged with the protection of the Everold Forest.

;Herald:
An Embrite, son of Hamold, who joins Arcan in his quest to defeat the Origin Loc.

;Loc:
One of the four Origins. Upon being attacked by men sent from the kingdom of Almoral and the refusal of the other three Origins to help him eliminate the race of men from Emberthel, Loc betrays the Origins and creates the Garden.

;Prouhet:
An Orchard Troll and best friend of Arcan who promised to look after Arcan for as long as he lived. In keeping with that promise, Prouhet joins Arcan in his quest to set free the stolen life essence atop the Sundur Mountains.

Locations/Races
;Emberthel:
The world endowed to the Origins. A name derived from the word Embrite, chosen for the beauty and wonder of the Embrite realm.

;Embrites:
Those beings who hail from the Embrite Forest. Typically tall and slender, having a pale blue hue to their skin, the Embrites are renowned for their ability to turn into floating orbs of radiant light.

;Everold Forest:
The forest through which the Old River Road passes and where Arborgast’s hill is located. Running directly to the base of the Sundur Mountains, the Everold Forest is among the first places in all of Emberthel to feel the effects of Loc’s actions.

;Garden, The:
The Origin Loc’s stronghold against the world without. Within it, life flourishes and is contained by a forty foot high wall that stretches from the Sundur Mountains and encompasses the eastern end of the Everold Forest.

;Old River Road:
A road built entirely of stone where the river Anquiem once flowed. Laid by the trolls led down from the Polar Realm as they journeyed southward through Emberthel, the Old River Road cuts directly through the Everold Forest. Seldom is it used for travel however, as stories tell of its haunting by those trolls who built it.

;Origins:
Sol, Fin, Mir, and Loc. The creators of Emberthel. Sent by powers higher to fashion the lands to their liking and prepare the world for existence.

;Sundur Mountains:
The chain of mountains located in western Emberthel where Loc chooses to construct his Garden. Carved within the tallest mountain is Loc’s stronghold, above which on the peak swirls a fire that imprisons the Essence of the lands.

Publication Details
*ISBN 978-1-933770-03-1 (paperback, October 2007)

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