Echoing from the river bottom forest, the bark of the bog owl speaks of wild places still untamed, of quests not yet pursued, of great deeds not yet done.

Aidan Errolson heeds this call of the wild … and soon learns it’s a call to save his country.

Twelve-year-old Aidan Errolson comes from a long line of adventurers. His grandparents were among the first settlers of Corenwald’s eastern frontier. His father had been one of the kingdom’s greatest warriors. Aidan, on the other hand, lives the quiet, comfortable life of a nobleman’s son. He never has any real adventures, and that, he believes, is the one great injustice of his otherwise happy life.

All that will change the day he first hears the bark of the bog owl and meets Dobro Turtlebane. Dobro is one of the feechiefolk — a tribe of half-civilized swamp dwellers who fight too much, laugh too loud, cry too easily, and smell just terrible.

But another meeting on that remarkable day may change Aidan’s life even more profoundly. Bayard the Truthspeaker arrives with a starting pronouncement: Aidan Errolson will grow to be the Wilderking — the long-prophesied wild man who will come out of Corenwald’s forests and swamps to lead the kingdom back to its former glory.

There’s only one question: is Bayard the Truthspeaker a prophet or a madman?

Aidan didn’t quite know what to do. He had been summoned here, yet he felt as if he were interrupting. Suddenly, the white head lurched up. The old man’s big green eyes searched around the room, as if he had heard a voice and was trying to figure out where it came from.

When they passed over Aidan, his eyes locked in. They seemed to see more in Aidan than any eyes had ever seen before.

The old man spoke. “Hail to the Wilderking … Corenwald’s deliverer.”

Book 1 of The Wilderking Trilogy fantasy series for middle-grade readers.