~ Nutshells ~

Summaries of the Seeking Soul series of stories so you know where to start and what you've missed if you skip one :)

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1. Seeking Souls

Seeker Hungry Flame has been hunting a wild human, Alex, for a week, when she decides to stop hunting and try luring him in. Her plan works, but his capture goes wrong, and she has to chase with through the night. Finally, she manages to half drown him and end the chase. But still he has enough energy to flip the tables once more, stealing her pendant and discovering the existence of her human son, Bhaskar. Alex forces her to take him to her son. She knows he is planning on kidnapping him, but she hopes to be able to trap him in the city. And she can't argue with gun pointed at her. But they have both underestimated the effects of their fight, and he realises Flame's head injury requires a detour to the emergency ward when she blacks out. Fixed and high on No Pain, she takes him to her home, always conscious of her gun in his hands.

Distracted whilst he is playing with her son, Flame gets her gun from him and goes to turn him in, but Bhask begs her not to. Seeing the similarities between them, she realises she is unable to do her job, and releases Alex back to the wild.

Finding it increasingly hard to fit in in the Soul city, and fearing Bhask will not be allowed to grow up unimplanted, she then sets out finding a wild home for her son, but can't get the humans to trust her, or Bhask to leave her. Then she sees a news report: Alex has been recaptured. Knowing her failure will be revealed when he is implanted, she races to free him. By employing her knowledge of the system and her Seeker skills of lies and deception, she breaks him out, and they set out to find his people and a possible future for Bhask.

On meeting Alex's father, Flame discovers that she, like them, has First Nation heritage, and that her family is still alive and free. When they find the secretive human group, Flame is immersed in wild human life, and struggles to find where she belongs. She becomes closer to Alex and a new friend Dorsey, and together they begin to work on a plan to bring humans and Souls closer together without imperilling either. Their plans are disrupted by the arrival of Flame's parents. They tell her of her human past, that of Burning Lights, the daughter they thought dead. Burning lights walked off into a snowstorm during a seeker attack after hearing that her lover was killed by the Seekers. Her parents assure Flame that their daughter still lives on inside her. Flames is horrified by the thought, as she has never had any human memories, no pictures of home or people, she thinks it is impossible. But her parents tell her Burning Lights was blind. Profoundly disturbed by this news, Flame becomes closer to Alex and tries to ignore her parents, concentrating on who she knows she is, rather than who she fears she might have inside her. Alex assures her she is no one but herself.

Preparations for the "Human Voice" project are well underway when the first fall of snow comes with a tragic accident: Bhask falls into the river and nearly drowns. He is saved, but becomes deathly ill, and Flame is faced with losing everything that she has ever wanted. With her family's help, Bhask recovers, and that spring Alex, Bhask and Flame set out to track down the other human groups. However, not all the human groups are receptive to the idea, especially as there is a Soul involved. Flame and Bhask camp by themselves in a desert canyon while Alex tries to convince them.

One day, Flame is woken by a scream and finds Bhask's body in a pool at the base of a waterfall, Seekers dragging him away, and a bushfire on her heels. She manages to shelter under a rock ledge, where Alex finds her badly burnt once the fire has passed, and takes her back to the humans cave to look after her. The humans want her dead, blaming her for the fire that many of their people have died in, and Alex struggles to protect her. She realises they will kill him to get to her, and leaves, hoping the Souls will find her before her wounds get too bad.

Recovering in a Soul hospital, Flame is devastated by Bhask's loss, and wants only to shut out the world. But reviewing the footage Alex has shot, she is reminded of her duty, and of her family. She manages to recover enough to get herself back home to her human family.