Pelagia's Journey To The Center Of The Realm
Document Type
Master's Thesis
Graduation Year
2023
Writing Track
Fiction
Degree
Master of Fine Arts
Program
Creative Writing
Program Director
Judy Halebsky, PhD
First Reader
Kim Kulbertson, MA
Second Reader
Judy Halebsky, PhD
Description
This book is a young adult fantasy fiction novel that I began writing during my first semester at Dominican University. The premise for the story focuses on a seventeen-year-old girl, named Pelagia, who was abandoned at the front steps of an orphanage on the Greek island known as Zakynthos, as an infant. Not much is known about her parents, other than their presumed death. Although Pelagia had the farthest thing from a wholesome childhood, sharing her hardships with her best friends Xenia and Sotiri, (also local orphans who reside with her at the orphanage) has helped her cope through life’s grievances. On the eve of her eighteenth birthday, Pelagia has a vivid dream of her being guided towards the edge of a cliff by a familiar voice which she cannot place when she awakens. This dream becomes a recurring one, which prompts her to visit the cliff when she is awake. What happens next feels more like a nightmare, as the evil Abaddon’s entity senses her nearby and attempts to kill her. Pelagia is chased and runs for cover, inadvertently falling over the cliff and into the ocean, where she is rescued by Gregorios, a talking loggerhead sea turtle also belonging to an ancient group known as The Elders. Through Gregorios, Pelagia uncovers the ancient prophecy of a chosen one destined to defend the realm.