The Maiden Saga
A whimsical, young adult fantasy series
The ocean hugged her on all sides, squeezing out the life she was leaving behind.
Every weekend, 16-year-old Ivy Medina sinks beneath the waves and explores the ocean of the beach she lives on. But on this already peculiar day, she conjures a most vivid dream where she discovers an underwater tunnel that leads her to the captivating world of Harukai.
Only, Harukai is anything but a dream, and upon returning home, everything she’s ever known is quite literally torn from her hands as her mother is taken captive. Now trapped in Harukai with the loss of her mother and her own identity pulling her under, she ends up living inside a tree, inherits a pile of old books, and finds a sword made of glass.
With a mysteriously friendly faun and a flirtatious yet slightly irritating merfolk by her side, Ivy scours old tomes and learns how to fight, all in the name of finding a way home and rescuing her mother. But her search has her questioning everything she knows, leading her to uncover her hidden identity and the truth about her past, her present, and her future.
Ivy Medina is the 16-year-old human main character in The Girl Who Swam Between Worlds. Her curiosity leads her to discover Harukai, a hidden realm. Her stubbornness is what has her tearing the skin from her hands. And her determination brings her to the truth.
Ivy Medina
Theon Earendil Poseidor
Ivy Medina is the 16-year-old human main character in The Girl Who Swam Between Worlds. Her curiosity leads her to discover Harukai, a hidden realm. Her stubbornness is what has her tearing the skin from her hands. And her determination brings her to the truth.
Alvaro
Ivy Medina is the 16-year-old human main character in The Girl Who Swam Between Worlds. Her curiosity leads her to discover Harukai, a hidden realm. Her stubbornness is what has her tearing the skin from her hands. And her determination brings her to the truth.
Fairies
Harpies
Harpies are folk with humanoid upper bodies, bird-like clawed feet, and feathered wings. They also have feathers along their bodies and pointed ears.
Fairies
Fairies can be born with harpy traits such as feathers along their bodies and wings as well as the deer-like freckles gained from faun genetics and horse-like ears.
Harpies
Harukai
The Realm of the Folk
Harukai, also known as the Realm of the Folk, is separated from the human realm by a magical portal hidden within a towering rock wall known to the folk as the Realm Divider. The folk realm comprises three kingdoms: the Thidin Kingdom (the land kingdom), the Noa Kingdom (the sea kingdom), and the Savan Kingdom (the sky kingdom).
In The Girl Who Swam Between Worlds, we only see the Thidin Kingdom.
The Thidin Kingdom
The Thidin Kingdom is the whimsical forest kingdom that The Girl Who Swam Between Worlds is set in. This kingdom is home to many forest folk and is ruled by Lady Eira. As Ivy struggles with her identity throughout this book, she lives with Alvaro in his tree home and wanders the kingdom, discovering the Tarad, library, and abandoned harbour.
The kingdom is made up of marvellous towering trees with hanging green vines, luscious grassy mounds, vibrant flowers, and mushrooms of all sizes.
The Folk of the Thidin Kingdom
There are four breeds of folk residing in the Thidin Kingdom: fauns, fairies, centaurs, and harpies.
Centaurs
Fauns are folk with a humanoid upper body and goat-like legs. However, in the world of Harukai, fauns are also blessed with pointed ears topped with tufts of fur, antlers, and deer-like freckles scattered along their body.
Mixed Genetics of the Folk
Centaurs
Centaurs are capable of gaining the wings of a harpy, antlers from a faun, or glittering body markings from a fairy.
Harpies are occasionally born without their wings, but can sometimes be born with fairy wings instead. They can also be born with the antlers of a faun and glittering fairy markings.
Fairies are humanoid beings with glittering wings, pointed ears, and shimmering markings along their skin.
Centaurs are folk with a humanoid upper body atop the body of a horse. In Harukai, centaurs are graced with splashes of colour along their bodies and pointed, horse-like ears.
Fauns
Fauns most commonly gain the attributes of fairy or harpy wings and coloured patches from centaurs, but can also be born with glittering fairy markings, harpy feathers, and other attributes.
It is very common for folk in the Thidin Kingdom, and all throughout Harukai for that matter, to procreate with other breeds of folk. This in turn creates mixed breeds of folk. These are some of the most common folk mixed breeds.
Fauns
A Note on Mixed Breeds
These are just some examples of the types of mixed breeding of folk in Harukai. Some folk are also born with genetic abnormalities. For example, a centaur can be born with fairy wings, which is considered an abnormality because the wings are too light and fragile to carry a centaur.
Another abnormality may be any folk who are born with fairy-like wings in place of their arms. Harpy wings work in this way because they are made from feathers that grow from the arms. Fairy wings, on the other hand, are too delicate to be attached to arms and can easily tear if used in such a way.
Some folk may also be born with one single fairy wing and one single harpy wing to make up their pair of wings. This can make it extremely difficult to fly, and even more so if their harpy wing is in place of their arm.