Skyball the Moonrat ( Part I of the Moonrat Chronicles) The story is an adventure fantasy replete with humour, adventure, dark plotting and steely characters. The story revolves around the enmity between the evil Catonica, the fiery warrior from Cathill bent on disrupting peace and the peace loving reluctant warriors -the Moonrats of Ratland. Dragran, the shaman of the Moonrats is always anxious for the safety of her tribe. Her son Prof, a distinguished warrior with academic leanings, has just become a father and announces his decision to retire. Dragran is aghast and hatches a plot to ensure that Prof continues leading the Moonrats for there is no warrior capable of replacing him at the moment. Dragran, through powers of illusion, stages a fake war - Ratmount War - with the cats and ensures Prof continues as chief. In the confusion Prof's son, the infant Skyball, is kidnapped by Dragran, and sent to her brother, a master warrior, who trains fighters. Prof and his wife Fiera resign themselves to the loss of their son. Fifteen years pass and Prof who is invited to a peace conference meets the inventor intellectual cat Professor Lexicus Historicus (LH) who is as passionate a crusader for peace. Catonica arouses primeval emotions by raising Rat Cat enmity issues. Later Catonica attempts to have Prof killed, but a protégé of Prof, Geekcat, warns him and he is rescued. LH is now at great risk. Intellectual cats are now Catonica's target and she has them all rounded up and sent to the dreaded gaol, Catcatraz. LH is rescued by Dragran and together they plan to foil Catonica. They hit upon the stratagem of obtaining on a scroll signatures of the imprisoned intellectuals condemning Catonica to induce the Galactic Police to intervene. For this purpose a disguised LH gains entry into Catcatraz, obtains signatures on a scroll Unfortunately, he is exposed and he hides the scroll in a suit of armour. The contingency plan is set into motion. Skyball the Moonrat, now a trained warrior has been activated by Dragran and introduced by Geekcat into Catcatraz to recover the scroll. Meanwhile GeekCat has discovered that Ratmount War never took place and reveals this to the astonished parents, Prof and Fiera. They confront Dragran who admits to the deception, but pleads higher causes as her reason for the ruse. They now realise they have been party to the decision to send him to a very probable death. Prof and his boyhood friend Corkscrew set out to aid Skyball and LH. LH and Skyball manage to catapult the scroll out to a waiting Geek who ensures delivery to the Galactic Police. Corkscrew is discovered in Catcatraz and Skyball emerges from cover to help him, before the astonished eyes of Catonica. The shaman flies in on her broom -stick to ensure there is fair play. An epic battle ensues. With the aid of the sword Equalizer, a family heirloom, Skyball kills Catonica who vanishes leaving behind a cocoon. . His grandmother, Dragran tells him that Catonica is a half - celestial cat and has two lives left. The family reunites but a sad Dragran goes to her brother Moondrag for comfort for she feels that her son and daughter - in -law hate her and she is not wanted. Moondrag convinces her of the fallacy of this and she returns to find them waiting for her. The happy family at last enjoys peace. But in far off woods a cocoon is forming .......Catonica will be back! The story begs for a sequel...
About the Author: Dhruva Chak is an MA in Political Science from Lucknow University and a PGDBA from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, with over 40 years of experience in Industry, Consultancy and Teaching. He has an excellent track record of nurturing start - ups and successfully launching consumer products and services which have stood the test of time.He has held Top Management positions including CEO of the Hyderabad - based Gati Ltd. (a cargo major ). He has been Head of the Marketing and Business Communication Areas at the Birla Institute of Management Technology, Greater Noida, India where he teaches Core Courses in Marketing and electives such as Services Marketing and Product and Brand Management to MBA students in the PGDM flagship programme. His literary achievements include an award for poetry writing from the International Society of Poets, USA and 5 published books spanning fantasy, fiction, short stories and poetry: Wizard's Winter ( Rupa &Co)