Let’s go back in time to June 4, 2002. I had written Fortune’s Wing and a few more books. It was time for me to begin the second book in the series. So far in the story Fortune had grown a Left Wing, taken his friends on a journey to find the Right Wing and begin his quest to fulfill his destiny. Fortune and his friends have returned home and are awaiting further instructions from Adam, the elderly man who set Fortune on his quest.

Now it’s time for things to become more serious. The Winged Seven, the people who also have Left Wings and want to control the fate of the world, are willing to do anything to destroy Fortune and claim the Right Wing. Fortune finds himself heading for a place known as the End of the Earth, where the final battle for the fate of the world will be decided. I wrote this second book in the series in just over a month.

A new character is introduced to the story: Haverdy’s childhood friend Kizumi (Kazumi in the published version). She moved away years ago and her family has returned to the neighborhood. Kizimu goes to see the Oyamas but learns Fortune and Haverdy aren’t home (because they’re off saving the world!). Yule, a member of the Winged Seven, abducts Kizumi and uses her to turn Haverdy against Fortune. Haverdy gets separated from the group and meets the Onashari Clan: a tribe of people who live in the woods and are aware of the Wings and the Prophecy. They meet Verdonna Onashari, who cares for an injured Haverdy, and a little girl named Emery Holt, who is the sole survivor of a town that was attacked by a dark power.

Fortune consults the Oracle of Light, who gives him some distressing news: he will not be successful when he reaches the End of the Earth. She also tells him to keep Emery close to him because she has a “special light” that will become useful late on. At the End of the Earth Fortune and his friends engage in a battle with the Winged Seven. Fortune believes he can prove the Oracle of Light wrong, until Demetri, the leader of the Winged Seven nearly kills him. Fortune uses the power of the Wings to save himself and his friends, and everyone ends up where they started: back at home (FYI: Emery ends up at the Oyamas’ house).

This second book, Fortune’s Wing: Second Flight, wasn’t published until June 2011 with Xlibris. I republished it using KDP in 2015. One major difference is Verdonna Onashari. Her name gains a second “n”. becoming Onnashari. In the original version, she and the Oracle of Light were two separate characters. In both published versions she and the Oracle are one in the same, and she is the one who chose Fortune to bear a Left Wing.

I have seen you reaching your destination, but your journey will not be successful. You will not save the world.

Verdonna Onnashari

Aside from the respelling of Kizumi to Kazumi, the story is the same. The covers have changed over time, between my handwritten book to the Xlibris version to the KDP version. I thought it was important for Fortune to fail in this part of the story. He’s still a bit naive at this point, and failing to decide the world’s fate is the reality check he needed. Kazumi’s introduction to the story is important because it sets up the introduction to another character who appears in Fortune’s Wing: Flies Again, although readers never got a chance to meet her. And the Oracle of Darkness, the woman Demetri answers to, has a more prominent role in the published versions than she had in the handwritten one.

Just one book to go…