Top children's author and OneKind supporter Lucinda Hare has contributed a very special guest blog to coincide with the launch of Flight to Dragon Isle, the eagerly-anticipated sequel to her award-winning novel, The Dragon Whisperer.

My first book The Dragon Whisperer opens with a dedication from Chief Dan George:

If you talk to animals

They will talk with you

And you will know each other.

If you do not talk to them

You will not know them

And what you do not know

You will fear.

What one fears

One destroys.

There was a time when mankind’s very survival was tied to the rhythms of nature and the animal world.  We both knew and understood animals, domesticated and wild, and we respected them and their place in the world.  Our very existence depended upon animals for food, clothing, transportation, agriculture and the yearly changing of the seasons that the cycle of life brings.  Without that knowledge we would have died.  Without appreciating and respecting the balance of nature we would have died.  Today, in this modern day and age of high rise cities, the internet, cars and planes, it is all too easy to lose touch with nature, and to forget that we are intrinsically connected to the Earth and it to us.  We have lost that precious link, and so for many the changing of the seasons and the howl of the wolf are no more than a fading memory, brought to life only by documentaries and history books.

Due to population growth, countless animals have been driven from their natural habitats, and many species hunted to the brink of extinction for their pelts or body parts or because we will not tolerate any other apex predator than ourselves. Unique and fragile environments have been exploited, polluted or destroyed.  Wild animals struggling to survive amongst us are often feared and killed, many for ‘sport.’  Science has become a barrier, rather than providing a link to the wonders of the spiritual world of nature, with its interconnected community of animals, plants and people.  We are growing ever more remote from the Earth which gave us birth. Native American culture has retained that physical and spiritual link that so many have lost, believing you can understand and speak to the animals in your life.  Their culture shows us how to reconnect with the animal world and nature by learning the language of their behaviour: animal speak. Native Americans argue that we have a great deal to learn from animals by studying their characteristics and working in partnership with them. We are slowly recognising this; for example, dogs are used to locate earthquake victims or warn its carer of an oncoming epileptic fit – this kind of thing is forcing us to rethink how we treat animals.

All my life I have loved animals and the natural world.   I grew up in the countryside and beaches of East Lothian in Scotland watching the wildlife: there were deer and foxes, pheasants and hares, tawny owls and sparrow hawks.  I knew there used to be wolves, bears and beaver, and if they no longer existed then I imagined them.   The croon of eider ducks on the Firth of Forth on a hot day was the first sound I imitated; my first instinctive attempt at animal speak.  When I lived with seven cats I used to call them all in by imitating this unique sound: it is far less intrusive than shouting names, and they all answered a single call.  I still use that call along with a range of vocal noises that reflect those of our current animals.

Now with my husband Paul we are able to give sanctuary to a large family of rescued dogs, cats, rabbits, guinea pigs and ex-battery hens.  We take in the old and the ill and the behavioural problem animals that no one else wants. Taking in frightened and neglected animals and helping them to readjust to a stable loving environment involves ‘talking’ to them. You have to learn from their language of their behaviour as much as you can about their illness, their fears, what makes them aggressive or frightened in order to gain their confidence.   In one case with Pixel, a feral cat brought over by Glasgow Cat Rescue, whom they said would never be domesticated, it took five years, but now she is the most loving cuddly cat you could find.

Animals have a rich verbal language: think of the countless sounds your cat or dog can make to express its different emotions. But this is enriched by their complex body language, just as ours is; the tilt of the ears, the muzzle, their overall stance, the lie of their fur all speak volumes.  I also use a very varied range of purely vocal noises to sooth and calm new animals and to allow them to identify me as I’m approaching.

Native Americans believe that everyone is born with an affinity for an animal or bird, which are spirit totems in the guise of animals. They have no word to classify animals, instead believing that animals are a people, just like we are.  The Lakota Sioux regarded animals as mothers, fathers, brothers and sisters. There is no mankind and animal kind, we are all Onekind.  The word animal itself derives from the Latin word animus, meaning free spirit.  My totem, my animal spirit, is a wolf, the symbol of loyalty, guardianship and family and yet one of the most persecuted animals on earth:  I have walked with wolves at the UK Wolf Conservation Trust, and howled with wolves from the Lakota Wolf Sanctuary at the Deleware Water Gap in New Jersey, USA.  I have howl sessions with my pack: Charcoal Nugget and Bracken (rescued street dogs from Romania).   Animals are at the heart of my family, and at the heart of my writing, in the latter case dragons. 

Animal totems and animal speak are embedded at the core of The Dragonsdome Chronicles, given voice by Quenelda, a young girl who can talk the language of the dragons, a dragon whisperer.  Not only must Quenelda prove herself in the face of bullying derision – girls don’t fly dragons, let alone temperamental dangerous battledragons , she must also convince others of the need to respect dragons as individuals with unique characters just as we are.  And just as we feel joy or pain, hunger and thirst, as we need to live freely so do all other sentient creatures.  In flight to Dragon Isle Quenelda will have to confront some of the many examples of exploitation and cruelty towards them that exist in our own world, and readers can follow her struggles to give them a voice where others see and hear ‘only animals’.

Like all animals, my dragons have distinct personalities; they can be grumpy and dangerous, or gentle and teasing – just like us, in fact. But all that is needed to win the trust of these unpredictable dragons is respect, patience and compassion. All that we need to do to live and work and share this world with animals is to build a relationship with them, like we would with any human.  Anyone who's ever had a relationship with any kind of animal knows that they communicate, that they have a voice.  Maybe we're just not listening hard enough. 

As we once did, Native Americans recognise that balance and harmony must be maintained among all living things. They acknowledge the interconnectedness of all life forms.  For many societies such as ours, those days are long gone.

If mankind continues to exploit the Earth’s resources without giving back, if we fail to respect the environment and the myriad creatures who share this planet with us, we may end up being the ones who face extinction on a bleak and barren Earth.  Quenelda gives her dragons a voice, and we must do the same for everyone else.

Kinship
I am the voice of the voiceless;
Through me the dumb shall speak,
Till the deaf world’s ear be made to hear
The wrongs of the wordless weak.

From street, from cage and from kennel,
From stable and zoo, the wail
Of my tortured kin proclaims the sin
Of the mighty against the frail.

Oh, shame on the mothers of mortals,
Who have not stopped to teach
Of the sorrow that lies in dear, dumb eyes,
The sorrow that has no speech.

The same force formed the sparrow
That fashioned man the king;
The God of the whole gave a spark of soul
To furred and to feathered thing.

And I am my brother’s keeper,
And I will fight his fight,
And speak the word for beast and bird,
Till the world shall set things right.

Ella Wheeler Wilcox 1850 - 1919

Flight to Dragon Isle is available now from here

It can also be found at Waterstone's, Amazon, Red House, Puffin, Tesco's and all good book retailers.

You can find out more about The Dragon Whisperer series by visiting here