The main storyline of this book, which is definitely going to be shorter than probably both of the other two (saying this because both Animelia and the Crossjumper Profiles have multiple books intended, and this one's a standalone) is pretty clear-cut, but it's going to take a lot more background to explain why.

On the island of Alothia, the terrain is primarily covered by a very dense, highly magical, quasi-eldritch forest/jungle, which is home to a wide variety of creatures that are very willing to kill/eat/horribly harm a human. Most humans, therefore, live in small isolated settlements (ranging from village size to small-city-size) cut out of the forest in various locations around the island. These settlements are protected from the dangerous magical creatures by hearth-wards, which are barriers naturally built up around a place when humans call it home for long periods of time - the longer the time called home, the more humans call it home, the stronger the hearth-wards, and these settlements' are all very strong indeed. Venturing out and in of hearth-wards is very easy for humans who barely notice them, but anything else needs an explicit Invitation into the wards to get through.

Creatures on Alothia can be divided into one of three types: beasts, sprites, and demons (unrelated to any form of hell/angel dichotomy). They can further be divided into one of five categories based on the five magical elements in Alothia: fire, water, earth, air, and chaos. (Yes, chaos is the fifth magical element. I'll come back to that.)

Beasts are straightforward: animals, both normal/"natural" and "unnatural"/"magical". Sprites and demons however are two sides of the same coin. Sprites can be thought of as weak elemental spirits; they rely on their element to survive (be that fire, water, etc) and also generate it just by existing. Generally without enough higher thought process to hold a conversation, they're more instinctual and impulsive. Sprites aren't always malicious (though they can be), but they run on a blue/orange sort of morality if anything. Applying human logic to dolphin behavior, sort of thing. They generally resemble concentrated versions of their elements: earth sprites like rolling shambling mounds of dirt or piles of stone, fire sprites like living columns of flame and bubbles of lava, water sprites like twisting shards of ice and miniature waterspouts, air sprites like twists of dust and smoke on the breeze and ribbons of wind.

Demons on the other hand are much, much stronger versions of sprites: they do rely on being near a source of their element to survive, but they can leave it for brief periods of time before having to return back to 'recharge'. They're much more intelligent, on a human level if not higher, and also capable of communication and so on. Think of them less as traditional hell-based demons and more elemental entities. Fire demons are vaguely humanoid entities made of lava and flame; water demons made of ice and water; air demons made of lightning and air.

Chaos demons are the weird ones, as one would expect with a literal source-element like chaos. Their colloquial name is Greenstrikes; they're generally colored very green (to blend in with the forest) and they strike faster than humans can tend to see. Largely human, with a couple notable exceptions: vibrant green hair, ragged but rich clothing, claws and sharp teeth, and a mask in the shape of an animal's head that seems to be carved out of bone or pale wood, which covers the Greenstrike's upper face.

They have a reputation similar to the fae: sometimes they only inconvenience you if you run across them in the wild, sometimes they'll hunt you for sport, sometimes they'll tear you into pieces laughing the whole time. Humans, naturally, hate and fear them, because they're dangerous and very, very few people come away from an encounter with a Greenstrike unscathed. For them, chaos is the only constant. And in this world, chaos is the unexpected - chaos is unpredictability, is the least expected outcome, is not so much the last option as the brick thrown through a window at the last second. The less expected the action, the more chaos generated, and the more a chaos demon thrives.

Pretty cool, right?

Sure, that's pretty cool, you say, but where does the actual plot come in?

I'm so glad you asked!

The plot focuses on one teenager who accidentally trips into a world-sized plot hole and then proceeds to have to deal with the consequences of her accidental actions. Kind of a coming-of-age thing, if you're coming-of-age into being the literal nightmare of every child in this world.

Renee Estivelle is a relatively normal teenager, right up until the point where her foraging mission with a few of the other local teenagers runs smack into a Greenstrike. Panic and fear and fleeing ensue; the Greenstrike is determined to kill someone tonight, Renee winds up pinned, fights back out of sheer terror and instinct - and accidentally kills a Greenstrike.

The thing about that? It's not supposed to be possible.

See, the thing not mentioned earlier about sprites and demons is something called succession. There are only two demons of any element alive at a given time. These positions change by way of succession: a sprite of a given element kills a demon of that same element, and absorbs its powers and takes its place. A fire sprite kills a fire demon and becomes the next fire demon in turn. A water sprite kills a water demon and becomes a water demon, and so on.

This happens with chaos demons too! ...In theory, and only in theory. Because as far as the human settlements know, chaos sprites don't actually...exist? There's theories thrown around about why - maybe they're invisible, maybe they're hidden somewhere else, maybe there are no chaos sprites - but nobody actually knows.

Turns out? It's because the chaos sprites? Are actually humans, and nobody knows this! Except, now, for Renee. Who killed a Greenstrike under the right conditions to trigger succession. And passes out. And wakes up as a Greenstrike! Specifically, as the brand shiny new Fox Greenstrike!

Oops!

So yeah the plot from there is: Renee freaks the fuck out over becoming one of her literal nightmares. Has to deal with consequences and drawbacks of becoming a literal chaos demon (like not being able to get back into her home without an explicit invitation), and how to process that. And how to twist chaos into loopholes to be able to do things like defend her home against attacking fire demons!

...I also have very loose ideas of how Renee, the Fox Greenstrike, changes and grows into herself over (very, very, very long periods of) time. Some of this was influenced by TAU, some of it wasn't, all of it rotates rapidly in my head at all times of day and night.