Book excerpt: Billy Mern is a special boy from Manchester, England, who can speak to animals, and on his eighteenth birthday, he is greeted by a rabbit named Ware, who gives Billy the news that he is a Fable King, and a Fable King can have a wonderful relationship with all walks of life. After a frightening assassination attempt, Billy Mern ends up going with Ware to a mythical island called Memoril, and on this island, that is home to all creatures, common, legendary, great and small, he must go on a journey, all around Memoril; he must find and gather his seven chosen newborn fable companions: a baby phoenix, a baby snake, a baby dragon, a baby kraken, a baby wolf, a baby dinosaur, and a baby giant spider. And if Billy can do that, if he can travel all around this fantastic island and traverse the many dangers it has in store, then together, with his seven fable companions, he must go deep into the pit of the island's heart, deep, deep down into the Dark Ruin, and there he must defeat the evil Fable God - Deathendus - a magic-breathing half-dragon, half-serpent beast!