Amongst

Book I of the Amongst Trilogy.
It is not impossible to leave Verandale. It is impossible to leave Verandale with your body still wrapped around your soul.
The population is declining, and they need a hero who can become the first human to breach the surrounding high mountain forests and the Cofs who prey upon them.
Thirteen-year-old Enoch is not a hero. He simply wants to babysit his giant friend Kahdi, named The Sinker of Boats by the Elders, less often and...maybe one day be able to talk to the girl down the road without stammering.
But one day, Enoch and his friends stumble upon a secret that could lead their people safely across the mountains without being eaten. Proving their theory will either make them the unlikeliest of heroes...or dead.

Robert E. VanderLeest was born and raised in Littleton, Colorado. After almost graduating college, he navigated an atypical path through medical school. During a thirty-year career as an ER doc, working mostly night-shift, he found it essential to be able to completely get away to imaginary realms, his most favorite of which was Verandale.He lives with his wife and kids in Colorado. If he lived in Verandale, he would likely have zero Cof kills!