Set in Victorian times this is the story of a boy
The mixed up kids
From a young age, Percival thirsted for adventure beyond the confines of British aristocratic life. As a gangly teenager, he escaped finishing school to stow away on merchant ships to the Americas and Africa. These youthful exploits ignited a decorated career as an explorer, anthropologist, and collector of exotic artefacts and tales.
Percival spent over four decades venturing across inhospitable terrain and forging relationships with indigenous peoples to unlock mysteries of the natural world. He compiled meticulous sketches and notes documenting wondrous species never recorded in Western texts. His risky exploits – like living amongst gorillas or traversing the Amazon – became famed through newspaper serializations and lavish exhibitions displaying trophies from across the globe.
From a young age, the precocious Percival was raised by his eccentric grandfather, a member of the Royal Geographic Society, and the family’s long-time matron, after his legendary explorer parents disappeared in the Amazon rainforest during an expedition when he was just a babe. Though his grandfather regaled him with tales of his parents’ daring discoveries, Archibald grew up longing for the day he could pick up where they left off.
On his 18th birthday, the Grandfather presented Percival with a trunk of his parents’ belongings that had been held in storage. Among the maps, journals, and artefacts was an ornate compass his mother had purchased from an indigenous trader. According to her entries, it was imbued with magic, able to guide the bearer to that which they most desired to find. Also hidden in the relics was a carefully preserved and coded map hinting at the location of a mythical village deep in the rainforest.
Pouring over his parents’ meticulous records and notes, Percival became obsessed with the prospect that they may have been tracking legends of a village of unusual hybrid creatures – spoken of in ancient lore. His grandfather tried dismissing it as youthful fantasy until one night the strange compass began glowing and spinning of its own accord, pointing unfailingly northwest as scribbled writings appeared on the map illuminating a hidden route.
This marked the beginning of Percival’s own life of exploration and discovery. With the mystical compass as his guide, he spent over 40 years following the clues his parents left behind, collecting knowledge and relic about these fabled hybrid species. It led him on a treacherous final trek to a remote village in the Annamite mountains where the very creatures his parents sought were living secretly among the local tribes. There, he found the mixed-breed orphans and realized the dream his parents had sacrificed everything for – making first contact with one of the natural world’s greatest marvels.
The kindly elders explained these outcasts were cursed by the gods but Percival felt only compassion. Defying superstitious warnings, he adopted and spirited them home.
Safe on English soil once more, Percival poured his wealth into converting his ancestral home into a sprawling academy catering to the children’s unique needs. Within aristocratic society, many viewed the school as simply another showy eccentricity. But to his dear students, it was a real home. They flourished under Percival’s fiercely protective and progressive guidance on topics ranging from philosophy to phrenology. Though expeditions may be behind him, the professor found new adventures through the children’s boundless imaginations and discoveries as they hone control over extraordinary abilities.
