Design a cover for a young adult fantasy novel

Sillu Mitu (Night Shadow)

D.L. Roley

Micah races to catch his brother, Darius, to return the stolen reliquary of Chung Oku Mai. Darius struggles to remain one step ahead of his pursuers and keep the artifacts out of the hands of the evil emperor. Sillu Mitu (Night Shadow) is the second in a series of books. The first book, Nasu Rabi (Old Bear), follows Darius and his apprenticeship with the retired general, Arthengal. The two of them, and a bear named Antu, embark on a quest rescue Darius's mother from captivity.

Sillu Mitu (Night Shadow) is a young adult historical fantasy targeting teens and young adults.

Paperback

I would like the cover to be relatively consistent in style with the first book of the series Nasu Rabi (Old Bear). Based on the submissions that I've received so far I want to clarify what I mean by this. The cover should have the "epic" feel of a fantasy novel and should be reflective of scenes from the book. I would also like one or more of the characters to be present in the scene to provide the reader context and to connect the cover to the story. I've provided (attached) some examples from the book. However, if you have a concept that you would like to discuss please message me and I'll let you know if there is anything in the book that we can adapt to the concept. I've loaded a jpeg of the cover of Book I, Nasu Rabi (Old Bear) as a reference but not necessarily as a sample. TEXT: I'm open to exploring different fonts and colors. The font from the first book was limited to what was available through the KDP designer but if the text is flattened into the image for this cover I'm open to ideas. BORDER: The image does not need a border. KDP may add one but it doesn't need to be part of the design. The land that they are travelling through in most of the book would be similar to southern Idaho, Utah, and Wyoming. The mountains would be high altitude, similar to the Rocky Mountains. The plains where Kasha Marka lies would be similar in terrain to Nebraska. The cities are all walled cities and the technology of the time is somewhere between first and ninth century AD.

I'm open to exploring anything, however, I am less drawn to covers that use stock imagery.