𝙷𝚞𝚗𝚝 𝙾𝚏 𝚂𝚝𝚊𝚛𝚕𝚒𝚐𝚑𝚝 𝙰𝚗𝚍 𝚂𝚘𝚞𝚕𝚜 | ✏️

𝕥𝕙𝕣𝕖𝕖 // 𝕒𝕗𝕥𝕖𝕣

    I wonder who will die this year...will it be someone we know? Someone who had so much life to live? Someone who had so much to do still? Or one of the vets, who just kept getting chosen until they died? This is morbid, Jamie, snap out of it!

    My boot taps on the floor as I sit quietly in my room. Now it felt like I had too much time for quiet thinking. I had dropped out of school to join the Hunt, and now I was regretting it. School was a luxury that many people in the poorer towns couldn't afford. And as boring and tedious as it was, I was starting to think I would rather deal with that than staring at a wall all day.

    I turn my thoughts to the ways I can be useful, which are very few. My skill set is pretty specific to the Hunt, and there are already enough game hunters in my town. I don't need to get a job urgently, but the more I sit around and mope at home the worse the rumors will get. Jamie, the boy who dropped out of school to risk his life. Jamie, the seamstress's son who had the opportunity to be so much more, and gave it up.

    They think I don't hear them, but years of training to survive in the forest has made my hearing one of my best senses. And anyway, my mom had to deal with enough rumors already. A widow whose husband died in the hunt, raising a boy - me, now almost an adult - and a young girl on her own. I take care of Annie as much as I can, but I know it can't be easy on my mother. We're not poor, by any means, but we aren't well-off either. As Mom says, we're lucky to have a roof over our heads and food to eat, but we must work to keep it that way.

    The cabin feels stifling now, so I walk outside, grabbing my knife belt and bow before stepping off the small porch. Our cabin is on the outskirts of town, and while I don't feel up for any haggling today, I have to go into the village to get more food. I can hunt and find non-poisonous plants, sure, but cooking decent meals for my sister is too much. I'd rather get good, already prepared food.

    Okay, maybe I'm just lazy, but can you blame me?

    "All right there Jamie?" I turn to see Mama Hen, one of our chief livestock keepers. Her full name is Henrietta, but since she takes care of chickens the nickname stuck.

    "I'm okay," I reply. "How are you?"

    "Always the gentleman, aren't you," she teases, flicking a feather off her patchy apron. "I'm doin' just fine, and my brood is holding up alright as well."

    "That's good to hear," I say, adjusting my tunic and belt. "By the way, do you have any chickens for meat? Thought I might surprise Annie-bean with some meat that isn't from the forest."

    She claps her hands excitedly. "Of course, of course! One of 'em is pretty old, not laid an egg in weeks. You can have her for 30 bronzers."

    I sift through my coin pouch, doing the math in my head. Here in Kyrilla, all towns use the same monetary system. 50 bronzers is a silver, 20 silvers is a gold. Most people in small towns like these don't even own gold coins though, since everything is paid for in bronzers or silvers. I count out 30 bronze star-shaped coins, and hand them over. In return, Mama Hen hands me...well, a hen.

    "Oh, you are an old one, aren't you?" I say to the chicken. Mama Hen stifles a smile. The hen just looks at me judgmentally, like she knows I only bought her because I'm going to cook and eat her. "Fine, fine," I grumble. "How much for a bit of feed? Maybe Annie will want to keep her."

-----

    I make my way back to the cabin with the hen under my arm and a sack of fruit in my hand. The chicken seed is also in my hand, and another chicken follows behind me. Unfortunately for me and my coin, Annie had walked by when I'd been with Mama Hen, and while I managed to convince her it was okay to cook and eat the old hen, she had demanded that we get a young one as well.

    Her arguments had been: "It's inhumane to just bring an old hen home to slaughter it!" (to which I had said, "That's what everyone does!"); "If we get another hen she'll lay eggs for us!" (to which I said, "Or we can get them from Mama Hen!"); and finally, "Pleaaaase?" (to which I had said, "Fine.")

    So then, I was stuck with an old hen and another chicken. And an incredibly chipper Annie, who thankfully spotted her friends wandering the market and ran off with them.

    But now, I can finally sit in my room, actually having accomplished something, and think in-

    "Jamie?" My sister's inquisitive voice breaks my silent thoughts.

    Argh. "Yeah, Annie-bean?"

    "You said that the faery is the one who protects the hunters with the charm that kills a person, right?"

    I scratch my head, anger dissipating as I consider her question. "Probably. That sounds like something I would say. Why do you ask?"

    "Well, Lyall, from school, he said that someone stole the vial, and that's why someone dies every year. Because of the witch." She whispers the last two words, like it will summon the witch if she says it loud enough.

    "That is a story they tell," I say, trying not to scare her. "But you don't have to worry about it, because even if there is a witch, we have the faery to protect us."

    She doesn't look convinced, but at least she doesn't look terrified anymore. "Can you...can you tell me about it?"

    I turn to face her. "Are you sure? Most people use this story as an excuse to scare kids. Lyall was trying to frighten you."

    "He's a jerk," she admits, "but I want to hear the story."

    "Okay then," I say, as I lower my voice and assume my storyteller pose, leaning forwards in my chair. "It all began with a young man, whose name has been lost to time, and the hunt where the vial disappeared..."

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Written August 3 and August 26, 2023

Word count: 1082

{kind of a filler lol but i'm so excited for the next chapter}