Hybrid: The Mark

The Fourth Sphere

The next day Sirah felt the urge to haul herself over a cliff. She had no utter of trust on herself that she will be in one of the seven spheres. For a second she liked the being in a limbo state. Her heart knew that she would be the one in the clan who will proceed to the other side. Sirah didn't like the feeling of embarrassment in front of the others that she couldn't do anything when she fought for herself with her father all her life.

Upon reaching the clan ground, Sirah's gaze went to the center where Andervain stood around the chaotic presence of the three clans. He did his usual routine of raising his hand to silence the crowd.

"I'm delighted to see the number for participating in the proficiency." Andervain spoke.
The word 'delighted' gripped Sirah's chest. The 'proficiency' didn't work with the word delight, her thoughts interrupted when Andervain spoke again,
"We will be choosing the spheres today so that you could test yourselves for the proficiency." He concluded.

A few moments of gripping nervousness, the seven spheres began to be formed.
Few recognizable and lots of unrecognizable names formed the first three spheres.
The growing uneasiness staked Sirah. The names started to be called again for the fourth clan. Sirah recognized the names that were called out except for one.

Hers.

She got chosen in the fourth clan where the presence of her father was not to be rendered. Sirah walked to the newly formed sphere, exchanging hands with her new fellow sphere members. One of the recognizable ones, Mikaela. Sirah's surprise couldn't content and the faint calling of the fifth sphere washed over her.

"Good to see you again. Quite unexpected, isn't it?" Mikaela cringed in an amused expression.
"Quite indeed." Sirah gave her a real smile that unconsciously crossed her face taking Sirah aback.
"We will have something unique that no one ever had." Mikaela leaned in to whisper.
"Like?" Sirah's amusement flooded her face for the first time. She felt good in all her years talking to someone with the same fond she had.
"You know like our 'secret' ," She mouthed the word 'secret' and continued, "the vial bond that crackled yesterday like a burning fire." She faced Sirah with her lively grey eyes.

Sirah chuckled at Mikaela.

"Is it the first time you are ever laughing?" Mikaela questioned her with a small smile.
Sirah's smile faded and she nodded her head with a loud exhale.
"Feels good, doesn't it?" She flashed her wide smile.
Sirah returned a smile at Mikaela.

After the good numbers of names forming the sixth and the seventh sphere.  Sirah's eyes set on the older hunters of the three clans. Her father was with them.

Matthew stepped onto the center and announced the sphere that will guard the closest boundaries of the town. They were the older ones.
Sirah felt the strange urge to smile that now her father will be far off from her but she fought the urge. After the final proceedings, all the beings returned to their respective clan grounds to spend the few remaining days before the proficiency, training with their families. Sirah's father crossed her and walked to the outer circle of the forest where he usually made Sirah practice her archery. Her father brought her here because he felt discouraged to teach her archery and he considered Sirah as useless infront of the other fellow clan families.

"Load your bow," His voice cut it. "Fast." He finished.
Sirah loaded the bow with the arrow and set her gaze on the aim, resting her hands on the bow string. Her hands slipped slightly from the sweat on her palms due to the slight shiver of nervousness.

"Aim." He proceeded to instruct.
Sirah focused her eyes on the target.
"Halt."
Sirah stopped breathing just like he told her.
"And fire."
Sirah let the arrow fly past her with a gust of wind, striking inches away from the target just like it did always. She heard him drawing a breath. Blood pounded in her ears.
He walked out towards the target, pulled the arrow and walked back straight towards her throwing the arrow down at her feet.

"WHAT WAS THAT?!" He growled in frustration right at her face gripping her wrist. Sirah drew a shaky breath and let her sweaty fingers slide down the polished bow.
"Let me tell you something, do this clan a favor. Cast your name to Andervain and go the other side with the other failures." He gripped her wrists stronger. "Believe me, the town will be saved just because of you. I don't want to discourage myself and trust me, I try hard to stay away from you so that the others think that you aren't my daughter." He spat on the ground.

Sirah's jaw clenched and she swallowed what he said, down.

"Now aim again and this time target the center, useless being." He snarled.
Sirah's hands gripped the arrow in her quiver so hard that she saw her knuckles white. She wanted to hurt him so bad for calling her USELESS.

"Aim, halt, fire."
Sirah led his voice pass over her without any consideration and fired.
The arrow was nowhere close to the target. Before she could face her father, Sirah felt a sharp pain sting across her face. His face scorned in anger and his eyes drowned in black. He slapped the bow down from her hand and walked away.
Pain flashed across her eyes welling it up with rage and tears. She picked the bow and the quiver and followed him back to their home. She saw the setting sun through her tears that gleamed orange and red just like the anger rising in her cheeks.

The night was hard for her. No supper and she ran out of her berries. Sirah's stomach growled. She waited for her father to go to sleep and sneaked in to the kitchen to battle her pulsing hunger. Her eyes set on the packaged blood but she didn't drink blood that she now almost wished for it.
Sirah clutched some raw carrots and tiptoed back to her room. Before settling herself to bed her eyes drifted around her reflection on the mirror setting on her swollen cheek. The impact of his rough, callous hands left a mark on her. Her cheek was better than what was before but left with a red tint. She brushed her fingers lightly over her stinging cheeks.
After settling herself to bed she inhaled twice and forced herself to forget the stinging cheek and drift to sleep.
At few moments of gathered breaths, she fell asleep.