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Clairvoyant

Entry for the World of Words contest by WattpadContests.

Word chosen: clairvoyant

Number of words: 1,257

It was bizarre, to be asked about the future in a village full of psychics who could answer better than I. I hadn't manifested yet, and I was late... by a whole year. It wasn't unheard of to be this late it was just... unusual.

Bain watched me expectantly. "Kira? Any luck?"

"Nothing," I sighed.

Bain frowned and stroked his graying beard. With my father gone, it was up to him to teach me how to see the future. There was no question that the ability didn't lie dormant somewhere. It ran in the blood, and mother and father came from strong bloodlines. My mother had even predicted the invasion of the barbarians from the south, and how to defeat them. I couldn't be a dud.

"Let's try this instead. Close your eyes," Bain instructed. "Now, picture... how about the cat."

"Sirus?" I laughed, picturing the orange fluffball sprawled on the rug soaking up the sun coming through the windows.

"Yes, Sirus. Right now, he's lying in the sun. What will he be doing in a few hours?"

I shrugged. "Still there, but grumbling about how the sun is going down."

Bain sighed unhappily when my eyes opped open. "Don't guess. Picture what he is doing now, and ask in your mind what will happen to him next."

I closed my eyes again. I was getting a headache, and was beginning to see patterns on the inside of my eyelids. I wanted to rub them but knew that if I tried, Bain would scold me.

My mother had once described the feeling right before a vision as a pleasant light-headedness. I was currently experiencing an unpleasant nausea.

But I dutifully did as I was told, building an image of Sirus on the rug, basking in the sun. The imaginary sunlight made my ead hurt.

What will he be doing in two hours?

I waited several minutes, repeating the question over and over in my mind.

"It isn't working!" I cry, impatience finally getting the better of me.

"You know not to expect a perfect vision right away," Bain soothed. "It's been a very long time anyone other than the elders have had clear, direct visions. For all you know, you could have had a vision, but not realized because Sirus had not moved since now."

"That doesn't help," I muttered.

Bain sighed. "Let's try something else. How about if this doesn't work, and even if it does, I will go do some chore I need to do. I won't tell you what it is, but because we won't be here, what you see will be different."

"If I see anything."

"Don't talk like that," Bain reprimanded. "It will manifest eventually. Don't let those newbie thirteen-year-olds bother you with talk of amazing visions. I can tell you from experience that they're seeing nothing more than blurry shapes now."

"It's nothing like that. I just can't."

"Try again anyway. Picture me as I am now, and try to see what I'll be doing later," Bain told her.

I grunted, unhappy but obedient, and closed my eyes.

---

"Come on, Kira. It'll be fun!"

I hesitated, unsure. The lake was nice, this time of year, and Riti's enthusiasm tended to be contagious. I caught it, and figured that it would be fun. I deserved some fun after today's unproductive session with Bain.

There were two boys and three girls from the village with us at the lake, and none mentionned how I hadn't manifested. Instead we laughed and played in the water, splashing around and throwing handfuls of sand at one another.

I got water and sand all over me, and as I rubbed it away from my face I suddenly felt faint. In my mind's eye, a bloody battle played out, and I regocnized some of the people being killed. No, this wasn't a battle, this was a slaughter. Of my village.

I set off running back to the village.

"Kira!" Riti shouted after me. "Where are you going?"

I kept running. When I burst into our house, Bain looked up from his book with a frown on his face.

"Barbarians," I gasped out. "They're coming!"

"What?" Bain leapt from his seat. "Did you see them?"

I nodded, and his jaw dropped. "I saw them clear as day," I said.

"Clairvoyance," Bain said with awe. I was the first with this ability in... I didn't know how many generations. Centuries, at the very least, if not a millenia. One of those truly so gifted that the future itself would bend to my will. I could change the future. I had seen a slaughter, but I could change that.

"We need to retreat, to the lake," I said. "It'll be a slaughter if we stay in the village. We need to bring flaming arrows, and release the dogs into the streets. And the animals. Bring anything that will make noise."

Then I told him what my vision had shown me.

---

I stood with my bare feet buried in the sand and the water up to my knees. Around me stood the people from my village, and my mother stood next to me and squeezed my shoulder.

Bain raised his arm and the half-dozen archers raised their bows, the greased arrowheads aflame. He looked at me and I shook my head. Not yet. The wind brought to me the sounds of barbarian warcries, which turned to shouts of confusion when they found no one in the village. I kept my eyes fixed on the sky overhead.

A songbird flew overhead, letting its song flow as it did. "Now," I said. Bain's arm dropped.

The songbird banked and fled from the flaming arrows launched into the air. The arrows soared over the trees and soon the roar of fire consuming thatched roofs confirmed they had found their targets.

I heard frantic barking, mooing, neighing, bleating, our animals panicking as fire raged about them. I had seen quite a few barbarians trampled in my vision, several savaged by dogs when they got in the beasts' way. Others would be pierced by flaming arrows, others crushed by falling timber.

...

"Her people stood around her, watching as the smoke rose from their village," Grandma says in a hushed voice. I look back at her with wide eyes.

"How does the story end, Grandma?" I ask.

Grandma shakes her head. "A story like that never ends, darling. But I can tell you what happened next. Kira and her village had managed to kill the barbarians, and drive away the few that survived. The cost was great, however. The winds had pushed the fire to the fields, and destroyed many of the crops. The village was just a pile of ashes, as were much of the livestock. But they rebuilt. There was peace. For a time."

"They came back?" I ask.

Grandma nods. "The barbarians came back, looking for revenge. They found it. And though many of the villagers saw it coming, they did not see clearly what would happen, or any way to stop it. Because Kira hadn't seen what would happen that day, when her friend Riti brought her to the lake. She saw what would happen when she was away in the city, and returned for a second time to a village brunt to the ground."

"That's so sad," I say, brows pulling together. "Was there any happy ending?"

"No," Grandma says. "I'm afraid not. But this is how you know if a story is real or not, darling. Because real life rarely has a happy ending."