Duds

1 Rosemary

Author's note:

Hey! Me again! I'm so glad you kept reading. In this chapter You meet Rosy, so comment on how you like her and I'd love ideas. Thx!

- S

P.S. If there are a few date mix-ups pleez point them out!

P.P.S. Dedicated to moonxriver because her covers inspired my cover. I saw the beautiful covers in the book she made and some of her tutorials and decided to my my own. Thanks!

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All the Duds in the Kingdom were rounded up after the queen died in the following two years. The Boycotts collected all the magical children, Dud or not, between six and eight and brought them to a location to be monitored until the age sixteen. The humans had an inkling that the lost child would be in that age range. It was a plan to weed out all probabilities. When found, the heir would be used as an advantage or killed.

And guess what? I was one of the lucky ones who fell into that age range. Me, Rosemary Simmons, Miss Unnatural, never saw them coming. Everything about my life changed.

I was born on January 3, 2060. At least that was what I was told. I am an orphan, the orphan. The only orphan I knew; everyone else had a family. I don't even know what my last name truly is. I lived with an old fisherman since, I think, I was a few months old. My parents obviously never wanted me, and it was probably because I'm a Dud.

Duds are special. They are different than the rest of the magical race, even humans, but Duds are magical. They were born of at least one magical parent and somehow didn't inherit their magical power.

Scientists say that it is a recessive gene that shows itself as a result of the incompatibility of the human genome and the magical one. Now what that means, you tell me. They say that it is a very rare condition because of the rarity of interspecies reproduction. It causes the child to skip the developmental stage that the magical gene cultivates in. The magical gene is the only way a being of magical race can connect to the Earth. The studies show that if you have any magical blood, then you should be at least a low level wizard or a witch.

You see, witches and wizards get their energy, their magic, straight from the Earth. They can then manipulate that energy into spells and other things. This means that if a being is cut off from the Earth by something, then that person would be unable to access the magic. Most Duds are looked down upon from both races – their own and the human race. Some say that Duds are unnatural, but I don't think so. Just an anomaly with our genes.

Anyway, I don't have any magical abilities at all. None. If I wasn't a Dud and I did have magic of my own, that fisherman that I told you about? Well, let's say he would have thrown this "catch" back. I'll tell you the whole story...