Embers of Destiny

Chapter 1

Over the next few months, I relished in my newfound freedom. It took me three weeks to find my legs and walk as the effects of the curse wore off my body, just as Mr. Shadowcaster said it would. However, my muscles were still weak from years of disuse, and my family was always by my side helping me to improve my health. My sister Sereme took on the role of helping my muscles gain strength, as she was always taking me out on the mountainside to tend the goats.

Eventually, I could run through the fields with her and roll around in the grass, scaling the rocky mountain cliffs and feeling incredibly alive. I learned to love my homeland as I had when I was a child, with its beautiful skies, forests, and meadows.

On such a day like that, I lay beside my sister in the grass as we gazed upward, hand-in-hand, watching the clouds and interpreting their shapes.

"I want to eat them!" I said playfully. I reached up and closed my fist around one particularly large and fluffy one, as if I could hold it in my hands. "What do you think they would taste like?"

Sereme gagged. "That's gross. Not very well, I suppose," she thought.

"I think it would taste a lot like honey and fresh morning dew," I said. "Perhaps  a bit like that topping mother makes for pies."

She looked over at me and laughed.  "You've got quite the imagination." Picking up a handful of grass, she let the blades fall on my face. Surprised, I sputtered and brought my hands to my face to wipe it off.

"Wha–" I picked up my own handful of grass and threw it at her, and she laughed.

I got up to chase her, but she ran, and I followed. Some of the other children from goat-raising families joined in. We ran through the fields, chasing each other and laughing, dodging goats along our way. They just stared at us unenthusiastically, having witnessed the foolishness of children many times. While I was nearly fifteen and my sister sixteen, the others were aged anywhere from eight to sixteen. It would soon be time for my older sister to relinquish her goat-tending duties to my nine-year old sister, and I knew she had a promising suitor. The brown haired boy that was currently chasing her right now, and she dodged and side-stepped, leaving him flustered yet grinning.

I could only smile in warmth as I watched, huffing and puffing from the exercise. While I'd increased in vigor, I still wasn't caught up to my peers in strength yet.

Then Sereme suddenly stopped, "why, would you look at the time?" She glanced up at the sun, which was beginning to set. "We'd better get home so you can make it to your lessons." She was referring to Mr. Shadowcaster, of course. He would spend nearly every day with me, teaching me not only how to control my magic, but schooling as well, from history to math to politics.

"Aw, really?" Tomas, the boy who'd been chasing her, said. He expressed the dismay that the others were feeling at having to give up our games. But it was time to bring the goats in for the night.

We called the goats in, each to their respective homes along the hillside, bringing them up the slope to the overnight enclosure. By this time, they were ready to be milked, a task that Sereme would have to take on by herself this evening before supper. Of course, Beth who'd been with my mother all day would help her. My lessons usually stretched from early afternoon until supper, but I would be late today.

Luckily, Mr. Shadowcaster was more than understanding. As I reached his shack at the edge of the village, I rapped on the door and he let me in with a kind smile. "Come in, sit down," He said. He usually prepared tea, which he currently was boiling over the fire. "Have you had a good day?"

"Yes," I grinned. "I was up on the mountain with Sereme again."

"Oho," he said. "You're becoming quite the strong young lady now, aren't you? Have you caught the attention of any of those goat-herding boys yet?" He grinned.