The Chosen Dawnseeker

Chapter 6

Hannah took the longest shower of her life after that. She was sweaty as hell and needed to get all the dirt off of her. As she watched some of the blood drip off her, she just stared at it. Then her vision flashed.

Hannah saw a mess of things. Different things flashed before her eyes at a cheetah's pace. She saw an eyeball, and then flashes of the past few days. Thalia shoving her down, her petting Kieran's fox and meeting Ethan, Aelar's explanation of the rules. In the background, a deep male voice said the same words over and over again. "Nothing is going to be the same, Hannah. Everything is going to change", then she got a flash of some sort of green glowing object.

Hannah was brought back to her own consciousness when someone knocked on the door to the bathroom. She quickly shut the water off and got herself dried off. "You good in there? You've been in there for 4 hours" Ethan called from outside. "Yeah yeah I'm good. Just give me a sec and I'll be out" She said as she looked in the mirror. What she saw confused her. On the right side of her, there were tiny little lines all in little intricate patterns. They were very faint, but they were there. Hannah didn't know what it was, but she tried scrubbing it off her neck. Nope, nothing she did worked.
She eventually gave up, got dressed and met Ethan outside the bathroom. "Oh my god-! You're right there, you sounded farther away inside the bathroom" Hannah said. "Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you" Ethan apologized. "It's ok" Hannah said.
"But uhh I just came to get you. Aelar wants you down in the village, he called a village meeting. To discuss what happened last night" Ethan admitted. Hannah rolled her eyes. "Guess I'm in way more trouble than I thought. Probably gonna end up being screamed at. Oh well, it is what it is. Let's go"

Both Ethan and Hannah left the treehouse and as they walked into a building near the center of the village where the meeting was taking place, just about all eyes were on Hannah. Thalia was standing up front, and everyone else was seated. Ethan leaned up against the wall and Hannah was seated away from the others.
Thalia took a deep sigh. "If you're all confused about what's going on here, so am I. First, Jenna gets slashed by a baneclaw during the day. And now, our newbie has decided to completely ignore our rules established here and go inside the jungle. We've said it many times, going into the jungle when you're not a dawnseeker is a violation of the rules" Thalia nagged.
"Yeah but if she hadn't, Jenna would probably be dead by now, don't you think?" Evelyn said.
"It's a possibility but we've lost people before. We've moved on. For the past 2 years, we've safely avoided the baneclaws. And now she's killed one of them. Now I don't know about the rest of you, but I'd imagine that the other baneclaws aren't very happy about that so what do you think is going to happen tomorrow morning when we send dawnseekers into the jungle?" Thalia asked.
"They'll be waiting for us, angry" Lyra said. Hannah noticed her clench her fist when she said that, but she didn't think anything of it. To be honest, she felt guilty about this whole thing.
"Exactly. Which means things are more dangerous now than they ever were, and it's all Cindy's fault" Thalia said, going back to calling her Cinderella. It seems most of Thalia's respect for Hannah is now gone.
"Well since you're complaining about this, what do you think we should do about it?" Ethan blurted.
"We need to teach her that her actions have consequences, so we have to punish her" Thalia said, and there was some uproar from the crowd.
Aelar spoke up. "Rylan. You were with her, what do you think?" He asked Rylan. The room went quiet and all eyes went on Rylan.
"Well to start with.......Thalia, you said we've avoided the baneclaws for 2 years. Well in all those 2 years, a baneclaw has never been killed before, not by any of us. I have to admit. I was willing to leave Jenna for dead. I'm not proud of it, but I was focused on my survival. When I ran like a bitch, Hannah stayed behind, making sure Jenna was safe. Now I can't tell you if she's brave, bold, or just lacks common sense. But which ever one she is, we need more people like her. We've needed that for a long while and it's about time we start getting it. I personally say we make her a dawnseeker" Rylan said. Hannah looked up at Rylan and there was even more uproar.
"Jesus, you guys are so naive. If you all want to give her a cookie or something, that's fine. I don't care. But if I know anything at all about the stability of this village, it's that there has to be stable ground. We don't have that if rules are being broke-" She said, but was interrupted by the sound of rumbling. Everyone rushed outside to see what was going on and light emerged from a townhouse.
"What is that?" Hannah asked.
"It's the Druidic circle of Elders" Kieran said as everyone rushed in the building. Hannah saw the same group of old people that she saw in her dream with the long beards and robes. Aelar walked up to one of them. "Druidic council of elders, what are you doing here?" He asked.
"We've come with a message. Big things are happening in this jungle and we're aware of them. So we came to send a message. To her" One of the old men said and they pointed to Hannah. Everyone began looking at Hannah. "Step forward, child" Another old guy said and everyone cleared a path for her. She stepped forward and felt awkward. "Look, Mr.....beards?" She started, not knowing what to call them. "Maybe I'm not the best person for you to be delivering a message to. I've kinda been a screwup in the past 2 days" Hannah pleaded.
"SILENCE" One of the old guys shouted. Hannah shut right up.
"Nothing is going to be the same, Hannah. Everything is going to change. The jungle grows wary, now that a baneclaw is dead. It's growing impatient. Fulfill your destiny, Hannah. And do it fast" One of the old guys said to her. Then they disappeared, leaving Hannah shocked.
"And I'm wrong for being paranoid?" Thalia said, petty.