Eye of the Storm (DISCONTINUED)

Eye of the Storm-Chapter 1

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NOTICE: THIS STORY IS A WORK OF FICTION. ANY CHARACTER'S RESEMBLANCE TO PERSONS LIVING OR DEAD IS ENTIRELY COINCEDENTIAL.

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I'm not sure which is worse- being abandoned by your parents at the age of ten, or being given a job that you don't even know how to do.

I was given the herb picking job by my parents. Or, I should say, forced to do the job. They had high expectations for me when I was born, hoping that I would form a bond with one of our stable's young dragons and become a great rider 'just like them'. But when I hadn't, they gave me to the town herbalist, far from the stable where my parents trained new riders.

The old herbalist was almost blind and had a limp, so he made me do most of the work- gathering the herbs he instructed me to, making medicines, and delivering them. He tried to teach me how to recognize different herbs, but his voice was so cracked with age, it was hard to tell what he said. I thought I was doomed to live this dull life with an old man until one rainy day, when my life changed forever.

I was sitting in the tiny hut I shared with the herbalist, listening to the rain outside and sprinkling some plant or another into a pot. It was supposed to be a draught to cure vomiting, but right now it looked and smelled more like what it was supposed to fix.

"Stir a little more in," the old man wheezed, hobbling over and sniffing the pot. His face contorted in a grimace as the putrid odor reached his nose. I winced and poured in the rest of the strange, spiky plant.

"You did collect the plant I instructed?" he demanded severely. I nodded miserably.

"That dark green spiny thing that smells bad?"

He frowned. "No! Now you've really done it." he coughed out, and collapsed into a chair, holding his tunic over his nose. "I said the dark green slimy plant that smells like meat," he spat.

I winced again. "I'm really sorry, sir..." The thing was, any plant that smelled like meat smelled bad to me.

He shook his head. "Go dump it into the pit."

I gulped. I didn't like the pit one bit. It smelled awful. It was full of the remains of meals, failed potions, and even our own waste. I hurriedly dragged the cauldron out of the herbalist's sight and out the door. I strained to drag it across the muddy ground, but it kept getting caught. To add to that, rain was streaming into my eyes and making it hard to see. I tried to wrap my arms around the cauldron and pick it up, but it was too heavy. I tottered this way and that, trying to keep my balance, but fell face first onto the ground, the cauldron bouncing away, spraying its contents everywhere.

I watched it roll down the hill towards the pit. Pushing myself shakily to my feet, I chased after it. It was already halfway down by the time I caught up with it. I reached my arms out, trying to grab it. At the same time, my foot caught on something, and my momentum sent me crashing down face first for the second time tonight. My head hit a rock, and all went black.

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When my eyes blinked open again, I found myself staring into the soggy, wet mud. I pushed myself up with my arms and propped my torso up with my elbows. The sky had cleared, and it was no longer raining.

I rolled over and kicked at the ground, pushing myself upright so that I could assess the damage to my body. Nothing seemed broken, but I was very dirty and there was a throbbing pain in my temples.