The Hunters

Chapter One

I carefully trace the symbols in the air of the basement again and whisper my words of power, but to no avail, what a surprise. "Sam! It didn't work again!" I yell to my brother.

"You'll get it eventually, Harper." My brother tells me.

"I've been trying to cast spells since I was of age, Sam, and now I'm fifteen. Maybe it's just not in my blood."

"Don't say that, everyone in the Rose family has magic coursing through them." He says to me as he finishes signing his papers. "It's inside you, you just gotta figure out how to use it, who knows, maybe you're a hunter!"

"Yeah, okay, everyone knows there hasn't been a hunter in over a thousand years, the hunters are all gone." I remind him.

"Sam! Harper! Dinner is done!" My uncle calls down to us. "We'll be there soon!" We yell in unison. Before we head up, Sam stops me, "I know you don't think you have magic in you, Harper, but just you wait, it will show itself soon, I know it." And we head up for dinner.

At the table, Gormer, my uncle, asks, "Say, Harper, how are the spells coming along?"

"Just as apparent as they were when I started five years ago." I tell him, bitterly. "I don't think I have it in me, like all the other Roses."

"That's not true, Harper, and you know it! Some children's magic doesn't show until they are your age, I'm sure it will come soon." He tells me, thoughtfully.

"I've been reading on the magic reports, Gormer. The latest it's ever come out is when they were thirteen, I'm late by two years, I'm probably best suited as a miner."

"I know, but you must have faith in yourself! You don't want to be sent off to the mines, do you?" He asks, bewildered.

"I might as well, for all the use I'll be." I tell him. "You don't understand, Harper, you've never seen the mines. You would never last." Sam chimes in.

I, fed up with the conversation, excuse myself from the table and stalk off to my room. "Why aren't you there?" I ask myself. "How come you're flourishing in all of the Roses, every single one, save me?"

I grab my chalk from my pocket and try to conjure up a bird. I trace the symbols, engraved into my head from years of trying, and whisper the words again. The same thing happens, just like every time, except, the symbols give off the faintest of glows. Puzzled, I whisper the words again, but nothing happens, must have been my imagination.

Thinking back to what my brother said about hunters, I grab my occupation book and read up on what hunters truly are.

After an hour of reading, I've essentially gathered no information, there is virtually nothing left on hunters, everything was destroyed since the Elders banned the release of information of hunters, I don't understand why they did it, but I'm curious, and want to learn more about them.

But that is for a new day, with fatigue settling in from practice all day, I crawl into bed, and slowly drift off to sleep.