Champion

The Short Straw.

Chapter 1

Eager. And nervous.
That's how I felt waiting for father to arrange the straws in his hand.
I glance at my sister beside me. Ranya. She looks straight ahead, watching father slowly cut one straw shorter than the other. Her face was void of emotion, simple and beautiful, but unfeeling. My guts twists at the sight of it; it meant everything to me which straw I drew, but to her it was nothing, she would conquer whatever fate she was given, and in the same cold manner in which she did everything. Ranya honestly felt nothing.
I calm the icy rage inside my gut and turn back to father. It meant everything. Everything, if I chose the short straw. If I drew the long one I would continue being a mother to my little sisters, tucking them in at night and washing and feeding them until they had grown or I married. But if I drew the short straw...?
There would be no one who cared for my sisters, my brothers would be fine, but my sisters were so young.
I look back at father's hand. Did I want the life I have now? Or the one it might be.
Father clears his throat and holds out his hand, straws sticking up giving no hint as to which was which. I look at Ranya. She regards the straws, as if she could see through father's hand and knew which one was the short straw, but she gestures for me to pick first, still sitting on the bolder, no nerves, no care. Just cold unfeeling nothingness.
I step forward and hesitate, my fingers hovering above the straws. I was eager. Eager to do what? I didn't know, I didn't even know what straw I wanted, what life I wanted. How do I choose?
I look at the arrangement of the straws. Was father capable of picking favorites? Would he have arranged the straws so that one of us picked the one he wanted us to pick? I stare at the one on my side, perhaps father knew which one it was. But what would I care? I didn't know what I wanted anyway.
I move my hand to the straw nearest me. Do I want it?
I pull the straw before I can change my mind.
It was the short straw.
A calmness comes over me and I assume a passive expression. "Well. We'd better get back" I speak the first words since father brought my older sister and I to the crossing of the road to decide our fate, it was not something to do at home where the little girls could see.
I climb into the buckboard where mother waits. Ranya looks at me and me at her, a chill went down my spine and I didn't doubt she could see past my mask and read the feelings I couldn't even identify pulsing through me.
I sit in the front by mother and she snaps the reins on the horses, they pull forward and we drive the short distance to the cottage.
I study mother's face silently. It was as unfeeling as Ranya's. She had no emotion for me, if it had been Ranya she might have wept, but it was me, and I was nothing to her. I look away and study the terrain before me, grassy hills, sober streams and a cottage in the knoll surrounded by farmlands and a whitewashed barn.
I step off the buckboard before it stops and head right for the cottage. The door squeaks as I open it and step inside. In the dimly lit hall I could see a light shining from a room in the back. I fold up my coat and walk toward the room.
I knock on the open door and Hamish turns in his chair. His deformed hunched back straightens at the sight of me and he lays his book down.
"You got it then?" He asks. I nod and cross the room to sit by him. He stares out the tiny window as if in thought. I knew what he was thinking; it was supposed to be him to go to Aginterra to train under the Queen's high commander's and compete in the tournament to become her Champion, it was supposed to be him, but he was deformed, a hunchback, and he would be laughed out of Bend if he showed up to train. So it was between Ranya and I. And I was the one.
"It'll be hard" Hamish's voice cracks from puberty. "Father's done you a disfavor encouraging your femininity. They won't put up with it in Bend"
"I know" I stroke the arm of my chair. "It'll be tough. But if I dedicate myself and get good... I am strong, and clever. I might be able to get into the top eight-"
"No!" I start at Hamish's voice. "Don't even try. It'll break you, the things you'd have to do if you were good enough to fight your way to the top" he shakes his head. "Don't even try. They'll find out your useless and force you out, then you'll be free"
"But shamed" I say. Hamish looks sternly at me.
"No" he says. "But safe"