Legend Reborn

Chapter 2: The Ceremony

The air is filled with an excited buzz as different vendors and merchants peddle their wares, and the scent of cooking food hangs heavily in the air. Underneath all of that I can pick up on the faint scent of alcohol that was probably spilt by some drunks as they stumbled down the busy street. I pass stall after stall full of trinkets and knick knacks people are trying to sell for the ceremony.

"E-Elizabeta! Please slow down!" my best friend calls after me.

"You need to hurry up Kiku!" I call over my shoulder. The short boy does his best to keep up with me. I guess I shouldn't call him a boy since, technically, he's older than me, but he doesn't look his age.

"Can we please not do that again?" he pants when I come to a stop. 

I brush away some of my sandy brown hair that's sticking to my sweaty neck before answering. "I just wanted to get good spots in line this year. I feel like we're always at the end."

Kiku looks at me with his dark brown eyes and sighs. "Perhaps you're just too impatient? But I understand what you're saying."

"The clans are just too big. There's too many people participating in the ceremony every year." I huff. "I wish there was a way to make it faster."

Kiku looks around the ceremonial grounds before replying. "Then we should get in our lines because they're starting to curve into the street."

"Shoot!" I turn to look at the line I'm supposed to be in. It's the longest of all four lines. "Dang it! Well I guess I'll see you during the ceremony then Kiku! Bye!" I wave as I run to the end of the line. 

Kiku and I had arrived several hours early for the ceremony, so waiting for it to start was awfully boring. I ended up standing behind some Wolves, and they were so obnoxious. They kept talking about which guy they thought was cute or who's outfit was out of style. I don't hate girly things since I'm a bit of a girly girl myself, but I started hating them after listening to their nasally voices talk about them for three hours straight. 

Finally the sun has sunk low enough in the sky that the elders begin to light the torches around the circular ceremonial grounds, and on the platform at the northern end. They cast eerie shadows that flicker ominously on the ground. It makes me think of the legend that this whole ceremony is based on. I wonder if it's true, or if it's just a story to explain to children why we have wings and spirit animals.

"It's not just a story...you'll find that out...soon enough..."

I turn my head around, but the voice didn't come from the girls behind me. They give me odd looks as I turn back around. What was that? It didn't sound like the kind of voice I'd want talking to me in the woods at night. I shift my cream colored wings nervously. Then again, I don't want any voices talking to me no matter where I am. I do my best to try to forget about it. That's when I notice the elders climbing onto the platform. We all go silent as we wait for them to begin speaking.

One of the elders, a gray haired man, steps forward and begins to talk. He's a Bear because I can see the Bear tattoo on his right shoulder. "People of the clans! I welcome you to the Ceremony of Legends. Each year we hold this ceremony in honor of our creator and mother, the goddess Matrisus, the first angel,  and the valiant effort made by our brothers the bears, the wolves, and the eagle. Some of you may be here for the first time, so I will have elder Marlene explain more."

 He steps back and an elderly looking woman steps forward. 

"My children," she begins, "it's been a thousand years since our Great Mother battled the shadows to save the land of Elarium. That makes this year's ceremony even more special. Each year we pass around sacred artifacts that belonged to the original member or members of our clans through the youth of our clans. And every year the artifacts respond to the people they think are the best representatives of that clan to perform a reenactment of the quest against the shadows." She stops to cough a few times and clear her throat. "As is tradition, we will begin with the Bears."