Gifted

Chapter 1

  I wake up in a cold sweat and the light of dawn bathes my room in warmth from the open window. I slide out of bed and walk barefoot across the cool, creaking floor boards. My hair sticks to my forehead and I tame it the best I can in a braid I throw over my shoulder. Out of habit, I find my eyes drifting over to the corner where I used to sit in those early mornings so long ago making up fantastical stories while my mother tried her best to tame my unruly hair in a braid tied with a bow of twine. I shake my head to clear the memories before they become too much for me to bear.

I slide my one and my only dress over my head and pull on my sandals, scuffing them across the floor and I jam my heels in. I glance over my shoulder desperately trying to avoid the call of my warm bed over my responsibilities. I sigh as I ram my shoulder into the door, forcing it open with a bang.

My sandals squeak on the wet grass as I hurry through the garden I once used to tend with my mother. The moss sinks under my feet as I jump across slippery rocks as I cross the stream that will lead me to the veil that serves as a buffer between this realm and the next. The same veil I've crossed every morning to go to my lessons with the Traveler to practice useless skills to help our people evade the darkness that lurks nearby.

Many Oosksan children, such as myself are sent to train with "The Traveler" so Ooska can be saved from the same dark forces that have been making our planet die for as long as the elders can remember. Most Ooskans don't know of the so called "Gifted" children like myself or of the dark forces that consume our planet. They just know that they are safe and that they are living a content life on a peaceful planet.

My surroundings are still quiet as I reach the veil, but still, I glance around for any unwelcome eyes that may be watching when I slip through the veil that remains invisible to most. A small laugh escapes my lips as I imagine what those in the village would say if they saw. What a story that would make in the morning paper!

If I can believe one thing that I've heard come out of the Traveler's mouth it is that prying, unwelcome eyes are not to see the veil or those who pass through it.

I know that the majority of things he tells me are probably a requirement "for my own safety" albeit many of them are completely unrelated. I mean when will I ever need to know how to how to count to ten in French while surviving in the wilderness, that is not a skill more of a luxury for those who have the time to indulge in such unnecessary practices.

As I slip through the veil I am expecting a feeling of weightlessness that always comes to me. Instead, my body violently jerks around like a marionette with an inexperienced puppeteer. Black dots start dancing before my eyes and my head starts to spin when I hear a voice say,

"I carry the  Assassins Blade"  The gruff voice is suddenly interrupted by a more familiar one fighting against it as if one is trying to take control of the other.

With a start, I come to a realization that does no good to my already light-headed self. The traveler must be possessed. Then the world goes black.