Claimers

Chapter 2

Word Count: 2288

As the day goes on I try to keep reminding myself that it is very unlikely I will be claimed. It has never happened twice within one family before and a girl was claimed just a year ago, making it unlikely that I would be only a year from then. The odds are completely stacked against me I think bitterly as I walk through the market in our village.

Mother had sent me out to get her some groceries so that she may try to make a real meal to send me off with. I'm not sure why she is making such a fuss about the claiming ceremony. She knows just as well as I how unlikely it is for me to be claimed. Smells of toasted bread and freshly caught wish waft around the market. The city offers much noise; the footsteps of the passerby, the crowing of the crows, and the conversations of the many happy villagers.

Everyone is too content with our simple life in my opinion. No one seems to have the problem that I do with the routine we follow. The high council runs our lives and we never think to disobey. It is too perfect. Too simple. Life should be full of risks, and adventure, and opportunities to make stupid decisions. Yet, here I am. Never having left my village or been away from my home for more than a couple of hours. The only adventure I find is that within the books I read so diligently.

If only I think. If only my father were here. If only that girl hadn't been claimed last year. If only my father hadn't been claimed. If only my mother had never remarried. So many if onlys and I was only 17.

To be fair, seventeen was not that young in our world. Technically I was almost past my prime. No one lived long in our little village it seemed. Disease spread faster than a dog chasing his bone in our village. My grandmother had died at 45 from a bad flu and my grandfather had died at only 25 in a farming accident. My mother had been only 22 when she had me. I can't help wondering if she would have ever bore a child had she known she would be raising it alone.

I stop by a small wooden cart, a sign above it reading 'Berries Galore'. Mmm how I love berry cobbler. Perhaps if I buy some berries my mother would make more of it. I breathe in the sweet scent of the fresh fruit, a grin plastering itself to my lips as I look to the cart's handler. An old man, around 50, stands behind the cart leaning on a wooden cane. To be alive this long is a miracle and In a way I respect him for it. I nod my head to him in a gesture and then point to a basket overflowing with blackberries. "How much for the berries?" The woven basket is filled to the brim with the delectable delicacy. The berries bleed there black juices onto each other, mingling their flavors.

I smile to the man as I ask, trying to spread a little joy but he merely scowls at me and says, "Three silvers." I smile gleefully.

"Done!" I exclaim. I reach into the coin purse my mother had given to me as I walked out the door and pull out three silver coins, cool against my warm fingers. I slam them down onto the shaky countertop and move to pick up the basket of berries. The basket, filled so high, is heavy in my nimble arms. A few berries spill from the top to land atop my boots, squirting their sweet and ivory juices across the brown leather. I nearly fall with the weight of the basket. As I attempt to regain my balance, I feel the weight that had been slowly pushing me to the ground lifted from my arms and into someone else's. I stand taller and notice who is standing in front of me, holding the berry basket in one of his broad hands.

"Stellan!" I exclaim. He uses his free hand to pull me into an embrace, kissing me once on the forehead, ruffling my brown hair. He smiles down at me, his baby blue eyes twinkling in the sun. As I said, we are best friends. Perhaps we are more. We have never called each other any more than that, yet, the things that we had done with each other suggested otherwise. Oh my that sounded worse than I meant it to. I have never let a man take me. But we had done other 'suggestive' things. I smile up at him, letting my teeth show. He is the only one that has this effect on me. No one else can make me smile and laugh the way he can.