The Grower

Ch. 2 (Lilly)

I stand outside my house with my mother and father, who was previously out working in the fields until he heard the horn, on each side of me.

I look around at the other teenagers standing with their parents. Many of them much older than me, more around eighteen or nineteen solstices. I am a mere fifteen solstices, just old enough for the choosing, and the youngest person in my village.

We all stand facing towards the main road, listening to the sound of heavy footfalls on soft, pale dirt.

"Everyone between fifteen solstices and twenty-five solstices line up along the main road according to age, oldest to youngest!" a soldier yells in a raspy voice. He is wearing the typical armor of the Soraya Empire, blood red, form fitting armor and a cape trimmed in gold. The Soraya emblem, two crossed swords and flame above them, clearly visible right above the heart, stark black, like a target for the enemy.

I wait a few moments, allowing the others to pass, making it easier to get in line like the soldier told us to. I wasn't scared or worried, I knew I wouldn't get picked, no Grower is ever picked.

I walk behind a boy, maybe sixteen solstices, who is trembling so hard I can see it. He has nothing to worry about however, he is an Air Walker, the second most common, and he's weak at that, barely able to keep a small breeze going for more than a few moments. He won't get picked.

I hadn't realized I was the only one waiting until the soldier grabbed me roughly by the arm saying "It's time for the Seers to decide your fate, little girl."

I am taken into one of the waggons the soldiers had been guarding and hoisted up into it. The sudden change from the blinding light outside and the disorenting dark within, left me blind. I steadied myself on one of the walls, trying to get my bearings.

"Oh, you are a strong one, Grower Lilly of Roselea," an old, sickly voice said from the darkness.

"Who are you," I asked, my voice steady and strong.

"Brave too it seems," the voice said again. I heard a rustling sound coming from near the voice, then the rough striking of a match, and a single flame in a sea of darkness was born.

The flame lit up a small portion of the withered old hand holding it,
the hand then brought the match to a candle, lighting it, and the room around it.

Suddenly I could see again, but what I saw didn't bring any comfort. The withered body that sat before me was mostly covered in thick black robes; the symbol of our empire, a bright blood red in the center of its chest. The thing wearing it, a thin ghost of a person, the skin so old it withers and is a pale white, if I didn't know any better I would think the person was dead. The sunken in eyes of the Seer has no pupils, or whites, they are a solid pale blue. The mouth of the Seer opens "Sit," it seems to hiss.

I quickly take a seat in the old chair in front of the Seer, careful not to bump the table between us or make any sounds. The Seer reaches its bony, withered hands out and lays them on the table, palms up.

"Take my hands." I waste no time placing my hands in the Seer's, cold, damp ones.

The Seer closes their eyes and tightens their grip on my hands. I sit there and wait for a few moments, then feel the urge to close mine. The image I see there startles me.

I am standing on a large hill, bodies strewn around me and the sky painted red from the blood of my enemies. My hair is down and I am wearing the armor of a Guardian, but not just any Guardian, a Grower Guardian. The armor is form fitting but where it would be red, it's an emerald green. The place where the empires emblem should be, there is, insted, the mark of the growers, a lotus flower.

My eyes fly open and small gasp escapes my throat. My heart is beating erratically in my chest and my forehead is covered in a thin sheen of sweat.

"What was that?" I gasp out between heavy breaths.

"Your future, Guardian Lilly of the Growers." I feel a sharp pain on my right hand at the words of the Seer, I look down to see the empires emblem etching itself onto my left hand, but where there should be a flame, there is a Lotus.

I stand up and walk out of the wagon, the same soldier from before grabs my arm and, upon seeing my hand, drags me to a cart, where the others of my village who have Chosen are sitting. The soldier helps me onto the cart and addresses us all.

"You have all been chosen to go to the School of Wielders, we leave now," he states.

One boy, an Earthling of maybe twenty solstices asks "Will we be allowed to say goodbye to our families."

"No," was the only reply we got before the soldier left. Once all the soldiers were in their designated spots the cart moves, and we set off towards the town of Soraya, our capital.