The River Beyond

Chapter 6

All at once, when dawn came into view from the glass windows stained from the rain and wind, I knew day was breaking again.

My sickly appearance had, over the course of a few days, faded back to its pale complexion. Understanding this, I had become able to smile in a greater fashion, realizing my natural beauty would shine once again. I grabbed a wooden brush from a drawer near my bedside and began to loosen the tangles and knotted strands of hair. I stared at myself in the mirror, although not for long before my thoughts would wander. I knew it as wrong to try and hinder my beauty, but as human as I've felt, thoughts such as those only took moments to unravel. Even so, I decided against aiding those thoughts further and plastered a smile to counter the hardness of my other features.

My eyes appeared more green than before, flecks of gold sparkling within them. I took this as a chance to admire how my features had changed year after year. When I was young, my eyes would seemingly glow in the light. Now, they faded between green and brown, the coloring mixing together on certain days to create a hazel effect. I could not help but wonder why this would occur on some days, and not others, but my parents told me it ran through the family's genetic line, our makeup in physical features different than most people. My body would go through changes of feeling sore some days, and others, stronger, both physically and mentally. I took this as a challenge to push myself further in elevating my confidence. When those days struck me, I would go to the pasture and train, my hands finding the carved markings in my wooden bow, an archer's range made from the barrels of hay shipped in during the morning's trade commute.

I would pull my arm back, carefully scanning my surroundings as the wooden bows, adorned with bluejay feathers to catch the wind, would glide across the surface of the horizon for mere moments before landing in the center target. Over the years my aim has increased, and I always enjoyed being able to come out and train. While I did not believe in hunting animals, my parents would scare me with stories of the believed violence other regions undertook, thus aiding to my guarded nature.

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I could not let this dangerous mission I had planned to embark upon change the factors of the unknown world beyond the home I've always known, grown to appreciate, and imagined living in until the day my last breath would be taken.

The haven of the pasture, safe as it was, could not be taken for granted from outsiders. Carilla and I would stay together when Mother and Father would leave, as my training provided protection in the most dire of circumstances. This training would be of aid on the journey I had established in my mind to take, prevalent by permission of my parents. Even though I am an adult, granting them a chance to qualify me as "able" for this journey was particularly common in our land's laws.