The Reaping

The Return

The walk back was long and there existed a silence between them. As they reached the outskirts of the village he looked hesitant and now was clutching on to pendant now around his neck.

When they went in no one paid any  attention to them. The rain had stopped on its own and people were sorting through the damaged houses, trying to get it back to its original state. Someone had bumped into lee  and apologised.

Jane dashed through the crowd to her home and  her father who was recovering had a sad look on his face.When she went to him he did not mind her. His eyes filled with tears calling his daughter's name ,she did not understand why.
As she tried to hug him it did not seem  possible she was going through him.
She was confused and scared at what was happening , lee then appeared in front of her and took her outside .

In between her sobs she asked him what was going on . With a sad look
he grabbed her and started walking  to the elder’s house. They had gone through many rooms to enter a cave like cavity.

He went inside. Through her tears she saw that the room was in ways similar to the temple except for the fact that instead of a pond there was a bowl of water . Lee took some water from the bowl and gave it to jane. She looked at him confused not answering any of her questions.

After feeding her the water he said “ I am sorry that you had to go through all of this but there was no other way , a sacrifice had to be made”.

You see lee was the last sacrifice, the gods wanted someone to take care of the forest protect it from human harm. Who better to understand human nature than a fellow human.

As part of the reaping he was given immortality during his servitude and powers that can help and guide him. Now that it was over, he could go back and live a normal life.

It was her time to do the same and the pendant would guide a new sacrifice to her when the time comes.

Heartbroken she asked why he did not say anything from the start. He replied that the conditions of  servitude can only be revealed after the reaping. That was the rule. 

He told her not to be sad, things that awaited her in the forest were unimaginable. That she would be showered with love from the gods.

Now it was his turn to keep the legacy and the story  of the temple going and when its time, a new sacrifice would come and jane would have to do all the things that he did for her.

Seeing her highly distraught he said to relieve her pain there was only one thing that he could grant her . He started  taking  some of the water from the  bowl in a vial  and headed towards her house, jane behind him. There he met jane’s grieve struck father who was crying out for his daughter who was now right beside him .

Seeing lee he asked him who he was . lee  without much explaination  gave him the vial of water  and told him to drink that it would help him meet his daughter. The confused father did as instructed desperate to see his daughter. Suddenly his vision started to get blurry when he  regained  his sight, he saw his daughter sitting beside him sobbing. He embraced her with all his might,scared that if he let her go she would disappear. After sometime they started calming down, she told him all the events that had occurred. It had shattered his heart to  pieces. 

Soon  night had  approached.  Time had come for her to go to the forest .  Her father held on to her hand and Requested her to take him with her if he could come along he wanted to spend the rest of his time with her.
He did not want to live anywhere his daughter didn't.

She onces again stood at the very path she was forced to take now with her father along her side, the only goodbye she received was from lee as he smiled at her from the village. The forest that once look so menacing was sort of calling her in. As she waked in a strange power started surging through her .

All that was left now for Jane was to live her live not knowing what comes her way till  someone to comes along to end her servitude…..