"This silence is unnerving," thirteen year old Arrow St. Claire muttered as she moved swiftly across the wooden front porch of her family's simple farmhouse. Her lightly tanned hands gripped onto the long wooden handle of a broom.
As the golden sun slowly dipped low in the dazzling late afternoon sky, the many residents of the Fields moved around in haste and silence. The smell of freshly grown crops wafting through the air as a lightly chilled breeze blew through the area.
While sweeping up the dust that was sitting on the porch floor, Arrow was staring out into the horizon, her thoughts were a mile away. Arrow subconsciously lifted her right hand as she stopped her sweeping and brushed a strand of her long, sleek deep honey colored hair that escaped from her ponytail. Her dark amber eyes still staring out into the horizon.
As Arrow drifted away, the sun continued to move lower into the sky. Without noticing, two young girls around the age of thirteen came running up the deteriorating dirt road. The two girls stopped at the old, worn down white picket fence that separated the St. Clare family's and public property.
"Hey Arrow!" One of the girls, a short haired brunette with matching chocolate brown colored eyes, called out to the honey haired girl standing on her front porch. This seemed to break her from her thoughts and Arrow looked down at the two girls who were waiting for her to acknowledge them.
"Oh, hey Sicily, hey Columbia, Arrow said to the two young girls standing before her. She flashed her white teeth in a smile at her two friends. Sicily and Columbia both smiled back at her. Sicily leandd against the white picket fence's gate.
"You want to come to the Market with us?" Sicily asked Arrow, her sweet, high voice ringing throughout the silent air as she spoke. Arrow thought for a moment before nodding yo her friends, her ponytail bobbing up and down with her head movements.
"Sure!" Arrow exclaimed, her voice was laced with excitement and happiness. "Just let me check with my mom!" She added before dropping the wooden broom on the wooden porch floor as she dashed through the screen door and into her house.
Arrow rushed into the simple, white kitchen to see an older woman standing at the stove, stirring a large metal pot of spaghetti sauce. The woman had honey hair just like Arrow, but her eyes were a startling green color. The woman looked up when Arrow entered the kitchen.
"Mom, can I go to the market with Sicily and Columbia?" Arrow asked her mother, her voice laced with hope as she spoke. Arrow fidgeted with her hair as her nother thought for a few moments, her nerves growing as she waited.
"Fine, just be at the square before sundown," Arrow's mother told her, flashing a small white toothed smile at her daughter. The girl in response beamed and ran over to her mother. She enveloped her in a big hug and then dashed back out of the kitchen and house.
"She said yes!" Arrow cried to her friends as she burst out of the front door and ran down the step. Her friends both smiled as Arrow unlatched the front gate and ran off with her friends down the dirt road towards a cluster of tents and small buildings in the distance.
The three friends laughed as they ran down the road, carts and horseback riders passing by them on their journey to the marketplace. A young ash blonde haired boy rode up to the girls on a deep brown horse. He smiled at the three and they all stopped their walking when the saw him.
"Hey Emery!" Columbia said as she twirled her rich chocolate brown hair. Emery smiled down at her before turning his attention to the horizon. He held a tanned hand up to his eyes to combat against the blinding sun.
"How's knight training going, Emery?" Arrow asked, breaking the boy out of his thoughts. He turned to look at her, his pale blue eyes staring into her amber ones. A small frown then broke on Emery's face as he realized her question.
"Not to well," Emery sighed as he looked down at his hands which were clutching the black leather reigns of his horse. "I'm afraid I'll be dismissed," he whispered as Arrow's eyes widened. Sicily and Columbia both gasped while clasping their hands over their mouths in surprise.
"Nevermind that for now," Emery said with a shake of his head. He then placed another smile on his face, though this one was strained and the three girls could clearly tell the difference. But, they let it go and smiled back at their male friend.
"We're going to the market," Sicily said to him while gesturing towards the direction they were heading in. "Do you wanna come with us?" She asked. Emery looked at her for a moment before turning his head towards the direction he came from and shook his head.
"Sorry, I can't," he told her, much to Columbia's dismay. "I better get back," Emery added before turning his horse around and nudged it into a canter "I'll see ya girls and The Reaping!" He called back to them as he rode away from the three thirteen hear old girls standing in the middle of a dirt road.
Arrow shrugged her shoulders and then they continued on their way to the marketplace. The friends kept a leisurely pace as they made their way through the winding road that weaved through the many fields, orchards, and pastures that made up the Fields District.
When they saw how low the sun was, the three ran the rest of the way, each wanting to buy a trinket or two as a souvenir of their trip. As the two dark haired girls broke off from Arrow, they went immediately to the jewelry stalls, While Arrow just wandered around the fabric ones.
"Well well, if it isn't Arrow St. Claire," a female's voice called out from behind Arrow. The voice was heavily accented and full of obnoxiousness. Arrow tensed up as she recognized who the voice belonged to. She turned around slowly, with a small polite smile on her face.
"Lady Amethyst, Lady Amaryllis, good evening," Arrow said politely with a soft incline if her head to shoe respect to the young nobles standing in front of her. Amethyst had a cruel smile on her lips as she stared into Arrow's eyes, her own deep purple ones piercing right to Arrow's soul.
"Well, how's that payment coming, huh?" Amethyst growled out as she advanced on Arrow, getting ready for an attack on the poor young girl. Arrow slowly backed up from the noble lady and just as Amethyst was about to grab Arrow, a loud bell went off catching everyone's attention.
Twenty minutes till the Reaping begins.
YOU ARE READING
ᴄᴇʀᴇs (ʙᴏᴏᴋ ᴏɴᴇ)
Fantasi[THE CERES CHRONICLES] For nearly as long as the vast kingdom of Ceres has stood, an ancient institution known as The Academy has kept it's people in the grips of fear. Every year, it sends it's reapers out to take young children from their homes an...
