Broken Veil (on hold till late fall)

Aerix

Stone, stone, stone. As far as the eye could see. It was everywhere, surrounding me the way I had always known it to do. It was strangely comforting.

They told us we were in a cave. I only knew this to be true because of a meeting every year, at the mouth of the Bonfire Cave, when I could see the stars.

The stars. I would see them tonight.

They had dressed us specially - not in any unusual type of clothes, but we had all used our sewing skills and had been assigned to make a formal outfit for tonight. Because, after all, tonight was a special occasion. Tonight was the Coming Of Age.

I looked at my hands. They were dry, but their usual color - a blackish gray, the color of a shadow. The color of stone.

Gandli's eyes were excited - I could practically feel it from here. They were red, like mine. They were that way because Gandli, myself, Kinethei, and every other person I knew - we were all part of The Clan. The Clan of Aerix.

Aerixe had red or brown eyes, and always dark hair and gray/black skin. We lived in Clans, and me and the rest of my Class have been told stories of other Aerix clans, but I've never met one before. I wasn't sure that they even existed anymore. We could be the only ones left. We could be the only ones ever in existance in the first place. All of the other Clans may as well have been extinct for how much I had ever seen them.

Aerixe are very different from humans, though I had heard very little about the latter. They looked different from us, and I knew that they weren't as strong as us, but other than that, humans were only nonexistent beings rumored to exist. And we were - if all honesty applied - much more exciting than humans.

Aerixe were split, from birth, into Classes. When you were born in a certain year, you were put with all the other Aerixe born in that year. You were given a Teacher, and you were their Students. This is how you grew up; in your class.

Our classes were confined to the caves, and only the caves. The only times we ever went outside were with our entire Clan for the night of the bonfire. Otherwise, everyday was spent inside with a lesson and your free time. It became boring very quickly if you weren't creative, so all of the Aerixe learn to be creative very quickly.

Then, when you all turned seventeen, you had a ceremony celebrating your journey from Childhood into Youthhood. Youthhood brought more freedom: you could go outside on the nights they told you it was allowed (twice a week), lessons became less frequent and more important, and you could start directing your path in whatever way you wanted to go. Around seventeen, Aerixe begin to experience symptoms of their Gift. Every Gift is different, and I had no idea what mine would be - I hoped it would be something unique, but useful. Something like flying, or stopping time, not just a skill.

When you turned twenty, you became an adult, and you could essentially do whatever you want. You found out your placing in society, and the Chief presented you a place. You were allowed to go outside whenever you wanted (at night, of course). It was the best part of life, it seemed. But it was so far away...

Tonight, however, was another story. That night was my Coming of Age.

Somehow, though I wasn't exactly a master at sewing, I had brought together a dress that shimmered at the shoulders, gathered at the sides, and swished around the ankles. My feet had always been kept bare, but it was a blessing; all the shoes I had worn were uncomfortable. I felt that my uncovered feet were a part of my ensemble keeping me sane, and close to home. Close to natural.

I needed that more than anything right now.

Was I nervous? Maybe. I felt like somebody was churning butter in my stomach, as if my insides were having a free moment to walk around and talk to eachother. But not in a sick kind of way. I wasn't worried; just excited. Anxious.

I was only allowed to look straight ahead, but a glance to my peripheral vision told me that Gandli, my closest friend in the class, was double the amount of nervous that I was. Which, really, made sense, because I had thought over this ceremony every night for as long as I could remember.

What would happen first was the dancing. We would arrive and balter around the fire, then ask blessings from God on us and our future, since the Coming Of Age was everything to us. It determined everything.

After dancing, we would all line up in front of the fire and there would be a moment of silence. There, the Elders would observe us. I knew I would stand as straight and tall as I could possibly manage, and then we would be released to sit in our class.

Mabri would call us up, one by one, for our Recognition, where she would narrate the most important parts of our Childhood for the rest of the clan to hear. We would get our crowns here, and hold them impatiently as we waited for the rest of our class to be recognized. Then we chose our Crowners and had the Crowning.

I could smell it. The change in the air wrapped around my nose, as though instead of gradually filtering into the outdoor atmosphere, there was a wall right between the two kinds of air - the fresh, clean, outdoor air and the stale, stone air of the caves. My head almost went woozy for a second, slammed with nerves and nature's cool breath on my face.

I had drawn the map of this cave so many times, it wasn't as much of a maze to me as to some of the other students in my class. On the other side of me, Kinethei looked confused, his eyes growing wider by the second. I knew the turns by heart; right, left, right, right, slow curve to the left, and right down the middle of the three way path. That would get us to the mouth of the Bonfire Cave.

The moment I turned at that first left, I heard the drums.

They throbbed like a heart, passionate and yearning. Like my heart, reaching for something more than what they had. Those who were beating them sounded like they were pounding with hammers at the skin of the drums, hard and swift and ever so painful. There were four of them, I remembered, and they were all pounding out different rhythyms. Sometimes they wove together, synchronizing, but would usually run off onto their own rhythm pretty quickly, and then dash back into sameness.

I felt like dancing already, but I had to wait until the ceremony.

The ceremony. My stomach churned again, but my grin never ceased.

My story! Ta - dah, here it is! This is actually my NaNoWriMo story for 2014, and I've been working on it for a while. SUPER excited to see what you guys think of it...

Dedicated to @hannalizzy for being my best editor so far (also, my first :P). But seriously - you rock.

Just a note about the chapter headings; they are each going to be a word from the story that is relevant. For example, my next chapter heading is {________} because I say that in the chapter.

As to an update schedule, do you prefer the reading goals or a set in stone schedule? I'm trying to decide which one I should do; the update schedule would be once a week, but those of you who are my regular readers know how the goals go. :D Comment your preference, if you don't mind.

-Allysonita