Magic and Destiny: Fate

Chapter 14

Chapter 14

It was a warm day in the summer months, and Angel had just turned five. It was a special time in the village for this occasion, as it meant that his little girl was almost ready to start her training. Dominic Centauri, leader of the wood-cutters guild in the village of Woods-worth, (a name bestowed upon the village for it was surrounded by forest). She was still being taught some basics, and had only gone out to the obstacle course to watch some of the others while they trained. Today was a day set aside just for her, and she had requested to go out to the obstacle course to see if she could do it.

Dominic didn't really like the idea of putting his one and only daughter in harm's way, some portions of this course could be painful if done incorrectly. "Listen up! Training is to halt for one hour! My daughter would like to use the course to test her own abilities. As she is only five years of age, I don't want her to get hurt by a careless individual, not that any of you are."

Angel looked up at her dad, a somewhat disapproving glare in her eye. "That is one of the things worth testing, father." She said in a slightly high, squeaky voice.

Dominic smiled down at his daughter a little sheepishly. "Be that as it may, Angel, this course is dangerous. You know it's dangerous, you've been watching them do this for the last year. This is your first time on the course, and I want you to have a free run at it. Next year, when you're six years old, your training will begin in earnest." He stood back up, having knelt to try and instill confidence into his daughter.

Angel looked straight ahead, knowing what had to be done, the questions then was not what to do, but could she? She readied herself mentally, closing her eyes, and kneeling down a little, and when she heard her father yell 'Go!' he eyes snapped open, and she pushed off with her left foot. The first couple of obstacles were easy. Under, over, over, through, under, over. And then she reached a point, as she was running where there was a blind spot in the track from where she was able to watch all those who were training.

She ducked under, and went to go over, when she should have gone under again. Her head smacked into the log, and she went down, a hand to her forehead. After a minute of inactivity, she stood up to cheers and applause, and continued through the course, a little more slowly. Under, through, through, over, up. This was the big test for her. If she could make this, there would be almost no doubts left in her mind as to whether she could finish it.

When she reached the top however, she had begun to get a little dizzy. She swayed from side to side, and tumbled through the air. Apparently she had hit her head a little worse than she had thought she did. Dominic was there to catch her thankfully, and brought her inside. He was proud of his little Angel, for giving it the effort she did. This was to be expected on the first few attempts that any new child to the training regime happened. It just so happened she did it a year sooner than the others.

Dominic was chuckling inwardly to himself as he walked through the door of his house, and lay Angel down on the couch. Construction on the house was still under way. He was trying to expand it in order to have more room for what would eventually be a bigger family. Raids on outlying villages were becoming frequent. Maya and Dominic were in agreement that should the time come, they would adopt orphans from the outlying farms and families that were slaughtered.

The construction was done by him, and therefore would be guaranteed to be sturdy. This took up most of his time now inside the walls of the village. Leading the wood-cutters was no small matter either, but they understood the need for him to take care of his family, as he would also understand the need for them to do the same thing. He still needed to get the support structures up for one of the walls, and lay the ceiling beams, and then he could close it up completely.