Mel swung the door open to the Windbrook Inn and a loud bang rang throughout the lobby and dining area. She closed the door behind her carefully and fought to catch her breath. She had run her from school, to keep her promise to Minnie to not be too late.

Minnie and Marcus stared at her from a round table at the furthest end of the room. Three cups of steaming chocolate stood on top of the table, and Mel’s face contorted into an embarrassed grin. A few moments passed with her standing there at the entrance before the rest of the dining guests and inn workers continued what they had been doing.

Mel sat down at the table and took off her scarf and coat and placed them on the chair next to her.

“You didn’t actually have to run here, sweetheart,” Minnie said. “We just got the chocolate from Mrs. Hallden. It’s not even drinkable yet.”

“Yeah, sorry,” Mel said. “I didn’t mean to make a grand entrance or anything. I just got excited after speaking to Elennian after class. He basically encouraged me to flee Windbrook and escape my destiny in the cult.”

“He did what?” Minnie said.

“You told him?” Marcus asked.

Mel grabbed her cup of hot chocolate between her hands and used it to heat her frozen fingers.

“I didn’t tell him,” Mel said. “I just told him I applied for Falden School of Magic and he told me it was nearly impossible to get in if you weren’t born to become a mage smith or elemental warrior. I mean, it was pretty disappointing to hear and I still feel like a failure for being rejected. But he said that the true failures in life are the ones who never try for anything and that made me feel better. I’m going to try for something. I’m going to escape my destiny.”

Minnie shook her head, and Mel looked around them in the dining area. A few tables were occupied with men drinking, but it was still too early for the dinner guests. The two tables closest to them were empty, and Mel didn’t feel like anyone could overhear them.

“So you’re still going through with this crazy idea of escaping?” Minnie asked.

“Yeah, we were going to escape after they lit the fire on Equinox Day. When everyone was distracted,” Mel said. “But that didn’t work out. Dorian has gotten so much worse since his sixteenth birthday. It’s like the reveal of his destiny gave him an excuse for acting badly and now the whole town just overlooks it.”

“What?” Minnie said in a raised voice.

Two men sitting with beer each looked over at their table, scrutinizing the three of them with their hard gazes. Mel didn’t recognize them. Maybe they were visitors staying at the inn for a couple of days.

“Keep it down,” Mel said. “I don’t want anyone to hear us.”

“But, but…” Minnie said. “How could you?”

Minnie turned to look at Marcus, her voice now only a hush.

“How can you go along with this?”

Marcus bit down on his lip and twirled his cup against the wooden surface of the table.

“Mel is the one with a great destiny, okay?” Marcus said. “And the dragons have tasked me with protecting people like her and High Priest Alcon. Only High Priest Alcon has other bodyguards already, but Mel has none. I will follow her wherever she goes.”

Mel saw a blush creep up Marcus’s neck and she averted her gaze. She didn’t really like the fact that he seemed to be doing all of this because he had special feelings for her. Feelings she didn't think she could reciprocate. If he helped her escape from Windbrook, she would forever be in his debt, and Mel could already feel that guilt forming in the pit of her stomach.

“But Mel’s destiny is here in Windbrook,” Minnie said. “Shouldn’t you keep her from leaving then? I think the dragons probably sent Dorian West to mess with your plans, to keep Mel from leaving. Maybe he is tied to Mel’s destiny and actually is not just a troublemaker.”

Mel shook her head.

“Now you’re just twisting the destinies to your desires,” Mel said. “Both of you are. Can’t you see what they’re doing to us? Making us see every single random event in our lives as a part of our destiny. It’s not. How does the High Priest even come up with these destinies we have? Huh? I don’t think the dragons speak to him like he says. No one has seen a dragon for thousands of years. They’re gone.”

Both Minnie and Marcus stared at her with wide eyes. How could she have said such things out loud?

Mel had struggled all her life to keep these feelings inside and never to utter them to her friends or acquaintances. Her father had warned her when she was young that people in Windbrook wouldn’t look kindly on non-believers, especially if they were from here.

This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

Mel swallowed hard, waiting out the silence and hoping they would say something.

“Like, I always knew you didn’t believe,” Minnie said. “But Mel, you really shouldn’t say such things. Maybe it’s actually best if you leave. I don’t think the dragons or High Priest Alcon would like to have someone with a great destiny saying these things.”

Marcus nodded.

“Maybe Mel’s destiny is to leave Windbrook,” Marcus said. “I think somehow the dragons want you to leave. They’ve planted these ideas in your head to make you ready to abandon everything you’ve ever known. Otherwise, you could never have left this place. I think your sixteenth reveal might not be that you are going to be the next High Priestess. I think maybe your destiny is to leave Windbrook and that the dragons are preparing you for that.”

Mel let out a deep sigh.

She had told them she didn’t like when people twisted her destiny or their own into whatever they wanted to happen, finding a reason where they were none. But they clearly hadn’t got her message. Marcus and Minnie were doing it again. Now twisting her not believing in the dragon cult, to be the dragons work to make her want to leave Windbrook.

Couldn’t she just want to leave this place because it was awful? Because she wanted more for herself than to become the High Priestess of the dragon cult?

#

An hour later, Mel found her way home with her stomach filled with hot chocolate. She had filled up and wasn’t sure she would have much room for dinner tonight. When she walked up the stone path to the house, she saw the familiar glow from her father’s forge. She really hoped he wouldn’t be too disappointed in her skipping work to hang out with her friends.

In the end they had made a new escape plan, this time both Minnie and Marcus had agreed to help her. But for the entirely wrong reasons. Mel didn’t feel like she could complain though, her friends were supporting her decision in their own way at least.

In three days, Mel and Marcus would escape from Windbrook in the cover of darkness, and Minnie would distract the guards on duty that night. They had basically decided to go with Mel’s old plan, except now she had to bring Marcus with her to Auburn Hills, where they would go first. He didn’t want her traveling alone along the road and over the dragon lake.

Maybe it was for the best and Mel could split from Marcus once they had made it to Auburn Hills, make her own way to Stonehearth and maybe one day all the way across the mountain pass to Aldrion. Even if she couldn’t become a mage smith, a part of her longed to see the city.

“I’m home,” Mel said when she stepped in through the door.

A wall of heat hit her in the face, warming up her cheeks. With it a smell of cooked potatoes and pumpkin pie filled her nose. The heat was steamy and made her body feel cold and clammy before it fully warmed up.

“Get your father,” her mother said from the kitchen.

Andrew came out into the hallway and gave Mel a gloomy look from under his bangs before he ran out to the forge. Mel took off her coat and scarf and hung them on the hook by the door. She entered the kitchen and sat down at the dinner table.

Her father and Andrew entered the kitchen just as her mother placed a bowl of cooked potatoes on the table before Mel. Her father gave her a quick glance before he turned his focus to the food and sat down at the table.

“Where were you?” her dad said while eyeing the pie.

“At the Inn,” Mel said. “With Marcus and Minnie. We had hot chocolate together.”

“A cup of chocolate costs a copper piece,” her dad said. “You blew your month’s whole wage on that?”

“No,” Mel said. “Minnie paid.”

“Minnie?” her dad said. “Her father spoils her.”

“Yes,” Mel said. “It’s awfully kind of him, I think. Giving her money to spend just because she’s her daughter.”

Her dad lifted his gaze and stared at her, annoyance circling the room like vultures.

“Marcus is a fine gentleman,” her mother said, breaking the staring contest between Mel and her father.

“He's not a gentleman,” Mel said. “He’s just a classmate. A boy my age who happens to be my friend.”

“You should have come to the forge after school,” her dad said. “What about the commission?”

“It won’t matter any longer,” her mother said. “Mel can be out with nice boys and enjoy herself. The forge and school won’t matter after her sixteenth birthday, anyway. Mel will become an adult then, and her great destiny will be revealed. To think it’s all happening, only five more days to go. I'm so excited.”

Her mother beamed with pride, her smile wide and her eyes warm. The kind of expression she only got when she talked about Mel’s destiny or the dragons. An uneasy feeling settled into Mel’s stomach, and she pushed her plate away from her.

“You know, because of you, Mel, our status is going to skyrocket,” her mother continued. “All the mothers were talking about it today at the market. Rumors are spreading about what your destiny will be and about which seat High Priest Alcon will give us. To think that soon, we’ll be sitting up next to Minnie and her parents, or maybe even next to the High Priest himself.”

Mel’s father muttered something and then showed two potatoes in his month, like he felt he needed to gag himself to keep from speaking something horrible to her mother. Andrew stared at Mel with a gloomy expression she couldn’t read, his eyes almost completely covered by his dark hair.

“I always knew I would have an important child,” Mel’s mom continued. “On my sixteenth birthday, they told me I would produce a child with a great destiny. So I always knew…”

Andrew and Melissa cut their mother off by imitating her voice in a mocking tone. “... that my destiny would be my children.”

Mel looked at Andrew and together they shared a laugh. Their mother looked at them both in annoyance.

“Well, it’s true,” their mother said. “I have produced a child with a great destiny. It's you Melissa.”

Mel’s laughing stopped.

Even if she had heard this story a million times before, how her mother had been destined by the dragons to give birth to an important child, she felt the weight of it now. It was crashing down on top of her, making it impossible to breathe. Mel didn’t want this. She didn’t want to be some great person who saved the world or died trying. She wanted to make her own way in life. To escape her destiny.