“ The forest was limitless and flourishing, yet filled with danger”
“The village is home and the ancestors look upon it”
“Aim for the sky, as if you miss, the void will embrace you as the same”
I wrote all three phrases in the order I heard them and sat my "pencil" down on the virtually empty parchment, as I barely used any of the two feet of space given. The funny thing was that the language used in this village at least was still my native English, albeit of the screaming eagle variant. The accent in which we spoke it though sounded weird to me at first. I have always considered my handwriting to be average at best back on Earth and it does not seem to have changed whatsoever though. I gave my writing a once-over before stepping back to indicate I was done. I didn't finish as quickly as I probably should have given that it was just writing a couple of sentences, but I had to get adjusted to the literal tools I was given to get the job done. It really didn't matter though in the end as completed the three phrases just as quickly as it took my cousins who were in my group. Our times could be considered fast so the crowd naturally went wild as a result.
Luka's group finished a few minutes after my own followed by Kai's group finished like five minutes after theirs.
Overall, the entire grouping of us took no more than ten minutes which was the fastest group time by far. The two elders leading Luka and Kai's groups respectively were definitely satisfied with the results, but my grandmother had a comical look on her face. She was just looking just as jolly as the others while looking over my cousins' parchment but that changed as soon as she laid eyes on mine. I saw a display of emotions that made me understand what my mom must have seen, but just as quickly it came, it went. She sat my parchment back down and swiveled her head towards me with a quizzical look on her face.
I couldn't help but to smile sheepishly which in turn made her shake her head. I honestly thought she would freak out but it seems that the experience mythos she has built around herself wasn't just for show.
My group of nine went to join the rest of the teens that made up the innermost ring of the crowd. The writing section of the test was complete at this point and the three elders called for the second part of the test to begin. My grandmother stepped up once again and began another speech.
"This marks the end of the first section of your test youths. You all did very well, I dare say that your generation has done the best on this part of this test in our long history as a village. We, elders, are proud to have been able to witness your determination. As you all probably know by now the second section is just a formality for most of you but those families who dedicate their lives to our warehouses and in turn your survival. So unless you are confident you can top their legacies we elders ask that you sit waiting for the final round of your test."
I felt her wording was kind of harsh, but how else could you get a bunch of rowdy teens who are high on their success to not waste the village's precious time with something only a handful of people from each generation could grasp? After thinking about it for a second I decided that I would still take the second half of the test because the village clearly respect my ability despite not paying much mind to it. This was evident given the words she chose to use in her speech. However what she said about us being the best in history was true and not just because of me, but because my peers actually did much better than many of the previous generations before them.
After giving her speech my grandmother and the other two elders sat on the boulders in the centering of the clearing while two other female others walked out of the crowd presumably to be the judges for the next round of testing.
As the groups had now dispersed into their various social circles the person was still present in the nine-person original group. That was of course my cousin Luka, who could be considered my only friend at the moment. He went to sit down while dragging me down with him, as most of the other teens did the same, except for maybe ten teens from the ages of sixteen to eighteen. There were six girls and four boys all in total all of which were from at most two different families given their "ethnicity", an idea this world's version of myself does not even have a reference for.
I guess that is one of the woes of having modern knowledge. It is also one that I will certainly leave there.
"Wait for a second Luka, I'm going up."
I said as I pulled away from him and calmly walked toward the back of the line. He was about to respond with something witty as he usually would according to my memories but my actions caused his words to get caught in the back of his throat. He fell on his butt while having that same quizzical look on his face as my grandmother. This time however he was not alone in his confusion for long because the crowd quickly caught wind of my actions as well. My mom and dad who had been supporting me from the crowd were still shouting as they were glad I seemingly had learned the "rare" skill, so any result I achieved would be enough for them.
They were not alone either as my extended uncles, aunts, and cousins in both my age group and outside it, joined in on the chanting. Unfortunately for them, they were a small majority in the sea of people who were just as confused as Luka. I just scratched my head and got in line with the rest of the of those participating as if what I was doing was natural.
Even my fellow test takers looked at me as if I had lost my mind but I ignored them. Our parchments from earlier had been removed from the boulders and taken somewhere within the village and the two elders judging the next test, joined alongside the other three elders, now using the boulders as basically stone benches with several other nine square foot parchments spread out in between them and us, with a bit more space on our side. I was surprised at how neat the markings on them were, as well as how cleanly they were cut. Before I could study the materials anymore though, I was interrupted by the two elders who had begun explaining the test to me. The entire crowd including my family went quiet so as to not disturb us. A dramatic shift from the previous environment makes the event feel almost religious in nature.
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I messed up the order of the event so I was told to wait until the original ten finished their tests. I didn't really think anything of it and just walked a few steps away from them to await my turn. The two elders in charge of this portion then asked for fifty blank paper-sized parchments that were about half as thick as the ones provided earlier and had them distributed to the ten current original teens. They then had them spread out a bit so they would have some room to work.
The whole display made me chuckle a bit.
The two elders in charge then whispered a couple of sentences back and forth between each other before one of the elders stepped forward to address the group of teens.
"The question that I am about to ask you has already been solved by we elders of the warehouse, so don't have too much heaviness if you get it wrong. However, we expect you to do your best as the speed at which you can solve the question is what will be judged. We have provided you all with parchments that can be used to keep track of your progress, but we will be keeping a close eye on you so don't go looking at another's work."
That last sentence got a laugh out of the crowd before everyone went silent again. Seeing that everyone spare a few goofy teens who couldn't stay serious even at a funeral, the elder continued.
"I will say the question now and don't worry about remembering it all once as you write along as I speak. If you don't have the ability to write we will repeat the question as needed. Just remember that the question concerns the beast's finger bones kept in the warehouse. Now listen closely."
She paused before continuing.
"There are exactly eighty parchments on the ground before you, on each of the parchments is exactly a hundred marks representing one finger bone of a beast. How many beast finger bones do we have marks for in total?"
Most people in the crowd didn't even try to solve it with only a number of teens who weren't brave enough to attempt the test in front of the village trying their luck in their various groups.
The three head elders who were behind the two elders in charge of this test began tallying as well. Making a tally for every second I presume.
The teens who were tasked with answering the question also immediately got work in their various spots. Four of the girls began writing the important parts of the question down while the two other girls and the four boys tried their luck at copying the tallies down as quickly as they could, presumably keeping track in their minds. The two elders shook their heads at the actions of the latter group but allowed them to continue nonetheless.
A few seconds passed before I raised my hand.
The two elders in charge of this test, who seemed to forget I was here, looked at me and panicked slightly as they simply didn't account for me when preparing the material for the test. They were about to halt the test before I interrupted their thoughts.
"8000.."
The whole village heard my words as the religiousness of the event commanded such a silent environment.
Many in the crowd looked around at the people beside them to ask if I was right. Just as many were simply shocked at the speed at which I answered the "fated" question. The few elders in the crowd though all had the same look on their faces. In fact, all elders present had the same look of pure astonishment plastered on their faces.
This was because of a multitude of reasons though.
One was that I had completely destroyed the previous record held by a single person of two minutes. But another reason and probably the more significant one at that was that had only collected the material to pose this "fated" question a few nights ago during the kinda important meeting they had at the turn of every season. However, the most shocking factor for these elders was that even with their combined minds, it took them a minute and a half to answer their own questions.
The teens taking the test with me heard my answer but were so focused on their work that they didn't bother to check the reactions of the elders or the crowd, so much so that they did not even hear the elders' next words.
"Ho- You-.. He.. he is correct.."
*gasps* "What!?" "How? It was too fast. No?"
The crowd's collective shock and subsequential reactions brought the teens out of their focus as they looked around in confusion. They even broke the rules set down by the elders and ask around themselves to find out the source of the commotion. One of the boys, who seemed to have a hatred of suspense, couldn't be bothered to wait for an answer and simply asked aloud.
"What happened elders? Did we do something wrong?"
"No.. No, young man. It just seems that we have a chosen one living within our walls."
This only added more confusion to the group of teens who had yet to finish their work. Most of the teens that heard the interaction were confused as well myself included as the concept of a "chosen one" seemed to be something that only adults and elders knew about, as they were clearly less confused by the phrase.
What started out as murmurs grew and became a full-blown conversation in a couple of dozen seconds as the elders who were in the crowd hurried towards the center of the clearing. They tried to keep people calm on their way but in reality, they were dodging questions as they could not answer the rumors individually.
After meeting up with five elders who were already in the center of the clearing the group of elders quietly whispered to each other.
Even with me being as close as I was, I still could not hear what was said. So I am quite sure no one besides the elders in the center knew what they were talking about. We could all guess that they were talking about me though as they kept glancing in my direction during their whole ordeal.
This caused some in the crowd that was beginning to quiet down a bit to raise even more questions except this time toward me.
"Are you really strong or something?!" "Tell me my future."
I chuckled at the questions posed which in turn caused some of the people in the crowd to do the same. I am pretty sure it was because they found the questions to be insane like myself.
The fun was over with though as the elders had finished their impro to huddle by the time everything reached the boiling point. The group of elders waved the group of ten teens back to other teens all of whom were anxious about what the elders were about to say. But at this point, the graduation for this year could definitely be considered to be special compared to the entire history of graduation of the village.
I, however, had been relegated to a position I was familiar with which was being a lone island in an ocean of people. Except for this time, all the waves of the said ocean seemed to only crash down on my shores.