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The Scribe System
The Coming of Age Ceremony

The Coming of Age Ceremony

In the village of Wukosa, a crowd was standing around a large house. Under normal circumstances, it wouldn't be anything to write home about, but what made this scene particularly odd was the fact that it was currently the middle of the night and for some reason the huge crowd was absolutely silent. It was kind of eerie, as all you could hear was the whooshes of wind and the chirping of crickets. If you didn't see the crowd, you might not even know they were there. Everyone present also seemed to be wearing white and yellow robes and were a respectful distance away from the house. 

The reason for such a scene was that today the coming of age ceremony was to be held, and all of the village's eighteen year-olds would be participating. Parents, grandparents, and siblings of the participants were present in the crowd, each with hearts full of expectations and hope. They all wished that whoever they knew would be one of the special few to be bestowed a 'gift' from their ancestors.

Soon, the door of the house opened, and a figure that donned a ceremonial robe and mask gracefully began to stride in a certain direction. Behind the figure, a line of teenagers followed, and after they got a certain distance away, the crowd did too. They marched all the way to the village gates, where the crowd had to stop following. They watched the backs of the teenagers as they followed the masked figure towards their final destination. They were heading to the ancient burial grounds.

After a ten minute walk through the forest, all of the participants could be seen kneeling in rows in front of a giant tree that seemed to bring about a refreshing feeling of life and tranquility. It should also be noted that the tree was surrounded by circles of tombstones, and the area was dimly lit by moonlight and fireflies. In front of the rows of teenagers, the masked figure seemed to be chanting a prayer while facing the tree. 

After a few moments, they stopped praying and bowed. They then approached the trunk of the tree slowly and placed their hands on it. A red glow could be seen before the tree trunk started to move on its own to reveal a hole that the masked figure stuck their arm into. When they pulled their arm out, they had some kind of ball-like lantern in their hand that everyone stared at in awe. 

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One teen in particular was incredibly starry-eyed as he had no idea the ceremony would have all these mystical sights. In the village, people often called this teenager Beau even though it wasn't his real name. He got this nickname because he would yell out boo when he was a kid but he cutely mispronounced it and it sounded like Beau.

Beau didn't know much about the coming of age ceremony since he heard there was a low chance of gaining anything from it, so he didn't show much interest in it and continued with his life. He had much more important things to do than worry about the ceremony. His parents had recently passed away but luckily he was old enough to make something of himself in the village. He often helps out one of the only merchants in the village and is basically his unofficial apprentice. 

Anyway, Beau's lack of interest led to this situation and he didn't know what to expect. He watched as the masked figure slowly walked to the beginning of the first row and stood in front of one of the other teenagers. They held the spherical lantern above the teens head, and slowly lowered it. Just as Beau wondered what they were trying to do, his eyes widened with surprise because the teens head went straight into the lantern even though he was certain it was solid.

After around 30 seconds, the figure took the lantern off and continued on to the next person. During the entire process, silence was maintained and if anyone got a gift, you wouldn't know until the end because this ceremony was seen as sacred, so silence was expected.

After a while, it was finally Beaus' turn and his heart was pounding loudly in his chest as he was actually really excited to see what would happen. Beau kept a straight face and closed his eyes as the lantern was lowered onto his head. He felt a warm, fuzzy feeling envelop him for a moment and then he felt like he blacked out. When he came to, the figure took the lantern off his head and he was able to see again. What greeted him when he regained his vision wasn't what he expected though.

[Ding! The pen is sharper than the sword! Let's make sure to leave a mark in history! Welcome to the scribe system host!]

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