I finally got to do nothing, and it was blissful. I knew I should have gotten out of bed at least, but once Sol came up and peered into my room I opened my eyes… and did nothing. I laid in bed and watched Sol start his ascent through the sky. After Sol had shown himself in his entirety from over the horizon, I expected someone to start knocking on my door and telling me to get up, but the expected call never came. Hearing the muffled sounds of conversation from the direction of the dining room, I turned my head in that direction in an attempt to better make out what was being said, this idea only slightly worked. Rather than simply hearing the sounds of a conversation happening, I could make out fragments of the conversation itself.
“…ust let him… had a lon… ay… ebration tomo…” came the sound of a rough masculine voice I assumed to be my fathers.
Judging by the fact that I wasn’t out of my room yet, I assumed the conversation was geared towards me. Knowing that, I turned to face the ceiling of my room. While doing nothing was odd for me, it was nice to take a moment to simply think about where I am in life and howbut taking a moment to actually go over everything that happened to me over what is almost a week at this point had me getting a bit dizzy.
No one ever actually expects to meet the god of their religion. Feel their influence, sure; but to meet the being which provides shelter and sustenance to you among any other number of details that provide for your day to day living. One’s initial thoughts would be that family performed all of those jobs for you, but stopping to think about it, who provides for them? And their parents? What about those without families? The answer is that everything has to come from somewhere, and all things can be traced back to a God in one form or another.
So having met not just the God of my faith, but a God of another faith as well, was reaffirming. Knowing that what I believed in had an actual, physical shape that I could see and talk to rather than a metaphysical concept or simply something to be observed, made the faith I already within myself more solidified.
Looking out my window once more, I could see the whole of Sol through my window. Grunting as I exerted effort to lean up from my sleeping position, I began to mutter to myself. “I can’t stay in bed all day as appealing as that idea sounds. I need to get some stuff ready for tomorrow on my end. Especially since mom still doesn’t know about that particular plan.”
I know that she knows that my father and I have something going on, but she shouldn’t know much past that. At that thought, I flipped my covers off and get out of bed. Bending over to reach under my bed, I began to palm the ground, feeling around for fabric. Finding what I was looking for almost immediately, I grab it and retrieve the object. In my hand rests a burlap sack. Dad gave it me after him and Thomas dragged my exhausted body into the house and laid me down. With him knowing what I was tasked with, he grabbed it from our personal stocks. We usually end up losing a few bags every year, so one extra going missing shouldn’t raise to many extra alarms with mom.
Getting up and going to my clothes, I stuff what amounts to a few days’ worth in the bag. Not that I had much to begin with, but seeing my weekly wardrobe fit into a bag was… odd. Always thought I had more than that.
Walking over to my door, I look down and see my two pairs of shoes, one obviously more worn than the other. Slipping into the worn pair, I stuff the other into the bag. I think that about does it, save for food. And considering what’s going to happen tomorrow, I’m sure that I’ll be able procure enough dried foods to last me a while. The only other thing past all that is getting me some water.
Tossing the burlap sack into a corner of my room by the door, I head out to face the day.
~~~~
The rest of the day went by quickly which was odd as I had nothing to do. All the farm work had been completed for this time of year. All my studies have been completed, seeing as Bright Daphne didn’t actually assign anything after the last lesson. Must have been her way of taking pity on me I guess, not that any of the others would have known that. All that said, I basically wondered around until I found a decent stick that looked similar to the staff I used during dad’s training.
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You know, considering how hard that training was, I recovered from that surprisingly quickly. Reaching up to my forehead to where the ‘Moon’s Eye’ was hidden beneath the headband that Luna made. “I wonder if this thing has anything to do on that front?”
Putting it out of my mind, I wrapped cloth near both ends of the stick and put a decent chunk of cloth around the middle. Completing that, I spent the rest of the day practicing my swings, strikes, and overall form. I know for a fact that the ‘Moon’s Eye’ had an effect on the more wide arcing motions, as I felt more powerful during those then when performing stabbing motions and small arcs. When Sol started to disappear beyond the horizon, I went back inside wherein my mom had my graduation garb on the table.
The garb was unique from family to family. Some had ancestral garb where it got passed down from one generation to the next, or at least to the first born of the family. Most families went ahead and made the graduation garb when the time came rather than wasting resources on preserving easily frayed clothing. Mine consisted of a pair of white pants, a long sleave shirt that was white as well, and a long vest like garb to put over the shirt that came down to my behind my knees that was more of an orangey-yellow which made it stand apart from the rest of what my mother had made.
After thanking her for having made it for me, I picked it up, gave her a hug, and went to put it in my room. I came back out and had dinner with Elaine and my mom before proceeding to my room for the night.
During the night, I dreamt of walking through a thick fog. Feeling a bit lost, it felt like I was swimming through the fog as I moved forward. Moving my arms in front of me attempting to move the curtain like fog from in front of me. I’m not sure how long I kept doing this, it might have been a few minutes, or it might have been a few hours. Regardless, I kept moving forward, putting one foot in front of the other.
Right, left. Right, left. One, and then the other. This pattern repeated for such a long time that I had stopped paying attention. A sharp whistling noise caught my attention as it stood apart from my rhythmic steps and steady breathing. It came from behind me and passed me. Looking up or around proved to a moot point as the fog prevented me from actually seeing anything more than my immediate surroundings. Once again, whistling from behind me, but rather than passing me, I heard it stop somewhere off to my side. Turning in that direction, I began marching in that direction.
A few steps later I heard the whistling once again. This time much shorter in duration before I heard a new noise. A solid thunk noise. Turning around to look at where I once stood protruded… something. Walking back to my previous spot, I grabbed the protrusion that was as thin as my pink and about two foot in length. Grabbing it, I gave it a pull upward and back. Putting in more strength than I thought it would take, I eventually pulled it out, revealing about eight more inches and a metal point that had been buried in the ground. Noticing the feathers at the back end of the shaft, I realized that what I was holding, was a giant arrow. Looking back in the direction that indicated where it came from, I was greeted with a female voice. The voice was soothing on the ears, like a soft breeze on your skin or honey for a sore throat. It was hard to describe, but the tone was relaxing.
I couldn’t see my assailant, but they could see me. “I don’t know who you are, or how you ended up in my dream, but I’ve got you dialed in now. Any last words intruder, before I send you back to where you came from forcefully?”
“Wow, you have a soothing v… wait, your dream? Wasn’t this my dream?” I asked.
The answer I received was a pain in my chest as a large arrow come to me, and then through me, my body not even attempting to put up resistance as it made contact with my chest. I heard a crack as the arrow in my hand shattered as I jerked in reaction. And then I woke up. A cold sweat covered me due to a near death experience, dream or not.
A sudden pain in my right hand caused me to look at it. Within my grasp laid the feathers of the arrow I saw in my dream. A beautiful dark green that was almost black, with dark blue edge and a yellow tip.
“This,” I said to myself, “is definitely not a good sign. Not how today needed to start.” Holding the feather in my hand, I got up and got dressed and ready to go to the ceremony today; hoping against all odds that everything goes well today.