August Short Story [Frith Chronicles]

Hey peeps!

Here is a short story I've been working on for a while. I'm also hoping to get a short story out about Liet Eventide braving the typhon beast lair (that's my goal to finish tonight) so you might get two stories this month! <3

This story is for people who are fans of kirins. o.o

Hopefully you enjoy!

Shami

Destiny

Everyone in the orphanage dreaded being picked.

When House Mother Mila had us clean the common room and line up for a shower, we all knew what was coming. The others were afraid, but I was numb.

“Amir, you’re next,” House Mother Mila called. “Hurry, child.”

I stepped forward, trying not to think.

House Mother Mila’s gentle hand pressed against the center of my back as she pushed me under the showerhead. She rinsed my thick and curly black hair and then lathered the soap across my tan skin. She was hasty with the washing, I assumed since there were twenty-five kids to get through.

Icy water cascaded over me, numbing my body as much as my mind. I closed my eyes and took deep breaths. I hated the water ever since my mother was… Ever since her death.

The East-Sea Raiders had invaded our shore town just a few days after my fifth birthday. My mother had tried to flee with me.

I shuddered.

This was why I hated remembering.

Images of that day played at the edges of my thoughts, clawing their way into my imagination. A raider whose face was riddled with pockmarks. Timo, the kind blacksmith, being dragged beneath the sea. I couldn’t shake those images.

“Amir,” House Mother Mila whispered. Her comforting voice brought me back to the present. “You’re all done. Get ready now. Quickly, quickly.” She ran a hand over my head, pushing my hair to the side of my face so it wouldn’t get into my eyes.

I stumbled away from the shower, trembling as I gathered my ratty clothes and pulled them on. Rosewood Orphanage was too small for the number of people who lived here. And new kids arrived every day.

Kids disappeared on the regular, too, but they didn’t go on to live glorious new lives.

Plenty of “parents” only wanted children so they could work them to death. They adopted kids to send them to the rice fields or help build ships or even mine for them. The children they adopted were free workers, not a family. Sometimes, the kids ran away from their forced labor and returned to Rosewood.

They were the lucky ones.

Some other kids…

Some were never heard from again. They were taken by vile men. I didn’t know what the men did for a living, but House Mother Mila never looked them in the eyes when they came.

What if they were secretly East-Sea Raiders? What if they were adopting kids to put them to work on their boats? What if I was taken by them one day?

Once boys reached a certain age, they were always picked up to be workers. I was six and a half now. Big enough. They could take me. They would.

Luna was the next to stumble from the icy showers. We all shared one room—the boys and the girls—and she hurried to her bed to grab her clothes. We all wore the same outfit as well. A gray shirt and pants, worn at the edges since it had been passed down from one kid to the next for who knows how long.

Once dressed, Luna turned to me, her brown eyes wide and innocent, like a little deer. She hurried over, still shivering.

“Amir,” she said, her throat tight. “I don’t want to go.”

I nodded. I didn’t know what else to say.

Luna held her hands together and kept them pressed against her chest. “The older girls said Rebecca was taken b-by men who fed her to manticores. Do y-you think that’s true, Amir?”

I had no idea. I hoped not. Desperately hoped not.

My silence didn’t help her. Luna’s eyes grew watery. She pulled at her short brown hair, her fingers laced in her locks.

“I don’t want to be picked,” she whispered, staring at the floor. “I-I don’t want to be eaten.”

I placed a hand on her shoulder. Luna glanced up, tears streaming down her face. She was the same age as Rebecca had been when she was taken. Seven. Maybe Luna would be picked. Unless, for some reason, she wasn’t allowed at the lineup…

With my chest knotting in anxiety, I glanced around. The shabby beds had wool blankets and feather-stuffed pillows. I walked over, tore open a bit of the casing, and removed one of the soft tiny feathers. Occasionally, a kid inhaled one in the middle of the night. They would cough for several minutes straight. Sometimes an hour.

I offered the feather to Luna as another child walked into the room to get dressed.

“Swallow it,” I whispered. “And then tell the house mother you’re sick.”

Luna took the tiny feather from my palm, her own hand shaky. It took her a moment to realize my plan. She’d have a fit of coughing the moment she swallowed it. And House Mother Mila never put sick kids in front of potential parents.

When Luna met my gaze, her eyebrows were knitted. “You swallow one, too.”

If we were all sick…

Maybe…

A bell rang throughout Rosewood Orphanage. That meant the new parents were here.

House Mother Mila hurried everyone to their beds. Most of them hadn’t bathed, but we were out of time. They changed into a new outfit and quickly took their place at the foot of their beds. I did the same.

Luna went to the house mother and swallowed her feather, just as I told her. She started coughing, so loud it drew everyone’s attention. Her face turned red, her eyes watered—she couldn’t stop, even when House Mother Mila scolded her.

“Go outside,” the house mother said, guiding Luna to the back door. “Go to the well and get a drink. Wait there for me. I’ll see you afterward.”

Which meant Luna had gotten her wish. She wouldn’t be here for the lineup. I was glad.

Then House Mother Mila clapped her hands and straightened our hair as she walked down the center of the room. “Everyone stand straight,” she said with a smile, but there was no smile in her tone. “You might find a loving home today!”

No one said a single word. Most of us didn’t even look up.

House Mother Mila exited the room to gather the potential parents. Everyone listened to the creak of the floorboards as she walked the small hallway, and then back down a moment later. When she returned, she was accompanied by a single man.

He had eyes like smoldering coals.

The man’s stiff hair was more silver than black, but despite his obvious age, he stood tall and proud. I had always thought House Mother Mila was tall—so much taller than me—but compared to this new man, she seemed small.

The man had obvious muscle. He reminded me of the East-Sea Raiders.

Maybe he was one of them.

He even wore a bizarre outfit. A chest piece made of black scales, along with thick pants, leather boots, and a pair of gloves. His cloak was a dark red—blazing scarlet—and it hung over him like a silky waterfall of blood.

I already hated this man. I hoped beyond hope he wouldn’t even look in my direction.

“Here are all the children,” House Mother Mila said. She motioned to us with a short gesture. “They’re all so well behaved. If you have any questions—”

“I don’t,” the man said, cutting her off with a gruff voice as coarse as sand.

“O-Oh. Pardon me. Perhaps you want to at least speak to the children?”

The man stepped forward. Each footfall was heavy. The floorboards groaned. Everyone stood stiffer and straighter than before.

When he drew near, I chanced a glance up at his face.

His forehead…

It was marked with a seven-pointed star.

An arcanist star.

I almost gasped. Some of the other kids must’ve seen as well, because a few of them whispered with excitement.

Arcanists were the most powerful people ever! They could wield magic so powerful it could control the weather, or tide, or rearrange a mountain! They were both feared and respected—the best of the best! Some arcanists used their magic to protect people and improve life, while other arcanists used their magic to terrorize the world…

Like the arcanists in the East-Sea Raiders.

This man—the strange man with the red cloak—had a star laced with what looked like a wingless dragon. A drake of some kind. The beast in the star represented the mystical creature the arcanist had bonded with.

The raiders who attacked my shore town…

One of them had a whale. A murderous, undead whale. It was as rotted as a corpse in a graveyard but animated through vile magic.

I would never forget.

“This one.”

I shot my gaze up the moment the man spoke.

He was pointing at me.

“Amir?” the house mother asked. “Perhaps you want to spend some time with him before—”

“I’ve made up my mind,” the man said, his words practically a growl.

House Mother Mila never denied the people who came to “adopt” us. No matter how scary or mean they were, she took their money and sent the kids away. If this strange man said he wanted me, there would be no fighting it.

“Very well.” House Mother Mila walked over and gently touched my shoulder. “Come, Amir. Gather your things.” She forced a smile. “Today is your lucky day.”

No one said anything. They watched with wide eyes, some of them smiling to themselves. I bet they were happy they weren’t the ones picked. I guessed I was happy none of them had been picked either, even if I was terrified that I had been.

I grabbed a small sack and stuffed in my one other outfit. Then I reached under the mattress and pulled out a thumb-sized scale. It had belonged to a dragon—maybe. I didn’t actually know. All I knew was that my mother had loved it.

The scale changed colors. During the day, it was white, and at night, it was black. She always kept it with her. Well, before the East-Sea Raiders came.

Now it was my treasured possession.

Once everything I owned was all put together, the house mother walked with me and the strange man all the way to the front door of Rosewood Orphanage. The man handed over a bag of coins—far larger than I had ever seen anyone pay—and then said something under his breath to House Mother Mila.

She took the bag and glanced inside, her brow furrowed.

Then House Mother Mila glanced down at me. “Behave yourself, Amir. And stay strong.”

Stay strong.

I mouthed a goodbye, but the words never formed.

She patted my head one last time.

I held my small sack close to my chest, my thoughts cold, my body shaking. I stepped outside with the man in the red cloak. The orphanage door shut behind me, the harsh snap a reminder that I’d probably never see anyone inside ever again.

The man grabbed my shoulder, his grip like an iron handcuff. He walked me across the yard, his footfalls as heavy as ever. We reached the gates, and the man placed a hand on the wrought iron bars. Before he opened the age, he stared down at me.

He was just… so much larger than me.

“My name is Elias,” the man said.

I said nothing.

He narrowed his piercing eyes. “Didn’t the orphanage teach you any manners?”

“O-Oh,” I said, my throat so tight, it was difficult to breathe. “I’m Amir Thee—er, I’m Amir Rosewood.”

My birth name had been Amir Theeno, but everyone who arrived at Rosewood Orphanage always took the last name of the building. I liked it better, anyway. Theeno was my father’s last name, and he left my mother a while back.

A warm and pleasant breeze drifted towards me, heating my face. A stray grain of desert sand almost hit me in the eye, forcing me to blink.

“Let’s go,” Elias said as he pushed open the gate. “She has been waiting a long time. It would be rude to make her wait any longer.”

I didn’t question him. I didn’t even ask who she was. I just wanted to get this over with. I wanted him to just tell me what my fate was. A worker? A raider slave? A manticore’s dinner? Questions ran around my head like the children in the orphanage did after a sweet treat.

We stepped onto the main street of town. The sun set in the distance, lighting the sky up with a flash of crimson. Merchants in tents shouted at us, hawking their goods. People bustled by, staring at Elias’s arcanist mark. Some pointed.

Elias ignored them all.

He took me straight to our town’s sole inn. It was made of wood, but larger than most buildings around. We entered, and the serving woman behind the bar nodded to Elias.

“Welcome back, Ronald,” she said.

Ronald?

When I turned to Elias, he stared down at me with half a grin.

Then he took me to the stairs. We walked up the first few creaky steps before he said, “I don’t give many people my real name, kid.” He crossed his arms. “Don’t go tellin’ anyone, got it?”

I nodded once, both confused and curious.

But I couldn’t bring myself to speak.

We reached the top of the steps, and Elias guided me down a long and empty hall. It was dark. The lanterns hadn’t yet been lit. Elias didn’t seem to care. He strode forward with confidence. I hurried my steps to match his pace.

When we reached the door to his room, my thoughts filled with dark imaginings. What was going to happen?

Elias knocked on the door before he opened it. “Hyperion. I’ve returned.”

In one quick movement, Elias pushed me into the door as the door fully opened. Then he stepped inside and shut the door behind him, like he wanted to make sure no one else would even get a glance inside.

I couldn’t breathe.

Inside the room…

Was a giant, monstrous drake.

It a long serpentine neck and a deadly spiked tail. Its scales were as burnt crimson as Elias’s cloak. Its eyes were as golden as the sand in summer. Its claws… They were large enough to slice through a man.

The drake was larger than the bed, and just a little bigger than a horse. When it moved, its muscles rippled beneath its fiery scales.

I stumbled backward and ran into Elias’s legs. He pushed me forward, and my vision tunneled.

She’s been waiting a long time.

Now I understood what Elias had meant. This drake… it was going to eat me.

All the stories were true. Kids being feed to mystical creatures. I’d never leave this room alive.

“I think the boy’s gonna faint,” the drake said, a huff of embers and smoke wafting out of its serpentine mouth as it spoke.

Elias grabbed my shoulder and tightened his grip. “He’ll be fine.” Then Elias glanced down and narrowed his gaze. “Hm? What’s wrong with you? Never seen a drake before?”

The drake eyed me. “He’s paler than a bone.”

Elias shook me with a hard jerk of his hand. “Damn kids getting afraid of nothing.” He pushed me over toward the sole bed in the room. “Pull yourself together, kid. Hyperion isn’t going to hurt you. He’s a friendly little syrocko. Most of the time.”

Hyperion—a male drake, then—huffed a laugh. “I’m nice for a syrocko drake. Maybe not so much when compared to a sapphire drake.”

“Knock it off,” Elias hissed. “The damn kid is about to pass out. We don’t need any more of this.”

Their banter confused me. I wasn’t going to be eaten? What was happening then? Why had Elias brought me here? There was so much I wanted to ask him, but I just couldn’t find the words. I wished I were an adult—so I could be brave and just do and say whatever I wanted—but the smell of smoke reminded me of the raiders…

Elias positioned me next to the bed.

It was oddly lumpy.

Was someone sleeping?

Elias threw back the blanks. A strange creature was curled up on the mattress. One I had never seen before. It looked like a cross between a dragon and a unicorn.

It had the body of a foal, but its cloven hooves reminded me of a deer. It had dazzling white fur and a long mane of hair. Or maybe it had scales? The little creature shimmered when it attempted to stand. Its blue eyes were like precious stones—too valuable for anyone but royalty.

The mystical creature had a horn on its head. It was twisted, but pointed, and was a clear blue crystal, just as wondrous as its eyes.

The little creature stared at me for a long time. It was like… we were staring into each other’s souls.

“We’ve been looking for you for a long time, Amir,” Elias said as he reached over and patted the little foal. “This is Roux. She’s a kirin. Do you know what a kirin is, boy?”

I shook my head.

“It’s a special kind of mystical creature. Normally, a person has to prove themselves to a mystical creature in order to bond. But kirin… they know who they want to bond with the moment they’re bond. Roux has been looking for you. She’s been searching for her entire life.”

She looked like a little baby, but when I stared into her eyes, I somehow knew she was much older than that.

Mystical creature didn’t grow older unless they were bonded. That was what House Mother Mila had taught us.

So Roux… this little kirin… had been looking for me?

When the kirin spoke, it wasn’t with her mouth, like a normal person or creature—she spoke directly into my mind, filling my thoughts with her words.

“Amir,” Roux said, though no one else could hear. “I’ve waited so long to meet you.”

I lifted my hand, nervous and still confused. “Hello.”

“Don’t be frightened. It’s my job—my destiny—to lead you to greatness. I’ve seen it in my dreams.”

“R-Really?”

“That’s right. Elias and I are going to make sure you grow to become the most powerful arcanist of them all. That’s your destiny, Amir.”