Chosen

by Shelby Hild

  It was just in time since she was running low on the last of her paints. She wouldn’t need to buy any with her allowance for at least a month. One by one, she lifted each jar up to see fifteen different colors of paint. They were different from the paints Vivilyn normally received for her birthday. This time, along with the common green and blue, red and yellow, there were also rare colors, such as purple and gray, orange and even a metallic gold and silver. It was the fullest array of colors to experiment with Vivilyn had ever seen in one spot.

  “That’ll go perfectly with our gift,” Ryso said as he pulled a large pile of canvas boards from behind the counter where the younger four Tailors played. “Everyone worked together to get you these.”

  “I don’t know how to thank everyone,” she said, one hand coming up to cover her mouth. Tears filled Vivilyn’s eyes. One by one, Vivilyn pulled each of them into hugs.

  No matter what changes, this is my family. And I will love them as they’ve loved me. That won’t change. She took a deep breath.

  A knock on the door paused the celebration.

  “Oh, that’s the new helper and his family. He’s to help out around the shop while we work on the harvest the next few months.” Magnar went over to the door and opened it. Vivilyn looked towards the door with curiosity. Her father was supposed to hire someone to help with the pickings, not to help in the store.

  Vivilyn vaguely recognized the man as he limped in, but it didn’t click who he was until an energetic little girl zoomed by her father. Her mother and two brothers followed the man inside. The little girl, face and hands much cleaner than they had been when Vivilyn met them on the street, looked up at Vivilyn and smiled.

  “It’s you, Missus,” she said simply. Iza turned around and shouted back at her brothers, “I told you I’d find her again!”

  “Iza,” her mother said firmly. “Come back here.”

  “Thank you for the kindness you showed our children earlier today,” their father said slowly as though he had to think of each word carefully before he said it. “We will repay your kindness.”

  “They helped me out, really,” Vivilyn said with a wave of her hand. “I didn’t need what I gave them. I couldn’t let it go to waste.” Maia looked at Vivilyn and then at the children.

  “You gave them the donuts,” Maia stated.

  “And probably your lunch as well,” Duncan said with a half-smile. He reached forward to ruffle Vivilyn’s hair, but she dodged out of his reach.

  “Mister Verno, welcome to our little shop. There are two extra rooms upstairs for you and your family to use as you like. Tomorrow morning, we will show you around the gardens and the orchards. This is my wife, Suzetta, my son, Duncan, and my daughter, Vivilyn.”

  “We appreciate your hospitality. This is my wife, Lolina, my sons, Eso and Mo, and our little flutterbird Iza,” Verno said. Iza ran under some of the bins of fruit and popped up right next to the remaining two miniature cakes. She eyed them, then looked to her mother. When her mother shook her head, Iza sighed and walked away.

  “If you are determined to pay Vivilyn back for the donuts and food, perhaps the young ones can help us in the orchards for fruit picking?” Magnar suggested. “We could always use the help of little ones with lots of energy.”

  Verno nodded before saying, “I’m sure we can come to an agreement.”

  “How does that sound, Iza?” Lolina said as she squatted closer to her children’s level. “Would you like to help collect all the fruit and veggies they grow here?” Iza lifted her hands to her face, hiding her large smile, as she nodded. The child ran over and wrapped her arms around her mother.

  “Can I?” She asked.

  “I think that sounds like a great idea,” Verno said. “As long as all three of you are willing to help.”

  “I’ll help ‘em,” the oldest one, Mo, said. “Can’t accept no charity, but we work real hard.”

  As Magnar showed the new arrivals to their rooms, everyone else began saying their goodbyes and heading to their own homes.

  “I hope we both get chosen for the Trials,” Maia said as she gave Vivilyn a hug goodbye. “Can you imagine how fun it would be to do it together?” Vivilyn looked at her best friend. With her light auburn hair, kind hazel eyes, and her perfectly straight and regal posture, Maia would make a beautiful and beloved queen.

  “You’d be a wonderful option for the Chosen,” Vivilyn said as she hugged Maia once more.

  When only Vivilyn and Duncan remained downstairs, everything was quiet.

  Duncan put his arm around Vivilyn’s shoulders, and she leaned into him as they watched people walk down the street towards their own homes and shops.

  “Happy birthday, Little Sister,” he said.

  “Thank you,” she replied, stifling a yawn.

  Magnar and Suzetta came back downstairs and smiled at their children.

  “How did getting your still go?” Suzetta asked as they approached Duncan and Vivilyn. The four of them went about the task of closing the shop as Vivilyn told them about her trip to the Administrations Office.

  “I…” Vivilyn started, then hesitated. She walked over to the staircase and looked upstairs. When there was no indication that the others were still awake, she continued as she turned back to her family. “I had a vision.” Quickly she described it, and then continued to talk about what happened.

  “I don’t like it,” Magnar said. “Why did they offer to take a different picture?”

  “Sometimes people are nice,” Vivilyn said, smiling up at her father.

  “Not like this. There’s something going on.” Magnar shook his head. “I just don’t trust it. Why wasn’t Ryso asked to take his brother’s place? Why these random strangers?”

  “Ryso isn’t seventeen yet and hasn’t had the training his brother has. These women likely have better credentials. Besides, there’s nothing we can do about it now,” Suzetta said, shaking her head as Magnar blew out the last of the candles. “What’s done is done. We can only look forward.”

  Duncan patted Vivilyn’s shoulder and the entire family went up to bed.

  Chapter 3

  “I can’t believe we find out tonight,” Maia said as she placed a freshly baked batch of muffins on the counter and moved to put the next batch in the oven. “Don’t touch,” she said, swatting at Ryso’s hand as he reached to grab a muffin. “They’re hot.”

  “They aren’t that hot,” he said before trying again. As soon as his hand touched one, he pulled it back. “Okay, maybe they are,” he admitted.

  Vivilyn and Maia laughed. At last, after twelve years of friendship, it seemed Ryso finally learned not to stuff the piping hot baked goods into his mouth. The last four times he’d ignored his own hand’s warnings, the girls had had to listen to him complain about his burnt mouth for days.

  “I can see it so clearly,” Maia continued. She pulled herself up to sit on the counter next to the muffins. Maia looked towards the window, eyes glazing over like one of her simple donuts. “Vivilyn and I walking up the palace steps together in perfectly coordinated dresses. Because why wouldn’t we be coordinated? We’re a team. No one would see us coming, not even the king. And, of course, we’d completely take over the castle. One of us would win, obviously, and nothing would ever be the same.” She looked back to Vivilyn and Ryso before hesitantly adding, “Do you think they’d let me bake in the kitchens?”

  “You would definitely win,” Vivilyn said as she shifted her attention back to the paper in front of her. “Everyone falls for your charm. And you could just command them to let you bake.”

  Maia laughed again and Ryso rolled his eyes as he tapped the muffin he’d tried grabbing earlier, gauging if it had cooled enough to pick up yet.

  “You didn’t fall for her charm,” Ryso said. “Maia was inconsolable for weeks when you preferred staying in the garden by yourself.” Vivilyn barely remembered the time Maia and her parents first moved to Treelyn.

  Her mind shifted as she thought back to that
first fateful meeting. It seemed so long ago.

  Magnar had told her a new family moved into town and they had a girl about Vivilyn’s age. He’d led Vivilyn down the street so she could meet the new neighbor while he spoke with the butcher nearby. Vivilyn had been pondering going home to help Suzetta when she heard an excited squeal from a nearby window, followed by a door nearby slamming shut. After looking towards the building her father was in, Vivilyn came to her decision. She stood up from the step she'd been sitting on and started walking home.

  “I’m Maia,” a small strawberry-blonde girl said, as she ran from a building recently sold to the Bakers family. “I live here now,” Maia said and skipped ahead of Vivilyn. When she saw that Vivilyn didn’t skip with her she turned around and came back to continue talking. “This is my new house. We live upstairs. Have you ever heard of such a thing? Living above where you work! We will always smell yummies!”

  Vivilyn opened her mouth to tell the girl her family had always lived above their shop, but the girl didn’t pause long enough to breathe, much less for Vivilyn to say something.

  “Mama and Papa say this is going to be a wonderful place for us. They’re bakers and make the most wonderful things. Mama is always making up new yummies! What’s your name? Do you like baked things? My favorite’s doubly chocolate cookies. Mmm, they’re so chocolatey. What kind of things do you eat? What’s there to do around here? Ooh, what’s that?”

  Vivilyn looked down to see Maia trying to pick up a cricket. The girl concentrated intently as the cricket tried to hop away. For the first time since she had approached Vivilyn, she was silent. Vivilyn wasn’t sure how long the cricket would hold Maia’s attention.

  “It’s a bug,” Vivilyn said. She tried to think of a way out of the interaction.

  “That explains why it’s so buggy.” Maia nodded as if it made all the sense in the world.

  “I needa get back to my parents, but it was nice meeting you,” Vivilyn said before running back to her house.

  Her father had been furious at her for running off. He’d made her apologize for running away the next day when Maia and her mother came to buy blackberries.

  Since Magnar and Suzetta had yet to bring in that morning’s pickings, Magnar suggested Vivilyn and Maia to pick together. Marlena had agreed. It would give her time to set up deliveries for the bakery.

  “I’ve never picked blackberries before,” Maia said as Vivilyn tried showing her how to pick the berries without getting stuck by a thorn. “Oh, but I love to eat them. Mama makes the most delicious pies with them. Strawberries are better though. Do you have strawberries? Mama wants to make a new cupcake for my birthday! You should come to my birthday party! It’s a year from now… minus three weeks. Ouch!” Maia had pricked her finger.

  “I have to ask Papa,” Vivilyn said in the moment of silence as Maia examined her finger. “For now, it might be better if you went inside and I finished gathering the berries.”

  Maia’s eyes grew wide and she immediately started sniffling. “You don’t want me to help?”

  “That’s not—you should get your mama to clean your hand. You’ve hurt it and we don’t want it to get worse.”

  The sudden heat in her face brought Vivilyn back to the present as Maia pulled out the last tray of muffins. Ryso finally managed to safely seize one of the cooler muffins out of its tin.

  “I wasn’t that bad,” Vivilyn said as she took the muffin out of Ryso’s hands and quickly stuffed it in her mouth.

  “Wasn’t that bad,” Ryso said as he jokingly glared at Vivilyn.

  “I think you were the only one who actively tried to avoid me,” Maia said.

  “You were just… a lot,” Vivilyn said after she swallowed the rest of the muffin and wiped a few crumbs off her chin. “Honestly, Iza reminds me a lot of you. A flutterbird, her parents call her.”

  “You did eventually warm up to me,” Maia said. The door into the showroom from outside opened with a slight squeal. The three didn’t hear anything from Maia’s father in the showroom, so they continued their conversation.

  “You didn’t give me an option,” Vivilyn admitted. Maia gave her a sad puppy-dog pout. “But I am glad you didn’t. You’re my best friend.”

  “Hey!” Ryso exclaimed.

  “You are too,” Vivilyn said.

  “That’s why we’re the coolest club,” Maia said. “The artist, the baker, and the stilltaker.”

  “Hey!” A small voice called from the door from between the showroom and the kitchen. Iza stood in the doorway, her eyes large with pleading. “Can I be part of the club?”

  Vivilyn set her pencil down and reached out an arm for the little girl. “Of course,” she said as Iza ran towards her. “Every club needs their spy. And as sneaky as you are, you’d be perfect.” She lifted the light child to her lap.

  “But we have two rules for our club,” Ryso said.

  “What’s that?” Iza said, leaning eagerly toward Ryso.

  “One,” Ryso said. “No one can know about the club. It’s our little secret.”

  “I can do that,” Iza said, “I kept the secret about Vivilyn giving us the food the first day we met.” Iza crossed her arms and hmphed proudly.

  “Did you, now?” Vivilyn asked, one eyebrow raised. When Iza started to nod, Vivilyn tickled her.

  “Okay, okay,” Iza squealed seconds later as she struggled to get off Vivilyn’s lap. “I told Mama. But only twice! Stop!” Vivilyn finally showed mercy by allowing Iza to hop out of her lap and run away. As she hid behind Maia to catch her breath, Iza asked, "What's the second rule?"

  “Well,” Maia said as she brought Iza in front of her and knelt down, “this one is very important.” Iza leaned forward and listened intently as Maia lowered her voice. “You must always be honest to those in the club. We don’t lie to each other.” Iza nodded. “Now, tell me what you think of these.” Maia held out one of the cooled muffins. Iza’s eyes opened wide and she held her hands up to her mouth. Vivilyn learned quickly that was something the child often did when excited about something—which was almost as often as not.

  Iza stuffed as much of the muffin in her mouth as she possibly could without choking. After chewing for a few moments, she nodded happily.

  “This is the most delicious thing in the world!” she exclaimed through a full mouth.

  “Very good,” Maia said. “You’re in.” Iza giggled and stuffed the rest of the muffin in her mouth as she skipped back over to Vivilyn.

  She bounced back on to Vivilyn’s lap. After she finished the muffin, Iza whispered loudly in Vivilyn’s ear, knocking a few missed crumbs out of her mouth and onto Vivilyn’s cheek. “Did you hear that, Lyn? I’m part of your club too. When you’re queen…”

  “I’m not gonna be queen, Iza.”

  “Who’s to say you won’t?” Ryso said.

  “You’re just as likely to be chosen as anyone,” Maia said. “Who knows? Maybe all of the eligible women in town will be chosen! That would be so amazing!”

  “I sure hope not,” Ryso sighed before looking at the wall in the direction of the Tailors house.

  “When are you gonna ask Cleo’s father?” Vivilyn asked. Part of her wanted to tease him about how he might get kicked all the way to the Praytha Islands if Ziglo Tailor found out his daughter and Ryso were practically courting already before actually getting his blessing. Vivilyn refrained though. Ryso was already worried enough.

  “After the Choosing,” he said as he shifted his gaze to Vivilyn. “It would be pointless to ask and then have her be one of the Chosen, you know?”

  “She’s going to get tired of waiting for you,” Vivilyn said.

  “Who’s Cleo?” Iza asked.

  “You remember the short Tailor girl? A little taller than Mo?” Vivilyn said. When Iza nodded, Vivilyn continued, “Well, Ryso has been trying to work up the nerve to start officially courting her for years.”

  “Years?” Iza said. “Well, that’s silly.”

  “Not silly,” Ry
so said. “Strategic.” He came over and picked Iza up from Vivilyn’s lap. “I want to be sure the time is right, and I want to be sure she and her father will be agreeable to the suggestion.”

  “Why would she say no?” Maia asked.

  “Why would she say yes?” Ryso responded. “She’s beautiful and intelligent and kind and independent and… and everything I could ever want in a woman. More than I could want in a woman. And me? I’m just… me.”

  “Don’t say it like that,” Vivilyn said. “You are a catch.”

  “Of course you are,” Maia said.

  “Yeah,” Iza said, “like a fish.” Iza sucked in her cheeks and widened her eyes.

  “Yay,” Ryso said with an eye roll. “I am basically a fish.”

  “Not basically,” Vivilyn said with a giggle. “Apparently you are a fish.”

  They all laughed and made fish faces. Outside, wind screamed through the building as it announced the arrival of a storm. Everyone quieted down to listen to it for a few minutes.

  “You should talk to her father. And soon,” Vivilyn said.

  “Yeah,” Maia added. “She’s waiting for you now; we all know it. She won’t wait forever, though. And she won’t allow you to court her unless you get her father’s approval. She seems confident he’ll say yes.” A branch knocked into the building. They all looked toward where it rattled on the wall.

  “But what if she’s just saying that because she wants an excuse to be rid of me?” Ryso set his face in his hands.

  “Why would she do that?” Maia asked. “She’s the most straightforward person I’ve ever met. Goodness, she’s as straightforward as Vivilyn is round about!”

  “I am not round about!” Vivilyn argued. “I’m not even sure what that means.”

  “Fine,” Maia relented. “Cleo is a dragon in disguise. And dragons are very candid.”