The Chosen

by K. J. Nessly

  Flinging open the front door she sprinted outside in a blind panic and straight into David and Luke, sending her and David both flying.

  “Natalie! What in blazes is wrong with you?” David exclaimed as he picked himself up off the ground. Luke was doubled over, hooting in laughter.

  “Thekitcheniscoveredinbugs!” she shrieked as she accepted David’s hand to regain an upright position.

  Both David and Luke stared at her. “What?” Luke asked slowly.

  “Iwenttothekitchentogetanewgourdandfounditcoveredinbugswhowerecookingourdinner!”

  “Did you understand any of that?” Luke asked, canting his head to one side.

  David shook his head. “Natalie, you’re hyperventilating,” he told her calmly, “take a deep breath,” David watched while she did so, “good. Now, tell us what happened.”

  “I…went…to…the…kitchen…to…get…a…new…gourd…and…found…it…covered…in… bugs…who…were…cooking…our…dinner.” Natalie drug out each word, partly because she was highly irritated at the boys for making her repeat it and also because she needed to catch her breath in between each word…perhaps she really was hyperventilating…whatever that meant.

  The two boys exchanged a concerned look before racing to the kitchen to see for themselves. Natalie waited for the shouting to begin but when a few minutes had passed and no one had raised their voice she slowly ventured back inside.

  The kitchen was spotless, not a bug in sight and Matt stood stirring the pot with a large wooden spoon with David and Luke laughing beside him.

  Spotting her in the doorway Luke called out, “Where are your bugs Natalie?”

  She scowled at Matt. “They were right here a minute ago.”

  David chuckled. “I don’t see any now. In fact this kitchen’s spotless.” Seeing Natalie’s angry glare he quickly changed the subject, “Dinner smells great Matt, the rest of the Dragons will enjoy it. Come on Natalie, Luke, we have a shift to start.” He pulled Natalie out of the kitchen, missing Matt’s smirk.

  The story of Natalie’s imaginary bugs spread through the Dragons like wildfire and by the time supper started everyone had heard it.

  Natalie, usually a girl who loved being in the center of attention, resented both Matt and the Dragons. Matt because he obviously knew the truth but was letting the rest of the Dragons tease her about it— and the family because theywere teasing her about it.

  But what really irritated her was that Matt had made her look like a fool in front of David. The first time she’d laid eyes on her new leader Natalie had taken careful note of his extreme good looks and calm confident demeanor. The way he had skillfully taken control of the introductions had proven to her that he was of a noble family, peasants simply did not possess such tact—Kathryn certainly didn’t. He was a perfect match for her and she had decided that she would do everything in her power to get him to notice her.

  She wanted him, his attention, and she always got what she wanted. However David was proving to be difficult, hardly taking any notice of her. Instead he seemed to be preoccupied with making sure the Dragons became a smoothly functioning family, the mark of a true leader, but it was definitely running him opposite of Natalie and her ambitions. If she could get close to David, perhaps she could eventually replace Kathryn as second-in-command. The goal was a delicious one to contemplate, one that would be even sweeter due to her irritation over the younger girl.

  However instead of getting closer to her, he seemed to take more of an interest in Kathryn. Natalie had caught him staring hard at her adversary more than once and it made her furious. Now, the one time she’d had his undivided attention, she’d looked like an idiot. Briefly she considered retaliating at Matt, but then decided she couldn’t handle both KathrynandMatt, especially if Matt could call on some of his littlefriends for help.

  Kathryn unsaddled her horse, grateful that Natalie wasn’t around to irritate her with ridiculous questions. She still couldn’t forgive herself for reacting the way she did when Natalie asked her about slavery. The older girl had obviously noticed and took it as a sign that she was on the right track.

  Sighing, Kathryn climbed the stairs and opened the door to her room—and stared. Pink and red fabric hung from the ceiling and walls. Candles matching the fabric sat ready to be lit and little red and pink hearts had been cut from parchment and strewn about the room.

  Natalie. It could only be Natalie.

  Sighing deeply, Kathryn bent over and began picking up the tacky hearts and pulling the fabric off the walls. She deposited the pile in Natalie’s room.

  When Natalie returned from her shift and spotted the pink pile on her bed she smiled. "Well, at least she had the decency to return it," she muttered to herself as she undressed. "That way I can reuse it all tomorrow." She crawled into her bed and snuggled under the blankets wondering just how long Kathryn would tolerate her room being decorated before lashing out at her. It would be interesting to see how long it took for Kathryn to snap.

  On the fourth day Kathryn returned from her last shift to find her room once again a collage of pink and red she felt her anger rise.

  Fine,she thought angrily as she surveyed the disaster that was her room,if Natalie won't stop, then the least I can do is make sure she suffers for it. Gathering up all of the decorations, she stuffed them into her satchel and made her way out of the house and into the woods. On the outskirts of the magical boundary that protected the Dragon's glade she dumped the colorful ensemble out of her bag and quickly set it on fire using her flint and steel. An enormous feeling of satisfaction welled within her as she watched the bright fabrics wither away into pieces of black ash. Her nose wrinkled in distaste as the wind shifted direction, blowing the smoke into her face. Once she was satisfied that there was nothing left for Natalie to salvage she returned to the house, Destiny swopped down over her shoulder screeching victoriously. Kathryn couldn't help but agree with her.

  That night, Natalie was puzzled to discover the absence of the fabric and other decorating materials; however, she wasn't worried. "I have a whole closet full of fabrics," she told Lindsey as she theatrically waved her hand toward the colorful stacks. "She can hide them all she wants...She'll snap before I run out of fabric."

  Chapter 12

  The Dragons had settled into their new home and new routine. The first month on patrol had led to numerous small fights with an annoying number of bandits and thieves that had decided to give Rima some trouble. But after that first month, the excitement seemed to die down. Whoever had been poisoning the wells and crops seemed to have disappeared, leaving the Dragons gifted with mastery over water and earth to clean up the contaminated farms. The only trouble the new Guardians faced on a daily basis was that of the weather. The warm late fall weather had given way to the colder winter weather with startling speed.

  Jenna and Tyler had been called upon to deal with a few injuries. Luke and Matt had tangled with an outlaw who enjoyed throwing tree trunks into the homes of people who annoyed him. Both had been so black and blue after the adventure that Natalie had begun teasing them that they had rolled on Lindsey’s paint palate. Amy and Leia ran into a particularly nasty drunk that had left them with scraped knuckles and huge welts on their heads. A few other cuts and pulled muscles were seen but nothing as serious as a broken leg so much as plagued the family.

  After two months in their new home, the snows had come, blanketing the terrain in uniform whiteness. Despite the school’s southwesterly location it had been built within a league of the Khidamun Sea making snow in the winter months unheard of. Several of the Dragons had never seen the winter phenomenon before and had found adapting to the decreased temperature challenging. Now it was well into the month of Yavannië and outside the magical barrier surrounding their glade, ice and snow storms ravaged the countryside. The snow still fell within their glade, but unless they were on patrol the Dragons were spared the bone-biting chill of the winds and the blinding whiteness of the blizzards that erased every
landmark the Guardians had begun to learn. Not even the cirin could completely protect the Guardians against a winter as bad as the one the Dragons were faced with.

  Matt and Cass learned to keep hot broth and drinks ready as the patrols switched out. The boys took turns making sure that the fires in the lower rooms were constantly burning so that the returning patrol had a place to warm up and dry out their uniforms. Jenna and Tyler dug into Jenna’s supply of herbs to keep the family from developing chills and fever from the exposure to the cold. A nightly routine was developed as the family gathered around the large fireplace in the sitting room to talk or play various games.

  However the animosity between Natalie and Kathryn grew to such an astounding level that it succeeded in making anyone else in the same vicinity uncomfortable. In order to avoid Natalie and Lindsey, Kathryn, who was still conducting training sessions regardless of the snow and cold, took to holding a brief training session between her two shifts and a more extensive session once the fourth shift had left. When Matt inquired about the change, Kathryn had claimed that practicing in dim light would help them later on, refusing to expand further on her explanation. When Matt remarked that Luke, Tyler, and Natalie, who had participated in the afternoon sessions would be excluded since it was not taking place during their shift, she’d replied that Luke and Tyler were capable of holding their own and that Natalie had never participated in the lessons to begin with. She’d also suggested that the rest of the Dragons should use the afternoons to practice before the evening session.

  But simply changing the times of the training sessions did not relieve her of Natalie’s extensive irritations. Lindsey, who followed Natalie’s every lead, had joined the battle on her friend’s side. Natalie was always trying to make monumental changes and more often than not; Kathryn vetoed her plans, for that reason Natalie began to hate the younger girl even more than she had originally.

  At every opportunity the two girls made Kathryn’s life harder and much more difficult than it ever should have been. At every meal Natalie and Lindsey asked pointed questions about Kathryn’s past and continued to pursue the matter until someone else changed topics. Eventually, Kathryn began to eat her meal separately. Natalie never took anything to Kathryn that she felt needed to be addressed. In the beginning she had taken her complaints to David, but he had begun to question Natalie as to why she didn’t approach Kathryn with her concerns. For a while, Natalie had come up with fabricated excuses; “Kathryn was busy training with Matt”, “Kathryn was lying down in her room and I didn’t want to bother her”, “Kathryn was…” her list of reasons were endless, but as her frustration against Kathryn grew she finally just began to overtly complain about her to anyone who would listen.

  David had been a wonderful listener, sympathetic to her woes, even tactfully voicing his own frustration with their vexing second-in-command, but one day David stopped sympathizing with her and began to brush off her irritation. At one point he even reprimanded her for not attempting to work out her differences with the younger girl. Natalie was shocked…and angry. She didn’t know what had happened to change David’s attitude toward Kathryn, but she was furious because now David resented her attitude and her standing in his eyes had dropped. Natalie decided to take matters into her own hands. If she deemed that something needed fixing, and there was at least one thing each day, she fixed it herself—without discussing it with anyone. More often than not, Kathryn would quietly observe the new changes and then order Natalie to change everything back. Natalie would change everything back simply out of fear that the younger girl would call her out onto the training fields and humiliate her even further in a combat exercise.

  On one particular day, Natalie had decided that the living room was too drab and plain for her tastes so she, and Lindsey, had begun to redecorate the entire room in bright feminine colors. Once Kathryn had learned about the project she confronted Natalie, asking if she had asked any of the boys, or even the other girls, and if they had agreed with her decision.

  Natalie, knowing very well that she hadn’t even bothered to hint to the others what she had been planning, tried to sweet talk her way out of it. Kathryn didn’t so much as blink when she ordered Natalie to remove the purple, yellow, and deep pink fabrics from the numerous chairs and couches, remove the heart doilies from the tables, and throw out the heavily scented flowers that had been placed about the room.

  Natalie was furious beyond words. She stared at the younger girl who kept impinging on her freedom. “I can decorate any way I want to! Lord Jasse said so!” she exclaimed, for once not moving to comply with Kathryn’s orders.

  The younger woman narrowed her eyes at her. “You can decorate your own space any way you wish,” she agreed. “Youcannot decorate to your own tastes and desires any place that is shared by this family,” she said coldly, her tone brooking no argument. “There are thirteen other people in this house, Natalie; you cannot dictate their tastes and preferences.”

  However Natalie, tired of Kathryn’s imperious attitude over something as simple as decorating, wasn’t about to stand for this correction.“What wouldyou know about family?” she hissed angrily. “Especially this one!You don’t spend any time around the rest of us, going off all the time to that forest with onlyanimals for company. You spend all your time alone. You’re a freak!” she paused, waiting for a reaction, but to her disappointment got none.

  Fine. She would try harder. She had personally learned long ago that words were far more damaging than any physical wound and since she didn’t have the skills to out spar Kathryn she was going to wound her where she knew she could. “You’re a rock without emotions. You don’t feel. I’ll bet you aren’t even human,” she saw the muscles around Kathryn’s eyes twitch and kept going. “No one here likes you. No one wants to be around you. We hate you! Everyone else is too afraid of you to say it but I’m not! Why were you even placed in this family? Why were you even made a Guardian? You’re a freak, a wanderer, an outcast!” She practically spit the words at her enemy, who still had not said anything, and aside from the twitch around her eyes, hadn’t reacted.

  Kathryn stared at her for a few long moments, her face impassive, finally she spoke in a calm voice, “If you want to make any changes in this house you consult with David and the rest of the familybefore you make those changes. Am I clear?” Her voice had taken on a deadly tone and Natalie, despite all her rage, felt a moment of fear and nodded, determining deep in her mind to make life even more miserable for the Dragons’ second-in-command.

  Kathryn left to take her last shift, which seemed to last forever. Blessedly the day was cloudless, the sun shone brightly on the snow, and even more importantly, there was no hint of a breeze. Nothing serious happened and for once Kathryn wished she could have fought someone. Amy seemed to notice how tense her friend was and constantly asked if she was alright and was slightly taken aback when her friend actually snapped at her.

  When the shift was done, Kathryn didn’t even return the meadow. She sent the others on ahead and instead went to her waterfall. It didn’t matter to her that the sun had already set. She knew the way to her sanctuary by heart and today not even darkness would stop her from seeking comfort there. As Lerina, who by now also knew the way by memory, navigated the path Kathryn felt her muscles coiling with stress. For three weeks the weather had been so bad that not even she had dared venture far beyond the boundary. David had even canceled patrols for a whole standard work week, seven days, reasoning that not even the worst troublemaker would risk life and limb venturing out into the storm. Kathryn had cursed the weather vehemently. If it hadn’t been for the snow, wind, and ice, she wouldn’t have been stuck in the house with Natalie for three weeks. Fortunately Natalie had behaved herself for the seven days that the patrols had been canceled, but as soon as David had reestablished patrols, she had been back to her normal self. When she had, Kathryn had retreated to the barn, nestling down in Lerina’s stall for warmth. On the rare occasion that Natalie had ventured ou
t of the house to try and find her, she’d retreated briefly to the loft and rafters until the older girl had left, often shivering violently. Kathryn couldn’t comprehend why Natalie insisted on wearing fashionable dresses in the biting cold, but was grateful as they generally confined her to the warmer climate of the house.

  They reached the meadow and Kathryn dismounted. She turned to look in the direction where she knew the frozen column of ice that used to be the waterfall lay. Not for the first time she considered walking out onto the frozen pond and breaking the ice. In these temperatures she wouldn’t last long dry even with the cirin. If she was plunged in the frozen pond she wouldn’t stand a chance even if she got help.

  No.She told herself firmly.That’s the coward’s way out.

  Her subconscious rebutted,it would solve all your problems.

  True, it would solve all of her problems, at least where Natalie was concerned. She clenched her teeth.I am not a coward.

  Then why don’t you stand up for yourself? Her subconscious mocked.

  Destiny swooped down beside her, but not even her oldest friend could comfort Kathryn now.

  Kathryn knelt in the snow, the tears she had held in check for the last four radians poured down her cheeks. For the first time since she was eight, she didn’t try to stop them. She let them fall.

  She had failed. Failed Jasse, failed David, failed her new family, had failed herself. She had tried to put down roots, to try and befriend the strangers who had become her family. It hadn’t been hard to convince everyone to take part in the regular training sessions, and she’d felt some sense of accomplishment knowing that she was helping them sharpen their ability to defend themselves. On a few cold nights, she’d helped Jenna and Tyler with their herbal tinctures and poultices and they’d seemed appreciative. She had thought she was, slowly, succeeding. But Natalie was right. What did she know about family?