01 - Aletz

Chapter 2

"Aletz! Aletziiiira!" The voice of her friend Biela finally poked Aletz's eardrum. Biela was waving her hand over Aletz's eyes.

"W-What!? S-sorry, I was a little distracted." Aletz snapped out of her attention-less stupor.

"I asked if you're going to want me to cook your portion too?"

"S-sure! Thanks."

"You've been in a fog all morning, I can't believe you went all the way to the river and brought back an empty bucket!"

"I-I forgot."

"Right, they'll think you've been slacking off. You may get punished, and harshly, you know the captain."

Aletz was still struck by the notion that she had daydreamed all that had taken place that morning. It had been nothing like what she had imagined it would be. It was more, a lot more.

But the men had begun to make it back to the camp, and they all brought back the same bent and broken swords with them.

A pile of the ruined metal started to form at the center of the greater encampment, and then turned into a small metal hill. All of it to be smelt and remade.

Aletz remembered feeling the metal in her hands, how it heated up when she squished, crumpled it—as though it had been nothing more than warm flour dough.

And the crowns. Aletz had kept one of the gems, a green one(her favorite color) for her own, a little memory—to prove to herself it had all been real.

She had always been able to do things no one else could.

Aletz was strong; when the old farmer Jadyen had ended up stuck under his carriage, gasping for air, Aletz had been the one who lifted the carriage(while no one was paying attention); just a few inches off the ground, so he could slip out.

And she was fast; once they had gone camping and had run into a bear in the forest, a large one too; she had played bait and lured it away. Aletz hadn't been so sure back then if she could outrun it, but before she herself knew it, Aletz had left it far and away behind.

Aletz was strong, stronger than anyone—stronger than anyone had any right to be—but never had she been strong enough to fold metal like cloth—or ever been so fast as she had been that morning, faster than even the wind, faster than anything to compare.

Before going out onto the field that day, she had seen in her mind's eye a much more different series of events. She saw herself trying to save ten folk, or five, or one at least. And then running away.

Her parents had been the first to find out what Aletz could do. They told her it had started before Aletz herself even could remember, before even her first spring; a fall that should have killed her as a babe didn't—they had thought it a miracle; a deadly spider bit her once, and only made her laugh—she had played with it as though it had been a dust bunny; as a toddler, a man had come to try and harm her parents, and she had made the man go away.

But they kept it all a secret, and told her to keep it a secret too, or else the bad men would come.

"Here," Biela shoved a warm bowl into Aletz's hands. "You there, what's gotten into you?"

Aletz shook her head. "Was just thinking about my parents."

"Auntie." Biela called Aletz's mother Aunt, and Aletz's mother called her Niece, even though they didn't share any blood. Biela hung her head low. "I miss mine too." She shoved a spoonful of broth into her mouth.

"How long has it been?"

"You know I am just as bad at numbers and dates as you." Biela strained an eye and a brow. "3 moons? Maybe four?"

"That's so short, it feels like a whole 'nother lifetime already. You think we'll go home now?" Aletz remembered the smile of her parents— the letter she had left them behind.