Waiting on One

The Chosen One (3)

The shock was real. The Oracle had not been considered an old woman by any means. Generally, Oracles even lived much longer than normal individuals because of the favor that was bestowed on them by the gods. This Oracle was less than one generation old. There had been no sign of sickness, she had simply slipped away in her sleep.

It was rumored that she had been taken by a god that favored her. Though even that rumor had angered some, they argued that the Oracle never would have left them like that. Unguided and adrift as they were now. Which started a whirlwind of motion. Because a successor needed to be found. So it went.

Lyra was dizzy as the days quickly passed in a blur of motion. Her brother Leon had informed them in quick order that all of the women of the village were expected to gather the following morning at the temple. There they would start their screening, their search, to find the next Oracle.

She left again early in the morning under the guidance of the moon, but this time wrapped in a cloak and shadowing her mother's quick steps. Cecil was not used to traveling away from the house like Lyra. She spent their long walk huddled close to Lyra, who could sense the young girl trembling. She didn't know if it was from excitement or fear. They hadn't really had time to speak the day before to see what each of them were hopeful for as an outcome.

For that matter Lyra hadn't really had time to think about it. What did she want out of this? She spent the next leg of the journey mulling that over in her mind. Trying to decide what she wanted. She had always been content with working with her father in their corner of land away from the village. She didn't really think that she wanted to be an Oracle. Drugged and held in the temple to be used as a conduit by the Gods. It did not seem favorable, more like a sort of prison.

Maybe being recognized by the temple for her medicinal skills would be nice. Because then she would be able to officially follow her father as his successor and she would be a recognized healer by her community. She smiled at that thought. That could be her goal then. She had no Oracle-like skills regardless. She was not a seer and up until now she hadn't really paid much attention to the gods.

She knew that her mother prayed to one set on her behalf, and her father prayed to the other set on her behalf. She never felt the need to do much praying on her own.

Her thoughts were interrupted by the aching of her feet. She sighed. It amazed her that her brother walked this distance not once, but twice, a day. She looked up to see that the stars had long since gone to bed and that the moon had slipped below the horizon. The sun had started blinking at them through the trees and over the horizon. Her mother must have heard her because she stopped suddenly and spun to face her two daughters.

"We should eat." She then just as abruptly spun again and marched off to a distant rock. It was not a short distance between their home and the village. Her father had done that by design though.

Because in the beginning the people had not trusted him with his strange accent, knowledge of other gods and his odd ways. Though now his knowledge of medicine had slowly won them over.

Her brother did not seem to mind the distance however, he was long legged and slightly motivated by the blue eyed buxom blond daughter of the shopkeepers that he got to see every day that he ran into the village. Now though, Lyra realized that she did not begrudge him the chore in the slightest. She preferred the trek through the woods and to the valley near the house.

Her mother sat on a nearby rock large enough for their picnic and started passing out rations of dried fruit and bread with cheese and a jam that they had made the day before as a treat. Lyra hadn't realized how hungry she was until she took the first bite. At the taste of the jam her stomach roared to life. Cecil giggled and then gobbled up her own bread and jam.

Mira hadn't touched her food yet and was just watching her daughters. She had been like a dam all morning holding in a flood of words. Cecil and Lyra had been waiting for the dam to break. Mira finally spoke, "The trials will be difficult. The temple will test your faith in the gods. It would bring our family honor and glory for either of you to become the Oracle." The girls nodded; they knew this already.

Mira swallowed hard and huffed out a sigh, "They will tell you that. That it would bring honor and glory to your family." She reached out and grabbed her daughters' hands, holding them tightly. Her rich blue eyes looked deeply into a pair of light blue eyes that matched her own, and a vibrant green set that looked as foreign as her husband's light hazel eyes. Her daughters were both so different that they complimented each other.

It struck Lyra then that her mother had already been through this. She had been through the trials when she was their age and the last Oracle had been chosen. The Oracle was not old. They searched for an Oracle once every three generations normally, so this was not an opportunity that Lyra or Cecil would have originally had.

"We do not want that honor or glory." The words that left her mother's mouth shocked Lyra. She had already decided of course that it was not an honor that she personally wanted, but it surprised her very much that her devout mother did not want the glory for her family.

Until she realized that the look, she had mistaken for fervor in her mother's gaze was actually fear. Of course, her mother didn't want it. Because it would have meant losing one of them to the temple. It warmed Lyra's heart that her mother chose them over glory from the gods. Though she kicked herself for having ever doubted her mother's love and attachment.

After all, her mother had allowed them the freedom of figuring out what they wanted out of life. She had let Lyra galivant in the woods with her father, maybe a disapproving look every once in a while, but never a word of reproach.

Mira waited until both of her daughters acknowledged her words. Sure, that they understood that she meant it, she gobbled her meal and then rushed them again on their way.

They were to be at the Temple by midday. All three of them gazed at the steadily rising sun, and then silently set off again.