Our Savior

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  The day Amber had been dreading for months was nearly here. In previous years, she'd found ways to get around it. Ketchup packets up her sleeve, sneaking around the mandates, avoiding the Dalzev Regional Hall as much as possible. King Richard didn't pay much attention to these annual Ceremonies.

  The only problem was, she didn't know how much longer she could keep it up. Her secret was bound to get out sooner or later, whether she liked it or not.

  She'd realized the truth of it about four years ago, around her thirteenth birthday. Things such as birthdays were hard to keep track of where she lived, but she'd always found a way to remember hers. At the time, it had seemed exciting. Maybe she'd get to escape the dullness of her hometown and have an adventure.

  That wasn't at all what she felt now.

  Now, all she felt was an overwhelming sense of foreboding, as if she just knew her luck had run out. She was all out of ideas. This would be the year they finally found out.

  She'd noticed something was amiss when she'd cut her hand on a sharp, loosened screw in her bed frame. It'd been hard to hide her golden blood, the telltale sign that she was the person the royals of Gardelle had been searching for, hundreds of years of traditional Ceremonies having been held to find her. Their Savior.

  Soon, all that hard work to keep it hidden might be for nothing. The Ceremony was in only a few hours, and she had no way out of it. Nobody knew about her secret except her, so it wasn't like she could get help. She was all on her own. And she was screwed.

  Amber tugged on her shoulder length, dark brown hair in frustration. I should be happy. She thinks, I'll get to go to new places. I'll live in the castle.

  She was used to the old cottages of her home town, Pine Grove, but she couldn't help but fantasize about life in the castle. Despite most of the country's ancient, historical cities, the capital of Gardelle, Zalcor, was always new and lively. There was always something going on there, and life was never dull. At least, that was what she'd heard. Gardelle was divided into six regions, including the enormous city of Zalcor and its surrounding area. The regional borderlines were only to be crossed in emergencies and such, so she'd never been outside of her home region, Dalzev.

  With its colder climate than the rest of the kingdom and being covered in perilous mountains, most people wouldn't want to live in the Dalzev region. But Amber didn't mind. In fact, she loved it there. But she very well may soon have to leave it all behind.

  She steps along the road they'd been walking on for days, her feet making a crunching sound as she ambled on the dusty dirt road. Her sister, Danielle, followed closely behind, like a duckling faithfully following its mother. As usual, Danielle was talking up a storm.

  "Yesterday, everyone at school was talking about how they were sure they were going to be the Savior. What they don't know is that it's going to be me." She gestures wildly with her hands, bringing life to an otherwise boring and unimportant one-sided conversation.

  "Uh-huh," Amber responds blankly, her mind somewhere else.

  "I mean, how cool would it be to fly? Do you think my blood will be actual liquid gold?"

  "Yep."

  Danielle jogs up in front of her sister, turning around to face her and nearly making Amber run into her. Danielle's eyebrows were pinched together. "Are you even listening to me?"

  Amber was released from her stupor, hoping her sister hadn't noticed her completely spacing out. "Yeah, of course. What were you saying again?"