The Phoenix Summoner (ON HOLD)

19

When Anya opened her eyes she found herself in an empty barn. She looked around a sense of familiarity filling her. Then it hit her, she was standing in her families barn. She can't remember the last time she stepped foot let alone thought of her home in Kerch. It seemed like a distance memory at this point.

"Where are we Anya?" Baghra asks appearing behind her.

"My families farm back in Kerch."

Suddenly children's laughter can be heard as a distant echo. A young girl with long brown hair pulled into two small braids ran in with a small dog behind her.

"Osho?" Anya whispers seeing her childhood pet. Then she realized, the little girl was her. She remembers this day now like it was yesterday, it was her eighth birthday. The day she met him.

A loud crash is heard from the side of the barn and the little girl quickly turns to the side of the barn seeing a young boy fall out from behind one of the haystacks.

"Who are you!" Young Anya demands. She grabbed the nearest item she could find to defend herself, which happened to be a rake. She poked the boy in the chest causing him to fall back again.

"I won't ask again who are you!"

"My name is Kaz!" The boy says holding up his hands in defense. Anya's eyes widen and she grasps the pendant around her neck.

"Kaz?" She whispered. Suddenly the scene changed and Anya found herself in snow covered forest, the one that was located outside of her house. She looked around spotting young Anya sitting against a tree, her cloaked pulled tightly to her. She looked older in this one, Anya had noticed.

"What day is this?" Baghra asked.

"This was several hours before the testers came to my village. I had ran away..."

A stick cracks and young Anya grabs the small knife she had pointing it towards the intruder. Kaz raises his hands in defense chuckling at the girl.

"Why must you always threaten me with something?" He asks.

"Well maybe you shouldn't sneak up on a girl then, you never know what we might possess to defend ourselves." Anya smirked. Kaz sits down beside her taking her hand into his. They both sat there with solemn looks on their faces. The testers were to come today and test the kids of the village to see if they're Grisha.

"What if one of us ends up being Grisha?" Kaz asks worryingly. "They'll separate us."

"That won't happen!" Anya exclaims squeezing his hand in reassurance "They'll come, see we're not Grisha and be on with their day. We'll be fine." Kaz looks down taking something out of his pouch, he opens Anya's hand and places it in her palm.

"I had one made for the both us, that way if something happens we'll be with each other no matter what." Young Anya looked down playing with the crow pendant with her fingers. She looks up nodding to Kaz. A bell is heard in the distance and both children breathe out nervously.

"We should get back to the village." Kaz says. They both stand up and begin to walk back to the village when young Anya stopped looking at something in the distance. Almost as if she heard something. Anya stepped closer to the younger version of her, watching as she scanned the trees. In a brief flash young Anya's eyes flashed from brown to gold.

"Anya?" Kaz asks.

"I thought I heard something, go ahead I'll catch up."

"What happened on this day?" Baghra asked.

"I stayed behind because I heard something call me....they same voice I've been hearing all my life." Anya explained as she watched the younger version of herself travel deeper into the forest.

"I followed to the cave where they discovered I was Grisha. I should have followed Kaz back to the village, I should never stayed alone. We had our whole life planned together, we were gonna run away, we were gonna grow up together, we promised to never leave each other."

"You had plans but tell me, where is this boy now? If he cared so much for you then why didn't he follow you."

"I don't know..." Anya whispered seeing what Baghra was trying to do.

"Just like Alina you're trying to hold onto a past that doesn't exist anymore. You have everything people would die for. I place to live, all the food you want to eat...A man who loves you." Anya looks at Baghra shocked. How did she know about her and Aleksander?

"So answer me this....what is holding you back?"