Two girls sat in a tree. One of them, with snow-white hair, had a scrunched-up face like she was concentrating very hard. She had a piece of paper on a hard tablet propped on her knees, on which she was scribbling furiously.
The other had hair that was midnight black. A smile played at her lips as she read her book. "Hey Aria!" She called down the three branches separating them. "Guess what?"
Aria, sticking her tongue out the corner of her mouth, answered with an absent minded "Hmmm?"
The black haired girl cracked a wide smile. "They have a weapon called a duck ass. How great is that?"
At this, Aria raised an eyebrow. "Are you sure, Lyla? Let me see."
Lyla dog eared her page and dropped it through the branches. Aria caught it and saw that Lyla had been looking at a reference guide for weapons. She flipped it open to the page Lyla had been looking at.
Aria frowned. "Lyla, this days dussack, not duck ass. Pay more attention to what you read!" She smiled as she finished her sentence. "That is one of your funnier mess ups, though. Remember that time you thought the sign on the mayor's building said Sole Fairy when it said Soul Fair?!"
Lyla laughed. "At least I didn't leave her an offering. You left her an old pair of shoes with worn-out soles, an apple, and a note asking her to fix the shoes!"
Aria's cheeks burned. "That's because I wasn't there to double check your rushed reading!"
They laughed together, teasing eachother until the Suns went down. First Renda, then Roodae sunk below the horizon. Only Rhysha hung in the sky, turning it red and orange and pink.
"I guess we better go home, huh?" Aria said quietly. Her hair was turned a soft pinkish orange by Rhysha.
Lyla sighed. "Only three days until they give every sixteen-year-old in our villages The Test." She looked down at Aria, looking frightened. "What if we pass?"
Aria, at the thought, looked just as scared. "I don't know. I think I'd run. Or try to, anyway. But let's not dwell on that. We better get home before curfew."
They hopped down from the tree, hugged, and walked in opposite directions. Aria walked toward Aplla Town, a tiny village in what used to be the Kingdom of Light. Lyla walked toward Pilke Village, a town that used to be on the very border of the Kingdom of Darkness.
Just as Aria walked through the gate to town, a bell rang and the gates closed. The clock struck six.
She'd just barely made curfew.
Aria entered the house, offering a half-hearted "I'm home!" The smell of an unusual dinner filled her nose: steak and mashed potatoes. Her parents had kept that much beef and potato? That could've earned them some decent money on the shopping district.
Despite her qualms, Aria was excited for dinner and quite hungry. She walked up to her room and pulled a book off the shelf, one of the few her parents had managed to get her for a holiday or her birthday. This one was her favorite.
The front cover read The Legend of the Circle of Six Mages in shiny emboss script. Flopping on the bed, Aria cracked it open to the page where it told of the each of the members and their weapons.
The Mages kept their names well-hidden to shield themselves from surprise attack or betrayal. Not even the best historians can find their names, she read.
Water Mage: 5'5"
Strategist
Long-range weapon: bow and arrow
Melee weapon: dussack
Aria smiled, remembering her and Lyla's earlier conversation.
YOU ARE READING
Circle of Six Mages Book One: Yin and Yang
FantasyIn the land of Rashiviio, a war is raging. The God of Hell, Rhieashinn, has been trying to expand his territory into Rashiviio ever since he received his territory. The God of Heaven, Zheru, is trying to keep him at bay. However, since Rashiviio is...
