It's been over a cycle since I was almost caught by the Hunters, since I was torn apart from my family and was thrown halfway across the dimension, to the Realm of Magic. They say Magic comes from who you are as a person, from your inner strength an...
'I can't believe this is your last week here.' I told my cousin.
I was carrying a basket for her with some ingredients for tomorrow's dinner. We had been gathering them all day and had just decided to go back home. It was getting late and the sky had already started shifting colours, causing the forest to shimmer in the light of the slowly disappearing sun.
'I can't believe it either, it'll be hard to be so far away from Silvea again.'
'Do you have to go?' I asked, shaking my head soon after. 'Don't answer, I know you do.'
We stopped walking and Anthea put her basket on the ground. 'It won't be forever. The course is but two cycles long, it'll be over before you know it.' She ran a hand through my hair. 'My little sunflower.'
I smiled carefully. Sunflower.
'I just... wish I could come with you...' A gloom fell upon me as a penetrating numbness filled my chest. She gently put her hands on both my shoulders.
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'Oh Ehrynn... that your powers haven't sprouted yet doesn't mean they never will. Flowers that bloom late often are the most beautiful.'
Her words, small as they may seem, lifted my spirits ever so faintly. I tilted my head slightly to feel the warmth of her hand on my cheek.
'You're right, An. I shouldn't give up just ye-.'
Our conversation got interrupted when Hazel, Anthea's little sister and my cousin, grabbed my arm all of a sudden and pulled me along.
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'C'mon, c'mon, hurry up! The soup's ready!' She cheered whilst making me run across the field.
Anthea giggled at the sight of my startled face and, soon after catching up with us and recovering her breath, asked her little sister: 'Could you tell mom we'll be there in a few minutes?'
'All right, but hurry up. It's getting cold already!' Hazel whined in a forgedly plaintive voice.
The vegetable soup that my aunt Astra had recently created had become Hazel's favourite in no time. It was partly from a recipe that my own mother had created a long time ago, just with some turnips added and sometimes even some leaves from a very rare plant that grows only in the Sage. But my mother...
'Will you tell your father dinner is ready, too?'
'Of course!' Hazel gave her big sister a bright smile, proud of the task she had just been entrusted with, and off she went.
Anthea smiled while watching her little sister take off like that. Her hand found mine and we linked as we gazed over the field. 'You won't be the only one missing...' She swallowed. '...missing what's dear to you...' She took a deep breath. 'Promise me something?'
'Hm?'
'Will you look after Hazel while I'm gone?'
I nodded. 'Of course.'
Anthea sighed in relief. She gently kissed my forehead. 'And look after yourself, too, please.'
