The Last Quest

In the books that I've read, a girl's 18th year should be magical. But why do I feel the opposite?

"Are you ready, Macha?" My mother asked.

Well, today is my 18th birthday. In our village, some people's 18th year is their worst nightmare and you don't have any idea what is ahead of you because talking about the quest is forbidden.

There are people who tried to open their mouths about it but failed theirselves. They are all missing.

"Do I have a choice, mom?" I asked and she smiled sadly at me.

As I opened the door of our house, I saw people crying their hearts out, scared that it might be their last goodbyes. I smiled bitterly with that. This is our faith and we can't do anything about it. I hugged my mother for the very last time and then walked away from our house.

Well, it's time.

-

When I jumped into the train, I roamed my eyes and saw Carrie.

How unlucky we are to be picked in this quest.

"Hey, Macha." She approached me. We are all friends in our town because from our birth, the only place that we knew was our town. No one is allowed to go outside the barriers that's why we don't know what the outside looks like. Only those who went on a quest can.

"Hey, Carrie." I replied back. "We will come back to our village alive and kickin', ok? We'll fight and show them that we aren't just their puppets." I'm determined to go back to our village because my family is waiting for me.

"Whatever happens, we'll all come back. Ok?" I shouted inside the train. I want all of us to go back to our village and no one will be left behind. They all agreed to what I said. We will end this.

I didn't know that your palm lines will make your life miserable. Yeah, you will be picked to be part of this quest by your palm lines.

-

When the train stopped, I saw anxiety in everyone's face. But this is our fate. So we got off the train and went to the quadrangle because we are instructed to.

"Good morning, participants! I hope you are all doing well." Said the lady behind the podium "Ok, so let me introduce myself. My name is Lady Camara. I'll be the one that you'll hear every time so familiarize my voice, ok?" She smiled sweetly. "Oh! I almost forgot." She giggled at herself. "De qua semper respicere." Then she walked down from the stage.

-

The quest begins.

As we went to the platform, my jaw dropped. This is far from what I expected.

"I see that everyone's here. Your quest will start now. Your mission is to think critically and survive. Do not be deceived. You have 24 hours to complete the quest. That's all." Lady Camara said.

Is this what they call the city? But we are not here to be mesmerized by the beauty of this place. We are here to end this and come back to our home.

-

We all wander in the city. Has the quest really begun? Because it looks like we are just all having fun. We separate ways and, honestly? We enjoyed the things in the city.

Me and Carrie went to the bakeshop and the counter gave us the bread that we want and a note which has a de qua semper respicere written on it.

I heard this before. It is the phrase that Lady Camara told us at the quadrangle. My guts is telling me that I should know so I will. I went back to the counter and asked the lady if she knew what that phrase meant. Then she said,

"Always look back where you came from."

It wanders in my mind for about three hours while strolling down the streets.

Then I remembered what my father said to us while having our dinner, "You should know where you came from and always come back."

Then it hits me. Our mission is to go back and not be deceived by the beauty of the city. So I told Carrie and we decided to look for the others before the 24th hour.

We searched for the whole city to find the others. We've explained what our quest really is to those we found. We all want this to end so we decided to be in groups and meet at the hall of the tallest building that we saw on the 23rd hour to go back to the quadrangle in one group.

So we roamed and then, the 23rd hour came so we decided to go to the meeting place and saw the other groups there. I'm relieved that we are complete. So we decided to go back.

Even though you are a beautiful city, you can never replace the beauty of our home.

As we went back, we saw Lady Camara behind the podium just like the first time.

"Congratulations, everyone! I see that you succeeded on this quest. Since you didn't make the same mistakes, I'll share the story behind this quest. As you can see, no one is allowed to talk about this because this is a punishment to your ancestors. Being greedy, they left your village and went to this city to have a mess. As a punishment, the generations after them will go on a quest that will not end until they will not make the same mistake as theirs. Those who failed and stayed in the city didn't really have a good life. If even one failed, the punishment goes on. They became slaves in this city after the quest and there is no other way to escape their fates. Go back to your home and run free from the punishment." She then left us.

-

We are now on the train going back to our village, our home. We don't need that luxurious city. We only need our home. I smiled because finally it's done. We finished and ended the last quest.