The End of The Beginning

With the blood moon approaching, our tribe prepared to honor those that lost their lives fifteen years ago in the attack. The war lasted for three years, with many casualties on both sides. However, it ended abruptly with them showering our people with unknown substances. Chemical warfare, there was a treaty signed many years ago to ban it, and all but one nation stuck to that treaty.

Maybe they hoped it would kill all of us, leaving them to be the only ones standing, but they were wrong. It wiped out about half of the population. But it changed the makeup of the ones who lived through it. They became stronger and developed extraordinary abilities.

The Baali Nation thought they were safe with their bunkers for their citizens. And they were for a time until we discovered our newfound gifts. After the war, after we regained our strength, after we buried the dead that we could find, three of the four tribes that were left banded together for revenge. The last tribe wanting nothing to do with the war in the first place, lost the most people. They believed in peace overall, and in trying to spread peace, they had the most casualties.

"Talia," my friend Amira called my name while running to hug me. "Mira, it's been so long." After a quick hug, she pulled back and grabbed my hands while a sad smile crossed her face before she spoke, and I knew what she was going to ask, "No word from my father yet, but I know he's still out there." Mira gently squeezed my hand and changed the subject.

She didn't have to say anything. I knew she and most other people thought he passed away after the chemicals spread, but he was stronger than that. I had visions of him lately, and I was going out to find him after the memorial. But she didn't need to know that now.

"Where is Liam? Is he out at the fountain already," I said as we started heading toward the stone meeting house. "No, he went to the Kutar tribe this time. His uncle is doing the presentation, so he wanted to be there. He's hoping to reconnect with some of his family members." I nodded my head, knowing that he wanted to be accepted by them and realize he probably never would be. It would take a lot of consoling the next time I saw him.

Standing in front of the meeting house were some of the elders speaking in hushed tones. Usually, we'd greet them but didn't want to interrupt their conversation.

"Talia, Amira, come here, please. We need to speak with you." I spun around in confusion; they usually only called me when I was in trouble, but I hadn't done anything terrible lately, not that they would know about anyway.

"Yes, right away," Mira always the good one. It can't be that bad if they want to see her too. "How's your healing training been going so far? I know you reached level three healer a few months back."

"Level three, that's amazing; why didn't you tell me?" Elder Lee gave me a stern look. I guess she was still speaking.

"Yes, I attained level three, but I seemed to have other abilities that most healers don't. We're not sure how to proceed. They keep clashing, and I hurt myself or what I'm working on unless I stay at that level."

"Where are we going? How have I never seen this area before?" Elder Vitan smiled at me as she spoke in a soft tone, "All in due time, my dear."

I'm pretty sure she's the only one that likes me. We walked further into a deep cave with Amira and Elder Lee up ahead, still speaking but out of hearing distance. After what felt like ten minutes, we all stopped at a dark pathway. With the flick of her wrist Elder Vitan produced a flame in her hand bright enough to light the way.

Some twists and turns later, we reached a vast area with unlit torches on the walls. With a glance at me, Elder Vitan flung flame she was holding at the center torch then started to light the others with a bored look on her face. Most of us never saw the elders in action but seeing how effortlessly she worked was amazing.

"Talia, we know you haven't been taking your training as seriously as you should be. You've been slacking off or getting into fights lately. Would you like to tell us why?"

"Sorry," I said, looking down and away with no explanations. After a long silence and a deep sigh Elder Lee spoke up.

"We know about the visions you've been having." I looked up with my mouth hanging wide open, but before I could speak, she raised her hand to stop me.

"We believe a war is coming, and you two are at the center of it," she said, gesturing to Amira and me.

I looked at Amira with wide eyes to see she had the same expression. How were we at the center of a war? Amira's tribe only wanted peace. They healed things and brought life. I made more sense as a warrior, but there were far better than me.

A deep solid voice interrupted my thoughts, "We don't fully know why or how, but we know it's you." They looked around at each other as a tall bearded man walked out of one of the dark passageways. "We believe you're father is still alive and trying to reach you. He's been calling out to me too."

Before I could ask who he was and why my father would contact him. He began to speak again, "I am Ridge. I knew your father during the first deployment of the war." Ridge took a few steps closer to me while the Elders took steps back to form a circle around us. Amira, Ridge, and I stood in the middle.

"Last night," he continued, " I had a vision of your father calling me telling me I needed to find you. He gave me something in the dream I couldn't make out what it was at the time, but when I woke up this morning, I was holding this in my hand."

He opened up his hand to reveal a heart-shaped locket. My locket, the exact one my father had given me as a birthday gift. I gave it back to him before he left to fight in the fourth and last deployment so he wouldn't forget me.

I looked at the man trying to withhold my tears. I grabbed the locket and ran my fingers over it. I had no plans of fighting for revenge or being in another war. That's why so many lost their lives. Fighting for power, land, or money, made no sense to me. I only joined the warriors in hopes of feeling connected to him, and it worked for a bit, but I'm not sure.

Was my dad trying to get me to fight in a war? He never really wanted that life for me. I turned to Amira, holding up the locket, hoping she saw it too, and it wasn't some trick to get me to fall in line. Her eyes widen, and her mouth moved, but I couldn't hear what she was saying.

This is a trick. They are messing with my mind. I heard some of the people from the Kutar tribe could manipulate the mind, but why were my elders going along with it. My hand started to grip the locket while tears of anger fell from my eyes. How could they do something like this.

I looked at the man bent over in pain in front of me, then looked around to see everyone around me in anguish except for Amira. She was scared. I tried to focus on her voice to see what she was saying, and I started to hear my name. She was calling me. The elders were calling me, begging me to stop. What had I done. I blinked a few times, and everyone looked at me, worried except for Elder Vitan. She smiled and stepped forward, and grabbed me into a hug.

"You have so much potential, but you don't know how to use it." I stared into her eyes when she pulled back then turned to look at Ridge.

"Let's talk."