This news shocked me and as soon as I heard it I knew that it spelled trouble for my small town and my family, as I might be separated from my sister in a month's time during the selection if the church's inspectors found my awakened power to be useful to the kingdom.
Archbishop Grahm ended the announcement with a prayer for our strength and luck in the upcoming days and made the sign of the Norvik 'N' across his chest before stepping down from the podium in front of the town hall and walking to the carriage draped in red cloth waiting for him.
Silv the current child on my shoulders tugged on my hair to be let down and I set her on the ground, while Ella told me that they would be going to Beut's house to see the baby goat that had just been born on their small farm. She followed that up with, "I bet the kid is soo cute, but don't worry I'm cuter", leaving me there laughing as they ran off towards Beut's house.
As they headed away I made sure to shout to her, "Don't forget to come back before dark! You'll miss dinner if you get careless! And don't follow anyone from out of town! You got it?".
"Yes, yes", she yelled back leaving me to make my way back to our house, past the shops on main street, and the small fields accompanying our neighbors' homes. Our home had a small field out back, an old well, and a small barn that was more like a shed and was mostly used to store tools on the property. Our field was a little large for the two of us to maintain on our own, so we only had a little garden fenced in with tomatoes, peppers, squash, lettuce, and some other herbs that we traded for some necessities. Our father also sent money home from his job as a guard for a noble house two towns over in the town of Falton, but it was about 18 miles away, so it was a 6 to 7 hour walk due to the rough terrain.
The only other member of our family that stayed with us when our father was away was a small orange tabby named Angel with white-booted feet. Ella had named the cat Angel because when she found her, Angel was covered in mud standing in a stream and the only visible part of her were her white-booted feet. So, Ella thought the little cat was a pure white angel, but to her surprise the little feline ended up being covered in orange fur everywhere except her feet.
As I walked into our home, I looked around the house and saw the old, sturdy table that my mother used to knead dough on and the hearth that she used to tell me stories by. My mother had White blonde hair like my sister and I and she had the same bright blue eyes as well, but sadly she had disappeared six months after Ella was born and we have never seen her since, nor do we know why or how she left.
When she left our father was devastated. At the time he had a local job and was still able to take care of us, but every time he heard someone mention news of a blonde beauty with blue eyes, he would run off in the direction mentioned in search of her. Luckily, I was 9 years old at the time and had helped my mother take care of Ella during the past 6 months, so we were able to fare on our own when our father would randomly disappear, but his employer at the time didn't take too kindly to him randomly ditching work unannounced for prolonged periods of time. Because of this he ended up having to get his current job a little over four years ago when I was 11 and Ella was 3 years-old, but at that point we were capable enough to take care of ourselves.
He used to visit more, but I think he has moved on from mom and is probably too scared to come home and face us with a new woman. But also, I think that he might be afraid to see us as reminders of the love they shared and a relationship that ended without closure.
I pulled out the ingredients I had prepped for dinner earlier moving on from those depressing thoughts that I would never share with Ella. To be honest, I think that I grew to be soo soft on my sister because I came to see her as both my little sister and little bun, well daughter. I fried up some mashed potato cakes with lots of cheese and chives in the pan over the fire after boiling the potatoes and then I dried off the fish that I had caught and deboned earlier and I panfryed the cut filets sparingly with pepper, salt and butter. I then threw some chopped carrots, onions, fennel bulb, and celery into a pot with some oil, salt, thyme, and mushrooms and boiled it until the vegetables were soft adding water and a cloth straining bag filled with the remains of the fish (bones, head, etc...) and I set a lid on the pot to simmer for an hour or so.
When I looked out the window the sun was starting to set and I got a little worried since my sister had not come back yet. I covered the food sitting on the table and headed out to go look for her.
I stopped by Beut and Silv's houses to see if she was there, but when I got to Beut's house I heard that she had left a little over 20 minutes ago. Our houses are only an eight minute walk in distance from each other, so I rushed off towards main street because that is the only other place I could see her going soo late especially after the excitement of the Archbishop visiting earlier.
I was going to check the bakery first when I ran by the town hall and saw Ella talking to a man dressed in white, wearing a matching mask along the side of the building. I called out to her and when she looked over I could she that she appeared fine, but I still did not like that she was talking to a stranger at this hour.