Snow covered the village of Garbell, people were working hard to clear the streets, today had to go well, for today the youths of the village would take the next step in their lives.
It was testing day and the representatives of the academies where on their way.
The villagers moved in an organised fashion sorting out all that they could, food was being prepared and the stage was in the process of going up.
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The village of Garbell was surrounded by a wall of trees that formed a barrier from the rest of the world.
There was only one hole in that wall, through it came the main road that everyone travelled upon.
In the tree line, the outline of a boy moved closer sticking to the shadows. Over his shoulders he carried the carcass of a young elfield.
The boy stared from his place in the shadeows toward the village.
'Should I take the carcass with me or leave it hidden and come back for it.'
For a short while he just stood there unable to come to a decision before finally, he moved back further into the trees.
'I don't have time to do anything with it before the ceremony and if I take it with me, the village guards will just take it from me for themselves.'
He searched for a place in which he could store his catch for now. Knowing he would have need of it soon enough.
As he walked, he came across a shaded close-knit grouping in the trees.
'Prefect if I hang it from the trees here most people and creatures would miss it.'
He reached for the pack on his back and dug out his supplies, he started to prepare for the process to string the carcass up into the trees.
After he finished with his task, he turned around to make his back towards the village border. As he went to leave the area, he used a small amount of time to remove any trace of his presence from the area.
He stares towards the grouping of trees.
'Hopefully I have done enough so that none of the patrols or creatures will find it.'
Having finished securing his catch he turned back from his work. He could finally finish his journey back to the village for the testing day.
'No matter how the ceremony goes today I will be leaving this village, whether to an academic institution or just into wild. I will be done here . I can't let anyone find the carcass, I will need as much food as I can get.'
With everything that he could do here finished, he hiked his pack back onto his back and headed toward the village border.
'It's time to face the future.'
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At the village entrance, the guards kept their eyes on the people going through the gate both into the village and out of it.
They knew that today they had to make sure that everything would go well, that there would not be any problems not only from outsiders but from the villagers themselves.
As they scanned the people making their way in and out one of the guards spotted a lanky boy in a worn dark brown coat with his hood up covering his face.
"What are you doing?" The younger guard sneered as he spoke to the boy.
The boy looked up at the guard, his purple eyes taking in all the details around him that he could.
"Heading to the ceremony location, sir." He stated calmly in response as he kept getting closer to the gate.
"Get a move on, you're holding everyone up!" the younger guard said. " The sooner we can get rid of you the better". This caused the older guard standing beside him to smirk.
'Holding everyone up? It not even starting for at least a few more hours.'
The boy said nothing more as he moved past the guards knowing that no matter what even if he tried to say anything it wasn't going to help or make a difference.
The boy's name was Aven Fire-Rose, he had lived in this village Garbell with his parents but 5 years ago they had disappeared.
He had been living alone ever since, even his remaining family within the village had wanted nothing to do with him.
After his parents disappeared his aunt and uncle had claimed the family home and then kicked him out. Ever since he had taken to living in the forest just on the outskirts of the village.
His age at that time had meant that he was unable to get a job even if someone had been willing to hire him , so he'd had to learn and adapt while surviving in the forest.
He had always managed to catch just enough food to survive even if not always enough to stay truly healthy give him an almost rake thin appearance.
If he wasn't careful and the village patrols found him with his catch, they would take it from him claiming it was his tax to live in the village even though they didn't like letting him through the gate.
The only money he could manage to make is from selling a few herbs that he managed sneak into the village within his pack.
He followed the main roads path through the village towards the ceremony stage that was located at the very centre.
He closed his eye for a second and focused on his surroundings using his sense, in his mind eye he could just make out the outlines of the people around him. This allowed for him to get a rough idea where the people around him where and at the same time his hearing also became clearer.
'I need to practice more; people are so much harder to track.' He sighed and looked straight ahead.
The ceremony would soon enough be starting, and he would finally be able find out were, his future path would take him in life.
Whether that would be to an institution or not he couldn't be sure, but he was sure of only one thing. His future would not involve this village.
The testing would reveal what his talent was and while this would be a major factor to where his future would lie. It would not define everything that he could become, but it was going to be would have a great influence on that future.
Talents where in many ways unique to each individual even if they might have the same name. Most talents wouldn't be anything overly special but on rare occasions people would get something truly unique.
It was a kingdom wide policy that everyone when they reach the age of 16 would be tested for their talents and then they would be sent to a place of training before entering into professions where they would best fit for the betterment of the country.
Whether it was training for the military or a more civilian profession.
There are four main institutions that the youths can be sorted into although on very rare occasions some youths would go to none of them and stay in the village all of their lives.
These four institutions were Raven's Deep, Heaven's Rain, Shadow Tower and Ritrove Cove.
They represented the different types of training and future professions that the youths would eventually go into.
While everyone had a bit of a choice, their main training would be in what they had a natural talent for or at least where that talent would be the most beneficial.