Sparks Read online

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  Khea was pressed to my side when I woke. She must have gotten cold after the fire died. My feelings for her had only grown over the time we'd spent together. She still didn't handle Rhorken directly, but her shakes had subsided, and she was undoubtedly more comfortable than when the journey started.

  Rhorken was fastening the ties of his boots when he said, "Time to get moving. Got a big day ahead." He rushed us to get on the road and seemed excited almost, though I imagined he'd made these runs to villages to collect willing children dozens of times.

  I gently shook Khea awake and we were in the cart again in minutes. Rhorken wanted to stop at one last village before we arrived in the capital that afternoon. While we rode, my heart dropped. My pockets were empty. I'd left Father's ring in Nyssa.

  "Rhorken, I need to go back. I forgot something at the inn." He only turned around to give me a look that told me it was never going to happen. I almost jumped right out of the cart right then. I can go back to Nyssa and get to Hubli on my own. In the end, it was futile to even think such things, so I sat in the cart and sulked. I'd had the ring for less than two weeks, while the rest of my family had had it for generations. It was in my dirty clothes, I thought, though it hardly reassured me. How could I have forgotten?

  We arrived in Cycus before noon, the largest village I'd ever seen. It thrived on the southern border of the capital, only a few hours away. The rich forests left the inhabitants in good standing; not a single person seemed too thin. I was skeptical to think Rhorken would ever convince anyone to leave.

  Just like the dozen times before, Rhorken tied the horses to a tree on the outside of town and left to see if he could find any children. How does he pick? Does he just ask any child with a Spark, or a does he only ask those with weaker Sparks if they're desperate to leave?

  I wasn't quite sold on the idea of the 'Spark' but couldn't deny that something was different about me-something inherent. I could hear people's thoughts after all. Well, most people's.

  Once again, Khea and I were left to tend to the cart and keep each other company.

  "You think we'll get meals like that in Hubli?" she asked, obviously affected by eating for two weeks in a row.

  "I hope so. I could go for a few months of decent food."

  "And baths, too," she smiled as she remembered the same blissful feeling that I did.

  We giggled and planned out the fantastical lives we'd live in the future. We'd attend the school, become great war heroes, live in grand castles, and dine on the finest game every night. It was as big as two, hungry, desperate children could dream.

  Rhorken returned an hour later with a dark haired boy about my age in tow. He happily jumped into the cart to join Khea and me as Rhorken set us back on our trek to the capital.

  "I'm Micha," he said after a few minutes. His smooth, brown hair hung low into his eyes, but life had undoubtedly been different for him than for us. The tan trousers he wore didn't have any holes, not even in the knees. His hazel eyes showed his child-like innocence, a luxury afforded to those who hadn't known pain. The large knife he wore on his belt seemed out of place for such a boy.

  Micha's thoughts told me that he had parents and two younger sisters, who were all as happy and healthy as any people had a right to be. He carried a sense of pride at being chosen to leave, though I wasn't exactly sure why.

  "I'm Lark, and this is Khea."

  "You two related?"

  "What? No. We come from the same village, though."

  "Which village?"

  "Lagodon, on the west coast."

  "You're a long way from home."

  Several hours passed by as Micha peppered us with questions about our village and told us about his. Khea didn't speak, but she listened as I responded and asked a few of my own. We learned he had fifteen summers and was quite good with animals, though he didn't really specify how. Maybe the Spark Rhorken had mentioned. Or maybe Rhorken's just full of it. Either way, Micha was certainly a very talkative fellow.

  Micha's thoughts always matched his words, except to wonder why we were so skinny. He had never seen a person who didn't have enough, and compared us to old men who drank too much grain wine instead of meals. Those men were also thin and dirty, though the cause was entirely different.

  Just after our meager lunch of bread and dried meat, a snap burst loudly from Micha's mind. "No!" he yelled before he jumped over the rail in a flash, his thoughts turning to intense pain, and disappeared into the forest. I could only blink in disbelief. In seconds, he was gone out of the range of my ability and my mind went quiet again.

  "Rhorken!"

  He pulled the cart up short on the road and stared openly at where Micha had vanished. "What's he up to?" Rhorken asked me.

  "I don't know. Maybe he changed his mind?"

  "I can't imagine. He was eager to come. Get your bow and track him. Bring him back if you can. There's large predators in these woods; it's not safe for him."

  So I'm not the only one that sensed Micha's infirmity. I was a little curious why Rhorken should trust me out there on my own and not Micha. Did he already know how different we were?

  As I grabbed my quiver and bow, I remembered Khea.

  "You'll be alright?" I asked her as I stood next to the cart with my weapon at my back. She only nodded, but I saw in her eyes that she wasn't afraid.

  "I'll be back as soon as I can. Wait here for me. If I'm not back by nightfall, keep on to Hubli without us. I'll catch up to you there."

  "Go on. Before you lose him." I smiled at Rhorken and darted into the trees. Lose him? Ha. I'd never lost anything, much less a boy who didn't know how to survive in the woods.

  Sure enough, the elm leaves on the forest floor left every footprint for me to find. He had moved quickly, based on the space between his steps, and he continued due east for quite a while. When his tracks led to a small steam, I worried I would have to search for where he emerged and lose time, but he had darted straight across the knee-deep water.

  If he wanted to head home, he sure had a funny way of going about it. Cycus was much farther south of where he left us on the road, and he hadn't so much as drifted off his course. He knew exactly where he was going.

  What must have been an hour or two later, I caught up to Micha and found him knelt next to a bear's body on the ground. His mind raced with how to help the bear, what he could do for her.

  "Micha-"

  "She's alive. Her leg is broken." I pulled a feather-tipped arrow and placed it at the ready on my bow, though I had little confidence that a single arrow could take out such an animal with anything but a perfect shot.

  "Get back!" I shouted. Could he really be that na?ve?

  Micha didn't move except to reach out a hand and gently stroke the coarse fur of the bear's shoulder. He loved her; he was tied to her somehow. If it wanted to, the bear only had to reach out to remove his head from his body, but it only laid there.

  "What are you doing?" I finally asked as I lowered my bow.

  "I felt her, when her leg broke. She was in the tree and the branch snapped. I couldn't leave her like this." We were miles away from the cart by now. How had he known exactly where to find her? I searched through his mind and found the memory of the bear, how he sensed that she was in pain and followed the source until he found her. The snap was the break of her leg bone.

  "She won't survive with a leg like that." It was pointless to say; he already knew it. But the tender life he had up until then didn't leave him room to consider the only possibility.

  I walked to her, raised my bow, and released an arrow through her eye and straight into her brain without a moment's hesitation. There was nothing else I could have done.

  "How could you?" Micha screamed. He turned on me in a sudden rage that permeated around him and I had only a moment to drop my bow to block his punch. It was almost laughable how inept he was. Not that I was a particularly skilled fighter, but I could defend myself. The fact that I could sense hi
s movements before he made them didn't hurt either.

  I had him pinned to the ground next to the bear's lifeless body in seconds. "I'm sorry. It had to be done." It was then that I noticed that Micha felt the bear's life leave its body; he felt the arrow as if it pierced his own eye in searing pain. No wonder he's so angry.

  "You killed her!" He screamed at me as if I didn't already know. His pain and sorrow spilled over to subdue his anger as he struggled to push me away.

  "Micha, I know you loved her. But she was in pain. Micha?" The boy conceded and, except for the subtle shake of his sobs, lay motionless on the ground. It occurred to me that my life of poverty and struggle might have actually been a good thing. I was younger than him and still able to handle myself. Micha would have a rough couple of years as he learned the world was not like his thriving village.

  I didn't envy Micha, his bond with the bear, or the pain he felt when she died. His heartbreak was all over him and I had to work to remain focused.

  "Let's go. We have a long walk back and only a few hours of daylight left." I need to get back to Khea. When I stood up, Micha lay still on the ground.

  "Do you still want to go to the capital?" I asked, again concerned that maybe he had changed his mind. Maybe he wanted to stay with his parents and his two little sisters. They didn't need the money as my family did.

  Finally he stood slowly and walked over to pick up my bow on the ground. I worried what he might do with it though it was hardly dangerous without the arrows I carried. It was the first bow I had ever made without Father's help, and I would be disappointed to lose it. He mourned the bear and made up his mind.

  "I'm sorry I tried to hit you," he mumbled quietly. It was an empty apology. He was sorrier that the bear was dead. I understood the pain he felt so I couldn't really blame him. He handed me the bow and started back in the direction of the cart. When he was a few yards away, I pulled the arrow out of the bear and wiped it clean on the leaves on the ground. Never waste.

  I let Micha walk for a while to let him calm down. As it was, there was no way to know if Rhorken hadn't just gone on ahead. We were a day or two on foot from Hubli, and I could fend for us if need be, but Micha wouldn't share my indifference.

  As we walked, I could sense his thoughts of the bear, how much he'd cared for her, how strong their connection had been. He made the realization, and a moment later he asked, "How did you know I loved her?"

  I couldn't come up with a good answer. 'I can hear your thoughts and tell what you're thinking' didn't seem like the appropriate response.

  "You could tell how I felt. You sensed it, didn't you? Like I sensed her."

  With nothing left to say, I responded, "Yes. I sensed it." It wasn't the entire truth, but it didn't seem right to lie to him right then. Though part of me wondered what he would do with that knowledge.

  Micha seemed calmed, even comforted by my admission, which surprised me. I had never told anyone before, and I'd always made sure to not say anything which might let anyone on to me. It had been the one mistake I'd made that allowed him to figure it out, but I wasn't so sure. He was consoled that another person like him existed, even after what I'd done to the bear.

  Micha smiled, "That's really neat." It was the most comfortable I had been with anyone in a long time. I had someone with whom I could completely be myself.

  "Come on, we're running out of time. Let's go." I broke into a run and could hear Micha following behind me. He was a good runner, despite his easy life, and he seemed to find his way around the woods just fine.

  As we emerged back onto the road, I was pleasantly surprised to find that Rhorken and Khea still sat right where I'd left them. Khea jumped from the cart and ran up to wrap her arms around my neck.

  "Hey, you didn't need to worry." I told her as we all climbed into the cart, and I tried to do my best to hide my relief that she was fine. The sun began its descent over the horizon as we continued on our way.

  "I wasn't worried," she said and smiled sweetly. As I found a spot between supplies and leaned against the rail, she moved to sit next to me.

  "We only have a few hours left before we reach Hubli. I hope you all don't mind being kept up late again." Rhorken announced once we moved at a steady pace. The road that connected Nyssa to Hubli was populated with houses with gardens and fruit trees, inns with travelers, and shops that had closed their doors for the night.

  I wound an arm around Khea and her fur wrap, with hopes to help keep her warm, and thought of how different my life already was than when I left home a few days ago. Maybe I had made a friend in Micha; at least I hoped I had. And then there was the bond I'd formed with Khea.

  As we navigated the last few miles to Hubli, I considered what life there might be like. If our travels were any indication, how much would my life change at our new home? I was full of anticipation by the time the lights of the city peeked at us in the distance.

  It was well past midnight when we arrived at the Myxini School for Children. Khea was curled under my arm, asleep, but Micha's excitement and nerves would have told me he was wide awake even if I hadn't been able to see him in the bright autumn moon.

  "The Master and Headmistress will be asleep at this hour," Rhorken explained as he helped us carry our luggage into the large common room. "You can set up here 'til morning. They'll want to meet with each of you, one by one." The room was dimly lit by candles, but it was easy enough to see how luxurious everything was. An expensive-looking table stood in the middle of the room with a glass vase of flowers on it. They were strange; orange and purple in the light, with petals unlike any I'd ever seen before.

  "They're called birds of paradise." Rhorken commented when he caught me looking at them. How fitting to be welcomed by birds.

  It didn't take long for exhaustion to kick in, though Micha's overactive thoughts kept me awake. Khea passed out within minutes, laid against my chest in a way that had become somehow usual. Micha spent much longer with his thoughts on the bear, and the sisters he'd left at home, and about the school itself, until he, too, fell asleep. With his thoughts silenced for the most part, I followed both of them soon after.