II

  The Day Before

  Kaz was called into Miss Astreta’s room right after lunch was provided to all the kids in the house. He was anxious, as he was not sure to why he was being summoned to her room. He was wondering if it was about his upcoming Awakening, because from he could recall, he hasn’t done anything wrong the past few weeks. Kaz had been looking forward to the day of his Awakening, so he made sure to do his very best to not get punished or to aggravate the Matron of the orphanage, so that there wouldn’t be any obstacles to him attending his Awakening to receive his Calling.

  With uncertainty in his steps, he walked along the polished wood flooring. He knew it was clean because just a few days ago he was on his hands and knees scrubbing the floor after a few of the younger kids ran around with dirty feet in the hallway. Kaz dragged his fingertips along the wall, finding the uneven crevices between the stones, which were all smoothed out. Within a few moments he reached the door, his heart beating harder than usual. He took a steady breath and knocked twice on the door.

  “Enter,” a warm but clear voice responded. Kaz pushed open the door, putting a bit of his weight into it but made sure to open it normally and not cause it to crash into the wall. He walked in and closed the door behind him, making sure not to slam it, but in his current state of nerves, the door slips from his grasp and closes with a slight boom. He winces and turns around, meeting a pair of soft hazel eyes staring back at him.

  The Matron of the orphanage, Miss Astreta, sat behind a wooden desk, decorated elegantly along the edges, but still reserved in its appearance. A few pieces of parchment and books were strewn over her desk, and on the corner of her desk, a single stick of incense was burning, filling the room with a pleasant herb smell. Kaz walked up to the chair and slightly hopped on to it, cursing his smaller legs and the size of everyone else.

  With a slight smile on her face, she asks him, “Do you know why I have called you in today, my dear Kaz?”

  Kaz nervously answers, making sure not to stutter, “To talk about my upcoming Awakening tomorrow, Miss Astreta?”

  “That is correct, Kaz. I summoned you here to go over a few things to make sure tomorrow goes smoothly for you, as I am quite positive you do not know what to expect,” she affirms.

  Kaz slightly nods, not trusting himself to speak. He was slightly confused as all he knew was that he was to show up at the Temple of the Originators in the middle of the town and one of the Elders would assist him, or that is what he had been told.

  “First, when you arrive at the temple, make sure to be polite to everybody involved, even to those who are rude. It is important to make good first impressions, as these will be the people you will be closely tied to in the next coming years,” she begins. Kaz nods again, focused on her, leaning forward.

  “Second, when it is your turn, the Elder will address you and ask for your name. Remember to give your full name, Kazimoriel. Do not give him your nickname of Kaz. And if the Elder asks for your family name, simply state you are from the orphanage,” she explains thoroughly, making sure he understands.

  Kaz wondered why his name sounds so different from anybody else, asking himself why he was given such a name. Every single one of his brothers and sisters had pretty common names related to their races. Kaz nods again and simply affirms, “I understand, Miss Astreta.”

  “Finally, I hope you are aware of the ceremonial robe you must wear to the event.” At this one, Kaz winces slightly, as he still hasn’t gotten his robes yet, as they were quite pricey and he would’ve had to give up most of his saved up funds.

  Miss Astreta notices this, and slightly frowns at his reaction. She wondered why he seemed so conflicted at this. She waits for his response, as she sees him start fidgeting, playing with his fingers, looking down, with his mouth slightly open. A common mannerism she knew meant he was finding a way to explain himself.

  “Miss Astreta, I apologize, but truthfully, I haven’t purchased my robe yet, as I was trying to get my funds together. I will be getting it later today with my friends,” he meekly states.

  Miss Astreta is quiet for a moment, and then lightly laughs at this revelation. Kaz looks up at her, confused and slightly upset. Why was she making fun of him?

  “My dear Kaz, do not worry about the funds. This is the main reason I have called you in today. I was going to give you the funds to go purchase the robes. Meisha informed me earlier this week that your little group were going to go purchase the robes from the Tailor today. Here, take these two Silver Tokens, that should cover the cost of the robes from the Tailor on our side of town.”

  Kaz looks at the two clean looking Silver Tokens, the sunlight from the window glinting off the smooth metal. He looks again at the Matron, wondering if what he was seeing was real. Miss Astreta smiles warmly and slightly nods her head. Kaz grabs the tokens carefully and looks at them in his hands. He looks at the simple engravings on the coin, with the simple crest that represented their continent, and with a small hole of a 4-pointed star in the middle.

  With a playful grin on her lips, she chuckles and playfully chides him, “Now go along Kaz, you wouldn’t want your friends waiting on you right?”

  As if shocked by lightning, he jumps up and rushes toward the door and pulls it open. As he is about to leave the room, he pauses and turns back to the Matron of the orphanage, and softly says, “Thank you, Miss Astreta. I really appreciate this, and everything you have ever done for me,” and rushes out of the room, his eyes weirdly stinging and getting blurry.

  Miss Astreta smiles behind the closed door and wishes the best of luck to one of her favorite children to have lived in her orphanage.

  ? ? ?

  Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

  Kaz goes to his room and grabs his small, worn-out token bag, putting his two new tokens in there, bringing his grand total to… 4 Silver Tokens and 2 Copper Tokens. He couldn’t believe at the wealth he possessed in his bag. He hesitated as he was getting up, getting anxious that someone might take all this money from him, as he knew they would make lots of noise clinking together. But he quickly shrugged his shoulders, as he was about to meet up with his friends, and nobody would want to mess with Viragor, his abnormally large Dwarf friend.

  “Kaz! Where are you?” He heard someone yelling his name, a high-pitched voice, from the street below. The voice of Meisha, one his friends, one he viewed as a sister, as they grew up together in the orphanage. He quickly tidied himself up, double checked if he had his Tokens, and ran out the door, slamming it shut.

  “Took you long enough,” mumbled Syvis annoyingly, his Elven friend. She was a tall Elf, who had hair black as the night, and eyes that were a smoldering yellow, a common color for her family. She was from a relatively noble family, although they were at the bottom of the family hierarchy, since they lived in their small town, Forith. She was quiet most of the time, but always presented the cold shoulder to Kaz, but she was like that to everyone. Well, almost everyone. The only one she cared for and actually showed emotion to, was Meisha.

  “It’s not his fault! He was called by Miss Astreta to her room. She had to tell him some things that were important relating to the Awakening,” Meisha whined in his defense. Kaz flashed a look to her, nodding in thanks for her coming to his defense. Her vibrant green eyes lighting up at him. She was always so energetic, the mood maker of the group. She was slightly taller than Kaz, which was unusual for her Human race, which he loved to point out whenever. Her slightly longer than shoulder blonde hair was always very bright as well, which made people question her if she had some kind of magic done to it.

  “It doesn’t matter, he’s here now. Let’s get moving before the Tailor runs out of cloth to use for our robes,” Viragor calmly stated. Viragor was remarkable dwarf, standing taller than most dwarfs, even though he is only in his 15th year. His ginger hair was like flames on his head, which matched his short but growing beard. His eyes were different from his kin though, which often others joked if his father was really his father. They were a calming rich blue, which different from the red and brown eyes of most of his kin.

  “Sorry for the wait, you all. I tried to get out here as fast as I could,” Kaz explained.

  With some pleasantries exchanged, they made their way down to the street, walking towards one of the two Tailor shops in their small town. There town had close to 250,000 occupants, which seemed like a lot to Kaz, but he heard from Meisha that the capital, Aros, contained tens of millions of people. Kaz never believed her, because that seemed so absurdly large.

  He viewed the clean and well arranged homes and buildings that lined the street. The buildings were all made out of a combination of stone, wood, and thatch, depending on the funds of the people who first built them. At the end of the street off in the distance, he could see the Temple of the Originators. The white marble and gold glowing in the sunlight. Their city was built in a circle around the Temple, with all the main roads leading straight to it.

  With their conversation dying down, their steps on the cobbled walkway grew louder, as everyone was anxiously anticipating their Awakening taking place tomorrow. They reached their destination, and it was an elegantly built shop, built mostly out of wood, but had giant windows facing out onto the street. It was quite busy inside, as other young people were getting their ceremonial robes as well. Kaz, seeing the busy Tailor running around, grew worried that they were too late and they wouldn’t be able to get their robes. As he was worrying about this, Syvis pulled the door open nonchalantly and walked in, not waiting for the rest to go. Meisha, after a moment’s hesitation, rushed after her.

  “Come on Kaz, let’s get to it, the robe ain’t gonna to come outside to ya,” Viragor playfully said, clapping his back as he walked by, opening the door, and ushering Kaz in.

  When he got inside, he noticed the Tailor was already taking measurements of Syvis. He patiently waited for his turn until the Tailor finished with Meisha and Viragor. She playfully teased Viragor, “We might run out of cloth if we need to make you a robe, young Dwarf!” Kaz smiled at this and it relieved the tension that he didn’t realize he was holding in himself.

  The Tailor then reached him and sweetly said, “Hi there, dear. My name is Bryda and I will be helping you out today. I am assuming you are here for the ceremonial robes?” Kaz nodded and she began to go back to work. She thought she might crack a joke at his height, similar to Viragor, but she never mentioned anything, just simply measured him while humming a song. After she was done, she went into the back and a few moments later came out with their 4 robes, which seemed ridiculous to Kaz, but then he remembered it was definitely part of her Calling’s abilities.

  Her Calling.

  The idea of the powers held behind one’s Calling gave him goosebumps, making him anxious but excited for tomorrow. Tomorrow would be the best day of his life. The day where he found out his own Calling.

  He went the table where she had a safe and a bunch of Tokens laying around. “That will be 1 Silver Token and 7 Copper Tokens, dear.” He went into his pouch and brought out his old dirty Silver Tokens. He was about to hand them over but then he hesitated. These were his hard-earned Tokens. But the Tokens Miss Astreta gave him were so much nicer.

  But she gave him those Tokens for him to use for his robes. So, he decided to honor that, and he handed over the 2 pristine Silver Tokens she gave him. He received 3 Copper Tokens back and then the group headed out, splitting up to head back to their homes. Meisha and Kaz walked along silently, both feeling nervous for tomorrow.

  The next morning, Kaz woke up full of energy. Not all good energy, he definitely had nervous energy, but the anticipation was far greater. He put on his ceremonial robe, which fit better than any piece of clothing he has ever worn, and went out of his room and ran straight into Meisha. Her robe was also put on already, and her blond hair was nicely braided for the occasion.

  “Sorry about that, Meisha,” Kaz apologized.

  “All good, ready to go?” Meisha replied excitedly, bouncing up and down, not able to contain her excitement.

  Kaz again nodded; he wasn’t a Gnome who spoke much, which was rare for his race, which caused him to nod or shake his head often instead of speaking. They made their way to Temple. The streets were filled with people, all celebrating already. Food was being served, Performers were playing music and dancing among the crowds forming, kids were running around, shrieking with joy, the respected old people were shuffling slowly towards the Temple, waiting to see the future of their young ones.

  They approached the Temple entrance, and they were greeted by an Elder who moved his right hand, starting from his chest to his chin then waved it to the right of his head. Then he bowed,

  “Welcome, young ones. This one’s name is Celron. I will be the one to guide you through your Awakening.” The Elven Elder had a white robe, with a hood and mask covering the lower half of his face. His Elven ears were sticking out of the hood in perfectly cut holes. The only feature they saw from him were his golden eyes. The same gold that was embroidered on his robes.

  “These ones thank Elder Celron for his guidance,” replied both Meisha and Kaz, returning his greeting.

  “Come along, young ones. Your turn will be beginning shortly,” the Elder spoke plainly. As he spoke, a brilliant gold beam filled the already sunny sky. Someone just received their Calling. That was about to be him.

  Kaz waited in the small hall along with a couple hundred other young people. Some were excited, some were anxious, some even looked upset. He was definitely part of the anxious ones, wondering if he would get a Calling he would be proud of, a Calling his friends would be proud of, a Calling Miss Astreta would be proud of.

  Elder Celron approached him and spoke to him, “Young one, please rise and join me to your Awakening. May I please also receive what this young one’s name is?”

  Kaz, a sense of confidence stirring in him, answered him, “Kazimoriel.”