Diem ~ Chapter Two

         “Don’t try giving me the silent treatment, Diem. You know it won’t work,” said a burly man in white robes to the young woman. She still pouted and refused to talk, avoiding the man’s gaze. “Stop being such a baby, bitch!”

         “Don’t talk to me like that you…you…”

         “Ha! You talked!,” the burly man started laughing, grinning at the mad girl.

         “It does not matter, Lasko! I am not going to do it. I refuse to be a crystal’s puppet! I refuse to endanger myself for the sake of people who are unworthy of… of… Ugh!! I am NOT!”

         “It is your duty! You were chosen! You cannot just refuse and go on with your life. It is imperative that you complete this mission! And come on, it’s not that hard…”          

         Lasko was sincerely annoyed by the rebel act put up by his sister, Diem. How could someone chosen by the High Sorcerers of the Crystal of Fire be so undisciplined? She should be happy that she was chosen, among all the candidates, including him.

         “You should be grateful! You know how many people wished right now to be in your position? And you’re just whining about it! Suck it up and do what you are told to do!” said Lasko, infuriated.

         “No! I never wanted this, I never asked for this. I do not want to go on a mission for another, putting my future on hold to do something I don’t want to!” screamed Diem at her brother, mad. She fell to her bed, frustrated.

Her brother looked at her disappointed, and then he walked to the door, looked back at his sister, and left the room, closing the door with a bang.

         Diem was finally alone in her room. Ever since she had been chosen, she had not had any time to herself, to think and reflect about everything that had been happening. She had been chosen, and now was being forced to fulfill a destiny that she didn’t want to be part of. She knew she was being selfish, but maybe it would change the sorcerers’ mind. She rose from the bed she had been sitting on, her short, sleeveless, white dress falling. Quietly, she opened her door and peeked outside. No one was there, so she went outside.

         After her temper outburst at the choosing ceremony, she had been grounded, being allowed out of her room only with someone else watching her. But she was not going to follow rules; in fact, she was going to do everything in her power to be un-elected for the mission. And she knew just how. Diem raced up the stairs of the tower where her room was in, her long golden hair flowing behind her. Finally she was at the tower’s top. She closed to the edge and looked down. The High Sorcerers villa was a small town protected by enormous brick walls, ten feet tall. In the middle of the town was the High Sorcerers mansion, an amazing house complex that gave shelter to the four High Sorcerers of Fire. Everyone in the town went about their businesses, and Diem saw Lasko walking to the mansion. He was probably going to inform the sorcerers of his failed attempts at convincing his sister to accept her mission, but he had no idea what she was going to do, what she was cooking up in her head. A gust of wind came from the north, from where she was planning on going: the Feuer Shrine, where the Fire Crystal lied.

         She gulped and threw herself into the air. She was falling down the tower hard, and she did her best effort to contain screaming, or else someone would notice her.

         “Dissapariato,” she whispered. The girl bound to crash down at the feet of the tower disappeared with a puff, only her white dress remained, falling graciously to the earth.

         

         With a puff, Diem fell softly to the grass, outside the walls of the villa. She stood up and looked around, nervous that someone was there, but there was no one. Suddenly she felt chilled. She looked at herself and opened her mouth in disbelief: she didn’t have her dress on.

         “Damn it! Not enough majia in the air.”

         She ran and hid herself behind a tree and some bushes, covering as much of her body as she could with her hands. What am I going to do now?, she thought. Then she had an idea. She focused and started absorbing majia energy from the air into her body. The trees around her started moving violently and the leaves fell slowly to the ground. Suddenly, the fallen leaves stopped and with a sudden jerk rocketed to her body. Little by little, the leaves covered up her body, sticking themselves to her skin by the power of majia. In no time, Diem was covered in a short green dress made of leaves fused together.

         “Well, this is nice. Better than being naked anyways,” she said to herself, while checking that nothing showed. “And it’s soft too, hehe!”

         And she started her trek through the rainforest, in direction to the shrine, where, if she was lucky, she could finally show everyone how unworthy she was of being the “chosen”.