Andy: A world unknown

Chapter 5: The coming of age ceremony

The last day of each year was a fixed day for the coming of age ceremony. Every child who had turned ten, on or before the ceremony, every year, was meant to be in attendance. A fixed venue, at the entrance of the elders room, helped to ensure less complications. The ceremony had three activities. The first was the ritual, the next was the outreach. The outreach was a showcase of each child's abilities in front of every villager present at the ceremony. The oath taking, being the third, was exactly as the name implied.

Rosa's brother had just turned ten a few weeks before the ceremony. His gifts were dormant, therefore it was unknown to anyone, even himself. Rosa's parent were preparing a little feast for their ten year old son, who was soon going to gain his full potential and be a prudent member of the family and the village.

They held this family feast every year one of their child was old enough to partake of the ceremony. The truth is, every family did the same thing. it was something worth celebrating.

Rosa was helping her little brother, Mark, pick out an outfit for the ceremony, when she noticed how sad and pale he looked as he sat on the bed, next to a big pile of clothes that got the huge "no no's", as in total rejection.

"What's wrong?" she calmly asked as she sat next to him, with one of her hands across his shoulders.

"What if I don't get any gift? What would mama and papa do?"

"What makes you think you wouldn't?"

"Well, I heard that some kids don't get theirs even after the ceremony. Plus, it's been three weeks since I turned ten and I still haven't..."

"Hey..." Rosa interrupted "...no negative thoughts okay?" "You'll get em"

"And even if you don't..." she paused, as she changed her position to squatting in front of him, holding both his hands "Mama, Papa, me and the others, we'll be there for you, until you do"

"Promise?" he asked, as he pulled out his pinky finger waiting for Rosa to close it with hers, one act that showed an assurance that the promise would be kept.

"Promise" she smiled as she held on to his pinky finger with hers and pulled him in for a hug.

"It's time to get ready...mug face" she mocked, trying to lighten up the mood.

"Don't call me that" said mark as he chased his big sister around in his room, laughing.

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"Where are you off to?" Derrick's mum, Carmen, asked.

"Well..." "...Andy and I, would be attending the ceremony today for Mark's sake" he replied, trying to cover up the real reason for his attendance.

"Thought we agreed you'd stay away from that..." she spoke in disgust "that... whatever her name is"

"Mum!..." yelled Derrick "You do not get to speak about Andy in that manner" he spoke angrily.

"Well, pardon me for speaking the truth. It's not like I'm wrong" she spoke, making emphasis on the word wrong.

"The elders, they plan on executing or banishing all life forms that stand as a threat or do not support the way of nature, so people don't begin to lose their faith" she spoke as though she was a reporter, informing the world about a crisis.

"That's not true" disagreement flushed in his words as he spoke.

"oh, but it is..." "... she's the first anormaly we've seen since our creation, that goes against nature, so you can't blame them"

"Her dad's working on that"

"Yeah... he's an elder, and the only reason she's not been locked up" she spoke again in disgust, as Derrick stared at her in total anger.

"Look..." she paused "I just want you to be safe" she held his shoulders from behind with both her hands.

"Yeah. I'm sure you do" he said, as he angrily shook her hands off his shoulders and walked out of the house.

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"I'm so glad you both came" Rosa was excited to see her friends in attendance of her brother's coming of age ceremony, even though she knew it wasn't entirely the reason for their attendance, especially Andy.

The ceremony started with the usual procedures, as Andy searched around with her eyes for any clue that could help her solve the riddle. She stared at the entrance of the elders room, where all ten year olds stood for the ritual, taking her eyes above their heads to get a clearer view of the town's clock that was centuries old.

During the ritual, the weather changed. It felt storm like. Lightening and thunder, the clouds getting darker by each passing minute, the strong wind enveloped the ceremonial ground. This happened during the ceremony each year, so no one was startled, they just stood.

"The time is ticking, clouds are changing, it's our own season, there's more that needs findings"she repeated the riddle to herself as she glanced around for a clue. After a while, she looked at the clock. There was something weird about it. it wasn't moving, as though time had stopped but they all were moving and doing whatever it is they wanted to. She noticed that it stopped at exactly 4:30, with the minute and second hand of the clock struggling to break free of it's frozen state. She picked up a binocular, zooming in to the clock, with the hopes that she could get more answers. The venue was filled with a lot of people around so she wasn't particularly noticeable.

After she zoomed in, she noticed that beneath the middle hand that had stopped at 6, representing the thirty in the explanation of time according to minutes, was a drawing of a queen.

"Guys! check this out" she called out to both her friends as she passed on the binoculars to them and directed them to the image she had seen.

"I've never seen that there before, even up close" Derrick said.

"So I'm guessing it only shows during the ceremony?" one of them asked as the others shook their heads and lifted their shoulders, showing that they knew nothing and therefore couldn't give an answer.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Rosa asked

"I don't know" Andy replied

"Well, we're not getting answers from looking at it from this distance" Derrick said trying to strike a point "We'll have to get closer"

"Come with me. I know a way in" Andy said as she moved her head slightly to the other side and brought it back almost immediately.

"You stay back" Andy told Rosa

"No...I wanna come with you"

" But you also need to be here for Mark..." she said as she looked at her friend "... he's gonna need you here, we can handle it" she patted Rosa's left shoulder and smiled again.

Andy and Derrick left after talking to Rosa. Every building had a back door, and so did the elders room. The only problem was that only elders had the keys to the back.

Earlier that day, Andy snuck into her dad's room and took his keys, placed it on a bar soap. She immediately asked Derrick to create a key from the imprint on the soap, and he did. They snuck in while everyone was at the ceremonial ground, took the stairs up and the to the place where the clock stood, although from behind. They didn't really have to get worried about getting caught because no one was allowed to be in the elders room during the ceremony.

"There's the drawing" Derrick pointed.

"What's that beneath it?" she asked as she squatted to look closely at the writings she had just noticed.

"Ruthala" she read

"What's ruthala?"

"I have no idea" Derrick replied, as he also squatted to look at the writings, when he noticed that the drawing they had seen wasn't just that of a queen, but an animal was also present in the drawing.

"if this really is centuries old, it means we had weird connections with animals..." he paused "...and now we don't?"

"There's really a lot we need to figure out. And I still don't know how this is connected to my lack of abilities" Andy said as they both stood up, still staring at the painting.

"Who's there?" Someone said, a voice bold enough to be an elder's.

"What do we do now?" Andy spoke as she panicked

"We can't get caught...or we're ruined" she said again, feeling more worried, as the person's footsteps sounded louder and closer each passing second.