The Ancients: Amethyst city

July 4, 2080, The Eternal Village

I looked over at the children playing near the pond, trying to keep an eye on them, even though that was not the easiest task when they ran around the dandelions causing the dandelion seeds to get carried away by the wind and in the way of my eyesight.

All of a sudden, the wind changed direction. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath of the fresh air only to get a mouthful of dandelion seeds and begin to cough. While I was busy with trying to not choke on dandelion seeds, a mother to one of the children, gathered the children in order to take them to the dinner hall.

“Aella, sitting alone again?”

I smiled up at the familiar kind lady with respect. Without her, both me and my mom would have starved a long time ago.

“You know me, Elizabeth, I like being alone,” I answered.

She gave me a stern look, “no, you don’t like being alone you just don’t like being judged, there is a difference,” speaking nothing but facts, like usual.

I sighed, giving her a sad half-smile while shrugging.

“Come on, you have to get something to eat, everyone else is on their way to the dinner hall,” while saying this Elizabeth hold out her hand to help me up from the grass spot I was sitting at.

I was not really hungry, I haven’t been hungry much at all the last week, I usually craved quite a lot of food.

“Elizabeth?”

“Yes Aella?”

“Could we take the detour over the pond?”

“Sure, why not, then we will at least miss the rush of people”.

So instead of just turning left and walking straight forward for 40 seconds to arrive in a big crowd trying to find good places to sit and eat, we walked around the pond and then in the opposite direction of the dinner hall to just pass by everything.

When we arrived at the pond I stopped just in the middle of the bridge and looked down on her reflection in the pond. My long ash blonde hair went down to my waist and was curly in some places while other parts of my hair were completely straight, it was if it couldn’t decide if it wanted to be straight or not, kind of like my sexuality. It was a darker colour at the roots but got lighter at the ends as it was sun-bleached. My face was free of acne I do however have a few freckles on my nose and cheeks, that you only could see after I has been in the sun for a few hours, which in other words means every day.

My body was almost completely covered in a thin fabric although it was extremely hot outside, I choose the heat over snickers and whispers in my direction any day. My skin was naturally really pale and no matter how much I tried to get a tan it didn’t work. I even have burn scars on my back after lying in the sun trying to get a tan.

“Aella, if I did not know better, I would say you only want to go to the pond to bathe in your own very beautiful reflection,” said Elizabeth while pronouncing beautiful clearly and strong.

“Haha, very fun,” I said sarcastically while actually smiling.

After about 19 minutes of walking I began hearing voices, no not the ones in my head, not that I have any voices in my head, well at least not very often. Some voices where more hushed while others pretty much screamed.

Wonderful, more people mean bigger chance for idiots.

I, although wanting to talk to the kind lady, stared down into the floor as I received food from her behind the counter.

“Hey Elizabeth,” the kind lady, whose name was Margaret, said in a hushed voice. “I think James and Lucas are about to start quarrelling again”.

“Oh, for fucks sake, can’t they go one single day without quarrelling and fighting? Honestly, I believe it’s sexual tension. I mean, can’t they just fuck and get it over with?”

I smiled at Elizabeth’s comment, that woman had a very colourful vocabulary. “I don’t really think it is sexual tension, Elizabeth”.

“Please, it’s quite obvious they want to jump each other’s bones,” Elizabeth rolled her eyes.

“Elizabeth you have said that about 75% of the people in this village, about 2 times you have had right. Besides you know Lucas parents, they are pathetic homophobes, they would make his life a living hell if he just mentions supporting anyone gay,” Margaret added.

Although Lucas is kind of an annoying asshole most of the time, I do feel sorry for him. I have met his parents a few times and they are downright awful. I remember one time in particular, it was late at night, about one year ago.

***

The clock is about 00:15 and I was still sitting outside by the pond watching the stars reflect in the water. I really loved watching the stars, especially through the water. One single derangement in the wind causes one single leaf to fall into the water, disturbing the calm and quiet, showing how one small disturbance in one place can grow to be bigger and bigger in till it completely shatters the crystal-clear image of the night sky.

What I than saw shattered someone else’s night sky, even if that person doesn’t know it yet. This person still had a one-way mirror glass over his water, covering the leaf disturbing the water.

Hiding in the darkness of night was two figures, one with the back to me who was shorter than the one in front of her/him that she/he was making out with. I recognise the taller guy as one of the guys doing the hunting, don’t remember the name though.

I could not see the shorter person clearly, nor could I really determine if it was a girl or a guy. However, when the two people stopped making out and talked a short while, I guess they said their goodbyes because after that the tall hunting guy walked away and the shorter person turned around and started walking in the opposite direction, giving me a clear view of his face.

It was the same man I had seen just hours ago standing behind his wife who was complaining about young people showing affection in public.

It was Matthew.

Lucas father.

***

I absolutely despised having to keep this a secret in order to be left alone, but it was my mother’s wish, so I dealt with it. But none of my emotions showed up in my face or body, nothing gave away what I felt, it never could, or I would make my mom worry.

“Hey! What the hell are you doing, you idiot?”

At first, I thought that sentence was directed at me, it wouldn’t be the first time, but the following sound of plates crashing to the ground at the other end of the dining hall told me otherwise. Having to look for a place to sit I had no other choice than to look up and look around, giving me the perfect opportunity to look at what happened in the end of the hall.

And as I expected, James and Lucas were fighting, again. And as always, no one stepped in to stop the fight. And I did the exact same thing and minded my own business, behind me, Elizabeth did the same but also voiced her opinion.

“Those foolish and sexual frustrated boys were no bigger than their IQ when we first came to this valley, they don’t remember all the destruction and pain The Ancients caused outside our safe heaven here. If they would have remembered they would have never even been able to think about violence and fighting without a piece of their souls shattering.”

I couldn’t have expressed it any clearer myself, not that I has experienced any of it, I was born in this valley and has never left it, but I have already heard about how my father was killed all those years ago, well not how he was, I was only told he was killed, only my mom knows what happened and I don’t want to ask her about it.

“I would personally suggest that we, put those, so that those two aggressive, hormonal, IQ deprived, shithea...” started Henry, the husband of Elizabeth, who commented before him, but was interrupted by a slap to his head by his wife.

“Keep it down, there are kids in here that do not need to hear that,” said Elizabeth before she pushed her husband in the direction of James and Lucas.

“But you were talking about sex just 1 minute ago!” Henry said in a defence for himself, but you could see he already gave up arguing against his wife.

So, Henry did the one thing he could do in this kind of situation. Obey his wife to avoid several days of silent treatment. So, he stopped the fight and dragged them to a more secluded area. Elizabeth walked after him but stopped after about 9 meters and turned around smiling.

“Aella, would you mind helping us? I am sure you would love to watch this conversation”.

I hesitated; I have just gotten food.

“Don’t worry, you can take the food with you,” she smiled, knowing how much I loved food, even if I was not particularly hungry, especially if it contained chicken and BBQ ribs and cheese, a lot of cheese.

“Perfect,” was the only thing I could say.

While we followed Henry, I found it difficult to contain my happiness. I got chicken and a chance to watch two annoying boys being put in their place. It is a good day.

We went into an office where to kitchen staff discussed the meals and made all their plans.

James and Lucas already sat down on two of the chairs by the end of the table, still glaring at each other and kicked each other beneath the table.

Elizabeth leaned in to whisper in my ear. “I don’t think kicking each other under the table is the only thing they want to do underneath the table”.

I absolutely hated people that treat others like shit. If someone treated me bad, I would not have cared, I know how to handle it, honestly, I doesn’t actually care that much. From personal experience I can say not everybody have my mindset and does not always take these things so well, they are the ones I worry about. I can handle myself perfectly fine, so why should I not help those who can’t?

Many humans have constant nightmares from living with Ancients, something I am very similar with since my mother often wake me up in the middle of the nights with her screams. Because of this a lot of people here are sensitive in many ways. They live in a time where they could not afford to be sensitive, so people took the opportunity to finally care about their own thoughts here.

“I guess you boys already know why you are here?“, Henry said to the boys.

“Yes, because apparently every single person in this damn village is weak and can’t handle a little bit of confrontation,” was Lucas response.

“Accepting that you can’t handle something is not a weakness. It is a strength on its own, to be able to keep control of yourself and your actions and not doing something that will get you killed is not a weakness. It is mental strength, which is the kind of strength we need, because no matter how much physical strength we have we can never defeat an Ancient like that,” said Henry, “but, yes, physically we are weak, that is why we need to use our heads, something you should try some time,” said Henry, losing his temper towards the end.

“Do you two seriously don’t understand all the emotional trauma a lot of these people have gone through?” Elizabeth seemed to have finally snapped out of her “they’re sexually frustrated” phase, all the while I chew on a piece of chicken. “They have seen family and friends being tortured and being ripped to pieces, literally ripped to pieces,” another piece of chicken.

Now it was Lucas time to talked, “We don’t care, the same way Aella don’t care how she will get even more fat and ugly if she continues to eat like that.”

“Okay, let me clarify some things. First of all, ugly doesn’t exist, everyone has different opinions and think different things which means nothing, or no one is ugly. Second, I think you mean having awesome curves, not being fat. Third, I think you forgot how much I do not care about your opinions, you judgmental piece of shit,” I didn’t even think about what I said, and I could not believe I said that.

I put my head to my forehead. It is not hot, so I do not have a fever. Trying to concentrate on something else, I started counting cracks in the wall beside me.

James and Lucas continued to be yelled at by Henry while I zoned out.

22, there are 22 cracks in the wall. Twenty-two, the number every single human being hated with a great passion. It is at this age Ancients get their power, their specific aptitude, so to say. Every Ancient was born with heightened senses, such as extremely good eyesight, hearing, taste, smell and touch but also speed and strength. This is what makes them like any other supernatural, since every supernatural have these fundamental abilities. There are too many to count or remember but you do have the basic supernaturals that humans already had stories about before we knew they actually existed which includes vampires, werewolves, fairies, dragons, shapeshifters, demons, etc.

But when an Ancient become 22 years old they get a specific power, what kind of power I had no idea about, but I have heard they can cause a lot of destruction.

Oh, they also get a tattoo somewhere on their body that matched their special ability. Or not really a tattoo since it just appeared out of thin air and not through any ink, more like a mark or something.

“Hey! Daydreamer, thinking about me?” I want to grab Jason and hit his head against the door, but instead I ate the last bite of chicken and turned around walking out the door.