The Chosen Hero
Everyone was surprised when the holy priest of the country came to the village on Teiro’s nineteenth birthday. Everyone but me. I had dreamt of this day again and again, and it was, to say the very least, heartbreaking. A day I never wished to have come. Teiro, the kind blond kid who was scared of snakes and loved gooseberry pie, was the Chosen Hero. He seemed far too warm to be going off to kill a demon king. Although he was skilled in sword art, he never liked to hunt or duel others for fun. Teiro, the one who secretly tried to leave flowers from the meadow at my door every morning. The one who liked to play with my hair while I mended his shirts. The goof who couldn’t fry an egg without popping the golden center, who helped the adults in the flour mills when he was barely old enough to lift a sack of grain, and who held my hands by the river while forgetting all the words to the love poem he wrote. That Teiro. Teiro, the Chosen Hero.
I cleared my throat and slammed the door open with all my force.
“Good morning sleepy head!” I exclaimed, in a voice much too happy for the day to come.
“Wha- Ophelia?” two blue eyes emerged from under the heavy quilt blanket. The quilt blanket we made together with the scenes of the hero. Teiro surely didn’t know he’d be the Chosen Hero then. But I knew. Wished with all my heart it wouldn’t happen.
“You have a very busy day, better get up and start packing!” I grinned at his bed head, and threw the windows open, letting the morning light flood the room.
A heavy groan followed the two hollow thuds of feet hitting the floorboards, “Phelia...you-."
“Don’t think that I’m taking care of your room when you’re in the capital, or on Mt.Doom, or wherever it is that you hero types run off to!” I didn’t turn to face him. I wasn’t sure I could keep my face under control. In fact I was positive. I thought this was a good plan, to get this over with first thing in the morning, but now that I was here, my hands were shaking just about as much as my voice was.
I had to fill the silence. “Well, what do you think?” I said, whipping out his new uniform brought by the church yesterday. The white and blue tunic seemed like something that belonged in a museum, not something to be facing a demon lord with. The fabric was better quality than anything I had ever seen in this humble village. The clothes here were mostly made of old grain sacks. If you beat the rough fabric in the river then rub it with sand it was good to wear. Nothing like the outfit I held, this was definitely something I would damage by just holding it too long.
“I ironed it so you’d look your best when you ride into the capital. There’s going to be a lot of eyes on you after all! Maybe you’ll snag the eye of a lovely princess, hm?” I winked while pushing the hanger into his hands, which he promptly set down on the unmade bed and stood.
“Phelia.”
“I’m sure the men are going to have it hard without you in the mills this year. But since the snow melted quite early this year they’ll probably get an earlier start than usual.” I scurried over to the corner of the room where the stove was and filled it with thin pieces of wood. Teiro was just about to run out of kindling, but it didn’t matter, he wouldn’t be around here for much longer. I stuck the flint stone four times before I could start the fire. The warm embers glowed to life, and I blew hard as sparks crackled. Prodding the fire, the warm hearth started to roar, and I quickly slammed the black iron door closed.
“Ophelia before I-”
“Of course you shouldn’t worry about things here. Focus on your godly duty! Saving the world, receiving hurrahs, blowing kisses into the crowd, saving adorable children, you know.” I said, making grand gestures into the air. My voice sounded much higher than usual, and despite all my efforts one glance at Teiro was enough for my facade to crack, making my shoulders drop. His mouth was pinched; his bright eyes unusually serious. But I refused to break. I had already been warned by fate that we were not meant to be. I’ve already come this far. Silently I spun on my heel so my back was to him and wiped my sweaty palms on my worn out lilac coloured skirt.
“So, when you meet someone better...it’s ok to forget me.” I whispered. A lump in my throat refused to go down, so I forced myself to laugh loudly instead ”I don’t really-”
“Ophelia!” suddenly Teiro’s kind face was in front of me and his strong hands holding mine tight. A black pit filled my stomach when I saw the hurt in his eyes. I did that. My eyes fell to the floorboards, my obviously fake smile slipping away. The floor was cracked in quite a few areas, and I recalled the times Teiro would laugh when the floorboard creaked under my weight as I was trying to enter silently to scare him awake.
“Ophelia, look at me.” his voice as gentle and smooth as the spring breeze sweeping the harsh winter away. It took me a couple tries, but I finally lifted my brown eyes to meet his blue ones. A laugh escaped me when I realized he was bending his knees awkwardly so our eyes would meet evenly. He always did that when he wanted to talk to me seriously. This was the man destined to save the world. This was the man destined for more than me.
Teiro pulled me in close. The familiar smell of rosemary soap and sunshine was overwhelming, but I refused to hold him back. It would make it that much harder to let him go.
“I’m sorry Ophelia.” Strong arms held me yet tighter, “You don’t need to act for me.”
“Wait for me. I promise to come back here for you after I finish the demon king. And when I do,” Teiro pulled away slightly to fumble with his chest pocket, and pulled a simple rose gold ring with a single white opal in the center. His hands were shaking as much as mine as he pressed the ring into my palm and closed his hand over mine. “We’ll get married. We’re going to open our own tea shop by the ocean. You wanted to live somewhere warmer so you could have flowers outside the window, right? I’ll sweep the floors while you brew tea. When we have children I’m sure they’ll have your midnight hair. I’ve always wanted to dote over a cute daughter. To scare off all her suitors like your father did. I’ll bet she’ll look a lot like you. When we’re older we can take long walks by the shore, and count the stars at night on the balcony.”
What a beautiful future. It was both healing and heartbreaking to imagine. Even though my heart was soaring, my shoulders sagged with the reality of it all - that it wouldn’t happen. I had seen this same tragic story in my past lives time and time again. The Hero would ask me to wait for him, and would never return to his past lover. In my last life as a court dancer, he fell in love with the priestess who travelled with him. Before that when I was a noblewoman, he married the country’s princess, and the life before that the Hero eloped with a rebellious peasant who tried to steal from him. In other words, the Chosen Hero never ended up with any of my past lives. It would be imprudent of me to imagine that he’d come back for me and break a thousand year cycle. I couldn’t even count the amount of times I desperately searched through my past lives to find the perfect love scenario, only to be disappointed. The Hero would never come back for me.
“Phelia?” Teiro asked quietly.
“Were you sleeping with this ring in your pocket this whole time?” I gave into a muffled laugh and pulled him closer, burying my hands in his untucked shirt.
“I’ve tried to give it to you so many times already- I was committed to giving it to you yesterday and then the church came and now I...” his voice muffled against my black hair, “I’m coming back for you Ophelia. I promise.”
I wanted to believe Teiro, but my head told me not to. That it would be better to give up now. Since a long time ago, I swore to myself that I wouldn’t just placidly wait here for the Hero to return. I would follow up my own path and find happiness away from the Hero. And that’s exactly what I plan to do.
That afternoon Teiro left with the holy church to the capital. I watched from Terio’s window as the group made preparations to leave. Astonishingly enough, the second prince had come to escort Teiro to the Royal Capital. Rumor had it that the Royal family rarely ever left the capital, so I guess this whole Hero business was more important than I had originally thought. The second prince was slightly shorter than Teiro, but had shoulders wide enough to surely fill any doorway. He wore a charismatic smile and had an air of leadership that enveloped him.
“Ready to leave?” He asked Teiro.
“I’ll be back soon enough.” Teiro replied with a tense smile, and the prince simply laughed heartily and patted the Hero’s shoulder.
“Here,” the prince extended his hand with a small silver metal piece that caught the light “Replace your cape ornament with this.”
The royal seal. Terio stayed silent with a hand hovering over the simple rose cape ornament on his right shoulder. It was the one my father had crafted when he finally approved of Teiro. I still could feel the warmth in my chest when he promised my parents to protect me forever. Eventually Terio unclipped the rose and slipped it into his horse satchel, replacing it with the gold sword and silver shield emblem handed to him.
I had stepped away from the window sill and sunk down heavily on the old quilted blanket. I knew he had to change it to be granted access into the capital; that it would be greedy to expect him to keep everything I gave him. I was being far too selfish. From here on out he wasn’t my Teiro, he was the Chosen Hero. He is the fated one to save the world and fall in love with someone, someone who wasn’t me.
