I dreaded the next day after my sixteenth birthday.

"Hey Zara." My Dad woke me up bright and early with a plump mouse between his jaws, he dropped it in front of my nest and crouched down next to me.

"Do you know what today is?" He questioned, as I blinked my eyes open and observed this scene with growing dread.

"Yes." I groaned, feeling like I wanted to throw up.

If you don't want to, just tell him. The Voice told me.

"That's right. It's time for me to pass on everything I know about being Chief. You have a lot to learn, but knowing you, you'll probably catch on pretty quick." He smiled weakly and noticed I hadn't touched the mouse he brought me yet.

"Yeah. About that Dad..." I started awkwardly. "I don't want to become the chief."

    He frowned, taking in a huge breath, while his white tipped tail flicked angrily. "I see. Have you thought about this for a while?"

    I quivered slightly. "Yeah, I don't really see myself in the position. I get offended to easily, my emotions and such. You know."

    He closed his dull green eyes and sighed. "Yeah I know. I guess this means it's time for your first lesson."

    I felt my skin prickle uneasily. "What do you mean?"

    "Not everyone is born a leader Zara, sometimes it's not about what you want, but what's good for others."

    He paused, looking up at the walls. "You were born with a responsibility that no one else can bear."

    He's saying you can't do anything because you were born into it. The Voice hissed.

    "That's not fair!" I shot back, feeling disgusting hot tears build up in my eyes as my vision went blurry.

    My father got a pained expression on his face. "I know, I know. Come here, you want to hear a story?"

    My neck fur puffed up. "Not really."

    He cracked a small grin. "I was the same way when I was your age. I wanted to become a freelance musician."

    I stopped and stared at him for a few minutes. There was no way.

    His smile dropped. "Then I turned sixteen, and I realized it was a bit of a lost dream, I hated being chief too. My father was pretty harsh, but it's what had to happen."

    "So what happened happened?" I asked, he certainly didn't seem to hate it anymore.

    "Yeah, tell her what happened dear." A gorgeous white she-claw with two sapphires for eyes leaned against the doorway, my mom.

    Nepal cracked a grin. "I met your mother, during the annual festival, boy did we have some adventures after that."

    "Did it have anything to do with Dragonflies?" I asked, somewhat hesitantly, desiring to change the subject.

    Arietty scowled. "There was something...it wasn't really that important."

    "What?" I demanded, holding my breath.

    "After you two were born." Nepal's brow furrowed, "I remember that."

    "My father, he went kind of crazy, well he's always been sort of a nut but this time he went to far. He called you two the strangest and nastiest names. He wanted to kill you, he said something about dragonflies." Arietty sighed disappointed.

    "Both me and Jamboree agreed though, he was exiled. Don't worry about him Zara." Nepal soothed.

    Look how arrogantly he misuses with his power, he's trying to corrupt you. The Voice hissed bitterly.

        The easy grinned died on my face right there. The Voice was right, how could I trust someone who would use their power to do something like that? No matter the circumstance it was a terrible thing to do.

"You know what Dad? I'll think about it, I really will. Maybe there is some hope to me being chieftain." I lied easily, forcing back the sting of moral thought that told me being untruthful to my own parents was wrong.

Nepal smiled softly. "Okay, I let you think about it, but I would like to hear your answer pretty soon sweetie."

I kept the forced smile on my lips for a few more seconds as the two of them walked out of my den, chatting easily between the two of them. Then I turned my nose up in disgust at their antics. They of all claws trying to get me to misuse my power? It was appalling, horrendous, the kind of behavior I wouldn't have expected from someone I trusted so dearly as my own parents.

"Tell what to do to fix this." I mumbled.

In the Archive, there's a particular scroll I think you would like to get your paws on, however, you'll need my help to get it.

"Whatever you say." I agreed, my trust in the Voice growing stronger, the Voice could always solve all of my problems.

I gave myself a quick wash with my tongue, to freshen myself up a bit before heading out to socialize with common claws. I walked with my head up high and my goal strong as I dared not stop to chat with anyone. I had a mission, to rid the Ice-claws of their demonic misuse of such power.

"Hey Zara." Skylark greeted wearily.

My gaze softened as I reached the tired looking calico. Her dull green eyes flicked over my appearance quickly. It was the first time I had actually washed myself in months, and I had become quite the slob. I decided I could put aside my mission for a few moments to catch up with an old friend.

"Good morning Skylark." I addressed her politely. "How have you been?"

She shrugged. "I've been better. Things are going pretty slow here to be honest. Lysander's started taking me out it a bit more, I have forgiven him by now of course, holding grudges...well I've realized it's not exactly healthy."

I got the feeling she was reminiscing over something, and it had something to do with my brother.

"That's nice, have you seen the kits lately?" I averted the conversation immediately.

    "Kittens is a strong word." She purred. "They're almost three."

    Sierra's and Lysander's kits had been born shortly after the Battle of Dragonfly. There were three of them, two girls and a boy. I watched them occasionally, for even I had to admit they were pretty cute, but they were grown up enough now to look after themselves and both of our teachers had gone back to their regular schedules of bringing up their students. Sierra was nice, I liked her. I hadn't really gotten to know her very well in the beginning, but we were close friends now.

    Time runs on dearest. The Voice interrupted, I snapped out of my thoughts and met Skylark's eyes.

    "Well, I've just come for a bit of light reading before I have to go to practice with Sierra. I'm sure you're busy as well." I excused.

    "Yeah, it was nice talking though." She agreed, heading towards the Scriptorium, the part of Archive where Scribe-claws wrote the books and often came back with their claws black from ink.

    I didn't know she was at that level yet, it was good for her. "Where am I going?"

    Towards the back of the Magyk section.

    I was curious to see what I might find there, as annoyingly gauge as the Voice was, I knew it would tell me what I needed to know at the right time. I flicked my tail over the dusty scrolls on the bottom shelf, and sneezed. There was a lot here, normal Magyk like moving small objects with your mind, and how to hypnotize mice. The thing about Magyk was that no one really needed it, so of lot of this information was considered useless, the only one who read this sort of thing was the Magycian and their apprentices, and even then it was mostly just to keep the art alive.

    Stop here. The Voice commanded.

    I looked around to see only a dirt wall. "But there's nothing here."

    That's what they want you to think, your father isn't the only one keeping secrets.

    I winced as a sharp pain stabbed into my forehead, what the? All of a sudden my vision went kind of blurry and red. When I was able to see again, there was a den in front of me. It was small with a flat stone pushed into for reading and a clump of moss hanging on the ceiling. There was another shelf in there, with about twenty or so more scrolls lining the walls. The strange thing was this place looked very well kept, like someone had been here recently.

    "What?" I frowned. "What is this? Where did it come from?"

    I gave you the ability to see and touch it, but it's always been there. It paused, as if deciding what it wanted to say next. It's a collection of forbidden Magyk they only teach to the higher level Magycians.

    "Why hide it though?" It made no sense to me.

    The Voice hesitated before answering. It contains a lot of...trustworthy material. Some it is stuff that can be performed by those without much experience, that's what you need.

    I padded in slowly, taking note of the room, no windows, there was a mouse skeleton around the slab. The shelves weren't that dusty though, like they had been cleaned recently.

    You need to work quickly, there's no telling when the apprentice or the Magycian might show up. The lone scroll on the top is what you're looking for.

    I leaned against the shelf and pulled it out with my mouth, it was heavy, so the scroll was pretty long. I laid it down on the reading slab and rolled it out. Immediately my heart sank.

    "I can't read it." I complained, scanning over the gibberish. "It's not even our language."

    I can, it's a resurrection spell with a potion that will help speed the process. I can tell you the ingredients and the command word, you can perform this quite easily,

    "Resurrection..." I trailed off, this has been here this entire time and nobody thought to use it? "You mean like bring back the dead?"

    That's exactly what I mean. I discovered it just a while ago and immediately thought of you. Cowardly of your family to keep something so useful locked away isn't it?

    I felt like I had just swallowed lava and it was burning though my stomach, a slow inching river of fire that would take ages to cool and bring with it much destruction. I felt a small trickle of blood spill down my chin as I realized I had been biting my lip.

    "Cowardly indeed." I spat, rolling up the scroll and preparing myself to take it with me.

    Zara wait. The Voice started suddenly. There's something I have to tell you.

_______________________________________
Oh ho ho ho

Where am I going with this indeed

Also it's been like a month?! Sorry about that 😕

Fan Art by SuperNinjaDragon