1st 5 Pages November Workshop- Luken Rev 1

Name: Ellie Luken

Genre: YA Fantasy

Title: Last Lights of the Lost

I wait by the edge of the camp beside the remains of the fire for the scout’s return. At the edge of the desert, his silhouette appears against the rising sun. The sand between us glows red with the sunrise, and it looks like everything bleeds. He brings me the last information I’ll need for my hunt today. He’ll be the one to confirm if the sandworm is close enough I can safely reach it before it fully wakes for the day.

I stand and shake stiffness from my legs. Lingering chill from the night prickles my neck and shoulders, so I draw my new wool cloak around me. My fingers skim the raised threads of embroidery, symbols of strength, health, and victory. A few of the threads are crooked. My younger brother isn't precise.

Matis gave me the cloak last night with a solemn bow, no trace of his usual smirk to be found. Any other time, I would've teased him about the flaws in his work. But I accepted it as formally as he gave it. Today is the most important day in my life. It’s the day every moment of my life has been leading up to.

Because today, I become a huntress.

Darius stops short and swings down from his steed. Flecks of meat stick in its sharp teeth, as its lips peels back at the sight of me. It blasts me with breath like rot. Its thin tail flicks back and forth, the hard knob at the end swinging.

One of the huntresses from years ago, Lia the wise, who studied halfway around the world in Heian City before joining our team, bred them for us. They're a combination of horses and gryfith monsters. They're stronger and sturdier than horses with thicker legs and bones, more vicious than horses with their sharp teeth, and don't spook like horses are so prone to.

“You’re clear to go,” he says. “The sandworm is currently only about twenty minutes from here.”

I acknowledge with a nod. “Thanks.”

“Wait. A quick moment.” He flashes me half a smile and then ducks his head. His pale cheeks shine pink, and his light curls glow. “I—made you a small token for strength. Sorry it took me so long to finish."

Usually only loved ones offers up tokens before a first hunt, and now I find my own face warming. "Oh." He's new to the team, originally from far north, one of the rare travelers who begs to join. Maybe he doesn't understand the significance of the tokens.

Or maybe he does. That thought makes my throat a little tight. I hope he’s not looking for something from me. He’s pretty, no doubt, with his fine-boned cheeks, dusted with light stubble. But I’m not sure I like him like that, and I don’t want to have to think too hard about it now. I have bigger concerns.

"Do you—accept it?" He holds out a wooden carving, hanging on a piece of string like a very crude piece of jewelry. The intertwining circles mean strength, but not a lone person's strength. Strength in unity, in family, in friends. The huntresses and scouts and trainees are a team. We're not all related by blood, but we are family. The carving is a little rough around the edges, but I suppose he's new.

"Of course," I say because it’d be rude not to, and even if I’m not sure how much I like him, he’s still a great scout.

I reach for it, and his hand closes over mine as he presses it into my palm. He leans a little closer, the grey mist of his breath swirling.

"I really hope you succeed," he says.

I yank my hand away. "Of course I will. Training has been my entire life. I’ve given everything I have for this." Half of the trainees who attempt this test die trying to pass it, but I won’t end up like them. My mother was a huntress, and her mother before her. I was made to follow in their footsteps.

I've never even considered I might not succeed, because how can I consider that all of me isn’t enough to make me the one thing I’ve always wanted?

“Sorry,” he says. “I didn’t mean to insult your abilities.”

I step back. Every word he says is more and more awkward, and it sounds like he doesn’t believe in me. “It’s fine. Once I return, you won’t doubt me again.”

“I don’t doubt you—I just—” he starts, and I put up a hand.

“I need to go.” I turn my back because I can’t get caught up in this. “But don’t worry. You’ll see when I return.”

When I become a huntress, everything I’ve sacrificed will be worth it. My crooked nose from when my rival Tavas broke it and called me weak, my girlfriend breaking up with me because she was afraid I wouldn’t come back from a hunt, the most accomplished huntress on the team rolling her eyes when I announced I would take the test this year and asking if I was sure I didn’t want to wait one more year until I’m eighteen – I’ll show them all that they should never have doubted me.

I weave through the team’s silent tents until I find my family’s and duck inside. It's warm, smelling of sweat and life. My brother snores in a pile of furs. His light brown bare feet poke out. He’s shot up in height this year, and even if I’ll always be three years older, I’m not going to be the bigger sister for much longer.

Mother is awake, sharpening a knife, and she gives me a brief nod. Behind her, nearly double her size, is the scale of a sea serpent. It’s the strongest monster she’s slain, so it travels with us. Anyone who enters our tent can know her strength.

My father doesn't live with us—he lives in the city of Aresten. I've met him only a few times. He didn't want to join the team as a spouse, have to travel the world with us and sleep on the ground most nights, have to stay in the camp during the day and pack and unpack supplies, cook food, care for the youngest children, like all of the spouses here do. Mother keeps hoping Aresten will hire the huntresses again, so we can visit him once more, but they haven't requested us in years. And huntresses follow the money.

I head for our weapons collection at Mother’s side. Although it’s not officially part of the test, selecting my weapons is a critical step for success. I can pick anything I want—but if I pick wrong, I’ll have lost my fight against the sandworm before it’s even begun.

Sandworms are Beast Class monsters, large and heavily armored, with poison on their scales. The only way to kill one is to hit a vulnerable area through the back of its mouth. My gaze skims over the line of close combat weapons, the spears, the curved arms, the swords, all different metals for different monsters. If I end up close enough to the sandworm to use one of these, I’ll probably be dead already. For a sandworm, I need something to fire from a distance.