Solo Last Day Of Childhood

[Elna]

Spring 9th, 513

Elna sat in the corner of the aviary, with her eyes closed. The sound of chirping birds was always something that was very therapeutic to her. Unfortunately, on this day, it just wasn't enough. Quite meditation wasn't cutting it for all the stress she had at that moment. There was probably nothing in the world that could calm her down right now, feeling the collective stress that she had built up over her entire life. Tomorrow was her fifteenth birthday, the dead line for caste placement, and she was left with nothing to offer.

The majority of the Inartans her age were already set. They showed promise in some kind of profession and were set up with a proper apprenticeship long ago, or they proved them selves to be systematically useless and were placed in the Dek caste early on. But here Elna was, still a Yasi, with her fate lingering over her head. As the rules of Wind Reach state, if a Yasi shows them selves to lack any useful skills to contribute to the welfare the city, then they will be tossed aside into the Dek caste without a second thought. There, she would live out the remainder of her miserable life doing hard manual labour nearly every waking hour, eat less then a meager some of food, and poses nothing more then a dirty gray tunic to where over her shoulders.

She felt liked she had tried everything to keep this day from coming, doing every task she could, looking for some untapped potential within her. Alas, anything she attempted ended in failure, unable to reach beyond the basics in anything she tried. Now it was too late, no more time to discover her talents. As much stress as she felt about her unknown fates, they were going to pale in comparison to what lied ahead.

She opened her eyes and rose to her feet. Clearly it was a waste of time trying to calm her nerves here. She decided she needed to take a walk around the city, wan't much more she could do. The aviary attendant shot her a dirty look as she left, she never really liked Elna. That was fine, she didn't really like her much either, or many people for that matter, as they had a tendency to look down at her. Still today she felt a little different, liked she wished she could have had a better relationship with the people that worked here. Maybe she could have made something of herself here. Tending to birds was at least something she had some small talent in, but bad blood killed any hopes of growing that potential fairly quickly.

[Elna]

Her pet bird Iris flew to her shoulder as she made her way towards the exit. Elna was so lost in thought she had completely forgotten her almost constant companion. Even still she hardly acknowledged her. She didn't feel like talking right now, even to the one she always knew was ready to listen.

She started her walk, focusing hard on keeping her mind as empty as possible. If she could just keep her mind a blank she wouldn't be dwelling on things that were beyond her control. It wasn't really working though. Repeating, "Stop thinking about it. Stop thinking about it. Stop thinking about it," over and over again in her head was a fairly poor strategy for mental peace.

Eventually, her lead her to the nursery where she had spent her earliest days. The nursery was always the place where they put the kids that couldn't be raised properly by there parents. In the majority of the cases, it was because they were born form a Dek mother. Dek parents where never allowed to raise there children, they were two busy working them selves to the bone, on top of their various handicaps making them generally unqualified. That point got her thinking about her own birth. She had no idea who here parents were, Wind Reach never really bothered keeping track of such things. However it was more likely then then not that her mother, if not her father as well, was a part of the Dek caste. It's like her lineage had cursed her to failure form the very start.