SNEAK PEAK OF MY BOOK!!! (Fragmented Elements)

Instructions

It was dark. Really dark. I lie in my bed staring at the ceiling while my sister, Andromeda, was snoring in the bunk below me. It was past curfew in the country of Bermula, but I couldn’t sleep. I sighed and in the dark lifted my light gray hands and inspected them. In frustration, I slapped them back to my side again. I closed my eyes and my mind flashed back to earlier that day when I was at school. My elemental magic teacher Mrs. Bora, had made an announcement. “Students, tomorrow is the day. You will all prepare yourself for inspection. Good luck and don’t forget, this is your future!”. I opened my eyes thinking about Mrs. Bora’s words. “This is your future!”. It echoed in my mind like a hollow drum. I grunted, I didn’t want it to be my future. I didn’t want to have my destiny chosen for me, I wanted to make choices for myself. I rolled over and I caught a glimpse of the living room. The familiar sight brought me another memory, this one, earlier in my life. My family and I were sitting in the living room together. I was only 6, I still didn’t understand how the world worked, or that conflict could break out between friends, or that I could never trust anyone too deeply. I was a smiling foolish child sitting in my father’s lap while he watched the news on the television, unable to understand what was happening. Even though I didn’t understand then, I still watched the footage with him & my mother. I still remember the images to this day, like they were branded into my mind permanently. Hundreds of Milieu, our people, were destroyed. The Rebellion, the people who wanted to have their own destiny & their own lives were being shot down one by one by the country's infantry. It was a bloody massacre, with no survivors. All of that just for speaking their mind. That day was the 6th of Chèitean in the year 1326. That year went down in history as the day the rebellion was destroyed. It was also the day that Bermula decided they were no longer a democracy. I will never forget the expression on my father’s face when he learned that the Bermula government ruled that they needed a king, a monarchy, not a prime minister. The country was shocked that day, even more so when the king was revealed to be a Bermula government official. He was a lightning elemental, Elicio Bolt. A greedy, rich, moody snob. You never know what mood he was in, and was very unpredictable. His first decree was that every child by the age of 16 would be inspected and their destiny would be chosen for them. They say that they base it on your interests and it's what suits you best. But, they don’t fool me. I know the truth. The real reason that Bermula chooses our destiny is to weaken us. They give us the worst suited life for our element and personality type, on purpose. They choose something that will render our elements useless. Why? They’re scared. Because they know now, if they did give us the right destiny we would rebel, and we would destroy them. They wouldn’t stand a chance. So instead they make us miserable. They crumble the common folk to ashes and live in their plush worlds of luxury and comfort. The thought made my cheeks scorch and sear red. I was jolted out of my thinking by an extra loud snore from Andromeda. I sighed and rolled over on my back. Through the walI, I heard my parents in their room talking about how work was getting harder, how they had to make sure this family survived, even with the weekly tax, and about how much they missed Kio, my older sister. She was one of the first that had gotten her destiny chosen for her, and she had been chosen as traveler. Her job was to travel around and to observe different parts of our country, or to check on things outside of Bermula. It sounded wonderful to me, but my sister was an Earth elemental and she hated change. She would prefer to sit down at the same desk every day rather than keep moving constantly. Whilst I was a Fire elemental and was very comfortable with change, and was always looking for some kind of adventure or excitement. But, I knew I wouldn’t get traveler. I would be too comfortable, too happy. They would choose something that I wouldn’t be able to stand, much less get any actual work done. I had friends who were older who already had a destiny and all of them were miserable. They were unhappy, depressed, always tired, & never satisfied with themselves. They went home every day with less & less hope & confidence, and I knew some people that got so miserable, we never saw them again. They would stay home & starve, try to run away, or if they held out a really long time without working, the guards would come and drag them away. This all from one law, one decision, one choice. Everyone went through it, and tomorrow it was my turn.