Not even the bad weather could bring my spirits down. The sky was gray and cloudy. It was cold and a bit windy, and it had rained the night before. The rain had collected into large puddles that were scattered everywhere. The dirt road was now a mud road. 
The miserable day had kept everyone inside, so no one was there to greet me, or to give me luck, but the smile my mother had given me was still glued to my face.
I’m sure I looked stupid with my smile and my fancy dress and the way I skipped down the mud road towards my school, but that didn’t matter to me. I came to a puddle on the side of the road that was clear enough to see my reflection. I must admit, I looked rather beautiful. My hair was straighter than usual, and my dress and apron flattered my skin, but the thing that stood out was my new necklace. My eyes were a slightly different color blue than it - unlike my mother - but it still sparkled like a midnight star. The jewel, I now realized, was the same color as the ocean.  It looked like a drop of water about to drip off the silver chain around my neck. It really was something.
Suddenly, I felt a hand on my shoulder.  I gasped in surprise and turned to face what I thought was probably Mira, my best friend from school.  Instead of Mira’s smiling young face, I saw an old one; a face of dark brown eyes and curly gray hair and wrinkles of old age. Bya was the oldest and wisest member of our village. She was the village seer, the one with the rare talent of seeing into the future. Bya’s eyes were normally small and friendly, but today they were opened wide and full of fear. It was for this reason that my smile did not return to my face when I saw her.
Bya wasted no time in telling me what was on her mind, pausing to take deep breaths after every few words as if she’d just runs the length of our village.
“Miss Foote! … breath … I have seen that … breath … you are in great danger! … breath … breath … you must beware! … breath … the enemies are stronger together”. Then she stared into my eyes, hoping for a sign that I had understood. She did not find it, because I had been confused ever since she had placed her hand on my shoulder. That was the thing with Bya. The poor woman tried to tell us about danger, or good fortune, but no one ever seem to understand. If the village didn’t love her so much we probably would have asked King Trub, the king of our Mencia, for a different seer.
After a few seconds, Bya gave up trying to make me understand. She sighed and stared into space, lost in thought. I wasn’t sure if I should leave the situation. Before I could decide, Bya looked back at me. She seemed to be surprised that I was still there.
“Well, go on then” she said. 
I decided to walk the rest of the way to my school. All the cheerfulness had gone from my body, replaced with anger for not being able to understand Bya’s prediction, and worries, for she had told me I was in danger - from what? - and confusion, for nothing that had just happened made any sense. I now felt miserable.
I started kicking around a rock that I found on the road. It gave me something to look at; something to do until I eventually got to school. My school was one of the oldest buildings in my village. It was made out of bricks that had turned brown and started crumbling over the years. Some people said that it had been built even before the great war of Laze - which had happened more than two hundred years ago. I went inside and found my classmates standing around in the front entrance. All the other children seem to be already in class. Was I really that late? I glanced up at the tiny clock above the double doors leading back outside. Nine a.m. it said. Nope, I was right on time. Then my stomach dropped when I remembered that clock was seven minutes behind.
When Mira realized I was there she hurried over to me.
“Lexa! Why are you so late? We’ve been waiting for you for like, a thousand years!” Mira was loud, talkative, and always happy. She had bright orange hair and blue eyes. You could see her dimples when she smiled, which was pretty much all the time. Mira was Little Miss Sunshine inside and out. Everyone looked up when they heard Mira’s voice.  Suddenly I was the center of attention, but the boys and girls swarming me were not as smiley as a Little Miss Sunshine.
“You’re so late!”
“What took you so long?”
“Now we might be late for the talent gaining, and it’s all your fault!”
“Mrs. Roy! Lexa’s finally here!”
Our teacher Mrs. Roy came over to me. Mrs. Roy was a tall woman with straight blonde hair that she had neatly placed in a bun on top of her head. She never seemed to be very happy and - perhaps because of her height - thought that she was better than everyone around her. As Mrs. Roy slowly walked towards me, the kids around me parted to make a path for her. She’s stopped about two feet from my face and put her hands on her hips, looking down at me with disgust.
“You’re late” she told me. I very much wanted to say “so I’ve been told” but I didn’t. I had tried that sort of thing with Mrs. Roy before, and it had not ended well. Instead, I just nodded, looking up at her with what I hoped were big, scared, innocent eyes. That was the tactic that worked best with Mrs. Roy. Make her feel big and intimidating and you wouldn’t get much of a punishment.
The tactic worked. I saw her eyes move from mine, to my clothes. She nodded.  “Nice appropriate dress. Good,” she said. Then she turned and walked down the hall. Me and my classmates glanced at one another before following her down the hall and into a classroom.

It was not our usual classroom. The reason were in it was because it served as a backstage area for the auditorium. The walls were a funny yellow color, and the paint was peeling off. On the left side of the classroom was a chalkboard; small, yet just big enough to write a sentence that could be read from the other side of the room. There were ten desks, which fit my class perfectly as there were ten of us. In the back of the room there was a door that led to the ridiculously tiny stage in the auditorium. That itty-bitty stage would be where we would get our talents.
When Mrs. Roy reached the front, she turned around to face the desks like she taught in that classroom every day. Then she looked at us, and raised her eyebrows expectantly. All at once, we stopped looking around at this new room and hurried to find a seat. I was one of the last to sit down, so I found myself in the front row next to Mira. It seemed that we were two of the only ones who didn’t fear Mrs. Roy. No one said a word as we sat, but I’m sure Mira had to bite her tongue in order for that to happen. When Mrs. Roy was satisfied with the silence, she began to give us the speech that she gave her class every year before their talent gaining.
“Almost two hundred and fifty years ago, there lived an old miner by the name of Tarahabi. His family was poor and lived off of only what Tarahabi would find down in the mines. And so when the rumours spread that there was gold hiding in a new nearby mineshaft, Tarahabi was the first to go looking for it. However, the old miner did not find his gold, he found something much better. A large, beautiful crystal.
“The crystal was no ordinary stone, as Tarahabi soon found out. As he starred into it, the crystal turned a delicate shade of baby blue as it presented him with the power to turn invisible.
“Tarahabi knew he could not let the crystal’s powers go to waste, and so he took his discovery to his king, who rewarded Tarahabi with enough gold to last him for the rest of his life. The king named the crystal the Globe of Tarahabi after its finder.
“The king cared much for his people, so he immediately set to work presenting each and every one wit a ‘talent’ as he called them. Not far into his quest to make his people happy, the king discovered that no child under the age of thirteen would be presented with a talent. However that problem was easily solved. Every year on the first of May, there would be a ‘talent gaining’ for each village and all the children who’d turned thirteen since the previous talent gaining would attend.
“For years after, this went on, until approximately fifty years later something went wrong. Sometimes the Globe of Tarahabi would not present an individual with a talent.  Instead, it would proclaim them as ‘untalented’. This was rare, but could not be ignored, for soon the untalented began to blame the talented of stealing the talents that were rightfully theirs. A war broke out between the talented and the untalented. The great war of Laze.
“It was a terrible time. Many innocent people were killed, both untalented and talented. Then finally, the king was murdered by an untalented, causing the entire country to go up in chaos.
“The new king did the only thing he could think of: he sent the untalented away, to a mysterious place where no one would ever find them. We have not heard from the untalented since.” 
I had so many questions. Some I’m sure were questions that every other person in the room was asking themselves, such as ‘where do the untalented go?’ and ‘Why have we never heard from them?’ Others, I doubt, even crossed their minds, such as ‘How in the world did Mrs. Roy memorize all that?’ It was almost as if I were wondering through a tunnel of blackness. I could spot no clues. Could grasp onto nothing except for the thought that maybe Mrs. Roy hadn't actually memorized the entire story. She was probably just telling it in her own words, in the right order. Mrs. Roy let us think for a good two minutes before moving on.
“It’s almost time. When I call your name, go line up by the stage door.”  Her words seemed to snap us out of our daze and we got excited all over again. A ball of excitement mixed with nervousness exploded somewhere in my stomach and rushed to the rest of my body. My hands began to get sweaty. Mrs. Roy took out a paper that had us in alphabetical order according to our last names written on it.  I don’t know why she needed it. All of our other teachers had memorized our order by May.  She read the first name.
“Haron Bent”
Haron got up from his seat at the back of the room and shuffled his way over to the door. I felt bad for him. Haron was very shy. He hated being first or the center of attention - unlike Mira.  It didn’t make things any easier for him that he was the tallest in the class. 
“Naja Ellens”
Naja was the smartest girl in our class but not even close to the prettiest. She aced every test. Seem to understand everything perfectly - I wondered if she’d understood Mrs. Roy’s story I bit better than I did.  Naja got up from her seat behind me and went over to stand next to Haron.
“Lexa Foote”
Me.  I stood up and confidently walked over to stand behind Naja. After me came Aluji Kerr, then Mira Lotson.  Mira skipped over to her place in line when her name was called - Mrs. Roy’s glare following her the whole time. Eventually, Everyone was in line. Now we were just waiting for Bya to come with the globe of Tarahabi, then we would begin.
I could hear all of our families next door, chatting away. They seemed almost as excited as I felt. I wondered why. It was our talent gaining after all. 
Quickly, everything went silent. I knew Bya had just walked into the room. My heart sped up a little. This was it.
Mrs. Roy opened the door and gestured for Haron to go inside. He was shaking all over. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath.  Mrs. Roy was losing the tiny bit of patience that she had in life. She cleared her throat.  Haron’s eyes snapped open.  Mrs. Roy raised her eyebrows at him, then he stepped out onto the little stage and Mrs. Roy closed the door.
It took a lot less time than I expected. He’d only been in there for about a minute when I heard some polite applause and he came back out. A smile of happiness and relief was on his face. Mrs. Roy ordered him to sit down at a desk, so he did. Then it was Naja’s turn to go in.
Now I was really starting to get nervous. My hands were sticky with sweat and I was breathing heavily. A part of me never wanted Naja to come out, but she did, with the same smile as Heron on her face.
Then Mrs. Roy was telling me to go in. It was my turn. I took a deep breath and walked onto the stage. The auditorium wasn’t big like you’d probably expect.  It was the same size as the room I had just come out of. The stage was just big enough for me, Bya, and the table for the globe of Tarahabi. There were about thirty people watching me. I spotted my family in the far left corner. I looked into my mother’s proud face for courage, and then I turned to Bya. She looked almost as scared as I’d seen her earlier. She hesitated before saying, “Stare into the Globe of Tarahabi, and it will help you discover the talent hidden deep within you.”  She whispered so no one else would hear.
My gaze shifted from her to the globe. It was extremely beautiful. It looked as if it had once been a sphere, but there were pieces missing from it.
I stared into it. I stared and stared. I could tell I’d been staring for longer than Haron or Naja, because I heard people starting to shift awkwardly in their seats. Then something happened.  It looked like a tiny ball of red gas that started in the center of the globe. It got bigger and bigger until it filled the entire globe.  Everyone gasped.  Their eyes wide with fear.  One thing was for sure, this had not happened with Haron or Naja.  Then my blood went cold as I finally figured out what it meant.
I had no talent.

I was stunned. I couldn’t move. Tears welled up in my eyes and my breathing became unsteady. Many thoughts and emotions were swimming around in my head. This was not what I had expected.
I had wondered my whole life up until then what my talent would be. But I didn’t have one. I was untalented. 
I felt as if my insides had fallen off a cliff and left my body behind as I realized something.  I was going to be taken away.  I would never get to finish my life with the people in my little village that I’d grown up knowing. Haron, Mira, Mrs. Roy, Oranah, Bya, my mother. I would never see them again.
I felt a hand on my arm and I came back to reality.  It was one of the guards from the main village of Mencia.  I hadn’t noticed him before.  A guard was sent to watch over the talent gaining in every village.  He transported the globe of Tarahabi from village to village and collected the untalented. The people like me. 
The guard lead me down through the crowd towards the door. The audience parted to make a path for us just like earlier, when my classmates made a path for Mrs. Roy.  We were walking fast.  I look back behind me at Bya.  She looked back helpless. 
With a jolt I realized that she had tried to inform me about this.  The tears in my eyes finally poured down my cheeks. 
I must have been walking slower because I tripped as the guard hurried me to the door.  He kept a firm grip on my arm. 
Just before we reached the door, I looked over at my mother.  Her ocean blue eyes sparkled with tears.  I wanted to run over to her and let her squeeze me in a tight hug.  I wanted her to tell me that everything would fine – just like she always did – then all my worries and troubles would disappear.  But now things were different.  Now I was untalented, and that wouldn’t happen anymore.  I managed to make eye contact for only a second before the guard pulled me out the door. 
I could hear teachers closing their classroom doors so their classes wouldn’t be distracted by me.  Nobody cared about me.  Not anymore.  Not now that I was untalented.  They wanted me to get out of their lives.  I cried harder. 
The next five minutes could have quite possibly been the most miserable time of my life.  I could hardly see where we were going because of my teary eyes. Not that it mattered, because I wasn’t taking anything in.  I was lost in my own horrible thoughts.  It was like falling down a long black hole.  I couldn’t see the bottom but I knew that soon I would reach it.  That a kind of death awaited me. 
When my crying deceased enough to stop making noise and see a bit better, we were nearing the train station.  I walked faster so that the guard was no longer pulling me.  He was simply holding my arm while hurrying along beside me.  I could tell the guard was trying not to look at me.  The guard had to take children away from everything they loved and send them away to who knows where.  It was his job; the only way for him to earn money.  But why should he care?  He should be glad, for he wasn’t the one being sent away.  He wasn’t untalented.  
At first, I was confused when we passed the ticket booth, but you couldn’t just buy a ticket to the place I was going.
We walked all the way to the very last track.  In all my life I’d never seen a train there.  But now there was, and it was the smallest train that I’ve ever seen, with just two compartments.  They looked like big boxes on wheels.  I wondered where I was supposed to sit.  As we got closer, I saw a door on the side of each box, but there were no windows.  The guard spoke to me.
“You’re lucky. You have company this year”. I was surprised.  I hadn’t been expecting anyone else to be with me during the journey to wherever it was I was going. 
We got to the small train and the guard led me over to the door of the second compartment.  He opened the door.  There was no light other than the faint sunlight coming in through the doorway, but I could still see four people sitting along the sides - two girls and two boys. This was much more than I would have expected to be found untalented. Judging by what the guard had said, it was more than what he had expected as well, but I was too depressed to wonder why.   I noticed that the guard had let go of my arm.  He nodded at me.
“Go on”, he said. I sighed, and stepped into the box with the other children. They looked up at me with sad eyes. The left corner closest to the door was unoccupied, so I went over and sat down.  Then the guard closed the door and everything went black.

My eyes were just adjusting to the dark when someone spoke from across the box.
“Welcome aboard.” It was a boy. He didn’t seem very excited at all.  Sarcastic, actually.
“Thanks,” I said, but I didn’t really mean it.
I could now see the other kids sitting with me.  The boy who had spoken had messy dark hair.  The color of it I could not tell.  The girl sitting next to me had shoulder length blond hair and pale blue eyes.  I imagined she was pretty in the sunlight.  The other girl was sitting next to the boy who’d spoken.  I could tell that she was tall without needing her to stand up.  Her legs stretched out in front of her and her torso was long.  The boy’s head came up to her nose.  This girl had pencil straight, hazel brown hair that came all the way down to her bellybutton.  I knew this because she’d draped it over her shoulders.  There was one more boy sitting alone on the side opposite the door.  He had dark hair like the other boy, except it was well kept - not messy.  He sat with his knees pulled up to his chest and his arms around them.  I figured he was still very upset about being taken away.
“Why aren’t be moving?”  I wondered out loud.
“This happens at every stop,” said the blond girl beside me.  “My guess is they have to wait until each talent gaining is finished. I think this train also transports the globe of Tarahabi from village to village. That must be what the other compartment is for.”
I’d never really thought about how the globe of Tarahabi got to each village in time for each talent gaining, and the more I thought about what the girl had said, the more I was sure she was right.
“That makes sense” I managed to finally say.
“Well, I’ve had a lot of time to think about it.  I was the first one on the train. By the way, my name is Lae.”
I laughed.
“What?” She asked.
“That rhymes” I told her. She still seemed confused.  “By the way, my name is … never mind.”
“But my name isn’t … oh.” Lae laughed.  “Whatever”, she said.  “What is your name anyways?”
“ Lexa,” I told her.
“Nice to meet you Lexa.”  It wasn’t the blond girl who’d spoken.  It was the tall girl.  “My name is Nika,” she said.
“Mine’s Rennoc,” said the boy with the messy hair beside her.
“I’m Alyk,” said the other boy.  Lae, Nika, and Rennoc seemed surprised to hear him speak.
“So you can speak,” said Rennoc.
Alyk looked at his feet.  “Yes.”
“Well, it’s nice talking to you Alyk,” said Lae.  No one spoke for a while after that. We had nothing else to say. I don’t know how long we waited there, but it felt like forever, and then finally, I heard a noise outside. I sat up straight eagerly. I heard the door to the compartment next door open, and then close again after about a minute.  We waited for a bit longer, then the train started moving.
“You were the first one on, right?” I asked Lae.  She nodded.  “Do you know how many stops are left?”
“I’m not sure. We’ve already made seven stops, including mine, but there could have been one or two stops before that.”
“Right,” I said. There were nine villages in total; eight little ones, and one big one where King Trub’s castle was located.  
The train was the perfect place to take a nap.  It was dark in the box, and the vibrations of the train was soothing, but I couldn’t sleep.  When I closed my eyes, all I could see was my mother’s face. An exact replica of the one I saw just before the guard pulled me out the door. 
A bit later, the train pulled into another station.  I heard someone open the first compartment again.  I heard it slam shut a minute later.
“I think you’re right about the globe of Tarahabi, Lae,” said Nika.
Lae nodded.  “It makes sense.”
“It doesn’t make sense that they’re sending us away,” said Rennoc.
“Just because we’re untalented,” put in Alyk, who sounded close to tears.
“Actually it does make sense,” said Lae.
The boys stared at her. “Have you lost your mind?” asked Rennoc.
“No, I’m using it more than you are.”
Rennoc scowled.
“Didn’t your teacher tell you about how the talent gaining started?”  She rolled her eyes.  “The untalented started the great war of Laze, so in the end the king sent the untalented away.” 
I had to agree with her.  It did make sense, though I didn’t like it.  The others must have been thinking the same thing because no one said anything to prove Lae wrong.
We waited in silence for a long time.  I knew everyone was wondering the same thing as I was.  Would there be someone untalented here? 
Suddenly, something started to vibrate on my chest.  Only a little bit, but enough for me to feel. I looked down and saw the necklace my mother had given me. Emotions clouded my thoughts while tears clouded my vision. The necklace was the last thing my mother had given me.  She would never give me anything ever again, and I would never give her anything ever again.  I would never get to see her ever again.  I was alone in the world. 
I was so lost in these thoughts that I almost didn’t notice when my necklace vibrations got bigger and bigger.  It hurt my chest.  I covered it with my hands to stop the others from noticing it.  That worked for about ten seconds, then it started glowing.  My necklace was creating light.  It shone through my fingers.  I looked around to see who had noticed, but my new friends were only paying attention to themselves. They were all holding something to their chests.  I could see the glow through their fingers.  I’d never noticed them wearing necklaces before, but now that I looked closer, I could see the chains hanging around their necks. Could it be a coincidence that we all had one? 
I heard movement outside the door.  It opened.  Sunlight poured into the box and I had to squint to see the three people standing there.  The guard, a boy with tears still on his cheeks, and a woman. None of them smiled. The woman looked like she was about to burst into tears, But she didn’t.  Instead she put her hand on the boy’s back and led him over to the box.  He got in silently and went to sit on the floor next to Alyk. 
My necklace was buzzing like crazy now.  I left it hanging on the inside of my dress so that the guard wouldn’t see it.  Out of the corner of my eye I saw the others do the same. 
The woman looked around inside the box.  Her eyes landed on each of us in turn.  They widened farther with each person she looked at.  Her jaw dropped open.  Without warning, she started speaking in the old language that only seers studied.  I was not a seer, so I couldn’t understand the language, but even if I could speak it, I still wouldn’t have been able to understand her, she was speaking so fast.  Then, the woman turned and sprinted away from the train.  The guard eyed us suspiciously before closing the door.

By the time the guard’s footsteps faded away, my necklace was shaking so much it was hurting my skin. I reached down through the collar of my dress to pick it up.
“What’s going on?” someone said. I didn’t recognize the voice. It was the new boy. I looked up to tell him that I had no clue when I noticed that he had a necklace as well. That was when I really started to doubt this was all coincidental.
Beside me, Lae was staring at a small spot on the floor, her face scrunched up in concentration. She was searching her brain for answers. Lae found a reason for everything it seemed, so I trusted her to do all the major thinking. I slid over toward her, and my necklace seemed to do the same. The beautiful blue jewel sort of jumped off my chest toward Lae and Lae’s necklace reached out toward mine so both necklaces were vibrating in midair. Lae looked up, her concentration broken by this change. Her eyes narrowed. I could almost see the gears turning inside her head. Then she spoke, her eyes never going back to normal.
“The necklaces are acting like magnets. They must be!” She tested this idea by sliding over to me until my butt was touching hers. It was intimidating, really. Even though Lae was a bit smaller than me, I still felt as if she were some bully trying to squash me in the corner. Especially since she was staring at me with this intense face that reminded me of Mrs. Roy about to blame me for something I so obviously didn’t do. But she was right about the necklace being magnets. My jewel slammed into hers as soon as the two were close enough together. For the first time, I got a good look at Lae’s jewel. It was not blue like mine, but Spring Green. I wondered what the others’ jewels looked like.
“That’s it!” Lae actually smiled. “Everybody, meet me in the center!” She got on her hands and knees and started crawling, however she was stopped almost immediately as I was still sitting in the corner and was now connected to her. “Come on!” she urged. I sighed and crawled over to her. Rennoc was the first one in the center. Lae and me met him there, and our necklaces connected to his. Then Nika crawled over and got attached to us. We had formed a circle, but there was one empty spot. The new boy crawled over and filled it in. His necklace shot up and connected to ours.
At once, there was a huge blinding flash of light, except it didn’t blind me like it should have and traveled much slower than normal light. It started in the center where our necklace jewels were attached. Like a big ball, it got bigger and bigger, until we were inside of it. Bright, white light was all I could see. Not my new friends, not the necklaces, not even the walls or floor of the box. Everything was light, and yet my eyes didn’t seem bothered by it one bit. It was the strangest thing. Then the light decreased. It was gone, just like that. I almost doubted I’d seen it at all. I would have, had I not had enough time to read everyone’s faces before the next strange thing happened. They were confused, scared, maybe slightly angry and a tiny bit excited. That was exactly how I felt and it made me feel better to know that I wasn’t the only one who experienced the light.
Another ball began to rise from the necklaces, but this one was not made of light. It was made of colors, swirling around the ball like smoke - red, blue, tan, green and white. Then it split into five bubbles, one of each color - red, blue, tan, green and white. The blue came towards me. I noticed it was the same color as the jewel on my neck like. The same color of my mother’s eyes. A lump grew in my throat, but it was quickly chased away and replaced with excited fear and anticipation of what was to come. My bubble stopped right in front of my face. I wanted to reach out and grab it, but something in my head stopped me. Then the bubble began to rise. I followed it with my eyes until it stopped again just above my head.
The other bubbles were above my friends’ heads - green above Lae, red above the new boy, white above Rennoc, tan above Nika.
Just then, the bubbles dropped. No sound, no warning, it just happened, and I was totally unprepared. I felt a rush of coldness and warmth at the same time flood over my body. Starting at the tip of my head, going down to my toes.
Then I was gone.
I was flying somewhere above the ocean. I could feel the sun on my back. See it reflected in the perfect blue sea. I could hear huge waves in the distance, but instead of making me nervous, it soothed me. I knew nothing could harm me while I was at sea. I felt the cool sea breeze on my back and smelt the salt in the air. It was paradise. I wanted to stay with the sea forever, but then it was over.
I was still sitting in the center of the box with my friends. Our necklaces had disconnected. They were no longer vibrating. It was as if nothing strange at ever happened, but I knew it had. So did the others.
“What. Just. Happened.” Said Rennoc. We all looked at Lae for answers, but she just frowned and shook her head.
“I don’t think this is what happened to the untalented last year,” said Nika hesitantly.
“Or the year before that.” I added.
“Maybe we’re special,” suggested the new boy.
Suddenly I had a thought. I counted the people in the circle. There were five of us. I sighed, but then my stomach lurched. There’d been five of us before the new boy showed up. Panicking slightly, I tried to figure out who was missing.
“Where’s Alyk?” I asked urgently. The others seemed surprised by my remark. They hadn’t noticed that he was gone. I quickly scanned the box for the boy, and then I saw him sitting in the same spot as he’d always been by the wall opposite the door. Relief washed over me, however I soon realized that something was wrong. Though I could plainly see the confusion in his face, I could just as easily see the sadness and this disappointment. Alyk lowered his head with big teary eyes. I followed his gaze with my own, and then I understood. Alyk didn’t have a necklace.





It took a very long time to reach wherever we were going. There was nothing to do but talk and wait, so that’s what we did.
The new boy introduced himself as Haras. He had auburn hair and friendly brown eyes. He had dimples and he smiled a lot. I liked him. I liked all my new friends. We’d decided that wherever we were going, whatever we would stick together. Alyk included.
The entire time we talked, Alyk sulked in his corner. He didn’t acknowledge me when I spoke to him. I asked him what was wrong even though I knew. I couldn’t see how not having a weird glowing necklace was so bad though. It’s not like the rest of us we’re going to abandon him because of it. I tried to tell him this but all he did was look at me. At least it was something.
Eventually we all got bored of talking and just sat around in silence. I tried not to think about my mother. It was really hard. I couldn’t get her loving blue eyes out of my thoughts. I tried to keep my tears back but they came trickling down my cheeks anyway.
Nika, who was now sitting beside me (we had switched places after the necklace incident) looked over at me sadly. Then she did something none of my childhood friends had ever done - not even Mira. She put her long arms around me and squeezed me in a hug. Surprised, I put my arms around the girl and hugged back. She was shaking slightly, and I guessed she was crying to. I only let go when all the tears were gone from both our cheeks.
“We’ll … we’ll be fine,” said Haras from across the box.
“Will we?” asked Rennoc, almost sarcastically. Haras didn’t seem to be able to find an answer to that. About five hours later (though according to Lae, only two) the train came to a stop.
We were there. It couldn’t be another stop in Mencia, because it had taken so long to get there. The villages in Mencia were only about fifteen minutes apart.
We waited in silence. Even Alyk became aware. Finally I heard voices.
“Think I should even check? There hasn’t been any for the past four months.” The speaker was male. He had a funny accent that I’d never heard before. Another man replied, but he was too far away for me to understand. “Alright, alright,” the first man said, and the door opened.
It didn’t take as long for my eyes to adjust this time. The man standing there was very large and intimidating. He whistled when he saw us all. “Whoa, there’s a lot of ya this time.” I was scared to move. This guy sent chills down my spine. “What are ya waiting for? Out! Let’s get this over with.” My insides told me not to, but what did I have to lose? I stood up and walked outside to stand by the man. The others followed me.
We were in another train station. This one was much bigger then the one back home… I stopped mid thought. It wasn’t home anymore. I would start my life over in this new place. The man spoke again once we were all outside. “Good. Now come with me and don’t say anything unless I tell ya to.”
He turned around and started walking towards a door on one side of the long hall. I glanced at Nika. She shrugged and started after him. The rest of us followed her.
I remembered what the man had said before he opened the door of the box to let us out. There hasn’t been any for the past four months. Surely he hadn’t been talking about us. The talent gaining was only once a year.
We stopped for the man to talk once we got out the door.
“Welcome to Jesburgon,” he said. I could hear the sarcasm in his voice. “I will be giving ya the short but interesting tour, blah, blah, blah, then it’s to the new arrival barracks until ya get your jobs assigned and then I can go home.” Beside me, Haras opened his mouth to say something, but before he could get anything out, the man barred his teeth and growled at him like a wild dog about to attack. Haras winced, and closed his mouth. Nika was right behind me. I heard her sigh. The man shot her an evil glare.
“Right, let’s get this over with,” he said, and then he started down the dirt road.
For the whole ‘tour’ we followed the man around Jesburgon. It was a huge village. Probably even bigger than Mencia’s main one, but other than that, it was pretty much the same as my old village. Once in a while, the man would say a thing or two about something we past. Something like “pond”, or “food market”, but other than that, I just tried to figure out Jesburgon by myself.
There was one time when I was looking behind me at an odd looking building, I thought I spotted someone dressed in grey following close behind us. I looked again and the person was gone. I was a bit nervous about it, but it had probably just been a trick from my imagination.
We were just getting to a third pond when a boy not much older than me, came running up to our ‘guide’.
“Winel! The boss sent me to get you,” said the boy.
Winel groaned. “Not now Locky. Can’t ya see I’m very busy today?”
“Um, well, it’s kind of urgent,” started Locky.
“Urgent, eh?”
“And, well, you know how the boss is …” Locky glanced nervously at my friends and me as he said that.
Winel sighed. “Alright, alright! I’m coming.”
Winel turned to us. “Don’t. Do. Anything. I’ll get someone else to take you to the new arrival barracks. Until then …” He narrowed his eyes and scowled at us, then he and Locky jogged back up the path. We all started talking when he turned the corner.
“Boy, he was mean.”
“This place is huge!”
“Is anybody else hungry?”
“I wonder what his boss wants.”
“How long are we going to have to stand here?”
“Do you think anyone here has a talent?”
All of a sudden, there was a huge splash. I jumped at the noise, and quickly scanned my surroundings for the source of the noise. Then I saw him. A little boy had fallen into the pond up ahead. He was moving his arms but he wasn’t strong enough to swim back to his sister, who was frantically trying to grab him from the edge.
In seconds, I was there beside her. I didn’t know how, but I had to help the boy. I reached out to him, but my arms were not any longer than his sister’s.
Time was running out. The boy was barely keeping his head above the water.
Without thinking, I plunged my hand into the pond. The water was warm, almost cozy. I grasped a handful of it and pulled it up towards me. The water should have leaked through my fingers, but it didn’t. It was like I was holding onto a solid instead of a liquid. Don’t ask me how I knew what to do, all I knew was I had to help the boy, and I did just that. When I brought my hand above the water, the water around it came up as well. Like a big blanket, I pulled the water out of the pond and onto the grass beside it, where it streamed down to the dirt road to create a large muddy puddle. The boy got pulled over to us in the current. His sister grabbed him lifted him into her shaking arms.
As soon as she knew her little brother was safe, the girl stood up and took a few hesitant steps away from me. Fear plastered on her face.
She was scared of me.
The girl turned abruptly and ran away, with her brother still in her arms.
I was shocked by my own work. I turned around to see my friends standing behind me with wide eyes. They were almost as confused as I was, and much more surprised.
Rennoc was closest to me. He frowned. “I think you have some explaining to do, Lexa,” he said.