Sentries

We live just as they do, act as they do, in a way we are no different. Those of us who can go out during the day go to school and learn normal subjects like Math and Science. We play games like outsiders, we go to parties, disobey our parents, sneak out, and gossip just like normal human do. Our lives are not to different from the outsiders. Given we have the ever important job of protecting historically as well as physically anything and everything that the outsiders believe to be fables. We call our selves Sentries.
There are two jobs sentries can have, travelers and protectors. Travelers grow up in the districts they go to school and take normal classes. Then when they turn eighteen the age of adult hood for outsiders’ they go out and live on their own in the human world. It is their duty to get to know the people in their districts (neighborhoods and my mother calls them) and pay close attention to the stories the outsiders tell.
Travelers normally get jobs in high up places where they can learn the most about the people they watch. They take notes and send a report every so often to the committee about what they notice. The committee takes a look at the reports looking for things that could possibly cause a problem for them. If they find something that catches their eye they call upon the protectors to take care of it.
Protectors have the fun but difficult job. They have to be at the committees beck and call they must be able to travel anywhere at anytime to take care of the potential threat. It could be a job as simple as playing the part and straightening up a story, or as complicated as tracking down a person who is intent on exposing the truth about our world.
As a sentry we start school at four years old, we learn things like different languages, and rules of other countries, as well as subjects of math, English, and science. By the age of nine we know as much as a high school graduate would. That’s when we start our training in karate. By ten we are learning more advanced things and by twelve year of age we are done with school. Our thirteenth year is a brake year where we can dink around and do whatever. Once we turn fourteen however we must be ready to start our true training.
For the next year we work hard at perfecting our fighting skills, gain as much knowledge of karate as possible so we can protect our selves against hunters. We learn about the outsides culture how they live and why. By the end of the year we are expected to know everything and anything that has to do with protection and the outsiders.
By the time we are eighteen most of us are black belts and able to protect our selves or anyone else at a moments notice. That’s when our real jobs begin. Protectors stay in the districts where they live normally until they are needed to settle a conflict. Travelers go off to whatever town or city in the human world that the committee choses for them. Once there they are free to go wherever their work calls, be that in the same place or miles upon miles away.
Sentries only work until they are forty, keeping themselves strong and fit until then. At forty we are aloud to settle down and make a family. Most of the time sentries marry within their job, travelers with travelers, and protectors with protectors. That’s how we get our assignments. If your family is of travelers you will be a traveler, the same goes for protectors.
Then there are the rare cases where a traveler marries a protector. When this happens the child learns both trades and is aloud to chose their profession on their eighteenth birthday.
This is what happened to my family, twenty-four years ago my mom came across very suspicious behavior in a small town she told the committee and they sent my dad out to take care of it. It was the hardest and longest job of his life. IT took him half a year to make sure everything was save. In those six months the two fell in love even after my father left their feeling held strong. Two years later when they turned forty they meet up and got married two more years passed and they had my bother was born and two year after that I came along.
Now it is almost eighteen years later my brother is out living in the human world and I getting ready to make the biggest dissection of my life.

Killer Days

In the darkness of the night,
With the light of the moon,
I make my way.

Through Uncharted waters,
And over slippery rocks,
My journey Begins.

With dreams in my past,
And ideas for my future,
My life takes form.

The road up front is scary,
The figures behind are sad,
Real tests have begun.

Some days will be sad and lonely,
Others will be full and tiresome,
I will push though it all.

The future promises happiness,
But the past does too,
I do not know which to chose.

I can go no where but up,
But this level feels just right,
My heart is torn in two.

The time to chose is here,
Both options are tempting,
I must pick what feels right.

I look down at the words I just created; they described perfectly the feelings boiling inside me. I have no choice but to move on, as a sentry I have to fulfill my duty, for me however it is a little different. Most sentries know what they are going to be doing. They know where they will be going. I would give anything to know.
They would all argue that I am the lucky one they had no choice when it came to their future, I get to pick. It is not that easy though. If I stay I get to be close to my family, get to see them every day. A fact that intrigues me since my father is getting sick. It would mean everything to me to be able to stay close by help my mom and get her help if I needed it.
At the same time the stories my mother tells are magnificent, things I could only ever dream about. Sure I would have some kick ass stories as a protector but nothing like travelers stories. When I was younger every night I would fall asleep to my mothers voice telling me about on of the many wonders of the human world.
My favorite being one about a boy named Romeo and a girl named Juliet. It was the ultimate story of love and what people will do for those who they love. Those are then kind of stories we don’t have here. The committee says stories from books like the human have just clutter our minds. Space we could be using to store information. Going out in the world, as a traveler, would be the only way to experience the stories I love first hand. It is a choice I do no know it I can make; yet there is no way around it,
I sigh and close the notebook, there is no use in reading words that wont help me decide.
“Day dreaming about me again?” A husky voice says behind me.
I am not surprised that he is here; I turn to face him. “That was one time and to my defense I was fighting an illness I was not in my right mind,” I say smirking.
“That’s what they all say, but everyone knows it is impossible to resist my charm,” he coos taking a step towards me reaching out as if he wanted to touch my cheek.
I don’t fall for it this time, I block his hand quickly with an upper block and twist his arm away using my other hand to punch the back side of his knee sliding my hand down his leg and grabbing his angle flipping him onto his back. I send a punch toward his face stopping just a few inches away. I smile and stand up straight holding out my hand to help him up. As I expected he ignores it standing up on his own.
He smiles at me approvingly “Your learning,” he states.
“Well the last time you tried that I was half asleep. You had an unfair advantage.”
Chandler looks at me disapprovingly “A real fight is full of unfair advantages. And trust me you will be on both sides.”
I turn away; I don’t need to hear this again. That’s all my father has been talking about. He wants me to follow in his footsteps since Spencer followed in mothers. He has been coaching me every chance he gets mixing in karate into every conversation we have. I love fighting I feel powerful and strong when I am in combat fake or real but my father is taking it to far.
“Okay look, I am sorry I didn’t mean to upset you.” He says stepping towards me again. This time to hug instead of attack. I let him leaning into him.
“It is not you it is just I am over stressed from everything. I have to chose what I am going to be in two weeks. My dad is pushing me to be a protector, my mind is telling me to be a traveler, my conscience is telling me to be a protector. It is to much I don’t know if I can handle it. I want to make my dad happy but I don’t know if I can be happy.”
I could feel his breath catch as I say this. He pulls away keeping his hands on my shoulders. “I understand how you must be feeling maybe not directly, the chose was easy for me to make. But I saw how the chose affected Deana I didn’t notice anything at first she seemed to be fine. Then just like that she cracked it was to much for her, and she… Just know that if you feel like your about to slip I will be here for you, you can talk to me about anything. I don’t know what I would do if I lost you too”
I smile ruefully glancing down at the ground remembering that awful day. I had been with him when committee members came to break the news. It had been the first suicide ever in the committee. The next day at school we had a special assembly to commiserate the loss and to teach us the signs and how to prevent it from happening again.
The speaker told us that one of the first signs was saying that your unhappy, feel helpless, hopeless, worthless. I could see why he would be worried about me. In his situation I would think the same thing. But I felt nothing close to wanting to kill myself I’m happy with myself, stressed about the next few days but it was nothing I couldn’t handle. I tell him this and he nods though he does not look convinced. I don’t push it any further though if I am suicidal only time will truly tell.
That night I dream of Chandler, Deana, and I playing in a field behind their house. It was a heartless and happy scene. There was nothing that would set of any kind of alarms, just three innocent children playing.
The next few days Chandler and I are inseparable Travelers are only aloud to come home every three years for two weeks at a time. He chose to come back now so he could be here for my ceremony of graduates, a plus and negative since he leaves the very next day.
Today we meet at the gym to work on my upper body strength, According to chandler I need to bulk up, he says “You have good strength and precision in your strikes but you lack the power that could make your punches truly lethal.”
We start with ten laps around the track alternating between a slow jog and a out right run. After a short cool down we start with twenty reps of Bicep Curls. We spot one another for two turns before moving on to Chin Ups, two sets of twenty each. We end on dumbbell curls with 30 pounds in each hand for one round of 40 reps. After stretching out we work a little on target control.
Two hours and 50 gallons of water later we were sprawled out across the green grass in my back yard staring up at the sky. We stay quite for the most part each in our own world pondering our own thoughts. I’m happy with the silence it’s a nice change to just sit around with a close friend and say nothing just enjoy their company.
I want so badly to leave it this way, I stall as long as I can. But our time is running short and I need to ask. I sigh and prop myself up on my elbows “Hey chandler?” I say turning my head to look at him.
“Hmm?” he replies his voice relaxed and his eyes closed.
“How come you continue your training? I thought travelers didn’t need to know how to fight like protectors. They told us in class that travelers are done training at age fifteen.” I know the question will upset him so I turn away not wanting to see his face.
There is silence for what seems like a long time, I bite my lip and take a deep breath readying myself before I look at him. His eyes are still closed but his mouth forms a straight line. I sigh getting ready to apologize and excuse him from answering my question when he sits up and looks at me.
I catch a small glimpse of something in eyes before he blinks. The something I saw now replaced with happiness. “In truth I was supposed to stop training, yeah. On several accounts the committee threated to suspend me if I continued to train. So I started to disguise it as just working out. Like the workout I showed you today. They accepted this and I was aloud to go out as a traveler. Out there the committee does not have control so I started to train again.
“And to answer your question I keep up to date with my training because I do some of my own protector work. Not just for the committee but for some of the outsiders. I guess I am kind of a bodyguard to people who really need me. I broke up a gang fight a few weeks ago.” He said smiling at me.
I nod understanding why he was so reluctant to tell me. If this kind of information got into the wrong hands Chandler could be blacklisted and taken to the DD (Dungeon District) with other black-listers. I cringe at that thought. I have only heard stories of the dark, cold, deadly district, but those are scary enough to stop anyone from breaking the law. It makes me fear for Chandler. I glance around nervously, He knows I would never tell but someone else could have easily over heard.
We stay silent from the time after, my head cluttered with fear for Chandler, and nefarious stories of The DD. When it is time to go our separate ways he pulls me in to a tight hug crushing me to his chest until I could breath. “Don’t worry about me,” he whispers, “I promise I will keep out of trouble.”
I nod and pull away smiling up at him trying to make it seem like I am not worried. A rueful smile spreads on his lips I don’t fool him. He kisses my cheek before he turns to walk home.
The next day I go to our usual meeting place, a small park in the middle of a forestry area. I sit on the highest point balancing myself on a thin plank of wood that makes up the base of a window.
I am tired and sweaty from training with the master a requirement for anyone who is going to be a protector, and people like me who don’t know. Today chandler promised we could take it easy, spend sometime at the park and maybe walk over to the duck pond and feed the animals.


TO BE CONTINUED

Impressum

Texte: Mckenzie M. O'Brien
Tag der Veröffentlichung: 20.04.2012

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