Fantasy Short Story Final

            In a land far from the human eye we visit a place where healing is sacrifice and life through healing could mean death. This place is called Chandres, a town where the healthy are praised and the sick become estranged to the people. Chandres is a wealthy town because each of its people who have health are being paid to be healthy. Let me further explain. In this town if someone falls ill of, let’s say, a serious fever, someone who may love you enough or just act out of compassion can come along and trade places with you. So whoever has healed you is now sick for eternity. On the bright side of being ill all your life in exchange for someone’s happiness, you shall never die from this illness. The thing we find most common in the ones we call healers or protectors is their lack of mental health. It’s found common that the ones who take on illness only last so long before realizing their life is over anyways, so they take it in their own hands. What a tragedy this is for our society but we learn to live and move on from such thoughts because after all we are the ones who live a good life in Chandres “the land of healing.”

            For years it has been said by those that have not seen, that our land does not exist, but it does for those that have had one of their lives changed by one of us. We of course, are not abductors or thieves of people but once a year, someone from our choosing gets to go to any land they choose in pursuit of someone they would like to heal. For many people in Chandres, “Hidden Choice Day” is a great opportunity to help those less fortunate as us who suffer because after all our society is taught to nurture and help. For others such as the one with whom our story begins, “Hidden Choice Day” is a fait some never want to be a part of or have on their head.

            I will share with you a very special incident that took place many years ago, here in our lovely town, about a girl names Cassandra Bearings. She belonged to a very wealthy family in Chandres who had not had a family member picked for “Hidden Choice Day” in decades until it came the time for Cassandra’s name to be put in our choice bucket.

            “Maaaaaaaammmaa!” Cassandra shouted from her bedroom door, across to her mother.

            “What! What! What!” screamed her mother as she came running down the hall in a panic.

            “It’s today…today isn’t it? I could be chosen to heal someone and then I will never see either you or papa ever again.”

Cassandra looked at her mother in laughter and pitty on her daughter’s distress and said, “Oh my dear, Cassy Bear. Our family hasn’t been chosen for decades. We are close friends with the governors and you are best friends with their daughter. So even if you we randomly chosen, they would never think twice to make sure you never to have to make such a horrible decision.”

With her mother’s calming words to hold onto, Cassy got herself together in her best outfit and cloak and headed with her parents down to the governor’s home to meet with the governor and his wife before the choosing. Cassandra was best friends with the governor’s daughter Sasha so having her by Cassandras side was easing a lot of stress.

As every choosing day goes, the same old enthusiastic speaker gets up on the biggest stage in the city and gives all he has to present “the One” to the town of Chandres. As Cassandra and her friend go up to their places in front with all of the rest of the potential chosen’s, they get dirty looks from the rest of the young contestants. Cassandra just ignores it though, because she knows why all of these looks are coming their way, Sasha is the governor’s daughter so her being up at the front to see if she has been chosen is pointless. Sasha will never be picked because her family is the one with final say in who goes to heal. Cassandra and her family are best friends with Governor Rowlings and his wife Tiffany, so even she will be exempt from having to go, that is so she thinks.

As our enthusiastic speaker makes his last remarks and what he likes to call jokes, he hands the event over to the Governor Rowlings and his wife.

“It is with great pleasure that I am here before you. My wife and I are here to support the family of any name that gets picked here today. In our land we are privileged and blessed to have this healing power, so to whoever this choice may be today, may you be reminded of your ability to show compassion and grace to those less fortunate than us.” As the governor walks over to the choice bucket he glances at Cassandra in a way that she has never been directed at her before and it instantly made her uneasy again.

Governor Rowlings puts his hand into the buckets and pulls out a name, pauses for a moment and says, “Cassandra Bearings, our lucky choice healer of the year!” Cassandra is in so much shock that she almost doesn’t recognize the name to be her own. The words she has just heard are ringing in her ears and everything happens so fast from here. People are pushing her to the front, her mother falls to the ground in an agonizing cry, and her father trying to lift his poor wife from the ground looks in disgust and helplessness at the governor and his wife whom he once called friends. Cassandra is suddenly on stage and forced by the chanting of her people to give a speech. She opens her mouth but no sound comes out. She tries again and this time says with a strong face, “I have been blessed…Now I will fulfill my duty to bless others. Thank you for your support Mr. and Mrs. Rowlings. I am eternally grateful for how you will take care of my family. Thank you,” and she walks back down to the crowd that has now dispersed everywhere around her.

Her mother is grasping on to Cassandras sleeve as tears of utter sadness stream across her face. As they walk through the crowd of people congratulating her, her father is also talking of some crazy plan to have Cassandra hidden away and made to be thought dead so she will not have to heal anyone and take on their sickness. The reason they do this is because they know that their daughter has such a compassionate heart that when she makes her choice, it will be someone with a terminal or painful illness. This is never a fait they wanted for their daughter and never even expected for their daughter. The Bearings family feels betrayed and instead of the usual brunch prepared at the Rowlings house after Hidden Choice Day, the Bearings are band from even coming to the Rowlings house.

“Cassy, you must listen to me!” exclaims he father. “I have made plans for you to hide away so you will not have to heal. But if my plan will work you have to leave before sunrise.”

“Papa, I know this is the last thing you want to hear from me but would it really be all that bad for me to save immortals life?” Cassandra explains.

“Please don’t do this to your mother and I, I beg of you!”

“Okay, Okay, Fine! I will do as you wish. I will leave by morning and go where you tell me. I’m sorry I even asked for anything different because I can only imagine how my family being left behind feels,” Cassandra finally concludes.

“Thank goodness you have come to your senses child! Your mother and I love you, so go and rest your head for the time you can and I will set up your arrangements and wake you when they are prepared. Remember Cassy Bear, you’re mother and I love you,” says Cassandras father as they say their goodbyes and Cassy is dismissed.

Cassandra knows her history and knows how to make a good choice in who she should help, but for whatever reason in her head she is not scared, but rather she is ready to take on such a responsibility. She never thought she would be chosen but for years has always had it in the back of her head what kind of suffrage she has wanted to take on. In class she became knowledgeable about many sicknesses, but decided to choose Leprosy. You may be asking yourself, why would she choose a disease where she will be sent to life away from others and live in constant pain as she sees her body slowly eat itself and disappear before her? For these reasons exactly is why she chose such an illness. Cassandra has always grown up so loved and with whatever she wanted right before her. She was popular, practically praised, and very beautiful. For Cassandra and her big heart, she wanted to help someone who has never felt the joy she has or the love she has. Through her sacrifice she will be comforted knowing someone can live the dream of escaping such a horrible life and agony. Her thoughts are these: since she has been blessed in the beginning of her life, someone else should be blessed in rest of theirs.

Dawn was soon around the corner so this meant Cassandra had to make a choice and fast. She could do what she felt in her heart was right and her duty even or she could take the easy way out and pretend she has died and go live with distant cousins where she can live free and be happy. I wouldn’t be telling this story if an interesting decision wasn’t made at this moment. Cassandra gets up before her parents come to wake her and brings with her nothing but a pair of clothes and a picture of her parents and sneaks out the back winding staircase which leads to the back exit of their home. She makes it to the governor’s home just in enough time, before sunrise. You see sunrise is a key element in the magic played in transporting to other worlds. When the sun rises on the 15^th of December, there is a red light that crosses over the land and takes the one which has been chosen to the land they have chosen. Now, the land has to be specific and each chosen one has to write down their information and where they plan to go in a magic book that contains the names of all the people ever chosen to heal. Cassandra has chosen a Leprosy village in another land called Mortesha.

As Cassandra walks up to the stand where she will be magically teleported at any moment, she meets eyes with Governor Rowlings who glares at her but she is really not sure why. At this point it does not matter so she stands, waits, and is within an instant in another world smelling new scents, hearing new sounds, and breathing new air. She is unsure how to choose just one person to heal, after all don’t each of these people deserve happiness? She walks to the gates of the Lepor village and is greeted by two people where they quickly give her equipment and dress her so she does not catch any illnesses hiding and lurking in this fortress. When she is all done prepping she walks in with one of the ones who had dressed her so she can be shown around. The village path seems to go on for miles and as they walk together, each case the guide speaks of seems to get worse. After walking for so long, the guide leaves her for a moment to check on the average daily facilities which is when Cassandra takes her opportunity to heal.

There in a dark room, where an old man lays with his whole body covered. She walks up to him but he is barely able to speak. She’s scared to uncover the man and see what he is hiding but does so to see what kind of illness and how bad it just might be. To her fears, the man’s arms are laying in the places where they fell off and the man is unable to pick himself up because he is so weak and hurting. The man just lays there staring up at her with a look of helplessness and that tells Cassandra “this man is going to die if she does not help him. She leans down takes her sanitized protection off and lays her hands lightly on the man’s chest and begins the healing magic within her which she has never used before. As soon as she feels the man is being healed, she opens her eyes and sees joy upon the man’s but also the confusion. For the couple of seconds she is healing him Cassandra looks upon the man’s face as though a mother who has just given birth to her newborn would. Then, within and instant, the man is fully recovered and she is lying on the ground in utter pain.

Cassandra has never truly felt pain in her heart. As a young girl she experienced a slight wound on her knee when falling in a game of chase which is very unusual for healers in Chandes. All residents of Chandes hold the magic of self-immunity to any wounds, to be cut by merely falling on the ground would mean you are not fully native by blood to Chandes. This has never been heard of before or at least not to the ears of Cassandra. So for the first time Cassandra is almost in a state of dying. She looks over and the man is jumping for joy and running away before he can even thank her and Cassandra is left there in the darkness of the room, staring at her arms that have fallen just like the man’s once were. Then after only 5 minutes or so she is having a warm sensation run through her body just like that of when she transported to the foreign land the first time. Within the time it takes her to process what is happening, she opens her eyes up from blinking in awe and she is back at the governor’s house but this time the transport room was empty because no one ever comes back after a healing.

Cassandra grabs her arm and then her other arm to see that she feels no pain and that she is completely healed herself. She doesn’t know if this is good or bad or if the man she helped even stayed healed so she runs up to the stand holding the magical book and sure enough a man’s name from the village she went to, name pops up as to record that they have been healed. Cassandra looks around and immediately knows she must not tell anyone in the governor’s house and that she needs to go home to ask her parents for help.

She sneaks back in through the way she came to find her mother and father grieving for the daughter they were only supposed to be pretending to grieve for who actually defied them and ran away to go heal.

 “CASSANDRA!” her mother shouts in disbelief. “How are you here with us!? The Rowlings spoke word of you going to heal and how they saw you with their own eyes being transported!”

“Mother! Father! I was transported and I did heal a man! A man with Leprosy in a strange village! I don’t know what happened, but after healing him I was transported back to the governors house and even healed myself! I have no idea what happened,” Cassandra exclaims in confusion and dismay. Cassandra’s father leads her and her mother into a secret room Cassandra did not even know existed and closes the sliding door behind them.

“Cassy, your mother and I have something to tell you that will explain everything. We were hoping this would be something we would never have to explain but under these circumstances it is necessary to your safety now,” Cassandra’s father goes on to explain.

Cassandra’s father is full native healer and was even chosen when he was the same age as Cassandra to heal someone. When he went, the woman whom he healed only had a case of sore throat  (he was not as compassionate as Cassandra was in choosing what kind of illness to heal). He ended up falling in love with this mortal woman who he healed and since he contained the magic to transport back to Chandes, figured out how to take her with him and so he did. When they arrived in Chandes, they had to undertake new names and identities as to not get caught by the governor and thrown out for their so called crime. For all of these years Cassandra has grown up half mortal, and half healer which has made for a very unique kind of healing girl like herself.

“Everything makes sense now! Why wouldn’t you tell me such important information!?” Cassandra yelled.

“Because Cassy, we had to keep it as secret as possible and the less people that knew the better. We did not want you to ever be asked by someone’s suspicion and half to lie for your family. It was just better this way. Please just try and understand it was for your own good!” pleaded her father.

Cassandra always knew she was different but always kept it inside. She knew she was not like the other little girls who could jump from the highest trampoline in the park and not get hurt while she could feel pain in her belly just from eating something new. Now that she has this knowledge she is putting all of the dots in these series of events together. All of her questions finally have answers like, “why did the governor glare at her before she teleported,” “why did people she called friends and maybe even her second family let her be chosen when they always promised it would never happen?” It was all because the governor was suspicious and onto the lies the Bearings have been telling for all of these years. He wanted a good way to get rid of the secretive family while not causing rebellion or trouble for his land. This was the perfect set up: send the daughter away to be a healer so she can never return (because he knew that she would choose a terminal disease), and wait for the parents to pass of old age because at this point they were too old to have another child anyways. So with that being said the line of “half breeds” would be dead and gone and the Chandes people will continue you to live in peace and prosperity without any outsiders to brings uneeded change to the system of the people.