Orphan

Five years had passed.

Leo was an orphan. Having no one to care for him, he spent his days put to work as a scullery boy in the kitchens. Given plain food to eat, and allowed to sleep in the corner if he worked the entire day, Leo grew. However, the time for testing was approaching.

Every child of age was eligible for a test for the Blessing. A Guardian from the temples would travel each year, visiting every village and test all children between the ages of 10 and 16. If someone showed promise, or innate talent, the temple Guardian would take them in, and they received training, education and advantages a common villager would never receive. They would live in the temple grounds, receive good food, and eventually become one of the Blessed.

Leo knew the only reason he was cared for was because of this. If he had talent, the inn in which he lived would receive a reward. If he didn't... He shook his head. He would be chosen. He had to be.

He remembered the children he saw abandoned at the roadsides outside of the towns his father once travelled through. Weak, thin, his father always spared a few coins for them.

He also remembered how the urchins who dared enter town were treated. Ignored, if they were lucky, beaten if they were not.

Leo was determined not to be like them. He spent his mornings and afternoons in the kitchen, and his evenings in the woods outside of town. He knew it was dangerous, but something in the woods always called to him. He stayed near the outskirts at first, but as he grew more comfortable, he began to enter deeper into the woods.

His fathers grave was in the woods after all. Maybe one day he would find it.

Beasts were uncommon, but he remembered spending an entire night and day in a tree when a strange wolf-like creature appeared. He was beaten for missing work, and told to stop lying.

The Guardian of the temple was due any day now. The inn was bustling, every room had to be spotless, every surface polished. The kitchen was in a frenzy as well. Everyone revered the Guardians. They spoke with the Gods authority. They offered the Blessing, the power to grow, and fight the beasts that appeared in the wild.

Leo needed to be chosen.