Ryzen & Raya

The smell of burning wood caused his nose to wrinkle. Ryzen slowly stretched his limbs, thus, kicking his blanket in the process. He wasn't able to sleep well. The thought that this day was their sixteenth birthday made him anxious about his surroundings.

His birthday was the same day as the annual coming-of-age ceremony, which only took place in Raxes every ten years. Getting up slowly, he strode towards his room's window and opened it slowly. The cool blue ray of the eastern sun welcomed him—a vast green and white with no neighborhood greeted Ryzen. To his right was the frozen garden his mother stubbornly made and to his left was a waterless well, frozen since the day one of winter. 

‘Of course,’ Ryzen thought.

"Do you plan to spend your birthday zoning out, Ryzen?" His sister, Raya, peeked her head from his slightly opened door. Closing the small wooden window, he faced his younger twin sister.

They were not identical twins.

While he had milk hair paired with lilac eyes, his sister had milk hair paired with eyes as blue-green as the western mountains. His skin was unscathed from head to toe while her face had small freckles around her pert nose making her look so adorable. And with the same height, one could barely guess who was the elder between them, not that he would mind though.

"I just wish we stopped aging when we turned fifteen you know. It sucks that our birthday is tomorrow," said Ryzen under his breath. Raya's eyes softened with his confession and grabbed him immediately to engulf him in a warm embrace.

"Too bad we are not the Silver Bloods, we are the Red Bloods. We stopped aging at eighteen, and we cannot change a tradition, you know," she said lightly and he could only stiffly nod his head as he let go to end the conversation. He walked past his sister as he sought their mother and father leaving a worried Raya in their room.

Yigena's monarchy pyramid was his least concern today. He had more pressing matters to think about.

Being one of the lowest red blood races was a struggle to survive but being at the bottom of the lowest was way harder. They were at the bottom of the food chain and they were branded as the outcasts of the system. Many said that they did not belong inside the wall, a part of that remained to be seen. While Silver Bloods ruled the nations across the land of Yigena, red blood races fought for power.

Red Blood nobles such as the cocky vampires and the headstrong lupines fought for the Silver Blood's attention.

Ryzen couldn't blame them.

After all, Silver Bloods were as divine as the dragons these Silver Bloods rode. Next to the monarchy pyramid were the egocentric wizards who gathered magus, energy to create magic, from the four elements, and then followed by the harsh centaur knights.

Then came the proud dwarflings who gloated their wealth by collecting Teran from the slaves and lower Red Bloods.

 This was why Ryzen hated nobles. They just prey on those beneath them.

The three lowest red-blood races were the snotty goblins who worked almost nonstop in farms and stores. The hotheaded minotaurs who were sold as gladiators in the arena to kill nobles laughed like there was no tomorrow. And the bottom of the monarchy pyramid was the calm hellhound race where he belonged.

They did not belong to the lupine race since lupines changed to full-bodied gigantic wolves only once a month during a full moon while hellhounds could change any time of the day and they did not need to change into all four. Hellhounds changed to hideous monsters with white hair with a body of a man but a canine sharp as a razor, eyes red as blood, and claws sharp as a blade.

Every ten years, a coming-of-age took place. All sixteen years old attended the annual coming-of-age ceremony held in the city of Elixion, where the palace of Raxes's Silver Bloods stood still. All were excited except those who were born in the bottom three races. After all, this ceremony only meant they had to leave home and be a slave or be the Avatar. 

To be chosen as the Avatar meant honor for the family but death to the chosen one for there's no life beyond those walls, so they said.

‘And I prayed to the gods, neither of us would be chosen.’ Ryzen whispered in his mind.

"Ryzen, my child, it's time to eat." The sweet voice of their mother pulled him from his trance. "Come sit and I'll call your father and brother," she softly said before she sought his twin and father.

When his father and Raya arrived with their mother, they silently shared the one small beaver and wheat to spare. His glass was half-filled with water which was divided by their mother fairly for the four of them. His father, as usual, sat on his spot and ate quietly, tired of spending hours in the cold dawn hunting.

"Ryzen, Raya. After eating, I will dye your hair," her mother softly spoke. Ryzen nodded. Their mother, being used to his silent demeanor, proceeded to Raya, waiting for her answer.

"Of course, Mother." Raya barely uttered her reply as she was busy stuffing food into her mouth. When the small food vanished from her plate, she longingly looked at her brother's plate.

Sighing, Ryzen carefully pushed his plate to his younger twin sister.

"Raya! That's your brother's share," their mother yelled in an alarmed tone. Raya shrugged as she reasoned out.

"But he gave it to me willingly, Mother." 

"Let her be, Mother. I am in no condition to eat," he said before he drank water, filling the space in his stomach.

As their mother was finished eating, she said. "Raya, you clean the table and the dishes. Let's get your hair dyed first, Ryzen."

Ryzen followed her silently into their back door where their mother had prepared everything already. A wooden basin with water inside on the muddy floor, an old cloth hung in the side, and a Durin's flower which extracts turned anything into yellow.

"Now sit before me," their mother commanded him softly, which he followed silently.

To dye their hair golden blonde just to cover their milk hair which signified they were from the hellhound race was their mother's idea. Their parents believed that they would not have fair treatment if anyone found out about their race.

"Ryzen, you will guard each other, right?" Their mother's voice broke.

Tears welled in Ryzen's eyes. He blinked twice, urging himself not to shed a single tear. He nodded his head in response.

"Good. I will wait every day of my life for your and your sister's return." Though their mother's voice was cracking, Ryzen felt the love laced in her words—the only thing she could give them, a mother's love.

"I promise upon the name of all the gods, Mother. I promise," Ryzen replied to their mother.

Ryzen hoped he could keep his promise.