Chosen Sister Read Online Free Page A

Wizard.”
    “But Austyn’s so young,” she objected. “Why can’t you wait until he’s older?”
    The Gold Wizard puffed up his chest. “Little girl, the time and place of prophecies are not to be questioned and are beyond—”
    Austyn moaned and sat up. His hair stuck up at funny angles and had bits of straw in it. Reina suppressed a giggle. He looked as un-hero-like as anything she could imagine.
    “Reina, I’m hungry,” he said, rubbing his eyes.
    “Ask the Gold Wizard for food then,” she retorted. “ I don’t have anything.” Immediately she regretted her rudeness. Austyn hadn’t asked to be the Child Warrior, and probably if he could, he would let her be the Chosen One. Once again, she pushed away her jealousy.
    “Just a few minutes more,” the Gold Wizard said, scratching under his beard. “And then we’ll camp for the evening.”
    By the time the Gold Wizard stopped the cart, Reina was also starving. The Gold Wizard selected a small grove of trees and climbed down to tend the horse.
    “Get me a pile of dry wood, and we’ll have a meal going in no time.”
    Reina pulled Austyn into the trees. “You find the kindling, and I’ll get the big pieces of wood, just like at home.”
    Austyn nodded and started working, and soon they had a good pile ready for a fire. The Gold Wizard had unharnessed and tethered the horse, and he worked on lighting the fire while Reina unloaded the food from the cart. She handed an apple she found to Austyn—the Gold Wizard was too busy to notice. He blew over some moss as he knocked steel against a stone. He seemed to have no luck at getting a fire—it went out every time he actually got a small flame.
    “Drat,” he mumbled as the moss again crumbled into ashes without bursting into flame.
    “Why don’t you just use magic to start it?” Reina asked, sitting down next to him.
    He gave her a dark look. “I, um, er, don’t want to alert the Red Wizard to our position by using magic.” The Gold Wizard no longer sounded slick and practiced, but instead stumbled over his words, looking embarrassed. He tried again, only to have sparks go out without catching the moss alight. “This is, er … well, it’s just difficult moss. Hey, stop staring at me and do something useful, or I’m never going to get it done.”
    He accidentally missed the knife blade and crushed his finger with the stone. With a yelp, he dropped both and sucked on his hand. “This is hopeless. It’s not the right kind of flint. We’re better off without a fire anyway.”
    “Well, how about you let me try it a moment and you unpack.”
    “Fine, but it’s pointless. It’s not going to work.” He got up, still rubbing his hand, and stomped off.
    Reina heard him shoving things inside the cart this way and that. She ignored him and created a small bed of moss and shredded bark between two pieces of wood, just like she did at home. She clinked steel against flint and within moments had a small tendril of flame. She fed it with the sticks Austyn had gathered, letting it grow until it consumed the larger pieces of wood. The whole task was ridiculously easy.
    “Oh,” the Gold Wizard said as he turned around. “Well, then, looks like the moss was, er, finally warmed up enough to work.” He turned away again to produce a cooking pot from the cart. “I’ll, um, just get some water for this.”
    Austyn grinned at her and leaned forward to whisper, “I don’t think the Gold Wizard is very good at making fires, but don’t tell him, or it might hurt his feelings.”
    Reina giggled.
    After his display with trying to light the fire, Reina had her doubts about the Gold Wizard’s cooking, but the end result that he scooped into bowls for them to eat, though looking rather brownish, didn’t taste bad. He seemed in a jollier mood after dinner, more like the storyteller they had so often looked forward to seeing at the village festival.
    “Well, now, I suppose you two youngsters want to know the