Ignite Chapter 1 (rougher draft)

The night was quiet and though the air exhaled warmly across the land the mountain top shivered of a chill in the evening. The villa was made from heroes and strength, marbled polished with fulfilled lives, and protected by life itself. It stood like a dream as it glistened beneath the two full moons as dark blue stars danced in a burnt orange sky. The stillness of the night sky was awoken by the slicing of black shooting scars racing across the air. Soft large grey eyes peered out of the large window of the foyer and sighed as the breeze swept through the beholder's thick auburn waves that ran down sculpted shoulders curling at voluptuous hips. The sight of the night would be beautiful to the common man, but it was a sign of the dreadful times to come to her. The thought of the pain of her people sent a painful spark through her spine causing her jaw to clench. Her delicate hands grasped at her shawl that hugged the tense muscles of her shoulders making her look soft and gentle even when the weight of her world was straining her mind, and her heart. She turned and walked gracefully despite her tension to the fire place.
  Two men sit at the fire both with the same heart ache hiding in their eyes, in the company of the only people they can let know their fear. The man on to the right is the very essence of a warrior, bulging arms in a rolled up red flannel button up shirt that was tailored to fit his chest, his dark eye brows pulling together in frustration  his dark brown eyes thinned shielding themselves against the brightness of the fire. He had thick black hair that sat on his bulging shoulders in a thick heavy braid.  Even sitting down you could tell the man was taller than most, his hands tightened in fist against his forehead as the fire heated his olive toned skin the heat causing it to glow and flush.  The man on the left was considerably small in comparison to the other, but something about his eyes that were large and a dark green like moss on an abandoned castle made him cold almost dangerous as they flickered dancing of the flames, his lips were shapely and full, beneath his nose that was small and upturned, built to resist breaking when battles resulted in a blow to the face. His jaw muscles clenched as the muscles contracting beneath perfectly sculpted cheek bones as he pushed his teeth together, this was the only expression he showed.
  "Iris", the tan man turned from the fire to the beautiful muscular woman. From his chair she appeared picturesque with a background of swords and shield glistening against the fire except where her silhouette danced upon them with the curves of every muscle in her legs outlined against the ivory silk dress that hung loosely from the braided ivy tied at her waist. The shawl covered her bare shoulders exposed by the draping neck line, and her hair was held back by another rope of braided vine not hiding any part of her perfectly angled nose, high cheek bones that were flushed, and soft plump pink lips that distracted you from all expression, making her always appear content, no matter what turmoil boiled inside.  The cracks of the wood echoed off the tall marble walls and the dome ceiling that was painted of battles and history, "The time has come to turn on the lights."
 "I believe it has", she cooed her words were like music flowing in still quiet room, "It seems the new world has taken many from us, there are less this time than last, just as has happened before". The grief poured from her eyes filling the foyer. She closed them taking a slow breath in through her nose to relax her mind. "Come my friends. Let us bring light to our new hope."

The trio filed out of the room down a spiral staircase out of sight.

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The night went from warm to cool as the sun said it's goodbyes and the wind began to arrive. It was the type of quiet that was loud. The trees crashed into each other composing a soft harmony as the citizens of Ratler retired into their homes from their rocking chairs to hide from the shadows of the night. They moved in an almost choreographed way, as if they all knew simultaneously when to move as locks clicked  shutting out the final rays of sun dying behind the darkening outline of the tree tops.
The homes of Settlers Ridge were charming some tall towering castles others modest country homes. The homes may have seemed to reach a wide variety of characters, but the majority of the owners were two dimensional and afraid to act out of the line that made them all the same. All the homes have a light pole in front of their home and every lawn was an exuberant green with exotically colored gardens which they reached to their wallets to make sure they were magnificent year round. This was often the highlight of Ratler, the one neighborhood people always stopped in to see when passing by to smell the perfume of the roses and gardenias, and to be at peace with the swaying of the sunflowers and daffodils.
The majority of Ratler's residents were very much the same, boring people, who worked and came home and repeated this five times a week. Very few knew there were two distinct types of people in the neighborhood, those who were perceived to be normal and those who were enlightened, though they thought they were superior, when they were beyond their safe neighborhood of each other, they did everything they could to portray themselves as ordinary. Unlike the common people they worked on their gardens themselves instead of the commons who often unknowingly hired Enlightened to compete with their neighbors. The enlightened did this to keep in practice and in touch with nature and plants. They would whisper dreams to the Irises and leave out sweets for the bees. They appeared to be a harmless bunch, they didn't eat meat but neither would you if you knew their world, and rarely lost their temper though this was for protection it made them come across as a modern day hippie. They lived as close to each other as possible with a random family of the others sprinkled in between them, but tonight the common went to bed, and the enlightened kept their lights off but their heads were poking through a small crack in their curtains.
They waited, not breathing, they were all waiting desperately. The street lights came on and knuckles tightened around their curtains almost pulling them off the hook.  Then the lights all flickered off, and a sigh of relief filled the air, but disappeared just as quickly as the pursing and biting of lips began and the white knuckles begged to relax while lungs were begging for air because no one dare breathe.
The first light to come back on was greeted with a squeal of delight and kiss of a mother and father on the heads of their precious twins who had nothing but greatness to come in their future, yes the first house was delighted, the rest stared wide eyed at the black pole they now knew where the selection would start and now they only hoped the light would turn on in front of their home before it went to their neighbor. Not all are selected, even those who are offspring of two enlightened parents. The next light came on next door to the first and there was once again a sigh of relief and an even deeper grip on the world. Then the first house was missed and a young couple gripped their curtains wide eyed wondering if their light bulb was dead,  convinced that is what it was they fought back the tears and slowly breathed to control their emotions as homes around them began to cheer and cry accordingly.
 The last house to glow in the darkness was not even in Settlers Ridge, it was on the other side of town in a little home with a perfect garden, and no one else saw this light but the man who was rocking his baby boy to sleep on the porch. When the light came on his rubbed his precious sons back and sighed in relief that his son would carry on the tradition he never shared with his wife. He went inside tucked in his son and went to bed next to the wife that he will never tell, and 18 years later, he will break her heart when her son leaves and she will never know why. Miles knew this should have hurt him, but he was so proud and happy for his son, that he couldn't feel that at all, his chest was too full of pride.
The only house that seemed to neither be relieved nor upset was the Marshall residents. The Marshalls were an old family; they always have and always will be enlightened. They were one of the few but will always be they simply smiled and went back to tucking in the baby girl that was too busy talking to her twin brothers still in her mother's womb to know that the most important day in her life for the next 15 years just happened.
 The night didn't end in such joy, a dark creature from the night watched as Ratler slowly speckled with lights igniting one by one. The vermin levitated over Settlers Ridge and saw danger in the homes with many lights around them, but then there was one light alone far away from the others. The creature would feast tonight, and with the screams in horror from one home, screams came from another as two baby boys entered the world becoming part of the selected, as another soul drifted emptily in the world unnoticed and cold, and a life left the world of the enlighted.