Progress

A harsh winter wind whips through the yard of the Order Schooling Compound. Children scramble as they play, bundled in hats and scarves and thick woolen jackets against the cold. Seats of pants and melton-covered knees are stained dark with umber clay. Other students sit under eaves of the compound’s dormitory, warming their hands against the vents as they seek refuge from the chill.

One child, a particularly precocious 10-year-old, runs across the yard, as a ridiculous, waist-length beard spurts spontaneously from their face.

The other children hardly react. A few glance in the child’s direction, but they’ve long grown accustomed to such curiosities. A bearded 10-year-old hardly phases them.

The Guardian watches from a distance for some time, before approaching the youth.

“I see you’ve been practicing,” the Guardian says, voice curling with amusement as the whiskers poof outward, prehensile and magically animated.

The child nods vigorously from beneath their woolen hat. The beard was an enchantment of their own invention, of which they are immensely proud.

“My older brother could never grow a beard,” they say. “His always comes in all patchy. He’d be so jealous.” The child laughs, but their voice falters at the end. They hadn’t seen their brother in months, and likely wouldn’t for months still. It had been so long.

They force this from their mind, turning their attention back to the Guardian as they skillfully finesse their enchantment.

The end of their beard curls around their wrist and waggles playfully at the adult, and then begins to creep, like an inchworm, up their arm. The child swats away the errant tendril, mockingly chastising it for its apparent misbehavior, much to the Guardian’s amusement.

Eventually, the Guardian tires of watching these antics, and leaves to attend to the other children. As soon as the adult is out of view, the smile drops from the child’s face.

Maybe, just maybe, if they can show the Guardians, if they can demonstrate enough control, enough skill, enough progress in their learning, they would finally be allowed to return home. To return to their family.

The child could only hope.

They skitter off across the compound grounds, determined to keep practicing.