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THE QUEST1
 
Rose had been invited to a coming of age ceremony surrounded in secrecy. She putthe invitation in her handbag, ready to be shown at the palace, as a woman dressed in arobe appeared by her side.“Mother,” Rose said. “I must go to the lights.”The woman pushed back a lock of red hair from her face.“The summer solstice might help you to find a man,” she saidRose sighed. “Mother, men are finished.”“Haven’t you heard the rumours?” her sister Mary said. “A woman’s had a baby boy.”Rose shrugged. “It’s only gossip.”Their mother took a medallion out of a chest of drawers. Rose had seen it somewhereelse in time.“This is my lucky charm,” she said. “It has been in the family for countlessgenerations.”Rose looked at the handsome face on the pendant and her heart beat faster.“Who is he?”“You’ll find out one day,” the woman said.“I don’t understand.”“We have to go,” her sister Mary interrupted.As Rose put the lucky charm around her neck, it shone amidst her red hair. Looking ather reflection in the mirror by the door, she made sure her dress looked nice for the bigoccasion.“You must follow the family tradition,” the woman said as Rose stepped inside thecoach.THE QUEST2
 
Rose wondered about her mother’s words, while the horses trotted down the road andthe sun went up the sky.“Mother hopes that a man hides somewhere in the kingdom,” Mary said.Rose nodded. “That must be the family tradition.”“You could call it a quest.”As the green fields rushed by their coach windows, Rose dreamt of the man in themedallion. He had to be a prince living in another land in space and time, where her dreams would take her one day.“We are survivors,” she said.“You are right,” Mary said. “We don’t need any men helping in the fields.”After a long trip through the countryside, they arrived at the town’s suburbs wherewomen gossiped in the streets and little girls played hopscotch on the pavement.The Piccadilly tower rose before them, its light shinning for miles around, as a crowdof women dressed in uniforms sang military songs.“It’s a beautiful day,” Mary said.“I hope everything is fine,” Rose said.“Don’t worry.”The coach stopped by the lake, where the swans gathered in the sun and themosquitoes made their lives impossible. Mary made sure her dress didn’t have anywrinkles, as she got off the vehicle.“It’s a dream,” Rose said.The sisters feared the monsters roaming the Piccadilly gardens, while moving acrossthe well-kept lawns full of flowers.THE QUEST3
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