[ WP ] You live in a society where at age 18 everyone is sent to live off the grid untill they are 28 .

I walked through the forest. The beautiful greens and browns of the trees enveloped me mas I moved deeper into the Northwest Crucible. Crucibles to contain the heat of youth, but what were we forging? 
 
 I had said my goodbyes, but no one knew exactly where I was going. I see movement; I am prepared. Strung bow already in hand, the arrow looses, and it feels beautiful. I will come bearing gifts to the tribe. I hope food will lessen that first impact, the newness of me. An outsider with a rabbit is better than one with nothing. 
 
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 Swirling rapids below now as I cross a rope bridge, swaying dangerously. You're never tested like this in the city. Will they accept me? I needed people, I ca n't be alone all these years. Will they understand? Some must see their time approaching and feel the same. I had to come here, I could n't see another option. River raging below, I felt alive. 
 
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 The wooden gate was more bar to me than any hardship of the forest; that was always the way of it with me. Why I came here, why I am afraid. Guards studying me. They know, they remember, and they let me in. I gather a crowd as I make my way to Leader. 
 
 “ How dare you? You break every rule of arrival and think a rabbit buys forgiveness? We have better hunters than you. ” He did n't understand; Leader had been here 9 years now and he would soon enough. 
 
 “ Do n't you get it? Do n't you all see what is waiting for you? You go back, and they put you behind a desk. A desk, for nine hours every day and you ca n't feel what you should, what you do everyday here. The rest chuckle and say'barely made it out alive' but I see their sadness, I see the lie of it. These ten years were my life; the rest a wasting sickness. ” I reached some in the crowd, but a pretty speech, no matter how true, never changes what you hope it will. 
 
 “ You have to remember, every year we get some like you, and you know how this goes. I've already sent the report, they'll be here to retrieve you soon. Why even try? It's honestly sad, trying to recapture it. ” Let's see you say it in a year, Leader. Let's see you repeat it then. I barely heard him as I slumped down, resigned to my fate. “ You are twenty-nine years old; I think it's time you grew up. ” 
 

