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I went to the Keepers as usual the next morning. Damien reminded me of my mission as he sat me down.
“Help her,” he whispered in my ear glancing at Rose, “you understand why you must.”
I looked into his eyes and saw the promise of freedom.
“Yes, Damien, I will work,” I whispered up to him.
All morning I did my best. I tried to concentrate and help Rose. It was my job to keep my mind alert and awake. I had to stay strong and powerful. We had to escape.
Christof came to feed me at lunch. We sat under the trees in the forest with Basin and Rose. She assured them I had tried and stayed faithful to the job. Christof smiled at me as we ate. He believed I was trying.
The afternoon was difficult. I stepped into the warm water I loved and wanted to just slip into the quiet beneath the waves. Rose would not let me. She faced her own fear and we started to swim.
Back and forth we went, feeling the water rush over us as we moved through it. It was relaxing and invigorating all at once. Rose had been right, the exercise felt good after a while.
The men showed up to pick me up and I saw the happiness in Damien’s face. He clasped my shoulder and smiled. Bane did the same thing and Christof hugged me. They saw the improvement the right mindset had made in me.
I wasn’t dull or clouded. I had not given up. For the first time in a long time, I felt energetic.
The men handled the transport themselves today. Kein took the controls and we went to an area I’d never been before. It was set apart from the main compound and there were just a few buildings.
“Look around,” Damien encouraged as we stepped off the transport.
Right away I saw the cameras in the tall walls. They were embedded in the rock faces around us, just like in the mountains. The women watched this area very closely.
“This seems familiar,” I murmured turning around and looking.
The central area was walled off. In one section there was stadium type seating overlooking the main space. It was like standing in the middle of an arena.
My eyes lit up when I realized how I knew this space. Damien had “fought” with me in my dreams in a place like this. The central area was a sparring ground. The seats were so other men and boys could watch and learn or be entertained.
I asked if I was right and Kein explained. This was the training ground for the children slated to be Warriors. Inside walls just like these was where my family spent a good portion of their childhood.
This would be the perfect place to train me. Other Warriors would not bother us and the boys were excused from this area for the day. It would be our private training ground.
“Come on,” Christof encouraged pulling off my sparse ornamentation, “we have to get you dressed for this.”
The outfit they had bought me to fight in was quickly pulled over my head and up my legs. Within a few moments I stood before them in boots, pants, a white linen shirt, and my collar & cuffs. Everything I wore, but the jewelry, was a replica of theirs. My hair was even pulled back and bound the way Evan did his own.
My blood was pumping with excitement at the idea I was dressed like this in the compound. This had always just been our secret. Hurriedly I looked around, but the yard was still deserted. It was quiet and secluded, just like they’d promised.
“Here,” Christof sighed, handing me a long shaft of wood with a handle, “you are untrained, essentially. It is not proper for you to hold a sharpened weapon in this arena.”
I cocked my head at him and Damien just shrugged.
“This place,” he gestured, “has certain rules. We feel inclined to follow them when we are here. It was easier to just train you with your own sword, but here that is not how it is done.”
“We had to earn the right to sharpen our blades,” Kein said wistfully.
The men all chuckled at the memories. Training had been hard work. They reminisced about bonding and learning together. It had been something they enjoyed.
“You will respect the blade more when you have earned the right to use it,” Evan informed me as he gestured to the center of the field.
The “training” we had done in the past was markedly different from what we did now. The men had found giving me a blade fun and treated it like a game before. In this place, sword work was taken seriously and there were rules we had to follow.
The first night I learned how to hold a sword and how to stand with one. There were standardized positions the men moved me through. The slow motion exercises were excruciating.
Over and over again we moved through the prearranged pattern. Bane told me the movements would eventually be rote. My muscles would move me through them in fluid synchrony.
“When you have learned them well, we will go faster,” Bane promised as we did a slow step-turn combination. “They will be so ingrained you will not falter when you must strike.”
It felt like I was doing the Tai-chi movements I’d seen my grandmother do at the gym. I did understand the motions grandmother did were for fitness only, but I was learning to fight. Still the memory of my grandmother made me smile as I worked.
Boys from inside the Child Keepers wandered out to watch us. They sat in front of us in the stands and I dropped my eyes to avoid looking at them. Damien noticed the second I did it and expressed his displeasure. He got right in my face to explain.
“You are family,” he said sternly. “We do not stare at the ground in the presence of others. You can’t fight staring at the ground and you will not train doing that. Keep your eyes where Bane instructs them to be.”
I shook my head and pleaded with him. “The boys will not understand. They will be confused. They are just children.”
Damien didn’t care. My argument fell on deaf ears. I would act honorably.
Several groups of boys sat in the stands watching us as the sun fell in the sky. At first they seemed confused. As they watched my little display, I heard them snicker and laugh. I had to agree, this probably looked silly to them.NôvelDrama.Org holds text © rights.
One group finally got bold enough to come down into the arena with us. I heard their friends placing bets on how long they’d last. The boys all thought Damien was going to beat this young family down for watching and now approaching his slave.