Thorns Defend the Rose
Chapter 1~
A remote location, slightly north of mainland Maine, was home to a small enclave of teenaged students and their mentor. Surrounded by dense forest, flowing streams and boulders, the enclave was out of the way, hidden to those who thought to seek it. Although a warm, humid weather throughout summer, now was winter and the surrounds were blanketed with snow, and the rivers had slowed till eventually they had frozen over.
Students were not bothered by the change as the seasons rolled around, instead it was welcomed, forcing them to train harder to maintain body heat, for there was no form of electricity where they existed. Living off their own food, their own buildings and gathering their own water, this is the life the students knew.
These students, some were delinquents, others were children their parent's simply couldn't handle, so they were shipped off to military school. Upon arrival, students were selected by hand depending on the way they held their own, for example, the small brunette girl was a drop kick; flunking all her classes to spend time out mixing up music. The school eventually had contacted her family, and they had come to the conclusion to send her to military school to get her straightened out.
Others, like the tall blonde woman or the brunette man, they had been near perfect students, but due to disobedience at home, or in the case of the man, lack of study and help around the house, they had been ordered by their families in the hopes that they would stick their heads down and come out, ready to go into college.
And then there was the ginger woman and the dark skinned man, both of whom had been doing fine in school, with B averages, likewise their home life was solid, it was their own choice to depart the world of the civilian and take a more disciplined view on life.
These six students all coming from different areas of the country, and being put into the military school at different times, had handled their knew lives and had sparked attention from a visiting mentor from an unknown school who wished to select students for his own training.
The brunette had been the first he had selected. He had soon learnt her name to be Beca, and whilst he watched her attempt to study, but take pride in the small things she enjoyed, he had spoken to one of the officers at the school. 'Get her into a gym, or boxing,' he had said to them. He saw raw passion behind those eyes and doing book work was holding her back from her potential. They agreed and he told the officer that he would be back within two weeks to see how she had progressed.
The ginger woman, Chloe, was an easy pick for the mentor. He watched the way she studied, and from what he had observed, when he spoke to the officer, they had confirmed that she had come of her own free will, to attempt to apply herself without the distractions of the real world. Likewise, the darker skinned man, Donald, was taken too. Both on the same day, the first students of the enclave.
When the mentor returned after a fortnight, he had seen an improvement in Beca and had asked him to come with her, to which she agreed, because she couldn't stand being in a military school much longer. But before leaving, the mentor's eyes caught sight of two others, Aubrey and Jesse, sensing their knowledge and ability to apply themselves when needed, he took them with him too.
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Being forced by some random man to take a hike through the forest filled, rocky surfaced terrain in the late afternoon, Beca had almost regretted leaving the school immediately. There she had running water, a bed, food and electricity; being taken out into the woods, she wondered if she would even come back. She brushed that thought off as she then thought about whether her family would miss her if she didn't come back.
In her little moment of thought, Beca completely misplaced her footing, sliding across a smooth, icy rock. She was lucky the school had let her keep her fatigues and boots otherwise she would have had rolled her ankle badly. The brunette boy, Jesse, had immediately rushed to her side, attempting to aid her.
"I don't need your help," she hissed at him. "Back off," That was warning enough for Jesse as he caught up to Aubrey and began walking with her. Their new mentor had stopped whilst Beca sorted herself out, running her hand firmly over her ankle as she stood. It would be fine. "You don't have to wait, you know," she said to the mentor dumbly to which he replied by removing his eyes off her and proceeded to stare straight ahead.
Beca grumbled under her voice as he didn't move, waiting for her, so she took a step, followed by another and before she knew it, she was in a jog to catch back up to her fellow students. The mentor continued to quietly follow them.
That afternoon passed quickly and as the remaining sun in the sky dipped below the horizon, the chill in the air picked up and breath quickly turned to mist in the cold. Realising how long they had been tramping, Jesse stopped to look at the mentor.
"Did you happen to bring any water?" he questioned the man, giving him an arched eyebrow in the hopes it would make his question more questioning.
The mentor stared back at Jesse and that was when Beca piped up. "He doesn't say much," she told him. "He points occasionally to where we are meant to be going, but he says nothing. Not even a shake of the head."
This time it was Aubrey who grumbled, she was cold, and her fatigues weren't designed to last a cold, winter night without any kind of jacket, or shelter, or sleeping bag. She was shivering, the first sign of potential hypothermia.
"Keep moving," the mentor spoke, earning surprised looks from the trio. "Half an hour,"
Beca rolled her eyes, desperate to get to some kind of shelter, she tried to drag along her colleagues, and the mentor watched on as she did so.
This is what he wanted; his students to overcome barriers to prove they could do anything they set their mind to. He figured that if he had not have brought Beca, Jesse and Aubrey would be human popsicles. He needed to work on them, especially the boy. He was a follower, and had the mentor realised this at the school, he wouldn't have taken the him. Perhaps his assistant mentor, Luke, could help train him up, because obviously playing mind games with him wasn't going to work.
"Ow!" the mentor heard Aubrey scream from up ahead. "Let go of me, you little punk!" the mentor smirked at this, the small brunette was determined to get to where she wanted.
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As the mentor had told his newest students, it would only be half an hour to where they were going, and as soon as Beca saw light, she ran. She ran because light meant people, and warmth. And so as she ran towards this camp, she heard her fellow students begin to run behind her, and before she knew it, she saw the mentor run past them all.
Jesse saw the mentor surpass them, and he took upon the challenge to push himself to be faster, and because of this Aubrey did too; she had to be the best and before she knew it, Beca was pushing herself also, her legs burning in pain as they sprinted across the icy rock and up the small dirt bank into a section of dense forest.
"Students," the mentor called out, summoning not only the three with him, but the two inside the enclave and his assistant.
It became clearer as Beca and the others neared the enclave, that it was actually surrounded by a wooden fence, at least twelve feet high, with river stones around the bottom for reinforcement. Where the riverstones ended, she assumed it was a gate, and as she thought it, said gate opened slightly, letting in the new students and the mentor.
Beca looked around, things becoming clearer as she saw the fire roaring in the middle of the fenced area. Low wooden huts had been constructed and what looked like a small farm, and when actually narrowing her eyes on it, they were growing what looked like lettuce and asparagus. Beca hadn't actually realised things grew in winter. As she continued looking around the camp she saw another three people, two wearing the same uniform as her, and the third wearing what could almost be considered a robe with a form of tabard draped over. She soon realised that the mentor was wearing the same clothing items.
"Sit, students, around the fire which has been made for us," the mentor greeted, as the students found places around the fire. "Welcome to my enclave. I am aware you all must have questions for me, but I do grow weary from the journeys that I have taken in the last two weeks. I trust you all understand?"
This was answered by the students nodding their heads. "Luke would you care to explain?"
"Yes mentor," he agreed as he watched the man retire to one of the small wooden huts. "You have been hand selected to be a part of a training regime," this got the students looking at each other in interest. "We will be training you in martial arts, and upon watching you and studying your behaviour, we have selected the forms that we think will suit you best. Of course, these forms are chosen out of the select group that myself and our mentor have mastered." Luke explained, and looking around again, he had noticed the students had actually moved closer to him out of pure interest. "Chloe, Beca, Jesse, you three will be trained in Bok Fu, an external martial art, based on the techniques of Kenpo and Kung Fu. This technique was born in America out of traditional Chinese martial art." Jesse and Beca looked around wondering who Chloe was, and deduced she was the redhead; especially since, other than Aubrey, she was the only female. The three gave each other a nod, and Luke dismissed them, telling Chloe to show them around. Luke spoke up again. "Aubrey, Donald, we have decided to train you in the art of Tai Chi, an internal martial art, defined by its defensive training and health benefits," Aubrey and Donald passed each other a look before Donald was informed to show Aubrey around the encalve.
"What is this place?" Jesse asked as Chloe showed the two new students around the enclave walls, reinforcing just how big this place was.
"This is known just as the enclave." she replied simply. "The mentor, yes we call him that too, hasn't told us if this place has a name yet or not,"
"It's strange," Beca spoke. "I've never heard about anything like this,"
"No one has," Chloe quickly told her, stopping and looking at the pair. "We got made to hike out here like you, and judging by uniform, we were picked up at the same military school,"
Beca scoffed. "You? At military school? You and that Aubrey girl look like preppy school girls, how in the hell did you get sent out here?"
"Long story," Chloe brushed off, faking a yawn so she could leave. "Jesse, we'll take you back to the fire, you'll be roomed with Donald, Beca, you'll be roomed with me and that blonde,"
The pair nodded as they followed the ginger back to the fire.
"She's hot," Jesse whispered to Beca, which made her smirk at him.
"I know," Beca replied as she and Jesse held back a bit, admiring the red head from behind.
A/N: What do you all think? I have this story planned out entirely! So I shouldn't run into writers block at all! I have tried doing my research on martial arts, forms, Maine...etc...So I do apologise now if I run into anything! Feedback is always handy! Any questions you might have, I will definitely answer :)
Thanks guys!
Disclaimer: I own nothing! Except the plot line running through my mind :) I secretly wished I owned Brittany Snow ;) Welp, not a secret now.