Summary: A young teen-aged girl disguises herself as a male Dragon Slayer take revenge on someone very important. Little does she know that showing your face as a female contains dire consequences, especially if you're up against Lord Dilandou.
Ch. 1
-Three years later-
As my eyes opened up from by slumber, I saw a gruff-looking old man with a wild gray beer standing up above me. I screamed and jumped out of the bed, landing on my butt. "Who are you, and why are you staring at me like that?" He crossed his arms, "Are you the new recruit?" I nodded my head slowly while staring at him suspiciously, "Lord Dilandou will see you now, so I suggest you get ready quickly." He told me as the man walked out of the room. I sighed, this was it:
For three years I had been going in hiding trying to find the man who killed my family when I was younger; I wanted revenge so badly that I joined the Dragon Slayers.
They promised that they'd help me find him if they could, but in order to do that I had to serve under Lord Dilandou as a man instead. So I cut my hair and changed my name. Aria Ilea is no more, my surname, well I still needed to work on that.
Once dressed, I walked to the royal room door; which led to Lord Dilandau. With a deep breath I walked into the large room toward my soon-to-be master and kneeled down on my right knee. He stared at me, "State your name." He said. I looked up to him and said, "My name is A-." Then I stopped, I couldn't let anybody know my real name. So I had to make up one, and fast! "What? You don't know your own name?" My heart started racing, then suddenly I just blurted out, "My name is Erin Lancaster, I'm a boy whose past doesn't matter, but whose king and kingdom does." Lord Dilandou continued to scowl at me, "Why are you here?" He asked me,
"Because I made a promise, to someone special…" I thought of my parents and me looking at their graves for one last time, "And in that promise I said that I would never turn my back or run away from accomplishing something important for them. To serve under a great leader as you would be an honor for me and that someone." I told him putting on a serious face even though inside I was freaking out. "You're very persuasive, no doubt about that."
As he closed his eyes I kept my serious face as my heart started pounding even faster.
"But it takes more than a speech to prove you worthy!" In the flash of an eye he grabbed his sword and lunged toward me. With quick reflexes I blocked his attack and jumped out of the way. As I ran to him ready of swing my sword Dilandau knocked it away and kicked me in the stomach and the face. I fell to the ground, unconscious for a few seconds. Dilandou grabbed the back of my shirt, slowly lifting it up. I had to do something before he lifted my whole shirt up, and then everyone here would know my secret! Suddenly he started grabbing my hair instead, "You'll never be a worthy Dragon Slayer Fighting like this." He told me, I growled. Then I remembered my second sword behind my right leg! I grabbed my alternate sword and cut the hair that was in Dilandou's hand. Then I hit Dilandou with the back of my sword and was in a position of being able to cut his head off, but I stopped about 2 or three inches from his neck.
Dilandou looked at my sword that lied close to his neck with shock written all over his face. I pulled it away from him. "Not bad."
Suddenly he grabbed what seemed like a symbol of some sort and threw it towards me, it lands on the ground. I picked up the metal symbol, "You passed." I looked at him with shock on my face. Then, with the shock wiped off, I stood up and took the pendent. "Come here." Dilandau mentioned while gesturing with his left hand. I followed his direction and walked up the stairs which lead to him, "Yes s-?"
"SLAP"
I felt a sharp pain come across my cheek that nearly knocked me to the floor. I stumbled on my knees, "That's for wasting my time with your eulogy. Now get up and get out of my sight, I don't have time to be sitting here with you." As I watched my master walk away something inside of me went off. And I finally realized how hard that working for this man was going to be.
Yesterday day I was Aria Ilea
Today I'm Erin Lancaster
Yesterday I was a girl
Now today I'm a man
"Any change, even a change for the better,
Is always accompanied by drawbacks and discomfort."
-Arnold Bennett
