Rated T for violence! Read at your own discretion!

Guest 1: Thank you so much! I'm not quite sure if you'll see this but thank you for reviewing :)

Chickenchops: Thank you for reviewing and I hope you'll like this chapter as well!

Guest 2: Curse you Autocorrect! I understand that pain! Thanks for the review! I tried to model their society close to the Ancient Spartans, I hope I managed to catch some of that intensity :)

Chapter 2

When her father had told her that training would be tough, she had thought she would be able to handle it, but now she was questioning herself. Her whole body ached and when the Captain had told them to rest she'd been more than happy to sit down with her fur. But not five minutes later they were told to form back up to go to for a short march.

She didn't understand why Captain Jagen had said that it was 'short' because it had turned out to be five miles up Mount Targon, or so she'd overheard. She felt as though air was escaping her lungs more than it was entering them.

The climb was steep and though she was grateful of the cloak it weighed her down considerably. Her thighs burned and she could feel the insides of her shoes rub against her blisters from the run. But the further she climbed the more she learned to ignore the pain in her feet and back.

Leona was ready to give up, but she had seen some instructors shoving forward anyone who even hinted at a pause so she kept going through the burn. She didn't exactly like the idea of being pushed around at this height.

However, when she heard distant shouts and saw an outline of a cave she felt her tired body move forward with curiosity and excitement.

Leona tightened her hold on her fur and looked around when they entered. It was much, much, larger than she had ever thought it would be. The cave seemed to stretch on for miles and the ceiling towered over even the largest warrior in the cave.

It was warm, thanks to the torches lining the wall and the large fire pits that were placed at every mile until the cave ended. At the very right of the cave she noticed a rushing stream that reflected the pouring sunlight coming in through a hole in the ceiling.

Multiple weapons racks lined the opposite walls and they held everything from simple daggers to the largest axes, spears and swords.

Leona couldn't help but stare and wonder which weapon she would be using in, maybe, five years' time.

As they moved towards the center of the cave, Leona noticed a ring, encircled by small stones, torches and a roughly etched line. There were already two women inside, wrestling. Leona quickly saw that one was smaller than the other by a considerable amount.

The smaller one had the larger warrior in a hold, and with a quick motion the smaller warrior's knee came up and smashed into the larger warrior's nose and shoved her to the floor.

The large warrior held her face, rolled onto her back and laughed, shaking her head. Leona watched intently as the small warrior pulled the other up. Blood poured over her face, dripping messily over her tunic and the ground. Leona winced.

Why was she laughing? Didn't that hurt? Leona felt unease creep into her gut. She didn't know if she could spar like that and laugh at the end. Not if her friend's nose was bleeding.

"Welcome to this sacred cave. This is where you will be spending the rest of your life, training and sparring if you make it past the Rite." Jagen's voice echoed loudly, catching the attention of the some of the warriors around them. "For now, I will pair you up with an instructor. They will teach you how to fight: hand to hand, and with weapons. And at the very end of the week, you will get into this ring-" he pointed next to him "-and you will fight each other."

"Every day, I will drill you from morning to noon, and then your instructors will take over," Jagen stated and then narrowed his eyes. "I will say this once, disobedience is not an option. You want to run home to your mommy and daddy? Then you might as well leave the tribe and never come back."

Leona gripped her hands into small fists. No matter what happened, she wasn't going to run now. She had been beaten and she wasn't going to just let that go to waste.

Never surrender. Never retreat. She knit her brows down with determination and looked back at the Captain who was still surveying them. When no one moved, he nodded.

"Very well." He paused and then continued. "The instructors you are paired with, you will stay with them at all times after drills. You will eat with them, train with them, and followed them. This is so that you learn our ways from them. Understood?"

"Yes, sir" Their answer echoed off the walls of the cave. Jagen's lips curled into a small smile, but it was soon gone when he started to pair them with instructors, starting from the front. When they were paired off, the instructors quickly took the children away.

Leona, being in the back line, was one of the last to be paired so she could guess who would be her instructor. It was the one she had noticed hours ago: the girl with the loose brown braid. Upon closer inspection, Leona noticed the freckles that spotted her face and a scar that started from her hairline and ended at her eyebrow.

"Astraia, you're with the rebel." She could hear Jagen's mocking tone. Leona frowned but dared not say anything. She wasn't going to be beaten because of a 'smart' answer. But still, she had done nothing to rebel, she didn't deserve the title.

"Yes, Captain," was her instructor's only reply as she walked towards Leona, a small smile on her face. "I guess you're stuck with me. Come on," she said and then started to lead Leona to the far end of the cave. She stopped at the third fire pit.

"I am Astraia, but you may call me Astra if you wish. What is your name, girl?" She asked, motioning to somebody to another end of the cave. She then looked at Leona with a raised brow. "Well?"

"Leona." She answered as confidently as she could. Astra was intimidating, more so than she would have thought. Her dark eyes were almost as dark as the Captain's and she towered over her.

"Leona," she repeated slowly. "I will be your instructor until the Rite. I will be responsible for teaching you how to fight and how to handle weapons. And like Captain Jagen said, once a week you'll step into that ring and you'll fight another one of your peers."

She paused as somebody walked up behind her to hand her something. Astra thanked the person and then turned back to Leona. "Despite what others may say, I say that losing is alright. I want you to learn from your mistakes. Lose too many rounds, however, and I may not be so amiable."

"What does that mean?"

"What does what mean?" Astra arched a brow.

"Amiable."

"Friendly," she curtly answered and then knelt down. "Now, take off your fur and your tunic."

"Here?"

"Yes." Astra motioned to her quickly. "Just do it. I need to see your back. I can't let it fester if you're bleeding."

Leona did as she was told and showed her back to her instructor. There was a pause and then felt a splash of something on her back. She yelped with both surprise and pain. It had been cold and it stung intensely. Astra sighed and told her to be quiet, then continued to rub the liquid into her back.

"It's spirits(1), it will discourage any infection." Astra explained. When she was finished, Astra wrapped her back with clean linen and then handed her a fresh tunic and a small leather belt. Astra took her old clothes and hung them near one of the fire pits. When Leona was finished she motioned to her, standing up.

"Enough of all that, onto your first task: land a strike on my face."

Leona's joints felt stiff and her legs still felt like water. She was sure it would be a lot easier if she had her strength. She commanded her body to move but it only moved slowly; she was clearly tired.

Her instructor was quick to notice. "Push the pain from your mind, and concentrate on hitting this." She gently tapped her face.

The task was easy, Leona told herself as she gathered the very last, remaining strength she had from her break, which seemed like it had happened hours ago.

Leona reeled her fist back and let it snap forward. Astra instantly pushed her fist aside, grabbed her arm, and with her free hand pushed Leona to the ground. When she landed on her back she winced and groaned.

Astra laughed. "Who are you trying to punch like that?" she taunted with a grin. Leona quickly got to her feet and lifted her hands. She furrowed her brow, still feeling the pain from the last throw.

When she threw her next punch Astra was quicker; she moved to the side, hooked her opposite arm around Leona's and threw her to the ground again. Her shoulder was the first thing to make contact with the ground. She moaned and squeezed her eyes shut.

Astra towered over her and laughed. "First lesson: patience. Do you actually think you can strike my face the first time around?" She smirked. Leona felt dumb. Of course, it was like what her father had taught her.

Patience, Leona thought as her jaw tightened, and she grunted sheepishly. She should have known. "Get your head in the game. Look for openings; take advantage of those before going in for the face. Understand?"

"I guess." Leona groaned.

"Not 'I guess' Leona. It's 'yes'. Let's get going now, come on. I'm going to teach you something."

Leona was hesitant which made her instructor chuckle. "Come on, we don't have all day for you to be like this. I'm teaching you a throw."

When Leona walked over Astraia quickly pushed her down. "You can do this much easier than I can because you're small." She moved Leona's arm so that her arms were hooked around a single leg. Leona's head rested on the side of her pelvis.

"Grab on tight. And then step forward and let my weight roll back."

Leona was quick to execute the throw as she landed on top. Astraia nodded, slipping out of the hold. "That's it. Good job; now, do it again."

Leona nodded excitedly and went to loop her arm around her instructor's leg but her instructor had different plans. Astra hooked her wrist around her face and rolled Leona's head up, holding her tightly to her chest.

She could feel Astra's wrist pressing hard against her cheeks. Leona grunted. "You said I needed to do it again!" Leona protested, squirming.

"I didn't say how." Astraia continued to hold her there. Leona grunted and gripped her instructor's arm, trying to push it away. "This was a fight, last time I checked. And I was just teaching you a move. What did I say? Patience. Look for openings and take advantage of that. Now get out of this. How are you going to get out of this position?"

"That was dirty." Leona muttered, jabbing her elbow into her instructor's stomach. Astra grunted but didn't move, so Leona straightened her leg and slammed it down onto her shin. The hold loosened almost instantly.

Astra nodded. "That was a hard one, good. Remember, control and breathe. Don't panic; you can't think when you're busy panicking, understand?"

Leona nodded slowly, catching her breath. There were no breaks with Astra. Once Leona was down, she had to get right back up. It was all go, go, go. Even when Leona wanted to take a break, Astra wouldn't let her.

Push the pain away from your mind, Astra would tell her. When Leona continued to stand immobile, Astra would produce her staff and smack her legs. She had never thrown so many punches that didn't land, or been generally thrown to the ground.

Astra continued to teaching her different techniques before there was a booming voice. Leona barely recognized it as one of the elders of the village.

"Very good!" There was a laugh and Astra looked up, causing Leona to also turn at the source of the sound. From where she stood she could barely see a wrestling match between a boy and his instructor.

The boy rolled, grunted, and pushing himself out of a hold he looked at the instructor for a moment before being slugged in the face. The boy doubled over and then quickly charged forward again. When he was thrown to the floor again the Elder simply laughed.

He patted the boy's shoulder when he got up. "This is how you should fight, recruits!"

Leona didn't see anything special about the boy. He looked like the rest of the other boys. He had short brown hair and brown eyes. If there was one difference she noticed it was that he was slightly bigger.

But that didn't make him special. He was just like the rest of them, so why had the village elder said he was so good? She could wrestle with her instructor. Leona was just as good as that boy.

"I want to see a fire in your eyes when you fight. Intensity!" The elder patted the boy again and pushed him forward to his instructor. "You are the future of the Rakkor; we expect great things from you!"

Leona looked back at Astra who had raised a brow. When she looked back at Leona, Astra had a smirk on her face. "Why didn't you attack me while I was distracted?"

"You were distracted." And Leona was also tired. But she didn't want to admit it.

"So?"

"It's not honorable. Pa said that if I was to fight anyone, it should be fair." Leona told her instructor who crossed her arms. Astra's smirk turned into a laugh as she shook her head.

"It's good your pa has taught you such great morals, but your opponent is going to take advantage of you being distracted. It's you or them. What have I said twice now?" Astra looked at Leona expectantly.

"Find openings and take advantage of them." Leona repeated. Astra smiled and nodded.

"Good, now let's go."

The two began to wrestle. Leona was quick to get low, targeting Astra's legs, but as she charged forward like a bull, Astra caught her head and held it at an arm's length. Leona heard Astra's laugh and frowned.

Leona grunted and gripped Astra's arm. When she found she couldn't possibly push past her she backed up and tried again. She pushed her legs as hard as she could and charged, pushing past Astra's hand and grabbing her leg. She took a step forward, just as her instructor had shown her, but right when it seemed she was going to knock Astra down, Leona felt her instructor fall of her own accord, throwing the technique off balance.

Astra quickly recovered as Leona slipped away from under her instructor. She heard Astra laugh as she got up.

"Good!" she said, standing up. "Very well done. Let's keep this going."

Panting, Leona hissed and tried again, but as she started something caught her eye. When she turned she saw a man adorned with bright yellow armor. His helmet was dark red rimmed with a golden yellow with three golden spikes on each side.

It was different, more decorated and patterned than the Rakkor armor. It looked… it looked absurd. What did he think he was doing her-

Leona never had the chance to complete the thought. She felt Astra's fist plow into the side of her face. And as Leona hit the ground her vision blurred and then blacked out.

(1) Spirits - Alcoholic drink

Author's Note (It's kind of important this week so please read)

I really hope you enjoyed this chapter. I thought it would be best to have a more 'light-hearted' one before going on. Anyway, I'm going away for a week or two so I might not be able to work on the next chapter until I come back :S I hope you'll still stay with me!

Please review, I'd love to know what you think! Critique is always welcomed as long as it's constructive :)

xxSC