The morning sun broke through the densely packed forest, illuminating the clearing with warm, golden light. Anna stood alone, watching over the tranquil, Bower Lake. She had never been much of a 'morning person' but as she stood looking over the great expanse of water, she could not deny how pleasant and peaceful dawn felt. She had agreed to meet Ben in this location, and it was not long until she heard footsteps approaching from behind.
"You're here!" Ben called, he sounded relieved and full of energy. A far cry from how Anna currently felt. She turned to face him, smiling as he approached.
"Morning to you," she replied, yawning wide.
"God Anna, did you get any sleep last night?" He asked her, taking in her sleep deprived appearance. She shook her head, her tired eyes meeting his.
"A little bit, not much. I was rudely awoken by some gun shots in the middle of the night. I think Reaver had gotten fed up with those two girls and shot them," Anna explained, running his fingers through her knotted hair. Her appearance this morning contrasted greatly to how she looked last night. Her hair was down and left unbrushed and her clothes were casual and practical. A light blue shirt paired with some skinny, black trousers. Despite her unruly appearance, Ben felt that the look had a warm familiarity about it. She resembled the Anna he once knew, from the slums of Bowerstone Industrial.
"What makes you think he shot them?" Ben asked, somewhat naïve to Reaver's true colours.
"Because I watched two footmen drag the bodies out of Reaver's room?" Anna replied casually, speaking as if it were the most obvious thing ever. Ben's blue eyes widened in shock.
"Are you bloody serious? Surely he wouldn't just murder those two women?" Ben asked, taken aback by the revelation at just how cruel and evil Reaver really was.
"Of course, I'm serious, it happens all the time," Anna explained before adding, "and in all honesty, if they were still alive while I was eating my breakfast the next morning, I'd be begging Reaver to shoot me instead. They were so annoying."
Ben stood in silence for moment, completely taken aback by the revelations. He was very aware of Reaver's reputation around Albion. He was known to be charming and charismatic but also impatient and heartless. But Anna's retelling of last night's events involving Reaver, really revealed to Ben that he was even worse than how he was depicted in stories. It was a miracle that Anna had not ended up on the wrong side of a gun yet. How had she managed to avoid such a fate?
"If he's really like that, how come he's not killed you yet?" Ben asked, curious. He would never want to see the ex-rebel harmed in anyway, but he could not help but wonder what she'd done or said to Reaver to keep herself around. As he thought, his mind was flooded with an array of indecent images and he couldn't help but feel a small, twinge of jealousy.
"Erm… I guess he must just like me?" Anna shrugged. She would not go into any more detail. She would not admit to Ben that Reaver "wanted her".
"Well, that's lucky then," he replied, dropping the subject, a smile appearing on his face.
"Well anyway, let's get this first lesson in self-defence started. Do you think you should call me, Mr Finn? As I'm the teacher of this class," Ben asked, causing Anna to let out a small, amused giggle. She perched herself on a rock beside the lake and listened as Ben spoke of his army training and life as a soldier. She found the whole story fascinating, especially the part where he fought against the hollow men alongside King Alec.
"So let's learn how to properly defend ourselves against some baddies," he explained, "Now, love, I want you to stand just beside that big oak tree over there."
Anna followed Ben's instructions, rising to her feet, and placing herself at the side of the great oak. She raised an eyebrow at the man, waiting for the next instruction, but none came. Instead, the soldier hurled a rotten tomato at her, hitting her right in the stomach. Her eyes widened in shock as she looked down at the red juice that now soaked her once clean shirt.
"First rule of defence is always be ready!" Ben explained, pulling out another tomato from the sack beside him, "And I think the best place to start with defending is to learn to dodge. So this time, move out of the way!"
Anna nodded, feeling a lot more prepared for the second tomato that came hurling her way. This time she stepped to the side, allowing the tomato to smack against a tree behind her. The ambush continued and with each tomato that was thrown, Anna found it easier to dodge the fruit. By the time Ben had reached the bottom of the sack, Anna was ducking and jumping out of the way of all the flying fruit.
"You're really getting the hang of it now! Your movement is still a bit rigid, but we'll keep practising this until you are a lot more fluent," Ben said, impressed with his own teaching. Anna nodded in agreement, wiping the tomato juices that dripped down her face. She'd definitely need a bath once she was home.
The lesson continued as the morning sun continued to rise. Anna was beginning to get conscious of the time, she knew she needed to be back in her room before her maid came to wake her.
"I'll need to get going soon," Anna told Ben. He nodded understandingly as he dusted dirt off his trousers. The remainder of their lesson had been spent rolling around on the forest floor. Ben was teaching Anna how to roll away from attacks, but she hadn't quite got the hang of it yet. Most of the time was spent with her lying on the floor, laughing hysterically from struggling to do a foreword roll.
"No that's fine. We can pick up from where we left off tomorrow?" Ben suggested.
"That would be brilliant," Anna replied, smiling. She liked the idea of these lessons becoming a regular thing, they were extremely helpful in teaching Anna how to protect herself, but it also meant that she got to spend time with Ben again. It was no secret that she enjoyed his company.
The walk back to Reaver's Manor was spent thinking over what she had learnt and already feeling excited to learn more tomorrow. To no longer feel weak or helpless would be amazing.
Upon making it to the manor, Anna used the ivy that grew up the wall and around her window to pull herself up and back into her room. It was still early, Imogen, her maid, had not been in her room yet. Everything was how she left it.
Anna stripped off her dirty clothes, kicking them under her bed for someone to find later. She then reached for her goose down duvet, wrapping it around her body and covering her hair. The last thing she wanted was for Imogen to be suspicious as to what she was up to. If she was suspicious, it wouldn't be long until Reaver was.
"Good morning," Imogen said softly as she pushed open Anna's bedroom door. The ex-rebel turned to be greeted by her maid.
"Morning," she replied casually.
Imogen's eyes widened slightly as she took in the young girl's appearance. This was different and unusual. Normally Anna would be fast asleep in bed at this point and Imagen would be having to coax her awake. but instead here she was stood by the open window the duvet wrapped around her body.
"You're up early," Imogen commented as she closed the door behind her, "and gosh, it's cold in here."
Anna nodded in agreement; it was remarkably cold in her room. But that was only because she'd had to leave the window wide open while she was out with Ben.
"I just wanted some fresh air," she lied. Imogen cocked an eyebrow, suspicious of the young girl's true intentions. Even if she did want some fresh air, why would she open the window that much?
"Oh Miss Anna, are you not feeling well?" Imogen asked, suddenly coming to the realisation that Anna must have been suffering from a temperature. She reached out for the young girl in an attempt to feel her skin, but Anna quickly dodged out of the way.
"No, I'm fine," she informed, before thinking to add, "I would absolutely love a bath though."
"A morning bath? You normally like yours in the evening."
"Well yes but today I want one in the morning. Now I'd appreciate it if you were to stop asking me anymore question," Anna said, her voice unusually stern but inside she was panicked. If anyone found out about herself and Ben's secret meetings, she would not be allowed to go anymore. Reaver would not be happy with her, he would probably stick her back in the cage, which is a fate she greatly wanted to avoid.
"Of course, my apologises Miss Anna," Imogen said politely, quickly leaving the room to prepare Anna's bath.
Life carried on like this for the next few weeks. Anna would sneak out at dawn and meet Ben by the edge of Bower Lake. With each meeting, Anna's skills and abilities grew. And also, with each meeting Ben and Anna grew closer together. Ben would tell countless stories about the resistance fighters and what they were all up to now. Anna loved to listen as she sat on a rock beside the lake.
"So…" Anna said as Ben finished telling the story of his recent fight with a group of mercenaries, "When are you going to teach me to fight?"
Ben looked down at the girl. She was perched on the rock beside the great, open water known as Bower Lake.
"That wasn't part of the plan," Ben explained, shaking his head, "I said I'd teach you how to defend yourself."
"Surely I need to be able to fight to defend myself properly. Think about this, what would happen if I encountered a balverine? How many times could I dodge and roll out of the way before I became dinner?"
Ben sighed. She was not wrong. There were so many dangerous beings across Albion and Ben had promised to teach Anna to defend herself against them. He could not just do half the job.
"No, you're right," he finally admitted, letting out another small sigh.
"Exactly! You need to teach me how to fire a gun or stab someone," Anna said, sounding far too excited.
"Okay, don't get carried away now. I'll teach you the basics but promise me you will only use this stuff to protect yourself," Ben said.
"I promise," Anna lied. Thoughts of finally being able to kill Sam and Danny, the two mercenaries, was at the for front of her mind. She could still hear them laughing at her threats.
"Good. I mean it when I say this. I don't want you to turn into someone like him," Ben said, his tone suddenly becoming serious as he perched himself beside her on the rock. She turned to look at him, clearly confused.
"Like him?" Anna cocked an eyebrow but deep inside, she already knew who Ben spoke of.
"Like Reaver. You are everything he's not. You're pure and innocent and fully of love and life," Ben explained. Anna's eyes widened at the compliment, completely taken aback by what he'd just said.
"Are you being serious?" she finally asked, causing Ben to chuckle.
"Very serious. If you start killing people, you lose your true self."
"Are you speaking from experience?" Anna asked curiously, pulling her knees up to her chest as she got comfy. Ben shrugged in response to her question.
"Honestly? I don't know. As a soldier, I've never killed someone that wasn't trying to kill me first. But someone like Reaver, he just kills for sport. Someone told me that only the other day, he got a bunch of his workers lined up outside one of the factories and then he just shot at them. Just to make an example of them," Ben explained, a horrified look on his face but Anna's was the opposite. She was neither shocked nor surprised. In fact, she'd already heard the story. Reaver had proudly boasted about his actions to his dinner guests a few nights ago.
"Yeah, I heard," Anna said quietly. She couldn't help but let a frown form as she thought back to the dinner party she'd been forced to attend a few nights ago. It was really just a gathering of some of Albion's most rich and powerful men and their aristocratic wives. Reaver spent the evening boasting about a variety of his latest achievements while Anna sat on his lap, unimpressed.
It was during drinks after dinner that Reaver told the horrendous story. Apparently, it had all started over a group of workers demanding a break, which resulted in Reaver shooting all of them to make a point to them and the others that he was not someone you can demand things from. The dinner guests laughed and applauded his actions, while Anna looked horrified and in shock.
"Oh, little girly," one of the wives said, "don't tell me you feel any sympathy for them? Those kinds of people are the vermin of our world."
The comment resulted in Anna having to bite her tongue so hard it almost bled as the rest of the group continued to talk and laugh unbothered.
"I won't ever be like that, Ben," she finally said, smiling softly. He returned the smile, nodding in agreement before quickly rising to his feet.
"Right then. Let's finish today's lesson off with how to load a gun correctly!" Ben announced, eager to teach now that he'd got his warnings out of the way.
For the next month, Ben's lessons progressed in a similar way. The first half was spent on theory. Detailing the different types of weapons on offer and also the different types of monsters that prowled throughout Albion. Most monsters didn't seem to phase Anna, but the thought of a troll did put her on edge. Ben had reassured her that such monsters were now incredibly rare, they mainly lived in Wraithmarsh. A completely inhabitable place, full of vile creatures. Definitely not somewhere Anna fancied visiting anytime soon, but she did wonder whether Reaver had passed through there on any of his wild adventures.
As well as learning all about Albion's fiercest creatures, Ben also showed the ex-rebel an array of different weapons, some common and some completely bizarre. Anna had found a keen interest in throwing knives however, and over the weeks was becoming quite skilful in using them.
"What a hit!" Ben exclaimed excitedly as he pulled the throwing knife out of the sack of grain that hung from the tree. Anna smiled triumphantly as she took hold of the last knife. The blade was extremely sharp and it felt cold in her hand.
"Do you trust me?" She asked, feeling confident. Ben raised an eyebrow and cautiously nodded, unsure as to what she was up to.
"Stand in front of the tree," Anna pointed. Ben obliged and stood where he was told. He could feel the rough bark against his back.
"Is this how I'll die then?" He asked, sounding slightly nervous. Anna shook her head, chuckling at his comment. She inhaled deeply, concentrating intensely on the gap above the soldier's head. Ben had chosen to close his eyes, to avoid the sight of the oncoming knife.
Anna was relieved he did, the last thing she wanted was to catch a glimpse of Ben's worried expression as she threw the knife, that would be incredibly off putting. So instead, it was just herself and the blade. She threw it. Watching as it moves swiftly and silently through the air before hitting the tree, only inches above Ben's head. A sigh of relief escaped the soldier's lips as his eyes opened wide.
"Wow! I knew you could do it, never doubted you for a second," he said, smirking.
"Not a bad shot, enough to rival Reaver's I think," Anna replied, watching as the man pulled the knife from the trunk of the old tree. He nodded in agreement as she spoke.
"So, same time tomorrow?" Ben asked, beginning to pack away his things.
"Erm I'm going to have to pass on tomorrow," Anna said causing Ben to stop what he was doing. That was unusual of her. Anna had not missed a session since they had begun all those weeks ago.
"Oh? How come?" Ben asked.
"Well, it's actually my birthday tomorrow so I fancy a lie in," Anna laughed softly.
"Your birthday? Why didn't you tell me?" Ben said, turning his attention solely to Anna, he'd finish packing the weapons away later.
"Well, I've not told anyone," Anna replied shrugging. Birthdays had never been a big deal to the ex-rebel. When growing up in the slums of the Industrial Quarter, her birthdays were often acknowledged by her mother and William but never celebrated. They couldn't afford to celebrate it. There had been one year though, when Anna had turned twelve, her mother had bought her a cupcake. It was only a plain sponge, but it was the only gift she had received on her birthday. Even now, she could still remember the sweet taste of that cupcake.
"How old will you be? Sixty-four?" Ben teased. Anna pushed him playfully, shaking her head.
"Twenty, actually," she replied, giggling.
"Well, I wish you a happy birthday for tomorrow. I hope you enjoy your lie in," Ben said before adding, "And I'll see you back here in two days?"
Anna nodded before parting with Ben. She was already excited for the next session but she was secretly was excited for her lie in more.