"Please, Hector!"
"No!"
"Hector! Pleeeeeeease!"
"Absolutely not!"
The girl stepped in front of the elder Prince of Troy, "Hector, be reasonable--"
"Be reasonable? Be reasonable! Are you insane? How can you ask me to put my title and your life on the line by doing something like that?" He sidestepped her and began to walk away.
"Hector! Hectooooor!"
That was it. She was more determined than ever. All she had wanted her whole life was to be a warrior, and here she was in the company of the greatest warrior her country had to offer but he would not do her the honor of training her. She ran after him, her tunic jumping and swinging with every step she took as the wind rushed past her long dark hair.
"Hector?"
"You already know my answer, Julios." No one called her Julios, every one just referred to her as Jules, everyone except for Hector, Prince of Troy.
"No. I won't stand for that Hector. Please, I'm only going to ask once more, teach me to be a soldier?"
"You just don't understand do you?" he sighed.
"Why don't you believe I can do this?"
"What? Look at you! Of course I think you can do as well as any man," It was true, Jules was lean and toned with strong shoulders and legs. "you justhaven't thought aboutall thatcomes with armed training. If I did this for you I would be the one who had to… to hurt you, to make you bleed in ways you know nothing about, to initiate you." He looked up at the girl he had known for most of his life and could tell she finally understood.
Jules could remember being a child and running up and down the meadows and hills just out side the walls of the city watching new soldiers being initiated in to the military. As a child you think such things are easy and fun; you watch and listen and people do funny things and make funny noises. As a child you have no idea what any of this means. You never suspect that what men did with men out in the field was something ordinary that would eventually happen to you. Something you may have wanted to happen to you.
Finally she gave him the answer he never, or always, wanted to hear, "I don't care, Hector."
He gave her one final warning, "Are you sure this is what you want?"
"Yes"
"Your training begins tomorrow at sunrise."