Chapter 2 - My New Life

"Time to get up." I was thrown to the floor, as the blanket I was tangled in, was yanked from my body. Confused, I opened my eyes to see Talia standing above me. I looked to my right to the window of the small room to see that is was still dark out.

"What's going on?" I asked weakly, rubbing my eyes that were blurry and now tearing up. I tried to adjust to the light that was glaring in my face.

"It's time to start your training." She answered, simply.

"Now?"

She threw something towards me. "Yes. Change into this and meet me in the courtyard." I looked at the piece in my lap, quizzically - a thin grey long sleeve shirt and dark grey cargoes. "You have two minutes," was all she said, before stepping off.

I just laid there with my head on the ground. Is this what my life would be now? Waking up at the crack of dawn to train like some Olympian? I've always hated gym class - and to know that I would have to wake up at God know when to do God knows what. Sigh. Train - that can't be the only thing people do here. Ducard said something about fighting corruption and whatnot. I imagined government assassinations and covert missions. I groaned. I was too young to do any of that stuff anyway, so I guess training was what I was stuck with for now. I hope she wouldn't make me run laps. Never mind the fact that I was living in a foreign country where I didn't even speak the language - something told me that I wouldn't be going beyond these walls any time soon. Talia would be training me - and she was obviously someone who didn't mess around. I didn't want to get on her bad side. She was beautiful but she could also be very intimidating. Ducard had said she would be mentoring me. I assumed it would be mean that when I got older, I would be doing something similar to what she does now.

Why did they need someone like me - or Talia for that matter, when they had that huge man I saw last night? If anyone saw him in a dark alley at night, they would probably just run in the other direction. I didn't think anyone would be stupid enough to mess with him. This woman, though she was young, was strict and no doubt didn't put up with any bull-crap. I dreaded to find out what I was in for when I got to the courtyard - wherever that was.

After I dressed, I stepped out into the hallway outside my door. I didn't know which way the courtyard was so I took my chances and chose to go left. It lead me to large room that surrounded by railings that overlooked an open practice floor.

I looked down at it from the railing. It was filled with men. A lot of men. They were dressed in all black, with their faces covered - only their eyes bare. They had black chest plates attached to them.

They were attacking each other with swords so fast that it was beyond me how none of them were cut. These men were fierce. What in the world was I doing here? I was just a kid.

I looked across from me, to the opposite railing. There were doors on the other side that could lead me to the courtyard where Talia was, but to reach them I had to step down the stairs and into the sea of warriors. That didn't look like a good idea unless I wanted to get a blade through my skull. I decided not to.

I turned around to head back. Instead ,I bumped into a black figure that towered over me. As he looked down on me, I saw that his eyes were a striking, steel-blue. He was dressed exactly like the men below. I glanced around and saw that some of the men had noticed me.

"I..." I began, as I instinctively backed away from him, which unfortunately lead me descending down onto the steps.

The cloth wrapped around his mouth fell, and revealed that he was smiling. "You lost young wolf?"

I looked behind me and stopped myself before I went anymore. Now a few more eyes turned to me.

Despite my fear, I didn't hesitate. I took off running back the way I had came - past the man in black. I could hear thunderous laughing behind me as I went. Me being here was a joke to them. Talia held the standard of what a female living here should be like, despite not yet seeing what she could do - I knew I was nothing like her.

I slowed down as I passed my door again. I should have just chosen to go right. I was now walking in the other direction. Hopefully, there would be no one over there.

I stopped in front of a room with large glass windows. The door was shut, but it didn't matter because you could see everything through the tall glass that surrounded the front of the room. There was someone in the room. He looked like he was training with another man. It was dim. The only light came from the ones that glared from outside in the hall, but even those barely affected the room. How could anyone practice somewhere so dark, I wondered.

The man was winning. He threw blow after blow - pummelling the other man, sending him to the ground. He fought like no one I had ever seen before. He fought like an animal. He stopped, lowering his fists, seeming satisfied in what he had done. That's when he noticed me. He looked in my direction and I froze up. It was the man from the night before. How come I hadn't noticed it before? I don't know how I missed the mask even though he was facing away from me. The black strap - as he stood, was much clearer now.

The man made a motion that looked like he was about to move towards the door - toward me. I backed away out of fear, and that's when I felt a hand on my wrist. My arm was yanked backward and twisted behind me, as I fell back on someone's chest. I let out a loud cry, as my eyes began to was the woman - Talia.

She grabbed me, and was forcefully pinning my arm back.

"When I said two minutes, I meant it." She released my arm. "Now go. This way." She shoved me forward and pointed straight ahead. I didn't even have time to react.

She stopped to look at the man inside the window. He also seemed to be looking at her. I watched on. What was he thinking, I wondered, but quickly began to walk away as Talia began to turn to follow me. I followed obediently behind her as walked. She walked with such ferocity in her step. I really had done it now. She was pissed. I struggled to keep up.

She turned and when she noticed I was slightly behind her, she looked annoyed. She slowed down her pace a bit.

"Sienna, I have some rules I want to go over with you."

I kept my mouth closed and listened.

"First - All the clothes you brought. The pretty colourful little dresses, tank tops - the jeans. I don't want to see them. Get rid of them. You won't need those here."

"Of course you are allowed to wear your own clothes if you chose - but only on your own time. The colours permitted are dark only: black, grey, navy, etc."

"In fact the next time you visit your quarters, you'll see you already have a set of our clothes laid out for you in your wardrobe."

She didn't even bother to check if I understood or had any questions. She continued speed-walking, and droned on the entire time. I listened quietly and nodded.

"I'm sure you realized by now you'll begin your training everyday at 5 AM, except on weekends when you have the days off. If you're up early enough, you can have breakfast before you train. If not - you'll have to wait till afterwards - like today."

She paused. "I am your mentor, but I won't be the only trainer you have throughout your stay here - if that's what he's calling it," she mumbled to herself. She turned to me."Others members will be assigned to you and the member training you will rotate every two days. Since I'm in charge of you, I created a schedule for you with designated practice times. Other times you will have the option to go off on your own."

"Once you are a bit more advanced, you won't have a schedule or any trainers. Everything you choose to do or not do will be up to you."

"You aren't expected to practice every second of the day, but here most people devote almost all of their time towards their craft."

"We have assignments that members are chosen to go on, depending on their skills, and assets - but considering your level, I don't think you'll need to know much a bout that yet." She stopped speaking

"Just so you know, every so often there will be random assembly - if you will. It's where every single available member is called to gather in the practice room. Ra's or Henri may choose another member for you to fight against." Who the hell was Raz?, I thought. Someone important I had yet to meet. Great.

Anyway - they couldn't expect me to participate, right? So early on in my training. I would lose indefinitely.

"The date is chosen at random. So, it could be a day from now or 5 weeks from now. The last one we had was yesterday - right before you arrived actually. You cannot refuse or say you are unable. So be warned, there will be consequences if you do."

I nodded. I prayed to God, that if I was ever chosen, that Talia would be the one I would have to go against. I wanted to believe she would be easier on me, but I doubted this was the case.

We finally reached the courtyard. We exited through a doorway that took us outside into the early morning sky. This courtyard was a type of balcony. Wide, spacious. The ground was made of stone.

There were railings overlooking the Tibetan mountains and a set of lamp posts on each corner.

There was a small fountain in the middle of the courtyard. Water trickled up and over from the centre of the fountain, making a circular mini waterfall. We were nearly at the end of April meaning it was still pretty chilly - winter not too long ago

"After today, I expect you to find the designated training area on your own and get there on is won't be tolerated."

I nodded, like I again like I always did.

"I was being extremely lenient back there." She was dead serious when she said it. Is that really what she called lenient,when she almost broke my arm?

"Other members might not be so forgiving." She added.

I frowned.

There were two long silver swords on either side of the fountain. She walked over to her side of the fountain, picked up hers and returned to me. There was the other one lying in front of me.

"Pick it up."

I did as I was told.

"How long will be out here - if you don't mind me asking?" I added. I really didn't want to piss her off again.

"As long as I say."

"Are you training me to be a samurai like those men?"

"I hate that word," She said. "I like to think of us not as samurai, but as warriors. Protectors." She corrected, proudly. "Now pick up the sword.
You're older than I was when I started out. Which means you should be able to pick it up much faster than I did."

The tone in which she said should, sounded sort of like mocking. Like she didn't believe it herself and was just repeating what someone else, probably Ducard, had said. Should...but probably won't.

"How old were you when you came here?"

"I was a child of only ten."

"How old are you now?"

" Twenty-one"

Twenty-one? Only twenty-one? That was pretty much a college student. For some reason, I thought she'd be a little older. Not by much though.

"Cool," I replied.

Talia held her sword a certain way. I tried to mimic her stance as best I could. It must have been right, because she didn't correct me.

We were about to get started, but I had one more question for her...

"I was wondering - who was that m-?"

"No more questions." She cut me off. "Now we begin."

After my first lesson, I was exhausted. Talia had sent me off to my room so I could shower.

"Another thing I don't thing Mister Ducard remembered to mention." She called out. "...But when you find out what we really do here - and you will soon enough,"She paused. "Backing out is not an option - well, not for you that is."

If she was trying to scare me, it wouldn't work. I could put the pieces together. I saw other members...the swords...I saw that huge guy with the mask.

These people were killers. He was a killer. Talia was a killer and soon I would be too. Oddly, I was way more OK with that than I should have been.

So I decided to show her that she couldn't scare me so easily.

"I don't plan on it," I replied, smugly. If Talia didn't want to be a flower, then I wouldn't want to be one either.

She eyed me with a smile in her eyes that said, Just you wait.

A/N:

Reviews/thoughts would be appreciated. :)