Sapphire Maiden

Chapter 1

Sapphira was galloping quickly on her horse, her breathing heavy. She had no idea how long it had been since she had begun this routine. Get up, get wash up quickly in the nearest stream before getting on Lucinda and beginning to quickly move. The shouts and gallops from other men on horses; following her like a shadow had been long off. She hadn't heard them for days and she couldn't help but feel safer and safer each night that she rested in the pitch black darkness of night. The long, dreary travel had left her fatigued, her village now long off. Never again would she be going back to the hell she had been forced to call her home since she was a child. Her life back there had led up to this moment so she wasn't even going to consider going back. Her father's training had prepared her for this moment.

As she neared the knights unit, louder clashes of metal and more heavy grunts of men could be heard. She would have to keep her identity hidden as women were not accepted into this knights unit, they were seen as weak and unreliable, spies and distractions to the men of the unit. Although Sapphira found that outrageous, if they couldn't control themselves, then they had no right to be there in the first place. They would need to learn the manners and their own control, yet she found herself reaching her hands back and tying the black scrap of cloth around her lower face and ever so carefully pulling up the hood to the cloak that was wrapped around her. She pulled it up until it covered her face, pulling up a dark piece of cloth over the bottom half of her face; stopping halfway up the bridge of her nose. Just enough to keep the more womanly features of her face hidden.

"Women are not strong, women are useless, women are a waste of space and air." echoed the words a man had once said to her at her old village. He said that to everyone, but mainly her. She didn't believe him, yet even thinking the words to herself hurt. But he was going to be proved wrong, everyone would be proved wrong. She had always put up a fight and didn't listen which made her an even stronger person; someone even harder to control. She wasn't letting them get in her way of doing what she needed to do in order to keep the world in a good place. To help those who didn't know about a good place because of the men who just wouldn't accept the changes of society that were beginning to take place. She needed to get rid of the men who put women like her into poverty. She wouldn't tolerate it; not anymore.

Suddenly shaken out of her thoughts, her rich brown horse, Lucinda, stopped abruptly in front of the knights' training unit. There, many tall and strong men stood against one another or against a dummy, sparring as they trained intensely for the war soon to come. As she looked around, she noticed others who had bows in hand as they shot at large canvas targets many yards away, all arrows almost perfectly accurate as they flew through the air and into the large painted red dot in the center of the worn and mended canvas. Now that she had approached the unit the realization of what she was getting into sunk in. It was then she knew she might have gone into something she wasn't prepared for, something that she might never be prepared for.

After a few deep breaths she mustered up the courage to climb off of Lucinda, Taking her by the reins, and began to walk toward the commander's tent with Lucinda close behind her. She received many strange stares from men as she walked past all of them. She was like a sore thumb in the middle of the men in training. All of the men were tall and muscular, with broad shoulders and a musky smell. She, on the other hand, was short and petite, almost a foot shorter than most of the men who were training. Even with the cloak, she was very slender and clearly not as built as a man,her shoulders not as broad and her body not as muscled. Which was expected for a woman of that era, but these men would find her appearance quite offsetting. This was a strict all men's unit. Though she didn't get why. Woman have been in many wars before. Maybe the captain was like the men back in her village, but to what extent?

Once she had tied up Lucinda on a post next to what she assumed was the commander's horse; she stepped into the head commander's tent. Everything seemed to changed from what was outside. It had gone from loud and hot, the smell of musk constantly hitting her nose to a calmer environment; a single dark oak desk rested in the middle where a man, whom she couldn't see that well, sat with a single map in front of him. He was taking his feathered quill, dipping it in ink, and writing on a piece of parchment at his side. His hand was moving swiftly along the paper as if he had no more time left. It looked to be a long letter of some sort that would either be sent to an ally, or maybe just to his lover telling her that all was well and that he was safe. It could have been some battle plans or a journal entry. But that didn't matter. What mattered was why she was even there.

"Excuse me, Sir?" she said to him, her voice thick and raspy as if she had just gotten over a cold. She couldn't help but feel her palms become sweaty as she stood there; waiting for his attention. What if he wasn't the head commander. She would make a fool of herself in front of him. She could become the laughing stock of the unit, that is if she even got in.

"Ah, hello. Is there something I can help you with?" asked the man who had finally pried his Brown green Hazel eyes away from the parchment and onto the cloaked figure in front of him. His voice was deep and rich, a slight Italian accent laced within.

"Yes sir," she said to him before clearing her throat. "I came to see if there was an open place for a new knight," she said to him as she attempted to stand as tall as she could.

The man just laughed as he ran a hand through his dark brown hair, his face young with little stubble on his sharp jawline. It was obvious that he was the commander, and why he was a commander. He was very intimidating, especially once he stood over her, being about foot taller than she was. He wasn't the tallest man of the unit but he was definitely taller than most of the men. She would definitely be the outcast if she got in, which she now saw as a small, almost impossible possibility since every other man there had perfectly accurate strikes, blocks, or shots.

"I do not think it is as easy as you think it is to get into the Blood Moon knights unit. We run with only the best men alive," he said as he began to look over the 'male' in front of him as he himself was confused by Sapphira's appearance in the dark hooded cloak. Not being able to see her full face as she kept it very well hidden. "Though we can still work on your form, we cannot do anything about that height. however we can work on your build, brodden up your shoulders and possibly put a little weight on you. That is, if you get in. I would enjoy seeing your skill level, to see if good things really do come in small packages." he said to her with a sly smile.