THE FIVE

chapter 1

Alexia sat by the lake and let the gentle breeze cerase her face. The water was a crystal blue color but she remembered the night it ran red. She stood up that was 10 years ago. The day before her 6th birthday. Tomorrow she would be 16 finally an adult woman. But she would not be like other women in this kingdom. Day dreaming of parties, potential husbands or fine dresses. She had a much more difficult task at hand. Tomorrow would be her graduation. The end of master Weako's training. She would be given assignments to complete on her own.

She looked at her reflection in the water. Whisps of jet black hair slapped her freckle filled skin. Big brown eyes hardened with experience. Thin lips pursed into a grimace. She thought she might have been beautiful had it not been for her fate. If she grew up with richer parents in a nice house if she was shielded from the sun and let her hair grow long she might have been pretty but that's not her. Cropped hair, dark skin, and mean battered face. This was alexia or Alex as she was called most of the time. She was the only female of her peers so they cut her hair short, bound her breast, and called her Alex to make her seem like a boy.

Dispite the altered appearance she was never truly accepted. Not until she learned to fight and hold her own. Some hated her more for it but she gained the respect and friendship of enough for it to no longer matter.