Lizbeth

Chapter one: The Academy

Lizbeth couldn't recall a time she had ever been truly happy. Growing up in an all female encampment where guards marched day and night to make sure none of them escaped made her stoic and hard from a very young age.

"Get a move on!" One of the instructors shouted, right on cue as the women shuffled forward. The instructors referred to this place as a women's academy, but everyone knew better. This was nothing more than a prison. High barred walls capped with thin, sharp wire surrounded every perimeter of the grounds and all guards were armed with shock whips, ready to hit and electrocute anyone who was even remotely out of line back into submission.

Over the years, Lizbeth had only seen women leave this place if they were being led by a man, and only if that man had purchased her. There was no pretending about what this place truly was; founded to breed and train attractive women, it was a slave farm. Women here were taught from a very early age everything they needed to know from cooking and cleaning to song and written word to tailoring and art making of many forms. The very unlucky, at least unlucky in Lizbeth's mind, were also selected to be trained to please men with their bodies. She was not one of the women, and she thanked the Greater every day for that, but it did make it less likely she would ever be purchased, and therefore, less likely to leave.

Riding the current of all the women who surrounded her, Lizbeth was ushered into the fitness room. Every morning and evening for an hour each, every woman in the academy was required to work on their bodies, whether they had been chosen to be pleasers or not. The instructors wanted the women to all keep their bodies as fit as their minds. Lizbeth didn't mind the exercise; running was the only thing that had made her feel safe for as long as she could remember. She had been born and raised in this place, separated from her birth mother as soon as she was weaned off the teat. The women who directly had hands in her very early years often joked that she had begun to run before she was even able to walk.

Lizbeth lost herself on the track surrounding the exercise chamber. She was faster than any of the other women in the academy, and it wasn't only because she preferred to run. She was built differently than most of the girls she'd grown up with. Strong, thick, but short legs gave the impression that she would have to work harder for speed due to the muscle weight and smaller strides she was confined to, but on the contrary, the ease in which Lizbeth built and utilized her muscles made her legs much more efficient.

She had heard whispers from the instructors in regards to her differences in appearance. Her body wasn't the only way she stuck out. Almost every woman and girl in this place had dark skin, dark eyes and long, straight dark hair, while Lizbeth had cream colored skin, honeyed eyes and hair red as fire and just as unruly. Some of the instructors had even mentioned when they thought she wasn't listening that it was a shame she hadn't been selected by the pickers to learn the art of pleasing men so the instructors would have a chance to teach her. She had seen, only a handful of times, girls who were selected much later than they were supposed to be, and assignment changes, and she wanted nothing more than to blend in with the rest of the women and remain unassigned.

Lizbeth jogged steady around the track, looking at the other women as she did so. She was a part of group 3, which meant she and her group were the second to last women to exercise each morning and night. There were so many girls that even the massive exercise facility did not have enough room for all of the girls to work out at once so they were spilt into groups. Even then, the sheer quantity of women crowding the room made it difficult for the ones who wanted to switch stations, but hardly any of the other girls wanted to run, and so the track around the massive room was all Lizbeth's. As exercise hour drew to a close, she slowed her step until at a complete stop, and proceeded to stretch. Soon enough, she was following the other women out of the facility and back into the bright sunlight so she could make her way back to her cabin. As soon as she stepped inside, she had the undivided attention of her roommate.