Breathing heavily, she glided back toward the front of the barn, pulling the daggers from the targets and placing them back in their sheaths. Bent over once more, she repeated her breathing routine. After several deep breaths her head snapped up once more with the same burning intensity in her eyes. Again...
After the inhuman set of drills had ended, Jade put on her clothes, then climbed the rope one last time and sat alone in the loft. Lying in the hay, her mind began replaying the events of the last few years. She thought about the purging of Brinton that had changed her life forever. She had been placed there with a surrogate family when she was just a baby. The ones she had called mother and father, or Tamera and Grimton, were actually two of the personal bodyguards to Ilirra Marosia, the Queen of Taron.
The Queen felt that the small town of Brinton was unassuming enough that her bodyguards could secretly train the child without ever being detected. The Queen was well aware of the prophecies, and knew the continued existence of humanity would depend on the success of the Gate Keeper. She was informed by her prophets that he had indeed been born, but not of his location. Only one man knew where he was, and he was not to reveal this information under any circumstances. Not even to the queen!
Jade had never known her real parents. She was just given minimal details of how they were both great warriors, the perfect breeding stock for the perfect offspring. This was why she was chosen in the first place. Donated like an old pair of shoes. Her only job now was to find the Gate Keeper and be his guide. Her years of training went far beyond combat skills.
She was given intimate details of all the towns and cities in Tarmerria, made to understand their different customs, right down to their sense of fashion. If she was to be the Gate Keeper’s guide, she needed to know everything about Tarmerria. This sort of knowledge was not common at all, considering most folk lived and died in the town they were born in. Many would never even see another location outside of their own town walls.
By the night of the raid, Jade had already been living in Brinton alone for a year. Tamera and Grimton had finished her training and had returned to Taron. She was left with a silver necklace with a yellow stone encased in a gold border attached to the chain. With this, she would be able to find the Gate Keeper when the time was right.
She remembered that fateful night well.
There was a young boy she would sneak out to play with sometimes. Her identity had to remain a secret, and when he was being hurt right in front of her by the raiders, she had to seem weak and helpless. She did nothing but watch, finally springing into action when it was too late. That scene gave her nightmares for years after that.
She also recalled the leather that betrayed the others and came to her aid even though she didn’t need it and was captured himself—yet another memory that haunted her sleep. That man’s skill far surpassed the others’. He had killed two seasoned leathers in the blink of an eye like they were children. The man had forfeited his life for her, and for that she was in his debt, although she had no idea where he was now. Sold into slavery no doubt, and probably forced to fight in the games if he was even still alive.
After being forced to flee Brinton she was lucky enough to stumble upon this farm. She secretly used the barn for shelter for a little while. After spying on the house for days, she determined the man living in the house was not only alone, but quite senile as well. It was easy to work her charm from there, letting herself get discovered in the barn and simply convincing the sweet old man she would not be any trouble if he let her stay.
Ben was his name, but he seemed to like it when she called him father. She liked it as well. Ben was the closest thing she had ever had to a father. She had lived with Grimton for years, pretending to be his daughter, but those years were spent in constant study and training, getting whipped if she did not learn the lessons fast enough. It never even came close to feeling like a family.
She had been caged up her whole life and often cried when she thought of how lonely she felt. How unfair it seemed, never being able to play with the other children like a normal kid. She never had sleepovers, went fishing, or even kissed a boy, for that matter. Lying down in the hay, her mind continued to swirl, focusing on more current problems. Stupid girl, she thought to herself. How greedy am I?