New Life

Lucilia sat down, a large pile of meat stacked upon each piece on her plate. "Are you really going to eat all that?" I asked Lucilia, my hands reaching for the cutlery so I can eat my own food. Lucilia didn't respond but she just looked at me and gave me a slight smile as she began to dig into her food like it was her last meal.

Later, after Lucilia had finished eating, she said "Now children, about that training of yours".

My prior vigor had vanished, and I became stressed, training talk didn't sound very fun. What if I got hurt, maybe I could die even. I quickly calmed myself realising my thoughts were irrational, but the thought of injury still lingered on my mind. "It's not going to hurt is it?" I said out loud, it was meant to be a thought. I looked down at my plate avoiding the gaze of Flora and Lucilia, a blush of embarrassment appearing on my face.

All Lucilia did was laugh while Flora looked at Lucilia confused, probably wondering why she was laughing. "Oh, little one" she responded continuing to laugh before speaking once more, "of course it's going to hurt, headaches, burnt skin, missing nails, deafness for days, dehydration, vomiting, muscle aches, muscle tears, broken bones, cuts, bruises, any injury you can think of will happen and if you want to reduce the chances of any of this happening we should get you to bed" she exclaimed before finishing her food quickly and picking me and Flora off our chairs by our shirts and dragging us to our bedroom. "Want a bedtime story before I turn the lights off?" Lucilia asked placing a hand on a chair situated at a desk in our room.

I nodded quickly, "You were going to tell us one anyway..." I said scratching my head as I pulled the doona over my front and laid my head back onto the pillow shutting my eyes. The night was going to be cold, the night was going to be cold every night, every day too, the outside world had been grey since war times and from as far as I could tell, it was going to be grey for many years to come.

Lucilia then pulled out the chair sitting on it with a thud, her wounded leg not helping. "You're a smart ass, how about 'The Man atop the Mountain', it might help you two set some goals for your training, things to strive for in life" she said before rubbing her eyes and looking back at us. "It all starts in the Capital. The King's wife, the Queen had just given birth to their sixth child, a boy. Stories tell that the boy possessed no natural talent for the blade or magic, but there was hope the Royal Family had said, people didn't believe it. Years went by as the boy grew older, people now held a vendetta for the kid. 'How could the Royal Family produce such a weak candidate for King, it was despicable' the people of the kingdom had said explaining their anger towards the boy. Headlines had spread by the time of the sixth coming of Royalty, a tournament where people would test their skill and strength in combat by fighting people similar to them in age with a range of five years older and five years younger. The tournament was to demonstrate the capabilities of the young talent in Kingdom, but the Royal Family had always used it as a humiliation ground for the commoners in which the Royalty would usually destroy their opponents with relative ease. The people of the Kingdom didn't care a whole lot about this though, the thrill of battle was something everybody of the Kingdom had enjoyed ever since the first tournament where a close battle occurred in the semi-finals of the tournament between Daisy and Scarlet." Lucilia then looked at the kids. "Rude" she said, the kids were asleep, Flora half off the bed and Soli drooling a river down his cheek.

Later that night Soli was sleep talking, a nightmare was being experienced. "Mum, Dad!" Soli had been yelling from across the tunnel, but nothing was yelled back. "This...No, this isn't right" Soli's eyes losing their soul as he turned to leave the tunnel, he hadn't felt the large rock going straight through his calf. The Purple Flame had begun to lead Soli out the tunnel, but the exit was blocked by a red wall of liquid, a strong smell wafting through the air. Not knowing what to do Soli punched the red wall, a yell escaping his mouth. The punch connecting splattering the strange red liquid onto his face and into his mouth. "A taste of iron" Soli had said before vomiting. "It's blood!" Soli yelled once more before being woken up from the terrible nightmare by a Flora chewing on his cheek. "Flora, I'm not a piece of meat for you to eat" but this didn't stop Flora from continuing to chew on his cheek.

"Okay that's enough, it hurts!" Soli said before pushing Flora's face away from his cheek. "Now I have to clean my cheek" Soli said with a sigh before pushing Flora completely off him and letting her roll off the bed onto the floor clutching a pillow. Soli opens a curtain slightly and peers outside, day had come as the sun crossed the horizons, the sun blinding him for a moment before he shut the curtain then walking into the bathroom. "That girl... annoying" Soli said as he turned the sink's tap on and began to clean the saliva and blood off his cheek.

"Wakey, Wakey you little monkeys, today you experience hell" Lucilia said slamming the door open and throwing clothes at me and Flora who had been frightened from the loud noise of Lucilia slamming open the door, she had started crawling into the corner of the room before being hit in the face by clothes that Lucilia had prepared for us. It's training week, get dressed into the gear and meet me at the ammunition storage, take longer than five minutes and I will make you do the training's twice over so hurry up!" she said loud and stern before leaving and slamming the door shut.