Akira Rises (22 page)

A tapping on the wall alerted her someone was outside her door. Akira hopped out of bed expecting to greet her mother. She pulled back the heavy curtain that acted as a door, clad only in a sleeping chemise. Much to her surprise, it was not her mother, who had hovered over her for days, it was Dimitri.

“Oh you!” Akira looked at him in surprise. “What are you doing here?” she pulled the curtain closed so that just her face peeked out.
He has already seen far too much of me. He is far too handsome. I must be careful.

Dimitri cleared his throat. Why does she look so tempting with her sleep mussed hair hanging down over her shoulders that are barely covered with a rather sheer white sleeping gown? He groaned inwardly. He wanted to pull the curtain back.

“I’m here to speak with you about your mother's wish for you to become proficient with weaponry, among other things. Before the other candidates join us for breakfast, we need to discuss the terms by which I agreed to take you on as a student, as a warrior candidate. Please dress and join me in the main dining hall.” He turned abruptly and left her.

Although Dimitri said, 'please join me,' Akira sensed it was more of an order than a request. It was tempting to for her to take her time, just because, well just because she did not like to take orders. No matter her irritation at being ordered about, curiosity made her dress quickly. She ignored the dress her mother had provided and quickly donned her old recently cleaned form fitting breeches and her chamois shirt. A wool sleeveless tunic over the shirt was all she need to stay warm despite the winter conditions. Akira still wondered at the warmth inside the monastery. Out of habit, Akira scraped her hair back and quickly braided it into a sensible braid that would keep her hair out of her face.

The sanctuary was comfortably and marvelously warm, heated by hot water channeled through the rooms and caves, hot water flowing in trenches and a labyrinth of wooden troughing. Lighting was achieved with torches and daylight reflected through the ingenious use of mirrors, and light refracting crystals that hung like chandeliers of candles. Candles suspended beneath the crystals provided an alternate source of light for the crystals to send their yellow light about to dance about the rooms when the sun retired for the long evenings, and moonlight was only sufficient for the open snow covered courtyards. Monks polished and cleaned the crystals daily. A few rocks seemed to absorb light and they made a soft glow for a few hours before their light faded away. Akira had not known such rocks existed. She was in awe of the sanctuary. She wanted to explore it, but contained her curiosity.

Akira presented herself to the dining hall where delicious smells of ham wafted from the kitchen partitioned off to the side of the dining hall. No longer did she need a guide to find her way there. The chatter of cooks was a happy chatter in the background. There was even laughter. The relaxed atmosphere was in sharp contrast to anything she had ever known. Dimitri signaled for her to seat herself across from him at one of the long plank tables lined with benches on both sides. Cronus and Crow were signaled to join them.

“Lady Shy has requested that we train Akira to be a warrior.” Dimitri looked at his men. Their eyebrows raised. Few women were trained as warriors but it had been done before.

Akira looked surprised. Her request to learn to fight had always been denied in the past. She blurted out, “You jest!” |she could not believe her ears.

“No I do not jest. She asked that we train you to defend yourself and others. Is this agreeable to you, Lady Akira?”

“Yes but please do not refer to me as Lady Akira. Akira will suffice. I’m not a lady.” Akira realized how stupid that sounded when Dimitri raised his eyebrows. “Well I’m female, but do not hold that against me. For saint’s sake, you know what I mean!”

“Perfect... as you will be shown no special considerations as a trainee.” Dimitri tried very hard not to smile. Akira had acted anything but like a lady since he met her. Crow was about to comment and Dimitri kicked his shin under the table.

“Is this understood that Akira will train as hard as the rest of the young men wanting into the order?” He looked pointedly at his men. “The only modifications will be with weight bearing weapons and tasks. No one can expect a person of a small size to lift as much as a man twice their size, and she will not be expected to sleep in the trainees' quarters until we can accommodate her need for a certain necessary privacy.”

Akira bristled. “Do I’ve a choice?” Men making decisions for her did not sit well. She frowned.

“You have a choice to accept an invitation into our training program, or reject it. But after that, you have no choices, save choices how to respond to what is asked of you and what you are ordered to do.”

The men stared at Akira, studying her reaction to the terms. Her hostility seemed to dissipate as soon as she was given a choice. Cronus made a mental note. Akira did not like taking orders from men. He smiled at Dimitri. This was going to prove to be entertaining if she agreed to the terms.

“You will be treated as an equal among the trainees.” added Crow.

“How refreshing that will be,” retorted the blue eyed young woman.

“You will take orders without question.” Dimitri added.

“As long as soft skulls do not ask more or less of me than you would of your trainees with penises, I can handle that.”

Cronus burst out laughing. “Tis a good thing we dropped the lady title!”

Akira smiled. “Yes, the lady thing has just meant oppression all my life. I see no benefits to being a 'lady.'”

“Good!” interjected Dimitri. “Because there will no benefits to be enjoyed because you are not a penis packing candidate.”

“Good, because my observations have been that men think with their little heads far more than the one on top of their shoulders. Penises are a distinct disadvantage.”

Crow could not contain his laughter. He guffawed and tears rolled out of his eyes. She had a point, and the fiery way she made it was refreshing. Dimitri was going to have his hands full.

Akira did not laugh. She was as serious as she could be. She looked at the men trying to contain their mirth. She would show them, she thought. To be allowed to fight, to be allowed to train with weapons was a dream come true. How hard could it be if they allowed for her size difference and nothing more or less?

“I accept your invitation. When do we start?”

Dimitri saw that stubborn look in her eyes he was starting to recognize. If he could harness it in the right way, it would serve her well.

“We start right now, bring me my breakfast. Make sure it is hot.”

Akira swallowed her retort. She recognized this first test was to see if she could obey. “Yes sir.” She stood up and headed for the kitchen.
Bring it on donkey dung, I can fake obedience with the best of them.
She pasted a smile on her face and pleasantly requested a breakfast plate for Dimitri.

“Heavy on the pepper please,” she said as she watched as the plates being filled with ham, fried potatoes, eggs scrambled, all heaped upon the wooden plates. “More pepper please.” She grabbed the pepper bowl and added more spice under the eggs. She tried not to smile as she delivered the plate of hot food.
Hot is coming up. Game on you guys. I’ve lived under the rule of a super asshole and survived.

Akira retreated to the table where young men were sitting waiting for their breakfasts to be served. She sat at the end of one bench and introduced herself. “I’m Akira and you are?” She forced herself to talk to the young men but her attention was elsewhere.

Dimitri watched Akira sit at the far table. The cheeky young woman walked away as if she had dismissed him instead of the other way round. He blindly stabbed into his eggs. When the burning bite of the pepper laced eggs started he would have laughed if the eggs were not so damned hot that he wanted to spit them out. But he could not. Crow and Cronus were watching for his reaction. They had noticed the amount of pepper on his food and under his eggs when Dimitri was too busy watching Akira to notice his breakfast was indeed going to be a hot one. Akira too was watching, with quick glances across the tables that separated them. He gulped. To be fair he had said “make sure it is hot.” Indeed, she made sure it was hot. Beads of sweat poured down his face by the time he finished. As the rest of Dimitri's men sat down to join him for breakfast, there was much hilarity and guffaws. When he went to the kitchen and came back with a jug of cold milk, a fresh round of laughter made Akira cover a big grin with her hand. Dimitri took it in stride. He laughed with his men.
Little witch, someday I will make you burn.
He thought of things he could do to make her burn with passion.
Learn your lessons well, Akira, learn them fast.

Soon all the trainees had burning muscles. Endurance training started with running up and down stairs with a heavy rock in each hand. There were many levels in the sanctuary, hence many stairs. At the end of the exercise, Akira came in almost last. The only young man lagging behind her was a heavy-set fellow who obviously enjoyed someone’s' cooking just a trifle too much. When her legs still felt like they wanted to fold underneath her from climbing the stairs repetitively, the chin up bar made her groan. She could not pull her chin up over the bar. Cronus was barking at her. He gave her long braid a small tug upwards.

“Not helping...” Akira managed to finish with “sir”, instead of “asshole.”

“Get your chin up girl! Sissy female pull, ...pull!” He shouted “grow some balls girl!”

Akira groaned, and could not help herself. She let go of the bar, put her hands on her hips. “I don't need the extra useless weight sir!

Cronus glared back fiercely as he could manage. He wanted to laugh. He pointed to the bar. Akira struggled with the bar again, and again and again. Akira was frustrated beyond words. She remembered hanging from ladder bars and crossing them easily, swinging with ease, carrying her own weight. That was before the changes to her body happened and playing in the men's exercise courtyard when the men were away had been forbidden by her mother. She tried to always obey her mother. If Akira misbehaved, it was her mother who suffered the most. Even summoning the strength that came with anger, she felt like from the waist down she was weighted with lead.

It was small consolation that the chubby guy could only do one chin up. Sweat broke out on Akira's forehead. Was this payback for Dimitri's peppery sweat at breakfast? If it was, she told herself it was worth it. She could break a sweat and smile too. Her smile looked more like a grimace. She managed the sit ups without disgracing herself too much, and swore tomorrow she would bind her breasts so they did not bounce around during the vigorous exercises. She was sure a few eyes strayed to her chest more than once. What did female warriors wear? She hoped her mother could answer that question. Hell if she would ask a man.

By the end of the day, Akira was exhausted and sore. Her companions stripped down to loin clothes and headed for the rejuvenation pool. Akira was too tired to take exception to seeing so many naked asses leave the men's barracks. They joked about the white loin cloths. They were handed towels to wear to the water. Akira was handed a larger towel. Apparently, she was expected to join them in the pool. She did so with her towel tied tightly to preserve her modesty. The men were too tired to appreciate her long shapely legs and bared arms. And if they did notice, they wisely kept their comments to themselves.

They had been warned that she was to be treated as an equal, as a comrade in arms. Teamwork was part of the expected behavior, teamwork befitting the high standards of the White Rose Order. Trainers could curse the trainees, belittle them, be harsh and demanding, but comrades were forbidden to harass each other. Very few women trained as warriors, but it was not unheard of. It was just uncommon. Usually women trained in a group of their own, but this training season there had been no women seeking to become warriors.

Hence Akira would train with men, eat with men, and sleep in the men’s barracks in a corner of the barrack with a curtain to give privacy when dressing and undressing. A monk was assigned to sleep outside her curtain. Should any man pay her any disrespect he could expect to lose a body part near and dear to his heart. Akira was to become a full-fledged warrior. Any man who objected to the arrangement had been given a chance to leave. Not one left. Perhaps they thought it was beneath their dignity to object, and perhaps some thought she would never last the training regimen before dropping out.

It had been a bit of a shock to come back to her room and find her things gone, moved to the men’s barracks. The equality expectation was taken very seriously. She was nervous until she saw the curtain and the monk assigned to sleep outside of her curtain was the monk who had worked in the infirmary when she was recovering. Little did Akira know that the curtain served another purpose than to shield her modesty. If she were to have another floating experience, it would be hidden. No one had yet told her of her fevered levitation episode. Mage Morgan would be the one to decide how and when it would be best to inform Akira of her potential gifts from the gods and mage blood lines.

Dimitri moved back into the barracks. His men did not joke or jest. They still did not know what had transpired between Dimitri and Akira at the inn at the bottom of the mountain. There were some lines they did not cross with Dimitri. They too moved back into the barracks. Akira did not know how safe she was. She had won some heart space with his men already. Her spunk in traveling alone, her uncomplaining trip up the mountain had won them over. She had just unknowingly inherited a new set of older brothers, other than Dimitri who could not claim brotherly feelings. The monk was there more or less as a security blanket for Akira, by order of Lady Shy. Until Akira could defend herself skillfully and earned the respect of a warrior, Lady Shy demanded the temporary concession. Dimitri bowed to her wisdom. Actually, he felt a bit of relief, for some reason he did not want other men looking at Akira as anything but as a warrior candidate, and ultimately a skilled warrior, who could stick a sword into any man foolish enough to offend her.