Home of the Warrior...Chapter 1

An Origional Story by KanaZimmerman

"Come on! Pick it up, Luna!" came Kraus' voice across the battle field

'How can he tell?' she wondered. "Okay," she mumbled to herself. "Time to get serious!" She swung her sword and landed a blow on the man in front of her. He crumpled at the force and fell, blood spilling from the deep gash she had just given him. She turned and spun around the guy rushing toward her, then she knocked him out with the back of her sword to his neck .

"I'm almost done here," she called, throwing down another man.

"Good. Don't leave anyone alive," he commanded.

"Of course not."That was common knowledge; the common way they did these things.

After a while Kraus got fed up. "Enough of this," he murmered. He gathered his strength and threw back the rest of the attackers with his power of wind. "Let's go, Luna." She stood from her crouched stance.

"Right behind you," she said following.

He sighed."We need to train. That took way too long."

"Yes," she agreed. "Someone could have gotten caught up with them. If they had taken another person into their clutches..."

"We need to work on your special attacks." He said as she slung her weapon behind her. "More power, more speed."

"Yes." She followed him into the tall trees.

"You are one of the few people in this world who can use a sword like that. I believe you have special power and strength," he said, moving aside a bit of brush.

Specail power? What did that mean? She followed him into their camp; it was cleverly hidden. Even Kraus would admit to that, and he wasn't easily impressed. It was hidden by a cloaking charm, one of the few spells that worked in this world. The others Kraus had brought back from the 'other side,' as he called it, were uneffectual.

Luna, now inside the spell, sat and started to clean her sword. Each time there was less and less blood. But maybe she was just getting stronger. She pulled the cloth cover off and wiped with a small rag.

Rub rub rub.

"Luna."

A blast of air shot past her head, blowing her dark black hair amiss.

"Wha...?"

"Fight, " said Kraus, standing as he recovered from the kick that had nearly landed on Luna. He stood, ready to deflect anything. "Train."

She sighed and said, "Again? But why? We just finished that fight."

Luna dogged a punch just in time. Kraus recovered and replied, "Because...it took too long. And you know what could happed."

She stood and was hit by a tremendous punch to her side. She stumbled back and caught her breath quickly.

"Alright," she said. "You wanna train- hurag!- " she punched, missed, and spun to regain her balance. "This'll train you!" She kicked and missed again; he used the opening to dig his elbow into her back. She fell down.

"Come on," he said. "I'm disapointed. Weren't you better before?" he taunted.

"That's because," she muttered as she stood shakely. "Because I don't have my sword..." She brushed some dirt off of her arm.

"You won't always be able to use your sword," Kraus responded. "Hand to hand will give you better coordination. Now train."

"But-" she started.

"No!" he growled. "We have to get better. Stronger. Faster. Or we won't be able to complete our mission. You know this, Luna. We have to be better than everyone."

"...Yes," she said quietly. "Yes, I know."

"Good. Enough for today."

"W-what?!" she said, shocked. "But you just said..."

Kraus just walked on, and Luna was left to poilsh her weapon.

**End chapter 1**