Pawn {B.B} (1)

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Prologue (0,1)

They were bred as warriors.

From the day they could walk, they were tracking.

From the day they could hold something, they held a knife.

From the day they had control over their arms, they swung a sword.

Every breath they took was dedicated to becoming a warrior.

Every morning they trained to find, every afternoon they trained to fight, and every night they trained to hide.

Tyra trained to be the warrior her father and brothers had been, she trained to follow in her sibling's footsteps and serve the person they called Heda, their Commander.

She was a formidable warrior, there was no denying it, she left all the other kids her age to shame, even if she had only been trained by watching from afar.

But there was a reason Tyra had learnt the way she had.

She was born with a peculiarity that only two in Tyra's village carried, herself being one of those special two.

Tyra had blood as black and dark as her father's and sibling's burnt corpses. She was what they knew as a Natblida, a Nightblood.

To Trikru and any other nearing clan, the darkened blood was a blessing sent by Bekka Pramheda from the heavens. Any with such blood were destined to either live to Commander, or die trying.

But to a mother who had lost all but one of her children and the love of her life, all fighting for the ones who massacred their blood partners in order to ascend to a steel forged throne.

It was a curse.

A curse that had Tyra kept under wraps, far from any object that could draw a single drop of blood and expose who she was. Forcing the child to be sent to training and, ultimately, to her demise. Whether that be physical or mental.

Caron, Tyra's mother, managed to keep her secret for as long as six years of her daughter's life before she had been caught by another expectant family.

Though luck seemed to favour the two, as that other family held the same hatred towards black blood, and even had a daughter of their own suffering from the same affliction.

Lexa.

She became Tyra's first-ever friend, and her instructor once Caron finally agreed that her daughter needed basic battle skills that did not only come from viewing other children train as Lexa had been caught years prior and sent to train the fighting style of Commanders.

A training she gladly relayed to Tyra.

Their connection when sparing held strong as they both swung their swords as one, stepped around each other like two spring breezes countering the other. The way they released their arrows with matching exhales, both meeting their targets.

If their mothers hadn't known better, they would've thought Lexa and Tyra were born twins. Which in a certain sense they had.

The two shared secrets, tears, heartbeats, heartbreaks, sweat, and blood. Even from different mothers and upbringings, Tyra and Lexa were sisters in every sense of way either could think of.

What more could they have asked for?

But Tyra's relatively happy, fulfilled childhood had all been destroyed the year she had managed to fully disarm Lexa, a feat that had been all but impossible up until that point.

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It took Tyra thirteen long years of life, and seven years of friendship with Lexa for her sword to be buried at her feet, Tyra's own pointed at the other Natblida's neck.