Chapter 1

"Wake up Aurelia, you don't want to be late for breakfast else Hector and his minions will end up having your share and you'll have to go hungry for the whole day",Odin shook me and woke me up from my beautiful dream.

In my dream, I was finally sixteen and I had gone to receive my training which I've been dreaming of getting ever since I could remember.

I've never really wanted to get the training for anything other than finding a means to survive in the world outside, and possibly save enough money to set out in search of my parents.

I just wanted to find them and ask them,why did they give birth to me if they were going to end up discarding me?

"Aurelia Hayes, born on 16th September. Please take care of her",that was what the note read when they found me outside this orphanage, along with a necklace, that had a silver pendant shaped like a cross, but if you looked at it closely, one could say it was a crossbow. The detailing of the pendant was exquisite, and along the edges of the cross was lined with blue gemstones.

At least that was the story I was told when they handed me the note, alongwith the necklace and pendant, when I was ten years old,and started asking questions about who my parents were.

Living with a bunch of boys and being the only girl in the whole orphanage was no fun. Although there were only a few of us kids in the orphanage and our supervisor, Mr. Dolores Turner ,was kind enough to accommodate all of us, he wasn't always around when the boys tried to bully me for being different.

The teachers who came to teach us were no better, as they were all male teachers, and couldn't be bothered about my complaints, and that encouraged Hector and his friends to bully me even more.

Things got worse when I hit puberty at thirteen, and my periods came. I couldn't ask anyone on why all these changes were happening to me.

When, after gathering all my courage, I went to Mr. Turner's office to talk to him about it, he only flushed and instead handed me some books on female health and took me to the departmental store where he asked a female clerk to help me with my issue.

I was helped by that kind lady and was taught how to use tampons and pads if needed, and for the first time, I knew I was very much different from all the boys in the orphanage.

After returning to the orphanage, I was assigned a room in the other end of the building and I couldn't hang out with Odin,my best friend, as much as I could.

I still snuck in to his room at times, and he to mine,to look out for each other. He and I shared the same birthday, his was taken from when he was left at the orphanage and mine was written on the note.

As for now, he was here to warn me of Hector grabbing my breakfast if I didn't go to the dining hall right away.

"Aarrghh, if he dares steal my breakfast, I'll show him what my fist can do to his baby face",I told him and he laughed happily, knowing that Hector would be agitated if I called him babyface.

Hector Diaz and his side kick, Jason Murphy, were my two nemesis ever since I could remember.

They loved to bully me for being different from them, and since I moved out of the boys' dorm at thirteen, without any explanation from Mr. Turner's office, they found it a reason to bully me further and spread rumours about me saying I had a deadly disease which would spread to them if I touched them.

One time, when I was having my periods, my pants got stained, and they used that as proof of my deadly disease and warned everyone that if they touched me, they would be infected as well.

I didn't bother about their gossips much as I didn't want to hang out with just anyone except my best friend Odin Austin, and he wasn't deterred by what they spoke about me, and that was enough for me.

"Let's head out for breakfast then,shall we?", I said after washing up and a change of clothes.

Our orphanage didn't house many kids and we were given basic education till upto the age of sixteen, and once we reached sixteen, depending on our talents, we would be given trainings for two years, before we were left on our own to survive in the society.

At least that was what was passed down from our seniors, but nobody was sure about what sort of jobs those seniors had ended up in as we never heard back from them after they left the orphanage, but who would come back to their not so great past.

"Here comes the outcast. Stay away from them if you don't want to be infected as well",Hector announced as soon as I entered the dining hall.

"Grow up Hector. Its called menstruation, which none of you will get cause you're just dumb males",I retorted back with my regular dialogue at him.

"And you're the special one just because you get it?",he said laughing at me and I didn't want to continue arguing with words so I showed him my clenched fist,after which he just looked at me and left.

After I was sent to the other end of the building, since I had no one to talk to, I had ended up reading all sorts of books and trained myself in martial arts and all sorts of fighting techniques I could land on youtube.

Lucky for me, my end of the building housed the library and with it, the computer which had access to the internet, and since the boys were afraid and scared of getting 'infected', I had all the freedom to access it anytime I wanted.

Hector had been the first one to get a taste of my fight skills after I had been bullied into fighting with him ,and from that day onwards, he always tried to avoid getting into fights with me.

"So, I heard that the elders are visiting on Friday, which happens to be our birthday. This time,it will be you, me, Hector and Jason, who will be sent out for the training", Odin said as we were munching on the croissants and pancakes that was for breakfast.

"Do you think we'll be sent to separate places or together? Like in a school or something?",I asked curious to know if he had gathered any information regarding our training from his meeting with Mr. Turner yesterday.

"No idea Aura", he said,using the pet name he gave me when we were both five and he couldn't spell my name right.

"Aurelia and Odin, both of you come to my office after you're done with your breakfast",Mr. Turner's voice came from behind us and we nodded and quickly gulped down our breakfast, before following Mr. Turner to his office.