Preparing For War [Minerva's Training Thread]

Minerva had woken that morning to darkness. She had panicked, her breathing becoming quick and shallow until she realized that is was simply her thick crimson locks covering her one good eye. She sat in bed for almost half an hour later, her hands in her face in shame. Her fear of loosing her other eye along with the first was crippling. She didn't know what she would do if she were to be plunged into a world of eternal darkness. It was a fear that she didn't think she could ever surpass. She spent a couple more minutes calming her breathing before she moved out of bed. She looked out of the window in her room and realized that it wasn't even dawn yet. Her parents wouldn't be awake for hours and she had told her mother that they would spend the day together. She decided that she would go out and train for a bit. The cold air would clear her head and put her in the correct mindset.

Not too long after she was out in a raining field near her house. She hadn't dawned her armor, choosing instead to put on a pair of loose hakama and bind her chest with a bit of gauze. She was bare foot, though the sand that filled the training it felt good between her toes. It bound her to Gaia's surface somewhat. She could already feel the cold clutches of her nightmare slipping away into nothingness with each passing moment. She looked at the training dummies present in the field and took a deep breath. She held out her hand and Heartsbane was there in a swirl of smoke. She had sworn to never draw it unless it was to end the life of a Pandoran, but training for that purpose was an acceptable loophole. She began hacking and slashing at the nearest dummy with fervor. Left, right, up and down. Within moments her blade became a whirl of deadly silver.

It took Minerva a few minutes to realize that she had hacked the dummy into a post. Its arms were in splinters on the ground and she had sliced off the head long ago. She took a deep breath and looked at her blade to make sure there was no damage. She sheathed her blade, deciding that training wasn't worth the training. She looked at the remnants of the dummy and shook her head, someone would be around to replace it. Maybe.

She moved onto the next dummy and began her routine again, though this time with her sheathed blade. It bounced off the wood, though that didn't deter her in the least. She kept up her assault, the sheath connecting and soon leaving dents in the wood. With every stroke of her weapon, she could feel all of her fears melting away. Here, training, nothing like that could touch her. The battle field and anything associated with it was her comfort zone, her territory. Nothing touched her in her territory that she didn't want to touch her. She truly had the makings of a goddess of battle. She brought down Heartsbane hard on the dummy's left arm, the wooden limb splintering and falling to the ground. She stopped, her breath slightly labored from the work. She needed to check her strength. She didn't want to destroy the entire training field. Heartsbane vanished much like it appeared, in a swirl of smoke.

She moved to the next dummy, a roll of gauze in her hand as she began wrapping her hands. Once she was done, the roll vanished and she began her assault on the dummy. Her fists blurred as she struck again and again. The sting felt amazing and she could feel the reverberations in her very bones. Sword play was amazing, but Minerva found that hand-o-hand combat gave her a powerful thrill. She lost herself as her entire body became a weapon, a sharpened blade that could cut down any target. Even her fears and insecurities. It didn't matter that she had lost an eye, she was able to take out a grown man with her strength alone. She was powerful, she had no reason to fear. She was lost in thought, so she barely noticed when she jumped up into a spin kick, her foot slamming into the side of the dummy's head and taking it clean off. It went flying and she landed in a crouch. She took a moment to catch her breath, just looking at the headless dummy.

By the time she stood her breathing was even and the sweat was cooling on her skin, sending a small shiver down her spine. She looked away from the dummy out onto the horizon, watching the sun rise from its slumber. How long had she been out here? She hadn't kept track whilst she was trying to run from the fears that plagued her dreams. She let out a sigh and closed her eye. She would have to deal with her fears at some point in time. She couldn't let it rule what she did and she couldn't run from it when it became too much. She would have to overcome it...but she just wasn't ready. Running would have to do for now.

She made her way back home, noticing the streets beginning to come to life. The people who were out paid her no mind, deciding their tasks were more important than the half naked girl walking down the street. When she reached her home, she made her way up to her room silently. She removed the wraps on her hands and on her chest as well as her other articles of clothing. She made her way to the shower and let the water wash over her form, warming her from the cold that began to seep into her form and cleaning the sweat from her skin. When she got out, she began to work on drying her hair. It had always been a symbol of beauty for her. Everyone complimented it and it was her own favorite feature. She brushed it out and made sure it fell in just the right way. She covered her eye with her bang before getting up. She put on a under shirt, a skirt and socks. One swirl of smoke later and she was clad in grieves, a chest plate, pauldrons and gauntlets. She touched her cheek, right under her missing eye as she looked into the mirror. She would definitely have to overcome her fear. Someday. She turned and strode out of her room to wake her parents.

Word Count: 1100/1000

Training For:

Approved

Minerva awoke in her room, her one eye looking about inquisitively. Was she going to train today, or was she going to be lazy? Kori was off somewhere, probably stalking her sister and her teammates, and Audra was probably stalking Kori. Summer-sensei had decided to spend the day with Cherish-hime whilst Omito-sama was off doing some mission or another. She was alone for today. She decided to turn over and try to get some more shut eye before she really got up, seeing as the sun had yet to rise. She slept and she dreamed of hummingbirds. They fluttered around her and played with her hair, their wings gently tickling her skin and drawing loud giggles from the young girl. Her wonder was increased when she grew wings of her own, much like that of the hummingbirds around her, and took to the air. She flew through clouds and danced through the air, the hummingbirds flying next to her all the while. She was happy and smiling and she never wanted this dream, this paradise, to end.

But then her world erupted in fire. Another sun sprouted in the sky, this one black and tainted, a cruel juxtaposition to the radiance that was the original. She looked up in horror as her birds fled. She then saw two figures locked in a death match, one with fiery wings of blazing radiance and another cloaked in black shadows. The first was a woman, as far as Minerva could tell, with blazing red hair and a robe of what looked like molten gold made into fabric. The other was a male, with charcoal black skin decorated with pure white markings, making him appear as a skeleton. She didn't know how, but she knew that the cloaked figure was not the evil one, despite his rather harrowing visage. She could tell he represented an absolute that the world could not exist with out, and that the woman with the blazing wings represented the end to that absolute, the destruction of the natural order.

She willed her body to move, to do something, but she was frozen in place, watching the battle rage on. The woman held two blades of what seemed like pure obsidian and the male held a triple bladed scythe. They clashed over and over, drawing up wounds on each other but neither really bleeding. The woman then began to fire off balls of flame, each with varying colors. The male would either cut the flames in twain, or avoid them completely. The battle raged and raged and the area around them was soon engulfed in flames. Minerva hadn't truly noticed that the world beneath her was a lush forest, but now she would never be able to enjoy it. Everything would burn.

Soon the woman got the upper hand, snapping the male's scythe with one blade and piercing his chest with the other. The male gave a scream as he turned into an orb of light before being absorbed into the woman's form. Her flaming wings turned black, as did the original sun, bathing the world in a dark light. She gave a loud cackle that seemed to shake the very foundation of the earth, sending chills down Minerva's spine. This woman was going to destroy the world... Minerva needed to act. This woman needed to be stopped. Before she realized what she was doing, before she realized she could move again, Minerva was closing the distance, two blades of her own appearing in her hands. The woman turned as she got close, meeting her the last bit of the way in a flash of steel...

Minerva woke up breathing heavily. The sun was peaking over the horizon outside of her window, greeting the girl's panicked face. Her head whipped about her room, looking for any sign of the woman. She wasn't there and Minerva fell back onto her bed with a sigh of relief. It was just a dream. She decided that staying in bed was probably not going to be her activity for the day. She needed to get out. She needed to take her mind off of what she had seen there. And what better way to do that than training? It was her crutch, it had been since she was adopted, and that would not change now. There was no reason for it to change, really. It worked.

She found herself at the training grounds in front of a willing partner in what seemed like no time at all. She had gotten dressed quickly, binding her small chest and putting on a tight fitting shirt as well as her training pants for the occasion. She wrapped her hands and her feet as well, due to the fact that she didn't want anymore callouses or blisters than she already had. They were no fun. She had seen the girl she was to spar against besting the others at sword play like it was nothing. She found a reminder of herself in her peer and decided the girl was as good an opponent as any to test her skills against. It was a long moment before the fight started, but when it did start, the girl thought she was going to get the upper hand on Minerva. She was wrong. Minerva had been examining her thoroughly, keying into her body's movements. She synced herself to the girl with ease and then, she was gone. The onlookers could see Minerva plainly, but the girl couldn't. She wouldn't be able to until it was too late. To be completely honest, it was too late the moment the spar had been agreed upon. Minerva appeared suddenly within the girl's field of vision and swept her off her feet like it was the easiest thing she had ever done. She then gave the girl a kick to her stomach that sent her sprawling, all the while keeping her hand on her sword's hilt and her blade in its sheath. She knew she wouldn't need it. She turned with a small sigh, her nightmare forgotten, and began walking away. She made herself invisible to the girl until she was far enough away, in case she decided to follow. Minerva would hate to have to put someone so much like herself in her place.

WC: 1046/1000

Training For:

Approved

Fire, burning bright. Blazing red hair that was not her own, accented by the black flames of wings and the molten gold of attire. Blades flew, blood spilled. None of the blood was from the woman, because whatever wounds the girl landed resulted in the woman's skin fracturing and splintering away only to have the injuries burnt away by a golden flame. The scared girl was losing this battle to the evil woman, she knew. Her wings were growing tired and her arms ached from swinging her swords so much. She wouldn't last long at this rate... Her life was over and she had failed. A blow came from the woman's sword, the blade descending directly for the girl's midsection in order to cleave her in twain. As the blade reached her form, however, it rebounded. A fine armor of crystal had taken form upon her body, coating her wings with glittering elegance. A visor of the same crystal formed about her eyes and she felt a resolve within her flare up. She had almost given up, but this had given her strength. This woman would not break her Will, and the battle had only just begun.

Minerva's eyes fluttered open and she looked up at the ceiling of her bedroom. This was odd, seeing as though her bed had a canopy that hid her room's ceiling. She found that she was on her floor, her fluffy rug very comfortable beneath her. She sat up and looked about, wondering how she had gotten down here. She could've sworn she had gotten into her bed when she went to sleep...  She shook her head free of the thought and stood, moving to her wardrobe in order to dress. Rather than her usual armor, she picked a sleeveless black turtleneck shirt to wear alongside a plaid shirt. Thigh high socks and knee-high boots were also today's order, she found. She pulled her hair back into a ponytail, but her bang stayed over her missing eye. Once she was ready for the day, she left her room and head downstairs, greeting her adoptive mother with a cheery tone. They ate breakfast and made pleasant conversation, though all the while Minerva thought about what she was going to spend the day doing. She decided that she would practice the Trackless Step Summer-sensei had taught her. She needed to get the basics down and she knew just how to do it.

She left her home and formulated a plan in her head. She went down to the training yards and made a show of looking like an enamored little fangirl. People were used to her wearing her armor or training clothes there. She was sure they would hardly recognize her like this. Minerva was glad for her budding body when a boy took notice in her developing curves. She exchanged a few sultry glances with him and he gave her more than a couple dazzling smiles. After about ten minutes of this, she beckoned for him to follow her, beginning to walk away from the training grounds. She lead him through the streets nearby, taking several twists and turns along the way. She did this to make him think where she was taking him was a secret place, rather than to try and ditch him. After sometime, she turned down and alley and he followed, with a triumphant grin. She let him get closer, closer, closer... then she was gone. He could no longer hear her or see her, nor could he sense her presence. He looked around wildly to see where she had gone, but she slipped past him skillfully. She happened to snatch a kunai from his belt holster and attached a small note to it, imbedding it in the wall at the opening of the alley with her impressive strength before walking away. She held a smile on her face, knowing she had gotten better with performing those disappearing acts.

Meanwhile the boy was back at the alley, reading the note written in an elegant script:
'Better luck next time <3'

WC: 676/500

Training For:

Approved