The Damsel of Dauntless

Chapter One

Disclaimer: I don't own Divergent, everything belongs to Veronica Roth (except for my character Emilia Sable and other new characters that I just made up for the purpose of making them up).

*This story is set outside of the Tris/Four/Divergent world. But I will still keep the main characters for possible cameos (etc.) and they will still be in character. But this is mainly a romance/drama story - no Divergents in this. But there may be something in the future. Let's see where the story takes me :) Thanks for reading! Please read and review if you like it so I'll know if I should keep going or not.*

I'm fast. Ever since I was a kid I was fast in every part of my being. I ran fast, talked fast, I even ate fast; much to my mother's dismay. I'm currently running fast. Through the Amity apple orchards, towards my home. I'm late for dinner and I can already hear my mother's calm voice in my head saying, "Emilia Sable. Better never than late." The last time I was late to dinner, my mother sent me to bed without one morsel to eat, and when I'm hungry, it's not a pretty sight. I am a growing girl after all. I have a lean body and a slim physique, and in recent months parts of my body have grown to be more…noticeable. It's not something I think I'll ever get used to, but many of the girls my age who are going through similar changes are proud of their new bodies, so I act as though I'm proud as well, but really, I feel uncomfortable.

At sixteen years old, I stand at 5'7 and now tower over my petite mother. My father and my two older brothers, Sam and Alex are still taller than I am, but not by much. My wavy hair, now de-shelved from my afternoon climbing adventure, is a carbon black, and reaches the middle of my back. I'm grateful that I didn't cut it. Lately I've put my lengthy locks to good use as a means to cover my body's new "additions." My eyes are personally my least favorite feature. They are a plain, muddy brown. My father says that in just the right lighting, my eyes shine like topaz. I don't believe him, of course, but I smile and thank him every time he says it.

The wind is hitting my face as I run and as the sun begins to set, everything around me has a deep orange glow. The colors of the sun match my Amity clothing of yellow and red. I personally hate our faction's colors. Not the colors on their own, only when I have to wear that mustard yellow and that washed out red, day in and day out. The colors do nothing for my complexion except wash it out. Sometimes I wish we could wear Erudite blue or even Abnegation gray. That's when you know you're desperate, especially since Abnegation is meant to be dull in comparison to all of the other faction colors. It doesn't surprise me that I would think this way, I always think differently from my faction members.

Growing up as a member of Amity, my actions hardly ever went unnoticed. It wasn't rare to see Emilia Sable being taught an extra lesson after class about being polite, patient and peaceful. Polite and patient; those were pretty easy for me, I could fake those well when I had to. I had mastered those two over my sixteen years. It was being peaceful that I had trouble with. Who would have thought, right? I guess I'm living proof that being raised by a group of Amity doesn't mean you'll ever be one of them unless it's what you truly want. Being a pacifist, like my family, friends and neighbors, was never easy for me. When I was five, an Amity boy named Malcolm pushed my brother Alex out of one of the apple trees in the vast orchard I'm currently running through. Alex broke his wrist from the fall that day. My brother, being the ideal Amity child, took the traditional "non-confrontational" route and headed straight to my parents to "talk about the situation." My parents listened with open ears and wide eyes, finally telling him he did the right thing, and that Malcolm's parents would follow their own steps in teaching Malcolm the correct way to handle a situation, better known as the "Amity way." I remember peeking into the room where Alex sat with my parents, thinking, 'I can handle this situation.' It was a feeling I had never felt before. This feeling of wanting to defend my brother, my family and, hell…I just wanted to kick Malcolm's ass. I marched right back to the orchard and did exactly that. A five year old Amity girl who beat up an eight year old. Word spread, and since that day my name has attached to any mischief that occurs on our compound. I'm personally not ashamed of it, but I know it hurts my parents. The embarrassment of having a child that is so different from a normal Amity child. Seeing their disappointed faces so often throughout the years, it's enough to make me fake almost everything I do now. From the group meditations in the morning, to the mission trips to visit the Factionless, I've never been one for Amity customs, but I fake it, and will continue to fake it until the Choosing Ceremony. My brothers chose to stay with Amity when they turned sixteen. No surprise there. In my situation, with my past, I wonder if my parents will even be surprised with what I may choose...with what the aptitude test told me was my perfect match: Dauntless. I had never considered the Dauntless faction. I always thought I would join Erudite. I do quite enjoy reading and learning, but in the end, Dauntless was my result, and tomorrow morning as I head to my Choosing Ceremony, I may step foot out of Amity for the very last time.

I'm almost home now. I'm not even tired after all that running. Over the years I've trained myself, for what...I'm not sure. But now it's starting to make sense. Maybe Dauntless is where I was meant to be. I don't know a lot about their initiation process, but I do know that they're known for their strength, their bravery and interestingly enough, for their skilled use of various weapons. The countless hours I've spent running, climbing, and jumping, could it all have happened for one purpose? For Dauntless?

I'm not sure, but as I slow my run into a walk and take a step into my home, my mother's stern face looks at mine as my brothers and father glance up once before they continue eating. My mother smoothes the wrinkles in her forehead and smiles.

"Emilia, please don't be late again," my mother says with kind eyes. "Now tuck in some dinner. You have to get some rest for your big day tomorrow."

That's when I realize what's going on. My brothers and father aren't looking up, my mother is looking at her food wearily and glances at me every few moments. They haven't asked me the results of my aptitude test, but they must know. I should have known when my mother didn't tell me to immediately go to my room for being late again. They must know that their short-tempered sister, their wild-child of a daughter, will never actually be in Amity by choice. They know that this will probably be our last dinner together as a whole family. A part of me hurts. It feels a guilt that I know will not disappear anytime soon. The guilt of breaking up our family. But another part of me loves my family even more for understanding that I am different, but I am still their daughter. I know that my father wants to talk more about this, and my brother Sam looks as if he's about to let something roll off his tongue, but minutes pass and it is silent at the table, only the sounds of metal utensils and glass plates meeting ever so often, making various 'clink' sounds. I don't know what I would say if we were talking anyway, so I am grateful for the quiet. It's in that moment that I know what I will do tomorrow. I will choose Dauntless, something an Amity has not done since well before I was born. Though I don't know what awaits me at the Dauntless headquarters, I swear to myself that I will never forget where I came from or who it was that raised me.

I will never forget that I am Emilia Sable, the daughter of the Amity.

Thank you for reading! Next chapter will be the Choosing Ceremony, the train and then...THE FIRST MEETING WITH ERIC! AHHH! :D Please R&R! If you like it, I shall keep on going and going and going :)