The One True Commander [BOOK 1]

Chapter 1: A new day

10 years later

I moved around on my feet lightly, dodging and blocking every swing and stab made by my opponent. Today, we were working on footwork, a key skill to being a good warrior. My opponent, a lean boy called Seven fought with anger and urgency, a mistake a warrior makes from time to time. He left his body open and I took these opportunities to jab and swing my fighting stick, making him grunt with anger.

"You fight with anger, leaving your body open and unprotected." I stood tall with my stick in my hand. "Control it, and you will fight better" I raised my stick ready to fight again after Seven regained his breath.

"I don't need your advice, Y/N" he panted, his hands on his knees.

I rolled my eyes and smirked. When Seven regained his breath, we both got into our fighting stances. He swung at me and I blocked it and went for a jab at his stomach, but he blocked it and moved lightly on his feet.

That's more like it I thought to myself.

Seven went for a swing at my head, but I ducked and hit his leg, making him lose his balance. He landed on his back with a thud, but wasted no time in getting back up and attacking me again. He managed to get a hit in my ribs, but I ignored that pain and focused on him.

Seven went for another swing at my head, but before his stick made contact with my head, I ducked and spun around so I was behind him and used my stick to trip him up. He landed on the ground hard, winding him.

"Stop your training, natblidas" Titus the flamekeeper stepped down from a rock looking over us. "That will be all today. You are free to do as you please till this evening, where you will have a lesson with the commander."

I looked down at Seven, still on the ground trying to get his breathing back in motion. I offered my hand.

"You fought well today, but work on keeping your anger in check" I looked down at the dark haired boy, now recovered from his fall.

He slapped my hand away and got up by himself, walking away from me muttering profanities under his breath. I sighed, Seven was someone who never liked to take advice, he would always ignore you and grunt. I didn't give advice out often, because it would make my chances of winning the conclave easier, but I felt like I needed to say something to him today.

I chuckled, "someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed."

Walking towards the weapons stand, I stored my fighting stick away. Someone calling my name made me turn around.

"Y/N" Titus walked towards me, his hands behind his back.

I looked up to him, waiting for what he was going to say.

"You fought well today Y/N, in fact from what I saw, you were the best out of all the other natblidas." He looked down at me with a neutral expression. "You are one of the most promising natblida novitiates , along with Cree." I tensed up at the mention of his name, he was my biggest challenge. "He is probably your only obstacle from becoming Heda, so train hard and you may have a chance."

I nodded, "Thank you Titus, but the others are obstacles as well. I will train hard and if the spirit of the commander's chooses me, than I will do my best to be a good commander, but if they don't, then so be it." I looked up to Titus, who nodded before walking away back to the tower.

***

After training, I went back to the dorm, me and the other nightbloods shared. Some others were in there too, Malia and Eden were talking amongst themselves, they were twin sisters and I sometimes had trouble telling them apart. Atlas, a skinny but strong boy was sat in the corner on his bed, reading a book of some sort. The other four noviciates were someone else in Polis.