A Warriors Heart: The Lady Of Death

Chapter 2

Cleo woke up to the sounds of whispering and as she opened her eyes she was greeted by three smiling faces.

"Happy birthday" they all shouted simultaneously thrusting gifts at her.

"Thank you all so much, I'll open them when I get back ok?" as Cleo rushed to get dressed and eat her breakfast she noticed them all looking at her confused.

"I have to go to the Dragon Shrine today remember?, the elder summoned me" Cleo reminded them as she charged out of the house waving as she went, hearing the faint sound of realisation from behind as she disappeared from view.

The elder was waiting outside the shrine and smiled as Cleo ran to her.

"Happy birthday Cleo, shall we go inside?"

Cleo nodded and followed the elder inside the shrine, once inside she knelt down on the tatami floor, she handed Cleo a book with a horned dragon embossed on the cover along with gold inlay which read the words :

"THE SACRED WRITINGS"

"Read this child and when you have finished we will begin the rite".

Cleo opened the book and on the very first page read the words "for the eyes of the sacred dragon guild of assassins only"

Being a fast reader it did not take her long, maybe two hours, to finish the entire book, absorbing every bit of information bound between its covers.

After handing the book back to the elder who smiled, she placed her hand on her shoulder and spoke in a firm but quiet voice.

"Do you understand?" Cleo nodded confidently.

"Are you ready?" again Cleo nodded.

She then led Cleo to a small room in back of the shrine; in the middle of this room was a large ornate chest with the same horned dragon embossed on the lid.

"These are now yours, care for them properly and they will protect you. Are you sure you want to take on this role?"

In the chest Cleo found a black outfit, fox mask, a pair of katana with silk bound hilts, throwing knives, shuriken and a whip made out of barbed chain, after examining the items she turned to the elder and bowed showing that she was indeed prepared to take on her role, she then brought out the inks and needles.

"This is going to hurt child".

Four hours later the skin on cleo's left arm had all but vanished and had been completely enveloped in a tattoo of a horned dragon with flames surrounding its body.

"Only use the power from this as a last resort child, the heat it draws from the earth and passes through the body can be excruciatingly painful to endure. Come here again tomorrow at noon, always keep this hidden and never tell a soul of your duties"

She covered both Cleo's arms with wraps giving the impression to anyone that saw her that she was now training with the temple ninjas.

Cleo vowed to keep the secrets and went home to celebrate her birthday with her family.

The following day at noon Cleo returned to the shrine and was given her first of many assignments.

She would be escorted by an experienced ninja, but her role was clear, there had been an increase in the number of children being taken and sold into slavery and so in order to entice the culprit she would play the distressed child until he came to her aid believing her to be a lost child, that is when Cleo would open their throat using a small dagger.

As Cleo got older and more experienced her assignments and targets targets changed along with her methods.

"Always remember who you are in your heart, this lady you become is just a costume, never lose your true self or the night will consume you".

Cleo repeated the elder's words in her head before every assassination, it became her personal mantra.

By her sixteenth birthday Cleo had become so proficient, even surpassing some of the guilds veterans, that she was carrying out three to four assassinations a month by herself.

Two weeks prior to her sixteenth the elder decided that Cleo needed to take some time off for rest, so the night before her birthday Cleo locked her weapons and clothes in the chest and went home.

"Morning sleepyhead, happy birthday".

Cleo was woken by the sound of Pups voice; she opened her eyes to see pup and Charlie smiling at her with arms full of gifts.

After opening her gifts of perfume, kimonos and hairpins they left to prepare breakfast while Cleo got dressed.

Cleo chose a sakura petal patterned yukata, did her makeup for the first time in what felt like forever and put her hair up using the delicate posy hairpin she had just received from Pup; she then went to join them for breakfast.

Even though Oriana had left Charlie almost six years ago Cleo found the kitchen still felt empty without her glaring, but she wasn't the only one missing.

Two years ago, on her fourteenth birthday Jax had given Cleo a hairpin that was in the shape of a sakura petal and in her excitement, she had let it slip that she had feelings for him.

He patted her head, laughed and said she was sweet, the following week he had left town to train with the samurai of Hamrah shrine up in the mountains.

They hadn't seen him since, Cleo let out a deep sigh as she looked at his empty place at the table, she missed him so much.

"I'm sure he'll come home to us soon kitten" pup whispered in her ear.

"So, what have you got planned for today flower?"

Charlie had never called her Cleo; he said she was as pretty and delicate as a flower so that is what he would always call her.

"Hmmmm, not much really dad. I think I'll go into town and then maybe take a walk by the river, how about you two?"

"Asher and I will be stuck at the dojo all day, so you'll have to fix dinner okay?" Cleo nodded and once they had cleared up, followed them out of the house.

The next two weeks were spent either down by the river or sitting under the sakura tree, on the last day of her vacation Cleo received a letter from the elder summoning her to the shrine.