Wonder Woman: The Birth of a Legend

Chapter Six

            When the Amazonians were first given their island by the Gods, they settled initially on the Eastern shore. Clusters of houses grew into a crowded village, and then a bustling town, before the boundaries burst and the city of Themyscira oozed over the Eastern coast like the slow and patient flow of an old river. It is not, of course, the only city on the island. Hippolyta remained the leader of the Amazonians but it is ignorant to believe that other strong personalities were not birthed among a race of warrior women. For some of the Amazons, it was hard to live constantly in the shadow of a Queen whom they loved and yet who they felt stifled their growth. Some of those women left for the lands of man, would wonder the Earth and occasionally return with stories and tales that would have the younger Amazonians enthralled until way past their bed time. Others had begged the Queen's permission to explore the island. It was a common request from many of the soldiers who had not only fought but led parts of Hippolyta's army during the Great War. Women who despite their love for their Queen could not find it in their hearts to once again live in the shadow of another. Some of those explorers had simply vanished into the forests; others had willingly sought the comfort of Hades; but others still had taken their nearest and dearest and forged their own towns and villages across the island. Of course, they still paid homage to Hippolyta, their devotion was never something that would be questioned. But it had allowed them the room to grow they had so desperately needed after years of being starved of their potential.

Themyscira itself had grown over the centuries into a city in its own right. It was nowhere near as large as the cities of man, for it was small enough to maintain that sense of family, but neither was it compact enough to be deemed just a simple town. But, whilst it was impressive with its wide, sweeping avenues, and the bountiful patches of green, the real gem of the city was the School. It was the only building throughout the entire island that had been created from the unusual metal the Amazonians had discovered in the caves of their lands. The architect had been the woman behind some of the greatest creations in the ancient world – such as the Acropolis. But the design she had created for the Amazonians was something far ahead of its time. Three towering spirals pierced the heavens and cast in shadow the myriad of buildings that made up the main body of the school. When one looked at the complex from the highest of the towers, it became really clearly the genius of its creator. The winding pathways created a complex maze that any attacker would get lost in. Pathways ended abruptly with a sudden hidden garden, or simply ran straight into the side of a building; other pathways led the wanderer straight back out of the school boundaries, and the majority would lead any such poor unfortunately lost soul into the middle of the training grounds – which were almost constantly occupied by the Amazonians upcoming greatest warriors.

It was in just such an arena that Diana was realising quite quickly she may have bitten off more than she could chew.

Sweat dripped down the inside of her helmet, but her breathing was the type of steady one would expect from someone simply out for a stroll in the park – not someone who was in the middle of fighting Antiope's daughter. The fight had drawn quite a crowd given who the two warriors were, but for Diana and Phitha there was nobody else in the world.

"It's almost as if you want me to hit you," Phitha taunted as Diana barely rolled out of the way of a jab from the trident Phitha favoured as a weapon. As a long range weapon, it was designed to keep the opponent at a safe distance. It was less effective if the opponent could get inside the guard which was often easy on the less talented. But Phitha was a master. The speed and strength at which she could move and use the lethal weapon forced Diana to keep on the defensive. She gritted her teeth.

"Come on," Phitha pitched her voice lower so it would carry only to her cousin. "I know you are stronger than this, I've seen it." Diana, who had until this point been merely dodging the strikes and keeping that one step ahead of Phitha's increasingly arrogant movements, dug her heels into the sand and stopped. The sudden change from defence to apparent stupidity would cause a lesser person – or simply one who actually cared for the wellbeing of their sparring partner - to jar their movements, but Phitha was of the same school of thought as her mother: losing blood meant you wouldn't make the same mistake twice. Instead of parrying the oncoming blow with the shield, like she had been doing and which was one of the best tactics for someone fighting with a trident, she stepped to the right of the oncoming blow. Such a bold movement could have resulted in being skewered much like a kebab, but instead Diana hooked one of the razor sharp points of the trident using the rim of her shield and spun. The weapon, lodged in her shield, sailed harmlessly past her, whilst her feet pivoted her towards Phitha's now rather open left hand side. The tip of her blade drew the smallest pinprick of blood from her cousins exposed neck.

Diana grinned as Phitha stared back at her with eyes that betrayed not even the tiniest hint of emotion. But then her lips twisted a little at the corner and Diana looked down. Phitha's own dagger was pointed directly at the tiny gap in her armour at her hip. One short movement would send the steel straight into her kidneys. Diana's smile faltered.

"You were holding back," Phitha withdrew her dagger and slid it back into its holster strapped to her thigh. Diana slammed her own blade into the sand in a much less dignified manner.

"I had you!"

"Clearly, you did not." Diana yanked her helmet off and gave her cousin a look that would wither a flower. Her red hair was a tangle of curls and sweat plastered ringlets. As she pushed one hand violently through the collection of knots and shook it out of its loose braid, it fell to the small of her back.

"You need to learn to think," Phitha plucked the sword out of the sand and passed it hilt first back to Diana.

"I did think – I did everything you taught me. I went towards the killing blow, I caught it on my shield, and I-"

"But I was expecting it," a rare smile overcame Phitha before she turned on her heel and walked away. Diana had trouble picking her jaw off the floor in time to run after her, ignoring the shouts of congratulations thrown in her direction.

"It was a training exercise!"

"A training exercise that showed you how easily you could have been killed." Diana made a spluttering noise, but that was about as much of a comeback as she could manage. They walked in silence.

"You could have beaten me, you know," they came to a stop by the baths. As one of the commanders of the Warrior section of the school, Phitha had her own quarters in which to get showered and trained. As a student, Diana had to use the communal bathing area like everyone else.

"How? Everything is predictable," she grumbled, kicking a rock that had made the mistake of wondering into her path. Her adolescent moody glare at nothing in particular was interrupted by Phitha grabbing her chin and forcing her to meet her mentor's eyes.

"By letting go. What are you so scared of?" The questions was a demand by a tutor frustrated with a student they knew would one day be the best, but who refused to see that potential also. She held Diana's gaze for a full minute, before letting go and seeking out her own quarters. Diana stood alone in the deserted path and made her confession to the only ones who could hear her.

"Me."

Turning and walking into the bathing area the only sign the Gods had actually heard her was the distant rumble of thunder, which the meteorologists merely interpreted as an early sign of rain.