The Valkyrie Queen

Prologue

Eerika

Most people think that being a Queen is awesome or fun or exciting... wrong! It is a burden, it is tiring, it is painful.
A Valkyrie Queen isn't just born... she is made. Forged into the most ruthless thing possible. You start to train the minute you can walk.

It doesn't matter that the Valkyrie can heal super fast. A punch to the face is going to hurt like a bitch regardless.
Am 7 years old and I already had my bones broken, my body starved and tortured. I can wield a sword with expert precision and throw knives like a seasoned assassin.

The best part, mommy dearest is my trainer. While most mothers played with their daughters and baked them cookies, mine was teaching me the different ways I can decapitate a person.
There is only one way to become the Valkyrie Queen. Kill the Queen and take her place. Just in case you're wondering,  there is no appropriate time or age for this. Fate is a cruel master. She decides when it is time. The flaming sword becomes extinguished when it's time.

Today I watched the flames go out. Everybody was shocked. Am just seven they said. Am weak, they said. They looked at me with pity. I hate that look.

As I stand on this cliff, I let out my wings. They are white just like the others. But if I become Queen tomorrow, they will be tipped with gold. If? No... when!
I will not die tomorrow. I will never give her the satisfaction of killing me.
My little brain can barely comprehend much but I know I must survive. Am I scared? No. I don't know how to be afraid.
"Fear is for the weak" she spat at me. The woman who gave birth to me. She is as heartless as she is powerful. I never use her name. I've never had a reason to.
" 'Yes Sir', will suffice" she told me when I could speak at age 2. She has been 'Sir' ever since.
She has lived long. Faught countless battles against the dogs. Her reputation as a warrior precedes her. She z revered. The most powerful queen.

I despise them greatly... those dogs I've been trained to kill. If it weren't for them, I'd be a happy child. Normal even. Or at least as normal as a Valkyrie could ever be. Those dogs have sharpened her skills, she is almost impossible to kill. But I will be Queen. I feel it in my bones.

I ruffle the feathers of my wings to clear my mind. And before I can take my next breath, I jump off the cliff.  It is a five hundred foot drop.
"If you hit the water at this speed and distance, the surface of the water will turn into rock and crush you." She said before she shoved me off the cliff. Her idea of flight lessons. I almost died that day but at the last possible second, my wings unfolded and I hovered just at the surface. I could almost taste the salt of the ocean water.

As I unfurl my wings this time, I let the push of the wind guide me. When I get closer to the water, I flap my wings to gain momentum. I flap a couple more times as i ascend before I tuck my wings back closer to me to dive into the water.
The ocean splashes high as I hit the surface of the water and sink deep under before coming back up. It took me a couple of tries and broken bones before I was able to perfect that. I loved the water. Swimming always flames me down and reduced the pain so I came here often. After about an hour, I swim to the cliff wall and slowly start climbing it, using the jagged stones. They are slippery but am used to it now and dig my nails in.   I make quick work of the cliff and within no time, am back at the top.

Tomorrow is my eighth birthday. Tomorrow I may die or become Queen. It is not lost on me that the day I was born might just as well mark the date I die.
I guess your wondering how a girl my age behaves like an adult... well, I've never been a child. I've spent every waking moment trying to survive. Not to mention am seriously smart. At least that's what Abilene said. Abilene is my best friend Solvi's mother. I trained with Solvi since i was three. She is meant to be my second in command just like Abilene is the Queen's second in command.