Deeper Than the Knife

Chapter 1- The Calm Before The Storm

I knelt in front of my mother, Scarlett, and my Uncle Sawyer. The room was only lit by the torches that were standing on either side of my mother, who was sitting on a pillow that was placed on an elevated part of the floor- it allowed for her to look over the whole room and it made her really threatening. Her curly, fire brown hair was braided into dreadlocks- just like mine was. Her skin was dark, and in the light of the fire her skin looked perfect, her eyes were a fire red- which was a special trait for my clan. 

I should probably back track and explain some things- the lamest part when telling a story. I'm Charlotte, and I'm a ninja- yes I know how stupid it sounds, but shut it and listen. I'm 21 years old, and my mother is the head of our clan- damn it, I have to explain clans too don't I? Okay, lets pause on the explanation of my family tree, I'll come back to that.

So, to start, there are 8 'Noble' clans. But there are a shit ton of clans with less power or influence. But more on that later, first the 8 'Noble' clans. The 8 families- the clans- have been gifted with the powers of a certain element and a certain animal. Although, we can only use the power of our element- such as fire, ice, water etc.- through our weapons, but we have free range with the animal part. The strongest of the 8 'Noble' clans is mine, the Hi no ōkami Clan- which literally means Fire Wolves in Japanese. I know, how original and creative. We have control over fire and have the abilities of a wolf. The second strongest is the Kōri no Kuma Clan, which translate to Bears of Ice (cough, polar bears). As one can probably guess from the name, they have powers of ice and abilities of polar bears. Plot twist though, they're actually a family of assassins and not ninjas- and yes, there's a difference. The third clan is the U~ōtāsame Clan which is water sharks- our founders really needed to hire someone to name our clans. The thing that was different about this family was that it was a mixture of both ninja's and assassins, which made them extremely dangerous.

The rest of the 8 'Noble' clans are: earth and lion, darkness and owls- these guys are a bunch of smartasses, light and iguana- yeah...I don't know either, plant life and horse, and lastly wind and eagle. I got lazy to say all of their names. Sue me. 

Then there are a bunch of branches of each of the main houses. Each of those houses have either the element or the animal abilities of their main house. The houses that have the element powers are held up higher than those with the animal abilities. Go figure. There are also a bunch of clans that have animal abilities that don't belong to any of the 8 'Noble' clans, they can pledge loyalty to one of the Noble clans but they didn't have too.  Lastly- finally getting to the end of this explanation, finally- there are clans without any of the abilities mentioned, those clans usually pledge loyalty to one of the 8 'Noble' clans.

Okay, we're finally done with that. Took long enough. Now, back to my family. So, where was I? Right, my mother. She is head of the clan, after my aunt- Erika- died before my grandparents did. My grandma named my mother as head right before she and her husband passed. My mother passed over my older cousins -Erika's kids, Jack, and the twins Jane and Jake. They were not happy about that...but my grandmother's word was final, and she also happened to be the strongest member ever in my families 8,000 plus history. I was named after her, it was a great honor. Anyways, my uncle is my mom's little brother, and he happens to be my favorite uncle- I really don't like the man my late aunt married. Me and my uncle Sawyer have something big in common- we're both gay. He's married to his wonderful husband, Arthur, and they have a 14 year old son named Daniel. Random trivia fact, both my mom and my uncle had kids when they were 21 years old. Alright, moving on.

I think that covers things for now, great! No more explaining. Back to the story.

"Well done my child." My mother praised. She had on the stereotypical ninja outfit, but personally, I hated how tight it actually was. So mine was way looser, much easier to move around in.