Hi! So I am very proud of this mega-piece and it took me forever to write and forever to edit. I'm warning you: it's 74 pages long in Microsoft Word, so make sure that you really want this. Also there is a T rating on this for three reasons- language, violence and gore, and mentions to adult topics such as rape. So if that's a trigger for you, or if you're uncomfortable with a mention to this particular subject, please find something else to read.

Also something fantastic happened while I posted the story: the text got printed twice? So the story was doubly as long. And then someone said that even then, the story should have been split into chapters and so I said 'okay, fair enough'. I had four reviews on it, so I just decided to post all of the story's content, but to seperate it at specific places so that you could choose to take a break while you read or whatnot. So thanks to the first four people who read the reviewed the story for the suggestions and tips.

Disclaimer: I don't own the characters of Hylla or Kinzie.

Dedication: to my four sisters in arm against the world of normality. it's nice to know that there's someone who'd kill a man for you.

Sisters in Arms

Hylla was shouldered by two Amazons as she stood by the door and watched her little sister walk away. She was completely alone, armed with a dagger and equipped with a backpack against a world she didn't know. This was going against Hylla's every instinct- letting her sister go off like that. It was against every single thing Hylla had ever done to keep Reyna safe and fed and sheltered, no matter how drastic or hard the price.

But she'd gotten angry. In her anger she'd realised that Reyna wasn't five years old and orphaned anymore, and Hylla was no longer the only means that Reyna had to take care of herself. That was still true, even when she wasn't angry but rather sad and maybe a little broken.

"Well, now that that's taken care of," the tallest woman Hylla had ever seen- Queen Asha- said. "I'm sure that we can get you cleaned up before your schedule starts."

"Schedule?" Hylla asked turning away from the glass doors.

"Yes," the Queen said. "Amazons live in a community powered by ourselves. Nobody is spared from work. The schedules are, in fact, very well structured. You can be buddied up with Kinzie for as long as you'll need to until you fall into the routine and start knowing the campus better. She's in the barracks too. Abby, do go get her so that proper introductions can be made."

"Yes, Ma'am." One of the Amazons said before walking off.

Kinzie was skin on bones, with auburn hair and slim brown eyes. Her face had a pretty, ageless quality- like the nymphs that Hylla had met so far.

"Hi," she said. Her smile was nervous. Everything about her was nervous and jittery. Her hands were pulling on the zippers of her jacket's pockets or the strings of the hoody she wore under it or her hair or the fabric of her pockets… Hylla couldn't completely tear her attention away from the ever moving hands or the darting of her eyes. It annoyed her.

"I'm Kinzie Caden, it's great to meet you."

"Hylla Castillo," she said.

"Welcome to the kingdom," she said with a shy and nervous but overall well-meaning smile. "I have your schedule, here's a copy."

She handed Hylla a slip of paper that she looked over.

"There are specific meal times," Kinzie said, "At least one designated training block a day, and four hours of work at the most. Other than that you can pretty much go anywhere on campus. Like right now, see how the slot there is blank?"

"Okay," Hylla said. She got up and left before Kinzie could even think of following.

Shoot, Kinzie thought as she watched this tall and mean looking girl walk away.

Less than thirty seconds after they'd been left alone, and she'd lost her ward! No wonder this was her only job.

"The sleeping quarters aren't as complicated as they sound," Kinzie said fluffing out her pillow. "The rule of thumb is that the newer you are, the less privacy and space you get. It goes from barracks –like we are in now, to small dorm rooms, to semi-private rooms, and then to private rooms."

Hylla nodded, uninterested.

Kinzie pushed back her blankets. "Oh, a lot of people think that the covers are a lot softer than they're used to, so they have trouble sleeping. My advice? Go get a towel and wrap up in it before."

"I'll be fine," Hylla said.

"Lights out," a mechanical voice said resonating around the room.

"Good night," Kinzie said kindly.

Hylla wasn't raised in a barn and so even sure she wasn't 100% certain about this girl yet, she wished her goodnight.

Roll call came so fast and Kinzie had completely forgotten about it (which was stupid since she'd been in the Kingdom for ten years and should know that it came twice a day). She'd barely had time to drag Hylla in place before it started- much less explain everything to her.

Hylla looked at everyone around her and folded her hands behind her back, pressing them against her spine right where it curved inwards. She was adaptable and observant, Kinzie liked that.

Well, this was her mess so she could risk movement to explain to her at least why they were standing like that.

Kinzie leaned inwards. "It's a symbol of trust," she whispered. "Your hands are behind your back. You could be holding a weapon. But your Queen trusts that you are not."

And even though they were meant to be still, even though they were meant not to respond to any distraction during roll call- Hylla gave a tiny, nearly unseen, nod of her head.

And for the first time Kinzie thought that maybe someone appreciated her work as official go-to tour guide.

"Kinzie!" Someone called as she was about to dig into breakfast. "Oh- thank gods I found you! I totally need someone to change a shift with, I mean, it'd be totally disastrous if not you have no idea…"

It was Nat who'd rushed up to her. She had sky blue eyes and her hair was done in old-fashioned curls.

"I would," Kinzie said. "But I'm with a newbie. You'd need to find someone to switch her shift with- if Hylla wants to, of course."

Hylla wasn't saying anything; she was just looking at them with the typical killer and unwavering attention in her eyes.

"I'll go find Faith, gods I hope she says yes because I so totally would have been screwed," Nat moaned before darting off.

"That was Nat by the way," Kinzie explained.

"What was her fuss about?"

"Oh, there's a huge schedule exchange business." Kinzie said thrilled to be answering a question. "Switching slots and meal times and things to fit your schedule. Nat must've bumped into a schedule conflict- she travels so much, she's the worst at that. Anyways, you and I have to stick together so I can't just trade- oh, there she is."

Nat had come back with Faith- a girl with honey blond hair cut to her neck and young, twinkling sky blue eyes.

"Here you go," Nat said breathlessly. "Oh my gods I totally owe you Kinzie."

"Not that you didn't already owe her for a million other things," Faith said. "Oh look, a newbie."

Hylla's nose wrinkled.

"I'm Faith," she said holding out her hand. "What about you?"

"Hylla," she said shaking on it.

"Nice to meet you," Faith smiled.

"Newbie?" Nat said, now snapped out of her panic and ready to register things. "Really now? Oh…"

She smiled and Kinzie's heart dropped.

"Guys…" She said.

"Do the Sisters know, yet?" Nat asked.

"No," Kinzie said. She'd been hoping to keep it that way to at least give Hylla some time to breathe.

"Who are the sisters?" Hylla asked.

"Two Amazons," Faith said. "They're sisters, duh, and they're in semi-private room rank."

Kinzie's internal instincts were yelling out the real rank name. The Honest.

"They've been in there for about ten years. See, they don't move up because they are total and complete troublemakers but they don't get bumped down because they're awesome Amazons," Kinzie said. "The Queen considered them for her Court not too long ago, actually."

"Why would I want to be in rank with troublemakers," Hylla said. "Honestly, I get into enough of that on my own."

That was the most Kinzie had ever heard Hylla say about her past. Most of what she knew was from the guards who'd brought her on campus, or the Queen herself. Something about a position at Circe's Academy of Magic was the only consistent thing Kinzie heard.

Nat and Faith smiled.

Fingers closed around the edge of Hylla's plate at the next meal and pulled it away from her. Two girls sat on the table, one on each side of her, making Kinzie scooch over.

"So you're Hylla?" One said. They were clearly twins- with fiery red hair much lighter than Kinzie's hair, that trailed down their backs like flames, and eyes that were so light, Hylla wasn't sure there was a colour that could fit there. She tried finding a difference between the two, but it didn't come.

"Yes." She said carefully. "Can I have my food back?"

"Yeah, in a minute," one said. Hylla wasn't thrilled. It had been two days since she'd stopped being on a run and had a nice little schedule to tell and promise her of when her next meal was, but she still felt oddly protective of food and just about anything that was hers.

"See, I'm Alex."

"I'm Alec. We heard that you are new."

"Yes I am, now may I please have my food back?"

"That wasn't a minute," Alex said.

Hylla felt like stabbing her in the thigh with her fork.

"Anyways," Alec said. "We have a bit of an initiation rite for newbies."

"Fascinating," Hylla said. Being cold and clean-cut could sometimes worked when it came to getting people off your case. Not these two girls. They were way too overexcited about whatever they were currently fixated on.

"I'm sure you'll think so," Alex said crossing one leg on top of the other. "See, the wiser option is to follow us in the middle of the night and go through with it."

"Or what?" Hylla asked.

"Or risk mysteriously never going into a stall or bathroom with toilet paper for the rest of your life," Alec said.

"I'll risk it," Hylla said. "My plate?"

"We tried," Alex said.

"Yeah. Some people are just scared of the unknown," Alec said with a fake sigh.

Hylla's back straightened. Cold fury raced through her.

"Scared? I am not scared."

"Cool, meet us by that fountain with the live starfish in it by midnight," Alex said. The twins leapt away.

Kinzie slid back next to her, leaned across the table and pulled the plate back towards Hylla. A few people at the table looked interested, as if the Sister's announcement was a big deal.

"The Sisters can be overwhelming- they always talked one after the other and stuff," Kinzie said. It was as if she flipped to a random page in The Big Encyclopedia of All Things Amazon and was now reading out an entry. "But you should never for the life of you assume that anything they say can't be done because they totally would have done the toilet-paper thing to you."

"I didn't agree for the toilet paper," Hylla said harshly before digging back into her food.

Kinzie heard Hylla stir in the middle of the night. Of course, she didn't make a noise. Hylla never made a sound that would give away her presence to anyone or anything- she was like a jungle cat that way (and in a few others). But Kinzie was used to hearing newbies run off to the fountain with the starfish, and so she heard.

She got up too.

Hylla looked up.

"What are you going?" She asked in a whisper. The whisper was familiar and easy, like she was used to having to talk without anybody hearing or noticing.

"I'm not letting you go to the Sisters alone," she answered. She'd slept in her black Amazon clothes and everything. So had Hylla apparently- she was just lacing up her boots.

"I'm fine on my own."

"Yeah right, no you're not. You don't even know what you're getting yourself into," Kinzie said.

"And you do?"

"Of course I do, I've done this before."

Hylla froze and looked her over. "Then what is it?"

"I can't tell you."

"Awful lot of good you are," Hylla said getting up. She tied a dagger to her belt and ran off. Kinzie scrambled after her, pretending that that comment hadn't hurt at all. Hylla didn't say a word. She nearly got lost, but Kinzie helped her get to the fountain on time.

Alex and Alec were already there with a small crowd –including Faith, Nat and Daisy. Alex was holding a starfish only centimeters from Alec's mouth, but they snapped out of it when Hylla showed up.

"Good evening," Alex said. Kinzie always got heart attacks at this part. Alex talked way too loudly for someone sneaking out with a crowd late at night. But of course she was a daughter of Mercury and had instincts for this- plus she'd probably pulled some strings so that the guards would all be looking the other way for a while.

"Sleep well?" Alec asked.

"Hope you're awake now."

"Yes, follow us."

They led them down a hallway and then shooed everyone down one door, and took Hylla down another.

Kinzie let herself get bumped along the catwalk by the crowd. Hylla and the Twins stood on one that stood a few feet away.

"Make the jump to the rest of the Amazon's and you're good to go," Alex said.

"Simple as ABC," Alec shrugged. "Anytime you're ready."

"That's it? This is your big initiation?" Hylla asked.

A shiver went through the crowd.

"That's funny," Alex said. "A lot of people say that."

"Yeah. A lot of people also think they can jump before they try."

"Then they have to lick a starfish as second initiation," Alex said.

"I've tried this before," Hylla said. She tossed her head and her hair flew out of her face. "Actually I've succeeded at this before."

"Well then be my guest," Alec said gesturing towards the catwalk. Everyone else was on the other side, waiting excitedly.

"Do I get a running start?"

"You know what, you were pretty rude to me and I like being the rudest person in a room," Alex said. "So I'm going to go with 'no'."

Hylla shrugged.

She positioned herself with the ease of a pro. She balanced her weight around her feet and mimicked jumping a few times.

Then she jumped and Kinzie caught her breath because she was so sure that Hylla wasn't going to make it.

But she did- even without a running start! Kinzie started breathing again; holding her breath was a bad habit of hers whenever she got nervous or scared about something.

Hylla landed on the cat walk, crouched and poised like a cat. No muscle moved without Hylla's express command or wish. None of her movements were random, everything was perfectly controlled; Kinzie could tell and was –frankly- amazed.

Hylla straightened herself up just as a symbol started burning over her head. A sword and a torch crossed over each other like the X on a pirate map. It was consumed by heavy fire only seconds after its apparition, as if it didn't consider itself to be a messenger of big news.

Whispers broke through the crowd that had been cheering, but the cheering didn't stop for very long.

"Good job," Kinzie said weakly. Hylla looked up and smiled at her for a split second, before looking another way.

Alec and Alex detoured through another catwalk before coming down, and they were armed with snacks and big bottles of soda.

It was a celebration afterwards. After checking out the newbies, the food was the second reason why people came to these initiations. Drinking pop from the bottle, exotic fruit skewers, bags of chips and popcorn, chocolate shapes… The Sisters had some pretty important strings in the kitchens, and they weren't shy about pulling them.

Finally things quieted down a bit once Alex announced that their guard-free hallway guarantee would expire in ten minutes so maybe they'd want to leave.

Hylla stuck around with the Sisters, who congratulated her, winked, and promised to see her around before leaving, and Nat and the others.

"You're a daughter of Bellona?" Nat asked. "Gods, I had no idea! Well, I guess nobody did since you just got claimed… Geez, Hylla congrats- it took me ages to get claimed."

Claimed by Mercury, that was. Nat may seem flimsy with all the qualities of an airhead, but she had a passion for travel and culture and languages. She spoke several herself. Sometimes Kinzie felt bad that Nat was stuck on campus all the time, instead of backpacking the world like other college-aged young adults.

"Maybe we should sneak into the kitchens next and get some cake," Faith said with a grin. "The Sisters never bring cake and nothing says let's celebrate like cake. And even if something else did, it wouldn't matter because cake."

"With that big order they just got? The kitchen's probably on the verge of explosion right now- plus they'd kill us if we bothered. You know how Madam Maisie gets." Daisy said.

"Maybe we should just go to bed, you know? Not get totally in trouble or even risk it." Nat said.

And so they parted- Nat, Faith and Daisy to the senior dorm rooms, Kinzie and Hylla to the newbie barracks. Kinzie dragged Hylla to a passage that was never so much as patrolled at night, just to make sure that initiation night didn't turn into first-forced-drill night.

"You didn't look very surprised when Bellona claimed you," Kinzie said. "I could tell. You knew, right?"

"Yes," Hylla said. "I… I've spoken to her once. My father used her real name."

"You knew your father?" Kinzie said. "Sorry if I'm sounding ditzy, it's just that a ton of Amazons don't, it's not uncommon, and I wasn't sure if you were born from Amazon blood or not."

"I did. He died a long time ago. Did you?" Hylla asked.

Kinzie didn't know what to answer so she stretched and bit her lips, as per usual.

"Sorry. That was insensitive."

"No, not really. It's just that it's not custom for the children of Amazons to know their dads. We're supposed to hate all men, and meeting one that's as close to us as a father might be in a perfect world... ruins the purity of our thoughts, you know?"

"You were the child of an Amazon?" Hylla asked. "That's cool."

"Yeah," Kinzie said with fake and strained enthusiasm.

"Who is your mom? Well, she's probably too high up for me to know her."

"Oh no, you know her," Kinzie said scratching the back of her neck nervously. "She's the Queen…"

Hylla's eyes didn't even widen, like most did. She just nodded. "You have the same eyes. I should have guessed. So you've lived here all your life?" Hylla asked.

Just like that the conversation shifted. No wow, you're like the princess! or that's so cool I wish my mom had been that way. Just acknowledgement. Then again, Hylla hadn't been too keen to talk about Bellona herself...

"Yup. And I'll probably live here my whole life," Kinzie said. She tried not to accompany that with a sigh, but Hylla seemed perspicacious enough to guess.

"It's a pretty cool place," Hylla said. "I've stayed in worse."

"Like the spa?"

Hylla's face darkened. "Not really. At the time I was there, it was right. I don't think I'd go back, knowing what I know and having the values I hold now, but it was okay. I meant sewers and foster homes and crack houses more than anything."

"What the hell were you doing in any of those places?" Kinzie asked.

"If I told you, you wouldn't believe me."

"I object," she said. "I've heard the stories of nearly everyone who's come to the kingdom in the recent years. You try me, Hylla."

Hylla cracked her first smile. "It'll take a while."

"I know a place where the guards don't go, and all you need to do to get there is jump from a catwalk and climb a bit. And the view's great." Kinzie said. "We can have 'a while'."

Hylla had gotten a few days without training just to heal some of the injuries she'd come to the Amazon kingdom with, but now that was long gone.

Kinzie both loved and hated the training room. She was physically weak- she wasn't a good fighter despite years of practise and it was impossible for her to gain weight or muscle. Her stupid metabolism must come from her father in that case.

But she loved seeing the only place where Amazons wore colours other than black. Hylla herself was wearing a grey shirt- company standard- until she got around to getting her own things. Kinzie would never wear black in here.

"Where'd you wanna start?" Kinzie asked.

"What's your favourite?" Hylla asked looking around at the machines.

"I don't have one," Kinzie said. "I suck at them all equally."

"I'm sure that's not true."

"Oh, it is. I am the only physically unfit Amazon in the history of the kingdom."

"That can't be real, I bet you're just beating yourself up." Hylla said.

She'd see. Kinzie didn't argue furthermore, she just showed Hylla the map.

There were all the different sports complexes around, and little red lights shone in each picture. It lit up red if nothing was going on, yellow if activities were going to be held shortly, and green if things were going on. She told Hylla to pick a place on the map. Basketball courts, gymnastics, parkour (which Hylla seemed excellent at by the looks of last night), track and field course, soccer fields, touch football, lacrosse, wrestling, the dojo…

"What's that?" Hylla asked pointing to a spot on the map.

"H2H," Kinzie said. "You put your name on a piece of paper, they throw it in a hat and make pairs for fights as they go."

"Light's yellow," Hylla said looking at Kinzie.

She shifted uncomfortably. "We can go," she offered anyways.

"No," Hylla said. "You clearly don't want to. Seriously, there must be something you like…"

"H2H is fine," Kinzie said. "I want to see you fight."

Hylla smiled. Clearly that was her biggest point of interest on the map.

"Let's go," Kinzie said.

The floor of the H2H room was padded with wrestling mats, and there were weapons hanging on the walls, though most people brought their own. Hylla had a dagger at her waist. When she signed up the attending Amazon asked if she wanted something else, but Hylla said no.

She wrinkled her nose. "Are you sure? Daggers aren't easy to…"

"She's sure, Olivia." Kinzie said. Olivia backed off and put Hylla's slip of paper in the hat.

Kinzie put her hand on Hylla's arm and walked her to the edge of the mat. A few people were already lounging there- lacing up boots, redoing the leather grips on the hilts of their weapons, tying up their hair, coating their hands in white powder that would give them better grip.

Hylla just sat down and looked at the mat.

"How good is the grip on the mats?" She asked.

Kinzie glanced at her shoes. "You'll be alright."

"Hey sport," someone said. Kinzie got a squirt of freezing water in the back of her head, and it dripped down her shirt.

She turned around and her nose crinkled. Lulu Marceau, probably one of the people that Kinzie liked the least in the entire Kingdom. She was built like a brick, with all the muscle and technique to lift two hundred of those at the same time. To Kinzie, Lulu looked like a brute but that was probably just because she'd seen her personality.

"Was that necessary?" Kinzie asked using her sleeve to wipe the back of her head.

Lulu's backup, Doris, laughed. That was all she was good at. Laughing like a monkey on drugs whenever Lulu did something that showed a however remote ability to think.

"I think so," Lulu grinned. "I hope I get your name. Although at the same time, I like it when I fight someone who at least has a chance."

"Watch it," Hylla said suddenly getting to her feet. She was about Lulu's height.

"Wow Kinzie, your newest pet can talk," Lulu said. "Who are you?"

"My name is Hylla." She said coldly. "And I am nobody's pet."

Kinzie got up too. Her heart was pounding. Lulu was aggressive and fiery- and Kinzie may not be great help if a fight started, but she could perhaps distract Doris...

"Oh, you're Mrs. Bigshot from the sister's stupid test," Doris said. The shock of hearing her talk nearly killed Kinzie.

"Yeah. What's wrong, did you trip when you tried?" Hylla asked. Kinzie had to choke back a laugh. Doris hadn't even done it. The only reason anyone had any kind of respect for her was because Lulu dragged her around, and Lulu was the only first year to ever have been in the running for replacing a guard in the Queen's Court.

"Now it's your turn to watch it, newbie." Lulu said defensively.

"Well since we're both clearly irritating each other, maybe you should both run along." Hylla said. More people were looking at them, in shock at Hylla's calm and placid tone, in shock at the fact she was even replying to Lulu…

"Maybe you should sleep with one eye open," Lulu said in a stickily sweet tone before walking away, Doris in tow.

Hylla sat down again and started picking at her dagger, scrapping off bits of dried blood and dirt.

Kinzie dropped to her knees next to her, heart beating like a drum.

"Hylla, you don't understand who Lulu possibly is…"

"She's an Amazon who thinks she's at the top of the world and who was picking on you," Hylla said. "That's all I need to know."

Kinzie's heartbeat relaxed, not to mention that she felt a bit touched.

There must be a room full of switches on Olympus, or down where the fates operated. And every now and then someone would wander down in there and flick a switch. A person's eyes would suddenly look brighter, her smile would look more familiar, conversations with her would come easier and suddenly you knew how to make them laugh. Or at least that's what it'd been like for Kinzie and Hylla.

Before she could say anything an alarm blazed through the room and an Amazon with the gold stripes of a referee on her shoulders stepped onto the mat with a list of names. She was an Honourable - the highest rank of Amazon underneath the Queen's Court- named Diane, daughter of Nike.

The matches were starting.

They watched a few fights –all of them good. The referee gave points according to technique, amount of blows, diversity of style and dignity. The more you screamed, the more you lost points.

Hylla was grinning and she reacted like the rest of the crowds. The only difference was the precision in her eyes as she watched. Kinzie couldn't help but feel like she was watching a supercomputer program running, storing information into some big database.

Anaïs finally pinned Morgan, they shook hands as per tradition, and walked off the mat. The ref walked onto the mat with her list of names.

"Hylla Castillo," she called in her deep, bellowing voice. People clapped as Hylla got up. Kinzie squeezed her hand and Hylla looked down and smiled at her. She had a soft, very nice and even comforting smile.

"And Lulu Marceau," she called again.

Kinzie felt like her whole body went limp. She felt Hylla's hands in hers stiffen. Kinzie gave it another squeeze.

"You'll rock," she said softly as people clapped. There were whispers through the crowd. Wow- a Newcomer against an Honest, that's too big a difference in ranks to be a fair fight.

Hylla walked onto the mat where Lulu already stood, grinning as if laurels were resting on her head.

Hylla held out her hand- which sometimes happened before these fights but wasn't regulation. Lulu didn't shake it, and Kinzie filled up with bitterness thinking how rude. She probably wouldn't be making a big deal out of it if it wasn't Hylla out there.

Both girls were poised and starring at each other with glares as sharp as the weapons in their hands.

"So, daughter of Bellona so I hear," Lulu said. "Basically a cheap and modern rip-off of Mars, that goddess."

People drew breaths.

"I assume you're a daughter of Mars," Hylla said.

"Oooh, very good. For the daughter of a modern god." Lulu said. "That's what your mother is, you know. One of those. She showed up in the world alright, but she will never be as powerful as the others. She will never be recognised."

"A daughter of Bellona has everything that she needs to fight, and a daughter of Mars has everything she needs to talk." Hylla replied stoically. Kinzie recognised the insult and rage in her eyes.

"That's cute. That's really cute."

"Like your name," Hylla said.

The crowd hissed. The referee suddenly looked like a tennis ref, her eyes bouncing from one adversary to the other.

"I will split your lips for that."

"I look forwards to your trying." Hylla said.

Finally the ref had enough and she blew her whistle.

The referee made eye contact with both girls. Lulu had a sword, Hylla had a dagger.

"One," she counted. "Two…"

Lulu swung her blade right away, drawing a big 'BOOO' from the crowd.

Hylla didn't let herself get surprised, she caught the hilt on her dagger and with a wide swing of her arm made it fly away. Lulu actually tripped, and Hylla was right on her. The referee didn't even blow her whistle to call a penalty because of how well Hylla had turned that around.

Lulu was just as quick, and she lunged towards Hylla's legs while she was coming. Hylla kicked off her shoulder and backed up. Lulu was back up, and with an excellent feint she got Hylla right across the shoulder, ripping the sleeve of her t-shirt. It was her sword arm, and Kinzie started to panic.

Hylla stayed cool and collected. She rolled backwards away from Lulu and got to her feet in a good stance just as Lulu came charging back. During that split second that her foot wasn't on the ground, Hylla dove like a baseball player and managed to kick Lulu's feet from underneath her. She landed face-first on the mattress.

The crowd was ecstatic.

Hylla wasn't on her feet when she jumped on top of Lulu, dagger back at her belt. Lulu had fallen with her sword, and Hylla smashed her hand with her elbow to make her drop it.

She had Lulu locked in some kind of wrestling move. Her long limbs made her impossible to displace, but Lulu was trying. Hylla actually had to try three different moves and nearly got pinned herself before she had Lulu's shoulder blades to the ground.

The ref fell to the ground and raised her fingers to count.

1...

2…

3…

She whistled and Hylla released Lulu whose limp arms collapsed on the mat. She got up, collected her dagger. She swung around and offered her hand to Lulu, who was sitting up.

"I'll offer you another piece of advice," Hylla said. "Never insult someone just before a fight."

Lulu ignored Hylla's hand and stood up. Never in recent memory had someone else but Lulu's arm get raised in victory during one of her fights. People were cheering and laughing at the pure hilarity of the situation. Kinzie was on her feet clapping.

"That was amazing!" Kinzie said.

Hylla grinned. Her shoulder was bleeding a little more than expected. They'd have to drop by the infirmary. One of her teeth was bleeding- it looked loose.

"Your tooth…"

"Yeah, I know, she punched me." Hylla said. "I opened my mouth."

"Why the hell would you do that?"

"Couldn't let her split my lip," she said.

That was the day that Hylla and Kinzie became one side of a war against Lulu and Doris.

Also that was the day that Kinzie realised how truly terrifying her new friend was. If Kinzie would ever have gotten scared away from Hylla, it would have been today.

But she didn't run. And so it looked like they were going to be stuck together (or at least her heart fluttered excitedly at the thought) for a while.