The Legend of Serpia

The Legend Of Serpia
By Serpia-chan

Copyright 2005

Chapter 1: A Warrior Princess
I was the princess of Novajita, the older sister of prince Kuasar. My mother died while giving birth to me, nearly taking me with her. I was raised by males, being the only female allowed in the royal palace, so I acted like a guy for much of my younger life. As a child I was trained in the art of Ki and the art of Jeitan hand-to-hand combat. I quickly became the most skilled fighter my sensei had ever seen. I loved to fight. I lived to fight. At the age of 10 my father, who loved me dearly, came to me one night as I sat in my chamber, playing with a small ball of ki. He sat next to me on my bed, put a finger under my chin and lifted my face so I was looking at him.
"Serpia, we need to talk. You are old enough to make a choice. Your sensei has informed me that you are a very skilled fighter and a genius when it comes to battle strategy. As king, it is my duty to ask you to go into training to be the commander of the Jeitan army. But, as your father, it is also my duty to persuade you into taking my place on the throne as Queen of the Jeitan. Whichever you choose, I support you fully. Sleep on it tonight and inform me of your decision in the morning. Goodnight, my Serpia."
He got up from the bed and left me to ponder in the darkness. I had always wanted to fight in the army. And to be a commander… that was beyond my wildest dreams. If I was a queen I could kiss all that goodbye. No more fighting, no more training, no more pondering for hours on end on battle strategies. I would have to give up my favorite hobby, my lifestyle, to be queen. It was a mighty steep price to pay for a life where you would never be able to do anything for yourself again, where it was frowned upon if you so much as wiped your own nose. So I decided to pass up the chance to rule the kingdom my father built. I decided to become head commander of my father's army. I went to sleep quite content. It was the first and most important decision I ever made by myself.
I woke the next morning and raced to my father's study, where he could be found each morning reading Jeitan history, a subject that he found extremely interesting.
"I've made my decision, father."
"What is it?"
"I wish to become the greatest battle commander the Jeitan race has ever and will ever see."
" That is a wise choice. I am going to send you to a military camp, where you will train, study and learn for the next four years. Is this alright with you, my princess?"
" It is fine with me, father. I shall go pack."
I could barely contain my excitement as I proceeded to my room. I, along with my many servants, packed up all of my belongings. I would leave the next day. I didn't sleep well that night and was summoned to the throne room early the next morning. I approached the royal throne, noting how powerful and regal my father looked. His guards, all of whom saluted me as I came towards them, surrounded his throne. My father stood as I approached, a smile beaming at me from his face. He surprised me greatly when, in front of the entire court, he came down the steps leading to the throne and threw his arms around me.
"My daughter. You are no longer my little princess. When you return in four years you will no longer be a child, but a woman. I have faith in you, Serpia. You will become a great, fierce commander. I can see it in your eyes. Such determination. Parsni, your new sensei, is here to collect you. Go now, young one. Live your dream."
"I will father. I will make you proud."
Parsni came forward and beckoned me to follow him. I waved good-bye to my father and hoisted my heavy bag over my shoulder. It was quite obvious that Parsni didn't think much of me. He didn't speak to me the whole way to the military dojo and barracks on the other side of the city. And, to be honest, I didn't think much of him either. When we arrived he got one of the other lesser sensei to take me to the barracks. My quarters were much larger than the ones typical Jeitan trainees stayed in because I was a princess. I didn't want special treatment. I was here to become a strong, courageous soldier, not a pretty, pampered princess. I told my senior officer this later when he came to check on me and I found that he agreed with me, I was not entitled to any special treatment. No more being pampered.
I was moved the next day into the normal barracks. I shared my room with nine other soldiers, both boys and girls. I bunked with a girl whom I was sure wasn't Jeitan. I decided to start a conversation with her.
"Hi, I'm Serpia. Who are you?"
" My name's Hydra. Hey! Aren't you Princess Serpia?"
"Yeah, but don't tell anyone. I don't want to be treated any differently than the rest of the soldiers here at the camp. Hydra? Where are you from? You don't look Jeitan."
" I'm not. I was taken from planet 31 in Sector C of galaxy 12. A planet called Earth. I was taken to be a slave but the family who raised me treats me like I'm their daughter. They thought I was powerful enough to do some training, so here I am."

At that moment our senior officer came in and informed us that we were to dress in full armor and report to the mess hall for breakfast immediately. Training was to begin immediately after. Hydra and I dressed and walked to the mess hall together. We didn't know each other that well, but we suck together anyways because we didn't want to be caught alone by the older students, they were known for singling out the younger ones and "teaching" them new moves. We sat together at one end of the Chaos long tables and quietly ate our breakfast of bread, milk and rice.
After about 20 minutes the sensei, Parsni, stood and gave the morning announcements. I paid no attention to these; they were of no importance to me. Instead my eyes drifted along the battle scarred faces sitting at the head table. My eyes rested upon a boy about my age, seated at the end of the table. He was tall and strong, with a fairly big build. He wore warrior's armor and a scouter. He had very spiky, messy, dark red hair.
"Hydra? Who's that?"
"Oh. Him. That's Seth. He's the youngest fully trained soldier ever. He's going to command the Jeitan army next month. His training here is complete and he thinks he's all high and mighty 'cause the king personally asked him to be commander. Stay away from him… he's arrogant and pushy."
We were excused from the mess hall and I followed Hydra to our training room. Halfway through the warm-up Sensei Parsni came in and asked to see me. I followed him to the hall where the boy, Seth, was waiting.
"Serpia, this is Seth. Seth is the prodigy everyone on Novajita is talking about. Seth is leaving in two weeks for the military base North of the Skyda Mountains. He is going to be a full commander for the Jeitan army. Your father has informed me that you wish to be a commander someday. Well, I'm here to tell you not to bother. You do not have the power and will never have the power to overthrow Seth and seize control of the army. He's far too superior to you. But, if you want to be a decent warrior, I suggest you beg Seth to give you some tips. You could use some advice from a great warrior like him."
"Look, Parsni, I don't know who the hell you think you are, but I am a Jeitan princess, the rightful heir to the throne of Novajita, and I will be a commander if I want to be a commander. I don't need to follow some stuck-up, over-estimated child's example to be a great warrior. And I don't care who it is, but I will NEVER beg for anything from anyone. You hear me? NEVER!!! Furthermore, I am good all on my own. You'll see. I'll be the best warrior this army has ever seen."

With that I turned on my heel and walked back to my training room, trying to look as powerful as I possibly could. I could hear Seth and Parsni laughing at me as I walked away. I couldn't wait for them to turn their backs on me. I would kill them.

When I got back to my training room I found that the warm-ups had been completed during my absence and that my class was now working on hand-to-hand combat, an area in which I excelled. I was working with Hydra and pinned her quickly and easily. I put her into my secret, self-invented move: the Kickstand Cross-lock. My sensei, whose name was Timah, was shocked. He'd never seen anyone pinned so quickly. He put me with a different partner, a large, chunky boy twice the size of me, whom I promptly tripped with O-Soto Gari and put into a death lock by stepping on his chest with one foot. I soon defeated every single student in my class. My sensei called all the lower classes (there were 14 others) to come in. He was curious. He wanted to see if this school had a single student in it that could defeat me. 3 hours and 14 lower classes later, not one Jeitan had even landed a punch on me. Sensei Timah took me to the largest training room in the school and soon filled it with only the most promising students the upper classes had to offer. Including Seth. I decided to fight him last. I defeated all the other students with ease and locked my eyes on him. He didn't even look remotely disturbed that he would have to take on the person who just single-handedly defeated the entire student population. Sensei Timah, quickly noticing the tension and hatred between us, smartly led us to the outdoor stone stadium built for display battles and tournaments. He told us that the stadium was indestructible, so we could give it our all. All the students who weren't knocked out and could still walk came out to see us fight. Sensei Timah told us to limit the battle to hand-to-hand combat and we took opposite sides of the stadium ring.

When Timah gave the war cry signaling the beginning of the fight we charged at each other. For nearly 5 minutes neither of us could land a punch or kick on the other, all were blocked. Then I used a technique my father taught me as a small child: I feinted. I went in to throw a shoulder check but instead did a sweeping kick that landed him right on his ass. This infuriated him. He took off into the sky. He hovered about 100 feet above me and used both hands to shoot ki balls at me. I saw the weakness in this attack immediately. His chest was unprotected. I used my best ki attack, Dragon Rage. I crossed my arms in front of my face and made a massive ki ball where my arms met. I carefully aimed and pulled my arms away, shooting the ki blast forward. He didn't see it coming. It hit him dead on. He fell from the sky but was barely down a second before he was charging at me again. He caught me off guard and got me good with a nice punch to the stomach. I responded with a crescent kick to the head, sending him down. He used a trip kick to send me flying. Before I had even hit the ground he was flying towards me at top speed. I flipped myself around in the air and landed in a crouched position. I saw his hand, full to the brim with ki, come at the side of my head. Everything went black.