The Mentor

by Elin Peer

  “I know; so is Mila, the blonde girl.”

  “Yeah, but Mila is a little girl compared to Willow.” Marco crossed his arms. “Willow is…” He didn’t finish the sentence but I knew what he meant. Even from this distance we could all tell she was stunning, with large eyes and gorgeous long brown hair that cascaded down to her slim waist. The boys would definitely notice her.

  “There’s no fucking way the boys are showering with her,” Magni stated in a stern voice and turned to his brother. “Next time we take a vote on that subject you better vote no.”

  “Why?” Khan smirked. “My agenda was always for the children to grow up and fall in love. The women are making it really easy for us with that ludicrous suggestion.”

  “Have you forgotten what it’s like to be a hormonal teenager?” Magni snapped back. “Don’t be selfish. You would have hated it, so don’t do it to others.”

  “Not to forget,” I added, “that we adults would have to supervise the showers just to be sure everyone behaved themselves. And there’s no way in hell that I am doing that; I would feel like a fucking pervert.”

  “Yeah, me too,” Marco said firmly.

  “All right, all right.” Khan lifted his chin. “You have a point, but you know it’s going to cost us.”

  “What do you mean?” Marco asked because he hadn’t been part of the endless discussion with the women this past week.

  “I’m willing to let the Momsies have that evening meditation they want so badly, but only if they forget the idea of shared showers,” I said.

  Magni groaned. “Yeah, me too. Since the women obviously don’t have a speck of common sense, it’s up to us to protect the innocent children.”

  Khan grinned. “I can’t wait till the boys get here tomorrow. That’s when the interesting part begins.”

  CHAPTER 6

  Rowdy Boys

  Archer

  Looking over the group of boys, I squared my shoulders, aware that the boy’s first impression of me was crucial. I wasn’t their friend, and my job was to instill enough fear in them that they would respect my authority, but not alienate them to a point where they were miserable.

  “Listen up,” I said and demanded their full attention. “You’re here because you’ve been selected. Each of you is in excellent health, you’re strong for your age, and you’re brave.”

  Several of the boys straightened their backs and sat taller. “My name is Archer Rex and I’ve been a mentor for the last eight years. Some of you know me but the ones who don’t will soon learn that I take great pride in pushing you. I’m here to make you even stronger, sharper, and fiercer.”

  Nodding to Marco, I continued. “This is my assistant, Marco. Not so long ago he was a student himself, but he’s twenty now and ready to learn the ways of a mentor. You’ll treat him with the same respect as every other mentor here at the school.”

  The boys quickly looked Marco over and continued casting glances toward Magni, who stood next to me, his legs solidly planted and his arms crossed over his wide chest.

  “How many of you know who I am?” Magni asked them in a gruff voice.

  Every hand went up in the air.

  “Then you all know that I’m Lord Khan’s brother and the second in command here in the Northlands.”

  Ten heads bobbed in silent nods.

  Magni shifted his balance and narrowed his eyes. “My job here is to teach the Motlanders to fight, and protect the female teacher.”

  Confused looks were exchanged and one of the boys whispered: “Did he say female?”

  “Let me explain,” I said and cleared my throat. “As I said, you’ve been selected for an experiment and you’ll be the first Nboys to attend a school with both boys and girls.”

  The whole room lit up from the excitement that shone from their eyes and the chairs made noises as they squirmed in their seats, visibly bursting with questions.

  “Two boys and eight girls from the Motherlands will be your classmates, and they are very excited to meet you.”

  “Where are they?” Storm, one of the oldest boys at thirteen, asked.

  “A few miles from here, but you’ll meet them soon,” I said before I was cut off by Magni, who stepped in front of me.

  “But just so we’re clear, boys: if any of you little fuckers as much as scratches any of the girls, I’ll personally deal with you and hang you by your small testicles until you learn your lesson.”

  Complete silence fell over the group as they paled and several sunk lower in their chairs. Magni was intimidating when he stood silently in the room, but sneering and threatening, he was a scary son of a devil.

  “How many of you have met a female in real life?” I asked while walking to the side, pulling their attention away from Magni, who clearly had no experience with children.

  One hand was slowly raised in the air.

  “Nathan?” I said and pointed to him.

  “My father won my mother in a tournament and I sometimes visit them for holidays. I have two sisters too.”

  “That’s nice.” I nodded. “Anyone else? No?” Many of them were still casting nervous glances at Magni, so I spoke again. “Do any of you have questions?”

  “Can we talk to the girls?” Sultan asked. He was eleven and one of the youngest.

  I nodded. “Of course.”

  A boy named Nero, after a famous Roman emperor, raised his hand. “What are we supposed to say to them?”

  “I don’t know,” I admitted. “I’m new at this too, but just talk to them like you would talk to each other.”

  “Girls cry easily,” Nathan volunteered. “At least my sisters do. They don’t like it when I tease them.”

  “Then don’t fucking tease them!” Magni stated dryly.

  “This is an experiment,” I said. “We’re meant to learn from one another, and they are very curious about you too. We expect that you’ll all be open to learning about their ways and in return we’ll teach them about ours.”

  “What are their ways?”

  “Ehmm,” I thought about how to answer that because after almost a week with Kya and Raven I could mention several things they did that were unbelievably stupid, but I wanted the boys to keep an open mind. “They typically speak with soft voices and never curse. They are very friendly and smile a lot, and you’ll be taught new things such as meditation.”

  “What is that?” Nero asked.

  “Some kind of napping,” I answered.

  “I’m too old to nap,” William, the youngest in the group, objected.

  “I know, but apparently they do it a lot in the Motherlands and they want us to learn how to do it too.”

  “How hard can napping be?” Solomon asked and received admiring looks from the other boys in the group. With his fourteen years, Solomon was the oldest and a tall, strong, and handsome blond boy that I had brought with me from my old school because of his clear alpha traits and superior physical skills.

  The others laughed, and after eight years as a mentor I already knew my plan had worked. Solomon had been the leader of the pack at my old school and he would take that role here too. He was a born leader and because he and I had already battled in the past, I knew he accepted my authority and wouldn’t cause me problems.

  “In some areas, you’ll be better than the girls,” I said. “They are beginners when it comes to fighting and survival in nature. But in other areas they’ll be better than you.”

  A low snort came from Solomon. “Better at what? Napping?”

  “What’s your name?” Magni asked gruffly.

  “Solo.” The boy had the nerve to look Magni straight in the eye and raise his chin. “After King Solomon, the greatest man who ever lived.”

  I hid a smug smile, knowing that Solomon’s answer would provoke Magni, who didn’t like to be challenged by anyone.

  “Well, Solo,” Magni said dryly. “That doesn’t impress me since I’m named after the Norse god of strength, who was superior to any mortal.” Magni raised an e
yebrow. “Unless you’re called upon, shut the fuck up!”

  The youngster was wise enough not to talk back.

  “You have five minutes to find your bunk bed and meet us outside the school,” I told the boys in my most authoritarian voice. “It’s time to go and meet the Momsies.”

  CHAPTER 7

  First Meeting

  Kya

  Archer and I had discussed how to make the first introduction, and agreed on letting the children meet on neutral ground and walk back to the school together.

  When Archer texted me that they were ready, Boulder, Pearl, Christina, and I led the Motlander children back toward the school knowing that we would meet Archer, Marco, Magni, and the Nboys halfway there.

  “I wish Khan could have been here to witness it,” said Pearl and gave me an excited smile.

  I nodded, but was happy the board had voted for him to stay away. It was overwhelming enough for the Nboys to meet females for the first time. If they were to meet their ruler on the same day too, it would have been too much.

  Raven walked up front, chatting happily with Christina and Shelly. She had been like a fish in water ever since we arrived in the Northlands. Being too young to have heard scary rumors about the Nmen, she didn’t know they were supposed to be dangerous barbarians, so she’d met Boulder and the other men with absolute trust. It was touching to see the way the men, and in particular Boulder, had welcomed her. Most adults would have found Raven clingy with her constant need for adult attention, but Boulder welcomed it and gave her what she had missed out on for years with her mother.

  Two nights ago, I’d come back to Christina’s and Boulder’s house to find Raven cuddled up like a baby in Boulder’s arms, fast asleep.

  “She had a nightmare,” he had explained with a soft smile before carrying her to bed.

  “I hear them,” Raven excitedly called back to me after five minutes of walking.

  My heart beat like a war drum. This was it. The moment we’d been waiting for.

  “Wait, Raven,” Christina called out but the girl had already started running ahead and four of the other children followed her lead.

  When we caught up to them, Raven, Willow, Sky, and Nieall stood opposite the group of Nmen and Nboys, who had stopped.

  “I found them,” Raven called to me proudly and I gave her a smile.

  Mila and Paysey, who had already become best friends, were holding hands and staying behind Pearl and me. I noticed the smallest boy in the group of Nboys looked shy too while the older boys took in every member of our party. I’d never met a child in the Northlands before but I shouldn’t have been surprised that the boys were big for their age. From their profiles, I knew they ranged in age from eleven to fourteen, and my eyes homed in on Solomon, the oldest and tallest of the boys. He had a sleeveless t-shirt on, and it shouldn’t be possible for a child, but he was already toned with muscles and reached Archer’s chin in height.

  “Boys,” Archer said and stepped into the middle. “Allow me to introduce you to Kya, who will do the introductions.”

  “Thank you,” I said and walked toward him.

  “I’m very excited about being your new teacher and I promise we’re going to have a lot of fun together.”

  None of the boys were smiling but they listened attentively. “This is Pearl, who founded the school together with your ruler, Lord Khan.” Pearl waved at them. “And Christina.” Christina greeted them happily too.

  “Both Pearl and Christina will be helping out from time to time, but my daily assistant will be Shelly.”

  Shelly Summers took a small step forward. She was fifteen and the daughter of Sheana Rene, an esteemed member of the Council who had volunteered to let her youngest daughter, Rochelle, participate with the condition that Shelly would be there to look out for her little sister. I had been deeply grateful because many of the Motlander children had some sort of trauma behind them. They were mostly children without parents, except Rochelle, who was a healthy happy kid.

  “Hello,” Shelly said and held her head high, which couldn’t be easy for a self-aware teenager with a bad condition of acne and big bushy eyebrows. “I look forward to getting to know you all.” Her eyes fell on Marco, the other assistant, before she quickly looked down.

  “Thank you, Shelly,” I said and spread my hands out in a gesture of openness. “This is your new family. We are going to live together, learn together, grow together, and hopefully laugh together a whole lot.

  “But the first step is to get to know each other so we’re going to play a little game called boxes. Do you know it?”

  The Nboys shook their heads.

  “It’s very easy to put people in boxes when we first meet them,” I said. “But sometimes we don’t put them in the right box because people are not just one thing. They are many things.”

  “We’re going to build two big boxes, symbolized by squares on the ground,” Archer explained. “Use sticks to form them. Go!”

  The two groups of children hurried to do his bidding and soon two large squares had been formed.

  “I want all Northlanders to stand in that box.” I pointed and went to place myself in the other square. “And all Motlanders join me over here.

  There we were, three women, a teenager, and ten children gazing at four men and ten boys.

  “All right,” I said. “But now I want it to be boys and men on that side and girls and women on this side.”

  Tommy and Nieall nervously moved closer to each other but didn’t move out of the Motlander square.

  “Come on,” Archer called. “We won’t bite, and it’s boys on this side.” When they finally walked to the other box, Marco, Magni, Boulder, and Archer all welcomed them enthusiastically. “This is Nieall and Tommy,” Archer said to the other boys, who made room for them.

  “All right, let’s try something different,” I announced. “Let’s split it into grownups over here and kids over there.”

  Again, Raven was the first to run ahead and with her she brought laughter and the seven other girls. Shelly stayed with us and shot me an insecure look. “Stay here. To them you’re an adult,” I whispered to her.

  The twenty children were cramped in the square, and it was interesting to see how the shy children made sure to stay as far away from the new group of children as possible.

  “Okay, now box one is for the people who like to get up early and box two is for those of us who like to sleep in.” This time the children mixed: the younger leaning toward getting up early with Archer and Marco, while Magni, Boulder, and some of the older boys joined us in box one.

  From then on we mixed around according to breakfast versus dinner, running versus walking, movies versus books, and we also made boxes for the talkative, the shy, the funny, and then I asked: “Get into box one if you’re excited about getting to know your new family and get into box two if you’re not.”

  Everyone walked toward box one except Solomon, who sauntered to box two and stood for a second enjoying being in the spotlight, before he broke into a wide grin and joined us.

  “Now that we’ve decided to be a family, we need to learn each other’s names,” I said. “We’re going to learn while we walk back to the school.” I did a quick round of pairing them up and had them stand in a line of two. “Okay, you only have a minute with the person next to you before we switch. There will be a quiz when we get back to the school and whoever can remember most names wins, so pay attention.”

  Archer and I walked behind the line of children, who all chatted away as we moved in the direction of the school.

  “That went pretty well,” he said and smiled.

  “Yes, so far so good.”

  “Switch,” I called out and Solomon, who was in the lead with Willow, moved to the back while the other kids in his line moved forward.

  “When are you gonna tell them?” Archer nodded ahead to Hunter and Willow, who were now walking side by side, introducing themselves to each other.

  At first I didn�
�t reply. I was too fascinated with the sight of the twins, who were shyly talking and exchanging names with each other.

  “Tomorrow,” I said. “I’ll tell them tomorrow.”

  “Why not today?”

  “For the same reason I didn’t want Khan to be here. Children can only handle so much at a time.”

  After making sure the children had spent a minute with each of their new classmates, we had them sit by the long table in the dining room, naming each student in a quiz.

  There were a few laughs at some of the wrong guesses of names but overall the children had a good memory and Paysey, Rochelle, and Sultan scored a hundred percent correct answers.

  I held up a hand and looked at the three winners. “You get to pick the person you want to work with for the next assignment. However, you can’t pick one from your own country.”

  Archer spoke up. “Paysey, why don’t you pick one of the boys to be your partner?”

  Paysey’s cheeks turned tomato red with everyone staring at her and I was afraid she would start crying, so I walked over to take her hand, but before I got there, Nathan, who sat closest to her, spoke up. “You can pick me.”

  I instantly liked him for the genuine smile he shot her. The boy had two sisters and a bit more experience with females than the rest.

  Sultan picked Mila, and Rochelle picked Hunter, and we took all the children outside.

  “We’re going to play a game,” Archer explained and directed the children.

  Pearl came over to stand next to me, leaning against me so our shoulders touched. “I smell foul play,” she whispered.

  “What do you mean?” I asked.

  “Don’t you find it suspicious that none of these boys is the slightest bit ugly? I mean, one handsome boy would make sense, but this…” Pearl narrowed her eyes. “What criteria did Archer use when he chose them? Was good looks one of them?”

  “They are very nice-looking,” I admitted. “But so are our children.”

  “Our children are normal kids. Maybe Mila and Willow are prettier than the average, but the Nboys…” Pearl trailed off. “I think Khan is up to something.”