Archer
I never thought that I would be sorry to see Magni go, but the morning he announced to the children that he was leaving for the East Coast, I felt a pinch of regret.
Over the last month, he and I had butted heads more times than I cared to remember, but we had also laughed together and on occasion he had helped me persuade Kya to see things my way. Magni was rude, confrontational, and unapologetic to a fault, but it was impossible not to respect him as a fighter. Although I hated to admit it, he was the best I had ever seen.
“As you know, Lord Khan depends on me to keep this country safe,” he told the children with his characteristic self-importance. “There are some idiots conspiring to overthrow my brother, and I have to go pay them a visit and talk to them about changing their minds.” The way he pressed his right fist into his left palm gave a nonverbal illustration of what exactly he meant by “talk.”
All the children were standing in a half circle, listening to him, and from the boys’ sagging shoulders it was easy to see their disappointment. Magni was a man of power and influence and his presence had made them feel important; not to mention that he had gathered quite the little fan group among the kids, who loved to watch him train.
“Can I come with you?” Oscar asked. “I can help.” The boy pushed out his chest and although impressive for a thirteen-year-old, he had a long way to go before he would be ready for the army of strong warriors that Magni had under his command.
“Me too,” Sultan added and was quickly followed by Storm, Nikola, and Solomon, who all offered Magni their service too.
I narrowed my eyes, afraid that their hero would dismiss them and hurt their pride, but I should have known that Magni was a bigger man than that.
“Thank you! We’ll need good warriors like you to keep our country safe. For now, I have my team, but you boys keep practicing hard and I might have a spot for you when you grow older.”
“What about us girls?” Raven asked. “Can we be on your team too?”
The boys broke into loud laughter.
Smiling down at Raven, who stood on my left side, I lifted my hand to tousle her hair and tell her she was being funny.
But I stopped myself when Magni came over, raised a hand to silence the boys, and squatted down in front of her. “Raven, I know that where you come from women are strong and independent, but you gotta understand that here in the Northlands we men are very protective of females. You see, we don’t have many to begin with so we can’t risk your lives in battle.”
Raven’s face fell.
“But I want you to know,” he added, “that we all acknowledge how brave it was of you to come here in the first place. Now, I can’t guarantee you that there will be a place for a woman in my army when you grow up. But a few months ago, the idea of boys and girls learning together in a school seemed out of reach too, so you never know. If you want to be a warrior,” he said and placed his large hand on Raven’s little shoulder, “then you keep training and doing your best, okay?”
She nodded her head eagerly.
“We’ll miss you, Magni.” The soft voice surprised me because it came from Mila, who stepped out of the group to approach him. With him still squatting, Mila placed her arms around him in a hug, looking genuinely sad to see him go.
Magni responded by holding on to her and rising back up to his full height with her in his arms. “You’re not going to miss me, Mila, because I’m bringing you as a souvenir.”
The girl erupted into laughter, making both of her charming dimples pop out.
“You can’t do that.” She giggled and with a rare grin, Magni spun her through the air and put her back on her feet.
“Nahh, I guess not, but I would if I could,” he said in his deep voice.
While I wondered how I had missed the two of them bonding, Mila wrapped her arms around his waist and hugged him again. And the minute she let go of him, Kya came over and hugged him too.
“You stay safe, all right?”
“Enough with this love fest.” Magni rolled his eyes but couldn’t hide a small smile.
I kept my goodbyes short, and soon after, the children waved as Magni’s drone disappeared in the distance.
“Who is going to train us now?” Raven asked me. “We’re still going to learn how to fight, right?”
“Of course you are. In fact we’re going to be having a session right now and Marco will be your new trainer.”
Raven turned her head to look at Marco and her little nose wrinkled up in disapproval. “But Magni was the best fighter in the whole world,” she complained.
“What are you saying?” I asked the girl and crossed my arms. “You don’t think Marco can teach you anything?”
“I guess,” she muttered.
“Hey, look at me,” I commanded. “Why aren’t you excited about Marco teaching you?”
Her small shoulders bobbed in a shrug, but then she leaned closer and muttered in a hushed voice. “I don’t mean to be disrespectful of Marco, but he doesn’t look half as scary as Magni.”
“Hmm.” I took a minute to look at my assistant, trying to see the young man through her eyes. Marco might not be as scarred, tattooed, or menacing to look at as Magni, but at Marco’s six-foot-three he towered over her, muscled and broad-shouldered.
“You really don’t think he looks scary?” I asked.
“No.” She shook her head. “Marco is the pretty one, that’s why all the girls like him.
Marco swung his head and gave me a disgusted look. “Did she just call me pretty?” he asked with a grimace.
“I think she did,” I confirmed with a grin.
Raven tugged at my shirt and signaled that she wanted to whisper something to me, so I bent down.
“You want to know a secret?” she asked and I nodded.
“Rochelle, Paysey, and Nicki are all in love with Marco.”
I pulled back with my eyebrows raised. “Is that right?”
“Uh-huh!” She gave me a conspiratorial glance and looked back at him.
“What are you two whispering about?” Marco asked and came to stand next to me.
“Nothing,” Raven said too quickly.
“Raven wonders if you’ll be any good as a trainer. She only wants to train with the best?”
Marco took the challenge with a charming grin. “Why don’t we find out?” he said and called to the boys. “Any of you little boys wanna fight me?”
Ten hands flew into the air and he signaled for them to circle around him.
“So, Raven?” he called to her. “If I can take down all the boys, will you be impressed?”
The Nboys were excited by the challenge and ran to get their safety gear. My concern was that Marco might be in over his head, because he hadn’t been training with them like I had. As per my instructions, Marco had kept close to Magni and trained with the children from the Motherlands instead. I had no doubt that Marco could take down nine ordinary schoolboys. After all, I had trained him myself and he was an excellent fighter. But these boys were handpicked and they were advanced for their age. Hell, I wasn’t even sure Magni or I could handle the full pack if they attacked us all at once.
“This will be interesting,” I said and took a step inside the circle that the boys had formed around Marco, who closed his thin safety vest and put on the protective gloves before he stretched his arms and rolled his shoulders to warm up.
“To make it last a little longer, I want only two of you to attack at the same time,” I instructed the boys.
“Can I do a one on one?” Solomon asked. “I want to take Marco down by myself.”
Marco grinned smugly at the confident fourteen-year-old, who was tall for his age but only reached Marco’s chin.
“Sure, but you’ll have to wait your turn. We’ll finish with you, Solo.”
Kya, Shelly, and the ten children from the Motherlands stood in a group. Raven’s and Nieall’s eyes shone with excitement, while the others were quietly exchanging looks of concern.
“Marco, honey, are you sure this is a good idea?” Kya called out to him and the fucker had the nerve to wink at her with a cocky grin. I had heard Kya use endearments with the children, but not with him and I didn’t like it one bit.
“If I get a scratch, will you kiss it and make it better?” he said flirtatiously, and I had to step out of the circle before I did something stupid such as challenging him myself.
“Don’t go easy on him,” I shouted to the boys but my request was redundant, as they all looked like hungry wolves’ eager to take the first bite.
Marco did the last stretch with his arms and yawned provocatively before he pointed to the two youngest in the group. “Sultan. Plato. Let's go.”
The two boys were no match for Marco, and although they fought bravely he toyed with them. In a real fight it was easy to see who had won a game, since the loser would be dead or asking for mercy. In a training situation, there were several ways of winning: either you knocked your opponent out, you made him beg for mercy, or you restrained him and made it impossible for him to fight you. Marco chose the last solution with the two boys. With his superior strength, he managed to bundle them together and sit on top of them.
William would've been the next boy to go, but even though his burn wound from two weeks ago had healed nicely, I didn’t want to put him under pressure just yet. “Hey, Nieall, do you want to take William’s place?” I asked the boy because I knew how much he wanted to be part of the boys’ group.
Kya’s hand shot out and landed on his shoulder, holding him back. “No, that’s all right; we’ll just watch, right, Nieall?”
She was behind him so she couldn’t see the disappointment on his face, but I did. “It’s your choice, champ, if you want to join the fun then now is the time.”
Pulling his shoulder free from Kya’s grasp, Nieall ran into the circle and joined Hunter, who had already taken a fighting stance. Hunter was an excellent fighter – fast, intelligent, and fearless. But he was more or less fighting Marco on his own because Nieall had no experience or any particular gift in this area. It only took Marco a minute or two before he was ready for the next two.
Nero and Nathan stepped forward, both of them twelve years old and strong for their age. They worked together and for the first time Marco took a few beatings. Still, he had eight years on them, and at least forty pounds more of muscles to work with. The boys were panting and sweating when he was done with them, and I gave both of them a nod of recognition for their hard work.
“Storm and Niko.” Marco waved them closer. I crossed my arms, ready to see my boys put up a good fight. These boys were only a year older but that year made a big difference, and using their combined strength they broke free when he tried to restrain them. Marco too was growing red-faced and perspiration was showing on his bare shoulders.
A loud gasp went through the group behind me when Storm did a high kick, catching Marco unaware.
“Nice kick,” I shouted.
Marco pulled back and touched his face, his tongue raking over his teeth as if to feel that they were still all there. Then his eyes shot to me, silently asking for permission to take it up a notch. I nodded.
When Marco pulled into second gear, things got interesting. Kicks and punches were accompanied by growls and groans of pain.
Not surprisingly, it became too much for Kya, who came up to me, begging me to stop the madness.
Of course, I refused. “It’s almost over,” I pointed out and true enough, Nikola took a kick to his chest and flew backward while Storm ended up in a choke grip that emphasized that Marco could have killed him if he wanted to.
Since Solomon had been promised he could fight Marco one on one, Oscar Schindler, the last thirteen-year-old boy in the group, didn’t have a partner. I thought about asking Raven to join since she was jumping and cheering on the sideline, but she was a girl and I couldn’t risk her being hurt with all the elbows and punches flying through the air. Oscar didn’t take mercy on Marco or give him time to catch his breath. He was hungry for his chance to prove himself and attacked head on.
For a moment, I wished that Magni could have been here to see this fight. He would’ve been proud of Oscar, who took several punches and even started bleeding from his nose, but still kept going.
In the end, it was conditioning and strength that took him out. He ran out of energy and his punches became weak. By then it was easy for Marco to restrain him and Oscar’s five minutes of fame were over.
“Impressive!” I patted Oscar’s shoulder when he limped past me to go and have a seat next to his other tired friends, and then I called out to the last boy. “Are you ready to take him down, Solo?”
Solomon was growing up to be an impressive Nman and was by far the biggest of the boys. He moved from side to side in full concentration, ignoring my question, his eyes locked on his target.
“So, you really think you can take me down?” Marco mocked him. “You’re just a boy.”
Solomon didn’t take the bait – he was too clever for that – and instead he moved closer with his eyebrows lowered, his knees bent, and his arms stretched to the sides. It was an invitation for Marco to attack him.
“Oh, you want to play?” Marco swayed from side to side and then he exploded forward, taking the first swing. Solomon ducked and took a swing of his own.
From there things evolved quickly and even I scrunched up my face when they started using knees and elbows.
“The face is off limits,” I shouted, but both fighters had their pride on the line and they were in a bubble of heavy testosterone. Solomon was like a wild boar, using every dirty trick he knew to compensate for his lack of experience fighting someone much older than himself.
“Fuck!!!” Marco cursed and shook his head after a particular nasty punch from Solomon.
By now, Marco’s eyebrow was bleeding and he looked enraged. Clearly, he had underestimated the boy and it didn’t help that all the other boys were cheering for Solomon. Marco gave me a questioning look again and I raised my eyebrows, silently telling him: “Yes, you can put that boy in his place, but don’t mess him up too badly.”
Right then, Solomon took a step forward, kicking Marco square in the chest. A loud cry came from the Momsies but although Marco hadn’t seen it coming, he was quick enough to move back just enough to not feel the full impact. Instead he grabbed Solomon’s leg and threw the teenager to the ground, where they rolled around in an ugly display of punches.
When Marco finally managed to get on top of Solomon and effectively restrained him by sitting on his chest and arms, the boy was fuming.
“And we have a winner!” I announced.
Marco placed his palm on Solomon’s face and pushed up. When he reached his hand down to pull Solomon up, the boy refused to take it and got up by himself.
“It’s okay, just give him time to cool down,” I said when Solomon stormed off into the woods. “He fought bravely, but losing is never fun.”
Marco grinned. “Better him than me.”
“Give him a few years and he’ll take you,” I teased and patted Marco’s shoulder.
“He’s fucking strong, that’s for sure.”
I chuckled and turned to the boys. “Get some water and if anyone has injuries – I want to hear about them.”
The sight of Kya and Nieall standing on the side caught my attention. I knew she was probably angry at me for letting him participate, but he had been so eager to do it. Now, however, Nieall was crying again and she was rubbing his back and whispering soft words to him.
“Hey, what’s wrong?” I asked when I got closer.
The boy sniffled and with red-rimmed eyes he looked up at me. “Hunter said it was my fault that we didn’t win over Marco. Because I’m a wuss.”
I crossed my arms. “Is that why you’re crying like a girl?”
Kya’s eyes shot daggers at me. “No wonder your boys are so cruel, when you use name-calling. Don’t listen to him, Nieall, he doesn’t know what he’s talking about. Boys have every right to be sensitive and cry. Your emotions and feelings are just as important as everyone else’s. And besides, it’s not about winning, it’s about participating.”
The sandy-blond-haired boy dried his nose with the back of his hand and sniffled again. “I just want them to like me.”
“They will,” Kya said in her deep soft voice. “Once they understand what a beautiful soul you are, they’ll like you. Remember that it’s just as hard to be rude to someone who is being kind to you as it is hard to be kind to someone who is rude to you. They’ll come around.”
I rolled my eyes. “Look, Nieall, I’m sorry to say this, but Kya has no fucking clue what she’s talking about. If you want these boys to respect you and like you, don’t listen to her.”
Kya’s face stiffened, and the boy looked from me to her and back again.
“Here’s the thing,” I said matter-of-factly. “If you want to win their respect then you need to grow tough. We’re men and we respect grit, perseverance, and endurance. We’re competitive by nature and if you cry every time things get tough, you’re not making any friends.”
“Then what am I supposed to do?”
I bent forward to look into his eyes. “You’re going to hold your head high and stand your ground when they push you.”
“But I don’t fight as good as they do.”
“No, you don’t. But how could you when you haven’t been trained?”
“But what if they get mad at me and beat me up?”
Kya cut me off before I could answer him. “They won’t beat you up because you won’t get involved in a fight.”
“But in case they do you just come back at them tenfold,” I said. “Don’t let anyone bully you, do you hear me?”
“Nieall!” With a finger under his chin Kya made him look at her. “Violence has never solved anything, and trying to be someone you’re not to impress a bunch of boys is silly.”
His eyes drifted to me. “Tenfold,” he muttered.
I nodded. “That’s right, don’t take any shit from anybody.”
Kya made a sound of disapproval. “That’s exactly the strategy that got six and half billion people killed during the Toxic War. One act of aggression was reciprocated by ten, and next thing the world was in flames, species extinct, and half of the earth uninhabitable because of radiation and toxic pollution.”
“And I’m pointing out that aggression isn’t the solution,” Kya said annoyed.
Nieall drew a heavy sigh but at least he wasn’t crying anymore. “I don’t want to start a war with the boys,” he muttered.
“Isn’t there anything you’re really good at? You know something that would impress them?” I asked, trying to come up with a solution that didn’t involve physical strength, which Kya didn’t approve of and this boy clearly didn’t have much of anyway.
“No, not really.”
“How about drawing? Are you artistic?”
He shook his head, his lips turning downward.
“Are you a fast runner? Can you sing or just burp the alphabet?… Anything would help.”
With shoulders sagging, Nieall once again shook his head. “No, I’m not really good at anything.”
“Hmm.” I let my hand run through my hair, thinking hard.
“Should I take the lunch crew and get started?” a female voice asked behind us.
I spun around to see Shelly Summers standing behind us. “Hey, wait a minute, aren’t you supposed to be a genius or something?”
“I guess, why?” She asked with a guarded attitude.
“Okay, then I have a riddle for you. Do you like riddles?”
“I guess,” she said again and for a genius I didn’t find her very articulate.
“Right, if a boy wants to impress a group of boys, but he’s not good at anything, then how does he do it?”
Shelly’s eyes flew to Nieall before she spoke. “That’s an easy one,” she said.
“Easy?” I said intrigued that the nerdy teenager apparently thought there was a solution to this.
“We could use Nieall as an example,” she said, revealing that she knew full well that we were talking about him. “Is that okay?”
He nodded.
“A boy like you might think that he’s not good at anything. Especially if he compares himself to the boys here, who are all so athletic. But there’s an obvious area where you are superior to them.”
“There is?” Nieall’s eyes lit up.
Shelly nodded. “Haven’t you noticed how awkward they get around girls? I think they’re a bit mystified by us and that they wish they could be as relaxed around us as you are. You could just walk up and talk to any of us women or girls here, couldn’t you?”
Nieall wrinkled his nose. “Yeah, but that’s not something special.”
“Oh, but it is,” Shelly insisted. “The Nboys might be strong and brave, but they have no clue how to talk to girls and they often make fools of themselves.”
I snorted. “What do you expect? It’s not like you women and girls are very easy to figure out. Your thoughts are illogical, and you send more mixed signals than a cockpit with a loose connection.” My eyes met Kya’s.
“Case closed,” Shelly said and gave Nieall a satisfied smile. “You could barter with them, you know.” She narrowed her eyebrows and since they were already bushy it kind of made it look like she had a mono-brow.
“Barter?” Nieall asked and clearly didn’t understand the expression.
“It means to exchange something. In your case, you can offer information and guidance about girls and earn their friendship in return.” She gave him a reassuring smile and made a discreet nod in my direction. “It sounds like you might have your first customer to barter with right here.”
Nieall’s mouth opened and a small sound of understanding escaped him. “Maybe I could tell the boys some of the girls’ secrets?” he pondered out loud.
“I wouldn’t recommend it,” Shelly said. “That will only infuriate the girls, and trust me, they will find out.”
“Then what do you mean by bartering?”
Shelly gave him a sly smile. “The trick is to position yourself so that both sides will use you to get information. Let’s say one of the girls likes one of the boys, and she really wants to know if he likes her back or vice versa. Since you don’t have any problem addressing either group, you can make yourself useful and create a position of power.”
“But why can’t they just talk to each other without my help?”
Geez, if only it was that simple, I thought to myself.
“All humans fear rejection at some level,” Shelly explained to him. “It’s really no mystery when you think about how vulnerable humans used to be in the old days. If a person living in the Stone Age was rejected by the group, their chances of survival were slim. We modern people are still programmed to long for inclusion and safety in numbers. It’s irrational of course, because rejection is no longer a life-and-death matter. Yet most of us still get sick to our stomachs when we face potential rejection.”
“Ahh…” Nieall nodded his head in understanding. “Got it.”
“Happy to help,” Shelly said and turned to Kya. “So, did you want me to get started with lunch?”
“Yes, that would be lovely,” Kya answered and the two of them walked away.
“Run along,” I told Nieall and found myself a bit shaken that a pimply teenager could give better advice than me. Her idea was brilliant, and I only wished I had a grown-up version of Nieall that I could use to get information about how Kya felt about me.