Usually, I’d always pushed myself up off the ground in disgrace, but that day there had been an outstretched hand.
“If you are so insistent on being beaten up, then it is my duty to oblige.”
Our training changed from then on. When Percy disarmed me, he would whisper a correction in what I had been doing wrong. When he flipped me to make me hit the mat, he would catch me by the back of the uniform and soften my blow to the ground.
Lorn never said a word about the change in Percy. Although, I could tell he was pleased.
The real change was when it came to mealtimes. When Lorn was too busy to eat, I would sit by myself in my little hidden alcove away from prying eyes and the table filled with the other scouts. I thought I was invisible to the other elves and would be ignored as usual.
“She’s a waste of training, isn’t she, Percy?” Rulah had said in an offhand comment. “We should speak to the council again. They have to see that it is wrong for an elf to train a human in our ways. What could be Lorn’s reason? He must have gone mad.”
“She’s so strange. Look at her eating by herself,” another scout had added. “It’s disturbing. Where is she going to get assigned? It’s not like she can ever truly become a scout. She can’t enter any of the elven realms without help.”
A loud scraping followed as Percy had pushed the bench backward, startling those sitting next to him. He’d grabbed his plate filled with half-eaten food and marched diligently across the hall and sat by me. Without a word, he’d lifted his plate and ate. He’d chewed silently while staring straight ahead, not even acknowledging my existence. But I knew then. That was our truce.
I’d never sat alone since. I didn’t know what had changed between us or how. All I knew was that from that day on, Percy distanced himself from the other scouts, and over the years we became friends. We learned to adapt to our favorite spot, eating without a table, passing the food between us, learning each other’s habits. We’d worked as one unit, and I began to depend on his friendship.
Until Lorn pointed out that it wouldn’t last. It couldn’t.
It was last fall when I'd come back from dinner with an impish grin. I had convinced Percy to help me dump all of Ardax’s winter gear into the lake after he had been particularly nasty to me. It was dark, after hours, and I was sneaking back into my room. I remembered it like it was yesterday.
“Honor,” Lorn said my name from the shadows and my back stiffened. I was caught. He knew. He always knew when I’d done something terrible.
“Yes, Lorn?” I turned to face him. His face was inscrutable. His eyes never flinched, and I couldn’t tell if he knew to the extent of my prank.
I focused on the spot over his shoulder, my body rigid and at attention as I waited for the rebuke.
There was the slightest exhale. He was mad.
“It’s getting worse.”
“What is?”
“I had hoped that you’d have picked up Percy’s better traits, but it seems in doing so, he’s picked up a few of your more notorious ones.” He turned and raised one eyebrow. “Ardax’s gear in the lake . . . Have you no honor, Honor?”
His words were like a branding iron that burned into my heart. I hated disappointing Lorn.
“There’s something you need to know about Percy.”
“I know. He’s going to be a scout commander one day.”
“No, do you really know who he is?”
“He’s Percy.”
“Again, you seemed to have missed the purpose of your training completely. You still don’t know your enemy.” Lorn rubbed his forehead.
“But he’s not my enemy.”
“Everyone is your enemy. That is the point. The Northern Woods are neutral territory. We are the very best fighters; it is our duty to train our brethren from all the elven clans.”
“Even the southern elves?” I asked, raising my lip in disgust, picturing an ugly dark elf.
“Yes, sometimes we get elves from Thornhaven, but sometimes there’s an expectation of our scouts after graduation. They can’t all stay here. They must go back home, and many will leave with an understanding in place of future alliances between clans.”
“They aren't here just for training, but political courtship,” I said.
Lorn sighed. “Yes, and your friendship with Percy complicates things. You’re—"
“In the way,” I finished.
“No. It’s just that . . . You and Percy can never be more than friends.”
“I know that,” I said heatedly. “I never asked for anything else. Not once. Not ever.”
“I know, but lately there’s been a change in Percy, and I see it in you as well. Others are noticing, and they are starting to ask questions. Rulah’s family is very vocal about your perceived closeness. And I know that they’re hoping for a union between the two.”
Pain pierced my heart. “Are you saying we need to stop being friends?”
“I’m saying it would be wise, but I won’t force your hand. You knew this day would come. To Percy, you are a mere distraction from his duty.”
Now the tears were burning in my eyes, and my vision blurred as I held them back. My hands balled into white-knuckled fists. “Then why did you make him train with me? You would’ve known that we would’ve become friends one day.”
“You needed an ally close to your age, and Percy was also an outsider. He may be an elf, but he doesn’t know the customs. I thought you two would find a common bond. But now. . .” The pause was deafening, and dragged on to the point where I was scared to inhale. Lorn sighed. “I think I made a mistake. He has become overly fascinated with humans; did you know that?”
I shook my head and wiped at the tears with my sleeve.
“Last night, he snuck out of the woods, and I found him in a human tavern.” He sounded so distraught at the thought. I tried to hold in my smile. “I dragged him back, and it wasn’t just the one time. He’s become a liability. His focus is not where it should be, and that can have a much larger impact on not only our realm, but others.” Lorn’s eyes met mine.
There it was. The warning. I released my fists, lowered my head, being careful to hide my trembling lips. “I understand.”
“Tomorrow is the day where the trainees are sent out on their final test.”
My head shot up, and I pleaded with Lorn. “Please, can I try? You know that I would do anything to become a scout. I would die to protect the elven realms.”
Lorn shook his head and handed me my pack. It was heavy and filled to the brim with supplies, which only meant one thing. We were leaving . . . again. I wouldn’t get to see if Percy passed his final test.
“Can I say goodbye to Per—”
“No. Elves don’t care about such necessities.”
“But I promised I would tell him if and when I left again.”
“Honor, that is precisely the reason why you can’t say goodbye. You must break it off.”
Lorn and I left in the middle of the night and didn’t return until months later. I had heard that Percy passed with the highest of marks.
I was proud of him. How could I not be? When we returned to the Northern Woods months later, I dropped my pack and ran to congratulate him, only to find him and Rulah together by the lake. Hanging back, I watched their interlude through the bushes.