Page 18 of The Mentor
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 sayfemale?”
“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 boysandgirls.”
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.
