Scales and Swords ✓

16: Friends

It took me a while process what Lance had said. And when I finally understood him I dropped unconscious with a smile on my face. When I woke, I woke in the courtyard's garden. The sky was clear and blue as far as it stretched. I basked in the suns heat. My back cushioned by the soft grass. Immersing myself in bliss as brief as it was.

"You enjoying yourself?" came a familiar voice.

I sat up in a heartbeat and turned to find Philip standing a few feet away.

"I'm sorry," I said, before I knew it.

He came forward quietly and sat beside me. He looked my way, but not looking me in the eye. "No, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have doubted you. I should've trusted you as you trusted me."

"It was selfish of me to not consider how you felt. I was dumb."

"You are a little dumb." He grinned, and that melted my heart before I could get angry at him.

"Fine, whatever you say. I'm sorry, I thought you wouldn't care. But we've been through a lot together and I would be lying if I said I didn't worry about you too. Friends?" I stretched out my hand for a shake.

But instead of shaking my hand, he pulled me forward by my arm into an embrace. "Friends," he said.

Somebody cleared their throat. Philip was long forgotten when I pushed him of me and stood to greet Lance. I could practically feel Philip's glare on the side of my face but feigned ignorance.

Lance, the older Lance, raised a grey brow. "Am I interrupting something?"

"No sir," I answered.

"It's alright I can come back later."

I groaned in humiliation and turned back to Philip. "Don't give people the wrong idea."

He smirked. "What idea?"

"You know what I mean by idea."

"Oh no, please elaborate." He was enjoying himself.

"That we're more than friends," I said through my teeth.

"They won't get the wrong idea if it's true." He stood and inched towards me.

"Philip, I just recognized you as a friend. Don't make me take it back," I scolded.

"I was joking don't take it back I like you as a friend," he said in one breath.

I narrowed my eyes and nodded hesitantly. "Don't joke too much, you sound like a creep."

His jaw dropped. "Did you just call me a creep?"

"Yes."

He winced. "Ouch." He picked up my wrist and tugged me forward. "Come let me buy you something tasty to eat, to congratulate you on passing the test. Just one more to go."

"Wait," I said. Philip looked back at me. "I thought I had two more to go?"

"The tests for combat skills and cognitive ability were combined into one, if you didn't notice. The last test is for your special abilities."

~~~

When I saw Lance the next day I made sure to notify him of Philip's relationship with me.

"He's just a friend," I said.

Lance laughed. "I never asked."

I laughed along nervously. "yes, of course you didn't," I muttered to myself.

"Are you ready for your last test?" he asked.

I looked around at the dozen or so knights left. The amount bothered me. "I'd like to think so."

"If you pass this, Mo, you will be a King's Guard."

"And if I don't?"

"Special abilities are the most complex features to test. They're so diverse, and often, quite destructive. I've known many vuruks, some don't gain full control of their abilities till their old and grey. Your abilities will either be the most useful thing to the king or the most dangerous and it's up to you to control it."

"Alright." I swallowed. "That really raised my confidence."

Lance chuckled. "I'm sorry."

When he laughed I couldn't help but see the young Lance shine through the wrinkles and white hair. "You don't mind if I ask about the last test do you?"

Lance nodded. "I don't set the tests so there's no reason why you can't. If it's about my younger self, then no that was not the real me. Well it was, but I was never in that situation. They just used me to drop clues here and there."

"Oh." I frowned. He answered my question, before I had even asked it. "Thanks."

His brows came together as he began to chuckle. "You know Mo; you remind me of someone I once knew."

"What happened to her?"

Lance shook his head, as he smiled to himself. "What happened to him, you mean. Life happened I suppose. It hardens even the sweetest people."

I didn't want to be that person. I promised myself I wouldn't. Though it was a difficult promise to keep.

"You get along now; your last test begins soon." Lance went his way and I went mine. The next time I saw him he was commencing our last test, that was being held at the Javelin Field.

"To be a King's Guard, you might have assumed requires only strength and great loyalty, and a way with a weapon. But in the hands of foreign enemy, his majesty requires more than your sword. His most handy weapon is you, the element of surprise. Once you become a King's Guard all your might, in all your days will be exerted for the sole purpose of protecting the King. And that will only happen if you are able to channel that power for such use. In this 60 seconds test, no matter what happens no harm shall fall upon those who sit in the stands. Even the tiniest scratch, and I promise you, your efforts will be null and void and you will leave here empty handed."

My fingers twitched. No, I was shaking all over.

"Gunter Jillian!" Lance called.

The Ogre/mage who had been sitting beside me, stood. He climbed down the stands and into the arena. His every step echoing as he went. No one dared to speak. Lance watched him through narrowed eyes. Silence always preceded the worst situations.

And so as we watched, a figure appeared opposite of Gunter. That figure happened to be another Gunter. An exact copy of the ogre/mage had materialized from thin air. Though his replica was transparent and duller in color.

"Commence!" Lance's voice filled the silence.

As soon as his voice ceased, Fake Gunter's roar began. Immediately my hands shot up to my head. No matter how much I pressed the palm of my hands over my ears, the sound was just as piercing. I have never been stabbed in the ear but I figured it was something similar to that. Before I knew it, I was doubling over in pain, wincing so much I didn't see the results of the match. Though I didn't have to because Lance announced his results anyway. He failed.

The second knight was a small green man with bright blue curly leaves for hair, whom, if I guessed correctly was a florial and elf. His name was Leofwin.

He was probably frightened as it was having watched Gunter and fake Gunter, because when he went down to the arena, he was small lithe frame was trembling. His ghost copy appeared and as soon as it did tiny purple flowers bloomed in its hair. Real Leofwin threw himself on fake Leofwin and started yanking out the latter's hair. Fake Leofwin struggled to get him off, eventually falling flat on its back. As soon as it got real Leofwin off it raced towards the stands, deranged and out for blood. Just as it was about to leap over, real Leofwin froze it in place in a pillar of ice.

The ice shattered in mere seconds. Real Leofwin froze his copy over again and kept at it all the while screaming, the veins on his forehead bulging and his arms shaking as they released ice. He couldn't go on for long. That was until Lance said, "cease." And the fake Leofwin disappeared. Leofwin fell to his knees. His chest falling and rising rapidly, he raised an arm into the air and applause began. I clapped until Lance called my name and I had to go down to the arena.

A/n: awe fwends....