The Wilting Rose

Chapter 7- The Plan

“Do you understand?” he asked after a moment’s pause. I shook my head, hoping he would offer an explanation. But the corner of his mouth twitched down,and he said nothing. “To work with me, you need more than brute strength. If you are not clever with your strategies, you will be killed out there.” I thought about my numerous As in school. Somehow, I knew they would strike him as meaningless junk, but I liked hearing him talk to me, so I told him, “But I had all A+s in my old school.” He looked more tired than upset.

“You know, I used to think that being smart was memorizing passages, reciting spells, and getting 100 percent on every quiz that came along. Your father helped guide me away from that misconception, just like I shall try to guide you.” I thought about that for a long moment before formulating my next question. “If being smart doesn’t come from school, where does it come from?” I asked, hoping he would tell me what I needed to know then and there. He did not.

“Rose, we all have wisdom. Even the stupidest man has wisdom.” I took a deep breath. “If a person is being mean to you, would you kill him?” The question took me off guard, and instead of thinking about it I said what I knew the answer was. “No, they don’t deserve death!” He smirked, and I found myself defending my answer. “Well, would you?” I looked him in the eye, hoping it was an aggressive enough question, that he would answer it.

“Not anymore, Rose.” I cocked my head, considering that. Jatt stopped walking, and sat down on a rock. He looked up at me, and I saw a 100 year old pains trapped in his eyes. “Listen, one part of wisdom knows the right thing to do. You can tell me the right thing to do, that’s easy. The other part is doing it. That only comes with a painful lesson. Everybody gets an opportunity for wisdom, but some people take it, feel pain, get wisdom, and others don’t take it, and never think of wisdom again.”

Whoa, he sure was giving me a lot to think about, and we hadn’t even started training yet. We walked in silence for a while, until Jatt abruptly stopped. He knelt down to the ground, and lifted a small patch of Earth to reveal a small hole. He climbed through it, and when I did not immediately follow, grabbed my hand, and shoved me down into a dark, small room light with a calming purple glow. With a start, I noticed a figure in the shadows of the room. It turned around and said, “Hello, Rose.” I peered at it closely through the gloom, and happily realized it was Yim.  

Yim waved, and she smiled. Well, ‘smiled’. It was really a convincing smile, but if I looked into her eyes the right way, I could see other emotions. I didn’t know what they were, (obviously elves were better at hiding feelings), but I knew they were not joy at seeing me again. She gave me a little bit of food, which I must admit was yummy, gave a slight bow to Jatt who smiled at her, and gave a bit of a shake, before gliding off through a dark green corridor. Now that I looked around I realized that Jatt’s dwelling, because whatever it was it was not a home, was soothing and colorful. Jatt noticed me looking around.

“Tell me you’ve seen one of these before!” He exclaimed, eyes laughing, mouth serious. “Those human schools are going way down.” And his eyes were smiling, his solemn mouth twitching. I giggled, and he did not reprimand me which gave me the little courage I needed to ask him what I wanted to know. “Are you and Solie-” I didn’t even get to finish before he answered, “No, we are not and will never be.” I didn’t believe him, not even for a second. No matter how good he was as masking his emotions, I saw the look of want in his eyes.

I just needed to figure out a way for me to get into his mind. Without him knowing. I decided to drop the subject and ask instead about something harmless. “What is this place?” I asked, and traces of anger vanished from his body. “This is an old military base that has been abandoned since the Dark Days. I’m keeping it in shape, in case we ever need it again.” I nodded, and asked again, “So you live here?” “For now.” I was getting sick of his encrypted answers. “Just answer. Don't add all that worthless fluff.” I told him.