The Eleven:The Guardian

Chapter 1

"How does it feel to be the leader of the eleven? I mean, what's that like? It must be really cool!" Ellis won't stop bothering me. At least not since he has been wrongly told that I, his least favorite cousin, am his idol's leader.

I don't get his obsession with the eleven. We were just normal people.

Then again I also don't know why out of all of the eleven he chose Cato as his idol. Not that I think Cato isn't a good choice of idol, he's an amazing person, it's just that I know that nobody outside of our friend group knows anything about Cato other than the fact he's one of the best fighters in Alvaria, and Ellis definitely doesn't even know that.

In fact, none of my father's side of the family know anything about that part of Alvaria's culture. For all they know, it's just farmland around a "nice little town".

Their words, not mine.

And their words are so far from the truth that it's comical. Añthougnijnall fairness, most of the Alvaria they don't know about is in the tunnels. The tunnels had been built in ancient times, but they've held up extremely well so far, with only one having ever collapsed. And that was only because some idiot had decided to set off a bomb in it. Because that was clearly such a great idea.

"I wouldn't know Ellis, why don't you go ask Tomas? You know, the actual leader of the eleven." I try not to roll my eyes at him as I plop his saddle into his arms.

This is going to be the longest ride ever. Not that I don't like riding, I just don't like riding with my most annoying cousin.

He grunts under the sudden weight of the saddle and scowls as he lugs it over to the cross ties and plops it on his horse.

Poor thing.

The horse that is, not Ellis.

Ellis doesn't understand why he has to tack the horse up before he rides it. At his house, if you ride a horse, the stable boy will tack it up for you. Then again he lives in a mansion in Wysteria, so he has everything done for him at all times, not just with riding.

I get the nagging feeling that I forgot something, but I brush it off and head back into the tack room to get my own tack.

I pick up my saddle and rest it against my hip, holding it with one hand while I grab my saddle pad with the other. I walk around my fuming cousin as I venture over to my horse, Eros, and put his saddle pad and saddle on him, leaving the girth on loosely for now.

I'll tighten it once we start to ride, but with the pace Ellis is going that'll be never.

"Which one of these blasted things do I need?" That's what I forgot, I didn't get Ellis his bridle.

I would remind Ellis that the tack for each horse is labeled, but it wouldn't help seeing as he refuses to learn any of the horses' names.

"There's this thing called having patience Ellis, try it sometime would you?" I head back into the tack room and grab both of the bridles.

After I put the bridles on both horses, which I did in silence because Ellis decided to sulk about all of the many problems I'm causing for him, I hand Cali's reins to Ellis and watch him walk her to the mounting block. He took a minute to get on, even though Cali stood completely still the entire time, but once he had somehow managed to wriggle on I put my foot into my stirrup and pulled myself swiftly up into my saddle.

"Showoff" I barely hear Ellis grumble.

"It's not showing off its being a competent rider."

My patience had run out a couple of minutes into him bothering me when he had arrived a week ago, and it has been taking my best efforts to not snap at him at all moments of the day. I couldn't help it this time though, because it's true, getting on a horse is easy when they stand still. Especially when you have a mounting block and one of the shortest horses on the property, which is just barely taller than a pony. I'm good at mounting without the block because of years of practice, even on one of the taller horses.