Do You believe in fate?

Rumors

Since the team that started three months after us started, there had been rumors, almost from day one, that one of them was a wolf.

We heard about how he excelled in physical training and was also not without abilities when it came to tactics and terrain surveys.

"Yes yes and so is Billy here!" Liam mumbled with his mouth full of food as the topic was brought up at our table one evening. I and the rest of the table looked at him in surprise. He finished chewing and shook his head.

"Of course you're not a wolf!" he looked at me and said. "You excel too, but we all see how you work hard for it. So does that there Lord Owley probably too ... maybe his buddy is just miserable and jealous!" At first a light laugh of relief that became a laugh of amusement. The young man who had come with the accusations was certainly bad at everything he tried and became envious when he compared himself to the best on their team. At my table he was quite the joke, but would I experience similar accusations if there had been someone envious of me on my team?

The Colonel, however, had quickly taken action to stop the rumors and had had the young man, a future Duke, in the office one full moon night, to disprove or confirm the accusations. He was acquitted! Owley, as the young nobility was sir named, was allowed to return to his team and continue training.

Later we found out that his only accuser, a man named Jones, was almost equal to him in all subjects. But since this Jones wanted to make a career in the army, he had to be the best since he did not come from the nobility, and sometimes he was second best to Owley.

But Owley's acquittal did not stop Jones from still making life miserable for him.

Sometimes we had had training across our teams and I once had the unfortunate pleasure of being put together with Jones on a task.

From start to finish, Jones had boasted of his merits, convinced that he was at least as good as anyone on our team, even though we had started three months before him!

At the beginning of our collaboration, I had tried to adapt to his ability, as I always do, but it was impossible.

Jones was impulsive, temperamental and unstructured, it was impossible to solve a strategic task in theory in that way it would be catastrophic for our judgment. I struggled with how to act until Liam at a meal opened my eyes.

"That Jones, does he never shut up?" Liam looked tired at me and I shook my head.

"He thinks he's so good at everything," one of the others spoke. "He was standing behind me in the line at breakfast, and he was bragging all the time!" The others rolled their eyes and Liam patted me on the back.

"With one of us as a work partner, he probably would have been right too, but now he's working with Billy!" Liam looked at the others, "And we all know no one is as good as Billy!" The others nodded in agreement and I smiled at them.

I decided that it was time to make Jones shut up.

At the end of the class I had personally asked the Colonel to overlook our work, I had thought that his old friend, the Earl, would like to hear about my progress from the Colonel himself, now the Earl had promised him a strategic genius!

First, Jones talked incessantly and told far and wide about his unstructured ideas and I could see the Colonel starting to get bored, not to say disappointed. I got up and waved Jones off.

"Colonel, they wonder no doubt, but I assure them that I have no intentions of letting them leave this room, without a proper review of a static plan that is possible and manageable to implement with high chance of success.

I briefly presented my plan, and elaborated on the various parts of my plan questioned by the Colonel.

When I finished, Jones stood completely red in the head next to me and was about to say something. But the Colonel stopped him even before he got started.

"I can see they have a lot of good ideas Jones, but it's clear what a difference three months makes," the Colonel looked at me, "that's obviously what it takes to be able to put good ideas together into a good plan." The colonel had almost reached the door when he turned around and looked at me.

"I'm glad I saw them sacrifice the queen!" He said with a twinkle in his eye. "I will remember to tell about it to their mentor!" Then he was gone.

Jones exploded furiously at me and managed to say some ugly things before our teacher stopped him. Both our teams had watched the presentation and no one was impressed by Jones.

But Jones got his high rating when our work was judged overall and my presentation had been praised by the Colonel.

I do not know if my attempt to get Jones down from his high horse was instrumental in making him much clearer in his opinion of Owley. But he obviously did not tolerate competition, and every time he lost to Owley he was very clear about what he thought was the cause of his defeat. It was never because he could not measure up, never because he had not worked hard enough, it was always, without exception, because Owley was a wolf!

Whether the rest of their team believed in it, the rest of us could not know, but soon Owley, despite his background, or perhaps because of it, was a pariah. None of the others would work with him, we even heard that no one from his team would eat with him.

I remember thinking this must have to be lonely for him, but even ours stayed away from him.

“No need to stick your hand into a wasp nest,” as Liam so poetically put it.

Myself, I felt lucky, for the first time I had real friends, not just someone I went to school with!

Liam was always by my side, unless our duties kept him from being so. He said he enjoyed our sparring, I could give him a prober fight to the end!

Liam was a big man, even next to me, who with my 6 "2 was not a small man. But where Liam was bigger and physically stronger than me, I was agile and fast. None of us were giving up and when we trained close combat, our fights could stretch so far that the others stood and cheered on us.Once our coach had stopped us when it was time to get washed before dinner.I could probably win over Liam more often if I had wanted to, but I always feared that too much distinction would either cost me friendships or accusations of being a wolf!