“What are your plans for the town trip this week?” Lolo asked her brothers.

“Find some lioness to sweep off her feet,” Haowan teased.

“Is that so? Do you think she’ll mind that you have two left ones?” Lolo responded in kind.

“The plan is for her to find me so attractive that she doesn’t think to notice my feet.”

“What about your plans, Lolo?” Zhongyan asked. “I noticed that you and Fortus haven’t been as cuddly the last couple of weeks.”

“Yeah. We decided that maintaining a fake relationship was making things too complicated and he ‘dumped me’, but we haven’t announced our break-up so we can rely on the rumors around our relationship status to keep Fortus’s unwanted female attention at bay.”

In unison, Zhongyan and Haowan glanced at each other and pulled Lolo to the side of the path to interrogate her.

“You didn’t even tell us?!”

“Lolo, he dumped you? Are you ok?”

“So he just used you until it was no longer convenient?”

“What kind of jerk-”

“Guys! It was never a real relationship!” Lolo nearly had to shout to be heard. “We talked about it, decided that it was getting confusing, and mutually agreed that it would be better to return to a ‘just friends’ relationship status. Fortus isn’t a jerk. He’s one of my best friends.”

“It was getting confusing? What’s that supposed to mean?” Of course Zhongyan picked up on the only element of her explanation that suggested there was more going on than a fake relationship.

Lolo rolled her eyes. “It means what it sounds like. We are friends. Getting all snuggly with each other forced us to evaluate if there was more to our relationship. We decided that there isn’t.”

“Then why did you feel the need to ‘break-up’ if you both decided that you were just friends?” Haowan pushed.

She sighed. “A girl can’t win. Look, you guys aren’t happy when I’m in a relationship or when I’m out of a relationship.”

“It’s our duty as your older brothers to keep you safe, Lolo,” Zhongyan declared adamantly.

“Well, I’m here to tell you that you are taking your duty to an unreasonable extreme. Fortus and I are friends. I posed as his girlfriend to help him out. We decided that we wanted to remain just friends. End of discussion.”

“Fine. We’ll just have to ask Fortus about this then,” Haowan said, grabbing Zhongyan before bolting as Lolo shouted after them in protest.

The Lang boys found Fortus talking with Fengli and the Bear Tribe trainees.

“So, Fortus,” Zhongyan began, interrupting the pre-existing conversation, “you dumped Lolo?”

“What?” Fortus turned around.

“You used her and dumped her,” Haowan said, crossing his arms.

“What are you talking about?” Fortus asked.

“Gonna tell us what happened?” Zhongyan asked.

By this point, Fengli, Standig, and the Starkam boys were now staring Fortus down as well. Fortus was literally surrounded.

“I’d like to clarify what you are talking about first,” Fortus proceeded cautiously.

“You dated our sister and dumped her. Explain!”

“Where did you hear that?” Fortus asked.

“Does it matter? Just answer the question.”

“Ok. Well, Lolo and I are just friends. She was gracious enough to help me with a girl problem and once that was resolved, we didn’t feel the need to continue the act,” Fortus explained.

“Then why would she describe the experience as ‘confusing’?” Zhongyan narrowed his eyes.

“I guess because it kind of was?” Fortus wasn’t sure what Zhongyan was getting at.

“Why was it confusing? What did you do?” Haowan rephrased.

“I didn’t do anything!” Fortus was starting to sweat under the pressure. “There was a brief period of time when we both questioned whether or not we had feelings for each other beyond friendship. We both decided that we didn’t, and we ended the fake relationship then and there to avoid future complication and confusion. Is that what you wanted to know?”

“How long ago did you end it?” Haowan needled.

“Over two weeks ago!”

“Why didn’t you guys tell us about this?” Zhongyan seemed suspicious.

“That was Lolo’s idea. She figured that the more ambiguous our relationship was, and the fewer people there were that knew the truth, the more effectively rumors would spread to deter the girls we were trying to ward off in the first place.”

The Lang boys were reluctantly satisfied by Fortus’s answers and moved off.

Fortus turned to see the other four boys all scowling at him. “You too, huh? Look, if you don’t believe me, ask Lolo yourself. I swear, I was a perfect gentleman.”

***

"'You ready, Standig?" Lolo asked, finding a seat in the grass of the water garden.

Standig sat down across from her, but sitting knee-to-knee really meant knee-to-shin these days.

"So today," Lolo reminded him, "we are trying to see if we can choose what we show each other."

"What are we trying to show each other again?"

"Anything from our childhoods. Something unrelated to where we are now or our relationship."

"Right. Because if we can show each other something like that, it means… what again?"

"It means that our merges aren't dependent on our limited connection, and maybe someday we can control the meditations all together."

"Right. Ok. Give me a second to think of something," Standig said. "Got it."

Lolo took his hands and they started breathing in unison.

"Dad!" she heard a happy little voice call.

"Oh ho ho!" She heard a larger person grunt and felt the shadow of warm arms wrap around her shoulders.

A fuzzy scene unfolded, almost as though she were looking through a dirty window. There were two young boys, maybe five and ten years old, and a large figure that Lolo almost mistook for Philige. His eyes and nose weren't quite right and he looked older.

"How was your meeting, dad?" the older of the two boys asked.

"Oh, pretty standard. Philige, you are old enough to come sit in on these meetings now. Maybe a younger perspective would be useful."

The ten-year-old Philige looked excited. "Really?!"

Their dad nodded. "And you, Standig, how was your lesson with Uncle Tadellos today?"

The adorably small Standig bounced a little as he told his dad all about the new fighting forms he was learning, and his dad listened with wide eyes and a gentle smile.

"Erben," a tall woman with soft blue eyes appeared behind Standig's dad. She saw Standig talking and waited for him to finish. "Erben, the council is concerned that a trading post will be too vulnerable to attack. They are requesting more plan details."

"Thank you, Schonehm. Could you let them know that I will be there in ten minutes?"

The woman turned to leave, and Erben snagged her hand, pulling her into a kiss that made her giggle and roll her eyes all at once.

"Thank you, dear."

The merge broke, and Lolo opened her eyes to see Standig giving her a funny look.

"What?"

"You didn't show me anything."

"Nothing?"

"No. I might have been too focused on what I was trying to show you though."

"Was it a memory of your parents?"

"Yes."

"I saw it! You told your dad about learning with Tadellos, and Philige was invited to start attending the meetings, and I saw your mom. You were so cute when you were little!" Lolo gushed.

Standig grinned bashfully. "I wonder why your memory didn't come through."

"Maybe we can only show each other specific things one at a time? And maybe I have to lead the breathing to show you something."

"Do you want to try?"

"I've never led the breathing before."

"It's about time that you figured that out, Lolo."

She shrugged. "Might as well try, I guess."

They took each other's hands and closed their eyes. Lolo started breathing slowly, and Standig matched her. Lolo tried to concentrate on the memory she'd selected to share, but she just couldn't move past the awkwardness of leading the meditation.

"I'm sorry," she broke off laughing. "This is just weird."

Standig rolled his eyes. "Clear your head Lolo."

"Ok." She exhaled sharply but almost immediately broke into a fit of giggles again.

Standig just shook his head.

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" Lolo's laughter seemed to be further fueled by Standig's exasperation.

"We can try again later," Standig said after several failed attempts by Lolo to get herself under control.

"I'm sorry, Standig. I'll practice and we can try again another day."

***

"Lolo," Fortus caught up to her after classes, "my father asked me to give you this." He handed her an envelope.

"Any idea what this is?" she asked, as she turned it over.

Fortus shook his head. "He didn't say." Fortus moved behind her to look over her shoulder.

"Should I open this now?" she asked, quirking an amused eyebrow in his direction.

Fortus realized how awkwardly he was acting and gave a nervous laugh. "Sorry. I was just curious."

"Come sit with me then," Lolo chuckled. "We can open it together." The envelope contained a short note inviting her to join the Arum family for dinner that evening. "Interesting." She handed the note to Fortus who read it three or four times.

"It's an invitation to dinner."

"With your family."

"Meaning just me and my father."

"And you had no idea?"

"None.... Well, are you going to accept? Tonight is the usual town-going night."

"Tell your father that I'll be there, but why do you think he's suddenly inviting me for dinner?"

Fortus shrugged. "No idea."

"I guess we'll find out together then."

Lolo arrived at the Arum residence at precisely six o'clock, and Fortus opened the door.

"Do I look ok?" she asked in a whisper. "I wasn't sure how formally to dress."

"You look nice. Green is a good color on you."

"Really?"

"Lolo, stop fussing. You look great. I'd have to be blind not to notice how pretty you look. Besides, it's just dinner."

"Yeah.... With your father.... For unknown reasons."

"Son, are you going to keep our guest on the porch the whole night, or are you going to invite her in?" Torvus asked as he walked into the room.

"Sorry, sir," Fortus said and ushered Lolo in.

"Thank you for the invitation to join you tonight," Lolo said, not sure what to do with her fidgety hands.

The Lion General smiled. "It's been a long time since we've had a guest in our home. Thank you for accepting it."

The general led the way to the dining area. The table had already been set with an elaborate spread, and everything looked and smelled delicious.

Fortus pulled a chair out for Lolo before finding his own seat next to her.

"So," Torvus said after food had been served, "Huo Lohse Lang, tell me about yourself."

She set her fork down to look the general in the eye. "Well, sir, I grew up the youngest child with a pack of six brothers. My brothers and I are close, and I would describe myself as a tomboy that's been trained how to dress like a girl."

The general laughed heartily, and Lolo relaxed. "If that's the case, then you've been well-trained."

"Thank you."

"I understand you are an early admit to the exchange program?"

"Yes, sir."

Fortus chimed in. "Father, Lolo's being modest. She wasn’t just an early admit. She was admitted two years early."

Lolo blushed. "I applied with my brothers who are a year older than me. I didn't like the idea of staying home all summer by myself."

Again, the general chuckled.

"I heard from Zhongyan that you actually won the sparring match during your entrance exam," Fortus added.

She nodded and looked at her plate, embarrassed to be discussing this.

"Very impressive," the general smiled. "So you've been tough to handle your whole life."

"Sir?"

"Captain Artibus can't seem to figure out how to counter you properly for combat training. He says he's been learning more from you than he thinks you are learning from him."

"I wouldn't say that! I am learning a lot from our scrimmages. I've never studied military tactics in such a hands-on way before, and it greatly enhances the education. I plan to incorporate scrimmages into the Wolf Tribe military training regimen when I get home."

"I'll have to let the captain know that you said that. I take it that you are involved in your tribe's military training?"

"You could say that. My dad had me work with our military leaders to update training methods after our report from last summer."

Torvus nodded. "Fortus helped us in a similar way this year too."

Lolo turned to smile at Fortus.

"Fortus reported to me about the dragon exchange. Your name came up several times."

"To be fair, there weren't many names to report to you."

"True. But reading between the lines, your name was the most important."

Fortus froze in Lolo's peripheral vision.

"I'm not sure what you mean," Lolo smiled.

"Fortus told me that he considers you his friend, and he trusts you completely. 'Friend' and 'trust' are not words that he uses casually."

While Fortus felt extremely uncomfortable to have this detail shared, Lolo just grinned. "The feeling is mutual," she said. "I consider Fortus to be one of my best friends. Actually, I consider all of the trainees that stuck out last summer to be among my closest friends."

Torvus nodded. "Fortus has also told me that you make friends exceptionally easily."

"I don't know about that. I think it has more to do with the fact that I'm uncommonly stubborn. I had to wear Fortus down for nearly three summers and inform him that we were friends before he accepted me."

Torvus threw his head back in a hearty belly-chuckle and clapped. "And what do you think of this hard-won friend of yours?"

"You raised him right, sir. I plan to keep him around if he'll let me."