Shorter Than Me

1 Levi

"What?" Zebbo asks, his voice very slightly incredulous. Nine Captains, including me, were called to Commander Erwin's office. He told us that there was a new training process they wanted to try on the new recruits. Each one would be assigned one higher official, one with great skill, who would train them to be much, much better at what the Scouts do.

He chose me for the short girl.

"Why her?" I ask.

"You can probably relate most to her-"

"Sir-" I try to interrupt.

"Stop. No questions," he orders.

"Yes, sir." I submit to his authority in the tone of my voice.

"You start right now. They're waiting at the stables. You can do whatever you want with them but kill them, break them, or hurt them beyond repair. Dismissed." We exit the room.

"Levi, that's probably the most emotion I've seen out of you in a month." Kajya smirks.

I just shrug.

We find the newbies by the stables, just as he said. Kajya explains the situation to them and they start finding their pairs.

I just stand there. The girl walks up to me. "Hello," she says tentatively.

"Sir," I command. I am not her friend; I am her superior officer. She will remember to address me with respect.

"Sir." She straightens her shoulders and stands slightly taller. She realizes quickly what kind of respect of authority I expect from her. Good.

"Is that your real height?" I ask, taunting her. I want to see how she'll react. Though I'll never admit it, I was always extremely defensive of my height. I learned quickly where the authority was.

She clearly already knows because she just nods and says, "Yes, sir."

I stand here for another minute, just looking at her. She stands there too, waiting patiently. "Can you do anything?" I ask.

"Yes, sir," is her reply.

"Go run to the treeline and back." I point to the edge of the forest a good three hundred yards away.

"Sir," she acknowledges my command with a nod and takes off. I watch her run. I notice it's more of a jog. She's trying to conserve her energy for the actual training.