I shifted and the girl next to me hit my arm.

"Sorry," she muttered.

"It's okay."

Here I was among one of the many volunteers who showed up to be trained by the elves. Trained. What a word for it. I had noticed that it was mainly villages or towns close to the forest that had been attacked by what the elves had been calling the 'Inibrius'. We sat in rows on the ground and were classified one by one. To me it looked like a meat inspection. Checking the cattle like they do at the faire. Each time a person went up there, the elves walked around them, did something to them and they were sent to the next group.

"Next!"

My turn. I stood up and walked forward. Everyone looked at me, eyes following, watching to see what would happen. No one had really paid much attention to the others but me? I was a spectacle to behold.

Please let this be done quickly.

I'd rather sit down and look at others than have people looking at me. The two elves and two humans took their time. My arms were lifted and then one poked my stomach.

"Hey!" I put my arms in front of my stomach and glared at him.

"Over there," he said pointing to a group.

I glared and began marching towards the group he pointed at.

"Wait!"

I groaned and stopped in my tracks now there was nothing I could do to avoid the curious stares of everyone within hearing distance.

"Ah, the warrior who helped a fellow human being."

My head snapped up and I looked into his ice blue eyes before taking a step back. Not out of fear or respect or anything like that. He was just really close and I just didn't want to be near him. He was the one who belittled me in front of everyone.

I rolled my eyes. Too bad he's still alive.

I know, I know. You shouldn't ever think about people like that but he spoke as though he was better than me- better than us. And it didn't help that he just stared at me instead of helping me that night.

"That was my sister," I told him coldly, "And even if it wasn't, I still would have helped her. I believe that you're supposed to do that, help each other when someone is in need. But apparently that's not in your nature."

The corner of his mouth turned up into a sarcastic grin.

"Oh you poor human girl. I didn't know you needed help," he paused for a second before continuing, "I was busy trying to save other lives that night." he snapped.

"Then you should have made sure those creatures never came through the gates in the first place." I snapped back at him.

His face remained calm and tight but his eyes told me something else. One more remark and something might happen... He might just lose his cool.

"That way."

He pointed to a group a little further from the one I was sent to in the first place. I slammed into his shoulder as I walked past. On purpose? Hell yeah. He shouldn't be so condescending to us. When I got to the group, I saw I was the only girl so far, and I was hoping that it'd change. But with how small the group was told me that that probably wasn't going to happen. And to my dismay, I was the last person sent to this group. 

But on the brighter side of things, an old friend, Jordan, was in this group with me. The rest were just people I had seen but never talked to all appearing to be over 30, while Jordan and I were only 23. Well, nearly 23 in my case.

Within a few minutes we were all taken to a field and lo and behold: guess who was leading us? And to make it worse we had to sit and wait while he scrutinized us. I felt like a child caught in the back or the bakery.

"There are too many old people," he started.

Jeez bro, we're right here. They can hear you.

"It would not surprise me if soon, a lot of them quit," he was talking to an elf next to him, "Humans are so weak."

My jaw dropped. This guy was an absolute ass!

"Just so you know, Sir Egocentric," Jordan said, "Everyone here is a volunteer to help fight things from your world. Not an us problem until recently, buddy."

He just ignored Jordan and kept talking. I had a list of four letter words going off in my head that could describe him right now. 

"You have a lesson in that: patience," he said, "I wish I could say that we could practice on your speed but that is impossible for humans."

"Dude! Insulting us doesn't help especially since the reason the Inibrius are here is because of you! If those gates never existed, we wouldn't have to deal with them but now we do. We could just go on with our lives but instead we were all stupid enough to come here and volunteer.  In case you didn't hear him there. Obviously, you couldn't get rid of them on your own so stop insulting us."

I saw his irritation from my words but it was gone in a second, a mask of calm enveloping his face. He walked over and knelt in front of me.

"Do you really think that we are waiting for your help? No. You only get in the way. You should see yourselves more as bait. They're going after you so we can go after them."

I looked into his eyes. "And that's why you're so good at protecting yourselves isn't it? I've read and seen that there's just as many casualties on your side as there are on ours. So stop the bullshit, we're not bait unless you are too. Maybe that's for the best because then you'll be gone too. Your kind is nothing but arrogant." I spat. I looked at the other elves who stood nearby. Apparently they heard every word because they didn't look happy about what either of us said. Maybe he was the only one who acted like this. "Maybe you should get a lesson on manners. If you keep going like this, everyone will be against you."

He snorted and brought his mouth into a smirk again. "I tell them what to do and that goes for you too." He looked at the rest of the group.

My mouth hung open and I wasn't sure which part of his sentence kept me from closing it. It might have been the fact he was such an ass.

This was going to be hell.