Callie's Heroes

PART II - LEGEND REBORN

Trainer Reynard, mounted on the back of a slowly-walking Ogre-turned-Curvax, arrived at the Commandant’s office, Callie walking along with them. Shul’an was waiting outside, and helped him down, so Tazrok could assume his normal form and carry him inside. It was humiliating to need the assistance getting around, but he didn’t want to miss this formal debriefing.

“I found Jesca,” Shul’an quietly said to Callie. “She’s inside.”

“Oh good,” Callie said in relief. She’d been worried when Jesca didn’t make an appearance at breakfast, and her friend’s cabinmates hadn’t seen her since they went to sleep either, although Koda said she stopped in briefly to get dressed after her run, before leaving again. As a longshot, she had even asked Ambria, thinking that maybe Jesca had joined her, but the Faun hadn’t seen her since the previous evening came to a close. Given the obvious emotional breakdown she’d witnessed, Callie was more than a little worried.

“Good morning, Trainer Reynard,” Kyra said with a chipper grin as Tazrok entered the waiting room carrying the Foxkin. “I won’t be so bold as to ask how you are doing after less than a day, but do wish to extend an offer of any assistance I may be able to provide. Please, do let me know.”

“Thank you,” Reynard grunted in return. He appreciated the offer, in fact, and also that she skipped over the platitudes. Kyra was good people.

“They are expecting you, so please do go right in. I believe you are all the last to arrive.”

Shul’an pushed open the Ogre-sized door, and everyone entered the conference room. The atmosphere felt surprisingly jovial, with most everyone having smiling conversations in small groups of two or three people.

“Reynard!” Thorn called out, throwing his arms wide in greeting. “So glad you felt up to joining us. How’s the pain today?”

The Ranger trainer grunted a scowling acknowledgement as Callie pulled out a chair. With a little more assistance, Shul’an helped him from Tazrok’s arms and into the seat. Reynard hated being fussed over like this. He understood it, and accepted it would be this way until at least he had some crutches and got used to moving with them, but he didn’t actually have to like it. “I’m fine. One of Tasi’s people heavily numbed it a while ago, and I have some potions if that starts to wear off.”

Looking around the table to see who was present, Reynard saw the expected five senior officers, along with what looked like the remainder of the Bogwump team. In addition, Trainer Rowani, Juniper the Dryad and her little plant monster, the unicorn, and the Prince, Vanis, were also at the table. Wait … the unicorn?

“What the?” Reynard gasped. Sure enough, standing next to a seated Jesca was a unicorn foal, simply looking as if she was a perfectly appropriate person … animal … to be at the table. He’d once seen a unicorn in the wild, back in his adventuring days. Up close in fact. So the immediate wondrous shock wasn’t present like for most people seeing one for the first time. Of course, seeing one at a conference table offset that lack of complete surprise, too.

“Jesca?” Callie asked, having scrambled into her own chair, as she gestured to the obvious unicorn in the room.

“Noticed that, did you?” Thorn said with a chuckle.

“A little hard not to,” Reynard said. “Please tell me this can be explained.”

“Yes,” Xera said coolly as they sat down in their own chair. “Both Thorn and the recruit have been dreadfully coy for the past ten minutes, and had us all speculating wildly. He promised us an amazing explanation if we let her remain, but demanded we wait for your arrival.”

“Behave!” Reynard heard Jesca whisper, almost as if she was talking to the unicorn. “Both he and the Ogre can be trusted, too.” Then after a pause, “Yes, I know he’s big and scary, but he’s very nice.” Reynard suddenly started to wonder if Callie wasn’t the only crazy one of his students.

Thorn stood, and took a couple steps back. “I’m actually going to let Recruit Jesca tell you.” He then nodded towards the obviously-nervous Cheetahkin. “Go ahead, just like we talked about. Try to keep your report simple and clear.”

“Okay,” Jesca said, her normally-babbling voice slightly shaky. “When I woke up this morning, I queried to check my point total like always, but I got two numbers back. I was both BRONZE.569 and IRON.000. I asked what my class was, and the response said that I’m both a Ranger and a Beastmaster. I somehow received a second class last night.”

Gasps went up around the table; some in confusion, some in surprise, a couple in skepticism.

“Is that even possible?” Xera asked, turning first to Tasi and then to Thorn. “Possible to get a second class? Especially this long after coming of age? And I’ve never heard of this Beastmaster class.”

Before either could answer, Rowani interrupted. “It can’t be! The Beastmasters are just a myth, Thorn. You know that. Something else must have happened. They are only ancient legend!”

“She is right,” Shul’an added. “My grandmother used to spin tall tales when I was but a youngling. The Beastmasters don’t exist.”

“What’s a Beastmaster,” Callie said, carefully raising her hand. “I mean, beyond what the name implies, I suppose. Is this why the unicorn is here?”

“An old tale amongst the Beastkin, Callie,” Reynard said, narrowing his eyes. “It is said that a lone Beastmaster led the uprising against the Mad Wizard, at the time of The Escape, and helped birth the Beastkin nations. At least there are some who say that.”

“Whoa! Cool, Jesca!” Callie grinned. “What’s it do? Have you gotten new skills and stuff?”

“A few,” Jesca said. “They are coming in slowly, like when I first got my Symbiote, not all at once like with Bronze.”

“New powers as well? What has been revealed, Recruit?” Xera asked, leaning forward in their chair with rapt interest.

“I first received a perk called Bonded Animal Companion.” Jesca gestured to the unicorn, “Apparently she’s one of them. I can have two Companions at Iron Tier according to the description. She can talk to me, at least in my head, and understand what I say. Also, she can understand what all of you say, too, if I’m around. In addition, I have unlocked three skills and two more perks. For example, I have a Heal Companion skill.”

“Healing? Really? Fascinating,” Tasi said, glancing at the unicorn. “Have we done a scry yet? Recruit, would you consent?”

“I assumed you’d want to do that,” Jesca said, shrugging. “I actually want one done, too.”

“I wanted to wait, on the chance we didn’t want the Scryers to know about this,” Thorn said as an explanation. “We could have Kyra fetch Yulayla.”

“Juniper could do it,” Callie said, gesturing to the Dryad. “And she’s right here. She figured out Tazrok was a Druid on that first day.”

“Would you be willing,” Vanis asked, looking at the Dryad next to him.

“Of course. It is a strange thing to have two classes, though, is it not?”

“It is very strange, yes.”

Juniper rose, and walked over to Jesca, placing Loki casually on the back of the unicorn, the plant monster now looking like he was a rider. “Oh, it is good to see you again, as well.” Juniper said, looking at the foal and scratching the side of her head. “You’ve grown so much in only two months.”

“You can talk to it? Uh, her that is?” Xera asked.

“Of course. I can commune with all the intelligent animals in my domain.”

“Does … does she know what happened? To her … I mean?” Callie asked, suddenly feeling sick about the mother.

Juniper looked down, and the baby unicorn looked back. “Yes, I’m afraid your mother was very sick.” There was a pause. “No, she wasn’t able to get better, and she has returned to the circle. Jesca will take good care of you now. She is your new mother.”

“What? I am?” Jesca squeaked, a fresh look of panic on her face.

“Of course you are.”

Everyone around the table watched the exchange with confused fascination. Callie was thankful that Juniper skirted around the gory details of the adult unicorn’s death, worried what the baby would think if it knew what had happened, and that she did it.

“The scry, if you would?” Xera said calmly, but with a firm ‘get on with it’ tone to their voice.

Jesca turned her chair to face the Dryad, and Juniper clasped her paws. “You have such a lovely aura,” Juniper said, smiling gently as she focused on her reading. “Your name is Jesca Llalanuras. You know many many skills, as we would expect. Your colors are … how very odd. I see your brown and yellow, which I believe is for Ranger. But it is as if those colors ride on a field of another color, and one I am not familiar with. What class is green?”

Everyone looked at Thorn and Tasi, who were generally considered the camp experts on classes and Symbiotes.

“I have no idea,” Thorn said, shrugging. “But it’s not for Scholar. They are purple, from what the Scryers have told me. Tasi?”

The Fairy Healer shrugged. “I’ve never heard of green as a class color, nor seen it on a Symbiote except as a Specialist mark. Thorn’s right, Scholar is a dark purple. There’s several in camp on staff, both standard as well as advanced Scholar classes like Yulayla, but no recruits.”

“Juniper, what skills does she have for this odd color?” Xera asked. “And are you able to see her perks as well?” Then they looked at Jesca. “No offense. Just to get an outside view.”

Juniper closed her eyes again. “For this strange class, she has the skills Calm Wild Animal and Commune with Animal, as well as Heal Companion, which she mentioned. I will look for her perks, but this could be a little uncomfortable. I will try to be gentle.”

As Juniper focused harder, Jesca at first winced, and then clenched both her paws tightly, obviously a little more than simply uncomfortable. Why didn’t they just ask her? It wasn’t as if she would lie about anything. Finally, after an eternity of a few seconds, the pain vanished.

“She knows three perks for this green class. Animal Handling, Animal Taming, and Bonded Animal Companion.” Juniper released Jesca’s paw, extended her own hand to take Loki back, and her familiar quickly jumped off the unicorn, scampering upwards to take a spot in her arms.

“Calm Wild Animals and Commune with Animals are both Druid skills,” Rowani said. “The first comes at Iron Tier, while we get the second at Bronze.”

“So there is some Nature magic as part of this class, perhaps?” Thorn asked, rubbing his furry chin, whiskers twitching in contemplation.

“Sounds like it,” Rowani said with a shrug. “Are you still receiving reveals, Jesca?”

“I don’t know what more may come,” Jesca said. “I hope they're done, but I have a feeling there’s more. It doesn’t feel complete, yet.”

Reynard cleared his throat, seizing the room. “Jesca, would you please detail that Bonded Companion perk? I’d like to know the full information.”

“Yes, sir,” Jesca said nervously. She quickly queried the information, and then carefully dictated its lengthy description back.

“That’s so cool!” Callie said, imagining having all kinds of animal friends to talk too. Shul’an and Lhawni quickly agreed, thinking it was an amazing perk to have.

First making a face, and then tapping the table a few times with his finger in thought, you could see Reynard was mulling something over, or maybe trying to remember something.

“Reynard? What is it, my friend?” Thorn asked.

“This may be nothing,” the Foxkin replied, “but about twenty-two or twenty-three years ago I may have met one of these ‘Beastmasters’.”

“Oh?” Xera said, immediately interested.

“I was in Imor, I don’t even remember why, still an Adventurer at the time. We met a Beastkin, another Cheetahkin actually, at a pub or inn or something like that. I am trying to remember his name, and I’m sure it will come to me eventually. At the time, and in the years since, I’ve just assumed he was a little crazy in the head. He had at least three animals he went everywhere with, a bat of some kind that rode on his shoulder, along with a pair of large Grists. He would talk to them as if they were having a conversation. Even walking down the street, various animals, from domestics to even the vermin, would come up to him, and he would casually kneel down to chat with them, offering them pats on the head. Once a rat even dropped a Silver Crown in front of him, which he rewarded with some food, thanking it.“

As Reynard relayed his story, nearly all eyes turned to Jesca, the Cheetahkin shrinking under the gazes.

“I just assumed it was a Druidic Commune with Animals skill,” Reynard continued, “or simply well-trained pets. I remember asking his class, though, and now that I think about it, he never really answered, only implied it was Scout. That never felt quite right. Again, my wife and I thought he was simply daft, and we left the city within a few days to go back out. Never saw him again after that. I just wonder …”

“Could that have been one of these ‘Beastmasters’?” Vanis asked. “I’ve never heard of anyone having that strong of an animal kinship, even among the Master Herdkeepers.”

Reynard shook himself out of his deep thoughts. “Could be, I honestly don’t know. But based on that perk that Jesca just relayed, it feels similar. Stars, I certainly never imagined him as a Beastmaster, like the one from the lore that rose against the Mad Wizard, though.”

Before anyone could comment, Jesca groaned suddenly and wrapped her arms around her head, pulling it down to the table. “Another reveal,” she whimpered. “Two of them, actually.”