Callie's Heroes

PART IV - A UNEXPECTED REALIZATION

Callie left Ogre House, leaving Vanis to some private time. Her mind was reviewing what had happened to the King Regents, and the obvious political implications. She certainly didn’t know anything about what might be going on, beyond comparisons with Game of Thrones or the like, but the whole situation simply stank. What she couldn’t figure out is why someone would go through all this effort for what was basically a powerless position. Sure, there was the illusion of power that Vanis had laid out, but that’s all it really was, an illusion. Something about all of this felt personal, and that changed the rules. People making things personal did things that were difficult to predict, and that put her friend and his family in even more danger.

Before setting off, Callie spotted the visiting captain sitting under a tree, appearing to doze slightly in the sun streaming through the branches. She momentarily thought about talking to him, to maybe make excuses for what had happened and what he had seen. After taking two steps, though, she stopped. No! She had nothing to apologize for. There was a sock on the door, for crying out loud! Everybody knows what that means! So he can just sit there and pretend he didn’t enjoy the eyeful that he got. Besides, he was kind of a jerk the day before.

Laughing to herself as she continued on her way, Callie relived the whole sequence of events that led to getting interrupted. After returning from Xera’s debriefing, she and Pixyl had found Ogre House empty. Callie took the moment to ask Pixyl if she could do the one thing she’d wanted since she’d arrived, and that was to closely examine her wings. She hadn’t really had a chance the night before, since it was dark and she’d been focused on the moment and then enjoying the time cuddling until they were teleported home by Juniper. The Pixie had been perplexed by the strange request to look at something so mundane, but offered them for investigation.

Expecting something light and delicate, Callie was amazed at what she found. Throughout the wing she could see tiny bones that held the skin between them taunt, and in a few places were equally tiny muscles that could help the shape of the wing change as Pixyl flew. The membrane between the bones, which she had imagined would be tissue-paper thin, like a dragonfly, was actually almost leather-like in feel and durability, although still quite thin and mostly transparent. Pixyl even demonstrated how amazingly durable her wings were, by using her hands to bend and twist them. There was a point where she had to stop, when the bones began to get stressed, but as long as there was a bit of a curve, the wing was strong enough to curl quite a ways.

Of course, as Callie investigated, she eventually accidentally-on-purpose glanced a touch to the base of the wing, again pressing the button that instantly activated Pixyl, turning her on like a light switch. After a few seconds of locked lips, their clothes seemed to suddenly fall off. This time, the Pixie focused on her, and everything was going amazing until Lena and the rest barged in on them. After being chased off, the moment had been spoiled as a panicked Pixyl quickly threw her clothes back on, just wanting to get away in horrified embarrassment. Callie forced her to calm, assisted with the shirt button above her wings she was clumsily fumbling with, and gave her a hard kiss. The Pixie did relax slightly, but that was the end of the moment, and she left to go seek out Olin, removing and tossing the door-sock onto her bed. In turn, Callie gathered her own strewn clothing and went into the latrine to ultimately get dressed.

Now, as she walked, Callie’s head randomly floated back to the dozens of times over the past month that Pixyl had made subtle, and now looking back, not-so-subtle passes at her. She’d just been so utterly oblivious to them, thinking of her like the sister she never had. She hadn’t even realized Pixyl was into girls for crying out loud! She’d always been good at picking up the vibes and sexuality of other people back in Chicago, but her gaydar was apparently not functional here. She surmised that the tiny common social behaviors present on Earth simply weren’t the same here to subconsciously see, and it was something she was going to need to learn to recognize all over again.

And then it hit her. She actually had a girlfriend. Here … in another world. Callie was trying to make sense of that, and then a second thought hit her, and she was forced to sit down for a few minutes. She realized she didn’t want to go home any more! She still was worried for her mother, but beyond her, there was really no reason to go back to Earth. This world could be her home and more importantly, she could be happy here! Laying back against a tree, she watched some Sprites bob through the air as she tried to absorb her revelation. This is where she belonged, and she found she was happy with that. She thought about her mother again and it made her sad, but the thoughts of all her new friends, and now being with Pixyl, seemed to crowd in, simply overpowering the sadness.

Scooting around behind the tree to be more-easily hidden, Callie took a few moments to let some tears fall. They weren’t really tears of sadness, or happiness for that matter. It was more like they were tears of relief, as if the overwhelming burden of having to find a way back had been lifted from her, and somehow she had a clearer path forward with her life, or perhaps just a freedom to move forward without a destination as this new life unfolded.

Wiping her eyes, eventually Callie stood and headed towards the training field, planning to check in briefly on Pixyl, to see her new Silver skills, assuming she had found Olin. Bladeweavers didn’t normally get many new things at Silver, save improvements to their current skills. One they did get was called Ethereal Lance, and according to the description, it was channeled, forming a concentrated beam of Ethereal energy from Pixyl’s hand, out to a range of about forty meters. Callie hadn’t seen it in action, of course, but was assuming it was effectively some kind of a pinpoint laser or something. She was sure it was going to be really cool, though.

What Pixyl did interestingly get were three melded skills, which was a shock to everyone. The first was Flashstep, which functioned exactly like the skill that Bladedancers received, allowing the user to zip as fast as lightning from one spot to another without momentum. It came with two charges and a fast recharge time of only twenty seconds, but had the drawback of apparently only working on the ground. Her second melded skill was a synergized power called Homing Ethereal Blast. While Pixyl’s normal Ethereal Blast skill only had a short range of about ten or twelve meters, this was effectively a heavy-damage homing sniper attack designed for a long range of up to one-hundred-fifty meters, with the ability to ‘lock-on’ to a target like Callie’s similar arrow skill. It was mana-intensive and slow to cast, even when fully learned, and had only a single charge with a long two-minute cooldown, but definitely had some usefulness, especially at higher tiers when the range, number of charges and other details would improve even further.

Pixyl’s last melded skill seemed a little odd, at least in the description. It was a melding of her Ethereal Shield and Ethereal Armor spells. This new Ethereal Wall skill would allow Pixyl to create a barrier of power within five meters that would block incoming and outgoing attacks. It would even remain for up to thirty seconds after she stopped channeling it, effectively allowing her to plant it in place and walk away. The information stated the wall was up to four meters wide and three meters tall, giving multiple people the ability to hide behind it, and Olin was quite excited to soon see it in action.

“Callie!” a voice called out, and she looked to see Jesca waving to her. Also in the group was Ambria, Lhawni and Koka, her brother apparently off on his own for once.

“Hey everyone,” Callie said, smiling. “I thought you’d all be on that group hike, maybe.”

“I did more than enough hiking yesterday,” Lhawni groused.

“And I didn’t want to be around that many people,” Jesca added. “Neither did Artemis.” Nearby, the unicorn was laying in the shade next to a tree, apparently sleeping. “We’re feeling a little … quiet this morning, for some reason. Don’t worry, I'll be fine for the Bunkerball game.”

“That’s good. We’ve got all our new sneaky strategies planned for today. Hopefully we can stay ahead of Reynard. I suspect he’ll get more tricky.”

Jesca shook her head. “He’s not going to be Field Marshal today. Apparently he told someone who told the Major that he wasn’t feeling up to it for some reason. We may not have to work so hard to win.”

“That’s strange,” Callie said, instinctively turning the general direction of the staff housing. “I wonder what’s wrong.”

“What do you mean?”

“Is it just me, or has he seemed out of sorts lately? I had been wondering if he might be getting depressed. This seems to make it even more likely. He hasn’t been to training for a few days now, either.” Then she added, when Jesca made a confused face, “He’s been cooped up in his tiny cabin for two weeks now, unable to go anywhere without assistance and nobody really to talk to, outside of when someone needs to get him somewhere. That’d get me down, too.”

“So, what should we do about it?”Jesca asked. “If anything? Talk to Master Trainer Thorn, maybe?”

“We could go cheer him up. Bring him some flowers or something. Maybe Pama can magic up something nummy.”

“I saw a large patch of wild Snapdragons behind the bathhouse,” Ambria suggested. “You could dig up a few. They’re one of my favorites. The kitchen must have something you could replant them in.”

“Replant? You don’t just pick them?”

“Callie! No! Why would you give someone not feeling well dying flowers?” the Faun chastised. “We’re civilized here!”

“Oh. Sorry.” Callie was immediately happy she hadn’t made that mistake. It sounded like it would have been a serious social faux pas. She turned to Jesca. “What do you think?”

“I guess we could see him,” Jesca said quite nervously. “I just hope he doesn’t yell at us.”

“Great!” Callie brightened. “I need to go check on Pixyl, but that won’t take long and then we can track down Pama and a flower pot.”

“You already checked out Pixyl really well last night,” Ambria giggled, Lhawni smirking as well.

“What do you mean?” Callie asked, trying to play innocent.

“Nobody knew what that loud, humming noise was,” Lhawni said. “They sent me to find out. I found out.”

“Humming noise?” Callie said, trying to figure out what the Shaman was talking about, and then she realized it. “Oh shit! You heard that?”

“We all heard that,” Ambria laughed. “Sound carries in the dark and you really got her wings going.”

“What happened?” Koka asked, confused.

“Callie and Pixyl,” Ambria smirked, her hands forming a heart shape on her chest.

Koka’s eyes lit up. “Really? It’s about time!”

“Oh, hell,” Callie began, her face turning beet-red as she put her hands over it.

“They were really going at it,” Lhawni added in a teasing voice. “I was impressed.”

“Hey! At least our clothes stayed on!” Callie snapped, trying to come up with any kind of a defense.

“That makes it all the more impressive,” Ambria pointed out, snickering.

Callie whimpered, cycling between pure, unbridled embarrassment, worrying about what Pixyl would think if she knew everyone had heard them, and a teeny bit of pride for impressing Ambria. Maybe more than a teeny bit.

“Please, don’t give her a hard time about it,” Callie finally begged. “Even better, don’t say anything, but if you do, be nice about it. I don’t think she can deal with more embarrassment today.”

“Why? Did something else happen?” Ambria wondered, eyes going wide.

“We were alone in our cabin a little while ago and … you know …” Callie mumbled with a shrug. “Vanis and Lena and that Imperial captain guy walked in on us.”

The titters became outright laughter and Callie blushed all over again. “So I mean it,” she finally said when the laughter calmed a bit. “Be nice about it to her, please?”

“Okay,” Lhawni nodded. “We will. And I’ll pass word to everyone else that was there to do the same. Hopefully Bratig and Melga will respect that.”

“Why … why wouldn’t they?”

“Dwarves, generally, aren’t very accepting of renadits. Some kind of a Dwarven cultural thing,” Lhawni said, shrugging. “I don’t know what the specific opinion of Bratig and Melga is, although they are from the city, so maybe it’s not too bad.”

“What’s a ‘renadit’?

“Someone who courts their own gender,” Ambria clarified. “Or ‘ren’ for short.”

“Ahh,” Callie said. She’d been wondering what the terminology might be here, if there was any. She had meant to talk to Pixyl about it earlier, but … well … magically falling-off clothing and all that. “So Dwarves have a problem with it? What about any of the other races?”

Lhawni shrugged. “Some Goblin families still follow tribal traditions, especially outside the cities. Something about how rens upset the tribal balance, or break up marriages, or something else silly like that. These days they generally aren’t as bad as the Dwarves though, especially in the cities. I’m a city Goblin, and my sister is ren, so it doesn’t bother me. It took my grandmother a while to approve, though, or at least not disapprove.”

“Some Beastkin, too,” Jesca added. “With us, everything is about making babies, so that’s hard in the case of rens. Then again, I’m not interested in courting anyone, so I'm probably in the same category.”

“W-What about Gnomes?” Callie asked, a tinge of worry in her voice. Would Pama and Fizzlebek have a problem if she was with Pixyl? She’d said Pama figured out about her, but hadn’t shared the whole story. “Or any of the others?”

Ambria shrugged. “I don’t think the Gnomes really care. Pama didn’t say anything when we figured out Pixyl’s secret. I’m not sure about the Ogres, but Tazrok didn’t say anything mean, ether. As for others, we’re east of the capitals. With all the Fae and Elves on this side, rens are not really that uncommon. Go west or north, and that could change, especially in the underground Dwarven enclaves.”

“Pixyl is from Marandine, which is northeast of Imor, and my sister moved there a few years ago. She told me before she left that lots of rens tend to congregate there,” Lhawni added. “Some even call it ‘Renadine’.”

“Oh,” Callie said, a little saddened that the general culture of racial and gender harmony she’d witnessed over the last month had a bit of a tarnish to it when it came to sexuality. “Should … should Pixyl and I stay in the closet?” Callie asked, and then clarified for the quizzical looks, “not be public about us?”

Ambria shrugged. “You might get a couple stares and cold responses from some, but there are certainly rens among the trainers or soldiers, since there are a lot of Elves and Fae. I’m sure some of the other recruits, too. I don’t think camp people will really make an issue of it, unless your training suffers. The Dwarves might make some remarks, but just ignore them and tell someone if it gets bad enough.”

“And tell me if Chown or Swopik say anything,” Lhawni said, a tinge of warning in her tone, “and I’ll smack them a good one!”