Callie's Heroes

PART III: REVEALED SECRETS

The distant screech of a forest drakeling finally broke the several seconds of long silence, as Callie stared wide-eyed into the distance in horror. She'd just been sort of babbling along and hadn't realized what she was saying until the words were already out of her mouth. Reynard was sitting quietly, not saying anything, apparently politely waiting for her to get her brain working again.

To try and calm herself, she instinctively started to chant out the numbers of pi in her head, but Callie's world was spinning and she was feeling faint. How could she have been so careless! Stupid on her part! She knew she needed to say something, but at the same time, couldn't think of anything that might deflect or change the subject. Reynard knew! Somehow, he knew!

"Why … why do I remember that?" Callie finally said, rather unconvincingly, after the silence had dragged on too long.

"Mmm," Reynard hummed in unbelieving acknowledgement, saying nothing more. Apparently, the old standby-lie wasn't going to work. Drat!

Still not sure what to do, or even how to respond, Callie continued to just sit and stare, trying to will her body to calm and the world to stop spinning. Bored with pi, her brain started to rattle new numbers off in her head, counting upwards by sevens, hoping to find a rhythm she could focus on. It wasn't really working. Reynard somehow knew!

After an interminable forever, Callie counting all the way to three-hundred-one, Reynard finally cleared his throat. "Here's what I've deduced, Callie. You come from another world, I assume waking in the transport wagon just before you arrived here at the camp. The name of your world is called … she-cog-oh? A strange name, honestly. Gnomish, maybe? Am I right, so far?" He spread out the name of the city, sounding out each syllable.

Callie couldn't speak. In fact, she shouldn't speak! Those were the standing orders. 'Only talk about it inside Ogre House or the Commandant's office', although she'd be the first to admit everyone had slipped here and there, including the Commandant. Right now, she didn't say anything.

"If I had to guess," Reynard eventually continued, "the people who have knowledge of this include the senior officers and your cabinmates. Yulayla, as well. Also, Jesca and Natala, maybe? I'm not completely sure of them. Possibly Fizzlebek and Pama, too?"

"I … I don't know what you're talking about," Callie finally whispered. It wasn't a very convincing denial, not convincing at all, but part of her said she had to at least try.

"You and I both know that's a lie," Reynard said, his face actually smirking just a bit. "You come from this … world of she-cog-oh, and your memory loss was concocted to account for the fact you know nothing of this one. Am I right?"

"No! I …" Callie snapped defensively on reflex, before she managed to cut herself off. Then she tried to cover again. "... have no idea what you mean."

"I can see the panic on your face, Callie," Reynard said, sighing this time, and then smirking again. Was he enjoying this?

Callie knew he was right. As much as she was trying to, she had no doubt the crumbling story and panic was playing out before his eyes. Would he tell others? Would he tell the army? Or the Arkan? She needed to say something, but anything she might say, would just confirm his suspicions. She felt like she was suffocating.

"Tell me this, at least. Are you a danger to us? Do I need to be worried?"

Part of her even knowing she shouldn't engage, Callie shook her head in response, just a little bit. It was barely a jiggle, but enough to still answer, and as a result, confirm everything. What else could she have done? Even sending him to go talk to Xera or Thorn would effectively be admitting he was right at this point.

"I'm sure if you were, you wouldn't tell me anyway, but I'll take your answer as sincere."

"How?" Callie croaked out, her voice barely a whisper.

"Oh, nothing specific, Callie. Lots of little things, really. I've suspected your 'memory loss' wasn't real for a few weeks now. You knew too much about things to have no memory. Couple that with how you spoke and your … unique way of looking at things, there was obviously more to the story. It certainly couldn't be on account of you simply being a Gnome. Unlike many around here, I've known several Gnomes throughout my life, and none were quite as strange as you are."

Under normal circumstances, Callie would take that last statement as a complement. This wasn't a normal conversation, and she certainly couldn't see it as a compliment at the moment. She looked blankly down the target range, seeing the rising hill in the distance that Jesca and Artemis had unexpectedly teleported from, and wondered what would happen if she simply ran away. Then she remembered, the Curse would eat her up and eventually kill her. So much for that method of escape.

"I couldn't figure it all out right away," Reynard continued. He pointed to his ears. "These helped a lot, though. For example, you said that your father told you stories about unicorns. At the bogwump nest, after you downed the unicorn mother. Honestly, with this leg, I've had a lot of time to think everything through, and eventually I put enough pieces together to have a plausible explanation."

"You heard that?" Callie boggled wide-eyed. "You'd just had your leg chomped off and you heard me whisper that? And remembered it?"

"It might have taken a few days to come back to me. But save feeling sorry for myself, I didn't have a lot else to do at the time. Your odd music was another clue. Enjoyable, but odd. Your strange hats and this dress, too. The dress is quite fetching, by the way, but obviously a bit … you. And black."

Callie's mind whirled, rushing through every public conversation she'd had with Pixyl or the others where Reynard, or anyone else for that matter, could have overheard her. There … there were probably a lot of them. Little innocent statements that might not mean much to someone individually, but string them together and it would certainly get an eavesdropper's curiosity up a bit.

"What … what are you going to do?" Callie asked. It was really the most-important next question, probably even more important than the 'how'.

"Was I correct about who knows?"

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"Mostly, but Jesca doesn't," Callie said quietly, shaking her head. "If the Sergeant-Major does, it's because the officers told her, but not as far as I know. Neither Pama nor Fizzlebeck do either, although I'm sure they also think I'm odd."

"Just to confirm, Thorn knows?"

Callie nodded. "I was supposed to send you to him or the Commandant if you ever asked any questions. I failed at that, too, I guess."

"Then I'll go talk to Thorn. Tomorrow, or after the holiday, though, when things quiet down."

"But … what are you going to do to me?"

Reynard shrugged. "Do to you? Nothing. Why? Should I do something?"

"Well, depending on who you might actually tell, that could make things really bad for me." Callie looked up imploringly at her trainer, trying to look just a little extra-pitiful in the hope he wouldn't turn her in. "They could hurt me."

"Ahh," Reynard chuckled. "It's quite difficult to resist that Gnome Charm look, you know. But, no, I'm not going to tell anyone or do anything to you. If I had realized all this that first week, maybe I'd have done something different, but not now. Not to one of my Rangers. This had simply become a mystery to me, and I needed to solve it. It's been nagging at me for some time now."

The tight knot in Callie's stomach eased just a little at hearing those words. She and Reynard's relationship had come a long way from that first day here, but if he wanted to, he could really make her life difficult. This was assuming he was speaking the truth about not telling anyone. While Callie felt she could believe him, there was always the chance he was lying. She could almost imagine him shouting it from the rooftops or something. Damn! She needed Lena's Truthseeking skill. Another thing to add to the 'someday' list, if she eventually had a someday.

"I'd like to learn a lot more of where you come from, but now is not the time, so we can put that off for another day. I suspect your she-cog-oh is quite fascinating."

"Earth," Callie said. "That's the name. Chicago is the big city I lived in."

"Earth?" Reynard screwed up his face in confusion, and then gestured towards the barren repaired craters. "Like 'dirt'? That's rather bland."

"Yeah, it really is if you think about it." Callie said, eyes somewhat glazed as she chuckled. "Sometimes it's called Terra, which I suppose is a little better."

"Well, we can talk of your 'Earth' another time. I did have one curious question, though. What tier of Ranger were you before arriving? Bronze already?"

Callie could actually see a sense of curious caring in Reynard's eyes. Could he really be trusted? Did she have much of a choice at the moment? They'd been through a lot together, so maybe she had to take his words at face value. She hoped she was right. Callie took a deep breath and sighed. "We didn't have classes or magical skills. I knew archery though, because I was a competitive archer when I was younger."

"Competitive? As a Gnome? Were you any good, even having no magic?"

Callie nodded, but decided to skip mentioning her Human history. "In my age category at the time, I was one of the top ten archers in my region." Then she added, "a few hundred kilometers in every direction," to give some approximate distance context. A part of her felt like she was bragging, but what did it matter at this point.

"But no actual class or skills? That … would explain that 'void' you had when Yulayla scryed you, right? You're saying a lot of that first day was all natural talent?"

"Maybe. I had the Advanced Archery perk when I got here, though, and a few others. We think that things I knew about were somehow translated into perks."

"This might explain why you aren't a very good Ranger, actually."

Callie was taken aback, and then irritated by the comment. "What do you mean 'not very good'! I'm the best shot of all of us!"

Reynard nodded. "Oh you absolutely are! You're an excellent combat Ranger, Callie. But even you'll admit the non-combat skills are a bit of a challenge for you. There's more to the class than just using your bow, although I know it's not the focus of training here. I think it's in part because you're a Gnome. They tend to not have the Nature affinity of some other races, and the short legs and arms don't do you any favors, either. Since you come from a city, that could be a factor, too."

"Oh," Callie said. He was right. She wasn't the best at tracking and stealth and all that stuff. Better than most non-Rangers obviously, but it wasn't really where she shined, as it were. Shul'an was the one that was really good at those things, likely in part because it resonated with their Beastkin side so well and they'd been Bronze before arriving. "I guess I can agree with that."

"I suppose 'not very good' was a bit of a mis-statement," Reynard conceded. "I will tell you this, though. You absolutely have the potential to make Platinum, or even higher, with enough work. You'll need to concentrate extra hard at those other things you're struggling with to do that, and focus better, though. You've got plenty of years ahead of you to get it right."

Reynard looked over to Callie and then smiled. An actual, warm smile, not one of his sly, mischievous ones. "After you come home, if you wish to pursue being a Ranger as a vocation, take some time to work with someone on those … softer skills first. Apprentice with someone, maybe a Ranger Adventurer, for about a year. It will be a big help. If you'd like, when you leave here, I'll send you off with a letter you can use as an introduction."

"Oh! Well … thank you." Callie wasn't sure what might happen post-war, and post dealing with the threat to Vanis and his family, for that matter, but if she did pursue 'rangering' in some fashion, that could be immensely helpful.

"So," Renard began by clapping his paws to his legs. "Pixyl has been up there for several minutes glaring at me, probably ready to gut me if this hadn't gone well." He gestured towards the top of the shelter where, indeed, Pixyl was glaring down, crouched on all fours and gripping white-knuckled to the edge. Callie had been so distracted by the moment and the blood pounding in her ears, she hadn't even heard the Pixie return.

"No, I'd do something far more painful," Pixyl hissed from above.

Reynard laughed, as if trying to dismiss the fact he knew full well Pixyl would absolutely have done something nasty to him. Then, he struggled to stand, Callie leaping up to at least hand him his crutch. "I believe Yulayla has had enough time to 'freshen up'. You have a pleasant evening, both of you."

Callie watched him go, Pixyl fluttering down to land next to her. It had been a tumultuous several minutes for Callie, and her head was still swimming from the shock of being found out, and found out by Reynard on top of that. She'd always known that someday someone would learn her secret and confront her about it, and she'd even thought about how that might go. But for that first person to be Reynard surpassed even what she'd imagined, and all of her planned reactions had seemed to disappear.

Then something occurred to her, and Callie narrowed her eyes suspiciously. "Sir?"

Reynard stopped, turned, and looked back. "Yes, Callie?"

"Why … why tonight? Why did you need to tell me tonight, when this could have easily waited until tomorrow or even after the holiday was over. Why was it so urgent?"

Reynard just hummed idly at the question.

Callie frowned in confusion at the somewhat cryptic non-response. Why would he have to do it tonight? No logical reason came into her head immediately, or even after thinking hard for a few moments. He said he'd been listening and watching for weeks now, so it definitely could have waited a few more days. All coming to her now served to do was make her panic for a bit, and make her …

Narrowing her eyes even further, now in irritation, Callie focused on the Foxkin. "You're trying to rattle me, aren't you! Before the bunkerball game tomorrow! You're trying to get into my head!"

Reynard grinned. Then, he grinned some more, adding a healthy dose of foxy slyness to his expression. He waggled his furry eyebrows a couple times before he wordlessly turned to continue on his way, waving a hand in goodnight.

"You're an asshole!" Callie called after him.

"I know."