PART II - WATERLOGGED

Callie quickly realized she could run down a rabbit hole of digging into each of her powers, and she needed to finish getting cleaned up.

“Did that work for you, Little One?” Xera called over the wall.

“Yeah! It did. Thanks for the heads up. I’ll review everything later.” She stood, hand on one wall on the chance she was still woozy, and then heard grunting over the partition wall. Poking her head around it, she asked “Commandant, are you okay?”

The Fairy was struggling to remove their boots.. Their wings, poking through a slit in the back of a button-up tunic, flapped rapidly in exasperation. Xera belted out a frustrated scream. “Dammit!”

“What’s wrong?”

Xera sighed. “I wear my clothes large, so I can get in and out of them without help, even with this,” they gestured towards their missing arm. “But because everything is wet, nothing is cooperating.” Xera grunted again trying to pull themself out of their boots. Throwing their hands up, they said, “I guess I’ll just skip my shower and dry out over time.” Callie could see the wet state of Xera’s clothing was making them almost glued in place.

“I can help,” Callie suggested.

“That might be a little inappropriate, Recruit.”

Callie shrugged. “I’m the reason you’re in this mess, it’s the least I can do.”

Xera paused, sniffed themself, made a sour face, and finally conceded. “Sure. Fine. Thank you.”

“Whatever,” Callie said, rolling her eyes.”Your Logistics person? Captain Kela? She ordered us to help each other, and she reports to you, right? So those orders were your orders.”

“You’re not wrong, but that wasn’t supposed to be me needing the help,” Xera said as they braced themself against the wall, and held up one of their feet.

“We all need help, sometimes,” Callie said as she worked to pull the waterlogged footwear off without knocking Xera over. Eventually she managed to work it free, and then started on the second.

“Thorn said he wasn’t completely sure you were a Ranger, but felt the risk was worth it. I’m glad to see everything worked out,” Xera said.

“I was worried, but I’m getting the skills, so I guess I’m a Ranger after all. Who would have thought, right? Woohoo!”

Xera shot Callie a puzzled look. “You have a strange way of speaking, sometimes.”

“I know, my friends back at my bunkhouse call it a ‘Callie-ism’. I’m a little strange, I guess.”

“You are a Gnome. Your kind is always a little … odd. But that is part of the charm of your people, I think.”

“Thank you,” Callie said with a sincere grin. “I like to think being odd is a good thing.”

Xera gave a light chuckle before continuing. “Thorn mentioned you had lost your memory, and that was probably why the Scryers couldn’t see your class. Has it returned yet?”

“Only bits and flashes, many which make no sense” Callie lied as she helped Xera out of her pants. Callie made an effort not to look anywhere inappropriate, remembering when she helped provide homecare for her grandmother in her last year before she passed. You couldn’t think about it; you just talk about anything else and work through the awkward to get it done.

“If you don’t get your memory back in a few days, as long as you have no other symptoms, go see Master Healer Tasi for an evaluation,” Xera ordered.

“Will do,” Callie responded, before saying, “Raise your right leg.”

Xera did so and Callie guided it out of the soaked clothing, then did the same for their left leg. Callie stood, and for the first time got a real good look at Fae wings. The Commandant was twice the size of Pixyl, taller than Callie by a good thirty centimeters. So, while Xera’s wings were much like Pixyl’s, in both shape and color, they were much larger. Of course, Xera was missing half of one, from what was obviously the slice of a bladed weapon. The wing itself was made of up hundreds of membranes stretched between tiny, visible bones no larger than a needle.

“Is everything alright? This may be getting too awkward for you,” Xera asked, noticing Callie had stopped.

“What? No, it's fine. I was just … and if this is rude I’m so sorry … but I was looking at your wings.”

“You are wondering what happened to the rest of it?”

“Yeah, I was just curious,” Callie said, trying to cover for the fact that she just thought they were really fascinating and wanted to touch them. That definitely had to be a rude thing to do, right?

“Lost in combat,” Xera said. “This was the same time I lost my arm. I was fighting an Etherdemon, which has powerful energy blades that extend from their claws. I missed a parry, and it got both my arm and wing in one strike.”

“Energy blades? That’s like a Bladeweaver, right?”

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“Yes, actually. Very similar magics.”

“We have a Bladeweaver in our house. Pixyl. She’s a Pixie. When she had her Symbiote put in last night, her lightsabers sprung out and cut two big holes through her bed.”

“Lightsabers?”

Callie paused for a moment, lest she say something she shouldn’t before finally replying. “I just thought that’s what they looked like. Swords made of light.”

“I suppose that is as good a description as any. I believe the Bladeweavers refer to them as Ethereal Blades,” Xera said.

“I’ll remember that.” Callie said as she began to unbutton Xera’s tunic.

“And you were with the Ogre, too. The one I jokingly promoted? The three of you, together in the same bunkhouse.”

Callie stopped. “Wait, you were joking? Tazrok thought you were serious.”

“That’s what I hear,” Xera said.

“He’s taking his job very personally. You’d crush him if you told him it was a joke.”

“Major Celeste said the same. She wants to keep him on this punishment and security detail, and I’m inclined to agree with her. I want to see what happens, honestly. We tend to do a lot of ‘let’s see what happens’ here.”

“Tazrok’s not some big brute, you know. He’s apparently a Druid, and a very gentle person with an enormous heart. You just don’t want to pick on someone small; he’s very protective.” Callie said as she returned to Xera’s back and undid two buttons above the slit for their wings. As she did, Callie accidentally bumped the underside of one of Xera’s wings, close to where it met her back, and the Fairy let out a small grunt of shock. Their legs buckled and their body tensed, and they had to extend an arm to brace against the wall.

“Oh shit! Did I hurt you?” Callie said in a panic.

“N-no. It’s fine,” Xera gasped, trying to catch her breath. “Wings can be sensitive at times, especially if unprepared or in that area. G-give me a moment.”

Callie got a panicked look on her face. It was purely an accident but Callie had a rushing sense of guilt.

“Very tough and rugged, just sometimes very sensitive,” Xera confirmed again, trying to feign a smile.

Callie stood back, feeling guilty, while Xera recovered. “I’m so sorry, Commandant! I didn’t know and was just clumsy.”

“No matter, it’s fine,” they grunted, “more a surprise than anything. Please continue.”

“We’re almost done, so I’ll be careful.” Callie said as she started to slowly peel the tunic off the stump of Xera’s arm. Only about six centimeters of it remained, ending in an ugly patchwork of old scars,

“I thought limbs can be grown back? Tazrok and the Major talked about it.”

“Not when sliced off by an Etherdemon, unfortunately,” Xera replied with a hint of sadness. “The energy sword cauterizes everything, making regeneration impossible.”

“That’s too bad,” Callie said, not sure what else to say. She began to work on getting the Commandant’s working arm out of the remaining sleeve, and free of the tunic completely. After a bit of work and a few tugs, Xera’s arm finally came free with a wet slurping sound.

“There you go,” Callie said as she collected Xera's clothing and set them aside in a single pile. “I’m sorry again if I hurt your wing.”

“You didn’t!” Xera said quickly. “I was more startled than anything. No permanent damage done. Thank you for your assistance.”

“No problem at all,” Callie said as she returned to her own shower stall to finish. Quickly she picked up the soap and started washing again.

“Commandant Xera?” a female voice called out from the entrance.

“Yes?” Xera called back snappishly.

“I have two small robes, as you requested.”

“Thank you. You can just leave them by the doorway.”

“Of course, Commandant.”

“I still can’t believe we have an Ogre Druid, you and the Pixie here. Three anomalies this term.” Xera called over the wall as she turned on a low stream of water from the shower head, seeming to have recovered from the pain Callie caused.

“Anomalies?”

“We needed a term for what to call these strange race and class combinations that we’ve never seen before, and that was best we came up with. Maybe we’ll just see more of them going forward and it will become normal. Last term we had a Goblin Barbarian, which was until then completely unheard of. And then this term we have three more odd combinations. And all three of you end up in the same bunkhouse, as well. What are the odds?”

“I dunno. But don’t count us out just because we’re weird combinations,” Callie warned. “I don’t want to be judged based on anything but my performance.”

“Oh, absolutely not!” Xera said quickly with a shocked tone. “Last term the Goblin exceeded all others on her training team, to the surprise of everyone. Except for Trainer Reynard, nobody is assuming anything about the three of you. Trainers Rowani and Olin both see it as an exciting challenge, in fact.”

“Reynard hates me,” Callie said with a snarl. “He put me through hell to prove I could shoot a bow. But in the end I showed him, and I think we might be able to get along, or at least not kill each other. Hopefully he stows the racism, though.”

“You seem to be able to hold your own, but let Master Trainer Thorn or myself know if your trainer gets out of line. Understood? You just worry about doing your best.”

Callie had finished washing herself and put the remaining soap back where it had come from. Pulling the chain, the shower valve closed. She picked up her robe and worked to wring as much water out of it as she could.

“Commandant, I’m finishing up. Do you still need any more help with anything?”

“N-no,” they stuttered back, as if pulled out of a deep thought. “I’m f-fine. Enjoy your day.”

Callie went to retrieve one of the robes by the door. She saw a bin with towels, next to an empty bin, presumably for used ones. She quickly picked up a towel and dried herself, tossing it in the dirty bin before slipping one of the robes on and cinching it tight. She picked up another towel and the second robe and walked back to Xera’s shower stall. Hanging the robe on a hook and setting the towel below it, she said “Here’s your robe and a towel, Commandant.”

“Thanks-s-s,” Xera said, glancing back at Callie. The water cascading splashed off the Fairy and struck Callie. It was freezing and one could see Xera’s teeth chattering.

“Wow, that’s cold!” Callie said, dodging back before she could get splashed again.

“Helps w-wake me up,” Xera said in response.

Callie shook her head in disbelief. “Not for me. Give me a steaming hot shower any day. I’m heading out. Have a great day, Commandant.” Callie picked up her wet robe and debated whether to bring it back to the house, before deciding to put it in the dirty bin.

Outside, the sun had risen enough that everything was bathed in a very dim light. With barely an accidental thought, Callie’s Darkvision seemed to switch off, returning her sight to normal. Callie frowned, concentrated, and was able to reactivate it. “Huh,” she said, before shrugging and switching it off again.