PART II: MY DINNER WITH REYNARD
Callie grabbed her own drink and her booster, before joining Jesca and starting to wander the hall, looking for the other Rangers. Around the tent, all the recruits were milling in confusion and chaos, looking for their own trainers or the familiar faces of their classmates. For Callie and Jesca, It proved not difficult, as Shul’an’s midnight-black skin quickly stood out, and soon they all saw Trainer Reynard as well, with his red fur and fluffy tail, already sitting and speaking with Thucax and Kaisess.
While the chaos of everyone locating their new seats played out, Pama worked her feastly magics. Throughout the pavilion, the plates and anything remaining on them, in this case the utensils and any remaining cake, disappeared with a flash of orange light, making way for what was sure to come next.
As Callie, Jesca and Shul’an weaved through the mass of recruits towards Reynard, Callie stopped and quickly whispered up to Jesca. “Hey, getting into these chairs is a real pain, especially trying to balance this booster seat. Could you just lift me? I don’t want to be a complete klutz in front of him.” With her head, Callie gestured towards Reynard.
Jesca looked at their trainer, and then down at the Gnome, before nodding briskly.
In short order, all took their seats, Jesca discretely lifting Callie onto her seat and sliding her chair a little closer. Across the table from Callie sat Reynard, flanked by Thucax and Kaisess. Reynard was giving Callie a hard stare.
“Hi!” Callie said to the Foxkin with a smile, adding a wave for good measure. “How are you tonight?”
“I take it that the joining with your worm was successful?” Reynard asked in a low growl.
“Uh huh,” Callie said with a cheery mood. “When I woke up everything confirmed I’m a Ranger.”
“Mmmm,” Reynard said coldly. “I guess we will see in time how much of a Ranger you become, won’t we.”
“I just suppose we will,” Callie responded, her eyes narrowing and adding her own slight chill in her voice. Under the table, Jesca gave Callie’s thigh a light ‘stop-provoking-him’ slap.
Again a light chime sounded and the din of conversation died away. Pama smiled broadly, opening her arms to the entire room. “As we continue our feast, I bring you four kinds of delicious cheeses, and a rich mushroom spread for the same. Please take your drinks from the table and hold them in your hand.”
Everyone did as instructed, clearing the table to make way as the Culinar wove her magic yet again. With deft precision and a flash of light, Pama replicated her carefully arranged tray out to all her guests. A small plate, similar to the one that held the cakelets, flashed into existence. Laid out were four small slices of cheese, a utensil similar in size to the fork in the first course, but this time a tiny spoon on the end. Next to the cheeses was a small mound of finely diced mushrooms in a rich, dark sauce.
Everyone dug in, although Jesca pushed the mushrooms to the side; apparently they were not her thing. It was, of course, all absolutely delicious. The cheese was rich and smooth, and the diced mushrooms over it added a slightly acidic taste, a little like balsamic vinegar.
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“Did you all hear about Callie and her sword fight?” Kaisess asked the assembled Rangers, finally breaking the silence.
Jesca nodded, while everyone else shook their heads. Reynard glared intently at the little Gnome. “No, I hadn’t. What trouble did you get into this time?”
Callie stopped her hand, a piece of mushroom-covered cheese almost to her mouth and slowly set it back down on her plate. “Oh, you know. Just waving some swords around to see what would happen,” she said with a smirk and toying inflection.
“I was there!” Kaisess said excitedly. “She was sparring with a … Naga? Lamia? I always get them confused. Which ones have only two arms?”
“Lamia,” Reynard said, his gaze never moving from Callie. “What were you doing sparring with Vonn, Recruit Calliope?”
“First,” Callie said, “it’s ‘Callie’, not ‘Calliope’. Please. Second, it was Vonn’s idea when I received my Dual-wield and Ambidextrous perks while talking with her, since I had never held a sword before.”
“She did really well, Trainer Reynard. Both the Master Trainer and the Major were there to see it, and I overheard them say so,” Kaisess added. The other Ranger recruits were all taken aback, while Reynard just narrowed his little Foxkin eyes further.
Callie, who had been spreading mushrooms on another piece of cheese, finally decided to be the bigger Gnome and set down her tiny spoon. “Okay Reynard. We have two choices. You and I can snip and snipe at each other for the next ten minutes or however long this course lasts before we move again. It’s not going to do much more than just irritate us both and honestly I don’t need that negative energy tonight. This is supposed to be a celebration.”
“Callie!” Jesca hissed.
“What’s the other choice?” Reynard sneered.
“The other choice is that we can all be quiet and you can tell us a story about when you were a young Ranger.” All of the other recruits stared with shocked gazes at the audacity of the little Gnome, who smiled and quietly went back to the piece of cheese she had set on her plate. As one, they swung their looks to the glaring Foxkin.
If not for the fur on his face, one could almost assuredly see Reynard’s twitching face turning crimson, but when he saw all his recruits looking at him expectantly, including Callie, his gaze softened and he remembered he was their trainer. And so between bites of mushroom-smeared cheese, he told the story of when he was training as an Iron Tier Ranger, and had been sent to track down an escaped Vone, which sounded similar to a livestock animal like a goat. Apparently, it was a test for his Tracking skill, and he spent nearly a day and a night trying to find it. He often would come back to places where he was sure it had been, only to lose it again in the wilds. Finally, dejected and full of failure, he returned, only to find the Vone quietly nibbling grain in the barn.
“... and that’s when he says to me, ‘Reynard, it appears that the Vone can find herself just fine without your help.’ I must say I was never more angry and embarrassed than at that moment,” Reynard said with a light chuckle. “It was … humiliating. And humbling.”
The Ranger recruits all joined in the laughter, as had a couple other recruits within earshot who had been listening in on the story.
“So! The lesson here,” Callie said, sopping up the last of her mushroom sauce with her last piece of cheese, “is to check back at the barn first, before chasing off into the wilds.” Another round of laughter went around the group.
“Yes, well … that is one lesson you could take,” Reynard said, his own posture having noticeably relaxed during his story, and the corners of his eyes betraying at least a moment of enjoyment.
Another clear chime of the dinner bell rang out, signaling it was time to wrap up this course. Callie locked eyes momentarily with her Foxkin trainer. “Truce?” she asked.
Reynard peered at her. Not a hard or angry look this time, but an evaluating one. “Truce,” he finally agreed. “At least off the training field, that is.”
“I wouldn’t have it any other way,” Callie said with a twinkle, sliding off her chair as the chime rang again.