PART I - GIRL TALK

“Eww, I still smell like swamp, don’t I,” Callie whined as she unpacked her lunch. She sniffed at herself again and made a sour face. “He could have at least had us do swamp tracking and stealth on the day before Homeday. Even after washing our armor in the showers, we still smell like swamp-ass.”

Jesca made an equally sour face. “I think it’s just another way for Reynard to torture us.”

“Yeah, and with your nose it must be extra awful,” Callie added with a light chuckle.

“It really is!” the Catkin Fynisse added around a mouthful of her own sandwich, Tigerkin Koka nodding emphatically in agreement next to her.

Callie was sitting in the bleachers next to Jesca and they were both firmly downwind from Fynisse, Pixyl, Ambria, Lhawni and Koka. It was basically a gaggle of girls only, as both Moka and Chown had learned when they were firmly chased off. No guys allowed!

“At least Kaisess got out of swamp training, if there’s any positive for him,” Callie said, a slightly depressed tone in her voice. “I hope he’s doing okay.”

“He’s going to be fine,” Ambria said, shrugging. “He told me he’s going to return next term.”

“True. They did let him attune his new bow before he left, so to get that he will need to come back. Do you think we should warn him about the swamp?” Callie wondered.

“No way,” Jesca snapped. “He can suffer like the rest of us.”

A round of laughter circled the group.

“How goes the Shaman thing?” Callie asked Lhawni. “Xin mentioned you were having problems summoning your Elemental?”

The Goblin scowled. “I can summon it just fine. It just doesn’t like to follow orders very well. I’ll tell it to attack something and it usually just stares at me and does nothing. Maugra says I have to be more stern with it, but I have no idea how to do that! Frankly, those glowing fire eyes staring at you are a little unnerving. I’d rather be healing, honestly.”

“You just need to tell him who’s boss,” Ambria encouraged. “I’m sure you’ll get it.”

The Goblin shrugged, then added excitedly, “I did manage to get my Totem to make all twelve faces yesterday! So, at least Maugra won’t be yelling at me about that. She’s been on my back all week about it since I got Bronze.”

“Go you!” Callie cheered, holding up the waterskin she was drinking from like a toast. The rest of the group whooped in agreement as Lhawni’s green skin darkened in a blush.

“How do you like your new fighting style?” Koka asked Callie.

“I’m still getting used to it. Getting in close to a bigger enemy seems really counterintuitive, but I have to admit the results are a lot better than trying to fight someone tall at normal sword distances. Hopefully Dodge will keep me from getting grabbed.”

“It seemed to work fairly well when we sparred against each other,” the Tigerkin added.

At the beginning of the week, Vonn and Reynard teamed up to change Callie’s fighting technique, moving away from trying to fight at sword range, and instead directing her to get in close to the target where defenses were actually weaker, using her small size as part of the style. This also replaced one of her swords with a shorter one. Now, the longer sword often was used to parry and allow her to slip in to strike with the shorter blade, focusing on quick stabs and slices to the groin and legs. To Callie, it had initially seemed a really dumb idea, but after a few attempts, it started to make more sense. Normal-sized people would eventually be learning a similar technique for fighting against giant-sizes like an Ogre, so really it was more of a case of Callie just learning it earlier and having more targets where it would be applicable.

“I’d rather j-j-just use Ethereal Blast than get in close,” Pixyl added, having been likewise instructed in the close-up style of swordplay, although both of her energy-swords were of equal length. “I’m just way too small and breakable.” Like Callie, she hated to admit that it actually worked, though.

“Yeah, but at least your swords cut through anything,” Callie teasingly snarled. “You can just lop their legs off or something. Or, you know … fly!”

Pixyl just grinned as she bit into a juicy piece of fruit.

“Have you heard anything more from your Symbiote?” Koka asked, changing the topic slightly. Word had made the rounds when Callie revealed the second visit the night she got Bronze, and more than a couple people had asked her for more details, or asked if it had been back.

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“Nope,” Callie said, a little glum. “It said we’d talk when I was asleep, but nothing except at Bronze. I asked Juniper, and she said she hadn’t talked to hers, either. Maybe they only come around when we reach a new tier?” Callie shrugged. “At this point, I’m honestly just assuming it was a dream, because if I think about it too much, I’ll drive myself crazy. It did seem like it was trying to learn to speak though, rather than communicate in pictures. Maybe it needs to finish doing that first?”

“I managed to get four Imps summoned and keep their tethers open this morning,” Fynisse said excitedly, abruptly changing the subject as she shared the good news.

“That’s great!” Jesca cheered. “What changed? You were still stuck on one yesterday, right?”

The Warlock nodded. “I’m not really sure, but today I just felt really good and everything seemed to fall into place. I think the Callie Chi this morning helped me get some focus. Hopefully I can get to the maximum seven by the end of the week.”

“Argh! I wish you’d all stop calling it that,” Callie groaned, burying her face in her hands.

“Why? You are the one leading it, right? It seems like a good name,” Koka said, tilting her furry white head slightly in confusion.

“Yeah, I’m leading it, Koka, but it just feels so … I dunno … wrong. I mean, it’s not like I’m an expert at it. It definitely shouldn’t be named after me.”

“We could call it something like ‘Gnome Chi’,” Ambria suggested.

“Anything would be better,” Callie said doubtfully, “but I suspect the other one is going to stick. Even Xera was calling it that.”

With encouragement from both Jesca and Master Trainer Thorn, plus Reynard of all people, Callie had returned to the early-dawn training field and started leading a slowly-growing group of people in morning Tai Chi exercises. While it may have been relaxing and meditative for the students, for Callie it was absolutely nerve wracking and she completely failed to get any relaxation out of it! Plus, just to make it worse, in addition to the nine or ten recruits the class was up to as of that morning, Thorn and Celeste had come back, joined today by Xera as they dropped in on their way from the shower to their office. Even Reynard had slipped in unnoticed at the end, which made everything retroactively worse.

“You’re going to keep doing it, right?” Ambria asked.

“I guess?” Callie shrugged, reluctant to commit. “If people are getting something out of it, I suppose I can.”

“I definitely am,” Fynisse eagerly said, with Ambria agreeing emphatically.

“And I love feeling the sun come up because it’s warm all over and makes the day start just the right way,” Jesca added, babbling a little in Jesca fashion.

“That’s just because you are mostly naked,” Lhawni giggled.

“Only mostly,” Jesca moped melodramatically as the rest of the group laughed. “I’d rather exercise in the nude. I mean, they are just … what did you call them Callie … boobs? What’s the big deal?”

“You’d distract all the boys,” Ambria snickered. “You probably already are a bit, I’m sure.”

“Bah!” Jesca snarled. “Everyone should strip down. The sun feels great!”

“It would be funny to see them tripping all over themselves if each of us did that,” Lhawni suggested, eliciting another round of giggles from the group.

“All of you, please, please, keep your clothes on in my class,” Callie sternly groaned. “We already have to deal with Juniper dripping her sex voodoo all over the place and turning people on. We don’t need all your butts and chests wiggling in their faces adding to that.”

“It would be funny, though,” Lhawni snickered.

“Yeah. That’s true,” Callie conceded with a nod. Then, she got an odd look on her face.

“What’s wrong, Callie?” Koka asked.

“You know, now that the topic of boobs has come up, I’ve noticed mine are actually shrinking,” the Gnome replied, cupping her hands to her chest. “Or something. My body has changed a little. Have any of you noticed anything?”

“Mufffless,” Pixyl mumbled through a bite of her lunch.

“Huh?”

Swallowing, Pixyl spoke again. “Muscles. From all your archery. I’ve noticed them on you.”

“Really?” Instinctively, Callie reached for one of her biceps as she clenched her arm. Holy cow! She had muscles! She quickly did the same for the other arm, finding the same thing, “What the heck!”

Jesca flexed her own arms. “I noticed the other day, too. My arms as well as across my chest, back and stomach. We shoot a lot of arrows.”

“Yeah, but you’re already totally jacked, Jesca,” Callie scoffed, gesturing lazily at the Catkin. “I mean, let’s face it, your ass is rock hard from all your running and you could bounce a coin off it.” A general murmur of agreement went up among all the girls.

The Cheetahkin smirked. “But now my arms and stomach, too.” She once again flexed, having pulled up her tunic to show the start of well-defined abs, the vague shapes visible even through her fur.

“I’ve noticed my body has toned as well,” Koka said. “From all the sparring and movement practice like Dodge.”

“Same,” Pixyl said, flexing her own arms.

Callie gestured generally towards her friends, and groaned out a generic whine. “It looks really good on all of you, though. My new muscles are apparently eating my boobs, and they were already pretty tiny to begin with. I kinda feel like I’m losing what little of my figure I had.”

“Don’t worry. You still look great,” Ambria reassured. “Really.”

“Especially from behind,” Pixyl absently added around the bite she was taking, before she snapped her eyes open wide and quickly looked away, realizing what she’d said and blushing madly.

“Aww, thanks for that you two,” Callie said with a smile. She then looked at her friends. “It’s nice we can all support each other, y’know? Too many people tear each other down.”

“It will be even better when you two don’t smell like a swamp,” Ambria added, a teasing glint in her eyes.

“Huh,” Callie deadpanned. “Maybe I should take that back.”