PART II - THE OVERWATCH

“So, I scout from that tower and then I just have to get past the guard dummies and through the door?” Callie asked. She’d been kept isolated while her fellow Rangers had run the course, to make sure she didn’t know what surprises were in store.

“That’s right,” Reynard said. “Think of it like … a castle courtyard. You need to sneak through to fight the Monster at the end, and take out the guards along the way.

“Monster? You mean the big, wood-framed thing with the painted face?”

“Of course!” Reynard snapped in annoyance. He was annoyed because the other three Rangers each had failed the course, even though he had hoped that at least Shul’an would make it. He was double-annoyed because Xera, Thorn and Celeste were all watching from the observation tower and evaluating the progress of the Ranger students. Callie was his last hope to make a good impression.

“Sheesh! Sorry I asked,” Calllie said, raising her hands defensively and rolling her eyes.

“Apologies,” Reynard mumbled with a huff. He nodded towards the tower. “Xera’s watching.”

“And none of us made it,” Jesca added. “Shul’an got the farthest, but he missed…”

“Quiet Jesca,” Reynard snapped. “Don’t give anything away.”

“Oh right! Sorry,” Jesca eeped in response. “Callie, like he said, it’s like you’re sneaking into a castle … to rescue a princess or something.”

“Cool! I’ve always wanted to rescue a real, live princess.”

Reynard rolled his eyes. “Focus, Callie. The rules are simple. Sneak from cover to cover and deal with whatever you encounter. You fail if the enemy raises an alarm, which happens if you make too much noise, or if too much time passes after a guard mannequin comes into view. Remember, stealth and sneaking, but also go quickly.”

“Just kill the guards fast,” Thucax added helpfully. “Go for the head if you can. They scream if you hit them in the leg. That’s what got me.”

“Got it!” Callie said, grinning. “Sneak in, kill them all Jane Wick style, slay the monster, save the princess, and live happily ever after.”

“I said focus!” Reynard snapped. “This isn’t a game, Callie.”

Callie got serious for a moment, “No, it’s an important training exercise.” Then she brightened, “But I can learn and have fun at the same time. Besides, it’s me running the course, so I’m going to do it my own damn way!” Callie scowled, before turning. “Jesca, you go to the end and be the princess and I’ll come rescue you. Scream for help and stuff.”

“Oh save me, hero!” Jesca said, raising the back of her paw to her forehead dramatically.

“Just go!” Reynard snapped, aggressively pointing Callie towards the starting tower.

“Fine!” Callie huffed, her hands on her hips. “I will!”

Reynard walked back to the observation tower scowling, but his mood lightened as he approached the ladder. He stopped at the bottom, and then suddenly chuckled briefly, shaking his head in disbelief. He looked and saw his student, the infuriating pink-haired Gnome, climbing her tower like a child would climb a tree; just a joyful, playtime activity for her. He was even a little envious. Taking a deep breath to refocus, he climbed the ladder back to the top where the officers had been waiting.

“You didn’t give anything away, did you?” Thorn asked.

“No. She’s going into this blind. She just knows she has to be quiet and kill the guards before they sound the alarm, just like with the others. She’s treating it like a game, to rescue a princess or something. Gnomes are so ridiculous!”

Xera chuckled. “How far do you think she’ll make it?”

“Maybe the guard that jumps her,” Reynard said, “otherwise she’ll get sniped by an archer.”

“That would be my guess, too,” Thorn agreed.

“At best, she’ll get taken out by the Wizard,” Celeste said. “Even with that crazy new bow, she won’t hit it in time.”

Xera shook their head, looking across to the scouting tower, as if evaluating the Gnome. “You’re all wrong. She’s crafty. She’s motivated. She’s having fun. No doubt she’ll get the princess.”

“Really? You honestly believe that? At the end of week two? Ten to one she doesn’t,” Thorn challenged.

“Deal. Ten crowns.”

“Easy money for me, Xera,” Thorn said with a grin.

“Here we go,” Reynard said, blowing out a breath, nervously. Callie was his last hope, and he hated the idea of his class not passing even minimal muster. Nobody was expected to make it at week two, but he had wanted to exceed expectations. Below them, a little Gnome with pink hair was sliding down the scouting tower ladder. She stopped, flipped her arm strangely and a bow suddenly appeared in it.

“That really is an amazing enchantment,” Celeste said, still in awe of the power. Like Callie, the other recruits had summoned their bows from nothing at the beginning of their respective runs. “It’s a shame Fizzlebek can’t make it work with steel.”

Callie raced forward, taking up a position behind the first barricade. She glanced out, seeing two vaguely people-shaped cloth dummies.

“Now do a Multishot,” Reynard whispered quietly to himself, as he seemed to coach his student along. Callie did just that before running on.

“Nice double headshots,” Celeste said admiringly.

Now hiding at the second barricade, the ‘patrol guard’ looked over the top to see what was behind it. In reality, it was basically a flat piece of wood horizontal to the ground with a face painted on it, mounted at the end of a stick. One of the staff members would pull a rope to cause it to move and add a voice for effect.

“Ooo, that would sting!” Xera said with a laugh as Callie simply rolled to her back and shot the wood point-blank.

“Careful,” Reynard worriedly whispered under his breath as Calllie began her sprint for the next cover. The guard dummy rose up from behind the barricade and a barely slowing Callie casually put an arrow through its head.

“Did she just headshot while running?” Xera exclaimed in surprise. “Nice reflexes and aim!”

Reynard hesitantly smiled. “Yes, she did…” he said quietly, his voice trailing off as he stepped forward to the railing to get a better look. A teeny part of him dared to hope. Despite how crazy and distractible Callie was at times, she was surprisingly on task right now.

Callie peeked her head out quickly, apparently realizing the next barricade was protected as well, and pulled back. “Now a Piercing Shot,” Reynard quietly coached from above. But the Gnome didn’t do that. Instead she called an arrow and rolled out from behind and made a quick whistle, sounding like a bird call.. The script the assistant below was following said to raise the ‘archer’ if the recruit made any noise. She did and immediately a Sniper arrow sprouted from its head. Callie then ran forward.

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“Interesting choice,” Xera said conversationally.

“She should have used a Piercing Shot,” Reynard growled. “She should probably be disqualified for that whistle.”

“It likely wouldn’t have called any guards beyond the one she was trying to attract,” Thorn said. “Let’s let her finish, but when you review, make sure to point it out.”

“How do you think she’ll handle the five?” Celeste asked as Callie settled in behind the barricade.

“Like the others, she should Multishot and then a regular arrow for the fifth,” Reynard said. “Or maybe…”

The Foxkin didn’t get a chance to say anything more as Callie leaned out from behind her protection and let loose. Five near-instantaneous waves of four arrows streamed out, peppering all five guards multiple times.

“Oh! Her new perk, right?” Xera asked.

Reynard ignored the Commandant as his paws clutched the railing nervously. She still had to face the real test of this leg as the person running would get ‘jumped’ by a guard. It was a test of reflexes and how they would handle a sudden melee-range encounter, and this is where Reynard was sure it was going to end for Callie.

But it didn’t end. In fact, it barely even slowed. As Reynard and the officers watched, Callie used her bow to trip up the guard dummy’s legs, actually dislodging it from the frame holding it. The bow went skittering across the ground as Callie spun. She used her momentum as she pulled a blade and lunged at the mannequin, landing on its chest as she shoved it deep into its vaguely head-shaped top. Callie turned, resuming her run towards the next barrier, the bow casually leaping from where it had landed into her hands.

“She has Recall Weapon?” Celeste spluttered, almost feeling violated as Callie demonstrated the, before now, uniquely Bladedancer ability. The other Rangers hadn’t needed to use the enchantment on their runs. “Where’d that come from? Is that a melded skill?”

“The bow,” Thorn said with a chuckle. “Another of Fizzlebek’s Enchanting experiments.”

“Looks like it worked, then,” the Major scoffed.

A smile slowly began to grow on Reynard’s face. That takedown had been really good, despite Callie’s small size. At least pretty good against a stationary mannequin. In real life it probably wouldn’t have worked, if only because a Gnome is only so big and only has so much mass to use. But what Reynard really noticed was that Callie never faltered with surprise. She encountered something and fluidly moved into a solution to it. That kind of immediate instinctive thinking couldn’t be trained, or at least couldn’t be trained very well.

“Last archer,” Thorn said. “I’m starting to think Xera may be right in this. She could actually make it.”

“There’s still the Wizard,” Celeste reminded everyone. “But you may be right, Thorn. She’s got the reflexes.”

Callie ran forward, hardly checking if the coast was clear. As the archer rose, the Gnome simply, casually, shot five arrows forward, several hitting the mannequin. She barely even slowed.

“Nicely done, Callie,” Xera said, now really taking an interest, and thumping the railing with their fist in encouragement. “I didn’t realize she was this good, Reynard. Her accuracy is something else, especially since she was on the move.”

“Do you think she’ll charge the Wizard?” Celeste asked as Callie settled into place behind the barricade.

Reynard watched as Callie snuck a glance towards the next barricade, and then pulled back. “No, not this time.” Then he quietly added to himself, “If you see it, do the Piercing Shot this time…” Seeming as instructed, Callie called forth an arrow and paused only a moment for her spell to attach.

“Good,” Reynard whispered approvingly.

Callie leaned out and the arrow flew, passing through the barricade and deep into the neck of the Wizard dummy.

“Damn!” Celeste said, slapping the railing in laughing frustration as Callie refused to fall to the Wizard. “You’re doomed, Thorn.”

“There’s still the Ogre,” Thorn said, a bit of growing doubt in his voice. “And the Monster.”

“Oh come on, Thorn. She’s going to come up with something clever, you know it. You might as well start counting out your coins.”

From behind the gate wall, Jesca let off a loud scream.

“What was that for?” Xera asked.

“Captured princess,” Reynard said with a chuckle.

“Ahh, that’s right.”

As they spoke, Thorn and his bag of coins watched in horror as Callie took a moment to calm herself, before she once again began to cast. He couldn’t completely follow along with the Ranger magics, but he was pretty sure she was layering up some combination. She crouched and then launched an arrow in a high arc, immediately sprinting towards the next barricade while the arrow was still in flight. Then the arrows fell. Thirty-two of them. Concentrated to impact around and behind the barrier. They didn’t just fall, though, they fell hard, hitting the ground, the wood of the barricade and the huge Ogre dummy, sinking deep into whatever they struck. It was Piercing Shot again, this time layered with Rain of Arrows. If anyone had been under that in real combat, it would have been a bad day for them.

The Ogre rose as someone pulled the rope. The rules for this obstacle were slightly different, to simulate this final oversized ‘guard’. Thus, any hit except to the head or neck wouldn’t count as a death and would just anger the ‘Ogre’. It didn’t matter, because just as the prop began to rise, whoever was moving it calling out a growl of challenge, Callie dropped to one knee and instantly Rapid Fired five arrows right into its head and neck.

“Yup. That’s definitely a kill,” Celeste said, laughing once and shaking her head as she stated the obvious.

Reynard had a sudden worry as Callie scrambled behind the last wall. He remembered back to the devastation she had unleashed against the Ranger range the previous Homeday, and realized doing the same thing to the framework of timbers that represented the Monster was exactly the kind of thing Callie would do. “Don’t you dare blow up my Monster!” he called down.

“Fine!” Callie yelled back with a snarl, glaring up at him and the others in the tower. “You’ll love this one, then!”

“Oh shit,” Celeste said, laughing. “I know that look.” She moved closer to the edge, as did the others. Xera actually leaned off the side of the tower, their one hand still holding the railing, to make sure their view was unobstructed.

Jesca briefly screamed yet again, before it suddenly faded away as she doubled over in laughter.

And then Callie ran in. A burst of Rapid Fire launched out almost before she had cleared the doorway, the arrows piercing through the wood board that was the face of the framework Monster. Suddenly, there was water everywhere. Any hole in the construction’s head sprayed water and a deluge fell to the ground in a single great splash. Off to the side, a now soaked staff member looked bewildered before he finally weakly said, “Uh … gurgle gurgle death, I guess.”

“Did … did you know she could do that?” Celeste asked, turning to Reynard. “That was… What just happened?”

Below, Callie was leaping up and down in victory, as the Gnoll and Salamanderkin Rangers raced in to join her, whooping in excitement. Jesca, still in princess mode and now absolutely dripping with water, played her part, gliding forward and swooning before her little rescuer.

Callie looked up, waved brightly at everyone in the tower, and yelled, “So, I got the girl! What do I do with her now? Can I keep her?” She turned back to the other Rangers, storing away her bow before laughing and joining them in celebration.

Xera hauled themself back into the tower, a big smile on their face. “Thorn, I trust you to pay up by the end of the day. Reynard, that’s a hell of a Ranger you have there, at least the beginnings of one. Excellent work.”

“I believe you may be right,” Reynard said introspectively as he watched his students celebrate below. “Now if I can just figure out where the hell she actually came from and what her real story is.”

Xera’s look froze for a split-second, but only for a split-second, before they got their face back in order. “How do you mean, Reynard?”

“Oh come now. None of you really believe this amnesia story, do you? She knows too much about … somewhere … for that to be true. And she’s too … strange. Even for a Gnome.”

Xera shrugged. “Tasi examined her and said the memory loss was permanent, and I haven’t given it much thought after that. It’s not really important. She’s here now and we have our jobs to do.”

Reynard nodded, then he sighed, “I suppose you’re right. She’s just been a challenge, that’s all. She’s opinionated and stubborn. She talks back. She questions everything. She’s … infuriating. Plus, she’s simply quite odd.” He chuckled once. “Actually, it’s been a little fun in a way, but don’t tell her I said that.”

Xera smiled. “Well, once again, Reynard, you’ve done a great job. Hone her as you can. She’ll be an excellent asset when you’re done with her, I'm sure.”

Reynard nodded in understanding, then composed himself. “If the three of you will excuse me. I’m going to go congratulate Callie and review each of their runs as a group. I’ll think I’ll give them the afternoon off, then. It’s Homeday tomorrow, so they can get an early start.”

“I’m sure they’ll appreciate it,” Xera said.

Reynard slowly climbed down the tower. Almost to the bottom, he stopped briefly, his mind drifting. He’d seen the look on Xera’s face when he’d mentioned wondering where Callie really came from. It was only for a moment, and they composed themself well, but he’d still seen it. Celeste had the same brief look, as did Thorn. Hell, Thorn was easy to read; they’d been friends for decades. They all knew something. He was pretty sure the Prince did as well. He’d overheard him and Callie talking about meeting with the officers after the Druid reveals that first day of training. The Prince had even warned her they’d be using Truthseeking.

Reynard had stayed quiet though, spending the last week and a half watching and taking mental notes, sure now there was a secret at play here, a big one, and he needed to know what it was. He was willing to take his time, though, because he also wanted to see just how far this secret went. Was it just as high as Xera? Or was there something bigger at stake? Who was the Gnome really working for?

Besides, regardless of where she came from or what was going on, it really was proving to be fun.