PART IX - TIME IN A BOTTLE

The knock on the door was hesitant, but then a second set was a little more confident. Trainer Rowani set aside the scrapbook full of memories she was leafing through, took the light blanket off her lap, and rose gingerly from the rocking chair to answer the door. Outside was a little Gnome with pink hair and a perplexing smile on her face.

“Little One?”

“Hi,” Callie said. “Do you have a few minutes?”

“It’s getting late.” It was already past dusk.

“I know, this won’t take long, I promise.”

Shrugging, the Druid stood aside, clearing the way. The inside of Rowani’s cabin was nice, pleasant even. It was a simple one-room affair, with a bed against one wall, a table with chairs that would sit three or four, and a small, unlit stone fireplace. There was a small counter area that appeared plumbed for water, a spigot hanging over an empty basin. A wooden rocking chair sat next to the fireplace, a soft cushion on the wooden seat covered by a thin blanket and a large book. There was also a small bookshelf and a traveling trunk by the foot of the bed, with the bookshelf containing only a few other books, while the rest of the shelving was stacked with neatly-folded clothing. A narrow door led into an adjoining space, and Callie assumed it was a latrine. Finally, a long mirror was mounted on the wall, not very big, but large enough to see most of yourself.

“Would you like some tea?” Rowani offered. “I could set some to heat.”

“Thanks, but that’s okay. I don’t think I’ll be long. I know it’s getting late. Thank you, though.”

The Pantherkin gestured towards the table and pulled out a chair for Callie, before sitting herself. Callie scrambled into the other chair and then stood on it, so she could reach the top of the table easily.

“So, what may I help you with?”

Callie made a face and started to speak, before promptly tripping over her own tongue. She took a deep breath.

“What is it, Little One?”

Callie couldn’t help but smile at hearing ‘Little One’ come from Rowani. The Druid trainer was an absolute badass in every way, and yet those words seem to almost feel grandmotherly. Of course, Callie wasn’t dumb enough to actually say that to her.

“Can I ask you a personal question?”

Rowani looked perplexed. “If you wish. I may not answer.”

“What were you like when you were my age?”

The Druid frowned, and then got an even more confused look on her face.

Quickly Callie tried to clarify. “By that I mean, were you outgoing or a quiet type? Were you already an Adventurer? Were you married? Did you have kids? Were you … I dunno … were you happy?”

The Pantherkin cocked her head. She wasn’t sure what the Gnome was trying to ask her, and honestly wasn’t in the mood to be some kind of a Listener tonight. But those big purple eyes seemed to want, maybe even need, an answer.

“How old are you?”

“Twenty-six,” Callie said, before quickly covering and adding, “I think.”

“At that age? Let’s see … I had left home. I had been a Healer in my village for a few years and I hated it. So by twenty-six, I was an Adventurer with my then husband, and had been one for a few years, taking breaks for a few months from time to time.”

“Do you have regrets?” Callie asked. “About things you never got to do?”

This was a very strange line of questioning, and Rowani’s puzzled look simply grew more puzzled. “Why do you ask? Is something wrong?”

Callie shook her head. “No, nothing’s wrong. I’m just curious. If it’s too personal, we can move on.”

After a pause, Rowani shrugged, stood and walked over to the counter. “Of course I have regrets. Anyone my age would have them. I regret getting married, I was young and foolish. I regret again when I didn’t marry someone else later in life, probably out of fear I still was.” Returning to the table, she set down a small basket of cookies, and gestured for Callie to help herself, also taking one. “I never had children, which for Beastkin is very frowned upon. Occasionally I regret that too, although not often; maybe the regret is because my mother never really forgave me for that choice. I don’t think I would have been a very good mother, anyway.”

Callie nodded her head, taking in Rowani’s story, as she nibbled on the cookie. She remembered what Jesca had said about Beastkin culture and the expectation to have children.

“I never saw the great oceans to the south,” Rowani continued, sighing. “I do regret that. In all my wanderings, I never made it that far. Also, I never saw a Dragon. There are so few that are friendly with people, I likely would have been eaten if I sought one out, so maybe that is for the best. Oh, I once slapped a noble’s son that grabbed my ass on the street. I only regret that I didn’t do it again. It was worth the fifteen days in jail I received, all the same.”

Callie giggled at that, and Rowani giggled, too, before she sighed again.

“I regret not studying ritual magic more, Little One,” Rowani continued, growing more introspective, maybe even a little sad. “I had no need for it as an Adventurer or combat Druid, and it makes little difference now. I would have liked to have done that and been closer with Gaia in my old age.” Rowani looked at Callie. “Why do you ask these things?”

“Mostly I was just curious what you were like.”

“I suppose, like all people, I made mistakes, probably hurt people I didn’t want to. Succeeded at some things, failed at more. In the end, though, I think I’ve been a good person. Well, maybe only mostly-good.” Rowani leaned close and whispered, “There was a good fifteen years where I slept around, and not just at Midsummer.”

“Nothing wrong with that,” Callie said, shrugging.

“A lot.”

Callie just shrugged again.

“A lot a lot!” Rowani said again, adding emphasis and waggling her furry eyebrows.

“Good for you,” Callie said as she shrugged a third time. “Seriously, I mean it. I approve.”

“Interesting. Usually admitting that is so scandalous.”

“I’ve always thought we spend too much energy suppressing ourselves, or letting others do it. Obviously be safe about it, but have fun.” Callie smiled mischievously, nibbling more on the cookie.

“Maybe that’s another regret, then. I wasn’t always safe about it. I ended up in bed with some very questionable people.”

“You should ask Ambria about that,” Callie grinned. “She has sleeping around completely figured out.”

For some reason, Rowani grinned, too, despite having no idea what Callie was talking about. She hadn’t ever talked to this Gnome, except as related to the mission. She was an odd one, but reminded Rowani a little of herself when she was that young. Naive, impulsive, not yet worn down by the world and the twilight of life. Mostly innocent, but with just enough life experience to not be completely.

“Why do you ask me these things?” Rowani finally asked, genuinely curious now.

“Oh, right! I have something for you, if you want it,” Callie said, smiling. From a pocket she produced a bottle of silver liquid and set it lightly on the table.

“What is that?”

“It’s unicorn blood. Fifty years worth, give or take.”

“Where did you get that?”

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“It’s from the unicorn we brought back. The mother, that is. I took this to give to you, and one for Trainer Maugra, too. Don’t worry, they cleaned it of the parasites.”

“You took it? Without permission? For me? Why would you do this?”

Callie shrugged. “Because you deserve to see the ocean, and to meet dragons. And you deserve to sleep around all you want.”

“I … can’t accept this, Little One. This is …”

“It’s fine. There are fifty-some more vials back at the tannery. Two aren’t going to be missed. Besides, if it wasn’t for me, they wouldn’t have it, so I should at least have the say in a couple.”

Rowani just stared dumbly at the tiny Ranger.

Smiling, Callie hopped down from the chair. “Trainer Rowani, yesterday, when you came back hurt, I was watching. You were in agonizing pain, I suspect close to dying, and still you took the time to guide Lhawni and Ambria and Tazrok through how to heal you. You had every right to let Tasi take over when she got there, too, but you let three recruits with only two weeks of formal training fix you up. They did an awesome job, and that is all because of you. Because of that lesson, down the road they will save dozens, if not hundreds of lives. You’re a good person, amazing even, and you deserve fifty more years.”

Callie walked towards the door.

“You took one for Maugra, too?” Rowani called out.

“That’s right. You weren’t back yet when I came by earlier, so I went to see her next. We had a really nice chat like this. She comes across as a little grumpy, but she’s actually quite nice if you can get her talking. Her life sounds a lot like yours. She was also an Adventurer. In fact, you two are a lot alike, once you get past the crankiness.” Callie let out a little giggle, adding, “she offered me cookies, too.”

“What did she end up doing?” Rowani asked.

“I don’t know. She asked for some time to think about it alone, which I understand. I’m going to do the same with you, and let you decide alone. Just drink it and you’ll wake up fifty years younger, according to Fizzlebek. If you decide not to, just get it back to him. Or give it to me; I can return it, too.”

Rowani sat stunned as the little Gnome walked out the door, closing it gently behind her with a wave goodnight. Absently, she took a cookie from the basket and munched on it. She had no idea what to do. Actually, what she should do is take the unicorn blood directly back to where it came from and pretend none of this had happened.

But that wasn’t something she could pretend. There, less than a meter away, sat a bottle no larger than her paw. A little bottle filled with the most-precious substance in existence … time. Could … could she seriously consider this?

She leapt from her seat, walking as fast as she could towards the other side of the room and sat roughly on the bed. Time still stared at her. It burrowed its gaze into her, almost painfully, as dozens and hundreds of memories flooded into Rowani’s head. Joys and pains and regrets and mistakes, all the elements that make up one’s life.

How many people wouldn’t get proper care if she drank the bottle? How many people, withered by attacks from vampires or ghosts, would be prematurely pushed towards death, unable to be pulled back, if she did this? A dozen? Maybe even two dozen? What made her the better person, the more deserving person, than they all were?

Standing, Rowani started to pace, and her movements were fast and worried. She wasn’t worthy. She wasn’t important enough for …

… more time …

Looking up, the aging Beastkin caught her reflection in the mirror, and she peered into her own image. The face looking back at her was so worn, so tired. Once pitch-black fur was now mostly gray, and a few almost white. When did that happen, and how did she never really notice it? Or maybe she had and just didn’t want to acknowledge it. Her mother had called the white fur ‘sparkles’, and Rowani laughed at the memory, seeing she was now covered in them.

Dropping her robe to the floor, Rowani looked at the reflection of the rest of this old Beastkin. The body was growing tired, you could see it. Skin that sagged. Belly that sagged. Face that sagged. Breasts that sagged. Simply all-over that sagged, stretched from a lifetime. Rowani sat introspectively back down on the bed, where once again the bottle of time stared at her.

What would happen if she took it? She’d probably be fired. Could she be jailed? For what? Theft maybe? And what about Callie? Could she get in trouble, too? Xera was Rowani’s friend, but there were some things even they couldn’t look away from. It certainly wouldn’t be without consequences.

So what! So she gets fired! She’d be … what … twenty? Even younger? A whole life ahead of her to make a living, a lifetime of knowledge and Platinum Tier powers to do it with. She’d even have a Symbiote on top of that. She could maybe reach Topaz, or even higher! Almost unheard of for a Beastkin.

She could study Druidic ritualism; she’d have the … time.

Rowani found herself sitting at the table without even knowing she had moved there. A half-meter away sat time in a bottle. Simply there for the taking. All she had to be was a little bit selfish. To take time from someone else. Could she really be so cruel?

The sudden pounding on the door jolted the Druid hard enough that the almost heart attack nearly made all the questions irrelevant. “Just a moment,” she called unconsciously, rushing to the bed to put her robe on. As she walked to the door, she remembered the vial on the table, and grabbed it, hiding it in her fist.

Opening the door, a grouchy Goblin, also wearing only a robe, limped in with nary an invitation. She promptly hopped up into the seat that a short time ago a pink-haired Gnome had vacated.

“You gave her cookies, too?” Maugra said in her raspy, quiet, almost-whisper, as she set a glass vial filled with silver liquid on the table.

“As I pushed them in front of her, I felt like her grandmother,” Rowani said with a sigh.

“Hmph. I did too.”

“Tea?”

“No, but some water would be nice.”

After bringing a pitcher and two cups over to the table, Rowani poured into each, and then sat, before setting her own bottle of time on the table. There was silence for a long while, neither having the right words.

“Did you look at yourself in the mirror?” Maugra asked.

“I did.”

“Me, too. Were you naked?”

Rowani laughed. “Yes, I was.”

“Me, too. We’re really old, aren’t we?”

“I sag everywhere. And all my fur is gray.”

“I have huge tufts of gray hairs growing out of my ears, and I’m fairly sure my breasts hang almost to my knees,” Maugra laughed dryly, breaking a piece off a cookie.

“What are you going to do, Maugra?”

“Whatever you decide to do. And I’m sure you are going to do whatever I decide. So, we can decide together.”

“We’d probably get fired, you know that right?”

“Who cares,” the Goblin said, dismissing the threat. “I was quitting at the end of the term anyway. Don’t tell her I said anything, but Cheena is ready.”

“I was going to, as well,” Rowani replied. “I had a revelation on the first day of training, it was time for me to go … somewhere.”

“Same with me. One of my students stood up to me. Stared me down despite being hit with a Command Aura pulse. That’s when I knew it was time. My old ways don’t work on these younger people.” Then glumly Maugra added, “Maybe it’s just time to go home and die, wherever home might end up being.” Maugra crunched on the cookie. “I don’t have any family to go home to.”

“Just nieces and nephews for me, and I don’t really know them. My brother and sisters are gone. I never had children.”

“Young, alone, free of obligation, and Platinum Tiered with a Symbiote. Not a bad way to start life over again, is it?”

Rowani nodded. “I had the same thought.”

A long silence followed, punctuated only by the sounds of cookies being nibbled on.

“I’m fairly sure I met this unicorn,” Rowani said, almost in a whisper, as she gestured towards the two vials. “That first day of training. She and her foal joined us in the Meditation Grove for a while. I had never seen one before.”

“I saw one once, maybe eighty years ago. It was close enough to almost touch, but gone before I really realized what it was.”

“Seeing her was when I knew it was time,” Rowani said, staring at nothing. “Beautiful creatures. Awe inspiring. Maybe it was fate.”

“And the child is apparently a pet of one of the Rangers, now. This term gets stranger every day, it seems,” Maugra laughed.

“She’s a Beastmaster, too,” Rowani said, almost laughing as well. “Can you believe it? An actual Beastmaster?”

"As I said, ‘stranger every day’.”

There was silence for several minutes, both trainers deep in their own thoughts.

“What’s the first thing you’d want to do?” Rowani asked, picking up the vial, and looking at the silvery liquid inside.

“Hmm,” Maugra thought. Then she really thought. “Stretch without creaking,” was her final answer, “and without pain.”

“Oooo! I like that one. Much better than mine. I may steal yours instead.”

“What was it?”

“Get laid,” Rowani said, with a chuckle.

Soon that chuckle grew into a laugh, then the laughter was joined by Maugra. Both trainers laughed until they were out of breath, Maugra having a mild coughing fit as it began to wear down, Rowani wiping a tear from one of her eyes.

“I don’t know,” Maugra finally said, wiping one of her own eyes as well. “Yours sounds much better than mine.”

Rowani refilled their cups and both sipped for a bit, getting their composure back. “I’ll get about fifty years,” Rowani finally said, still staring into the bottle of time she was holding.

“Twice that for me, at least, from what the Gnome said. I’ll be about seventy or so, maybe even younger.”

“Younger than twenty for me; practically a child.”

There was another long silence as both trainers stared at nothing. Finally, Rowani said simply, “We’re really going to do this, aren’t we?”

The Shaman shrugged. “I think we both knew the answer when the little Ranger gave these to us.”

“Time in a bottle,” Rowani whispered, rolling the vial in her paw, before setting it back on the table next to the other.

Another few minutes passed, before Rowani reached over and switched the position of the two vials.

“What was that for?” Maugra asked.

“Mine had a little more. You could use a few more years and I didn’t want to risk waking up before puberty.”

“Going through that again would be awful!” the Goblin agreed, making a face. Then she gestured towards the bottles. “Thank you, Rowani. I truly mean that.”

Both stared at the floor for a long while, introspective and saying nothing. Then, nearly simultaneously they each reached for their respective vial, picking it up and removing the stopper.

“A toast,” Rowani said, holding it up. “To fixing regrets.”

“Damn! That was good. Better than the one I was going to make,” Maugra said, smiling.

“What was it?”

“To getting laid.”

“Apparently we’re supposed to talk to the Faun about that,” Rowani laughed. Both trainers clinked together, and, as one, swallowed more time.