PART II - YOUNG SURPRISES

Trainers Rowani and Maugra exited Xera’s office building into the morning sun, Maugra instinctively shielding her eyes from the bright light. Below them were the four Druid recruits that Rowani had told to stay on the training field when she’d been summoned, each looking worried and a little confused. Maugra’s students had remained with Cheena.

“My eyes are much improved,” Maugra said quietly. “The world doesn’t look as cloudy as it did. It’s a very strange thing.”

“Mine are the same way,” Rowani whispered back.

The young Elf Druid, Wallir, stepped forward. “Trainer Rowani, we … we wanted to apologize for how we responded to you this morning. The three of us were … we were out of line. Tazrok pointed out some things and we all talked it through. We should be happy for you and we weren’t. Can you forgive us?”

The Pantherkin walked over to her students, patting Wallir on the shoulder. “I should take you all over my knee for disrespecting your elders, is what I should do.” Rowani said, adding a chuckle for levity. It seemed to help as the recruits chuckled as well. “I understand why you would feel this way, though. It will be an adjustment and perhaps a longer conversation for later. Of course I am able to forgive you all.”

“Young Kitty Lady good for war,” Tazrok pointed out. Then he gestured to Maugra. “Young Little One, too.” Then he pointed to his fellow recruits. “They understand now.”

“Strange. I don’t think anybody has called me ‘Little One’ for at least fifty years,” Maugra said laughing. This shocked the students, who had, up to now, never heard the Shaman clearly speak. She had always been interpreted by Cheena, or on very rare occasions, been a hoarse, raspy, almost-whipser.

“Good voice,” Tazrok said, nodding towards Maugra and grunting an approval.

“We’ve been ordered to Medical for an exam, for obvious reasons,” Rowani said, gesturing between herself and Maugra, “so all of you are dismissed until after lunch. We’ll resume our training then. I know this is a change, but it is still me.”

As the young Druids departed, Maugra observed, “You have good recruits.”

“They are. The Ogre is the one that holds them together, if you can believe that. I had my doubts about him in the beginning, but he’s become one of my best students. From the debriefing of the Bogwump mission, his combat expertise was beyond commendable. He’s going to reach Gold before we’re done.”

“His cabinmate, the Lizardkin, is my best,” Maugra mused. “Very driven and very skilled, although she doesn’t like healing much. She was the one that stood up to me that first day.”

“One of your Goblins, Lhawni, is a stupendous healer, too.”

“She is,” Maugra agreed, “although she doesn’t like the other stuff. She may not be a good candidate for the combat lines.”

The two trainers began their walk towards the medical tent, drawing more than a few long glances, several of them seeming quite sour. Rowani had known there were going to be ripples around the camp for a while, so this wasn’t entirely unexpected, but it still hurt a little bit. Maybe more than just a little.

“Are you going to ask to go to tribunal?” Maugra wondered, looking up at the Pantherkin.

“I’m not sure. If I don’t, I'll be forced to remain here for almost a year. You saw that look on Xera’s face, though. I have a suspicion that if I do, the result will be even worse. It probably isn’t a good idea. Maybe when they’ve calmed down, Xera will reconsider.”

“That was my thinking, too. Honestly, I was looking forward to getting fired,” Maugra groused. “Now, unless something changes, I’m not only stuck here for a year, but Cheena has been placed in charge of the Shaman training.”

Rowani scoffed dismissively. “Split it up by type of training. Let her concentrate on healing and support, and you train offense. You’re practically doing that already, now just make it formal. If possible, let her think it was her idea. It will be awkward, but you can manage. She doesn’t have to interpret for you now, so you can share the work and get twice as much done. I’d bet you could get all of your kids to Gold.”

“I still would have rather been fired. The Gnome calling us a ‘military asset’ didn’t help us any. She’s the reason we got re-commissioned.”

“Don’t blame her,” Rowani said, smiling down at the Goblin. “She was trying to be helpful, and she’s actually not wrong, depending on how you look at it. There is still a war on.”

Maugra simply grunted.

“She has such a strange mind, though. I saw this the other day before the Bogwump mission.”

“She’s a Gnome,” Maugra said, as if that explained everything. “Gnome’s are weird, even by Goblin standards. ‘Six-sigma’ and something called an ‘intangibles analysis’? Crazy, weird, Gnome talk, if you ask me.”

“She brought us time, Maugra. We owe her everything.”

“I know,” Maugra responded quietly. “She’s still weird.”

The sidelong stares had been following them the whole walk so far, and the uncomfortableness was weighing on Rowani. She shouldn’t care, but before this morning the elder Catkin had honed a well-earned respect across the entire camp, and now that seemed to have evaporated completely. “We really broke a taboo, didn’t we,” she whispered to the Shaman.

“That’s why I wanted to get fired and go far away and start fresh. Now I’m stuck here. This is really going to be awful for a while, isn’t it?”

“Based on the looks we’re getting, I suspect so, at least for a few weeks.”

“Frankly, I’m too old to really care! And so are you, for that matter. At least we should be.” Maugra said firmly, stopping her walk and putting her foot down. “We did exactly what any of them would have done, and I refuse to regret it. If it means I have to give another year to the Army, then that’s the price I’ll pay.”

Rowani looked around, watching a few people avert their eyes and hearing distant whispers. Maugra was right, and she wasn’t going to apologize either. Ever! “You're right! They can just get past it.”

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“Exactly.” The little Goblin snapped, before she started walking stiffly ahead, obviously trying to hold off a rush of anger. Rowani raced to catch up.

After a long awkward silence, they crested a hill together, seeing the vine-covered medical tent a ways ahead. “Do we need to talk about this morning?” Rowani asked.

“Do we? What about it?”

“About what happened?”

“I thought that was the first thing you wanted to do with your new body?” Maugra said, seeming a little confused.

“Well, I did say that. I didn’t actually expect it.”

Maugra narrowed her eyes. “Then why did I wake up in your bed?”

“Because you passed out a few seconds after drinking the unicorn blood, and I didn’t think you would want to wake up on the floor. Then I suppose I passed out, too.”

“Rowani, I woke up and you were snuggling with me.”

“You were snuggling with me!” the Druid pointed out in return. “And think about where your hand was.”

“You kissed me,” the Shaman pointed out right back, instinctively defensive.

“Because you kissed me first!”

“Maybe … but then you kissed me back!” Maugra retorted. “Passionately, I might add!” Maugra then mumbled, “It was the best kiss I’ve had in eighty years…”

“At least twenty-five for me.”

“And you did that thing with your tail…”

“What thing?” Rowani asked, confused.

“That thing! Where you ran it up and down my back. It was … fuzzy.”

Rowani stopped cold, a quirk of a smile on her face. “Fuzzy?”

The Goblin shrugged. “It’s … fuzzy! It made me feel…it was nice.”

“Oh. I guess that’s good to know,” Rowani said. Being nearly completely covered in fur, the Catkin really had no real concept of how ‘fuzzy’ might feel on someone with smooth skin.

“Also, you make an adorable squeaking noise when you get to the end,” Maugra added gruffly, before continuing onward and leaving Rowani standing there stunned.

“I don’t squeak!” Rowani whispered loudly, as she finally jogged to catch up.

“You squeak. It’s loud, and it’s adorable.”

“I really do?” Rowani asked, wondering if she always had or if it was something new with this younger body this time around. “Does this mean there is something between us?”

“Do you want it to?” Maugra asked, still walking.

“I’m not sure.”

“Was this your first time with …” The Shaman let the question hang in the air.

Rowani paused walking again, before speaking hesitantly, Maugra also stopping and looking up. “No, not my first time. There was a period from my late twenties to early forties, after my marriage ended, where I was quite wild with many, many different people, including other females. Nothing serious, though.”

“I suspected. I know it’s not the Beastkin way, but you seemed to know what you were doing,” Maugra said in acknowledgement, her mouth grinning slightly.

“Did … did you ever have someone?” Rowani asked, curious.

“In my Adventuring days, there was someone that I worked with for several years, but it was … complicated. I loved her and I think she loved me, but she had a rich husband and wouldn’t leave him. It ended. Later I tried being out in the open once with someone else, for a while. But we lived in the North, and the disapproval became too much for us both and we went our separate ways to get away from it. I went east to start over. I was probably about one-hundred, then. Nothing serious since, just a few … dalliances, until my body and voice failed me after the Grobbo Worm attack.” Maugra shrugged in a sort of ‘what are you going to do’ gesture.

“Grobbos? How long ago?”

“Thirty-three years.”

“You’ve been in that kind of constant pain for the last thirty years?” Rowani gasped. No wonder Maugra was always grumpy. The bile of Grobolinctus Worms, if not properly treated quickly, would invade joints all over one’s body, leaving them forever irritated and inflamed even after the worms were cured, and could eat away at some connective tissues, or even muscles. If they reached a person’s heart, it could even lead to death. The attack must have affected her vocal chords, and it would explain her leg and hip, and why they were never able to be properly repaired. The creature’s secretions generally made Regeneration and Regrowth difficult or impossible.

“I learned to live with it, but I also pushed people away because I got so bitter over time. I knew I was doing it, but that much time constantly in pain makes you …” Her voice trailed off for a moment. “Somehow, though, the damage now seems repaired, so I have a chance to try again. I am making a vow to be better to people this time.” Then Maugra added a gruff, “It might take me a while to get used to being nicer, though.”

“If we do … pursue something,” Rowani said cautiously, “some will be uncomfortable, especially among my people; many of the Beastkins that is. At least the gendered ones.”

“Some Goblins disapprove, too, at least older ones,” Maugra said, a little sadness in her voice. “Supposedly people like me ‘upset the tribe balance’, or ‘break up marriages’ or something else stupidly archaic. At least Elves and the Fae seem to be able to accept it, and the Gnomes, too. Never go to the Dwarven cities, though; just a warning. Best to just stay east of the capitals unless you keep it well-hidden. Marandine seems nice, or the Fae lands to the East of there if you don’t like the city. I was going to go to Marandine if I was fired.”

“This could cause us even more problems here,” Rowani whispered, her voice sounding a little worried. “If we were out in the open, that is.”

Maugra stared up at the Pantherkin. “Right now, nobody likes us anyway, and we are stuck here for a year, in young bodies with needs.”

The Goblin put her hands on her hips, speaking calmly, and not too loudly. “So here’s your choice, Rowani, it’s really easy. We can pretend nothing happened. Or we can acknowledge something happened, and decide it was just a single moment and move on. Or you can invite me over tonight, and we can find out what happens next. You give it some thought and tell me what you want to do and I’ll respect that, but I’ve spent my life hiding from myself and what other people might think. I’ve been given another chance at living, and I’m too damn old to care any more what other people think about who I am.” There actually wasn’t emotion in her tone, simply a respectful acknowledgement of the choice Rowani had to make for herself.

Maugra turned abruptly, taking two steps, before she stopped and looked back, glancing up and down. “And so you know, your new body is absolute starfire.” Then she stomped off, seeming irritated, as she started the last one-hundred meters or so to the medical tent.

Rowani couldn’t tell if Maugra was actually angry at her, or if this was maybe part of the Goblin’s instinctive extra-grumpy exterior, and found she was actually worried it was the first. Around her, more than a few eyes still shot suspicious looks, and she wasn’t sure if it was related to the unicorn blood or if what Maugra had just said had been loud enough for others to hear. Rowani couldn’t really look at her own body, since she was wearing her set of casual armor, but she did look at her paws. They were strong now, with no gray hairs. Her arm didn’t sag any more, showing muscles rippling now, and the fur was all black; no sparkles. How the unicorn blood’s magic did all that, or repaired Maugra’s voice and leg, was unbelievable, but she absolutely wasn’t going to question the results.

The Druid looked at Maugra, walking stiffly away, and realized that right now, the Goblin was her only friend here, except maybe Callie the Gnome. But even more than that, Rowani was curious about who this person was that had always been hiding behind pain-caused snarls that pushed everyone away. Was it maybe just her new body awash with the passionate energies of fresh youth, or was there more to it than that? She definitely wanted another kiss, though.

As Maugra arrived at the medical tent, she felt a paw on her shoulder. She turned and looked up, seeing Rowani standing there. She couldn’t read the expression on her face very well, the fur making it difficult. But the eyes looking down on her were warm and maybe … what … curious? Or even anticipating?

“You should come over tonight,” Rowani said quietly.

“Good,” the Goblin said with an almost grunt and a sharp nod. Not a lot more needed to be said, but with a quirk of her mouth, Maugra added, “Oh, and you should know, when I was this age the first time, I used to squeak too.”