PART III - RENEWED ALLIES

As Callie approached the bunkhouse, Lena gave her a soft smile.

“Come on,” Lena said, holding the door open.

Callie took a deep breath and pressed forward. This was it. The moment of truth.

“Please sit,” Vanis said.

Callie did as she was told, scrambling up into her bunk and then sitting on the edge to face everyone. The expressions on their faces were impossible to read. Not angry, but certainly not happy. Serious, maybe?

“So … uh …,” Callie began, kicking her feet and rubbing her thumbs together. “There’s a fountain in the garden where we can get water.”

Lena walked over and knelt down in front of Callie, putting her a little lower than eye level. “I just want to say, we are all with you.” She reached forward and embraced the little Gnome. “We also all accept that you are from this other world, at least until we have some other evidence to dispute that.”

A huge wave of relief washed over Callie. She had been dreading what they might say or do in the face of what was happening.

“But, we need to talk about some things,” Lena continued. “Vanis? You take over, it’s your plan.”

“Thanks Lena,” Vanis said. “Callie, I fear we have very little time before the bell rings, so let me make this brief. All four of us have recommitted to helping get you through this, to the extent that we are able. Your logic regarding how you arrived here makes sense, and for now we are going to take action based on the belief you have somehow been transported to our world. But we need to have some detailed conversations about your world to try to piece together what happened, and more importantly, why it happened to you, and who this woman in the red hat might be. Obviously, you also need to learn so much more about our world as well.”

“Okay. Sure. Thank you,” Callie said.

“When we return we’ll talk more this evening while we’re able. For now, I have two tasks for you.”

Callie nodded. “What can I do?”

“First,” Vanis began, “It is imperative you maintain the amnesia ruse. We won’t be there to help if you let something slip, so when you meet your trainer and others in your training group, try to keep your mouth shut and your eyes and ears open. Can you do that?”

Callie frowned. “I’ll try to do the best I can, but my mouth has been moving faster than my brain today. Hopefully nobody pisses me off.”

“Good. Try hard. You must talk less, and listen more. The more you can learn, the better things will go for you.”

“I have a good test, I think,” Callie said with a weak smile, “I did meet one of the other Rangers in the garden. She’s a Cheetahkin? Catkin? Really nice though. And she said that another Ranger is in her house as well. He’s a Gnoll. I think we’re going to walk to the Ranger tent together.”

“An excellent way to practice talking less and watching more,” Vanis said.

In the distance, a clear bell could be heard. Thirty minutes.

Callie nodded again. “What’s the other thing?” she said quickly.

“As you interact with your trainer, or any of the other officers and senior staff here in camp, try to get a sense of whether they are people we can trust with your story. Don’t give anything away, just observe. We will all do that as well, and then can compare our observations. If we all do that, it will determine our next moves.”

“Yeah, I can do that.”

“Good.”

Vanis turned to look at the rest of the group. “Anything I missed that is critical right now?”

“I have one question,” Xin said.

“Go ahead,” Vanis said.

Xin turned and looked at Callie. “When you were on this other world, were you as crazy as you are here?”

“Xin!” Lena said with a gasp.

“Huh?” Callie asked.

“By that I mean, you go from one emotional extreme to another very rapidly. You are sometimes behaving far too silly given the situation you are in. If what you say is true, and you are from another world, you should be more serious. Yet you wish to build blanket forts. It is not normal for many, although Vanis said it is more normal for Gnomes. I wanted to know if you were like that on She-cog-oh, or if your new Gnome body was affecting you in some way.”

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“Good question,” Tazrok said with a nod.

“Your phrasing may be out of line, Xin, but you're not wrong,” Vanis said.

“We don’t need to be attacking her,” Lena snapped.

Callie held up her hand. “Wait, Lena. It was a good question. I’ve noticed it too. I go from scared to happy and bouncing just like that, it seems.” Callie snapped her fingers. “This isn’t normal for me. I can’t keep my focus on anything for more than a few minutes, it seems. It’s infuriating.”

“Do you know why you may be acting this way?” Xin asked.

“I was thinking about it a little,” Callie said, nodding with uncertainty. “When I was young, I struggled with problems in school. My emotions were all over, my attention span was minimal, and I’d lash out a lot. My mood swings would drive my mom and my teachers insane at times. But, over the years I got a lot of help to manage it. At first from medication, and then later with lots of behavioral therapy. By the time I was an adult, I mostly learned to manage it with meditation and mindfulness exercises. These days, I can still get mad really easily, especially if people disrespect me or my family, and I occasionally have to fight hard to stay on task. For the most part, though, I don’t flip between extreme emotions so fast like I’ve been doing today. I’m not sure why I’m back to doing it, but it almost feels just like when I was ten years old all over again.”

Vanis rubbed his chin again in semi-distant thought.

“Could it be because I’m now a Gnome?” Callie continued. “I don’t know. All I know about Gnome culture is what I overheard from you, Vanis, so I have no real reference. Maybe it’s just been a really weird day for me and this is all my brain trying to cope.”

“If being a Gnome body has somehow altered your personality, or reverted you back to your childhood behaviors, it could be something important,” Vanis said. “I don’t think it tells us anything right now, but it is a piece to the puzzle.”

“I’m sorry if I come off as crazy, Xin, or like I’m not taking things seriously,” Callie said. “I don’t mean to, and I do know all of this is important and that I need to focus. So, maybe it is this new Gnome part of me. Maybe it’s just my brain trying to deal with all of this with silly distractions. Everything is all so new around me right now. I know it’s making things even harder for all of you.”

“It is important to stay in control, Little One,” Xin said. “Doubly so for someone who is dealing with such big secrets as you are. You must temper your feelings from the extremes, if you can, and be serious about the predicament you are in. If only so you do not give away your secret, or attract attention.”

“I know,” Callie said sadly. “I’ll try harder. All of you, if you see me losing sight of what I need to do, let me know, because I don’t notice it until after the fact, sometimes.”

Lena was still glaring at Xin. “And maybe next time, we’ll ask you in a nicer way.”

“We don’t have time for this right now,” Vanis said, waving his hand to dismiss the tension.

“Should go,” Tazrok said, rising from his bunk.

“Waterskins. Oh, and your class blocks,” Lena said, reminding everyone. “You said there’s a fountain in the garden, Callie?”

“Yes. Jesca, that’s the Cheetah girl … er Catkin … said it was for filling our waterskins. I filled mine already.”

“We will stop as we go,” Xin said.

“Do you think I should bring the bow?” Callie asked,

“I wouldn’t think so,” Vanis said. “We are just supposed to meet our trainer and fellow class recruits, right?”

“Yea, but if her trainer wants to have her demonstrate her perk, she would need the smaller bow,” Lena said.

“True,” Vanis said, nodding. “I really don’t know what to recommend.”

Callie thought for a moment. “I think I will bring it, on the off chance I have to show my form to this trainer as well. I hope they don’t get mad.” Callie walked back to her footlocker and picked up the red bow from where she had leaned it earlier.

With that, the five left their house with Tazrok bringing up the rear. They walked down the path, enjoying the tiny oasis of the garden.

“Callie!” Jesca called out, waving. Running up she stumbled briefly upon seeing Tazrok’s giant size.

“Hi, Jesca,” Callie said in return. “Everyone, this is Jesca, a … Cheetahkin Ranger. Did I get that right?”

“Yes!” Jesca said. “Hi, everyone.” She waved happily..

Callie quickly introduced the rest of her housemates by name.

“Oh!” Jesca said. She gestured towards a vaguely hyena-featured male sitting on one of the benches by the fountain. “This is Thucax, another Ranger.”

The Gnoll rose and joined everyone, and Jesca introduced Callie and her group to him.

“Well. I didn’t believe it when Jesca said there was a Gnome Ranger here,” Thucax said, eyeing Callie skeptically. “I guess you are indeed a Gnome with a bow, so we will have to see about the Ranger part.”

“Don’t worry, Callie, he’s just a little grumpy because he’s going to lose the bet we made,” Jesca said.

“That I’m a Ranger?” Callie asked.

“Uh huh.”

“What did you bet? Is there money here?”

“If I win, he has to fill my waterskin for five days! And if I lose, I have to fill his,” Jesca said. “There’s not really money here - we have everything we need - so betting tasks seemed like a good substitute.”

The Gnoll just gave a low grumble.

“It is good of you to offer to guide Callie to her trainer,” Vanis said.

Thucax gave Vanis a hard stare. “You’re that prince, right? ”

“Uh,” Vanis said with shock, “I am. But I’m not looking for any special treatment.”

“Good. You won’t get it from me. You look like just a normal Elf. I’m not sure what the big deal is.” With that, Thucax abruptly turned and started to walk towards the courtyard and the various tents. “Come on, you two.”

“Coming!” Jesca said quickly. She grabbed Callie’s hand and started jogging to catch up. Looking over her shoulder at Vanis, she loudly whispered “Sorry!”

Vanis stood there slightly taken aback. “Gnolls,” Lena said, putting her hand on his shoulder.

“Yes. Gnolls always grumpy,” Tazrok said as he maneuvered around everyone to get access to the fountain. The rest followed the Ogre, taking turns filling their waterskins.

Vanis smiled as he watched Callie disappear over the rise with Jesca and Thucax. “Why do I have this feeling she’s going to be the cause of a great deal of chaos around here.”

“Or the death of us all,” Lena added.

“Will be fun,” Tazrok said. “Either way.”