-Callen-

  “Have you finished treating them?” I hesitate to respond while taking measure of the stranger. She has brown, unkempt hair, dark crimson eyes, and a full set of travel gear that, despite being worn from use, is relatively undamaged. Except for a small cut from the fabric of an arm. It looks like the mark of a near miss from a swordsman. This woman, despite looking a similar age, gives off the feeling of someone who has their stats.

  “Yeah, thanks for keeping them safe till I got here.” Right in the middle of my statement, my gut screams danger. Unsure of what was attacking, I sidehop with all my strength. I skidded to a stop, but nothing happened. I focus my senses trying to discern what just happened. Suddenly behind me I hear a whisper.

  “Those were adequate instincts. Hmmm, not good enough yet. Let's see how you struggle," I reel around, locking my focus onto the girl, and despite my earlier wariness, I can now feel an overwhelming pressure. The girl licks her lips and swaggers towards me, her fingers spread and glowing faintly. Somehow she is using a sword aura with her fingers!

  “Let’s have some fun!” She bends her knees slightly, ready to pounce towards me. I reach into my space and drop a boulder between us just in time as she impacts it. I see cracks spreading through the boulder as it barely stops the attack. Pulling out my prototype jetpack, I launch myself almost uncontrollably into the trees above. Below, I see her looking up towards me with predatory fascination.

  I store the jetpack and grab onto a branch and pull myself up. Checking down, I see the girl below pouncing onto the tree trunk like some kind of cat using its claws to dig in. She rapidly closes the distance between us, lunging up the tree even faster than Callia can climb. In a panic I pulled out my best AOE weapon, a flamethrower I had designed with inspiration from the festival. I still have no idea why she’s attacking me.

  “Hey! Can we talk this out!” I try to reason with her, but she’s nearly up and finally in range. I activate the flamethrower's runes, and great gouts of fire spray down. Like a spider, she nimbly swings around to the backside of the trunk.

  “Sure! Talking is fine! As long as it doesn’t interrupt my fun!” Her voice is almost level with me now as I pull up the flames to impede her direct approach. Using one hand to keep the flames going, I pull out another device, a prototype hookshot (launchable retracting grappling stake with a rope). I point it off towards a different branch and flinch from the recoil as the device activates. I nearly miss it as the girl jumps down towards me from above. With no time to spray her with fire, I barely manage to deflect a strike from her claws. My flamethrower is cleaved in half, but it buys just enough time for the hookshot to anchor.

  “Who are you?!” I shout out as I’m yanked away just in time. I briefly swing while the hookshot starts reeling me up to the branch. My arm is pulled at a weird angle, and I can feel it dislocate, but I hang on. Not that it matters because the stake I launched didn’t hold. Now I’m in a real free fall, but flying is my specialty. I pull out my glider and hang on as it breaks my fall and deposits me on the ground a good distance from the crazy lady.

  “I’m Lexia! You have a lot of neat toys!” Her voice reaches me, but in my attempts to not crash land, I lost track of her. The sounds of psychotic giggling echoed ominously from the branches above. I still couldn’t tell if she wanted to kill me. On one hand she was happy to talk, but on the other she was coming at me with lethal intent. At least my instincts screamed at me that she thought I was prey. I focused upward with my mana sight while trying to figure out what to do.

  “Lexia, why are we fighting?” I call out above, and finally I catch sight of her prowling in from above. Her stance was like a cat, and even knowing where she was, I couldn’t see her with normal vision, but her mana didn’t hide. I tried to avoid revealing my knowledge of her location, keeping her in my peripherals while quietly pulling out my capture net gun. It might not hold her long, but it could interrupt a pounce and give me time to land another hit.

  A feeling of wooziness hit me as I began touching the limits of my mana. I still hadn’t recovered from the bandit encampment. The feeling passed quickly, but it was enough of an opening to encourage Lexia. She pounced down silently and almost imperceptibly, but I had plenty of time to snap to her with the net gun. I back away while the net flies up to meet her. With a clean swipe she rips the net in half and hits the ground rolling.

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  I reach into my space again for another boulder just to buy a moment of time but freeze. The EYE is there. No time to think; I focus completely on IT. I push and push, but I’m absolutely exhausted. New cracks in the barrier between me and the void emerge, and just as quickly as it appeared, it's gone.

  I leave my void space again, gasping for breath. Everything is shaking as I weakly prop myself up. My thoughts are sluggish as I see a familiar back between me and the psycho.

  “Grandpa?” I weakly call out, struggling to understand.

  “What? You thought you could leave me behind? I had to call in a favor to track you, but what are favors for if not keeping the grandkids safe?” I vaguely made out the forms of nearly a dozen of Grandpa’s drinking buddies circling the girl. She seemed more amused than nervous.

  “Hello everyone! Hey Mr. Male Twin! Why’d you suddenly collapse?” Everything is a bit blurry, and in my impaired state, I instinctively answer.

  “I didn’t have mana. I was exhausted even before we started!” My answer seemed to shock her, and Grandpa chimed in.

  “Cal, what’s the deal with this girl? I thought you ran off to fight bandits?” I’m about to explain, but she interrupts.

  “I’m Lexia!” I’m stumped briefly, but that statement nearly sums up my understanding of who this is.

  “That’s about all I know.” I informed Grandpa. The dizziness finally overwhelms me as I flop over. Mana exhaustion finally catches up, and I lose consciousness.

  -Grandpa Renack-

  I didn’t hear about the whole crisis involving Callia crashing in the northern woods until well after everything came to a conclusion. Ever since, I’ve made sure to keep a close eye on those two. I had thought that they were finally blossoming into responsible adults, but it seems troublemaking is their natural state. The moment I heard news about the bandits, my gut told me trouble was coming.

  Lo and behold, Callen rushes off in the night, dragging along all his sisters on what I presumed to be another rescue mission. I would’ve chased right after, but I needed to track them. Instead I gathered all the retired vets who had grown old with me. Nearly a dozen of Port Town’s finest, and while some of them took some convincing, it wasn’t long until we were out there following the very distinct tracks of Callen’s new invention into the night.

  We kept a steady pace, but I couldn’t help worrying. That cart was fast, and if they couldn’t manage whatever was out there, we might be too late. Just off the side of the path I caught sight of a bright light in the trees. Together we raced into the woods and arrived just in time to see some girl leaping down towards Callen.

  I pushed myself forward harder than these old bones have any right to go. In a swift motion I interposed my spear between the girl and Callen. I didn’t have time to check him as I watched the girl. The others soon caught up, circling the girl and locking us in a standoff.

  Fun with Grandpa

  Grandpa Renack looked down on the nearly 6-year-old Callia, who had for the first time completed his obstacle course without a single hit. He was proud, and it showed on his face. This little girl was obsessed with training even more than her father. He liked to brag about how much he did when he was a kid, but seeing just how motivated the kid was made him a bit embarrassed. In truth he had always been a bit lazier than everyone else. He only lived as long as he did because of his survival instincts.

  He was one of the weakest old warriors in town, but despite that, he was well respected by others. Knowing not just how to fight, but when to fight was one of the hardest skills to master. Still, he had lived nearly 200 years and was barely scraping level 70. Love had come late for him and his wife, but they were blessed with a child despite the odds. His little boy Marek was more than he could’ve ever wished for, and the twins were something else entirely. He reached down and rubbed the girl's hair, making her complain.

  “Ok, you beat my tutorial course!” He played up the obstacle course like it was something normal. When in fact it was the same course used to train new guards well beyond twice her age. He wanted to push her to shine with all the brilliance he saw, and she was clearly fully on board with that plan. Still, he didn’t want to wear away her spirit, so doing incredible tasks deserved rewards.

  “Since you got this far, I’ll let you ask for anything you want from Grandpa!” He thought she might ask for more sweets or some toy from the market but was surprised when she held out her adorable little hands, declaring.

  “Toss me up and catch me!” He wasn’t sure what she meant. Reluctantly he picked her up, and encouraged by her smile, confirmed with her again.

  “You want me to throw you up?” Still confused, but obedient. Little Callia nodded and clarified.

  “Then you catch me!” Renack nodded and braced himself. He gently tossed her up and was rewarded with happy squealing.

  “Again, higher!” Again he tossed her up, and her delight was infectious. Both laughing and smiling. Eventually, it came to an end, and Renack set her down. The pair went back home hand in hand, smiling widely. Ela saw the pair smiling and smiled back, waving them in for dinner.