-Callia-

  I watched from the side of the training grounds, keeping a critical eye on little Freema as she easily placed arrow after arrow into the targets around her. When I first saw her holding the bow, I could tell she had never used one before, but as she went on, I started to question myself. She was improving too quickly for it to be natural. My only guess was some kind of special privilege for being a moderator. Callen had told me about her using our bond because that kind of information felt too important to risk with actual words. I had also shared with her extensively just how dangerous that kind of title might be among those who better understand.

  While a majority of my time was spent with the little munchkin, I did spend enough time in town to see just how much Callen was struggling to keep the temperature of town from boiling over. On more than one occasion the town guard uncovered plots among citizens to quietly ‘remove’ the girl. It was hard for me to wrap my head around. It was such a dramatic shift of attitude I almost couldn’t recognize some of my more distant friends in town.

  Callen eventually updated me on the situation in a manner I could better understand. Whenever someone disappears in the northern patrols, it is commonly attributed to elves to offset the resentment internally and to remind the population of the extremely dangerous and xenophobic neighbors to our north. Nixie and Reesia were actually both recorded in a similar manner. After so many years in our family and being raised by our mom, who lacked the prejudice in town, a lot of the underlying resentment had faded, but even with all that, Nixie found herself unable to willingly talk with the girl.

  As her master, it fell on me to explain the issue of why she needed to stay out of sight from the populace. Freema didn’t seem to fully understand what we were saying but promised not to enter town unsupervised. After 3 months we still didn’t have any major incidents, which I was thankful for, and Freema’s growth was finally starting to show signs of slowing down. If I were to guess how much she improved, I would say she had gone from a level 0 to 50 or 60, which would rival the most experienced among the town guards.

  My education wasn’t strictly limited to archery either. We spent time training her running until she learned flash movement, and I helped her improve her knife skills dramatically as well. The one thing I think she struggled with most was instinct skills. The girl had sharp eyes and physical sense, but that hindered her ability to ignore those senses and rely on her gut feelings. I almost felt bad for leading her astray with instinct skills until she revealed she could remove any skills she wanted. I almost wanted to call it BS, but I had to remember that I was operating under the benefit of infinite skills.

  Lexia also showed up every other week between her hunts. She seemed immensely pleased with my progress teaching Freema, but I’m not entirely sure why. Maybe Lexia felt invested in the girl because she had personally saved her? Anyway, her visits were also accompanied with high-level sparring matches with Callen and me. Callen was still just an inch ahead of Lexia, with his unorthodox style being hard for Lexia to devise a counter to other than waiting for Callen to abandon his defensive positions. Meanwhile, things had become heated between me and Lexia. For the first time in my life, I felt what it was like to have a proper rival in conventional fighting skills.

  As much as I don’t like admitting it, Lexia seemed to have the edge over me, which made a sort of rock, paper, scissors match-up between us. The biggest news, however, was the news that the hive worms had been exterminated. An assembly of nobles and knights encountered the swarm after it had wiped out the neighboring town to the south at the easternmost reaches of the Glassy Shallows Lake. With the swarm finally cleared out, it was time for Callen and Hew to make the journey south to visit the capital to announce the change of leadership.

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  Of course I wouldn’t miss an opportunity like this to visit not just the capital but the royal palace. Which was convenient because while the town had been able to hold back their frustration with the presence of Freema, it might be best if we hand her off to her distant relatives living in the capital. Lexia had also decided she intended to join us in the journey to the capital. Honestly, her behavior reminded me more and more of a cat in recent days, and even Callen, who was usually jumpy in her presence, was acclimating to her.

  The weirdest change in the past months was Crescent. She had gone from a shy, introverted girl to passionate and well-spoken. She was making friends throughout town and even was willing to set aside her prejudices to make friends with Freema. The change had been so fast I even poked her while joking that she must’ve been replaced with a shapeshifter. To which her old shy personality leaked through as she blushed and hastily explained that her grandpa had been teaching her how Grandma had helped him.

  Crescent gradually shifted from long hours in the emergency rescue team to long hours as Callen’s hardest-working aide. Callen had even joked to me that he should just hand the role over to Crescent because somehow she seemed to excel at everything she set her mind to. She was now the best healer in our town, the best pilot (even surpassing me since I had been grounded by Callen ever since the bandit incident), and now she might be even better at leading the townsfolk than Callen. Sometimes I couldn’t help but wonder what her skill spread is with the amount of diversification she has.

  Callen’s plan to start construction on a castle on the cliff was beginning to gain momentum as his friends in the lumber and masonry communities eagerly got to work gathering the materials. Callen’s original estimates of taking a year or more were quickly looking more in the range of half a year. The materials for the castle had been carved out of the cliff, making a sheltered hangar for the various battery-powered helicopters that were growing in popularity among our scouting community.

  That, however, resulted in concerning reports regarding the Fallen Forest. The dark trees were seen withering, and the Elves had started expanding their typical ranges further south, threatening our portions of the forest. Something had the elves on the move, but it didn’t look like the typical raids that happened in the past. It was apparent something was wrong, and while Callen ordered the information classified for the town and senior guard leadership, rumors were also fueling the tension regarding Freema.

  With my thoughts on the last couple months passing by, I gathered my belongings and called Freema to join me as I led us over to the western gate. Arriving, I saw a small team already assembled, ready for the extensive journey to the capital. Our group, led by Callen, included me, Freema, Lexia, Hew, Grandpa Renack, and a small contingent of about six of the town’s younger guards who volunteered. I suspect their reason was the same as mine: a desire to see more of the world. As we began to head out from the gate, Mom, Crescent, Reesia, Nixie, and our various friends waved us off.

  Missing Relic

  Dust shifted as a body that had taken no step in countless years twitched. Ancient magic giving the appearance of youth hid the fact that the dust below it was all that remained of its real body. An ancient edict violated for the first time since its creation. The body was held together for one purpose, because an ancient relic that it was bound in defense of couldn’t be found. Countless youthful bodies mixed and shifted out from the center of an ancient stronghold, sweeping building by building for the missing item.

  If the item was found, then it would go back to rest for another year, but its presence could no longer be felt within the city limits. Gradually the bodies scratched through walls and into the dirt itself as they grew more desperate to find that which was lost. Outside the ancient ruin, elders in the tribes began to howl out. “Lost! Lost! It must be protected; it must be found!” The people, not even asking a question as a long-forgotten nightmare, took control and began ripping apart their dwellings in search of something they knew nothing about. Hunting parties began to expand their range, killing everything that moved as the desperation to find ‘it’ took hold.

  As the tribes began to convene on where to search, and while none knew what it was, a voice rang out. “It must be the humans! They’ve aligned with the Earthkin to build hovering contraptions! They stole it!” In a disorganized and disjointed group, the tribes began to press south, spreading thin but widely enough to attack countless human settlements as one. All along the mountains, elvish tribes moved into position to strike, awaiting various settlements that bordered the woods.