Dial H for Heroics

The teaching session went on for an hour. Harp had the girls practice with one swing. He gave feedback as he walked around, using a wooden rod to correct posture and holding. He frowned at the end of the session.

“Take a break, and get some water,” he said. “We’ll go for another hour when you get back.”

A series of groans came with the comments, but the girls trudged off under the watchful eyes of their big sister.

“What do you think?,” asked Josie.

Harp tapped the ground with the rod. He wanted to say nice things, but knew this patron was not interested in flattery.

That would make things worse in his opinion.

“Beatrice has obviously been in fights before, knows how to go for vitals, but has no skill,” said Harp. The oldest girl would stab a man in the back easily in his opinion.

“Laura has been in fights and has probably lost,” said Harp. “She’s scared of the motion of the practice sword.”

“Angelica would be a danger to herself if I sent her out as she is now,” said Harp. She had come close to knocking her own face in the swings she was doing. He had asked her to try to keep things a little smoother.

“Alicia masters the use of the sword perfectly, but I don’t know about her

judgement,” said Harp. He marveled that he hadn’t had to correct her once beyond some simple basics.

“What do you mean?,” asked Josie.

“She has learned the strike easily, but I can’t tell if she knows when to use it, or not,” said Harp. “There’s a lot more to fighting than which way to hold the sword. Some of it is in training on where to strike. I am not sure she knows that she can hit in other places than the chest with the first move.”

“Okay,” said Josie. “Melanie and Matilda?”

“Melanie is lazy,” said Harp. There was no easy way to say it, but it was there. “She continues to try to shorten the move, and it hurts her swing.”

Josie nodded.

“Matilda is all over the place,” said Harp. “I think she knows the move, but she can’t perfect it because she is considering other factors the whole time. She needs to be more concentrated, more instinct than thought.”

“How much do you charge?,” asked Josie.

“I charge five silvers a lesson,” said Harp. He frowned. Should he ask for more?

“Elaine, pay him ten silvers when the lesson is done,” said Josie. “Shepherd the kids home, and get them through their chores. I need to head out to Kernly and see what I can do there. Jack said he was going up North after checking things out here in the city. I don’t know when he’ll be home.”

“Yes, Mistress,” said Elaine. She pulled out her ledger to write down the expense.

“Master Harp,” said Josie. “Alicia wants to know how to use the bow. If you can find her a teacher, that would be good. The clerk says there are no bowman teachers among the adventurers in Hawk Ridge.”

“I know a few people,” said Harp. “I can ask them to help out.”

“Do what you can with the girls,” said Josie. “I want them to be able to whip

their weights in adventurers before I have to leave.”

“That’s a tall order,” said Harp. He tapped the side of the head with his pointer. “It could take years.”

“I don’t know how much time I have,” said Josie. “So do the best you can.”

“All right,” said Harp.

“See how much weapons cost for the girls, Elaine,” said Josie. “Once they know what they’re doing, they can arm themselves.”

“Yes, mistress,” said Elaine. “Do you know when you’re coming home?”

“Not really,” said Josie. “As soon as I look at this bog hound, hopefully I can help you figure out where to find this lost princess. Jack has never been good with anything like that.”

“I’ll do what I can,” said Elaine. “I didn’t see any mention in any of the stories

I came across.”

“Then we might have to go up there and look around ourselves,” said Josie.

“All of us?,” said Elaine.

“Yes,” said Josie. “I’ll talk to Jack when I see him and see what he thinks. I don’t want to leave the city for more than a day and have something happen to you and the girls.”

“Thank you,” Elaine said. She seemed uncertain.

“I’ll make sure they get home safely,” said Harp. “It’s the least I can do.”

“All right,” said Josie. “I’ll be back in a couple of days, Elaine. If anything happens before I get back, call Master Guin and see if he will help you. Master Harp, I will pay extra for bodyguard services.”

“You’re very protective of your brood,” said the one armed man.

“I rescued them when they were about to be turned into furniture and sent away to places they had no choosing to go,” said Josie. “I killed those people, and I plan to kill a lot more. I’ll have to go when I’m done. I want them to be able to do anything they want before I leave.”

“I understand,” said Harp.

“All right,” said Josie. “I think that’s everything for right now. If you have any

problems with the girls, Master Harp, tell them I will do something spectacularly ugly when I get back.”

“It will be fine,” said Harp. “I don’t know if they will be as good as a group of

adventurers, but they might be able to beat one, if it was the right one.”

Josie nodded. She walked from the training hall. The girls saw her coming as they came back.

“I have to go out of the city for a while,” said Josie. “Master Harp assures me that he will get you home after the lesson. Watch out for each other. Don’t let anyone take advantage.”

“You are coming back?,” asked Beatrice.

“Yes,” said Josie. “I have to look at this Kernly. I am thinking about taking you with us when we start looking for the lost princess. I want you to be able to defend yourselves if that is what we do.”

“Archery?,” said Alicia.

“Master Harp says he knows some people,” said Josie. “So hang in there. You’ll be able to turn targets into pincushions soon enough.”

“Thank you,” said Alicia. She almost smiled. Josie frowned. That was the most emotion she had seen in the girl.

“You got another hour,” said Josie. “You’ll probably be sore when you’re done. You might need some ice if you can find it to rub the soreness away.”

“We can handle it, milady,” said Beatrice.

“All right,” said Josie. “Do a good job while I’m gone.”

“Of course,” said Matilda. She smiled.

“All right,” said Josie.

She waved them into the training hall. She smiled. Jack would say she was such a mom. She smiled at the thought of that.

She walked out of the Hall, eyes on the adventurers loitering around. She silently wished them the best of luck as she headed for the exit. She still had three main quests to do, and then cleaning up Montrose.

She foresaw years on that job.

Josie picked out which was East by the map of the city and the direction of the sun. For some reason, the sun crossed the sky from the south to the north. She didn’t understand the rotation, but it wasn’t her problem. She had to head to Kernly, and she didn’t know how far away it was.

Josie started walking to the East Gate. She called up different heroes on her watch. She would have loved to just teleport across the distance, but she didn’t know if she could just target a place from a spot on a paper. She figured she had to have been there at least once before she could just zap back and forth.

A familiar name popped up on the watch. She cursed herself for not remembering this hero when she was looking for speedsters. He should be just what she needed at the moment. And once in Kernly, she could set up a door to get back and forth with no

problem.

She pushed the button. Red and yellow cloaked her in speed. She smiled as she roared along the street until she could fly. She sailed east in a blur. Northwind was fast, but not this fast. Everything just froze as she whipped by.

The timer ran out before she reached her destination. She dropped to the ground and walked off the last bit of her change before she returned to normal. She kept walking east, looking for place signs to tell her how far she had come from Hawk Ridge.

She saw a town ahead. Maybe she could directions get from there. She really missed Google Maps at that point.

And she didn’t like not being able to check on everyone else at a moment’s notice.

She smiled at the thought she was turning into her mom.

She walked into town, checking her watch. She had a small charge. It was just enough to get her out of trouble, but not enough for a long fight against anything that could take a hit.

The Bomb might be what she needed in a situation like that.

Josie decided to try for a general store instead of a saloon. The shopkeepers were bound to be more friendly than the bartenders this time of day. And merchandise was easier to spot through windows.

She smiled to herself when she saw a small crowd of people going into a place and coming out with various things you needed around the home. She walked in and took a look around, smiling at the sawdust smell in the air.

“Can I help you, stranger?,” asked one of the counter people.

“I’m headed up to Kernly and I wanted to know if I was on the right road,” said Josie.

“Yep,” said the counter man. “Just head east out of the store and keep going until you see the bogs. Kernly is in the middle of that at the end of a bridge they built to the mainland.”

“Thanks for your help,” said Josie. She walked out of the store and turned to head along the way she had already been walking. All she had to do was look for a bridge in the middle of a swamp. How hard could that be?

She kept walking until the watch was recharged. She smiled, knowing she could get back to Hawk Ridge in two jumps with Johnny Quick, maybe one with Zatanna.

That meant being able to sleep in her own spot behind safe walls when the night came.

She called on Johnny Quick and vanished on the road. She flew through the air, looking for the bridge, dropping down when she saw it. She let the hero go as she looked around.

She didn’t know why they had decided to build out on grassy water in the middle of nowhere. She put it down to human crankiness. She stepped on the bridge, feeling it shift around under her feet as she walked across.

Where would a bog hound come from in this mess?

The town seemed to be built on an island with piers set up for boats to travel through the swampy areas adjacent. She noticed that levees had been built around the town, but they didn’t seem to keep the water out. Maybe they were there to keep the water from flowing away.

That seemed odd to her, but she wasn’t living there.

Josie paused at the end of the bridge. She took in the town. If a monster wanted to come through, they didn’t seem to have any defenses. She thought there should be a small militia at least to ask strangers what they were doing.

On the other hand, she might be out on the frontier where governments were not welcome.

A couple of men with the Makeover crossed her line of sight. They seemed to be trying to avoid anyone else on the wooden street. She wondered how many women had went missing with the bog swallowing them up as an explanation.

She decided she would take care of them before she went back to Hawk Ridge. She wondered how far the hex had reached. Had Jack been able to piggy back the signal around the world?

He would love to hear something like that. That might help him with his phone idea.

“What are you looking at?,” one of the men called out to her.

She supposed her status as a stranger made her someone to be yelled at by scoundrels. She wondered if she should leave this to later. She might want to take care of things right now before she got involved in the other problem that had brought her there.

“I’m looking at two dead men,” said Josie. “How much did you get selling your

mother?”

“What did you say?,” said the belligerent one. His partner tugged on his sleeve, trying to pull him away from the coming fight. He shrugged off the grip. “I’m asking you a question.”

Josie called Green Arrow. She pulled the invisible string and took aim. The smarter one ran, heading away from the fight as fast as his boots could hit the wooden flooring under him. The other raised his hands, knowing he was in trouble. She released the arrow, and turned. If she had to put another bolt into him, she would. He fell as she drew the string for another bolt. She shot the other man in the head as he tried to turn and get behind cover.

She looked for other targets, but the rest of the town had decided to let the showdown happen without interfering.

She let the Green Arrow go so she could recharge her watch. She frowned at the two bodies. She hadn’t meant to start things this way, but she also had another quest to chase down.

She admitted that it would be better if she could take them all on at the same time. Picking the organization off one at a time was not something that would get better for her mind, even as she got better at using her heroes to do it.

It was like kicking puppies.

Somewhere in the swamp, something howled. It sounded big and angry.