We took a short break and talked about it. It was about 8:30 in the morning. Once again, we were getting off to a late start, but better to get there late, than to not get there. I mentioned that I’d gotten a couple of new skills: Battle Movement and Military Drill and the girls said they had too. Tanya said that she’d gotten Teaching as well, which was great for all of us. She also mentioned how difficult it was to get us all responding in the same way, that we didn’t perceive the same threats that she did. I mentioned illusions. A type of magic that would enable her to set up battle opponents and she was excited about that. Said she was going to try to use her downtime tonight to develop a spell.

“OK,” I said. “Ready to practice our archery?” They were and so we went around back to the “archery range” we’d set up yesterday. “Well,” I said, “anything you learned about firing your crossbows, since yesterday?”

“Yeah,” said Janet, “it’s a lot tougher to hit something that’s moving at you than you’d think. I swear I had that momma rat lined up with a clear shot to the head and, still, I almost missed her. I barely hit her in the ass.”

“I know,” said Tanya, “I had her set for a headshot too and barely got her in the leg.”

“That’s why we practice,” I said. “But you’re right, movement adds a whole new level of complexity to hitting something. Most of those bow hunters, sit in a blind and hit their targets when they aren’t moving. Poor deer is just walking down a trail and stops to grab a bite to eat and bam, instant arrow to the knee. I’m pretty sure that they did that in the old days too. Hunting’s hunting. But combat is different, something is charging you or running away from you and is going to dodge your shots. It’s aware of you and is watching out for what you're doing. You’ve got to outthink them and place your shot both where they're going and when they can’t dodge. It’s like a little computer in your head, telling you when the best time is to shoot. For instance, it’s harder to dodge when you’ve already committed to an action, like taking a step. That’s what you want to be able to do, that’s what you need to do. So we good?” They both nodded, and so I added, “remember mindfulness. We still haven’t gotten the skills yet, which surprises me a little. Why don’t we shoot about four sets of ten and call it a day? After each set, we’ll police our arrows and bolts and then start again. Hey, one thing we should probably talk about is rules.”

“Rules,” they asked.

“Yeah, things to make practice safe. In ranges they usually have signals for things like it’s ok to go police your arrows or bolts and stuff since there’s just the three of us, I thought we keep it simpler.”

Always keep your crossbow or bow pointed down at the ground or at the target. Keep your arrows/bolts in, well, they’d say quiver, but I guess we’d say inventory until you’re using them. Never start walking toward the target until you say (or someone says), “range clear” and EVERYBODY practicing echoes back “range clear.” After you hear “range clear,” do NOT fire! So, if you hear “range clear” you yell it back and do not fire again. Before you start shooting, somebody should have said, ‘range hot’, and made sure EVERYBODY echoes it. So, if you hear ‘range hot’, or ‘range clear’ and you’re not ready, yell, ‘my range’. This means everybody stops and does nothing. Don’t run with arrows, well, unless you have too. This is just like running with scissors, but more obvious. More stupider!

“Sounds good,” they said and that’s what we did. About midway through the practice, I got a couple of notifications, but I had minimized them so I ignored it and kept practicing. The girls were doing great, so we pulled back about another 2-3 meters. I helped them with their form when they needed it, but for the most part, they didn’t. I wasn’t sure if it was our new physical stats or our increased intelligence, or just the level of attention that they were paying, but they were basically, dream students. Tell them once and they’d learn it. Of course, the battle with the rats may have had something to do with it too. Nothing quite focusses your attention on something like knowing it might keep you alive, soon. It sure as heck made a difference with my practice.

After we finished picking up the bolts and arrows, only lost 2 bolts, broke one arrow, we looked at our notifications. I’d gotten another 3 points in teaching and skill in archery. Copper, Level 4, 461/800. I’d kept all of the broken arrows, thinking that maybe I could repair them either with magic or a skill sometime in the future.

The girls both got the archery skill, both of them in Bronze: Level 2, 28/100 for Tanya; Level 5, 455/800 for Janet. ‘Not bad,” I thought, ‘not bad!’

“Very cool,” I said, “more experience points for Monsoon’s Maids, no, Monsoons Angels, nope, it’s coming, I just haven’t got the right words yet.”

“Yeah,” Tanya said. “Keep telling yourself that!”

“That’s right, girlfriend. Tell him straight. Straight to Jesus! Woh,” Janet said. “That last part is a real kick in the ass. I don’t know what to think about that whole God sold us thing.”

“Yeah,” I said, “I’m trying really hard not to think about it too hard. It just depresses me, maybe pisses off the System and I can’t see the information I’d gather helping me in any way, you know? I’m just going on going on. It’s what I plan on doing. Little man,” and here I pointed towards myself, “big questions,” I pointed towards the sky, and “where are the answers?” I asked while raising my arms, palms up. “Even if I could get the System to answer, what would the answer tell me? Could I even believe it? But one thing I do know is that there are a lot of really unhappy people out there right now.”

“Yes,” said Janet, “but according to the System, there’s probably a lot fewer of them today than there was yesterday.” She paused and then said, “Sorry, downer fowl, penalty box, 5 minutes.

“No,” I said. “I’m sorry! Hug?”

“Yeah,” they both said. “I could use a hug right now.”

And so we did, and maybe even cried a little, but what the hell, if the apocalypse ain’t enough of an excuse to cry, what is. It was still a beautiful day though. It was still about 70ᣞ F, I was estimating, I hadn’t yet asked my HUD to display the temperature, I wasn’t even sure that it could. It’d be pretty cool though, like having a built-in weather app. The sky was an amazing blue, the sun was shining and it was now about 9:30 in the morning and I was hungry.

We took care of the hunger by downing another sustenance potion. Even Roxie got a potion and I swear I saw her grow as she drank it. She looked like she’d gained at least a kilo which is a lot when you’re a mouse, a big, baby, puppy-sized, mouse, but still a mouse. I may have made a few comments about her weight gain. Nothing serious, but judging by the reaction I got from the girls, a man should never comment on a woman’s weight, even a mouse’s. I tried to apologize, but I don’t think she was accepting. She looked at me, blinked once slowly, then turned her head away, staying nestled in Janet’s arms. I think I just got dissed by a mouse. I took care of my thirst by casting my spell, the girls both had the create water spell too by now, so they took care of themselves.

“So what next,” asked Tanya.

“Well,” I said, “yesterday we did spell practice and then, explored Maxes and then, pretty much called it a day. We got a lot of stuff done, don’t get me wrong, but got no further towards my mom’s. After thinking about it, I’m OK with that. I’m thinking that we may want to stay here another couple of days and try and get a little stronger. I mean, the rats used to weigh in at about ½ a kilo, now they’re about 23. That’s a 5000% growth surge. What if that’s standard? What’s a 5-kilo feral cat weigh now? 250 kilos? That’s more than an adult lion weighs. Do you feel up to taking on a lion yet? How about this, Turkey Mountain, just down the road here, which used to be a hill, but is now probably an actual mountain, was famous for having wild turkeys living on it. An adult turkey used to weigh in about probably twice as much as a cat. Want to tackle a 500-kilo turkey? I don’t. I don’t even want to see a 500-kilo turkey. It’s like the joke about a 500-pound monkey sleeping, you know? Where does a 500-pound monkey sleep? Anywhere it wants to. Where’s a 500-kilo turkey sleep? Not to mention, turkeys are omnivores, they eat nuts, berries, grains, small lizards and snakes, among other things. How big a snake can a 500 kilo turkey eat? Plus the darn things can fly. I don’t know if the 500-kilo turkeys can, but heck, can you imagine getting dive-bombed by a 500-kilo turkey? It’s like a dragon turkey!” I was making airplane noises and zooming my hands around when I stopped to take a breath and noticed that the eyes on the girls were big, manga big.

“Sorry, sorry,’ I said, “sometimes I get carried away. I didn’t mean to rant. There’s probably not 500-kilo turkeys down the road. But, ...“ and I paused for a second and the words just burst out of me, “what a Thanksgiving turkey that would make.”