That evening, they were treated to the combined efforts of Tessa and Lotus in the kitchen. As they could both use advanced food creation spells, they both worked together to make dinner on the table Lotus had formed, and the results were spectacular.
Doug was a good cook, but these two were artists.
Then, everyone settled in for the night, exhausted from the day.
Karl woke up to the feeling of Rita poking him on the forehead to get him up for his shift, and he realized that he wasn’t alone under the blanket. Dana was curled up against him, sound asleep, with her own sleeping bag abandoned half on top of his. She must have rolled over at night, and Karl could see from the smirk on the Sergeant’s face that Rita was going to hold this one against him in the future.
Once he was awake, she made a motion to silence him, and then quickly slid under his blanket as Karl got out, replacing him in Dana’s arms, while the mage mumbled happily and held on to the Sergeant.
Karl joined Tessa on watch, and saw that the cleric’s eyes were golden, just like Hawk’s. Not glowing with holy magic, but obviously enhanced with some sort of spell so that she could see better in the dark.
“How is your night sight?” She whispered as Lotus crawled into bed beside Rita and Dana.
“I can see in low light like Hawk, and I can see in zero light using echolocation and thermal imaging like Rae. In the forest like this, with so much ambient noise and movement, I can see pretty well, especially if the target is warm-blooded.” Karl explained.
Tessa nodded. “I knew I was in luck with you on watch. Lotus can also see in the dark in her own way. She uses the trees to sense movement around them. It’s not as precise, but it gives a good idea of how big the creature is.
I think that Alice and Dana relied mostly on sound, since Alice is a wind mage.”
That made Karl wonder if Hawk might pick up some new sensory magic in the future. [Skill Master] was still constantly active, so he was being enhanced to pick up new skills, but unlike Rae, who had learned to make Golems, he hadn’t shown them anything new.
That didn’t always mean he didn’t know it. Just that he hadn’t shown or mentioned it if he was using it.
There was no movement near the camp for the first few hours, but near the end of their shift, Karl noticed something large moving in the distance, as if scouting the perimeter of the camp.
“Do you see that? Three large figures, Ogre sized, scouting the camp. They’re circling around outside the patrol range so that the guards don’t detect them. But the Ogres are close enough that they would be able to smell the humans when the wind is right.” Karl whispered to Tessa, while he pointed out the Ogres in the distance.
“Oh, those sneaky bastards. I see them now. Should we go take care of them?” Tessa replied.
“They’re headed this way. I think we should just wait, but warn the camp that they’re being scouted, in case there are more groups that we can’t see from our position.”
Tessa smiled and patted Karl on the shoulder. “Good call, very by the book. You’ve got decent instincts for a first year student.”
Karl sighed as he realized that the more experienced cleric was testing him to see what his responses would be, but Karl was getting quite used to how things worked in the wilderness, after having been out here for a few weeks with a group that didn’t make their planning some obscure leadership task.
After another half hour, they spotted a second group of Ogres doing the same thing, and again Tessa messaged the base to let them know the current location of both groups.
They hadn’t pushed the scouts out, which seemed odd to Karl. But if they couldn’t see in the dark, they might just be waiting until it was safer to fight.
Tessa started cooking just before dawn, when she knew that the others would need to be up in half an hour.
The smell woke them up as intended, and Karl could see that the rest of the unit was just starting to get upwardly mobile, but the kitchens in the camp were already hard at work, getting prepared for the day, with the first batch of breakfast ready.
[All team members, be ready to move in one hour.] The Captain of the unit they were attached to announced as Tessa started serving breakfast.
She had come up with the same mushroom steaks that Doug had been so fond of, but cut into thin slices like bacon and wrapped around peppers that were stuffed with something like cheese. It wouldn’t be actual cheese, given that it was all plant based, but it was good.
She had also come up with an apple jerky for snacks later, and a fruit and nuts trail mix, which most ate on its own, but Lotus poured into a bowl and then added coffee to, like most would add milk to breakfast cereal.
Not that she needed the caffeine. The nature cleric was already too energetic in the morning.
Lotus smiled at Karl as they finished eating. “We should send Karl down first while we get cleaned up for the day’s patrol. One man can only be so lucky, or it will unbalance the world.”
Karl laughed. “Well, that’s one way to say get out of the fort while we shower. Toss me a water bag, so I can wash up while I’m down there, will you?”
Alice snapped her fingers to get their attention. “We can just set up a dividing curtain. We’ve got plenty of those, and we’re going to want Karl up here to lower us down, or everyone will have to climb that ladder.”
Two ground tarps were quickly erected in the fort, sectioning off a portion of the far side, where Lotus hung one of the gravity fed black shower bags she had used her magic to fill with water. You just had to open the spigot, and they would sprinkle water like a shower. They were simple, but effective, and if you left them out in the sun all day, the water would be properly hot in the evening.
It was warm enough thanks to her magic, and Karl took his time shaking the dirt and dust off his worn outfit before setting it aside and preparing to get cleaned up. He didn’t recall how many other shower bags there were in the packs, but the ladies would certainly need some time to get clean and dressed before he came back out.
He was about half washed when he heard the curtain move and felt a body against his back. A small finger pressed to his lips to keep him silent, and then two gentle hands began to scrub his back. Once he was clean and rinsed, he was turned around to face the curtain instead of looking out of the window, and he could hear Dana quickly putting her clothes back on before exiting the other side of the section.
It had to be her. Nobody else in the group was that size, and she was the only one that used that particular Academy shampoo.
When he came out, everyone was ready and waiting, and it seemed that there was an agreement not to say anything about the shower. So, Karl pulled the ladder up into the fort until they were only a few metres from the end and looked at the group.
“Who is going down first? Hawk is already on patrol, and the area is clear.”