351 But Is She?
The longer they sat at the table with the Generals, the more people they gathered, mostly Professors, but some of the Commander Rank Elites from the army unit who came to scope the kitchen for leftover barbecue, and a few High Priests, who were pretending they hadn’t come for the exact same reason.
That took a lot of the weight off Karl and Morgana, who now rarely had to answer questions for the Generals, but they were at the table with them, and there was no polite way to excuse themselves for the next three hours as they finished their question session.
Then the Generals finally excused themselves to go to the line and check the veracity of the answers they had gotten, and Morgana could finally begin her lessons. But by then it was almost time for Karl to go on duty at the line, and it was time for lunch.
So, she wasn’t happy to have lost a large portion of her already reduced teaching time to the questions of the Generals, but the other students who hadn’t had to study today didn’t mind in the least.
Karl headed to the line for his afternoon shift, and spent most of the first two hours trying to decide if Tessa had actually advanced to Commander Rank. It felt like she had, but the beasts were split on it. She felt more dragon, and that was messing with Hawk’s ability to tell how powerful she was, while Remi thought she just smelled fantastic, so it was down to Thor and Rae’s opinions that she had advanced to Commander Rank.
It was certain that something had changed after that last surge of divine energy, though.
There wasn’t much else to do along the line that day. The Hill Giants had pulled back to the point that the artillery was only sporadically firing, and the weather was mild, so everyone just sat around watching the horizon for signs that something was about to happen.
That was the opposite of what was going on along most of the line, where the Hill Giants had renewed their push and even sent extra troops forward to see if they could cause a breach and push the Elites back, forcing them to regroup further into the formerly human held territories.
They weren’t normally as aggressive as the Frost Giants had been with their cloning program in place, but the Hill Giants had the power advantage, with so many of the powerful Elites dealing with the Mountain Giants.
The Mountain Giants had a comparatively miniscule population, and a much smaller territory, but their absolute power made sure that none of their neighbours would dare to mess with them.
It was a strange situation for Karl and his team, who had gotten so used to being behind enemy lines in the Frost Giant nation, with constant targets to attack, that they didn’t really know what to do with themselves in a situation where the order was to hurry up and wait.
But it was a bit like a vacation, just leaning back against Thor, who was napping in the sun. Dana was leaning up against his side while Lotus had turned Thor’s head into a sun lounger, resting against his crest and between his horns, while Tessa lay on Thor’s back, watching the horizon.
“You look mighty relaxed for a combat deployment.” One of the other students noted. “We can still see the horizon. But you are right, this is much better than standing around doing nothing. In fact, if I don’t go too deeply into meditation, I can even work on my mental focus while we wait for the Hill Giants to decide what they’re doing.” Karl agreed.
“As long as you’re not actually slacking when the attack comes. We’ve all got bets on how many giants they’re going to send at you after you taunted them yesterday.” The warrior laughed.
Lotus looked over from her resting spot. “The average from the battle reports says that in two days, four Royal Rank Giants will be sent to test us again.
That’s how the Hill Giants usually operate, they double their force if an attack fails. But we’ve been getting smaller attacks than most other portions of the line, so perhaps they will leave us for a while longer.”
“That doesn’t sound like a solid answer, Priestess.” The warrior joked.
Tessa looked down from Thor’s back and laughed. “She’s a Nature Priestess, if she makes a prediction, it will likely come true, simply so that she’s not made into a liar. Do you want her to give a solid answer?”
The warrior shook his head. “I forgot to factor in Divine Favour. What do we have to kill to get an entire week off?”
[All of them and a couple of humans who are a bit taller than average for good luck should do it.] Rae suggested.
Karl laughed quietly, and the Priestesses turned to him for answers.
“Rae says all of them.” He explained.
“For one week off?” The warrior asked. “Yeah, I think that she’s underestimated the efficiency of the Clergy. They’ll have us filling out reports in no more than three days if we actually manage it. No way will we get an entire week off.” Karl replied.
Lotus glared down at him. “You know, you still owe us for getting stuck with all the paperwork at the Cathedral while your arm was healing.”
“That was not my fault. They could have gotten me to write it in the hospital, as my pen arm was still working.”
Tessa laughed. “Did you forget that you had a venomous snake in your sling? Half the staff were afraid to come into your room in case Remi bit them.”
Dana smiled as Remi slithered out of her space to see who was talking about her. She could tell what was going on around them just fine from inside, but with her own eyes out here in the sunshine was better somehow.
She climbed up Karl and across Thor’s rough scales to wrap around his horn, where Lotus could pet her head.
Hawk was slowly soaring above them, and Rae was happier in the darkness of her space than out in the direct sunlight, so that was how they remained until dinner, when the shift changed again and the first night shift took over from them.
Dana sighed as Karl helped her to her feet. “You know, that was actually more productive than expected. I got a lot of meditation done.”
Karl nodded. “Yeah, it has been a good day for energy building. We don’t get enough time to properly meditate and build mental strength these days, and that’s most of what is holding back the beasts’ progression. Just a bit more and we can get little miss Remi up to Commander Rank and balance the team. She’s the newest member, so she’s had the most work to do to catch up to the others. But she’s got good potential, I think she can catch all the way up.” Remi nodded happily from her spot around Thor’s horn before sliding down to vanish into Lotus’ robes and appear again from a hip pocket.
“Remi, what are you doing?” Karl asked out loud.
[It’s warm here, and I didn’t want to get all dirty going over to you.]
[You know, you could have stayed on Thor’s horn.] [He’s going to nap in his pool soon. He always does after a shift.]
It wasn’t like Lotus minded. She hadn’t noticed that there was a hole in her pocket, but it was a pleasant surprise now that she realized it let Remi escape her robes and find a spot to hang out.
But the Spirit Snake didn’t stay there long. She had forgotten one vital fact. Lotus was very short. From her waist, Remi couldn’t see anything but everyone else’s legs. So, she moved back up the robe to drape herself over Lotus’ shoulders, with her head on top of the Nature Priestess’.
[Better. Still not as good of a view as Morgana, but Nature Priestesses are kind of warm in a different way than Witch Doctors.]
Karl wasn’t sure what that meant. They were both the same temperature, so it had to be something to do with their magic.
[Well, I’m glad you found a good spot.] Karl teased the fickle snake. She didn’t enjoy riding on Karl, as the view was the same as being in her space, which was pointless in her mind. She could already find out what he was seeing, so it was much better to see what other people were looking at.