Karl finished writing out contingency plans, and making a duplicate of the map, along with some additional notes, in case they had issues along the way.
Unfortunately, they didn’t have a topographical map of the area, which would make it easier to find their way by landmarks, but Bishop Misty had managed to describe the area where the Anomaly would appear with decent accuracy, so Karl was reasonably certain he would recognize it even if they arrived early.
“Alright, that should be everything that we need to be ready for the morning trip. What’s the time difference between here and there?” He asked.
“About an hour. You have time for breakfast, and you’ll still arrive outside town as if you packed up camp at dawn.”
That was good enough. Now, they had a whole afternoon to kill, and all of the students were in proper classes.
“Hey, why do you have them train in the morning and then do classes all afternoon? The Dragon Church does it the same way, but I never knew why.” Lotus asked.
“It’s because children are hyper, and you need to wear them out so they sit still for more than ten minutes at a time. Once they’ve finished training and all their muscles are sore, they’re happy to sit and listen to lectures before evening training after dinner.” Orthos chuckled.
“Oh, that makes sense. Feed them, then make them sleepy.” Lotus looked like she had just learned a truth of the universe, even if it were one that everyone else had figured out years earlier. Of course, she was so bad at keeping to a schedule that it might not have registered with her like it did for everyone else. One of the many side effects of being a nature cleric.
So, after dinner, that was precisely what Karl and the others did. The evening training was shorter, more for physical fitness for the beasts than for training. It was great for burning energy, and turning the run into a game of tag and chase around the crude track through the area around the temple kept everyone running and not slacking off.
Keeping up with the beasts was impossible for most of Karl’s team. But in Dire Bear form, Ophelia could do it, and Dana had movement skills to make it a bit more even, while Karl relied on overwhelming strength to make up for the lack of agility that the beasts had.
“How is that fair? He can run through the trees just because his legs are too strong.” One of the Fox type beasts complained.
They were still faster than Karl, but he was nearly impossible to catch because he would use trees as a launch pad and not hit the ground for dozens of metres at a time.
Compared to that, Ophelia was much easier to catch, and she wasn’t as fast. But if she caught you, she was impossible to dodge. It was like someone threw a house at you, she was just too large to avoid.
The kids were quickly exhausted from the evening practice and off to the showers before bed, just as planned.
The same was true of Karl and his group. They were ready to shower and sleep as soon as they were back in, despite the fact that it was only just getting dark.
The natural cycle of the beasts was that of the sun and moon, so when it got dark, they slept, unless that was their time to hunt.
Karl came out of the shower into his room and found Bishop Misty in the room again with a mischievous smile on her face.
“I take it you liked the warmth?” Karl joked.
“It’s not bad. I even got to sleep in with a small cleric last time. But technically, I am your security guard. If it wasn’t me, it would be one of the other High Priests. The humans aren’t a real threat, but you could be.” She replied with a shrug.
“Ah, so instead of posting a guard outside the room, they just assigned one to share the dorm, in case I got ideas about doing something crazy like letting Remi run around with a toddler in her arms again.”
That made the Dragon laugh. “I think the protocol is for situations more dangerous than an excited Naga Queen. Your class makes you a lot more relaxed around us than any other human I’ve met. Even your teammates are constantly on edge, and one of them is practically a beast herself. Being around this many predators should cause an instinctive defensive reaction, but you’re missing that. It is fascinating. Other than you and the suicidal insane sorts, only apex predators such as the Dragons and Gryphons are usually missing it.”
As she talked, her form shrunk from close to Karl’s height, to less than one hundred fifty centimetres. She was wearing robes the same colour as her white scales, and she climbed into her bed while staring at Karl.
Karl smiled at the fascinated Bishop. “I wonder if it’s a side effect of having beast minds linked with mine? I have been informed a few times that I’m slowly becoming more bestial. Considering the personalities of my team, and the way that I hear their voices, perhaps you could consider them a substitute for my conscience?” He suggested.
“A Bloodbath Spider as the voice of reason in your mind? I can see how that would make you seem a bit less human.”
Rae laughed. [If she thinks you’re bad now, just wait until Cara gets comfortable.]
The dragon smirked, and Karl gave her a suspicious look.
“You can hear them, can’t you?” He asked.
“Not exactly. I can’t hear them in their separate space, but I can hear your thoughts, which means that I hear when they talk to you.”
That made sense. Nobody else had been able to detect or interact with the separate spaces, and her powers were time-based, which shouldn’t be a hard counter to his system skills.
“Alright. I will see you in the morning. But I do have one request, in case you’re too busy to tell you tomorrow. If you plan to send me through time again, give me some warning, would you? That was supremely confusing.”
Misty laughed and gave him a thumbs up, before pretending to be asleep.
Tomorrow was going to be a long day, so he should likely get as much sleep as he could.