Davin had never been so glad that Ikea was limited to Earth. The complexity of the hand-crafted pieces blew him away, but at the same time, it was still a viable and relied upon craft in many of the worlds that lead to this one. The armoire that Jes picked out was beautiful, with far better craftsmanship than he'd ever touched, let alone owned back on earth, and it was heavy, they needed a porter in order to get it back to the rogue's hall, from there Grim carried the thing on his back to Jes's little apartment. He didn't have too many things that he wasn’t planning to take with him when he left, but one of the first things that Jes had added to it was one of her well-worn puzzles.

"That one is one of my favorites, you can keep it there till you have a few more things to add, I'll get a few more things for you eventually, can't always have you in adventuring gear when you come home." Her cheeks started to tinge with color after she finished talking.

"You don't have to buy me anything, I don't want to be a burden, but if you do start buying me clothes, please, no suits." He chuckled, pulling at an imaginary tie.

"Oh, no, I was thinking more along the ways of some loungewear." She motioned at her simple dress and shoes.

"Oh! Now that I can get behind, I was more of a shorts, tee shirt, and sandals kind of guy back home."

She nodded, looking him over. "What's a tee shirt?"

He blinked at the comment and pantomimed where the sleeves would be. "Just a simple shirt that usually had shorter sleeves."

"Hmmm, I think I can find something like that, may take some time, but I should have a few pieces for you when you get back from your first adventure." Nodding as she continued to walk around him, obviously playing dress up in her head.

"Okay, I need to get in touch with Hugh so we can make plans." He leaned in and placed a small kiss on her lips. "I'll be back later." With that, he set out to make his way back to The Hall where Hugh should be arriving shortly.

After the crowd from his 'graduation,' the hall seemed empty by comparison. He pulled out the whisper stone, squeezing it gently and saying 'Hugh', the stone let out a small haptic buzz that he'd done it right.

"Davin? You at The Hall?" Hugh's voice rang in his ears like he was standing right next to him.

"Yup, just got in, how far out are you? Want me to order you a drink?"

"About Ten minutes out, and yes to the drink, I liked the hoppy one from the other day, see if he has any more of that."

"Sounds good, I'm at the center table, see you soon."

Davin walked up to the bar, no Big Green to be seen, so assumedly he was off in the kitchen, luckily, the bar here was never empty, putting in his drink order with some snacks, he made his way back to the table to wait. Hugh and his snack arrived at the same time, the diced potatoes and cheese dip that was served smelled amazing and should hit the spot that was missing fries, he would need to talk to Big Green about that.

"You made it!" Davin held up his half-full drink.

"I did!" Picking up his drink and taking a deep swig from it before sitting down.

"Want some roasted potatoes?" Davin offered out of courtesy.

Hugh shook his head. "I just ate before I left the mage's hall. I wanted to get today going, so hurry and eat your potatoes and we can head into The Hall's supply room."

"Oh, we don't have to head into the market?" Davin asked.

"For our first foray into the wilds? No, not unless you need something specific, otherwise, it should be just a few odds and ends, tent, rope, extra odds and ends." Listing off the items on his fingers as he stated them.

"Oh, by the way, how do we want to distribute the weight? I don’t think either of us is all that strong." The look of concern was clear on his face.

"Oh, that one is easy, I can summon a floating disk, it will hold everything and then some, it's an easy enough ritual, and it lasts about an hour, so it will help us keep track of how long we've been traveling too." Padding his spell book on his hip.

"I'll need to see that, it sounds handy, and here I was trying to think of how to build a cart that we could pull."

"No offense, but that sounds awful, so I'm glad you brought this up before we got to that point." Holding a sour expression as he looked at Davin.

"Hey, you have to remember that I come from a world that didn't have any magic, so I keep thinking about things the mundane way. Hell at home if I was planning to do this, I'd gather everything into my car and set out like it was a road trip and I was planning to go camping." A rush of nostalgia flooded him as he thought back to when he was growing up and that was a common plan on any given weekend for his mother.

"What's a car? Eh, that’s beside the point, we have magic, so we can make plenty of use of it. So I guess the main thing is making sure we have a place to sleep and enough food, we can use a travel chest and load that with a good chunk of our gear, and then we won't have to carry it all by hand."

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

"Won't casting that spell once an hour get tedious?"

"Not really, seems like a good enough time to take a break in most instances, a beast of burden would be helpful if we want to try for your cart idea, but I think that may be a bit out of our price range for the time being."

"A travel chest? What's that?"

"A weatherproof trunk that we can keep stuff in, I have one, so no need to worry about that."

"Oh, handy, what else are we thinking we'll need? Do we have any paper that we can use to make a list?"

Hugh shifted as if he was being pulled from the hip. "Okay, okay, you can come up and help, I know how much you like making lists." With that, there was the sound of a click and a book fluttered up from below the edge of the table, flapping like a bird for a brief moment before dropping onto the table, Hugh reached into the air and plucked a golden feather from mid-air. "Okay, first is that I can't cook, so some canned goods are likely in our future." Starting to write in the book that’s pages were still fluttering some.

"I… I can cook…. But when were you going to tell me about the sentient book you have as a pet?" Davin blinked repeatedly as if he was trying to dislodge something from his eye.

Hugh held down the book with both hands, seeming to stop it from flying right at Davin's face. "Please don't call Leaves a pet, they are my companion, and his spine is reinforced with iron and I know how much it hurts to get hit with it." Starting to pet the book as if it were a riled-up puppy.

"You named them Leaves? And had the spine reinforced with iron?"

"I also know how to use them as a weapon if I need to." The book calming back down.

"That’s pretty badass, I'll try not to make that mistake again, even if it's just to protect my own nose."

"Thank you, now, you can cook?"

"Yeah, I did most of my family's cooking back home, so I think I'm fairly well-versed in most cooking."

"That is handy, and will save us a bit on our basic costs, you don't also happen to have the survival skill too do you?" Tapping his pen on the table leaving behind a few ink dots in the action.

"I do, so I should be able to forage some while we're out there."

"Exactly my thoughts, we can get a book on forgeable foods before we set out, so food is covered in the basics. Then tents and bedding, water, I was planning to get some survey gear from the scribes, so no worries about that."

"What is the weather outside the bastion?"

"Near Edges Rest it's late spring, but if we move south it will get more summer and if we move north it will get cooler."

"Are there seasons? Or is each area fixed in its weather?"

"No the seasons rotate, but instead of them happening one at a time, they happen all at once just moving slowly across the wilds, if you were to stay in one area long enough you'd see the seasons shift every eighty days or so." Tapping his chin with his feather as he thought absently.

"Eighty days? So that puts a whole year just around three hundred and twenty days?"

"Give or take, assuming no one has cast any spells to speed it up or slow it down."

"Speed up the seasons? Magic is nuts."

"Says the non-caster… Imagine how I felt actually learning how to wield it, and yes you have some spells, but they're from your patron those don't count, they cast themselves, real magic is like learning a tongue twister and a dance at the same time."

"What are you a pop star?" Davin chuckled at his bad joke.

"A what? Never mind, I don't think that I actually want to know. Anyway, back to the list, why did you want to know the season?"

"Well if it's going to be nice for a while, why not just get a ten-foot pole and a bit of canvas?" Davin asked seriously.

"Bugs, there is no way I plan to sleep without walls on all sides of me. You'd have to be mad. And while yes, bug netting and repellants are a thing, trust me, there is a reason that I didn't thrive as a ranger initiate."

"You know, I didn't think that bugs would be a thing here."

"Why? People believe that bugs come out at night and will bite them."

Davin's jaw dropped, thinking about that and the fact that the bugs here were likely just the beliefs of people. "That is messed up, but I understand why that would be a thing."

"Yup, and since everyone believes the barrier around the bastion keeps them out, so it does."

"Belief is a little O.P."

"Oh, pee? Do I want to know what that means?"

"Just means overpowered, just a term usually limited to things that are seriously unfair."

"Ah, okay that isn't too bad. As a side note, I don't really sleep, so I can take most of the watches, I just need several hours of meditation to make it through and I'm fine."

"Then why do you need a tent?"

"So my books don’t get wet when it rains when I'm reading."

"Then why not set up a pavilion tent? High center pole, then supports at the corners and then anchored down, should be simple enough and large enough for both of us."

"Hmmm, that may be handy, I hadn't thought about that, I just always planned on setting out alone, so most of the plans that I've made from before didn't include others."

"And mine didn't include magic, so we were both in line for a few surprises. Why didn't you ever think about forming a party?"

"Fair point, my world has magic, but I didn’t grow up around it, so I can understand the not thinking about it in everyday life. As for the why, I never thought about a party, I blame that on the scribes, they always made it sound as if no one would want a scribe to go along with them, but a lot of that I think has to do with most wizards tend to be condescending assholes." letting out a small chuckle with that.

"You don’t seem to be like that?"

"Eh, I think because in the grand scheme of things I haven't been here as long as the rest of them, I don't think that I've gotten the height of the tower stuck in my veins to where I have the overwhelming urge to look down on everyone."

Davin sat, slack jawed as Hugh just called out his entire class about their general attitude about the other adventures. "Wow, but then why did you stay with them?"

"They have one of the most comprehensive collections on the histories of this place, and it was my biggest draw to them, plus magic is pretty cool."

"Nerd." Davin chuckled at the callout.

"What is a nerd? You know what, I doubt it will be the last time I hear that word, and I'm guessing that it has to do with my preference for knowledge?"

"Kinda, don’t worry though, I was a nerd back home, we know our breatharian."

"Ah, well hmm, I guess I will see if it's good or bad as time goes on."

"Do you have any crafting skills?"

"Herbalism, I can make some basic potions and poisons, I know some alchemy, but nothing that we could fit in the travel chest."

"I can use most of the basics, so I can pull together almost anything that doesn’t require any heavy equipment."

"Oh? That seems like a lot, why do you know so many?"

"Hobbies, but that’s why I'll be doing the cooking, I'll grab all of that, hopefully, I have enough."

Hugh nodded. "Will be nice to not have to rely on rations and canned goods. Will save us quite a bit of money."

" Sounds good to me, so trail gear is pretty well covered. Plus, we can always get more supplies at Edges Rest if and when we need them."

"Good point. I do still request a ten-foot pole and a tarp."