After walking for a few minutes in one direction Truelip stopped to take in the scenery. She was surrounded by a lush forest with leaves almost completely blocking the sunlight and shrubbery obstructing the view. She closed her eyes and listened and could hear the birds’ songs as well as movements all around her by small animals. As she concentrated she could feel where they were located, their movements - where they were going. She opened her eyes and looked up at the branches to a nearby tree, searching for a decently thick one. She then turned her gaze to her hand, which she had lifted in the air, up to her stomach.

As she focused on her hand, vapor started appearing from her hand and falling to the side. She then stopped moments after and slowly tightened her hand into a fist. She hadn’t had a lot of safe space to practice magic at her home, without causing disturbances, but had tried as much as she could. As she looked back up at the branch she had picked out she pointed her hands towards it.

“[Ice Lance]”

As she said those words, three thin ice stalactites shot from her hand, piercing her target, hitting right on the seam of the branch, equal distance from each other. Contempt with the results, she moves her hand next to her thigh as the, now tree stalactites started to disappear from the bottom-up and in only a few seconds were completely gone. The only trace of what had just transpired being the holes in the branch, which in turn after a few seconds, filled with a white light healing the tree, removing the evidence with it. Truelip looked around slightly, before continuing again in the direction she was heading.

After walking a bit more and ignoring the small animals around her she finally felt the location of a young doe, who was eating some grass on a small open area between the tree and bushes. As she watched the deer for a couple of seconds as it moved to a slightly grassier part of the field to find better sustenance. As she watched, Truelip stretched her hands in front of her, fists clenched, as this time, without uttering any words, an ice bow formed in her grip, as well as the feathered end of an arrow, started to form in her right hand. As she pulled it back, the rest of the arrow continued to form at the base of the bow until the arrowhead was finally visible, though it looked more like the stalactites from earlier.

She steadied her breathing and homed in on the deer’s neck as it was the easier target to hit for her since she wasn’t confident in hitting the heart and also didn’t really want to damage the meat much. As the foe once more moved to a tastier location, she waited for it to stop moving and the moment it dropped its head, she readied and pulled – arrow piercing it instantly as it wailed in pain and tried to run off, but swayed from one side t the other as it finally fell to the ground, bleeding heavily and suffocating due the large ice stuck in its throat.

Truelip slowly got up and walked towards it. By the time she was next to it, it had already died due to almost no blood reaching its brain or body, as the whole in its neck struck almost all of its throat, seeing as it was still small and the arrows thickness was half its length at the widest part. Truelip then proceeded to cast another spell.

“[Flash Ice]”

In about 5 seconds, the deer’s body started forming small deposits of ice crystals on it, but they were not cold enough to freeze the deer, as she had cast the lowest level version of the spell which only covers the target in ice, but it was enough to keep it fresh till she brings it back to the camp. Seeing that her spell was successful, she picked it up by the stomach and nudged it on her shoulder, with the doe’s head being behind Truelip’s back so as to not have the smell the blood directly in her face.

After walking back in the direction she came from, she came back to the open field where the others were. Dak and Lana were still working on set up, Vyria had returned and was helping them and Dallia was asleep, probably, on one of the logs. Stela was the only one who was just sitting on the logs without her attention being already taken, so she was quick to notice the steps of someone coming towards them. Thought she was almost certain it was Truelip due to the steps being calm, they were heavier than hers so she was still on guard just in case.

How much food did that girl bring… two-three rabbits would have been plenty for lunch…

The speed of the steps did not increase as they neared the clearing so whomever it was definitely wasn’t trying to attack, but she turned around anyway to see who it was. As she saw Truelip walking with the deer on her shoulder, Stela couldn’t help, but stare with her mouth agape. As she was close enough for the others to also hear her footsteps and Stela hasn’t called out for trouble yet, the rest also assumed it was Truelip.

“You’re back fast, did you catch anything good, or did you come with your tail between your legs?” Dak asked grinning.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

Truelip only replied “Yeah” ignoring the rest of the question, as she slowly went near the center of the area to put down the doe.

As Dak works on preparing the different vegetables they brought for their supper, he notices she didn’t say anything else and just continued to them, he looked up to see her. Of course, he also couldn’t believe his eyes at first as he saw her gently put the deer on the ground, with the bloody hole in its throat and more dried blood coming from its mouth.

“Wait, how did you catch that…?” he asked dumbfounded, Lana and Vyria also looked up, from their work, to see what he was talking about, also just as surprised as the rest. “And how did you manage to make such a hole in its throat…” Dak continued his questions.

“A really sharp rock.” Truelip replied to him as she just went to one of the logs and sat on it to rest a little.

“That’s enough for the entire week for all of us…” Dak said still at aw from her catch.

“I guess.” She replied shortly

“And where did you get all this ice from…?” he continued his questioning.

“Magic.”

“Of course…” Dak decided to give up on asking any more questions and instead focuses his attention on how to cook they’re now plentiful supper. After thinking for a bit with the help of Lana they decide to sauté it with the vegetables. After a bit later in the afternoon, they had already finished and everyone had eaten their portion, Truelip went to the carcass and recast her spell.

“[Flash Frost]”

This time she cast a higher version spell since they won’t be eating it again for a few hours. The body instantly got covered with frost as its temperature dropped considerably. Everyone else just watched as she did that before Dak also got up and left his bowl next to the pan.

“So we should split up so some can go scout, while the others who aren’t good at stay back and keep watch here.” He said gathering everyone’s attention.

“Dalia is a good support with her healing magic, but is she awful at scouting so she is obviously staying behind since we don’t want to engage unless we’re all together so the scouts don’t need a healer.”

No one questioned his logic but Dalia looked down to the ground slightly, disappointed at her lack of skill.

“Lana and Stela are perfect for scouting so they’re obviously going, but we need at least one person to stay with Dallia because she’s most powerful in a group.” He continued “I myself aren’t that good at scouting but can keep up while for Vyria, it isn’t her forte, but she can manage if we’re in need of someone aiding us from the back. So then what are you good at Truelip so we can decide how to split?”

“I’m a jack of all trades and obviously – master of none. My Strength, Dexterity and Intelligence are all equal so I’m just as good at swordsmanship, acrobatics and magic.” She replied instantly.

“Then what kind of magic can you use?” he asked curious.

“Conjuration, specifically ice magic as you can see.”

“I see…” Dak trails of as he ponders the new information before continuing “Then how about Lana, Stela, Truelip and me go scout, while Dalia and Vyria stay behind? Do you think you can manage or should another one stay?” he asked as he turns towards Dalia.

“I-i-i think it’ll be hard, but that we would manage to pull through…” she responded as she held her staff firmly to herself.

“So then it’d be bad if they got attacked…” Lana added her thoughts into the conversation.

Dak starts thinking it over again before finally deciding “Then how about I stay behind since I’ll be the slowest of the scouting party, plus defending is my specialty so I’ll be a lot more useful here. What do you think?”

Lana visibly didn’t like the thought of Dak staying behind with the other girls and expressed her concerns. “But will Truelip be able to keep up with us? If she’s a jack of all trades, then she might be slower than even you?”

“That could be true... But she said she’s acrobatic so I expected she’d use that like Stela does…?” Dak responded

“Hehehe, I doubt she’ll manage to keep up to my skills!” Stela interjected her useless opinions.

“Since I’m a jack of all trades I can use both Strength and Dexterity at the same time essentially granting me an advantage to someone who doesn’t specialise in scouting.” Truelip finally saying her take on the matters.

“Then it’s settled. I’ll be staying behind and we’ll meet up again at sunset you guys.” Dak said as he went to lie down on one of the nearby logs.

Disgruntled Lana, in turn, turned around West where the orcs were sighted and starts heading there “Stop wasting time then-“

As everyone had their task set, they set out to scout out the orcs location for the day.

Lana was perfectly going from bush to bush with incredible speed while crouched, so much that you would have a tough time tracking her even as her teammate. Stela, on the other hand, had jumped at a tree and used it to jump off to a nearby branch where she continued to jump from branch to branch like she was a butterfly dancing in the air.

She turned around to see how Truelip was doing and saw her charge against a tree and jump right before hitting it, to run two steps on its bark, before jumping again, to a branch that was growing from it, this time turning her body sideways slightly as she reached her hands out and grabbed ahold of the branch and waited for the momentum in her legs to stop as they had continued in the directing she kicked herself up in.

After that, she swung herself slightly backward and used the momentum to swing the rest of her entire body forward and up and around the branch landing her feet on it. After that, she started to jump from branch to branch like Steal, although slower than her, but that was expected.

Stela pleasantly surprised at her skill, grinned and complimented her in her head “Nicely done newbie~” before she continued on her path.

Lana, on the other hand, scoffed at her skills “Show off…” annoyed at how well she did it.