I finish recharging my mana, then redress and make my way back to the edge of my domain. This time it’s much more peaceful stepping off, with no giant birds trying to take my head off. My low level twigling count is at twenty one after the bird incident, but I’m not concerned. I can at least escape from most of the nasties around here, probably. I’d still prefer not to test that theory. I’ve been much more vigilant on my walk through the forest than my first time. Thankfully the last two miles have been fairly quiet, though I don’t know if that’s because there is nothing around here, or if it's being dissuaded by the gaggle of twiglings behind me.

Slowly the signs of activity get more and more noticable. I’m not a park ranger or master tracker, but I'm pretty sure a bunch of crushed, uprooted, and otherwise pushed aside bushes in a fairly consistent line means something has been through here fairly consistently and recently. Well, recently judging by the fact that things are barely starting to grow back. Following the trail for a bit longer leads me to what was clearly once a large campsite. Several piles of gray ash covered partially in dirt litter the camp site. There are two small crates off to the side, along with two bags haphazardly left on the ground nearby. Closer inspection reveals semi rectangular patterns of holes in lines along the site, probably from any tents they were using. In the middle of the clearing are different patterns.

Two of them seem to be for giant round tents, while the third one was a really big square tent. I have no idea what any of these could have been for, but my guess for the small ones strewn throughout the site were for the foot soldiers. Checking one of the bags left behind yields nothing, its empty. I tie it off to my armor, it will be good for me to carry stuff with later at least. Checking the second back yields hardly better results, having only an empty tin that used to contain healing salve. It gets tied to the armor, and I keep the tin. I’m not a hoarder but I have literally no other way of acquiring things and even mundane stuff might be useful later, one man's trash is another man's treasure and all that.

After that I move onto the crates. Upon approaching I notice immediately that one has been ripped open by wild animals and cleaned out. Scratch marks on the wood are very apparent around the seams where the open panel had been ripped from. The inside of the crate predictably contained nothing, not even a crumb left. The crate is held together by crude nails, some of which have been deformed but the violent opening of the wooden box. But I’m planning on salvaging it anyways, I might be able to fix the nails enough to close it again. The other crate is just sitting on the ground next to the first one, and seems untouched aside from a few light scratches and evidence of it being pushed around.

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Looking the wooden crate over revealed no easy way of opening. So it knelt down, grabbed it by the edges, and flipped it over. The contents made quite a ruckus as it flipped onto its side. A chorus of metallic clattering and clanging echoing throughout the forest. Hmm, I'm going to guess the contents of this one are metal. Unfortunately, there is no way of opening it on the bottom either, so it looks like I’ll have to do this the hard way. I carefully jam my sword in between the top and side panels along the edges and start to wiggle it. Slowly the sword moves deeper and deeper between the panels until they separate apart, then I leverage the sword to pry the box open.

I pull the top off and look inside. The crate contains a giant metal cauldron taking up most of the space inside. Packed inside of the cauldron are two primitive frying pans, and what looks to be an assortment of wooden cooking tools. Jackpot! Although I don’t exactly have a way to make fire. Eh, I’ll figure something out, hopefully I don't burn down the forest. I put the panel back into the box and smack it into place as best I can. Then I reach down and pick up the box, it’s not as heavy as I thought it would be, though it is a bit awkward to carry. I walk over to the nearest twigling and shove the box into its arms.

“Carry this.” I say to it.

To my surprise it actually grabs and holds the box. Well that's good, I didn't know if verbal commands worked like that but it looks like they do. I walk back over and pick up the other box, then take one last look at the camp. Nothing else of note really, not that I expected much. It’s been a few days since I last saw any of them. Good thing too, since people are dangerous.

I make my way back to base with the gaggle behind me. Once we re enter the network area I hand the box off to a twigling and order them taken to my stock pile. After that I set off with the rest of the twiglings back into the forest. Unfortunately, the area around the old campsite didn't have anything worth killing, just the occasional squirrel or bird up in a tree. Before I know it the sun is starting to set behind the mountains, so I head back to my pod and turn in for the night. Tomorrow I’ll explore in the other direction, up the valley where the wolves came from before, I just hope there aren't any nasty surprises waiting for me that way.