Greggor hurried back the path he forced through the forest, behind him were the members of his team. His freshly healed wounds on the shoulders still hurt, but he knew how urgent it was to report what he found out, so he carried two of the rocs without minding their weight, even though those were heavy enough that it would need three normal men to lift even one.

He knew that it would be too late to warn the captain, but it was necessary to warn the rest of the crew and have the first mate decide what to do until the captain returned. In Greggor's mind, it was impossible for the captain not to return, but it didn't mean that he dismissed the chance for some trouble on the way which would delay said return quite a while.

Greggor wasn't a scholar or strategist, but he was able to consider consequences. So he tried his best to make decisions for the long-term, which also was the talent that got him the position of the quartermaster. So he made sure to make his men collect as much vegetables as possible, as it might prove difficult to hunt in the future, and with the swath he did, it would be easy for anyone to follow them and to come to the conclusion that something was going on. So he didn't mask his tracks so far, but decided to get the provisions now instead.

This was also that the moment he got to the end of his trail—which was in the midst of the forest—he let Lennart took over the lead so that they could backtrack in hope that they would make it harder for trackers at least, buying them a bit of time.

They came out of the forest and saw mist, which was only natural. On this beach, it would be easy to follow tracks, but on the other hand, it was also hard to find them in the first place, unless someone kept following them from the vegetable field.

Greggor strengthened his vocal chords and yelled, alarming everyone on the beach, which was hopefully just the crew of the Reverence. Finding the ship would be easy enough, they only needed to follow the tracks they left behind on the beach themselves.

As he hoped, the moment they arrived at the Reverence, Ocher's party returned because of his yell, but Scarlet's team were already ready to sail. He made an internal apology to them, as he made them go through the motions for probably no reason.

“What's wrong, Greggor?” Scarlet says firmly, as she lifts her crossbow.

“There may live something on this island, something capable of this.” He showed the metal ring around the ankle of the roc: “No idea what it may be, it could be humans or a giant, for all I know.” While giants were incredibly rare, they still exist in faraway lands, most of them not much better than feral beasts.

Scarlet looked at the roc, her blue eyes seemed like spears that wanted to dismember the bird. “OK, MAGGOTS! SOME INSECTS STAY HERE AND PROTECT THE SHIP AS IF THEIR SORRY LIVES DEPENDS ON IT! GREGGOR WILL TAKE THE REST OF YOU LOWLIFES AND PREPARE A HIDING PLACE!”

The plan was simple: They needed to bring the Reverence off the beach and cover its tracks. If the ship broke, nobody would return. Yet what Greggor found was not enough to call of this exploration, as danger was always part of the deal.

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So Greggor was in charge of building the hiding place. He left most of the women with Scarlet, as their magic would be more useful there than for this task. The first step was to cut down enough of the trees so that the Reverence could fit through it. For that, several trees had to been cut and their trunks would also serve another purpose later. The crowns were also separated, as these would be used later.

It took a lot of effort and sweat, but some of the crewmen already learned how to enhance their weapons, which could also be used on the saws and axes they used to cut down the trees. If a make two-star magic-user had no idea how to fill these two spells, going with Body Enhancement and Weapon Enhancement was always a solid option. Normally not optimal, but for most magic-users it took years to find their affinities and spells that would use them properly.

After the trees were cut and the trunk prepared, next they needed to remove the stumps. Here the two mages that had earth-based spells inscribed, Ocher and Maroon, were invaluable. They could remove the earth around them, so it became much easier to pull them out, but the refilling was done with shovels, as the mages needed to save their strength for the next task.

Which was to pull the Reverence over the beach. For that, they used the trunks they prepared and put them before the ship on the beach, right after Ocher and Maroon evened the ground. The rest was a question of the number of muscles.

That's where Greggor would shine once more. A number of ropes were bound at the ship and he held the end of all of them, then he used Strongman to pull the whole ship over the trunks. Others pushed it from behind the best they could, so that the quartermaster didn't have to carry the entire weight on his own, he already was very exhausted by the day, but he was the only one who could do this,

He got a break after the ship was at the opened space. The carpenters—many of them already subconsciously used magic before they were hired—used the tree crowns, rope, and some lumber to camouflage the ship from above. It was a very feeble construction that was held by the masts of the ship, but Scarlet wanted the Reverence to be able to roll down the logs down to the sea if needed.

Which turned into another frustrating work for Ocher and Maroon, who both had to not only cover all tracks, but try to heap up just enough sand on the logs so that they won't be visible, but not too much, so that the Reverence could run them down quickly if needed.

The whole endeavor took three hours, something most people wouldn't even call possible. Another example of how much knowing the basics of magic made a difference. However, all of the workers were dead tired, even Greggor was at his personal limits, as he used way too much stamina on his spells.

Scarlet spoke one of her rare praises: “You have done well, grubs. Now you can go to sleep. Everyone who protected the ship: Make sure to evolve to grubs by keep doing so! The grubs has to recuperate, so you maggots keep them save! Lookout, you go to the border, the captain needs someone to sense outside the forest. You, you, and you! Go with him! If anyone feels like slacking off, I will break some bones to keep you concentrated!”

In secret, Scarlet hopes for the captain to return soon. She was more than able to keep the crew in line, but she knew that most of the crew would feel more assured if their moron of a captain would be there, devising a stupid plan which may just work.

It would also assure Scarlet to know that her captain didn't put his hands into a hornet's nest by accident, but on the other hand, this was not what Captain Sebastian Bluerose was like. He either made trouble or ran into it, after all.