The orcs returned from the forest quietly. Finley knew what they were going through. Every time he looked back at the tinker wagon he was reminded that his entire family had died or been turned. True, they had adopted him but that had been so long ago.

They had taken enough time. Drawing deep, Finley thought about how to honor the dead. He used some of his mana to grow a tree. It would take some time, but eventually it would flower. All he had energy for was a sapling, but with Sonya's help the barrow of their fallen clan would be marked. It was clearly visible from a distance. The tree would grow with a distinct evergreen leaf.

Perhaps one day, when this was all over, they could return. If they stayed, then eventually the zombies would find them.

Finley returned to his wagon. As his was the first to leave, he spent some time turning it back in the direction that they had come. Behind him, Bob's wagon lined up.

The orcs arrived and then the other two wagons mounted and turned around.

Then they were off once again.

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"Hey Anthony?" Sonya said. "If we didn't have to stay in Arva for two days to recover, do you think we would have?"

"What do you mean?" He said, turning to her from the front of the wagon. Finley was napping right behind them.

"Like if there is no pressing need for us to move and the next closest death knight is months away, then could we have stayed longer? Like a week to recover? Or more?"

Anthony appeared to consider her words. The sounds of the horses moving filled the silence. He turned back to the front.

"I mean I guess we could have? We have a long way to go but a few days here or there won't do much."

Anthony shrugged.

"I mean think about it. This continent, based on what we have seen so far, is huge. It's going to take some time to traverse it. Six hours of hitting it hard and we're still on the road," Sonya said. "The scours come up and help adjust our direction every so often but yeah. I'm glad that I haven't been in the saddle that whole time."

Anthony patted her thigh. He probably felt the same way.

"You swapped out with the riders two hours ago when we ran out of stories about the American healthcare system. Those, by the way, were terrible and it was scaring Finley," Anthony said. "I think that he has seen through enough horrors for two lifetimes."

The wagon was continuing on through a well traveled road. Besides Arva, there hadn't been much of note on their route so far. Sonya had expected as least one of two groups of zombies but her anticipation of another fight soon turned into boredom. Her boredom had turned into her wishing that they were there yet, but they were all adults and they were all looking for a good spot for the night.

"You don't think that we will get to the next town, Heirisburg,today?" Sonya said.

"If we don't see it soon, I'm going to call for a halt. I wonder if the scouts have seen anything yet," Anthony raised his hand to shade his eyes. His long flowing locks moved like they had just been to the salon. Sonya had activated the cleanse card several times that day, trying to keep everyone fresh. When they had swapped around she had asked the people in the other wagons if they wanted a cleanse. It removed sweat, dirt and smells but it wasn't exactly the same as a shower.

The only problem with it was the side effect of it smelling like a teenage boy on a date. Most of the group had gotten used to it.

Most, but not all.

"Ah! Here comes the scouts!" Anthony said.

Ahead of them, three riders approached. The sun glinted off of the bald head of the man in the center. The two riders on either side were both women with long flowing hair. As they got closer, they were all smiles. The serious demeanor they had when they departed was now gone.

"We found a spot!" Sophie yelled once they were within earshot.

"Is her hair wet?" Anthony said. "It looks wet to me."

Sonya squinted. It did look a bit like she had slicked it back. The combination with his scrub top gave her the appearance of a model on a fashion line for nurses.

"I guess? That would have to be a lot of sweat if not."

Stella slowed her horse to a trot by them. Bob and Sophie continued on to pass the word.

"This ought to be good," Anthony said.

"We found a spot for tonight. You're going to love it," Stella said. "You can see it after this next ridge."

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"This is probably the best place you could have picked. Well done. The only question is who gets to jump in first?" Anthony said to Bob as they crested the final ridge. Below them was a valley with a large lake in it. The river ran from the north to the lake and southwards where a large town could be seen. The town in question was downhill which meant this lake fed into it.

Anthony had been worried the lake would be uphill or down river meaning that it would be suspect. One never wanted to swim in human excrement. The pipes leading from a large enough city would be breeding grounds for terrible things that none of them wanted to deal with. Finley hadn't been much help about this.

He knew to not shit upstream of his drinking or living area, but the germ theory of disease was something that it had not so far penetrated into Tinker culture. Anthony was going to be taking steps to ensure that it did. In the future he hoped that all tinkers would consider basic sanitation a part of their normal education.

The caravans circled up, leaving the horses in the center. They parked not very far from the gorgeous lake. Even Anthony was tempted to jump right in. So long as there were no inland giant fish, they would be alright. Bob and Finley quickly joined him in the center as they figured out how to get set up.

"You want to organize the defensive walls? Finley and I will check on the water situation. We either need to make walls on both sides and through, or just on this side," Anthony said.

"Just put them here, the land is getting too flat. Give us some space, about half of the distance to the river should be good, draw a line there," Bob said, pointing to four corners. "And make that southern side the one with the fake entrance. Make the north our real exit. Stella and Sophie, do you both want to lay out the markets for the corner? Then check on the food... Then you guys can jump into the water?"

"On it," Stella said, grabbing four spears and passing two to Sophie. They had more than enough spears. It was a preference to keep the zombies a distance away. The girls jogged out to make the outlines of what would soon be their fortifications.

"First watch? Volunteers anyone?" Anthony said. "Going once?"

About five people raised their hands.

"Thank you all! You get to go for a swim first. Also you get to tell me if there are any monsters or fresh-water fish," Anthony said. "So please bring your game faces. If you're going to swim, please take a buddy. I would hate for someone to go missing out here. I would hate to find out that one of you is our next death knight."

"Boss, you want us on the night shift?" Borgan said, yawning. Next to him Song was stretching as if the two had spent the day sleeping rather than driving. Perhaps in comparison to walking all day, they had relaxed a bit too much.

"If you'll have it," Anthony said, wincing. "I don't want to make this a habit though."

"Alright. Finley and I will check if the water is good with Sonya. Everyone else if we can get settled in, that would be great."

There were a lot of implied tasks that Anthony didn't hand out. For instance, immediately someone took a bedroll out and claimed a spot inside of the four wagons. Someone else brought several horses to the stream. He didn't really have to tell them to do that because if they didn't do it while the sun was up, then they were screwed. They knew what to do. He just had to give them the time to do it. He judged that perhaps they had another three or four hours before it got dark

Anthony and Finley grabbed the empty beer barrels. While they moved the barrels, Anthony explained why they were drawing from upstream and not downstream.

"So basically what you are telling me is... Don't shit in my drinking water, but with extra steps? I think I can do that," Finley said. His face and entire body was now entirely green.

His arm was beginning to grow back. The nub that had been left was an inch further from the elbow joint than it had been the day prior, Anthony was certain. His barrel was in held mostly in one arm, bracing against the bicep of the other.

"It's something like that. It's preventative. And really, we should consider if we can get Sonya to cleanse the whole thing. That would be ideal. Do you think they're going to be any fresh water fish? Actually, I don't even know if the water's could be fresh. This far inland it should be," Anthony said.

Finley set his barrel down. The two men realized that they might need some help.

"Boys," Sonya said, "Let me take this next part."

She began casting a spell. As she chanted, each word a sacred whisper, a circle of light formed on top the water. Then it's slowly rotated. As it rotated, water started to climb up into the air. Finley quickly broke open the top of his barrel with Anthony's help. Then the pair cracked open the other two barrels that Anthony had been carrying

Andrew came over with the wheelbarrow, placing it right where it could be easily loaded. Anthony and Finley placed the first barrel there. The water rose up into the barrel filling it up. Anthony and Andrew took the wheelbarrow over to the clearing, then unloaded it. They moved the wheelbarrow back, repeating the process two more times until their water situation was finally under control.

"All right Sonya, other thing we need you to do is obviously cleansing this area. I can tell that half these guys really want to jump in. I can't tell how deep this lake is but it's it. Looks like it's a football field long and at least twice as wide. How much is can you cover with the use of the cleanse spell?" Anthony said. Moving closer to her, he checked her eyes. She yawned right in his face.

"Right now? Probably about half of it. I'll go and cleanse some and then if you don't mind, I think I'm going to go for a swim. You are welcome to join me," She said. She began to strip down. Anthony shrugged.

"When you're in a place place like Rome, do what you can do," he said. "I'm only going to be a few minutes, Finley. I should grab some towels first, but..."

Sonya gave him a look before depositing her clothes by the shore and activating a cleanse on them.

There were several reasons why Anthony should have gone and gotten towels. There were far more reasons for him to stay and watch his girlfriend undress. He didn't mean to be lewd, he just wanted to appreciate the sight. And he might have gotten carried away, she did look quite nice.

Anthony jogged over and grabbed several towels before sprinting back at full speed. Hey, did you use the excuse that he was testing out the water for anybody else who wanted to go in. Several people had already gotten in calf deep. Anthony had defensive Magic and he wasn't afraid to use it if he really had to. If nothing else, it was probably going to be his or Sophie's job if there were monsters inside of this lake. Perhaps they would find a lake monster.

Sonya had already swam a little bit. She could clearly stand from where she was and he could see her casting and cleanse again. A white light surrounded her pulsing outwards as the lake went from a slightly changed green to a gorgeous blue. Where he could once only see the top of the like now we could see to the bottom. He liked what he saw.

That was about the time that he suffered the worst betrayal yet on this trip.

Anthony was a man who trusted people. He thought that he had a high trust with every single person in the Caravan. But when his girlfriend decide to splash him, all bets were off.