Lori hummed to herself as she laid out the map on the table while waiting for Rian to come back with breakfast. She had to admit, whoever had made this map had done good work. She recognized the bends in the river from the times she and Rian had needed to go to River's Fork, and could even point to the spot where the children liked to go seeling. With the map in front of her, she was able to put context to what she was feeling.

As she looked at the map, she let herself become aware of the earthwisps that made up her demesne. Looking at the map, she was able to contextualize some of those sensations. Or maybe those sensations put context to the map? In any case, it was interesting, feeling both the size of the hill her Dungeon was under and seeing its extent on the map to give her a better idea of how big it was. She'd never really explored it, just gone around to one side or another. According to the map, it was a part of a chain of hills going up and down away from the river at an angle, though the river had worn away at the end where her Dungeon was now. The other side of the river was much flatter, though a note had been added that it still had some hills, merely of lower elevation.

The area was so thickly forested the scouts had marked out where the trees weren't, which mainly consisted of the area they were settling, and a few large patches with rocks that were probably from when the dragon had passed overhead. The scouts couldn't tell what the dragon scales were made of, though apparently one of the samples they'd brought back had been identified as some kind of copper. At the very least, she had to mark those and bring them back with her, since they were too big to carry. The scouts had come back with some of the smaller bits they'd encountered, which was now in the metal vault. If they could bring those back, they might have enough of a surplus buffer that they could risk using metal. A circular saw they could attach to a water wheel would be nice…

Might as well ask for a complete education in Deadspeaking while she was at it, if she was wishing for things.

She blinked as someone placed two bowls on the map, and looked up to glare at Rian. "That's rude, you know," she said.

"Well, you kept ignoring me, and I didn't want the food to get cold," Rian shrugged. "That would be wasteful."

"Are you sure you're not a parent?" Lori said. "You keep talking like one."

"I think that's called 'adult responsibility'," Rian said. "And I feel old just thinking about it. And no, I'm not a parent. It's not like I have a willful child who makes me worried all the time who I have to take care of or anything."

Lori nodded. "Good. Otherwise you wouldn't have as much time working for me."

"Yes. Yes, that definitely would be the case," Rian said blandly, taking the bowl she didn’t choose. He looked down at the bowl and frowned. "You know, I just realized, do we actually have any plates? When we have more food than just 'stuff to throw in the stew', will we have any plates to eat them out of?"

"That’s what you're thinking about?" Lori said, giving her lord a confused look.

"I'm pretty sure it's part of my lordly duties to try and avert the No-Plate Crisis of Eventually," Rian said. "It could be terrible for our morale, having no plates when we finally have something else to eat."

Lori rolled her eyes. Useless thespian. "Are you done?"

He paused a moment, looking like he was actually thinking about it. "Yes, I think that's all I can squeeze out of that joke," Rian said. "Did you want something? Because usually I'm the one telling you things at breakfast."

"I'm simply reiterating that I will be out confirming the map today," Lori said. "So unless you have something urgent you need to tell me that developed in the hours I've been sleeping…?"

"No, nothing urgent," Rian said. "Go, enjoy your day off work. Though don't leave right away, I have a few things for you."

"It's not 'something to consider' is it?" she asked warily.

"No, I figured you'd want a water skin in case you got thirsty," Rian said.

"You realize I can just pull water out of the air right?"

He gave her a level look. "Go ahead. Drink that water when you have an alternative. I dare you."

She met his gaze, but nodded in admission. "A water skin would be convenient," she said.

"I'm also having the kitchen fill up some ration jars for you so you don't have to come back for lunch if you don’t want to," he said. "Just heat it up and eat it out there. You wouldn't be able to go as far if you had to come back for lunch, then go out again. Are you planning to take the boat–"

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

"Lori's Boat," she corrected.

Rian sighed for some reason. "– that, to go upriver or the other side, or will you just be walking?"

She shrugged. "I hadn't thought about it. I was just going to go and get those dragon scales."

Rian looked at the map, tilting his head sideways to read the notations. It was so nice to be able to read small print written in ink instead of charcoal. "Well, be careful. We don't know the terrain there. I wouldn't want anyone to get hurt trying to drag those things back home."

"You realize I'm a Dungeon Binder, right?" Lori said.

"Yes, but what does that have to do with not wanting people to get hurt?"

Lori opened her mouth, paused, closed her mouth, opened it again… then just decided to give up and eat her breakfast.

"Don't forget to bring your hat," Rian said. "I know we have a lot of trees, but you'd be surprised how much sunlight can get through tree cover."

"I worked outside yesterday, Rian, I think I know better than to not have my hat," Lori said, making a note to go back up to her room and get it.

Rian nodded. "Don't forget to bring your knife too."

"Why would I need my knife?" she said, beginning to get exasperated.

"In case there's an emergency," he said.

"What sort of emergency could there be I couldn't solve with magic?" Lori demanded.

"What if you get a thorn from a plant embedded in your skin and need to cut it out?" Rian suggested.

"Then I will stay away from thorny plants!" Lori huffed, making a note to dig up her knife when she went up to get her hat.

"What if one of the people accompanying you gets a thorn embedded in their skin?" he said.

"Then they can use their own knife!"

"You'd trust them to bring a knife?"

Lori hesitated. "Fine!" she snapped. "But tell them they can't bring along any knives!"

"Yes, your Bindership," Rian said brightly.

––––––––––––––––––

After breakfast, she went upstairs for her knife, hat, and her bag of lengths of firewood, just in case. She also brought along her case containing her metal utensils, which she hadn't had to use in a while because of the dining hall's spoons. Rian would probably have spoons to go with the ration jars too, but just in case…

Afterwards, she went downstairs to find Rian with two familiar young men. Lori didn't like Deil and Tackir, any more than she liked Rian. But they had shown themselves tolerable by being smarter than Landoor—or at least not as stupid—they'd adequately obeyed orders before, they knew better than to talk to her directly unless she talked to them first, and they didn't seem to be eager to be somewhere else, unlike those two yesterday, which was already vastly less irritating.

They were also carrying a bag containing carefully sealed ration jars with their lunch, as well as some hairy blueballs and happyfruit for snacking on if they got hungry before then. Rian handed her a water skin filled with water and suggested she put a little ice in it to help cool her down if she became hot.

"You have your hat, good," Rian said, nodding as she secured the water skin to her belt opposite the firewood. "Are your shoes comfortable? Do you want a towel to wipe away your sweat with? Are you sure it's a good idea to have this walk while wearing that coat? Won't you get hot?"

"I'm fine, Rian," she snapped. "Stop being so smothering, you're sounding like my parents again!"

"I'm just worried, that's all," Rian said. "If anything happened to you, we'd have to go beg Shanalorre to be our Binder."

"Well, stop worrying, because nothing is going to happen to me," she huffed. "I'll be fine. It's my own demesne, why wouldn't I be fine?" She held out her raincoat to him, which he took as she wrapped her arms in darkwisps to keep them from burning without her coat's sleeves to cover them. "I expect you to return that to me at dinner."

Holding the map in her hands, she looked over Deil and Tackir. They carried their own waterskins, and Deil had the bag with their lunch, while Tackir had the snacking fruits and their own waterskins. She nodded in satisfaction, then fixed Rian a pointed look as he carefully folded her rain coat over his arm. "Now. I'm going. Unless you have something else to say, like a sudden emergency you became aware of in the last ten heartbeats…?"

"No, nothing's come up," Rian said. "Be careful you three. Remember to watch your step, especially when you're going up slopes, slipping and falling is the easier way to get hurt when you're walking through the woods. You two make sure she doesn't get hurt, or else we're all doomed, all right?"

"Don't worry Lord Rian, you can rely on us," Deil said determinedly. "We'll make sure nothing happens to her Bindership." Tackir nodded in agreement.

"It's the woods, Rian. It's not like we're going out in to the Iridescence where the beasts are," Lori said, rolling her eyes. "We'll walk, we'll find some rocks, we'll check the map a few times, we'll come back. It's supposed to be restful, not exciting."

"Don't stay out too late, and turn back before it gets dark," Rian said. "Magic lights or no, it's dangerous to walk in the woods when it's hard to see where you're going. And remember to watch your step–"

"We're going!" Lori said, turning and facing away from her lord, who seemed to be losing his mind. "Come on you two, we'll climb up the rise to the new houses and then start heading for the edge. The first dragonscale should be up there." She took a step forward, then paused. She turned to them and pointed. "You two walk in front of me."

The two looked bemused, but did as she said, beginning to climb up to the new houses where the work on the various roofs, balconies and second floors seemed to be progressing well.

"I'll see you when you get back," Rian said, stating the obvious. "Be careful! Don't forget to drink water so you don't–!"

"Rian, get back to work!"

The man had the gall to roll his eyes, but started walking himself, thankfully not towards Lori, even as he kept glancing at her as she followed after the other two, her feet sure on the compacted dirt and molded stone of the road as she regarded the map and their first destination, the dragon scale that the copper sample had supposedly come from…

She stumbled a little when the road leveled out as it reached the new houses, but that was all right. Stumbling was not tripping, and she was perfectly fine!