After a day of bumpy travel, we decide to set up camp just as the sun begins to set. We spot a clearing just up ahead, so we pull to the side of the road and start grabbing camping equipment out of the carriage.

"Aye, this looks good enough." Quinn said dropping the last bag to the floor. "Right then. Me and Rose will go look for some dry wood to start a fire, Gil will move the carriage more onto the grass and out of the way of other travelers, oh and feed the horses while your at it, lastly." Quinn stopped and pointed to me and Erwin. "You two can start putting up tents. Jax has probably never done this before so you'll have to show him how to do it."

With a nod to her, both Quinn and Rose went over the other side of the road and into the forest to look for twigs and broken branches, Gilgwyn on the other hand walked over to the carriage and started to lead the horses onto the field, leaving just us two alone in the middle of the clearing.

"alrighty then. let's get started, if you need any help just give me a shout and i'll come running over." Erwin said with a smile, running over to one of the bags that were at our feet.

"okay. I'll do my best." I said, going over to another bag and emptying out the contents.

About twenty minutes after we started, during which Gilgwyn came over to help us, we managed to set up all three tents in a semicircle just to the side of a small fire pit we had dug out. The tents were only big enough for two people to sleep in and seeing as we had a spare, it was decided that whoever was on watch would sit in the doorway of the middle one and guard some bags we had put in there. After another five minutes had past we could see Rose and Quinn walking back over from the forest with arms full of wood.

When they got back and lit the sticks with some flint and tinder, we needed to decide what the watch rotation was gonna be. After some discussion it was decided that it was going to be two hours per person and that I was going to take first watch, seeing as I needed to get used to staying up longer and nothing usually attacked just after dusk. Rose would be up next followed by Erwin and lastly Gilgwyn before we set out again. It was also proposed that we keep this set up all the way till reaching Baalmore, as it would mean the two of them guarding the carriage would get more sleep and I would get some practice in before becoming an adventurer. I would also like to add that Quinn apparently didn't need to take a watch because "the client shouldn't have too" according to Erwin. The look on his face, the smug bastard.

Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.

During this conversion the sun had completely set and the moon was just now poking over the horizon. With the fire now fully burning we finally sat down for dinner. Gilwyn put three iron spikes into the ground around the fire in a triangle formation, with a pot hanging in the middle. Opening said pot revealed some sort of vegetable broth. Quinn went on to say that it's the leftovers from two nights ago, the night before arriving at Old birch. Waiting for the food to reheat, we went ahead and got ourselves a cup of water from one of the barrels in the carriage, with Quinn pulling a flask of liquor out of nowhere.

After ten minutes of belly rumblings and mouths drooling the soup was hot enough to eat, with everyone running off to grab a wooden bowl and spoon then lining up in front of Gilgwyn. Half way through the meal Erwin spoke up, asking. "Hey Jax. You wanna work for the guild right? How come?"

"Well, I grew up west of here in Suburn in an orphanage run by a retired adventuring couple. We would often hear stories from back when they were still active that I would dream about every day.They always knew that I wanted to be like them when I was old enough so they always made sure I knew that adventuring was a taxing job and warned me of all the dangers that came with it. But as I got closer to coming of age the orphanage fell on hard times, so I resolved to get a stable job as fast as I could to pay them back for all they had done for me.” I stopped, having another mouthful of food.

"that's it?" Erwin said.

"Well I was always busy moving from one job to the next trying to earn as much money as I can that I didn’t have time for anything else.” I continued. “It was only about two or three years ago that the orphanage was stable again. Seeing as it had only just gotten stable and I was already locked into a contract I decided to keep working and sending money back like I had always done.” I said, finishing up my bowl.

"Then I came around and gave you that opportunity, and here we are." Quinn said as he stood up, getting seconds.

"Things worked out in the end then huh?" Gil said. Who was lying down on the grass.

" Adventuring runs in my family so it was only natural that I did as well. That and I always wanted to be like my uncle, who chose the swordsman class too" Erwin said.

“I needed money among other things and it seemed like the best option at the time. But that’s behind me now, I quit and now I work for Quinn.” Gil said with a nod to the dwarf that was stuffing his face.

"Well I got into fights a lot and decided I should get paid for it." Rose declared, earning a laugh from all of us.

With all the bowls empty and our stomachs full we headed off to bed, well apart from me who was on first watch.

I did fine for the first hour, poking the fire with a stick and keeping it from fully going out. But half way through the second hour, my eyes started to sway even as I kept pinching my leg and cheeks desperately trying to stay awake. The next thing I saw was Rose shaking me awake. Realising what i'd done, I apologised profusely but she waved it off saying that I did better than she thought I would. Standing up and saying good night I slowly walked over to a tent with a open spot, crawling into the other bed roll laid out and passing out.

The night must have been uneventful, as I woke up to the sun just rising over the horizon and the party stirring awake. Taking the tents down and packing everything away, we loaded it all back onto the carriage and moved it onto the road as we prepared to set out again, hoping the trip would be just as uneventful as the first day.