The trekkers are gathered at the edge of the forest where the battle was fought days before.

Hulking figures in shining armor wielding massive shields and blades, robbed individuals with an air of mystery and intelligence, and sneaking sly rogues and scouts with eyes always watching for an attack or opportunity.

On the outskirts of these imposing figures is the Brim family.

Heath is thankful for his raised Strength stat, as he was weighed down by all the things his mother insisted he take.

His pack was full of travel rations, different prepared potions, the ingredients and equipment to make more, an extra pair of clothes, a small tent, a bedroll, tools to sharpen blades, and rope, because according to his mother you never know when rope will save your life.

On his hip was a sheathed simple dagger that had been made for him by Mister Kopek, and on his off arm was a shield of solid oak that his father had surprised him with when he was packing this morning.

The inside of the shield was decorated with similar images their home once had, including a family of four around a hearth.

On the front was a simple stylized flame.

“Nervous?”, Karl asks, eyes wandering over the gathered crowd.

“Yes.”, Ingrid replies.

Karl looks at his wife with mirth,,”I meant Heath.”

“I know.”

“A little, but excited too.”, Heath cuts in trembling with nervous energy.

“Not too late to sit this out and just wait for them to come back.”, Ingrid injects.

She may have given in to the idea of her son being a trekker, but that didn’t mean she wouldn’t try and delay it if she could.

“Ingrid.”

“Mom”

“I know I know. I had to try.”

The crowd of trekkers begins to stir and murmur as an old man in leather armor with metal studs inlayed into it, his muscles rippling underneath, walks toward them.

“That’s the guildmaster.”, Heath says breath catching.

“Time to join ya team.”, Karl states.

Heath hugs his parents,” I love you both. Thank you… for everything.”

“ We love you too. Please be safe.”, Ingrid says with tears in her eyes.

“Make ya self proud and I will be too.”, Karl whispers to his son.

Heath nods and turns to Nadia, who was pouting.

“Nadia, I’m going now.”, Heath says, kneeling down to her.

“Do ya have to go?”, Nadia asks with wide pleading eyes.

She buries her head into his leather vest,”Why?”

“I do, but when I get back I’ll tell you amazing stories of what I see.”, Heath says, pulling her toward him for a hug.

A muffled reply, “ Really?”

“Really.”

Pop.

A small warm pressure joins their embrace.

Nadia pulls back to see Fi-ya hugging her too.

“You keep Heath safe okay Fi-ya?”

The hearth spirit gives her a dutifully nod and then kisses her nose, causing her to giggle.

Heath stands up and sighs, “ Alright Fi-ya, time to go.”

The spirit nods and disappears.

Pop.

Heath gives his family one last smile and walks toward the Wild Jacks that stand near the back of the crowd.

Sebastian is of course the first to see Heath’s approach and gives the young man a smile, “ The first time leaving home is the hardest.”

“I remember my first time leaving. Thought my Ma would cry herself to death.”, Olaf adds with his rumbling voice.

“I didn’t think it would be this hard to leave.”, Heath says more to himself than the others.

“We never do, but you're a Jack now, kid.”, Leanna cheerfully says, smacking Heath’s shoulder.

Heath smiles, “ Yeah.”

Before anyone can say another word, a surprisingly high pitch voice calls out.

“Today my fellow trekkers, we embark on a mission that truly embodies our profession. We will set out not only to find a dungeon and subjugate it, but in the process protect the lives of those in Scozeg.”, the guildmaster declares, stopping to wet his lips.

“Some call us heroes, others call us greedy mercenaries only in it for the coin. Today we are both.”

A few people laugh and a smile spreads over the guildmaster's face as he continues.

“We will find that dungeon, stop the surges, and make coin doing it. We will travel as a group the first night to the location the town scout first spotted the monsters. Tomorrow we will split up and search the surrounding area in a grid pattern. Without any further grandstanding, let's disembark.”

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

With the final word the guildmaster turns and marches into the forest, the others following behind him.

“Time to go.”, Leanna tells her team and walks forward, the others falling in behind her.

Heath begins to look back at his family, but stops when Sebastian places a hand on his shoulder, “Don’t look back it’ll only make things harder.”

“For me or them?”

“Both.”

Heath nods and presses on and soon disappears into the wood.

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  Heath is huffing at the rear of the group, Sebastian staying behind to keep him company.

“ Good thing to keep in mind young Heath, everyone here besides you is a trekker and have stats far beyond yours.”

Heath nods to the halfling’s words not daring to waste precious oxygen on responding.

“ Not too late to turn back.”

Heath gives him an incredulous look, “ Feck that.”

“Just making sure.”

“HALT!”

The guildmaster turns around to those behind him and yells, “ This is the area where the monsters were first spotted by the scouts. All trackers should search the area, then we will make camp for the night.”

“Thank the gods.”, Heath says between breaths as he drops to the ground.

Sebastian leans over Heath, appears upside down to the prone young man, “ Not to be that guy … but you have to set up our camp while I go look for things wanting to kill us. So chop chop….”

The halfling claps his hands twice punctionwating his words, and smirks at the dower expression Heath makes in response.

“ Sorry kiddo, someone has to do the grunt work … andnowthatsyounotme, okaybye.”

Sebastian says the last part so fast his words run together and dashes away before the newest Jack could respond.

Heath Props himself up and watches the scout run away and grumbles, “ That sly bugger only brought me along to do his chores.”

“Doubtful.” Leanan says from behind him.

Startled Heath jumps to his aching feet with a grimace, “ Captain?”

While dropping two rolled up tents at his feet she continues, “ Rarely does Sebastion do anything without at least two reasons. Sure sometimes they dumb reasons, but they are reasons.”

The two stand silently for a moment as a gust of wind makes its way through camp, drying the sweat on Heath’s brow.

Leanna breaks the silence by saying, “ Anyways, that's mine and Sven’s tents. Don’t worry about Olaf, he takes care of himself.”

Thumbing behind her toward the towering man, Heath peers over behind her to see Olaf had made an above ground burrow of sorts. Thick slabs of stone layered with rich black soil grass still clinging to it.

Turning to Jack's captain the young trekker asks, “Magic?”

“Magic”

“Why don’t we all sleep in those?”

“Trust me kid, after your first cave-in you’ll know why.”

“My first what?”

“ Don’t even worry about it. Now get to work Sven and I are gonna talk with some of the other teams about plans for tomorrow.”

“ I guess I’ll get started on camp.”, Heath mumbles.

With a nod Leanna walks away from the Wild Jacks’ sleeping area, but stops and looks back and says, “ If you do a good job, and I’m in a good mood, I’ll teach you a bit of fire magic.”

With a surge of vigor Heath quickly got to work.

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  Heath stands back, whipping the evidence of his work that was the sweat of his brow and smiles. He had taken a branch and cleared the area of all debris before setting up the three tents he had in a circle with Olaf’s burrow.

After he had gathered stones and wood to make a campfire, where there was now a pot of soup cooking made from dried meat and premade mix his mother had given him.

A whisple breaks the peace of Heath’s admiration of his own work and Olaf’s snoring.

“Good job. That soup I smell.”

Heath turns to see Leanna returning with Sebastain, but without Sven.

The halfling walks over to the pot of soup and takes a sip with a spoon that he seemed to pull from nowhere.

With a slurp, “Hmm. Not bad, could use some work, but you’ll get better.”

Looking around Heath asks, “ Where’s Sven?”

Leanna and Sebastain share a knowing smile. Heath hated when adults did that.

Sebastain clears his throat and says with a chuckle, “ Sven is um… debating the fundamentals of magical theory with a fellow zapper. Yeah, that’s what he’s doing.”

With an eye roll Heath responds, “ Sure, don’t tell me.”

Leanna gives a short laugh and claps him on his shoulder, “ Come on let’s eat… unless you don’t want to learn more about fire magic.”

Heath pushes a bowl into everyone, those awake at least, hands.

“Let’s eat.”

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Bowls splash into the now water field soup pot to be cleaned. Olaf wipes his mouth still groggy from his nap.

Heath looks at a reclined Leanna expectiontly.

The rogue sips wine from a tin cup lazily with her eyes closed. A minute passes and she sighs, “ Fine! If you keep staring at me like that you’ll bore a hole straight through me.”

Leaning up, she puts her cup aside, “ Okay, grab a stick from the fire.”

Heath bolts forward and seizes a thin stick and holds it up, the end still ablaze.

“Hand it here.”

He eagerly hands it over.

Holding it in front of her and cups her other hand around the flame.

“So imagine mana flowing from your center, moving down your arm into your palm. Then have it condense into your surroundings as a thick cloud.”

The flame flutters when she says this, “ Be careful not to smother the flame, then use your mana to fuel the flame and then guide it how you wish it to be.”

At this she pulls her hand back with a flourish of her hand, and the fire thins and begins to swirl around. Leanna jerks her hand up suddenly and the fire follows, then at her hand’s direction begins to make a circle, before quickly condensing into a ball of flame.

To Heath’s astonishment, the ball transforms into the shape of a miniature stallion and races around the campsite.

“Woah!”, escapes Heath’s lips.

The stallion raises into the air continuing its run, stopping over the fire before bursting into sparks.

Leanna smirks, “ That last bit may be a bit advanced, but you get the gist.”

“Just a bit. Show off.”, Sebastian adds.

Leanna shrugs. Standing she olds the stick back into the fire until it lights.

Handing it to a still amazed Heath, “ Now you may not get it right away, but with some practice it should be easy.”

Heath has his hand over the flame before she finishes talking, then quickly jerks it back, “ Ow!”

“Yeah, be careful not to burn yourself, or the camp down while on guard duty.”

“I’ll be care…wait what duty?”

Sebastian stretches, “ You’re on first watch kid. So keep an eye out while you play with your fire. Just yell if something that wants to kill us comes into camp.”

Leanna places an hourglass down in front of Heath, “When this empties wake me and I’ll take over.”

Before Heath can say anything, Leanna slips into her tent and Sebastian slips into Sven’s.

Heath looks over to Olaf, only to see his spirits futilely trying to pull the giant man into his burrow.

“At least I won’t be bored.”, Heath says looking down at the flickering flame in front of him.