Before the sun had the chance to rise Mia stirred and arose from the bed not even questioning why she slept in the healer's room. she stretched her arms and body trying to force the tiredness from her bones. once she was satisfied she stood up and walked out of the tent. the sky was purple the first diluted fragmented rays of light before the sun even emerged from its spot behind the mountains were already threatening to overtake the stars in the night sky.

she walked out a few paces and found Laurentius awake and cooking for himself a sizable chunk of bear meat. a slight look of displeasure at the gaminess of the meat stifled by his stomach's insistence he eat. before she could even reach the spot where he sat to carve herself a chunk of meat she overheard him whispering to himself.

"As if one Lagina wasn't bad enough"

she stopped mid-stride and looked around. as the sky began to turn brighter by the minute and the first dim rays of light began dying the sky orange in the pale flicker of the campfire light she saw Lagina in her hammock with her loose-fitting nightwear hanging in just a revealing enough way that Mia got the message.

looking down she soon learned what it was he was trying to say and swiftly backpedalled a few steps to pick up her discarded shirt from the floor of Latif's tent. she put it back on fixed the tear by tying little knots in the fabric and returned to where Laurentius was sitting.

"Better?"

"Less uncomfortable, at least. Are you feeling alright? I heard about the snake."

he took a bite of his breakfast. a look of concern crossed his face though it had to compete with his look of displeasure at having to eat such a meal. she stopped walking for a second to process the question. before coming up to the bear carving off a string of meat from one of the bear's forearms and laying it over the makeshift grill they brought with them.

"It wasn't even that poisonous. I could have just slept it off."

"Didn't you?"

Seeing through her false bravado as she tried to play it off as nothing major. a smile crept onto Laurentius's face. Mia however defiantly doubled down on her position. as the gamy smell of bear began forcing the others to wake up and gather around.

"Mia, you're ok."

Lagina took the spot on the toppled log Mia was sitting on closest to her and wrapped her arm around her waist, not even bothering to fix her state of dress.

"Yeah, I'm fine."

"I told you Latif was a good healer."

The arm on Mia's side began to not so subtlely slide its way up her shirt. before it could reach its desired location it was ripped from its place as Mia put her palm on Lagina's face and pushed her to the other side of the log. Luckily for Mia, her arms were slightly longer than Lagina's and Lagina was too tired to do much more than futilely grasp at the air after being deprived of the warmth of Mia's side. Laurentius just chuckled to himself from the opposite side of the fire.

"I think she likes you. Welcome to the party."

Mia chuckled back to Laurentius' words and released her grip on Lagina's face. Before she could dive back into Mia's chest Lahahana sat down between them. so Lagina just grabbed at him instead.

"I see you're morning habits are still going strong."

"Why'd you get in my way."

Lagina glanced at the fire and saw the meat Mia was cooking and reached out to take it but Mia saw her and snatched it up first. as she ate it Lagina kept staring at her as if she'd try to bite the other end but Mia just positioned herself on the opposite side of Lahahana and used him as a shield to keep Lagina's lips off her morning meal.

When Latif joined them he put an extra piece of meat on the fire for Lagina so she'd leave Mia alone. and then he looked over and as if just realising it exclaimed.

"Ah! Mia, aren't you supposed to be resting?"

Stolen novel; please report.

"I'm fine it wasn't even that poisonous."

"It brought you down and gave you a really bad fever if I hadn't healed you you might not be alive right now."

"Master said the best way to deal with poison is to not move so it doesn't spread and then let the body take care of it on its own to build an immunity towards it later. Besides, it was an adult snake. if it had been a baby it might have been worse."

"Still you shouldn't be up so soon after being injured."

"I said I'm fine. we need to keep going or we might get found out by the enemy if we take too long to set up a bandit hideout. it's not exactly easy to defend a tent."

"Rest at least for today then we still have to process the bear into rations for the journey."

"I'll just smoke the meat and we can go when it's done. shouldn't be more than a few hours"

a smile ran across Latif's face.

"If you're really worried about us being discovered you should wait until dark to smoke the meat. a pillar of smoke in a clear blue sky isn't exactly stealthy either."

Mia looked over in the direction of the sunrise as it had reached an inch above the horizon already. she sighed and slumped her shoulders.

"Fine, we'll wait until dark."

Mia spent the day cutting up the bear into smaller more portable pieces and hung them up over where she was planning on smoking them for the night Lagina and Laurentius were discussing plans for what to do when they arrived and how best to mess with the elves once they reached a point where they could rob them of their supplies.

with their constant trekking onwards through the forest, it was nice to take a break and just discuss their plans around the put-out fire pit.

"So we're in agreement then."

"Yes, we'll take every supply sent and hide from anyone sent to investigate."

"We're also going to have to make it look like animal attacks to throw them off our trail."

"Mia can you make it so that it looks like animals tore through the supplies once we steal them."

Mia sat by the butchered bear salting and cleaning the blood off the bear pelt as they spoke. just preparing it to use as a blanket if she needed it. when asked she looked down at the bear claws and smiled.

"Yeah, I could do that."

"Great."

"I have a question."

"Ok, what is it?"

"You think the elves would get suspicious if they find their supply waggons broken down on the side of the road with only mauled elf corpses around?"

"What do you mean?"

"If they enslave people after taking over our land don't you think they'd use the people as a shield? Wouldn't it be strange that the slaves ran free and the elves all died?"

"... well... if any of the slaves we end up recruiting to be bandits turn out to be trouble makers who don't like our leadership we can leave them to be 'mauled by a bear' with the elves."

"If they find us I get to slaughter them all though right?"

"Maybe wait for the starvation to take effect before assaulting a fort."

"I thought we were just drawing them out cause it's easier to defend than it is to siege."

"I mean, that's part of it... but we're mostly just going to weaken them so the main forces can come in and retake the fort."

"When I became a hero I wanted to leave my name in history like the brave men and women who single handheldly won against impossible;e odds with nothing but a sword and a smile."

"what about the great wise mage heroes of old who expertly commanded extremely underwhelming forces against overwhelming odds and won through cunning and intelligence."

"But that's not my strong suit."

"Clearly."

at this point, the planning meeting devolved into them bickering until dark. Mia lit the fires under the bear meat and put various pieces of fresh-cut wood over the fires to smoke the meat. they left the meat to smoke overnight and in the morning they travelled onwards to their destination on the other side of the fort.