In the dark under the pale moonlight hidden behind the canopy of leaves the box-like treehouse upon which was laid out a thin fur blanket with no handrail or any sort of protection keeping one from falling off the intentionally slanted roof designed to look as though a child had built it. Mia was laying down.

Lazily lying atop the slanted roof positioned back against the trunk of the tree with her back at an obtuse angle as she watched the trail leading up to the fort to their west. The path though was not an exactly straight line as it gave way to big rocks trees and other such impediments along the way.

The faint scent of old smoke filled her nose as she bit into the hard dry meat as she watched the horizon occasionally squinting here and there at slight movements before dismissing them as local wildlife and returning to the food she was eating as she watched the road.

Tiring of the meat she grabbed a loaf of blackened bread and struggled to tear a bite away from it. It gave way loudly and she ripped a piece of it into her mouth. She then grabbed her water skin and took a sip in an attempt to soften the hard-cooked bread.

In dissatisfaction she let out a brief sigh before stretching her limbs and standing up atop the box, turning to take her leave. But, before she could, she noticed something off in the distance, the tiniest streak of smoke in the night sky under the pale moonlight.

She climbed down from the roof into the small box, picked up the toy telescope they'd left on the floor, and brought it up to her eye, trying to get as good a look as she could at the small sign of fire in the distance.

Through the lens, she could see a line of fires in a small path along the single road leading up to the fort from the east. She couldn't make out their numbers at this distance but she knew it was who they had been waiting for.

Replacing the toy on the floor she returned inside and hastily penned her report. "incoming supply cart, spotted on the edge of the horizon. numbers currently undetermined. no more than 4 days away at the latest."

After penning her report she left her small tree house and entered the base proper. After descending the rooms and heading straight for the war room she left the piece of paper directly on Laurentius's seat.

At the door to the war room, she stopped and looked back. Hesitantly she began pacing back and forth between her report and the barracks stepping as quietly as possible to not wake anyone accidentally before she could reach a decision.

Ultimately she left the paper on the chair closed the door silently and returned to her tree house/room. she climbed up the rope ladder to her bed after extinguishing all the candles climbed into her bed and cuddled up against a large lifesized lifelike stuffed bear.

Before she could enjoy her sleep however she felt familiar hands wrapping around familiar places and two familiar breasts pressing up against her back. Half asleep and a bit perturbed she spoke into the darkness.

"Master... already told you... saving myself for divorce."

The hands froze for a moment and Mia tried to go back to sleep but then she began speaking.

"Wait Mia, what was that just now?"

"Let me sleep~!"

"What did you just say about your master now?"

"Get out of my bed!"

Mia and Lagina began wrestling as Mia struggled to go back to sleep and Lagina tried desperately to pry her away from the taxidermied bear. Eventually, Lagina won in her efforts to wake her up as in the end Mia was firmly holding both of her wrists in one hand and pinning her neck against the ceiling with the other looking at her with anger in her eyes before soon calming down.

"What do you want?"

"What do you mean? You're the one that sent the report."

"So? I wanna go back to sleep."

"We have to prepare for the arrival of the elves though."

"Can't it wait until when I usually wake up?"

"You're going to have to start waking up earlier so we can all meet them when they arrive."

Mia groaned in protest and switched their position so that while still restraining both of Lagina's arms she also had a hand over her mouth and held her in place of her bear to keep her from trying to wake her again.

Lagina kept struggling though and it became increasingly difficult to try and go back to sleep as she had to keep tightening her grip every time she was about to return to sleep.

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By the time the sun was a hand's breadth above the horizon approximately 4 hours after Mia fell asleep, Lagina had succeeded in dragging an unhappy Mia back to where Latif, Lahahana, and Laurentius were chopping down trees fashioning road blocks and digging traps along the road.

"Oh good, you're awake."

"Can you stop sending the pervert to wake me?"

Laurentius greeted them with a smile but Mia was still upset. she waddled with stiff drowsy movements like a zombie in a blindfold still struggling to keep her eyes open in the harsh light of day.

"It's not my fault you sleep like that. It's like you're begging me to grab a hand full and squeeze to my heart's content."

"Sorry about her but we don't want to fall out of a tree again."

Mia groggily rubbed her left hand against her closed dead eyes and squinted at them. She picked up a handmade axe and threw it over her sholder hoping the shock of the handle against her shoulder would help to wake her.

"Cowards...."

She mumbled under her breath. They paid her no mind and went back to work. It took them a few days but they succeeded in finishing on time as on that third night when their work was finished their numbers could be seen clearly from the view of the toy telescope. Laurentius was keeping watch this night because it was too hard on Mia to both keep watch and wake up early with such little sleep so as the commander in charge of the operation he took it upon himself to keep an eye on the enemy as the hero slept less than a foot away.

Laurentius also took it upon himself to guard the sleeping Mia from any nighttime attacks Lagina would attempt on her as he watched the road these last few days. The caravan of supplies consisted of three waggons that just barely fit on the road with only about a foot and a half of clearance on each side of the road.

There were six horses carrying the burden of each waggon and one elf per carriage. The elves sat in soft chairs in each of their respective carriages and only carried melee weapons. Two of the carriages he could now see were built to carry supplies and the last one held a cage of human slaves packed like sardines unable to sleep forced upright by the cramped quarters.

There were also three lucky slaves at the reins of each carriage made to drive for the elves who couldn't be bothered to make the effort to direct the horses. He watched as the elves made the drivers pitch their individual tents and then tied them up and left them to sleep outside as if any wild animal attack would be focused on the slaves and give them time to escape.

Laurentius's face contorted and his fist clenched over the pendant he wore over his chest signifying his family's newfound nobility. he took a breath closed his eyes and composed himself.

"Enjoy the safety of this night you soulless knife-eared filth it's the last night you'll see."

The next day roughly around noon the elven caravan could be plainly seen and heard coming down the road. Laurentius and Lagina had hidden in the trees. Latif was holed up in their secret base and Mia was standing in plain view in front of the barricade.

The elves were leisurely drinking tea and lounging in their seats at the time so they couldn't have noticed the farthest elf on the last cart having an arrow shot straight between his eyes.

The slave driving the last cart however did see but before he could celebrate the other two carts had stopped. And so, he had to stop his cart too.

"What's going on? why are we stopping?"

"There's an unwashed child on the road"

The slave heard them scream at each other in Elvish.

"Did she fall from the slave cage? Escape from the fort?"

"I did not."

Mia responded. The elves looked to her in confusion at her fluency in their language before asking her.

"If you're not a slave then who are you?"

Before they could finish blinking, Mia stood over the first elf, sword drawn and said in elvish, "your death." before swiftly beheading the first and running out to torturously carve up the last elf on the side of the road.

Lifting her blade up over her head and flicking the sap-like blood off violently into the dirt. She turned back to the slaves driving the carts and said to them in the human tongue.

"Is everyone alright? Are there any more elves I need to kill?"