The second fort was set up much like the first except instead of one above-ground building with a basement within a basement, it was more like Mia's watch tower except there were five of them and they all connected to a system of existing underground caves that were excavated at a central point to make one big meeting place.

A few girls trained in Archery would leave from separate exits and bring back animals for food and clothing. There were no tree houses built into these hollowed-out trees and while there was already a magical password to get into the tree itself there was a second password needed to get into the tunnels.

The cave system worked as a natural labyrinth in case any uninvited house guests did manage to get in. Mia was returned to the night watch as she prefered to wake up late and Lagina was left in charge of managing the resources and their plan of attack from here.

About a week after they'd gotten situated as Mia was hanging out in her particular tree dangling upside down on a branch and juggling her closed flip knife from hand to hand she saw a peculiar glimmer in the distance and brought herself back up to take a more serious look.

From the Direction of the fort, she could see a lone elf with a horse camping by the roadside. The glint of the armour he took off and left by the fire had caught her eye. He was carrying a long bow and a quiver of arrows.

She watched him in the distance as he pitched his tent and threw beast repellant into the fire. It was evident he'd been riding late into the night as the moon was at about three-quarters of its journey across the night sky by the point she saw him.

She tried to gauge the distance by eye and kept darting back and forth between the tired enemy soldier and the sword at her waist. She gently caressed the handle while smiling. After a sharp exhale she reentered the tree and made her way back to the centre of their underground cave.

The soft patter of her steps through the dirt-filled caves soon changed to a light tapping as the ground changed to more of a stone brick mosaic floor with wooded walls and put out candles. Her footsteps though near silent as the only sound in the dead of night was rather piercing in the echoing halls.

As she entered the base propper there were a few women stationed at the gates with crossbows. They sleep in shifts and the ones awake to see her let her in when they saw who she was.

"Lagina's in the war room again, she hasn't been sleeping well."

"Thank you."

They whispered amongst themselves. The padded gates opened. Their thick plant fibre-covered boards thumped quietly against the walls as the leafy brush dragging at their base brushed away anything that might impede their swing.

Through the door was a wide open space big enough to fit a fortress in. Stalactites and stalagmites acted as support pillars and were sporadically found around the centre. A few women could be found sleeping in hammocks in varying states of above the ground as well as a few who either fell or chose never to climb sleeping on the floor.

Mia gently stepped around and over the ones who chose to litter the floor with their sleeping figures. In the centre was a miniature building big enough to just barely fit all the residents with half a centimetre of space between them if all in attendance were standing with perfect posture.

Within the building was a mess hall and a war room, though most of the residents just take their rations with them outside of the cramped room as there weren't enough seats to accommodate everyone and they didn't have enough materials to make the building any bigger.

Mia stepped into the war room and saw, Lagina, half awake and looking through papers, requests from the new recruits to hunt more so clothing was more readily available to the women as well as reports on the local wildlife and what animals, as well as plants, could be used to make proper coverings for the distressed women.

Her clothes were in disarray partially torn with one sleeve missing. Her hair was a mess and her eyes were half closed and sunken. on her lap was a girl who'd fallen asleep beside her in an attempt to help her with her work and on her arm was a girl clinging to her shirt.

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Mia and Lagina were the only people awake in the room. Mia gently knocked on the table to draw Lagina's attention away from her paperwork. Her eyes closed for a second and she looked up with a gaze that screamed, "What do you want?" before she saw who it was and softened her gaze before saying.

"Oh, Mia what can I do for you tonight?"

"An elf has left the fort alone. He's probably looking for what happened to the supply cart they were meant to receive."

A smile grew across her face as her eyes closed for a moment.

"We need to send someone to tell Laurentius not to attack."

"Should I go? I'm only halfway into my watch anyway."

"You mind taking this one with you? She seems to want to make herself useful."

She pointed at the girl who was clinging to her arm as though she had rigour Mortis.

"Alright."

"If anyone needs me tell them I'm going to sleep and won't wake up till after tomorrow."

Lagina picked up the girl who was using her lap as a pillow and carried her to her hammock after Mia pried the girl gripping her arm off of her as Lagina curled up like a child with her blankie in her hammock.

Mia gently shook the other girl awake and briefed her on the situation before they set off to go to the men's camp.

Latif awoke at his desk after a long night. he saw a few of his weary students carefully mixing remedies together in the way Latif had shown them. Their eyes were dark and tired their hands trembled with uncertainty. Their gaze darted back and forth from their notes to the concoction they were making.

He couldn't help but smile at their dedication. He rose slowly from his desk and spoke gently to his students so as not to startle them.

"When you're finished with what you're doing feel free to take a rest I can see you're all serious about your studies and I wouldn't mind lightening your burden a bit"

The men around him who were awake spared a glance at him as they worked and froze for a few seconds and after a brief pause in their work they nodded silently and returned to their tasks.

He gave his students a warm smile before looking over at his wall calendar and noticing it had been quite a while since he'd been outside. he walked up to it and wrote the words, "plan to go outside today." on the box's checklist. there are a few other places on his calendar with the same objective but not many of them had their boxes checked.

Not wanting to waste any time he headed straight for the exit. as he got to the room with all the archers stationed to guard the entrance and exit to the base propper he was questioned by a guard there.

"Hey Latif, you finally coming out of your cave?"

"I'd like to... since you're on shift I guess I'm in luck."

"Yeah, it's still night time no one would see you taking a midnight stroll."

"Thanks I'll be back once I've had my fill of fresh air."

"No problem."

Latif climbed the ladder albeit a bit tiredly and his footing and grip almost slipped a couple of times but he managed to get out and look around outside. when he got to the door and ducked out he took in the sight of the surrounding forest under the pale moonlight.

Taking quiet cautious steps through the trees trying not to be louder than the chirping bugs and hooting owls he inspected the plants in the areas his feet could take him while the sky was still dark. He collected a few medicinal plants and quietly chanted healing spells on the plants he took from to help ease their recovery.

As he was walking around he heard familiar steps and looked in their direction to find a barefoot woman carrying a sleeping girl in a cloak with far less clothes moaning and complaining in her sleep. The girl carrying her stopped and eyed up the man in the dark with caution until he spoke.

"Mia?"

"Latif?"

"What are you doing back? and why are you carrying a sleeping girl?"

"Lagina sent me back with a message and asked that I take her with me."

"But why are you carrying her?"

"I figured it would be faster to just run with her on my back than to walk at her pace."

He gave a bit of an exasperated sigh and if not for the first rays of sun breaking out over the horizon his smile would have been obscured by the dark of night.