Our bath inspired a few other students to jump into the river as well. Mostly male students, who did not care about being seen in their underwear. We got a few envious looks from some of the women. But none of them asked for help. I wondered if we would get requests to join us the next time we bathed.

At the food wagon we were presented with limited options. There was still some sourdough bread. Of course, it was not fresh. But it was still decent, just a little dry. It would go well with a stew or soup. Unfortunately, there were not really any fresh ingredients.

“When Torben said we could cook, I was hoping for more ingredients…” Helena admitted. We were back at our tents, looking at our sad haul.

“We have dried meat, beans, bread and a powder that is supposed to have a stew flavour… What kind of stew? What is stew flavour? ” Skadi asked.

“We could try to forage. Maybe there are some mushrooms?” Cassie suggested.

“NO! No mushrooms.” I protested.

“She really does not like them.” Skadi explained.

“Cassie, you are an alchemist. You know poisons. Maybe you could mix something into this. Make our death painless.” Helena said.

“Hey, it’s not that bad! We haven’t even tried that powder. Maybe it will make something good?” I said.

Helena looked sceptical.

“Haven’t you been hunting with your dad? What did you eat in the wilderness?” I asked.

“We had a cook…”

I sighed. “Let’s just throw it all into a pot with water. Boil it and then dip the bread in it. We do have bread, so there is that!” I was not as depressed as my companions. For me, even the dried meat alone would be nice.

Since I was the least depressed I did the cooking. Cassie managed the fire. At least we still got the free beer, which improved the mood. We used our ice magic to keep it cold and refreshing. Sadly, it was gone by the time the meal was ready. And we could not simply buy more on a field trip.

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I was the first to try our stew. It did not taste too bad. I happily started eating.

“Ok, maybe we do not need the poison.” Helena admitted.

While we were unable to identify what the stew flavour was imitating, we all agreed that it was edible. After our meal we washed the dishes in the river. Afterwards we relaxed and went to bed early, the day had been exhausting.

I was still tired when someone woke me for our guard shift. Nyx was the size of a kitten and used my tail as a bed. After gently removing her, I quickly dressed and crawled out of the tent. Torben was already waiting for us.

“Students, time for your first guard shift. Since it is summer we don’t need many fires. We have four to provide some light to the camp and keep animals away. One of your jobs is to keep them going. Now, there are generally three ways to keep watch. Stationary guards, patrols or a mix. If the stationary watchers are too far away to see each other, patrols are really important. You can also use magic wards to detect intruders. They are perfect against animals and monsters but can be disabled by an enemy mage.”

We nodded and he continued: “It’s also important to adjust the number of guards based on the danger you are facing. Intelligent opponents can easily target a single soldier. Often you will see groups of two for each post. In our case, it is rather safe, so we don’t need that. I will assign each of you to a fire. Make sure it keeps going and watch that area. I will be on patrol.”

Nyx followed me to my post, after some stretching. Then I stood there, staring into the darkness…

It was boring. I was tempted to train my magic, but that would be unprofessional. I was supposed to keep watch after all. I yawned. The temperature was rather pleasant. The crackling of the fire was soothing.

I did my best to stay awake and keep watch. Nyx just curled up at the fire. I wondered how aware she was of her surroundings? Being a skeleton, she did not hear or see normally. She had those purple glowing eyes, but how did they work anyway? Did she need them? Normal skeletons did not have them.

At least those contemplations were a small distraction from the boredom. At one point, I thought I saw something in the bushes. But when I walked closer nothing was there. Maybe it was a small animal. I could not hear anything suspicious either. Torben checked in twice. Mostly making sure that I had not fallen asleep. I told him of the potential encounter.

“When you stare too long into the darkness, you often start to imagine things. It could also be an animal. If we were in a hostile location it might be worth investigating, but we are not really expecting trouble. Don’t worry about it. But it was right to report it.” Torben praised me.

After our shift was over I crawled back into the tent. Nyx wasted no time and started kneading my tail before curling up in it again. She made a nice purring sound. I fell asleep quickly.

The next morning I made an amazing discovery. There was coffee! Less exciting was the food. We got cheese and crackers. While the cheese was ok, the crackers were hard and dry. Since they remained edible for a long time they would be a main part of our provisions from now on.

“Cassie, I think we need to consider the poison plan again.” Helena said.

“Do you think crackers could be improved, with alchemy?” I wondered.

“Hm. Maybe.” Cassie pondered that.

“You are considering something that does not explode? Are you alright?” Skadi asked.

Cassie looked at a cracker and grimaced. “I am willing to sacrifice some of my precious time for the greater good. There has to be a way to improve them.”

In the end we still ate them. We did not have anything else. Then we packed up our tents and prepared ourselves for another day on the road.