Early the following morning we set off, Kira looks a bit drowsy. She did me the favor of taking the last guard shift. She insisted I be well rested before we head back. I have already come to rely on her. I try to pick the safest route back, but we will have to somehow make camp in the forest for at least two night. Lawra is chatty as always and it does seem to ease the nervousness of the group. Kira takes the rear guard of the group without being asked. I lead the front with Lynne behind me, and behind her Lawra is chatting with the mother and daughter.
I try to chat with Lynne, though she is nervously watching the surrounding too much to give me her full attention. She doesn't know I got my alert skill to warn me. Should I say something about that? "Don't worry, I will know if dangerous animal approach us. Just hide behind me." I try to be reassuring. Lynne responds: "I am not worried". Her comment is something I would have expected from Lawra, but I guess even Lynne wants to give the impression she is okay.
She said she was a butcher's daughter, I wonder what skills she made use of at the guild. "What was your usual work at The Guild?" "I would usually take on dismantling jobs for hunters. I would mostly accompany hunter parties to do the dismantling in the field, but I also supported in whatever way I could during the trips. With my last party, I was mostly foraging with the other girls." I thought as much, but it is good to get her talking. We continue talking about more mundane things. She really is a pleasant girl to be around.
Up until now I have been reluctant to use analyze on the girls as I feel it would be a bit of a violation of privacy, but my increasing curiosity wins out. Lawra is surprisingly the oldest of the trio at 20, with Kira at 19 and Lynne at 17. Their differing personalities seem at odds with their actual age. Lawra might actually consider me her junior based on my current young appearance. I am mentally closer to the age of the mother. The daughter is confirmed to be 10 years old. Very close to my estimate, but I am really surprised by the mother. I expected her to be in her early 30's at most considering the age of the daughter, but she is actually 39. She looks really young for her age. Only her mannerism betrays that she is older than the others.
Looking at Kira's skills list, I find the expected knife and magic skills including my new fire magic and mana control, both level 1. Recovery magic is the same. I am surprised to find that the menu generated by my analyze skill does not show all details for Kira. I quickly check the others, and confirm that the usual rules apply for analyze. It provides a bit of information I did not have, but the rest is added via observation and conjecture. A skill level increase would likely help too.
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As dusk arrives we set up camp in a hollow next to a massive tree. The tree shields our back from danger. Just to be sure I set up some barriers to either side of the tree and start building two fires. "Why are you setting up two fires?" Kira seems curious, but she isn't against my plan. "Normally I would have us all climb and tie ourselves to a tree at night. Due to the risk of falling down, I wanted to make sure we discourage animal from attacking us at night. Animals aren't particularly afraid of fire, but they shouldn't go too close to it. With two fires forming two corners in a triangle with the tree it should force any animal who want to attack down between the fires straight at me. I built barriers to either side of the tree to assist with this strategy." Kira seems to approve. To be honest, I just made it up on a whim. I don't actually have much experience doing this. This last bit I keep to myself.
Kira assigns guard shifts to the whole group. She seems to want me to sleep the whole night. I don't need as much sleep as I used to, so I sit up with Mara the mother who is on the first shift. "Do you know what to do?" I ask Mara. She shrugs her head. "Just hold this spear and if any animals approach point it down between the two fires. That is where they should attack." Since we are now the only ones awake, I ask her to tell me about herself.
Mara was apparently very beautiful as a young girl. I can believe that. She still is. She was born into a poor commoner family, but due to her looks the local lord requested her as a mistress for his son. Her parents approved as this would greatly benefit the rest of her family, though she was naturally not too happy. Nobles never marry common girls, but they do take them as mistresses. A mistress is normally discarded by the noble when they loose interest. She was expecting the same treatment.
The young noble son was his father's only son, but being spoiled by an overbearing father he was not happy, and to her surprise he sympathized with her situation as well. They grew close, despite Mara expecting him to discard her for a noble born wife in the future. He didn't discard her. Instead he rejected all marriage proposals for noble born women. The father was worried his line would die with his son, as he refused to get married.
About 5 years after their daughter was born, her lover surprised her by marrying her despite what his father wanted. For the next few years his father pressured him to take another wife, a noble wife. In the end the argument grew so strong that the noble son packed a wagon with everything needed to start a new commoner life with his wife and daughter at the western frontier.
At this point Mara is clearly getting emotional. Understandable. Her husband was probably killed by the raiding goblins, while she and her daughter were taken captive. Consider I found a lot of tools and supplies for starting a new life in the loot, they probably never got to their new frontier settlement home. I am not sure what to do with the crying woman next to me. I feel like giving her a hug, but I am not sure if would be considered appropriate. Carefully I approach her and gently tuck her head toward my shoulder. I am relieved to find that it works.