The party shared a brief breakfast of berries and dried meats in the early hours of the morning. Iris and Victoria were the first to depart from the campsite, and said their goodbyes and well wishes to the others before setting off into the dark. Iris took a moment to say goodbye to Glimmer specifically, knowing that Eli would be leaving her behind for today's expedition. They cut straight through the woods, rather than following the winding campfire-lit paths of the camp. Crickets chirped and owls hooted, and countless unseen critters scurried about. Victoria had little trouble navigating the dark with her auravision, but Iris carried a torch to avoid tripping on the muddy, obstacle-laden ground.
They arrived at the meeting place long before sunrise, as instructed. Most of the other scouts were already in an adventuring mindset, and were perched on branches, lurking in the brush or tucked away behind roots and trunks. Iris supposed that the natural state of an idle scout would be discrete, and felt a bit awkward as the only one carrying a light source. She quietly hoped one of her next abilities would be a perception power of some kind.
It wasn't long before Ranger Kerrick revealed himself from a patch of foliage, leaving it uncertain how long he had been there. He kept the hood over his head, and spoke without the casual merriment he had revealed the day before.
"The fighters will be forming up one hundred yards East, Ash Druga and most of her leadership are already present. Spread out around that vicinity and be prepared to move when they start marching," he paused for a moment, then spoke in a kinder tone, "be safe out there. You're dismissed."
Though they individually moved quietly, the sudden flurry of two dozen scouts departing at once rustled leaves and stirred the air. Iris stood awkwardly for a moment, then blipped away after the others, passing Victoria as she dissolved into mist. She kept her blips short, limited by the range of her torchlight. The orange glow flickered in and out like fireflies blinking in a winding path through the woods.
Iris stopped when she saw the glow of standing torches illuminating the meeting place of the fighters. She spotted a few scouts settling into place amongst the woods, and picked out an unoccupied branch close to the clearing, the silhouette of which was outlined against the glow of the standing torches beyond. She extinguished her own torch and returned it to her bag, then blipped to the branch, crouching down to observe the first gathering fighters.
"Dude," the voice of a stranger spoke from the darkness, "this is my spot."
Iris shot to her feet and glanced around, but saw no one.
"Uh, sorry," she said sheepishly, then blipped away.
A mist wafted past her in the dark when she appeared, tickling her cheeks like a faint sea spray. She looked in the direction it traveled, and soon saw a silhouette forming on a branch nearby. She blipped up to it, beside a half-formed Victoria.
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
"I think I'm out of my league," Iris whispered.
"You are," Victoria said quietly as the rest of her body came into being, "it'll get easier when the sun's up, but not very. Just take it easy, consider yourself here to learn more than help."
Iris didn't like that. She liked the learning part, sure, but she wanted to pull her weight and contribute as she'd done in her party. Still, though, she imagined herself face planting in the mud in front of the other adventurers and decided to heed Victoria's advice.
She wanted to ask Victoria's opinion as to why Ranger Kerrick made them meet so early just to sit and watch the fighters trickle in for an hour, but she got the impression that it was frowned upon to make small talk while scouting. Instead she kept quiet and waited, exploring her own thoughts on the matter. At first she guessed it was some kind of military quirk, guessing that Kerrick must be an active member of the Adventuring Corps. As she observed the fighters, however, she began to form a different theory.
Even just passively observing while distracted by her thoughts, she gradually grew familiar with the faces, voices, and even personalities of the fighters. She picked out which ones were party members based on interactions, and made guesses at what level each fighter was based on their appearance and demeanor. Just through observing at a distance, she was able to discern a rough outline of the command hierarchy, identifying several adventurers as probably sergeants or probably subordinates below them. Though she imagined the higher level adventurers could sense the crowd of scouts dispersed throughout the darkness on the edge of the clearing, the crowd at large seemed blissfully unaware of their presence.
She reasoned that the role of a scout in an expedition must be about more than just spotting dangers and evaluating terrain. When she scouted for her own party, communication and strategy were natural, she had gotten to know her team and they had gotten to know her. She knew who to inform, how they would react and what she should do next. In this scenario, however, she would be working with strangers who communicated differently, whose powers and abilities she didn't know, and whose relative competence she had little gauge of. It made sense to her that gleaning whatever information she could about the fighters she would be scouting for would be useful later, and assumed that to be the reason for their early arrival.
After that realization, Iris did her best to avoid distracting thoughts, instead focusing on the adventurers below. She watched as healers gathered in the back of the clearing in their own distinct crowd, then spotted the other members of her party making their way towards the middle of the fighters. She kept a loose head count throughout, estimating about sixty fighters after the bulk had gathered, though stragglers still trickled in.
Eventually, as the sky that peaked through cracks in the canopy began to lighten with the rising sun, Lieutenant Ash Druga addressed the fighters. She instructed them to form up with the highest level adventurers at the point of a triangle and the lower levels fanned out at the back. Various sergeants and subordinates dispersed throughout the crowd while Ash Druga repeated the rules of engagement and priorities of the day's operation. As clouds parted above and the first rays of sunlight cut through the canopy, Ash Druga loudly declared the expedition to be underway, and the fighters hiked forward into the woods.