It didn’t take long for Lee and his group to find a small place to camp. Behind Em’s watchtower lay a relatively open field. In the field, off into the distance, some very small hills lay covered in knee-high tall grass that swayed in the wind.

The sight was something to behold. Even something as simple as a plain open field as the sun set was picturesque for Lee. On Earth, Lee had of course seen the sunset, but after being bedridden, he had taken those moments for granted.

Now, with more freedom than he had ever had before, he wanted to take these small moments of peace and wonder and live in them to their fullest.

After consulting with Jeremy, they came to claim one of these hills as their small camping location. Jeremy said it would be reasonably defensible if the need arose to defend the camp. Given the proximity to the village, that event was unlikely, but Lee was glad it was at least a topic they thought about when deciding on their resting location.

The only problem was the lack of trees for firewood. After staying in the Shadowgrove for so long, Lee grew accustomed to always having fuel for his fire whenever he pleased. Out in an open field, this sadly wasn’t the case. Meriah and Kooco offered to go into the village to see if they could find someone to lend or sell them some wood as the rest of them set up camp.

Lee didn’t have much to set up. He had his furs… and that was about it. He had a few items for his hygiene, like his toothbrush, but nothing like a tent. The rest of the group, however, seemed to have been prepared. Inside Meriah’s Bag of Holding, which she left behind in Jeremy’s care, were several small tents made of rough-looking thick fiber.

Lee stomped down the fairly tall grass around the area as Kendri, Belgrate, and Jeremy began setting up their tents. When they were finished, they looked towards Lee's small pile of furs on the now flattened grass and gave him a mixed look of pity and understanding.

Lee didn’t appreciate them looking down upon his furs. He coughed to draw their attention.

“Hey, Belgrate. I’m going to need that mana-infused fur back for my pile. Toss it over, will you?”

While Kendri didn’t seem phased by Lee’s request, Jeremy and Belgrate looked at Lee like he had just said the moon was made of cheese.

Belgrate stood there, affronted, as Jeremy looked between Lee and the small pile of fur. “Lee, are you seriously going to use mana-infused material as a resting place?”

Lee shrugged as he brushed off his furs already out on the ground. “Well, why not? It’s my favorite one, after all. It has sentimental value. The Dark Elf who taught me magic, Neia, infused that fur. It was one of my very first…” He trailed off, not finishing his sentence.

Whoops, I almost told them it was one of my first possessions in this world.

He shook his head. “Never mind, just throw it over here, please.”

Belgrate held onto the fur for dear life as Jeremy attempted to wrestle it out of his grasp. Lee laughed as he watched the duo fight over his prized possession.

As they fought over the fur like two children, Lee watched Kendri as he flipped open some folded metallic object. After messing around with it, he sat on a small metal folding chair. This caught Lee’s attention.

“Kendri, where did you get that?” Lee asked while pointing to the chair.

Kendri slowed as he raised his new bottle of alcohol to his lips. Lee had to wonder where he managed to keep it, as he never saw him with one on his person. “The chair? Bought it from some merchants near Fallaway…” Seeing Lee’s blank reaction, he continued. “...That’s far east of the capital.”

Lee smiled and nodded in response. He did not know where the capital was, so those directions meant very little.

Not long after, Meriah and Kooco arrived with more than firewood. They had gone and gotten their wagon and the two horses.

As they traversed up the small hill through the grass, Lee warily eyed the two horses. They circled around the ‘back’ of their campsite to create a wall with the wagon. One of them eyed him back with their pitch-black eyes; he was sure of it.

Suspicious…

Like a child, he quickly stuck his tongue out at the horses. After a few seconds of nothing happening in response, he squinted his eyes, gave up, and looked away.

Just barely missing the horse sticking its tongue out at him.

Meriah situated the wagon and started to grab some firewood from the back. “So, are we doing watch rotations? If so, I want to be last.”

Lee decided to ask some questions before deciding on all of this. He walked over to help Meriah unload the firewood from the wagon, earning a slight smile of appreciation as he spoke to the group. “What is there to be watchful of around here? I haven’t seen any monsters yet— which is a blessing compared to where I came from, that’s a relief.”

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At this time, Jeremy finally managed to wrangle the mana-infused fur away from Belgrate. Jeremy smoothed his uniform haughtily as Belgrate sank to the ground, tiredly in defeat.

“Around here? Nothing much. This is by far the most peaceful region of the kingdom. Occasionally, there might be a few Goblins, but I highly doubt it. Camping next to the defender's watchtower is even more assurance of a peaceful night. Some animals might snoop around for some snacks, but nothing major.”

Lee placed the last piece of firewood down, swiped his brow, and replied. “I don’t know about you, but some ‘animals’ are as dangerous as monsters in some cases.”

Lee plonked down onto his furs cross-legged as a question came to his mind. One he wondered about when he had first arrived on Pallesia. “By the way, do you guys have any Dragons around?”

Meriah, Belgrade, Kendri, and Kooco looked confused, not recognizing the creature's name. On the other hand, Jeremy paled, sputtered, and whipped his head around to lock eyes with Lee in complete bafflement.

In response, Lee just raised an eyebrow towards him and shrugged. He learned enough in those few seconds to connect some dots.

It seemed like nobody, but the noble knew of Dragons. He filed that knowledge away for later.

To save Jeremy from some awkwardness, Lee changed the subject. “Ahh, don’t worry about it. It was just a story I heard. I can set up some earthen walls to make the area more defensible, but if what Jeremy said is true, then it would probably be a little overkill.”

Kooco took this time to waddle over to his small patch of furs slowly. She experimentally pecked at some loose fibrous ends, rotated in a circle like a dog, then plopped down in a roosting position. She closed her eyes as her head ever so slowly drooped forward—She fell asleep.

In the middle of his furs… in about two seconds.

Lee… Decided to let her have the spot… for now.

He glanced at Meriah, noticing her stifle a laugh, causing her glasses to nearly slide off her nose. “She wakes up early. That means she goes to sleep early.”

Lee just shook his head at the antics. He set up the firewood and used the emberstone in his small amulet to start a fire. It took a solid minute for some actual embers to flare up. The power in the weak emberstone was fading. Lee had used it too much in the Shadowgrove. He mentally added another one to his shopping list.

Belgrade overcame his mana-infused fur loss and decided to start being productive. He placed a cauldron-like pot on top of the now blazing fire. He rummaged in Meriah’s Bag of Holding, eventually withdrawing some vegetables and what appeared to be leftover meat from this morning's breakfast—the sausage.

He glanced at Lee in askance, and Lee sat there for a few seconds, wondering what he expected before he caught on. He rose and started to fill the large cauldron pot with water.

“Some kind of stew or soup?” Lee asked.

Belgrate nodded. “Pretty standard for feeding a small group. We always carry lots of spices to make everything not as bland. Eating soup all day, every day, isn’t very fun. Sometimes, we decide on spicy, sometimes savory.”

Lee stopped filling the pot once Belgrate gestured that it was at an okay level.

“Yeah, eating soup all day isn’t great. Trust me, I know.” Lee said, remembering all the hospital meal plans they had him on. He understood that eating a greasy cheeseburger probably wasn't healthy for his already strained and failing heart, but bland soups and stews all day was almost as bad.

“So, just a reminder about what I said earlier. We are staying for a week or two. Em’s going to learn my healing element; then I’m going to teach her my spells. That’s okay with all of you?”

All heads just looked at Jeremy, causing him to sigh. “You may do whatever you please; we are just here for your protection and as guides.”

Lee snorted. “Yeah, okay. By the way, I don’t have the fire element, as you can probably tell from me using an Emberstone. You might want to report that to your superiors as well.”

Jeremy at least had the dignity not to respond to the apparent jab. Instead, he shamelessly whipped out the small notebook he had recognized earlier at Robert’s home, right in front of Lee, and began writing in it using a small quill. Not seeing him dip it into ink, Lee used Identify on it on a whim.

Feather Quill - Rare

This feathered quill has been enchanted by an Adept Enchanter with Area Location Link, Siphon Area.

Lee stared intently at the quill but could not make out any physical differences between this quill and a basic ordinary quill.

“That’s quite an interesting set of enchantments. Do you happen to know who made it?” Lee asked as he pointed at the quill in question.

Jeremy paused in his writing and looked from Lee’s finger to the quill. He smirked. “Why, actually, I do. It’s one of my father's close friends. I was gifted this on my fifteenth birthday.”

He glanced back at Lee as he snapped closed the small notebook. “This is one of his most promising works. He is known for his area enchantments, but this item took Felispar by storm!”

Lee nodded and gave Jeremy a smirk of his own. “Why, that’s odd because this quill also uses area enchantments. More specifically, Area Location Link and Area Siphon. Going by the enchantments' names, I would guess that the quill's tip is linked to an area or barrel filled with ink, with Area Location Link. Then, Area Siphon probably siphons the ink to the tip of the quill from said linked location. Very impressive.”

Jeremy didn’t even look phased by Lee’s surprises anymore, and that alone was impressive, as they had only known each other for two days. Instead of responding, he took a deep breath, slowly exhaled through his nose, and sadly opened the notebook again to continue writing.

Lee patted him on the shoulder, mockingly shaking his head in exasperation. “Don’t worry. You can probably buy another notebook in the village. This one will be full of information by the time we leave. We haven't even scratched the surface of what you can report.”

Jeremy paused in his writing as his lips formed a thin line. He resignedly closed his eyes.