Training as usual didn’t continue unhindered the next day. After we finished our shadow walking practice, the de facto leader of our group, Dera’s mentor, stopped us from leaving the ring of pine trees. I hadn’t bothered to learn her name given that she treated my presence in the camp as nearly nonexistent, but I thought the Sapling got her position because of her abilities with wind and shadow. She was the only one who had the range and control to communicate with those back in the Seedling Palace and the ability to travel there from our location in a single journey, if needed. A couple of the others who looked to be close to her age liked to remind her that they weren’t far behind her in skill, but they also listened when she gave an order.

I wasn’t exactly keen on it, but we listened to her now. My cohort on one side facing her, and the mentors arrayed at her back.

“You have all grown your skill with the first boon. Good job completing the trial early into the warm season so that you could focus on it here. However, it is time for your first circuit. You have until the First Flurry to reach the Rookery.” Her jaw set as she scanned us. “You will be split into two groups. Assignments are nonnegotiable.” I didn’t like the sound of that as she gestured two groups of three forward. “Each group will have a Sapling adviser, their fire starter, and a healer to keep debilitating wounds and losses to a minimum.”

Wren’s eyes went wide next to me. “Seedlings have died during this trip?”

The Sapling cut her a warning look for speaking out of turn, but still answered her question. “When they got complacent or overconfident. These woods are regularly patrolled by the Beastwatchers, but bigger threats can still pop up between their rounds.” After a brief pause to let that sink in she finished her speech. “Join your adviser when your name is called.”

Prevna, Ento, Idra, Loclen, Andhi, and Dera went to the right. The rest of us joined the three on the left. It was immediately clear that all tent pairs had been split, likely in a ploy to force us to work with those we weren’t as comfortable working with.

That worked out better than our de facto leader could have bargained for. I could feel the tension rising as our normal groups were mostly scrambled. Ulo’s glare pressed into the back of my head from where she stood off to the side of our new group, Nii standing stiffly beside her. Prevna gave me a disappointed glance from across the way and I acknowledged it while trying not to show how odd it would feel to be separated from her for a month.

Ento and Idra had it the worst, however. As soon as they realized they were both going to be separated from Juniper they began to argue to have one of them switched to our group with an uncomfortable desperation.

Our Sapling leader would have none of it. She cut through their overlapping arguments about duties and benefits with a curt, “Assignments are nonnegotiable.”

Juniper stepped forward. Her air of melancholy was stronger than it had been for a long while. “They do not wish to break their oaths. Would you have them do so for such a simple exercise?”

Our leader evaluated her from head to toe and seemed to find her wanting. “Were these oaths to a higher ranking whisper woman? One of the Chosen? No? Then they have no place here.” She cast her voice out, so that she was no longer speaking to just Juniper. “Whisper women are expected to act quickly and well to uphold the goddess’s will. More often than not, you will not get to pick who you work with or the circumstances. I suggest you get used to being flexible now.”

Idra opened her mouth to continue arguing but stopped when Juniper laid a quiet hand on her arm. Ento stood with her shoulders and fists clenched tight. After a tense heartbeat Idra snapped around to me.

“If something dangerous gets within five feet of her I expect you to get in the way. You at least won’t die from it.”

I crossed my arms and glowered back at her. “I’m not some meat shield for you to order around.”

She drew herself up to her full height and looked down her prominent nose at me. “If something happens I’m blaming you.”

“Blame your coddling. If Juniper can’t hold her own that’s not my fault.”

“How dare—”

“Leave it, Idra.” Juniper cut off the other girl. Then she drew in a deep breath. “Go to your group. I’m not so fragile that I’ll perish just because I left your sight.”

Idra looked ready to strangle someone but she did as she was told. Ento paused to murmur something in Juniper’s ear before following her. Juniper stepped smoothly back to rejoin our group, but I thought I sensed an underlying tension to her stance that she didn’t normally have. I had to fight not to roll my eyes. Of course she could face sea monsters with barely even a flinch, but now that she had been separated from her guards she felt threatened before we even left camp.

With the spat over and done with, our new adviser led us to the edge of the pine trees closest to the lake while Prevna’s group went to the opposite side. Everyone else was ordered to begin breaking down the camp.

After we all settled onto the ground in the shade of a tree introductions began. Our adviser was a Sapling in her fifth year by the name of Fern. Which meant she had earned all of the goddess’s boons and was supposedly strong enough to protect us if we needed it, but wasn’t so indispensable that she couldn’t be ordered to watch over a handful of new Sprouts for a month.

Fern had shoulder length small curly black hair and skin a shade or two paler than Wren’s pine cone colored skin. A straight nose, high cheekbones, green eyes, and bowed lips completed her elegant facial features. She didn’t tell us what her blessing was, but her mark was a twisted knot of shapes on her left palm.

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The fire starter and healer were both men. The fire starter was a wiry older man who had a kind of presence I was more used to associating with huntresses. A quiet, patient kind of stillness combined with precise movement. The healer was younger, somewhere around Fern’s age, and excitable and nervous. Based on the single diamonds marking the back of his hands he wasn’t a full black handed healer yet. Most likely this was one of the last stages he had to complete before earning his full marks. Like with Fern, knowledgeable enough to be helpful but not so skilled yet to be placed somewhere more important. Their names were Colm and Sid.

Wren gave Fern an easy smile. “Where is the Rookery?”

“Our group will start out heading east, the other group going south. I suggest you look for large birds. I can’t tell you anymore than that. You’re expected to find your own way there,” Fern answered.

So it was likely somewhere to the southeast unless they were starting us off in the completely wrong direction. Wren brightened at the mention of large birds while Chirp twittered at her huffily. She rubbed his chest feathers and he settled down.

Breck looked bored with the whole situation but she still asked, “What is the Rookery?”

I wanted to know as well. None of the myths that I could remember had mentioned any place by the name. If we were purposefully being sent there it likely had some connection to the whisper women or the next step in our training.

Fern gently cut one hand through the air before turning it palm up. “A place with large birds. You’ll see when you find it.”

None of us liked that answer but it was also clear that was all we were going to get. We had to find the location with little direction and little information. The whisper women apparently shared the goddess’s favorite type of challenge. I doubted that the Rookery was actually so far away that it would take a month to travel to. Likely, it was closer, but we would need time to search the forest.

Fern spoke again, “You will get to make most of the decisions on this trip. I will only step in under dire circumstances. I suggest that you gather supplies and decide whether we leave today or tomorrow.”

She didn’t say it, but it was also clear that we needed to pick a leader for our little band if she wasn’t going to take charge most of the time. The idea of being leader was somewhat appealing, but mostly I refused to follow Ulo’s lead. The other girl would likely try to use the authority to try to grind me under her heel and that could only end badly. From the look in her eyes, Ulo had similar thoughts concerning me.

If I was the leader I would likely have to interact with her more than I was willing to as well. If Ulo or I were the leader of this group we would likely break it apart and make it nearly impossible to complete the mission. Which left Juniper or Wren as potential leaders. Breck was too independent to be an option and Nii would likely end up being leader in name only with Ulo really making the calls.

Wren would likely be the better option to keep things civil, but I thought that Juniper was better at making the tough calls quickly. Juniper also had practice in really leading while Wren was more skilled at making sure she was liked.

I put my weight behind Juniper to become leader after pushing my own position just enough that the others couldn’t view me as a pushover. Naturally, that meant Ulo and Nii pushed for Wren to become our leader. We bickered for a while longer until Wren broke in to give the position to Juniper, saying that she would make a better navigator than leader. Juniper graciously accepted and then stopped the meeting for us to take a break and go get a late midday meal.

Which is when we realized that there weren't any good smells wafting from that direction and that most of the camp was gone. Only ten tents still stood in the area and the remains of the cook fire. Our six tents, and presumably the others belonged to the advisers with their fire starters and the healers. Six bags of various preserved foods also sat off to the side. Three for us and three for Prevna’s group. The rest of what we ate would have to be supplemented with what we caught and gathered along the way.

True practical learning.

Both groups decided to leave the next day and use the afternoon to gather and hunt what we could in the surrounding area. Hopefully the delay now would mean less delays later. It also gave us the excuse to drift back into our normal groups for just a little longer.

Ulo went spear fishing in the lake with Andhi and Nii. I wasn’t sure that the other two had much experience with the exercise, but Ulo was irritatingly good at it and could stay under for absurd lengths of time with her blessing to breathe underwater.

I set traps with Prevna as we also gathered edible plants and berries that we recognized. I also marked the traps as best as I could, so if anyone was idiotic enough to disturb one that was on them.

Breck went out hunting on her own while Juniper, Ento, and Idra did some gathering of their own as they scouted out the different directions we would be going in. Dera and Loclen were left to work out the logistics of how both groups would split and carry the supplies with the understanding that we would push back if they gave their group all the better stuff.

By the time we needed to start preparing for the evening meal we were all extremely hungry, but we had a lot to show for our efforts. Ulo’s group had more fish than I cared to count prepared and drying in the sunlight. Another hour and it’d be sunset. I had caught a handful of small animals in my traps and Prevna and I added to the separate piles of roots, berries, and other parts of gathered plants. Breck lugged in a small wild elk and a pouch full of bird eggs.

Chirp twittered at her for that, but Wren calmed him down and said that as long as they weren’t wren eggs he would be fine. Breck shrugged and said that they weren’t.

Colm set about making our dinner while the other group’s fire starter, a heavyset woman, set about preserving the meat Breck had brought. We ate well that night.

I wanted to go to the spur of rock, but running through the forest at night wasn’t the smartest decision and it would take too long to walk there and back. So, instead, Prevna and I settled in a tree overlooking the lake.

She bumped my shoulder with hers. “Ready for another adventure?”

“I’d rather focus on shadow walking for now.”

She rolled her eyes. “You just don’t want to be in the same group as Ulo for a month.”

I didn’t waste my breath trying to deny that even if I did prefer that I could just focus on training for now.

“Do you promise not to get banished to another random edge of the goddess’s territory before we meet up again at the Rookery?” Prevna asked.

I glared her. “I won’t.”

“Or frozen?”

“I won’t.”

She chuckled. “Good. From one horror to another, I’d rather not have to save you from the goddess’s wrath again.”

I crossed my arms. “I can take care of myself.”

She nodded, somewhat amused. “Of course you can.”

“You better not get lost, either.”

“I can find my way around.”

I stared out at the lake. “You know what I mean.”

Prevna leaned into my view with a quick, flickering smile of acknowledgment before she ruined the moment. “So are you going to try to hold hands with Wren this time around?”

She continued to tease me for a while longer while I did my best not to rise at her obvious bait. Right before we left to return to our tent, Prevna stopped me and squeezed me tight. I batted at her and she let me go immediately.

“If you have to go into any grubby tunnels, remember that, alright? Not wherever else you go.”

I gave her a pained smile and nodded. Wishing it was that easy.