I wake up as soon as I feel movement, even in my sleep my senses are keen. Before I even know what is happening I'm already on my feet and holding both war picks tightly, my eyes scan the interior of the tent carefully, but all I see is the orange beam of light coming through the entrance, everything else darkened since the torch died out sometime in the night.

My eyes fall on Lina, I had forgotten she slept here. She lies in a fetal position, a peaceful expression on her face, she must have moved in her sleep.

I sigh with relief I glance at the bow resting on the ground nearby. Good, nobody has stolen it. I stretch and crack the bones in my neck and back, sleeping with my chest plate wasn't the smartest, but last night I was so tired I didn't even bother with it, but now I feel the consequences of my actions.

Despite the cold, I take it out and place it on the ground, doing the same with my gauntlets, and while the morning breeze makes me shiver, I know that won't last long. So I walk up to the entrance of my tent and move apart the hanging cloth, getting a view of the camp.

The extra hands have allowed us to enlarge the space between the barricades and the trees, now a few meters wide. The fallen trees have been dragged nearby, without proper carpentry equipment we can't do much with them besides turning them into firewood, and the large pile of trash from everything my men gathered from the camp has been distributed.

Meat is being smoked, and a few guards, mostly hobgoblins, walk around the edges jawing or speaking with each other while I can see already some others leaving their tents. Morning birds sing as they fly away, and a few orange leaves crack beneath my feet, blown away by the cold breeze and littering the recently worked field of the camp, taking out the grass to leave a smooth surface. It smells a little bit of wet dirt.

I take a deep breath and rub my eyes shut, I do not know how long I slept I could do with a little more. However, I am awake now and the day must begin, there is a lot to do.

"What?" Lina murmurs as she sits up from the bedroll, I turn around to see her, the light coming from the sun must have woken her, I suppose living as a slave has made her sensitive to waking up as soon as the sun is out "What did you do?" She immediately stands up, wincing a bit thanks to her wounded leg, and checks her body.

"Healed you. Nothing more, now leave" She eyes me with her pupils as thin as needles, frowning hard and baring her teeth, but after looking around and feeling herself up, she seems to calm down, although her usual distrustful stare remains.

She says nothing more and walks out of the tent, limping as she goes. And I catch a few raised eyebrows as some of the men catch her leaving my tent and so long as this doesn't become a problem, I don't care what they think.

Soon Tamur takes care of the food and prepares a bland but filling stew, and the entire camp gets to work. I order even for the wounded to get out of their tents and keep themselves busy, as well as making some changes and delivering orders for the rest of the day.

First I organize a team to return to the tower and bring back all the meat they had gathered and we left behind, too tired to bring it back to camp. Then, the wounded were made to help take out the remainder grass from the camp, and I gave the rest of my men some time off from cutting trees.

I gave the bows from the hobgoblins to the Huani, since they were better used to them, all Huani men trained with the bow to hunt for food and defend their homes. While all hobgoblins would now serve as a front force, carrying shields and axes. I realized that unfortunately, I lack the knowledge to properly train them in anything but the use of spears.

Jorr and Nojus however, once again prove their worth. I approach them and Jorr is set to train his kin in the use of shield and weapon, while Nojus does the same with the bow and the Huani. Since there aren't enough shields and bows for everyone, I will still be in charge of training a handful of men in the use of the spear, but until the group returns with the meat I will be free.

As I watch my camp I notice Nojus and Jorr seem to get along fine, and Nojus in particular has picked up on a few orcish words and even sentences, it reminds me that I never questioned how he knew what the first group of hobgoblins said when he got angry at them for leaving the valley. I think of betrayal.

Have they met in secret? Jorr must have been teaching him for a while now, and the friendly laughter and smiles must be an act... Or maybe, I'm looking too much into it. They are both seasoned warriors, with apparently a similar mindset, so they could simply get along and want to understand each other better.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

A part of me wants to relax a little bit. To sleep better, not to reach for my war picks as soon as something startles me. But I just can't, the constant thought that at any moment they could reveal rally the men against me gnaws in my head.

I must keep an eye on them. And hold on to this bow at all times.

Andrei comes up to me, I have ordered him to join me after breakfast every morning so he can teach me more about humans and the world at large. Most of it doesn't feel like the information I have much use for, but eventually, he tells me that his work as a courier has given him an excellent sense of orientation and positioning, having to memorize roads and such.

I take out the map I carry with me and stretch it on the table we are sitting at, the only one that survived a year in the middle of the woods. The map is upside down. I pick up a nearby piece of burned wood and hand it to him.

"What do you want me to do with this?"

"A map, carve it on the wood as best as possible"

He looks at me confused for a moment, but after waiting a few seconds to see if I'm joking he gets to work. The lines are rough and ugly, but after several minutes I begin to see the camp, and surrounding woods with clarity, he even puts a few lines next to it to indicate meters, going as far as to make a path to the stream.

"This is all I can do, I would need to be somewhere higher to make it bigger"

With my scouting skills, I can get a sense of where I am and where to go, but that is mostly by memory and intuition. He, however, is capable of detailing the terrain and place skillfully by just looking at it. With the proper tools he could make detailed maps of any place he visits, or at least I hope he can, but first I need to provide him with the proper tools.

I think more and more than simply attacking any passing caravan is not going to cut it. Utar is a blacksmith and the weapons we have could use some work, as well as he could make more arrowheads and fix chainmail. We need more tents, more tools to turn the trees into planks or tie them up and make a palisade, and better tools to cook or places where we can store food and water, in short... we don't need a caravan, we need a village.

My thoughts are interrupted when I see the group returning from their trip to the tower. Dragging with them the meat that will keep us well feed and energetic for at least three or four weeks if I let everyone eat plenty, if I make them ration it, it could last us up to mid-winter.

"L-Lina!" Andrei raises to his feet, rushing to her side. I had sent her to help the hobgoblins, mostly out of curiosity if she would obey or not, seeing as she doesn't get along with them, but by the lack of bruises everything seems to have gone smoothly.

I see her turn from sour to joyful as soon as she lays eyes on him and they embrace each other in a tight hug.

"I'm so sorry for not seeing you last night when you came wounded, I had worked all day long and I was so tired-"

"No, don't worry about it" She hugs him tightly before they separate, he kisses her on the cheek and she turns red "I'm happy to see you"

"I went to look for you when everyone was asleep, but I couldn't find you. Where were you?"

Her smile falters, and for a second her eyes focus on me, her expression turning a bit less joyful. Andrei catches on to this and turns around, but she holds his face in place.

"Other tent, I was hurting a lot" She giggles, placing a hand over her bandaged shoulder. Wincing a bit as she moves.

"Oh, maybe you should take it easy today"

Once again, her eyes fall on me, but this time she does not hide it, instead, she looks away at the ground for a bit, before frowning and looking straight at Andrei.

"No, I need to train" She then limps her way to me, Andri looking a bit worried as he follows her "I'm ready" She announces, puffing up her chest as she tries her best to stand straight, the spear in one hand, the shield in the other.

"But Lina, you don't need to fight, if you want to I-"

"I decide if she must or must not fight" I take a step forward, in a way it is funny. After all, I only reach up to her chest "Go look for the men you went with and tell them to grab their spears and come here"

"But, I don't know how to speak to them"

"Figure a way to make them understand." She frowns silently, but then turns around and leaves. At least she is determined.

As she walks away, I see Andrei looking at her limp with what seems like genuine worry in his eyes. I still don't get exactly what is going on between these two, if the human is using her for protection or not. I snap my fingers to catch his attention.

"Sit," I say pointing at the nearby stool "You will watch us train and pay attention, you will learn your first words of orcish" He seems unsure, but nods regardless.

After several minutes, the spear-wielding hobgoblins and one Huani, minus Lina, begin to come to the table. Until there are seven in total with Lina too. I then begin telling them how to stand, how to thrust, swing and defend themselves. Basic movements mean keeping the enemy at a distance, but still essential.

As well as the proper way to stand and how to move their feet. As I give the orders I repeat myself several times, saying the same words in orcish and then in akani, making sure the two huani memorize them in orcish. After almost half an hour they are moving in order, thrusting at the same time, doing the correct movements even if mix up the order of moves.

If Jorr and Nojus are scheming something, it doesn't make the fact that having a language barrier in the camp will become trouble if we are to act as one in the field of battle. I need everyone to learn orcish, and I will use the time it takes the wounded men to heal to teach them, taking advantage of that since Nojus already grasps some words so he can help the other huani.

The objective has changed, I hoped to test both their skills in combat and my prowess as a leader first against a small caravan, but before winter comes and we are trapped in these woods, we must raid a village.