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Rising from the Abyss
Rising from the Abyss - Chapter 24

Rising from the Abyss - Chapter 24

Yaric woke up to an eerie silence. The sun was already bright against the canvas of the tent, but there was no sound or movement anywhere. No one else was in the tent either, so Yaric gingerly inched his legs off the cot, surprised to find that there was almost no pain when he moved.

It looked to be midmorning, but the entire camp was deserted. There was no one at the fires, and every tent he looked in was empty. Finally, Yaric spotted movement on the ramparts.

Instructors. Only staff members were left at the camp, which meant that everyone else must have gone on without him.

“Prospect Yaric!”

Yaric turned to see the same instructor from the night before jogging toward him.

“Good morning, sir.”

“Barely,” the man smiled, “but yes, good morning. I know who you are, but we have never been properly introduced. I am Mage Korbin Dmytro.” The Mage made no move to shake Yaric’s hand, so Yaric just nodded in acknowledgement. “I thought you would be asleep for while longer, but no worries. Come on, you have to make yourself some food. Otherwise, you’ve earned yourself a day off. Maybe use it to clean up your armor?” Mage Dmytro suggested with a smirk.

The armor in question really did need to be cleaned. As did all of his clothes. They hadn’t taken the time to wash properly ever since their first encounter with the kobolds, and Yaric was starting to stink. His own blood was just the final straw.

'Time to go wash up.'

Yaric’s stomach rumbled, and Korbin looked over, smiling. “You need to eat, it’s important for your recovery."

'Time to go eat - then wash up.'

Korbin led Yaric back towards the tents, and pulled open the flap. There, sitting on several tree stumps arranged into a table, was the boar hide Yaric had skinned the night before. And lying on top was several dozen pieces of meat, all frozen solid.

“The High Mage froze everything so it would keep until this evening, but he wanted me to let you know that you can take any cut you want for breakfast. Or in this case, lunch,” he laughed. “You did make the kill afterall, so traditionally, you would get your choice of cut anyway.”

Yaric drew his knife, noting as he did that everything on his belt was still there, just as it had been when he had made it back to camp the night before. Yaric cut off three large slices of loin for himself, and carried the frozen meat out of the tent.

“Thank you, Mage Dmytro. I will get this going now.”

“Don’t worry about it. Just make sure that you eat your fill, and take it easy. If you do, you will be right as rain tomorrow. Don’t forget that you might feel some phantom pain for a few days. It’s nothing to worry about, you should be expecting it. Think of it like an echo of your injury. It will soon fade away forever.”

“Thanks again, Mage Dmytro,” Yaric nodded, before turning and heading toward the tent he shared with Sven. The cooking fire for their row was very close to the tent, but the fire had been extinguished before everyone left. Even the embers were out. Yaric hurried to get a new fire started, and once the flames were cracking away, he went to fetch all his spare clothes.

The walk down to the river was relaxing. For the first time in weeks, Yaric had no responsibilities to worry about. He hadn’t even realized the pressure he had been under, but now that it was gone, he felt like he could finally breathe.

Every item of clothing that he owned was washed one by one, save for the clothes he was wearing at the moment. Yaric put them out to dry, and slowly pulled off his own armor. It was getting very uncomfortable; he’d been wearing it for more than a day.

A week of accumulated grime was gradually scrubbed away, leaving the leather clean and the buckles shiny. Once he had his armor clean, Yaric jumped into the river himself, taking off his clothes and scrubbing them too, before scrubbing himself down as well.

Dressed once again, wearing the slightly damp clothes that he had washed first, Yaric made his way back up to the camp. The fire was ready for cooking, so Yaric added his meat and went to fetch his small tins of grease and oil. He found it to be very calming, sitting beside the fire while his food cooked, occasionally turning the meat, while oiling down his leather armor, along with all of the metal fittings. Soon the armor was done, the food was done, and the damp clothes he had put out were dry.

He enjoyed his lunch, sitting in the midday sun, with not a care in the world. He was clean, dry, warm, and fed. What more could he want?

Yaric took the chance to sharpen his knife as well, while making a note to thank Sven for suggesting he get the knife in the first place. His sword was sharpened and oiled, his spear inspected, and his bow unstrung. Once everything had been emptied from his pack and repacked with his clean clothes, Yaric found himself with nothing else to do.

This time he took the last piece of Mage Dmytro’s advice, and went back to his tent for a nap. The cool mountain breeze blew through the open tent flap as he drifted off, more relaxed and calmer than he had been for weeks.

'Getting injured isn’t so bad after all,' was Yaric’s last thought as he drifted off.

The sun was still high four hours later, when Yaric finally stirred himself. He hadn’t slept deeply, just drifting in and out of consciousness, but Mage Dmytro had been right, he felt much better!

There was still a lot of daylight remaining, so Yaric made his way back to the tent his boar had been stored in and started preparing slices of meat. The frozen meat wasn’t so hard to cut the first few times, but it quickly got tiring. Somehow, it was still just as frozen as it had been when he cut off his own slices earlier that morning.

It took an hour and a half to cut enough meat for everyone, and that was with resharpening his knife every 5 minutes. Whatever spell had been used to freeze the meat was incredibly effective.

Yaric next went to get his armor on, and once he was ready, he belted his sword, picked up his axe, and made his way out of the camp and toward the nearest felled trees. There were several trees that were long dead, so Yaric started with them first. They would make better firewood than the freshly cut trees from the clearing they had made.

Ferrying the wood back actually took longer than chopping it, and Yaric hadn’t even finished moving half of it when his classmates returned. Now Yaric was just annoyed at his decision to carry wood to the far end first and work his way closer.

“Yaric! You ok?” Sven called out. He was jogging toward Yaric with Li Na in tow.

“Yip, all good. Mage Dmytro patched me up, and I was made to rest today.”

“Really?” Sven asked skeptically, eying the pile of wood still in Yaric’s arms.

“Ah, well, I got bored. But I only started a couple of hours ago, the rest of the time I was sleeping.” That wasn’t entirely truthful, but it was close enough.

“How did things go with the kobolds?”

Li Na started bouncing up and down at his question. “We got two villages!” she exclaimed excitedly. “High Mage Strenger thought the village that attacked last night was the one to the north of the village we cleared yesterday, but we ran into an entire horde of kobolds when we got close. We checked the next village along, and that one had far fewer kobolds than it should have, so we think we cleared out the village our attackers came from too!”

Lauren jogged toward them just then.

“Yaric! Is everything all right? Li Na said you were bleeding everywhere!”

“What?!” Yaric asked. “No I wasn’t, I was just bleeding down the side of my leg?”

“I didn’t mean that you were bleeding everywhere on yourself, you were bleeding all over me! Did you see badly you ruined the clothes I was wearing?!” Li Na said, clearly annoyed.

“Well, sorry my getting stabbed was so inconvenient for you,” Yaric replied sarcastically.

“That’s ok, I forgive you. You just need to acknowledge your shortcomings you know, I won’t hold them against you.”

The other three all rolled their eyes at Li Na.

“Speaking of ruined clothes,” Lauren continued, “I see you found time to wash yours.” Lauren eyed him up and down jealously as she spoke.

“There wasn’t much else to do,” Yaric offered apologetically.

“I love how you mess up my clothes, and get fresh clean ones for yourself,” Li Na said, annoyed again.

“I wish we would get a chance to clean everything,” said Lauren.

“What’s stopping you? It took me 20 minutes in the stream down there. Just go a little downstream so people can collect drinking water.”

Lauren and Li Na both froze, as did Sven.

“Huh,” Lauren mumbled, turning on her heel. Li Na quickly followed.

“And I’m glad you’re ok!” Lauren called over her shoulder as she rushed to her tent.

Yaric went back out to where some of his classmates were starting to chop wood, and led them to the large pile he had made. Soon there was a line of students coming to fetch the wood for their own fires. Yaric saw Lauren and Li Na already down by the stream, cleaning their own clothes and armor. Sven joined them shortly after, and 15 minutes later there were students going down with their own bundles of clothes.

One of the instructors had to put a stop to the number of students going to wash clothes, afraid that the camp would be left with too few defenders. The girls were happy when they got back with their damp clothes, and so was Sven when he arrived shortly after. They were even happier when the pork strips were brought out to the fires.

It was a good evening, filled with jokes and the smell of cooking food. The rest of Yaric’s class were in good spirits as well. Apparently, their fights had gone much better than the day before, and wearing clean clothes seemed to make a big difference too. Yaric, Sven, Lauren and Li Na ate together, as they had the next shift on guard duty, and they left together as well when the time came to start their shift.

All in all, it had been a good day. Yaric watched the dark silhouettes of the bats flying above him, this time heading out to feed, not heading back. The cool breeze was to his back as he looked out over the ramparts, the same ramparts he had been sprinting towards at this time the previous evening.

And he didn’t feel any fear. The stars were starting to appear in the darkening sky when Yaric’s shift ended, and he got into his bedrolls just as relaxed as he had been when he had last climbed out.

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The last two weeks had been hectic. They fought kobolds every single day, even on the two days where they had moved camps. Kobold villages were everywhere, forcing them to fight more than once on most days. Their second and third camps had both been attacked while they were still setting up, leading to several people getting hurt. Nothing serious, but the pressure started to build again, and it was taking its toll.

Their latest camp was much closer to Dragon’s Fang, and they were camped right outside the entrance to a narrow gorge. There was a waterfall at the end of the gorge, feeding the stream that flowed out and through their camp. High Mage Strenger had insisted on fortifying the entrance to the gorge as well, pointing out that intelligent opponents might scale the cliffs.

This camp was more convenient than the last two, with cliff walls narrowing the area that needed to be defended, and fresh water flowing right through the middle. Unfortunately, it was also much colder, despite how much the weather had warmed recently. The cliffs kept the camp shaded throughout the entire morning. The sun didn’t show itself until midday, leaving the students to wake up in the dark shadow, get ready, and march off to clear more kobold villages without even seeing the sun.

Today they were heading toward their third kobold village since setting up the last camp. There were four others in the area that would need clearing too.

Kobolds were not a very elusive group. It didn’t take long for the students to discover that kobolds like making big fires in the evenings, so all they had to do was look for the smoke that the kobolds made. The numbers of villages, their directions, and the rough distance to each was very quick and easy to establish.

The scouts now functioned as an early warning system, and not much else really. They each had a designated point in the spear wall, one of whom carried their spear for them. When the scouts came back with the warning, the person carrying that scouts spear would wave their own spear up and down, highlighting their position in the line. Then the scout would take his own spear back and join them.

In some ways, the new job was harder. Yaric had to keep a look out as always, but he also had to make sure he kept within 300 – 400 meters of the main force. Any further, and the nine scouts would be too far apart to effectively screen their classmates, any closer and there wouldn’t be enough warning. Not to mention that they needed to be able to run back and join the line themselves.

Yaric had just cleared the crest of a large hill. It wasn’t very steep, but he’d been walking uphill for more than half a mile. This had become common, and the hills only got larger as they got closer and closer to Dragon’s Fang.

They were close enough to the mountain at this point that the barren slopes below the cliff were clearly visible. Yaric could even make out some of the cottongrass and milkweed scattered amongst the tussocks on the slopes above him.

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The sheer cliff face was now almost directly ahead, north-east of their current position. Massive black rock pierced the sky overhead, the stone dark as night even under the early afternoon sun. Nothing large grew in its shadow, leaving the slopes around the base desolate and rocky, with only small shrubs and grasses to nurture life.

Below Yaric, the slope was very gentle, and couldn’t extend very far before climbing again, as Yaric could see the treetops start to rise just 100 yards away. The brush below the trees was thick in this little depression, so Yaric couldn’t see through very far.

He did note the movement of the bushes, however.

The tops of the bushes were shaking at the furthest point that he could see, and it only took a few seconds for Yaric to spot the spear points swaying forward above the brush. Just like almost every other time, the kobolds knew they were there, and were coming to meet them.

Yaric turned and ran, hurrying back down the long slope to the rest of his class. They were almost halfway up when he found them, and quickly stopped to hear his report.

“More kobolds. They’re coming up the other side of this hill.”

“Can we get to the top before them?” High Mage Strenger quickly asked.

“We’ll never make it, it’s still 300 meters uphill and they will be just about there already.”

“Alright everyone, quickly, what’s your plan?”

“We can get back to the bottom quicker than they can, and fight there,” suggested Stewart.

“No,” replied Sven, “the undergrowth is very thick where the bases of the hills meet. We would struggle to defend against the small kobolds, and the brush would break up our lines. Our spears would also be hard to use.”

“So, what is your plan then? Quickly now?”

“I’m the only scout that’s back,” Yaric pointed out, “so this isn’t a hunting party. Or other scouts would have seen the horns of their formation.”

“We shouldn’t stay here,” Sven continued, “they are small and fast, and will outnumber us. We don’t want to give them the high ground. We could still fight them, but we would have a bigger advantage if we went back down, and then moved up the other side a little. Then we can turn and face them as they come up at us. It will also be easier to keep them from moving around our line.”

Several students started turning slightly to go back down the hill, as Sven had naturally taken on a leadership role.

“Quickly, make up your minds! Does everyone agree?”

There was no more time, as the sound of the kobolds running down the hill reached their ears. The entire group turned as one and began their run back down, with kobolds 100 meters behind them. The run was dangerous, as falling was a serious risk, and would allow the kobolds to gain on them, but everyone made it down in one piece. Then they pushed through the thick brush at the bottom, and started up the other side.

This was the most dangerous part of the plan, since running as they had left everyone scattered. Forming their lines would take longer than usual. In the end they had enough of a lead on the kobolds that it didn’t matter. Everyone formed up, and all three rows were in place before the kobolds started appearing at the bottom of the hill.

The soft, alternating calls of ‘odd’ and ‘even’ came down the line again. Li Na was next to Yaric, and when she called ‘even’, Yaric responded with ‘odd’, listening as the calls continued down to the end.

Then the kobolds were on them.

The fighting was routine now, even if it was still stressful. With the thick brush slowing them down, the kobolds arrived even more scattered than usual, making it even easier to cut them down. Nothing made it past the triple layer of spearheads.

It was also less physically demanding, despite the fight taking longer than usual, as there were often too few kobolds engaging at any one point for the entire line to be involved at once. There were frequent chances to rest when there were no kobolds in front of you.

Yaric was in the middle row, thrusting past the front line, when one of their biggest fears was realized.

Kobolds were making a deafening racket, screeching all down the hill below them, but no one missed the new screeches that joined them. The ear-splitting screeches were coming from further up the hill, just slightly to their right. Behind them.

“Back row, raise spears!” shouted Sven, taking charge immediately. A row of spears rose up.

“About face!” The entire row turned 180 degrees, facing the approaching kobolds. “Five paces forward!”

The whole, continuous line stepped forward and stopped, creating a narrow corridor between the two lines.

“Lower spears! Middle line, odds!” Yaric gave a start as he realized he was one of the odds.

“Raise spears!” Yaric raised his spear, and when the call came to turn and join the rear facing line, Yaric moved up and slotted into the formation, forming a half strength second line.

The new kobold force crashed into the line.

They were moving much faster downhill, making it harder to hit them when they tried to dodge around the reduced line of spears. When they were hit, the impact was also much greater, slowing down the rate at which they could switch to the next attacker. Even worse, Yaric realized that these kobolds had arrived in a much denser group, with many more kobolds attacking the line at any one point in time.

They quickly started to buckle.

One of the kobolds tripped and fell, just before it reached the spear line, and haphazardly rolled under the spear heads, coming to a stop within the minimum range of the defenders. The student in front of the kobold got a spear to the thigh, followed by rapid fire thrusts against his breastplate. The thick piece of leather was all that was keeping him alive as the kobold attacked furiously.

The nearest defender in the second line quickly backed up to give himself space, then took the kobold through the neck, dropping it. He pulled the wounded fighter back into the narrow gap between the lines and took his place.

Yaric was shocked to see that it was Stewart, but breathed a sigh of relief when he saw Stewart brace himself with his spear, stand up, and hobble back to the line, now standing in the second row. He was hurt, but not seriously.

There wasn’t much time to see what was going on around him, as the kobolds just kept coming in almost overwhelming numbers. Slowing down even slightly would push them over the edge.

Unseen to Yaric, injuries were accumulating up and down the line. Every kobold that got through required someone to disengage and back up, so they could take care of the kobold that was too close to reach. That only put pressure on those around them, as they still had to take care of new arrivals.

Dead kobolds were also starting to roll downhill, pushed by those that were still coming down the hill. The carcasses started hitting the feet of the front line, making it dangerous to shift their positions.

The defender in front of Yaric was the next to fall. A kobold had just gone down with a thrust to its chest, leaving the defender free to move on to the next attacker. Unfortunately, while the kobold he’d moved on from was mortally wounded, it wasn’t actually dead yet, and when it had slid part way down the slope, it thrust its own spear up. Right below his cuirass and into his abdomen.

All he had to protect him there was his gambeson, which the sharp, flame hardened wooden point had no trouble piercing. The student dropped his spear immediately, grasping the spear that the now dead kobold had left imbedded in his body. He pulled it out and fell back, leaving Yaric to grasp him below the arms and pull him to safety.

It was Devin, one of Chris’s friends. His face was white with shock, blood already soaking through his gambeson.

“I need help!” Yaric shouted, applying pressure to the puncture wound.

One of the instructors tapped Yaric’s shoulder, and he quickly moved aside and rejoined the line, noting the five others who were also lying between the two defensive lines.

Another order was called out just as Yaric rejoined the fight, causing relief to well up in his chest.

“Middle line, evens! Raise spears! About face!”

The students who had been fighting the kobolds from the original attack joined them before the rest of the orders had even finished, and what had been the front line now fell in to create a third. The tide quickly turned.

Three full rows of spears were enough to handle the kobolds without too much difficulty. Setting such a rapid pace of attack also meant that most of the attacking kobolds had already spent themselves, and a minute later there was a sudden silence. The instant cessation of noise was jarring.

All the painful screeching had suddenly disappeared, leaving only the quiet moans from some of the wounded.

Everyone was exhausted and shaking, but they all went about their jobs without any orders. The wounded were moved to one area to be healed in order of severity, while the dead kobolds were rolled down the slope. Others cut away some of the brush at the bottom and used it to create a base for burning the carcasses, while also clearing fire breaks in the surrounding area.

Smoke was soon wafting through the trees, the two kobold hordes disappearing in the flames. Quite a few students were still shaking. They had never taken casualties like this before, and more than one had only survived due to intervention from the instructors.

Even the remaining scouts looked shocked. They had all pulled back at the sounds from the battle, but were under clear instructions to hang back in cases like this. They would be quickly overwhelmed if any kobolds turned to attack a returning scout. There was nothing to do but hang back and wait for the battle to be over, though none of them had missed the desperate fight that had ensued.

“Hey,” Yaric said, spotting Lauren as she approached the group.

“That was insane,” she said, sounding shaken.

“It was definitely touch and go for a bit,” Yaric agreed.

“I’m sorry, there wasn’t anything I could do! There were too many between me and all of you…” Lauren trailed off, looking away.

“Why would you be sorry? You did what you were supposed to do.”

“But you were all so close to being overwhelmed, and all I did was watch. So many of you fell.”

“What’s this?” Sven asked as he approached.

“Lauren is trying to apologize for not being able to single handed fight through a horde of kobolds and join our lines,” Yaric replied. “She seems to think she let us down or something.”

Sven placed his hand on her shoulder and shook her gently. “Don’t be dense. You know as well as we do that you couldn’t have done anything. Look at it like my father taught me – If you were in the line already and one of us was in the same position you were in, what would you want us to do? What would you think if we did what we were supposed to, like you did, and what would you think if you saw us trying to fight our way into the line?”

Lauren looked like she was feeling slightly better, but she still made sure to help wherever she could. There was no doubt that she felt guilty for not being there.

Once the wounded were taken care of, the High Mage called everyone to gather around the bonfires.

“Before we discuss the fight, what mistake did you all make after the fight was over?”

There were a lot of puzzled faces as everyone looked around. The wounded had been taken care of. Everyone had been triaged as they had been taught. The kobolds had been cleared and were currently burning, along with all of their crude weapons. They had even made sure that the fire wouldn’t be able to spread, and they had done all of this of their own initiative.

“No one?” High Mage Strenger asked, slowly looking over all of the confused faces before him.

“You were just attacked by a second group of kobolds that caught you all by surprise. Who’s to say there isn’t a third nearby?”

Many students gave a start, and they immediately started to spread out, looking around furtively.

“Stop! Stop! Come back here! I’ve already taken care of it.” The High Mage said, sounding disappointed. “Your instructors have been patrolling the area ever since the fight ended, since none of you went out to scout for more threats. You’ve all somehow forgotten that you’re in hostile territory. The shock of the fight, and the feeling of safety once it’s over, can cause one to make even the most basic of mistakes. You need to learn how to prevent this in future. Always be thinking of what dangers you could still face, and how to prevent them!”

All of the students were embarrassed to be admonished for something so obvious, especially after some of them had come so close to dying.

“You all need to learn from these experiences, but you also need to move on. Don’t keep dwelling on them. Speaking of which, what mistakes were made before the fight ended?”

“We don’t have a clear chain of command,” Aleesha Deidra offered. “We took too long to make a decision. There were kobolds close by and about to attack, and we were discussing what to do. We almost ran out of time.”

“You actually did run out of time, Prospect Aleesha. But well done, this is something I’ve been waiting for someone to bring up for weeks now. You all want to be involved in every decision that's made. Which is completely understandable. Each of you are in the same class, the same year, and have the same authority. Why should any of you be subordinate to anyone else in your class?”

“But we are under threat of attack at all times, and any hesitating when making a decision can cost lives. You will find that in an emergency, any decision is better than no decision. Most of the time anyway. Prospect Sven kept many of you from being seriously injured. His orders were quick, decisive, and very effective. The rest of you did very well to follow those orders so quickly. That is unlikely to always be the case - I suggest that you sort out your own command structure amongst yourselves.”

“Whatever you decide, you also need to stick to it. Commanders cannot be effective if there is always a risk that those under their command will just push them out. I will not allow any changes once you have collectively made your decision.”

“Now, what other mistakes were made? How were you taken by surprise?”

“Ahhh… they came from behind us? We had already been through that area and scouted around it, there shouldn’t have been any kobolds in a position to come from behind to attack us?” offered Cormac.

“And yet there was. How did that happen?”

Li Na suddenly stiffened, her head jerking up. “Because we retreated! We scouted around there earlier, but too much time had passed when we went back. We retreated into an area that we didn’t know was clear anymore, then turned our backs to the side we were uncertain of!”

“Correct. To explain more clearly, once you had moved out of that area, you no longer had any way of knowing who or what had moved in, or where they might be. Just because it was clear when you passed through earlier, doesn’t mean it will stay that way. You need to always have scouts screening in any direction that you move in, even if that direction is back the way you came.”

“Now come, it is starting to get late, and we already have a second village to clear now.”

The entire force formed up for marching again, and the scouts ranged ahead to screen the rest of their class. Everyone was moving quickly, so they soon arrived at the village they had originally intended to clear.

The village was virtually empty, proving that the kobolds had left with the intention of engaging the students. The crude lean-to’s were torn down and stacked in open areas, with the hides and stores of rotting meat piled on top.

The class stayed to watch the village burn this time, taking satisfaction in making sure that this particular infestation was destroyed for good. The smoke billowed upward, thick and black, pouring upward from the leaping flames and forming a wide, black river through the air. No breeze was blowing through to clear the stench of the few burning kobolds, but everyone stuck it out, throwing everything they could find on to the fires. Nothing was allowed to remain intact, or other kobolds might be incentivized to move in.

The next village was much the same, the only difference being some tunnels dug into the hillside that needed to be cleared. They were small, made for kobolds, and no one had ever needed to fight in a tight, dark space before. This challenged a few of Yaric’s assumptions, but ended up being a good learning experience.

Yaric had grown up believing that kobolds all lived underground, making large tunnel complexes. He hadn’t known that they needed warmth to survive. Living outside let kobolds enjoy the warmth from the sun, and when that wasn’t enough, they made big fires.

Second, Yaric had always assumed that a spear was a poor weapon in tight spaces like a tunnel. He couldn’t have been more wrong. It was very, very hard to get around a spear when your movement was constricted within a tunnel. Your opponent was always in front of you, and they would always be forced to attack you head on. A group of spear users could just march right through any opponents that dared to attack them. Which is exactly what they did.

Soon the fires were lit, the stores kept in the tunnels were destroyed, and the tunnels were carefully collapsed. No one wanted to hang around anymore, as the thought of getting back to the camp was much more enticing. Especially after High Mage Strenger made his announcement.

“I want all of you to take tomorrow off to recover. We have been pushing nonstop, in a high stress environment. All of you need to take this chance to rest. Clean and maintain your gear. Spend some time with your friends.”

“I would also suggest that you work out your command structure while you have this opportunity. You will have one full day to discuss your ideas and come to a decision. I expect to be informed tomorrow evening. Now, if the scouts will start clearing the path ahead, we will move directly back to camp.”

Yaric jogged ahead, checking the immediate area as he went. He was looking forward to getting back to the camp just as much as anyone else, but he also hoped to repeat his feat with the boars two weeks earlier. He hadn’t caught anything since, and he really wanted to bring some more meat in.

Cormac was catching something every other day, so they weren’t going without, but Yaric hoped that they could have something extra for their day off. Chelsea had also snagged some deer twice in the last week. As long as one of them brought something in, they would be able to have a good lunch while they recovered.

Stalking his way through the underbrush, Yaric kept an eye out for any movement. Kobold or dinner, his arrow was nocked and ready. Nothing but squirrels showed themselves though, and the entire trip back was very noisy. The warming weather had brought out a lot more insects, and they added their noise to the birds in the trees.

All three seemed to conspire against him, as flitting birds or squirrels kept catching his eye, while the sound of insects scurrying under the leaf litter kept catching his ear. Despite all his efforts, Yaric made it back without finding anything.

Cormac already returned as well, and he hadn’t brought anything back either. One by one, every scout made their way in, until only Delmar was left. The rest of the class then arrived, and they started filing into camp and making their way to their tents.

Finally, 45 minutes after the last of their class had come in, Delmar was spotted running toward the camp.

“Help!”

There was a rush as everyone nearby grabbed their spears and raced to their positions, those further away copying them as well when they noticed the disturbance at the gate.

“I need help! At least three people!”

“What is it? What’s going on?”

Delmar pulled up in front of the first ditch, panting. “I killed two pigs. I would barely be able to carry one! I need help bringing the food back.”

Cheers went up and down the wall, with students pushing past each other to get through the gate.

“Idiot!” Lauren laughed. “I thought we were under attack!”

“Nah… He was ringing the dinner bell. About time too, our scouts are useless!” Li Na shoved both Yaric and Lauren as she finished, smirking at them. “The least our useless scouts could do is fetch and then cook my dinner!”