"Stormie needs a quick break, I think he stepped on a stone." I tell Amelia around mid-afternoon.

We passed a clearing just like the one on the way to Northwood a while ago, and Amelia said that we should be able to get to the next by nightfall. So, I don't want the horse to have to walk on a tenderfoot.

"Is he okay?" She asks while reining him in. "His gait seems fine."

"He's fine. Probably doesn't even need the healing, but he's doing so much for us." I hop down and prepare a shallow bowl filled with oats, apple slices, and healing sap. "I don't see any reason for him to walk around on a sore hoof. Huh, big guy?" I guide the sap to take care of the developing bruise, and use the extra to wash away some of his muscle fatigue.

"Thank you for keeping an eye on him." She pulls me into a hug. "Since we're stopped we should give him a bit of water. Could you make a bucket for him?" I do, and she fills it up.

A few minutes later we're back on the road, and I'm back to showing them how to play board games. I'm going through all the classic two-player games with them, and mostly getting my butt kicked.

Sure, I'm playing two games at once while they only have to focus on a single game. But, I've still got years of experience playing this stuff. I'm especially surprised by Apricot, she seems flighty and care-free most of the time, but she's got a real head for tactics. Amelia, on the other hand, is more of a long term strategic thinker. And, seems to excel at setting traps, then biding her time until I fall or am forced into them. That, or I just suck.

The sun is just about to set when we reach the waypoint, only to find it already occupied.

"That can't be Roddy." Amelia says when Apricot points out the smoke to us. "He's lazy, but not that lazy."

"It's probably just another traveler, but I've got Blackthorne just in case." I shift it to bow-mode and back again. "Let me hop down and walk Stormie in, if things go south, I'll buy us time to get away by closing the hedges."

"I want to say you're being paranoid, but after what happened..." Amelia trails off.

"I think it's okay." Apricot speaks up once we get a bit closer. "I can hear them, and I'm pretty sure it's a small family. There's a man, a woman, and a small boy."

"Ugh, I hate feeling this way." Amelia shakes her hands out after noticing how tightly she had them clenched into fists.

"Maybe you can learn some offensive magic when we reach Riverton." I put my arm around her shoulders. "It probably says a bit about my state of mind after... but I felt a lot better after getting my bow skills back."

"Oh, baby." She squeezes me back, soon followed by Apricot hugging me from behind. "When you're ready to talk about it, just know that we're here for you."

"Thanks." I tell her with my eyes how much that means to me. "But, we should probably announce ourselves before we get much closer."

"Let me." Amelia gives me a quick peck on the lips. "I know, I'd be more relaxed hearing a woman's voice. Hello, there." She projects her voice out, and a moment later a young steps out of the opening in the hedge.

"Hello." He waves and beams a smile at us. "You wouldn't happen to be Amelia would you? We met your brother yesterday, and said that we might run into you."

"Is Roddy okay, how far ahead of us is he?" She perks up immediately at word of her brother. "It should only take us another day, maybe a day and a half to catch him up."

"We met him at the camp south of here, so he'd be two camps away by now."

"A day and a half then, good." She nods, relieved.

"Nice to meet you." I hop down to walk Stormie into camp. "Name's Sorrel, and that's Apricot. Rodrick, may or may not have mentioned us." I say with a wry smile.

"Darrel" The man gestures to himself, and then his wife and boy in turn. "This is my wife Mina, and my boy Jax. Nice to meet you too, and yes, he mentioned that she would likely be with a man and a pixie. But, he was rather tight-lipped when talking about you." He meets my wry smile with a knowing one of his own.

"He's so cute." Apricot dances over to the toddler that's peering out from behind his mother's skirts. "How old is he?"

While Apricot is making friends, I try to help Amelia unhitch Storm, but she shoos me away. "I've got this, you go make another one of those outhouses, please, and cast that glow spell too." The pleading in her eyes is plain to see.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

The back of the camp is clear, so after lighting things up, I toss down some seeds near the wall, and soon a living latrine is standing there. Amelia ducks inside a second later, and then sticks her hand out demanding some butt wipes.

"Here." I hand her a big stack. "Just leave them inside, I'll make more later."

"That was some spell." Darrel approaches as I'm clearing a space for our tent.

"Yeah, the campsite on the way to Northwood was a mess, and had someone's mess in it." I wrinkle my nose in disgust. "So, when I was fixing it up, I added one of these. Because as gross as what they did was, I can definitely understand not wanting to squat in the woods in the middle of the night."

"Hah." Darrel barks out a short, sharp laugh. "Rodrick said someone did that in the first waypoint outside of Southwood too. Luckily, we didn't run into anything like that in the waypoints south of here."

"That's good." I nod. "But, I'm sorry we skipped that one on our way here, so there won't be another one of these waiting for you." Once all the rocks and twigs are cleared away, I take the tent out of storage and start setting it up.

"We'll survive somehow." He watches as the tent builds itself. "That's a nice tent, but aren't the walls a bit thick for summer?"

I glance around and then lean in close. "Amelia can create ice to cool us down, so I made it as soundproof as possible." I pull the mattress out of storage and drop it inside the tent.

"Hahahahaha." He cracks up laughing. "As a protective older brother myself, I should be angry on his behalf, but that's just too damn funny."

"Darrel." His wife calls him. "The stew is almost ready, it's your turn to feed Jax."

"Coming, Dear." He smiles at his wife and son. "Sorry, I'd offer you some, but we only made enough for the three of us."

"Oh, that's alright." I wave his concern away. "I've been slow-cooking some deer shoulder since noon, I just need to simmer the dumplings." I walk over to our wagon and grab my cook pot from the back.

"Finally." Apricot sighs. "You've been teasing me with that smell all afternoon."

"I was hoping it would distract you two, so I could win a game." I laugh back at her, and put the pot roasts onto a platter, I used both shoulders because they were on the small side. That, and Apricot and I eat like pigs. And, with storage, it's not like we have to worry about leftovers going bad. "Seriously, I show you a game once and you two could already beat me at it."

"No! I lost the bet." The pixie whines.

"What bet?" I ask suspiciously while speeding up the dumplings.

"Hah, I told you he'd start complaining about it before dinner." Amelia smirks at her lover. "Sorry, babe. But, we kinda cheated by using the bond. We found out that when we both concentrate on the same thing, it's like we can use each other's brains. So, when you were taking turns playing each of us, we were taking turns making each other smarter."

"Hah!" I can't help but laugh. "Okay, magical shenanigans I can accept. It's a lot better than thinking I lost out at games I've played hundreds of times to complete newbies. Oop, hello Jax." The boy just escaped from his father and ran over to me and grabbed onto one of my vines.

"Boy, get over here." Darrel chuckles as he scoops up his son. "Sorry about that, he delights in making dinner time a hassle."

"Not a problem." I smile at the boy and wave bye-bye with the same tentacle he grabbed onto as his father takes him back to their side of the fire. "So, I was going to make some strawberry shortcake for dessert, but I'm not sure you deserve it after cheating like that."

"It was all Amelia's idea." Apricot immediately tosses her under the bus. "I tried telling her it was a bad idea, but she's got this real competitive streak to her."

"Hahahahaha." I started laughing so hard that I almost choked on the bite of food I just took.

"Selling me out for some cake?" Amelia throws the pixie a mock affronted look. "You little butthead."

"But, strawberries!" Apricot says that like that's all the defense she needs. "You're just mad that I thought of it first."

"I don't know which one of you has the bigger sweet tooth." I shake my head in faux disappointment at them.

"Jax! Get back here." The toddler escapes from Darrel again.

"Hahah." He goes straight for my vines again. "Hi again Jax. I should give you their share of dessert." The little boy perks up at that word. "Yes, dessert. But, you know, I was raised with a rule that you had to eat all your dinner before you could get dessert. Hahaha." I laugh again as he runs back to his dad and starts shoveling the food into his mouth.

"Thank you." Darrel nods to me. "But, you didn't have to do that."

"Oh, I was going to make enough for everyone anyways." I retrieve my baking supplies and start mixing up the batter. "So, what brings you three up this way?"

"My uncle asked me to take over his mill." The man shakes his head ruefully. "His only son ran off to be a dungeon diver a couple years ago, and hasn't been heard from since. It's a shame about my cousin, but as a second son this really helps me out."

"My condolences." I'm not sure what else to say.

"Save them." He shakes his head. "Everyone knows that dungeons kill far more people than they make rich and powerful. Jerome was never that bright though, he was always wasting his time and effort looking for a big payday."

"I've known a few people like that." I say as I start baking the shortcakes. Slow cooking the roast gave me plenty of time to fiddle with the spell, so I'm able to adjust the cooking field to the shape I want now. This saves me from wasting mana heating an entire sphere.

"Had this one roommate when I was in school." I start recounting the tale of my favorite roommate. "I swear he spent more time trying to cheat his way through tests than I did studying for them. Fat lot of did him too, the school brought in extra proctors for the first big test of the year. Idiot tried cheating anyways and got thrown out; his family was not happy, but I sure was. I got the room to myself for the rest of the year, and that definitely made him the best roommate I ever had."

"Heh." He snorts out a laugh.

"Awl done!" Jax declares loudly.

"So you are." I smile at the cute little boy. "I just need to whip up some cream, and dessert will be ready." Only Apricot and the toddler have finished their dinners, but the rest of us are not far off.

""Yay!"" The pixie and the boy cheer at the same time.

***