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Travelling Awakened camp

5:03 PM, Tuesday, May 14th

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Having stepped out of Nancy’s tent, Arlo looked over towards the centre of the camp, figuring that’s where the others would be likely to pass through if they were looking for him. As he made his way over, he could see Harper asking around about something, along with Edan who turned out to be beside her. Walking up to them he was about to say something before Harper spoke up first with a hint of concern, “Hey, have you seen Arlo around? You know, the new guy?”

Arlo was about to answer before a realisation came over her face as it slowly gained a red hue, Harper lightly punching him in the arm, “Heyyy!! Take off your cloak, I've been looking for you and I didn’t even recognise you!”

“Hey, what was that for?” Arlo asked, rubbing his arm slightly, Harper’s punch having hurt quite a bit, “Nancy came up to me after you left and had a look to see what was up with my core.”

Harper seeing the way Arlo rubbed his arm made her feel the need to apologise, “Oh, sorry about that. so… what’s up with your core then?

“A lot of hard work, that’s what,” Arlo said, not wanting to give too much away.

“Aww, come on. You can’t just leave me with that, you have to at least tell me something,” she lamented, getting way too close for Arlo’s comfort.

“Nancy said it’ll either be a problem or it won’t, it may have some short-term consequences until we figure out which one it ends up being, but I’d prefer not to say much more, I’d rather not have people judging before we find out exactly how much of a problem it is,” Arlo admitted, causing Harper to tone down her enthusiasm.

“Oh, ok then,” Harper said, holding her chin as she tried to think of something else to talk about, “Hey, do you want to come to our tent so you know where everything is and so we can get stuff set up for you before it gets too late?”

“Oh, sure,” Arlo replied, following Harper as she led him through different rows of tents, to a tent that was bigger than Nancy’s but still not the biggest, being about 4 meters across and 7 long, “So, your tent is one of the big one’s?”

“Yeah, although tents aren’t specifically rationed out, the argument is that everyone that is going to be staying in a tent should be able to put it up and take it back down by themselves, the exception being people with children, you can’t exactly expect kids to help with that. But since I was a child when I came here we were able to get a tent with more space in.”

“So… what’s that rule for?” Arlo asked, “Is it just for convenience or something?”

“Yeah, basically,” Harper replied casually, “Along the lines of your stuff, your responsibility.”

Unzipping the door in the centre of the tent, it opened up to reveal a 3 by 4-meter open section in the middle, with two fabric doors on each side of them, the central area having a collapsible table and a couple of chairs set up. Harper went inside first, sitting on one of the chairs.

“It’s alright, you can come in,” Harper said with a small chuckle seeing how Arlo's eyes wandered around.

“Hey, I have a question, so… this group travels about, right? How do you bring everything with you?” Arlo said, stepping in before sitting in the only other seat available, “ I mean this looks like a lot for just two people to bring with them, and then there is all the other stuff that is communal, how exactly do you travel with it all?”

“Oh, that, pretty simple actually, we all carry as much as possible, which for the augurs can actually be quite a bit more than you would expect. For the smaller communal stuff, we use the few dimension pouches we have, and for the rest we just use magic,” Harper said as if it were just common sense.

“Oh, right, magic,” Arlo said, feeling slightly embarrassed, rubbing the back of his head, “I guess I’m still not exactly used to the fact that people can just ‘use’ magic to solve problems.”

“You did only awaken this morning,” Harper teased, “You’ll get used to it, I mean I still find everything that everyone does extremely fascinating, but eventually your mind starts thinking about how you can use magic to do stuff or at least help with it rather than doing everything by hand.”

“I get what you mean, some stuff can just be a lot to wrap your head around,” Arlo admitted, letting out a deep breath, this being the first time he had had a proper sit down since reaching camp.

“Yeah, so do you have any stuff with-” Harper said before pausing for a moment, “Oh right, you couldn’t bring anything since you were involved in that rift thing at town. Don’t worry, we should have spares of stuff.”

“Yeah…” Arlo said, feeling slightly awkward at the fact she was right.

“Either way, we should be able to get you a bed and bedroll set up, they are more comfy than they sound,” Emily said before going into one of the doors on the right, taking stuff out and putting it through the door to the other compartment.

Halfway through Harper doing that, he heard some movement at the door. Turning to look, Arlo could see someone that looked to be on the earlier side of middle-aged, with blond hair and a smile on her face, wearing a form-fitting but loose set of plain clothes, “So this is Arlo I assume?”

“Yeah, he is,” Harper called from one of the side rooms, “Oh, and Arlo, this is my mom, Rosa.”

“Well it’s Rosaline, but everyone just calls me Rosa,” Rosaline said, before turning to look at Arlo in a bit more detail, “Harper here has told me you’ve had a rather eventful day, and from the sounds of it you’ve been through some pretty dreadful stuff.”

“Yeah, I mean me and my friends exit being blocked by a pack of firehounds with another pack coming at you from the direction you just came from, I can still picture them pouncing at us,” Arlo admitted.

“So this is when that thing of your’s happened, isn’t it?” Rosaline said, feeling quite sympathetic towards his situation, “You poor soul.”

“Hey Mom, I’m going to see if I can find any of the spare beds and bed rolls the camp has,“ Harper said before leaving the tent.

“So is there anything else you might need?” Rosa asked.

“Well… I couldn’t exactly pack before coming here, I didn’t want people going after my family because they might know where I am, and anything that I brought with me to college this morning probably got burned.” Arlo explained, “Other than stuff like my phone and wallet, I don’t really have anything else, so that is probably going to be at least somewhat of a problem.”

“Ah, I see. But don’t worry that much about it, we have spares of most things and magic for the rest,” Rosaline said, walking over and sitting in the chair next to him, “So sweetheart, how are you finding being at camp with us?”

“How am I finding it? It’s been alright I guess, this cloak that Murphy gave me has meant that I’ve not been particularly bothered by people so far,” Arlo answered, “But I’m still kinda getting used to the fact that magic is everywhere here, back home you would only really see Awakened in passing, and only really interact with them when a rift happened.”

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

“Yeah, it can be quite the adjustment, but don’t worry, you’ll get there eventually,” Rosaline tried to reassure him, “How about this, since you’re staying with us, why don’t I help with teaching you how to use magic?”

“Sure,” Arlo said, happy to have another person willing to help him, “Nancy said that letting me settle in for today would probably be best, so can that offer be put off until tomorrow?”

“You’ve spoken to Nancy? Didn’t figure she would get to know you on the first day, interesting… And of course it can wait until tomorrow,” Rosa stated, “ You also got to see Murphy? I haven’t seen him in a looong time, how was he?”

“Oh, he seemed to be doing well,” Arlo said, not knowing particularly what to say from there, but luckily Harper seemed to have come back, and with stuff in hand.

“Ok, found them,” Harper said as she moved towards the room she had cleared, seeming to activate whatever enchantment that was in the bed as it set itself up automatically, laying the bed roll on top shortly after, “There, all set up for you.”

“Err… thanks,” Arlo said, seeing a satisfied look in her eyes. Moving to sit on the bed he could feel that it was actually quite comfortable especially for how small it was before, something that he would have felt surprised about but by now he just assumed that magic had something to do with it. These people are awakened, of course everything they do involves magic in one way or another, “You were right, it’s definitely a lot more comfy than it looks.”

“I know, right !” Harper said enthusiastically, shaking her arms around a bit, “And it stays nice and comfy and clean and-”

“Hey now Harper, don’t get too excited about it, it’s just a bed, it might be enchanted but it’s still just a bed,” Rosaline interrupted, letting out a small chuckle at how Harper still seemed to get excited by all types of magic, big and small.

“I know, but it’s still just rrrrr, and I just think it’s cool,” Harper said, not wanting to hold back her excitement and fascination.

“These are all things you’re capable of doing yourself.”

“I know… but even the process is really cool,” Harper said, a trail of blue glowing energy coming out of her fingertip before coalescing around a single point, before then taking the shape of a few circles and some seemingly intricate runes. A short moment later the air seemed drier as water started condensing in front of the magic circle she made, letting the small amount of water she gathered fall to the ground, reclaiming most of the energy she sent out.

“So, what was that?” Arlo asked, curious to hear about different types of magic.

“Oh, that’s just a simple thing to gather water to a single point, and it’s the first step in most of my spells. You can’t really do much water magic without water around, which is kind of a bummer, although people really like you when it’s raining,” Harper mused.

“Although I would prefer you use your magic outside the tent,” Rosaline said while glaring at Harper, “You made the mess, you clean it up.”

“Uhh, fine,” Harper said, drawing out another portion of her energy, taking a few seconds to remake the magic circles she made the first time before adding another ring to it, after a few moments bringing her hand down to where the water fell, the water collecting into a small ball in front of the magic circle once again before she walked it outside. Once outside the outer ring became brighter before the water shot off somewhere over the surrounding tents, “There, dealt with.”

Arlo chuckled a little at how childish Harper seemed to handle that situation, although it was interesting to get a view of how magic circles can be used, “So do you always use magic for small things like that?”

“Well you have to practice,” she said with a shrug, “the more you get used to casting spells, the less likely you are to mess them up when they actually matter.”

“Ah, makes sense,” Arlo replied.

“As well as having your mana gathering and circulation techniques down,” Rosaline added, “the more used to a flow a part of your body is, the more flow you can have through that point, so continual practise allows you to get your ether ready to cast more quickly, especially if your spell requires continuous mana flow.”

“So are those things particularly hard to get a hang of?” Arlo asked, getting slightly concerned about how complex they could be, and if he would be able to perform those techniques in the state that he was in.

“Depends on the person, but it’s mainly different methods that people have found that work for them and others, they aren’t necessarily the best for every person either,” Rosaline answered, “anyway, it’s starting to get late, do you want to see if they have food ready?”

“Sure I guess,” Arlo said, taking out his phone to check the time, seeing that it was about 6pm but also having noticed that he had no signal and his battery was getting quite low, “Yeah, it’s almost 6, and I just noticed I don’t have any signal, suppose that’s because there aren’t any cell towers out here, is there?”

“No, not really, that’s also why travelling mage groups can be so hard to track,” Rosaline responded.

“Wait, what are cell towers?” Harper asked.

“You don’t know what cell towers are?” Arlo asked, Harper shaking her head, “Well they allow for wireless connection between devices, so different phones, cameras, computers, detection systems and stuff can all talk to each other without having to be right next to each other.”

“Oh, good to know,” Harper said, seeming semi-interested in the answer, “Anyway, let’s see about food.

Leaving the tent together they all went to the central area, the central area seeming a lot more lively than before, having quite a few more people that he didn’t recognise from earlier, feeling a little more conscious about being there but the fact that he was with people who he knew made him feel better about the crowd. Looking through the crowd he could see people of all different ages, with slightly more people on the younger side although there seemed to be a decent mix, even including some that seemed to be quite a bit younger than him, although Harper did say about those that come here with children being able to break ‘the being able to put your tent up yourself’ rule so it would make sense that some would be here.

Eventually working their way to the front of the queue that formed they all got their food, a fire mage seemed to be fresh grilling some stakes as another seemed to have chips and veg on the go. Arlo got a steak and chips and what seemed to be a sauce, before they all found a place to sit, “Hey Rosa, would you mind removing the mana that’s in this, as we found out earlier my core can’t exactly absorb mana at the minute.”

“Oh, sure,” Rosaline said with a smile, putting her hand over his food before similar light brown wisps from earlier came out and dissipated into the surroundings, not knowing that his core not exactly absorbing mana was actually doesn’t have a core at the moment.

“Thanks,” Arlo said before digging in, watching others go past as he enjoyed his meal. Seeing how close people seemed to be to one another, seeming to have a deep shared sense of comradery, Arlo slowly finishing his dinner. Able to watch the flow of people in and out, all seeming to leave in the same direction when they were done, bar a few exceptions, “Hey, so where is everyone going when they leave? they all seem to be leaving in the same direction.”

“Oh, well some are probably going off to recharge their mana reserves, but most are going to the open space we left clear, either to spar with others or to watch the people that are. You mostly find it’s the younger ones that are sparing to make use of their free time in the evening so they can get some practice in, but you do occasionally get some of the older members having a go either to show off or because they just haven’t practised in a while,” Rosaline answered.

“Oh, cool,” Arlo said with a sense of intrigue, “Mind if we go over and watch for a while?”

“Sure, why not, I could do with some evening entertainment,” Rosaline responded, her hand on her chin after having been in a moment of thought.

“To be honest I really enjoy watching, I was going to drag you over there with me once we were done here if you hadn’t said anything,” Harper said, her inflexion raised in excitement.

Having both finished their food, harper quickly grabbed his wrist before quickly leading him over to the sparing area, Arlo panicked for a split moment before realising what she was doing. Getting to the sparing area, Arlo could see that the outside area held a reasonable crowd, although the thing that most drew his attention was the bits of dirt and debris that came flying out of the centre of the sparing area.

Moving to get a better view, Arlo could see that one of the participants was Edan, who seemed to have a smile on his face as he was looking for the next opening. The other participant who looked similar to Edan, also had short-ish brown hair, a similar set of armour and looked to be about the same age. I’m pretty sure that other guy is Eric, I’m pretty sure that’s what Smithy called him when we arrived after he said something about Jasper should have let me fall. And I see now why Zack said that he constantly got the two confused, although they aren’t overly the same I suppose they’re quite similar.

Watching the match, Arlo could see that they both seemed to be trained in some sort of martial art, the way they fought each other seemed to have quite a lot of structure to it. Edan dodged a few rapid jabs before ducking and unleashing a few jabs of his own, his hands covered in a light brown-ish sheen. The two traded a few blows that seemed to have quite a bit of power to them, neither of them seeming particularly affected by them. Edan managed to get in a good punch right to Eric’s chest, allowing him to create some distance. Eric not wanting to give him the advantage stomped his foot, sending out a small chunk of stone right at Edan’s head. Edan put his arms up to block, making sure his back foot was in place to not be sent off balance by the impact, the rock breaking upon contact and sending chunks in all directions but mainly to either side of his face.

Arlo followed the back and forth, Edan sending chunks of stone at Eric, Eric getting in close and exchanging blow for blow with Edan. The fight going through multiple cycles of close-range and mid-range fighting, Eventually Eric and Edan both stopped before walking up to each other.

“Good match, you nearly had me a few times,” Edan said while he shook Eric’s hand.

“Yeah, I know, sucks that I couldn’t push you on them much, your guard was pretty good, but let’s see how long you can maintain your lead,” Eric replied with a smile.

“This a normal thing?” Arlo whispered to Harper.

“Yeah, they basically do this every day, and I don’t know if you felt this but they signal the other they are done by retracting their aura, so one doesn’t continue going after the other, either when they are running low on reserves or starting to get exhausted,” Harper whispered back.

“Ah ok, and yeah, the pendant blocks basically everything, Murphy said it’s good for up to Advanced level rifts, so I’ve only really been feeling a weird kind of pressure from the mana of stuff I’ve eaten,” Arlo said trying to get his head around the fact that just because he’s wearing the pendant, that he is missing out on so much nuance, although that’s something he would hopefully be able to handle picking up on in the future, “Anyway’s it’s getting kinda late, we should probably get some sleep.”

“You can go back to the tent if you want, I’m gonna stay for a while and see if anything else interesting happens,” Harper said before turning back to see who would be next to enter the ring.

Walking back to the tent he looked up and realised how late it actually was, the sun having set at quarter past 6, the only reason why people could still see stuff around camp being that there seemed to be some sort of barrier over the camp projecting the illusion that it was still light out. The area over the horizon showing a dazzling array of stars, the sky transitioning to a light blue within a few degrees above the horizon, a weird thing to think about happening.

Getting back to the tent Arlo quickly made his way in and into the side compartment with the bed and bedroll that Harper had set up for him earlier. Closing the flap on the door to the compartment Arlo got undressed, leaving his clothes beside the bed as he got into the bed roll. I still can’t quite believe how nice this feels. Today’s been a long day, college, the outbreak, almost dying twice apparently, meeting these guys, and now being in camp with them all. I’m still not quite convinced on a few things but at least this should be alright for now, and just have to hope nothing happens back home in the meantime. But anyway, just need to take things one step at a time. Arlo let out a tired yawn, after finding a comfortable position managed to get to sleep rather quickly, he didn’t know what was coming tomorrow but all that he knew was that it’s going to be a lot of work.