I wake up before the sun rises. That’s pretty usual, especially these days, and apparently my late night wasn’t enough to change my habit. Normally I wouldn’t actually get up; I’d just stay in my warm bed. Although I wouldn’t say that sleeping on the floor is exactly comfortable, and do sometimes think of my soft mattress with longing, I’ve mostly got used to it. Enough that it’s often a sufficient lure to keep me dozing until the sun actually starts to rise above the horizon.

This morning, though, I know I have too much to do to laze around, so I get up. Bastet opens an eye as I shift to sit in front of the fireplace, but I send a wordless message down the Bond about taking advantage of the time to sleep while she still can. She yawns and closes her eyes again, nosing into the pile of cubs next to her.

They’re getting so big, I can’t help but think to myself. Once able to fit in a sling against my chest – all three at once, even – the ‘cubs’ are now the length of my torso. They’re finally growing into their paws. Well, talons. By the time the spring comes, I bet they’ll be fully grown.

But in some ways they’re still very much cubs, tumbling together and playing just as fiercely as ever. The only difference is just how much trouble they get into – Bastet’s has had to warn off each of the cubs at least twice recently from going to explore the forest on their own. Apparently Trouble is completely undaunted from his experience only a week ago with Lathani.

At least the nunda juvenile seems to have calmed down since being accepted into our group. Actually, she’s been the model of good behaviour. It’s been a bit awkward, giving her orders with her mother just there. But the awkwardness is fading, and Lathani herself doesn’t seem to be in the least conflicted about who to look to, which is good, I suppose.

She’s been going out a lot with the hunting groups, and has apparently been a great help. I’m not surprised, not after hunting with her myself. I’ve only managed to make it out with a hunting group twice, but both times included the nunda juvenile. Though still sometimes a bit impulsive and with an annoying tendency to act before checking with the rest of the group, she’s a strong and accomplished hunter with an ability to keep herself concealed that rivals even the Tier two Bastet.

Even with the Bond indicating her location, I’ve sometimes found myself struggling to keep track of her. I’m starting to understand how she was able to get away from Kalanthia.

Using an almost absent-minded bit of Fire-Shaping, I relight the fire in my stove, quickly adding in some branches and then a couple of logs. My intervention means that the fire roars to life very quickly, consuming the fuel with eagerness.

Setting a pot of water from the stream on the fire, I chop in some herbs, some roots, and some chunks of meat. Not for breakfast, but for later – hot stew after a long day of travel will be very welcome. Because it’s going to be a long day of travel, that I’m sure about.

For breakfast, I pull out a couple of pancakes from my Inventory along with a large bowl of steaming herbal tea which I sip from. I cooked a whole stack of them the day before yesterday – more like potato pancakes than anything else, but the addition of almost-honey into the batter has given them a lovely taste. Adding a drizzle more of the liquid gold, I half-close my eyes in delight.

Now this is more like it. Pancakes and tea for breakfast…all I need is smoked bacon to go with it. Instead of bacon, I have roast meat which, while not bad, just doesn’t quite hit the ‘bacon’ spot.

In winter, I definitely need to have a go at making smoked meat, I decide. It’s a good way of preserving meat outside of my Inventory anyway. And who knows – maybe it will preserve the natural Energy in the meat better too.

After breakfast, I head outside to continue my preparations. Though most of the items are in my Inventory, I don’t want to disturb my Bound more than I already have. Pausing at the entrance of the alcove to scratch the stirring Fenrir behind his ears, making him settle back down, I glance back into the main body of the cave, spotting the dappled shape of the large nunda.

Kalanthia opens her eyes to gaze at me, returning my greeting nod with a flicker of acknowledgement. She then closes them again and I head outside. The second moon is still bathing the area in its light; it’s enough that I don’t need to light a torch to see where I’m walking. If I slip into Fade, then I can see even better.

Walking out onto the plateau, I nod at the two on watch – Bary and Kanga. I’ve finally been able to meet with all my Bound and give them proper names. Well, apart from all the Unevolved samurans from the hunting band, that is.

Although I offered them all Tame Bonds which basically required them to follow orders, I haven’t managed to spend much time with them. Frankly, I’ve been too busy. But I’ve had Catch join them for the days to help take them out in groups to the forest, so hopefully delegating my responsibilities to him and River has meant that they’re not feeling too abandoned.

Certainly, Catch seemed pretty pleased with himself: I suppose that going from bottom of the pile to top dog in one fell swoop is quite satisfying. River confided in me when I went to visit him that he’d heard more than one of the group exclaiming over the transformation – and wondering what other transformations I might do. That’s all pretty positive, even if it adds more pressure onto me.

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While we’re on the road, I do want to do a scan of all the lizard-folk, just checking for injuries. I’ve already managed to do that with all the creatures we rescued from the danaris, and they know they are to bring me any injuries they suffer in the meantime; several of them have already taken me up on that, though not for anything serious.

Returning my thoughts to the moment, I wander over to my two watchers. I didn’t ask them to do that; one of my more aware managers must have thought of it. Probably Bastet, knowing her.

“All quiet?” I ask casually. They both send over a sense of agreement and welcome. It’s…nice. Bary, named because he looks rather like a baryonyx except smaller and with flightless wings instead of mini-arms, nudges at me with his head. He’s not all that gentle, so the shove pushes me back a pace, making him grunt in satisfaction. I chuckle, scratching him at the root of the short crest which goes from the base of his skull down his neck to mid-back. He makes a moaning sound, the pleasure which comes down the link letting me know that he’s enjoying this.

Not wanting to be left out, Kanga nudges at me, though she’s more polite about it. Obliging, I start rubbing her under her chin – her preferred spot. I can never remember the name of the dinosaur she reminds me of – it’s one which looks like it kind of has an elongated skull, though it is vaguely pointed on the top end so she can use it to defend herself a little. She’s also one of those who has two sets of eyes, so her field of vision is excellent.

I named her Kanga because, despite being scaled and dinosaur-like, she rather reminds me of a kangaroo. She certainly can sit like one, and does when she’s alert and on watch. Though she tends to walk on four legs, she also runs like a kangaroo, her bigger and stronger back legs sending her lolloping forwards.

After spending some time with them, I quickly head down to the forest line – my bladder is sending some rather strong messages to me. At the treeline, I cast an Inspect Environment, looking for any signs of something about to pounce on me. All I see are a few plants outlined in either red or gold, and few of those.

Reassured, I manipulate the mana in my undersuit to create an opening, take myself in hand and then sigh at the sense of relief even as splashing meets my ears. I keep a sharp eye on my surroundings, though – I slipped into Fade as well as checking my surroundings before I started releasing, but I never know if there might be a creature which comes by and can still see me which decides I might make a good meal.

Finishing my business, I head back. Before starting to walk up the slope, I see the item which the lizard-folk hunting party have laboured over the last few days sitting just a few steps away from the forest edge. This one is Mark Three, the first two definitely not being suitable. This one is promising enough that we’ve actually taken the next steps.

It’s a cuboid made of six faces of woven twigs. Within it are ten frames, each made of four pieces of branch, about as thick around as my two fingers put next to each other. They are held together with densely woven bark fibre, Joy’s input very useful at that stage. Though I can’t see it right at this moment, I know that at the bottom, there’s another woven piece with small holes in it, but this one is horizontal where the frames are vertical. This one is held a bit above the other woven piece which forms the bottom.

It’s a very rudimentary bee hive, and I’m really hoping that will work. Not only was I not a bee-keeper in any sense of the word back on earth, but my survival knowledge doesn't have anything on making a beehive or keeping bees. Added to that is the fact that these creatures aren’t even bees. I don’t know how they will react – whether they will stay in the long term, or take the hive and disappear.

The only reason I think it might be at all possible is because they seem to behave like bees. They build hives out of a waxy substance, which they fill with sweet honey-like substance. They defend these hives with their bites and numbers. They even appear to have a queen like bees do, a single insect which was about three times the size of the others, and five times as long.

I walk carefully towards the hive, keeping my eyes peeled. It’s still dark so most if not all of them should be in the hive still, but I should be able to see the odd one here or there if they’re still in there.

My sharp eyes catch sight of one lump of black on one of the branches, then another, then another. I stop moving forwards and smile in satisfaction. I would guess that they’re all still there, then. Excellent.

I do still have the Tame Bond with the queen, but that’s no guarantee that they will stick around in the accommodations I’ve provided them, and if they don’t accept the hive the lizard-folk built, then the queen could easily break the Bond.

Yes, I discovered that I can indeed offer a Tame Bond to an insect. Well, kind of insect – they have eight legs but are definitely not arachnids. It did take me braving the bites of her warriors – covered in dense web, of course – and carefully taking apart the hive that they had built at the top of the tree, to find the queen.

We did it at night when they were more docile, me testing my control over fire to stop it from burning any not-bee which came close. That didn’t mean they weren’t willing to bite, of course, and I had to close up a couple of holes that they managed to find – their bites hurt even if I could almost immediately heal them.

Once I found the queen – not too hard considering her significantly different size – I offered her a Tame Bond. To my surprise at the time, it worked – though maybe I shouldn’t have been surprised: she does have eyes. Essentially, she agreed to pay tribute in terms of an amount of honeycomb as long as I didn’t take so much that the hive would be in danger, and also provided protected accommodation for their hive.

Honestly, I was surprised at how intelligent her requests were, even if we are as yet unable to communicate beyond the most imprecise of feelings. Either way, she seems to be happy enough with the hive the lizard-folk built; now, I just need to make sure they are guarded. The Bound I’m leaving behind should be perfectly up to the task.

I notice the sun coming up, its rays starting to touch the top of the mountain, visible beyond the band of trees which grow above Kalanthia’s cave. From the plateau, I hear the sounds of movement.

It’s time to give my final instructions, and then depart on our expedition.