Chapter 03

SCOUTING

PART 1

With his tent basking in the morning sun, the man with raven hair ran a hand through it as he roused from his first night on solid ground in over a week.

Next to him, the snores of his companion continued unabated, something Jackle promptly corrected with a small bop on the back of the head from his dusty grimoire, an item that never strayed far from his person, or rather couldn't.

Seeing Anvi rustle under his blanket, Jackle considered his morning chore accomplished and donned his black robes, threw a bit of oil in his hair, and left the tent to join his other two companions in the dawning light.

“Morn’.”

Despite his barely audible greeting, it was met with chipper gusto from the girls already seated around their morning fire.

“Morning!~”

“Good morning J.”

Finding a seat on a log opposite the other two, Jackle flipped open his grimoire to the latest spell he’d been studying as he surveyed the other two while flipping through pages to find where he’d left off.

Across from him, both the girls seemed far more awake than usual, the ranger was already in full gear, and Mara didn’t have a speck of her usual morning grogginess.

“Been up long?”

With Mara busy grilling their breakfast, Kali answered for them both.

“I just finished getting ready actually. Mara had second shift last night, so we’re planning to get an early start on things.”

“Mm. Right, I'll take first tonight then.”

Returning to his tome without further conversation, Jackle thumbed back and forth through the pages as he tried to keep up with Mara’s ‘lesson’. She had an awful penchant for writing her notes in an almost spitefully irregular structure.

The latest spell she'd transcribed for him advertised itself as a lightning-derivative, but now her notes had segued into wave dynamics and something she called a ‘Fourier Transform’.

With the trembles of a headache brewing on the horizon, Jackle almost audibly sighed in relief as their fourth member emerged from his cave of hibernation, lending him a much needed distraction.

“Ah, the ‘Quiet Prowler’ meets his mortal enemy, dawn.”

“Shhuttit you. Bacon?”

Following the scent of freshly cooked breakfast, Anvi plopped himself on the empty log closest to his tent, his brain fueled solely by the smell of Mara's grilling.

Finishing up just in time for everyone to be present, Mara skewered the strips of salted boar they'd brought with them and passed a pair to each of her hungry companions, receiving a muttering of thanks in response as they all dug in.

“Mm.”

“Thnks.”

“Hm!”

Find this and other great novels on the author's preferred platform. Support original creators!

Skewering her own pair, Mara stuck one in her mouth and kicked out a divot of sand, dumping the grease from the pan into it before filling it back in with her foot.

Once again, last to sit and first to finish, Anvi tossed his empty skewers into the fire as he stood up to stretch.

“D’lish. Best I get movin’ tho, not-fish ain’t huntin’ itself.”

Kali, second to finish, followed her friend's lead and tossed her skewers into the fire before glancing out towards the unmarred tree-line.

“Don't get carried away and bag something you can't bring back, be back before sunset, and don't get lost in persistently tracking something. Remember what we’ve covered so far, and be conservative.”

Grunting as he finished stretching, Anvi gave Kali a look that said ‘enough already’, and in Jackle’s opinion, it was kind of justified. Kali was being a bit overbearing at this point, she's already been training him on ranger techniques for the better part of a year, one would think she could nag him a bit less, but you don't question someone's teaching methods. That was between student and mentor.

Looking back to his own studies, Jackle tried to discern what the spell was trying to to accomplish- That was the twist with Mara's little lectures, she'd lay out all the pieces but none of the solutions were obvious, he usually didn’t even get a name to hint at a spells intended function.

Jumping ahead didn't help much either, the next section was on the theoretical applications of alternating current, and the trappings preventing its natural application. Far from elementary, but relatively common knowledge to the tinkerers of the world, and once again, it did little to tie the rest of the lesson together.

“Ready to head out?”

The voice of his own mentor cut through his focus, causing Jackle to look up from his tome to find Anvi gone, the fire put out, and the other two standing in front of him, waiting on him to depart.

“Early start indeed. Mind giving me a hint on the lesson in exchange for cutting my study time short?”

Smirking at the black-robed monk, Mara thought his request over for a moment before she found the perfect way to phrase it.

“That’d be making light of my time spent teaching you, pick a different bargaining chip next time.”

Saying all she thought she needed to, Mara turned about and started off down the beach, leaving Jackle to look to Kali for an explanation, but all she could give was a shrug.

“Yeah, no idea. ‘Light Pick’? Whatever, think on it as we go I guess, because you and I both know she's not going to wait for us.”

With eyes distant in thought, Jackle vacantly nodded and stood up to follow the ranger as the pieces of Mara’s spell were starting to come together in his mind’s eye.

Catching up to their ‘fearless leader’, Jackle let Kali occupy his mentor’s attention and pulled out his tome once more, relying on his peripheral to do the walking.

The section after alternating currents jumped abruptly into the history of cryptography techniques, the science of encrypting messages, which seemed entirely unrelated to lightning, yet now made a lot more sense with Mara's hint.

“Ohhh. This is…”

Hearing her pupil start to put the pieces together, Mara opted to finish his sentence for him.

“Mmhm! I thought you might find it handy given our circumstances.”

Flipping through several more pages, with just as many sub-topics, Jackle looked at Mara with disbelief, and not for the first time since he'd met the unaging stranger.

“How many layers did you put into this thing? This looks like years of work, why haven’t you published any of this?”

“One, to who's benefit? And two, why do you think I've been writing it all in your grimoire? It's your prerogative to publish what I teach you. You’re aware of the risks, all I ask is that you leave me out of it.”

Staring at the back of his mentor's head, Jackle still couldn't believe his mentor’s stance. She’d given him full authority to reinvigorate whole fields of magical research in his own name, yet it was so beneath her she hadn’t even turned around as she granted him such a boon. He wasn’t even a registered magic user yet!

“Mara, you can't be serious. Even if I published everything you could teach me, it would still be a paltry drop to the wealth you wield. Knowledge is something we build together, so why hoard what you know? A single year back at the academy, that's all I'm asking. I’ll even vouch for you and clear the paperwork!”

Sighing as she heard him reiterate his request for the upteenth time, Mara stopped to face him, intent on declining once more, but had a better idea just before she opened her mouth.

“Tell you what. If, by the end of our little journey here, you still think teaching is the best use of your talents going forward, I'll join you, but only for a year.”

Pleased he’d at least made a dent in Mara’s steadfast resolve, Jackle clapped his grimoire closed between his palms and bowed to express his gratitude.

“Thank you. I promise you won't regret it.”

Rolling her eyes as she turned back around and set off, Mara’s whispered words were meant more for the winds in front of her, rather than the friend behind her.

“That's if you don't.”