Chapter 2016: Camping Time

The campsite lay on a rise above a bend in the stream, where old ashes marked a fire pit between the trees. Della checked the ground before setting down her pack. No fresh tracks crossed the clearing, and the lower branches had been cut back by previous travelers.

"This is it."

Black looked toward the water below, then at the level ground around the pit.

"It’ll do."

Della unfastened her pack while Brena checked the far side of the clearing. Unbound were already spreading out: Black Fang went to inspect the trees beyond the fire pit, and Serika began gathering fallen branches.

Ayame set her bedroll beside Della’s, keeping the path into the clearing in view.

"Is there another way up from the stream?"

"There’s a worn path below us. The bank gets steeper farther along."

"Then we’ll need to watch that and the trail through the trees. We can alternate watches."

"I’ll take the trail side, Brena the bank."

With the watches agreed, Ayame spread her blanket beside Della’s and laid her sheathed katana within reach. Her gaze went to the narrow roll Tavi had put down on the other side.

"Is that comfortable?"

"It’s light," Tavi replied.

"That wasn’t the question."

"I prefer not to think about it until bedtime."

Ayame grinned and reached into her storage ring. A folded blanket appeared in her hands, which she passed across Della to the freckled woman.

"You can borrow this tonight."

Tavi took the blanket, but her eyes stayed on Ayame’s ring with immense envy. All that cloth, tucked away on a finger. Her own pack was bulging with the food and bedding she’d hauled out of Sarthal, and she still had to carry it uphill tomorrow.

She wanted a pocket ring so badly it hurt. Imagine walking a trail with just her staff in hand, her supplies dry and safe, every damned strap and bundle gone. Ayame had used hers to lend her a blanket. To Tavi, the ring itself would’ve been treasure.

"Thank you."

"You’re welcome."

Tavi spread the borrowed blanket over her bedroll while Black surveyed the clearing’s rim. He raised an open palm toward the trees.

"[Fortress Wall]."

A straight wall of compacted earth rose where he pointed, high enough to hide their bedrolls from anything approaching through the trees.

"...Huh?" Tavi stopped smoothing her blanket. "Della?"

Black continued along the rim, repeating [Fortress Wall] with each sweep of his hand. Another section climbed out of the ground, enclosing more of their bedrolls behind solid earth.

"He’s going all the way around!" Brena blurted.

Della had forgotten the pack at her feet. She followed him with her mouth open while he left a gap for the path and raised overlapping slabs at the corners. The staggered sections formed squat watchtowers, complete with rough steps up their inner faces.

"DELLA!! THERE ARE TOWERS!!" Tavi shrieked.

"I can see them!!"

Her amazement filled her chest until she could hardly speak. The bedroll she’d brought to sleep on a patch of dirt lay beneath an actual watchtower. He’d put a fortress around his family for a night in the woods.

"My lord..." Brena looked from the steps to his helmet. "You just built a fortress."

"So I did."

"We’re only staying one night!" Tavi exclaimed.

"If my wives are sleeping here, they’re at least having walls around them."

The three women fell silent for a moment.

’At least?’ Della thought. ’A fucking fortress is the bare minimum?!’

"..." Della let out a helpless laugh, still staring at the walls. He’d done this before they’d even got the cooking pot out. They’d come here expecting to take turns listening for movement in the dark, and now they had towers to stand on.

Brena hurried up the nearest steps, running a hand over the solid earth at the top.

"Della! I can see the whole lower path from here!!"

Della climbed the other tower to see for herself. The wooded trail was clear below her, with a solid wall between her and anything coming up it. She came down still trying to understand how this had become their campsite.

Inside the walls, Serika stacked the driest twigs from her armful of branches in the old fire pit. Black held his palm over them.

"[Burning Hands]."

Flame washed from his fingers and caught the kindling. He withdrew his hand once the wood was burning, and Lucille set the cooking pot on stones above the burning wood.

"[Gust]." Black swept his hand toward a flat rock beside the fire, guiding the floating crabs down onto it with a gentle current of air. Lucille came over to inspect the catch.

"Those claws are going to be awkward."

"Ordinary river crabs open from underneath," Brena said, joining her. "These look the same."

She sounded wonderfully normal until she noticed how close Black was standing. Then she had to spend a moment remembering what she’d meant to show them.

Aurora offered her a knife.

"Underneath?"

"Yes. Just here."

With something to demonstrate, Brena recovered. She worked the knife into a joint and explained which parts to keep, while Aurora held the shell and asked about the bitter little sac near its center.

"That ruins the meat if you cut it. The fishmongers leave it whole when they sell the shells for stock."

"And charge extra?"

"Of course."

"Wonderful. I feel at home already."

Brena giggled, passing her the first thick piece of white meat.

Della joined them with the herbs she’d brought. Soon the smell of butter and hot crab rose over the fire, and Blossom moved close enough that Lucille had to protect the uncooked pieces with her forearm.

"Those aren’t ready yet."

"Blossom was only checking."

"You’ve checked them twice already. They aren’t going anywhere."

"Better safe than sorry!!" Blossom pouted.

Black chuckled and caught the dogkin around the waist, drawing her back against him. Blossom immediately settled into the hold, her ears brushing his breastplate as she tilted her head up for attention.

Tavi watched his arm close around her.

"Would you like to check the crab too?" Vex asked.

The freckled adventurer looked toward the witch, who had seated herself on a fallen trunk within reach of the fire’s warmth.

"Would it work?"

Vex’s grin widened.

"I’m afraid not~"

She pointed to the trunk across the fire from her. Tavi went to sit there, managing to trip over absolutely nothing on the way.

Della lowered her face over the herbs.