Orion had been given the last watch; she was woken up by Bas and then stayed awake for the rest of the night.
It was easy to keep the fire going. Either Bas or Hazel had gotten more wood and twigs.
The cloud cover had moved past to allow the light of the stars to dimly illuminate the rest of the ruins.
She finally had some energy to dress the scrapes on her hands and the one on her side. They weren’t serious, but it was good she took care of them. Infection was serious, especially with the limitations of ritualistic healing magic.
Sirius was awake, but she wasn’t sure if her companion actually slept.
Orion kept watch carefully, albeit with bleary eyes. She didn’t see or hear anything suspicious the whole time.
The sun slowly peeked over the plains to the East.
Bas was the first one awake of the other three. He checked his surroundings, said hello, and then started poking around in the bone fragments. Based on his unsatisfied expression, he didn’t find anything.
Orion and Bas checked on the horses together. There didn’t seem to be anything wrong, aside from how one or two were a bit spooked.
Bas took out one of their canteens and heated up water over the fire that was still going. He took out a bag and dumped some of the contents into the water.
Orion sat down by the fire after packing most of her things up. “What are you making?”
“Needle tea. It was made by a friend of mine.”
Hazel woke up and stretched. He caught some bugs and fed them to Scorpion, who seemed very pleased with her meal.
Tam was last to wake up, which was unusual for her. Yet, it made sense as she had both fought and been injured the previous night.
“No one saw anything?” Bas questioned. He didn’t seem disappointed at the response, but definitely thoughtful.
“Is it better to stay, or get moving?” Hazel questioned.
“We need food and the next town isn’t for a while. We can leave after breakfast and stay in pairs while we look for food.”
Hazel went to forage with Tam—Bas told Tam to rest, but she protested and argued that it wasn’t her dominant arm that was broken.
“Wasn’t there a stream nearby?” Orion questioned Bas.
“Behind that arch.”
Orion rummaged in one of her saddlebags and pulled out some spools of string and hooks. “Let’s go fishing, the right way.”
Bas chuckled, but agreed.
They went to the stream, which ran quietly and deeply through the ruins. On one side, the bank was worn away and on the other was a flat sandy beach formed by the water-carried silt. Small creatures scurried between the pools of water on the beach, shells protecting them from airborne predators.
Bas cut two long limbs with his short sword, then smoothed the edges so that they wouldn’t get splinters.
While they were tying the knots for the hooks, Orion suddenly said, “Do you really just have no idea how much things are?”
“I’d rather be like that than insist on bargaining people down to half of the price on their signs,” Bas shot back.
“In that case, I’d rather be Tam.” Orion had noticed Tam’s attitude towards money being very frugal, but in a different way than hers. The best example of this would be how when Bas and Orion expressed interest in a sort of knitted hat—what Orion in that other world would call a beanie—Tam had bought yarn and knitted both of them a hat. “I’d be able to make my own clothes.”
“Or, Hazel,” Bas countered, not harshly.
Orion shrugged, conceding the point. “Do you think he even knows when he’s making everyone feel like they’re stupid?” She was already fishing by this point, a sort of worm on her hook.
“Talking about Hazel, I’m not . . . sure about him. I haven’t been for a while. He’s a shady person.”
“We don’t know much about his past,” Orion agreed. She was thinking again about Hazel being a transmigrator. If he was one, like her, why had he not said anything after the rock, paper, scissors? With English being the language of Malamut, it’s possible there’s been influences of other transmigrators. “Have you ever heard of rock, paper, scissors?”
“That game you played with Hazel and Tam? No.”
Orion frowned, but was soon distracted by a fish biting at her bait. She tugged sharply at a bit of an angle, then reeled in her catch.
They continued fishing in silence for a bit, as Orion strung the fish through the gills with some of the string from the spool.
Bas was trying to cast but kept failing. He was using a bug on his hook; mainly his issue was that he had never actually gone fishing before.
“Wow, have I found the one survival thing you’re actually shit at?” Orion commented. She said this, yet still demonstrated the basic technique of flicking the wrist and arm forward to cast until Bas copied it.
Bas rolled his eyes.
“That reminds me, you talked about Hazel being shady, but why is a prince actually looking to kill a necromancer? Tam is the person who would say things like ‘saving the kingdom’, not you.” Orion tried to keep her tone even, but she failed.
Bas wasn’t distracted by the second part, ignoring the attempt at deciphering if he had his own personal motives. “Tam said that chitans could only live for eight years.”
Orion shrugged and just focused on fishing. “I guess he had more than one?” She didn’t find that shady. If that was all Bas had against Hazel, who made good food and now joined in their nightly conversations comfortably, that wasn’t enough.
“Most likely,” Bas agreed.
Hazel and Tam brought back a bird and some tubers.
They all tacitly agreed to spend some time fishing and relaxing, as the undead had not returned. If they were attacked again tonight, they would want to be well fed and rested. Hazel and Tam proved themselves decently acquainted with fishing, while Bas did catch one fish for them to eat. It was a peaceful time, but not quiet—Hazel spent the whole time talking about the maintenance of his trumpet and proper care of chitans.
They rekindled the fire and ate breakfast, with Bas and Tam cooking this time. His only limitation was that Tam chose which spices he added. Some of the fish was wrapped in reeds to be eaten later that day.
With breakfast done, they tacked up their horses. Tam rode with Bas, and Orion led the extra horse.
They left the ruins with ash from a fire and the scattered bones of the undead.
A/N
Chitan lore! Also yeah this is just a fishing chapter as a break from the excitement of being attacked.
