NOVEL NEXT Chapter 1641 First Little Break
--- Kat ---
Stopping for lunch turned into quite a lot of effort for quite a few people, Kat and Lily included, despite the fact neither of them had planned to eat anything. A large number of the dragonkin were simply exhausted by the time lunch rolled around. They might not have left at the crack of dawn but they'd been walking for quite a few hours at this point with just the one small break when waiting for Malt and Lily to meet up with the group again. After that it was multiple tense hours of light jogging.
The only saving grace was that they hadn't encountered any bubbles yet. There were a few Bower could sense but they were off to the sides and easily avoided so they simply did. None of the nonsense they'd needed to deal with on the way in. The bubbles seemed to behaving normally once again… which did mean it was likely they'd eventually run into the middle of one and the question of what to do then did hang heavy on the minds of the people who'd thought of it.
Right now though? Well everyone had others things to think about. For most of the dragonkin it was dealing with just how tired they were. For the few that weren't? Well they were helping everyone get food and water. Meg was distributing the goods while Hunter set up a bunch of thin tripwires all around camp to help detect threats. The camp was simply too big for someone to sit in the centre and keep an eye out. Perhaps if they could shift aside some of the mist… but alas it was not to be.
Kat and Lily were on the edges watching the wires now. They'd been assigned to one corner and their job was basically to watch for any jerky movements signalling that something had hit the lines. Hunter had set up multiple layers of wire in essentially no time at all. It was actually quite cool to see though it might be a pain in the ass to clean up. Hopefully Hunter had a good way to do so.
Kamiko had the worst job. She was assigned to healing all of the little scrapes, bruises, bumps and of course blisters. A lot of the general muscle fatigue was something that just needed to be powered through. Kamiko's bubbles weren't really for internal damage, at least not yet and she was already stretching her demonic energy reserves quite a bit because everyone except the workout crew had multiple minor injuries that needed fixing up.
Heck, even the workout crew, as fit as they were had a few minor things that Kamiko was planning to take a look at. Pip had managed to get a cut on her face somehow, and the twins hadn't bothered with long sleeves so they had a few gashes on their arms. Just shallow cuts that would heal on their own under normal circumstances… but Meg was planning to push the group hard so it was best to ensure everyone was in the best condition possible.
Malt didn't have anything wrong at all. He'd been dressed for this and while he was potentially still an issue from a magical standpoint he was in the best physical health by far. The twins weren't far behind of course… but the slight concessions they'd made for fashion of function meant those cuts they'd taken should probably be looked at. Just in case something got in them and caused an infection or was poisonous or something.
--- Still Kat --- (1 Hour Later)
"Urgh, can't we rest a bit longer," whined Neoms as she was dragged to her feet by Chasen. Church, who happened to be nearby chuckled as she shakily got to her feet. "What's so funny fatso? You're in worse shape then me!"
Church just kept laughing as she double checked the rope around her waist. Kat was nearby, listening to the conversation while still keeping an eye on the wires. They'd be taken down soon but that was no reason to get lazy in the last stretch. "I am but I know better to complain. I'm in awful shape sure, but my blisters have gotten fixed and it's not like I'm low on calories or whatever. I'll live. Probably. At the very least I trust the twins to tell me if I'm about to do something stupid and seeing as they haven't said anything? I'm going to say we're fine,"
"How can you be ok with this though?" asked Neoms. "What are they going to do if we collapse in this forest huh?"
Church's laughter took a turn towards the darkness as she answered, "Well I imagine it would depend on which person we're tied to. Brook might try to carry me, but he probably shouldn't… Kat might be nice enough to help. Kamiko certainly would be… Hunter and Meg? Honestly they might just cut the rope and leave us to die,"
"They wouldn't," said Neoms firmly.
"I totally would if I could get away with it," whispered Meg right in Neoms' ear.
Neoms screamed and jumped away from the demon that had just appeared behind her, shaking slightly even as Meg laughed at her misfortune. "Seems you've got a good bit of life still in you. So you'll be fine,"
Neoms glared back, "You're not funny," Meg just kept chuckling without really saying anything else. Off to the side, Church considered explaining that Neoms' was the joke here not anything that Meg had said. They'd all be warned quite firmly what Meg was like… and Neoms apparently hadn't been listening properly, or perhaps the message simply hadn't sunk in.
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Church decided not to say anything. If Neoms wanted to live in fantasy land… well it was probably safer for her there considering she was on Meg's team. Church did a small prayer motion just in case. Church wasn't religious, but from playing quite a few games she'd learnt that it didn't always matter if the god was real. Sometimes you just needed to pray for someone.
Chasen noticed the gesture and winced. Sliding over to Church and whispering, "How bad is it going to be?"
"Well… you'll probably be fine. Neoms? I'm not too sure. I'd guess that Meg will do her job while making sure to pull and tug on the rope and random times or try to get Neoms running into trees and stuff. Meg is… a character. If you get in the way of her games she'll just add you to them…" explained Church quietly.
"Is… is she really at risk of dying?" asked Chasen.
"Eh… from what Kamiko and Kat have said to me… Meg's not a great person but she does take pride in her work. That and she's a bit weird about Hunter. I imagine that death will be off the table because of the drama it would cause… but mental scarring that stays lowkey? That's almost certain," explained Church.
Church moved over towards her group leaving Chasen to chew on that information as best she could. Kat sort of wanted to reassure the poor girl… but honestly that might just make Meg more likely to add Chasen to whatever plans Meg clearly had for Neoms after the complaints. When Church finished rejoining the group, Kat did add, "I would be willing to carry you if it was necessary but that could cause you other issues… especially if the groups get shuffled at some point,"
Church shivered, "Yeah… that's not a pleasant thought. I mean, hanging out with Kamiko would be nice… but that's only a one in three chance if things get shuffled. Maybe one in four if we're allowed to go back with you. Honestly best just not to risk it,"
*I suppose I hadn't really thought about shuffling the teams around much. Especially with the fact that they aren't entirely balanced. Do you think it's likely?*
[Hmm… not sure. I can see Meg going either way. She might want a wider variety of people to bully or she might want to… 'slow boil' the people she's already been assigned. I guess it just depends.]
*I love that we both seem to think that Meg will be the reason it either happens or it doesn't.*
[Is it wrong though? Meg has become the leader because we don't really want to piss her off. It's not fear so much as it is… apathy sort of? Like it's just easier to let her do her own thing and rely on the fact she doesn't want Hunter to hate her to ensure that Meg doesn't take anything too far.]
*Hmm… I feel like there has to be some reason that it's a bad idea… but honestly I'm not sure what that argument would be. It seems to have worked out pretty well for us so far and Meg's only traumatised Kamiko a little bit. She's even managed to mostly recover from that… though repeating it 'out loud' makes me think that maybe we should be doing something about it. Not sure what we could do, so I'll probably continue doing nothing about it… despite how annoying that is.*
[No, no I think I agree with you…]