107: Plans

“Trevor!”

A voice called out from a distance away.

“Trevor, wake up,” it called again. As I groggily raised my head, I didn’t see anyone in the room—just Crisplet in the brazier watching the door, but no Lily anymore.

Getting out of bed, I was still fully clothed, so I stumbled my way to the door to see Liane peeking her head around the side.

With a giant smile, she said, “Oh, good—I was worried Lily would be there and get mad.”

“No, she’s gone at the moment. Has it been a couple of hours already?”

I made my way to the door, Crisplet following behind me, as I walked into the hallway.

“Yep, has not been long. Hari has asked for everyone to be at dinner tonight to discuss some stuff, but wouldn’t elaborate on what. Milo is still asleep,” she said, leading the way to the dining room.

When I entered, Jen and Micca were both sitting at the table, and waved as I made my way to the kitchen. I wanted to cook the eel, but to cook it properly I wanted a large open flame and a couple of iron rods to flatten it out, and although I’m sure I could manage it in the oven, it wasn’t ideal.

So instead, I decided to repeat what I made last night since I had the entire thunar left. I would add some vegetables to it, though, so I started with that. I pulled out several tubers as Crisplet took his place in the oven. I wasn’t sure what wood to use today.

I figured I should stick to treant, as I knew Milo still had work to finish downstairs.

I would make garlic mashed tubers, along with the foeni and herb-crusted thunar—essentially copying what I made last night before I passed out, only now I could enjoy it.

As Hari, George, and Darren arrived from training, Liane made her way into the kitchen.

As she took her place in the corner, “Smells really good.”

“Thanks. It’ll mostly be the same as last night, just with some vegetables to go with it.”

Liane chuckled. “And more people for Lily to eye off instead of my plate!”

I was surprised when George entered the kitchen, looking around wide-eyed at everything going on.

“Wow—you don’t realise how much goes into making the dishes,” he said, looking around. When he realised I was just looking kind of surprised he had come in,

“Oh, sorry. I don’t know what you had planned for tomorrow, but I wanted to invite you properly to come down and train with us for a while!” he said excitedly.

“Absolutely!” I responded.

He left the kitchen shortly after, and Liane was the first to break the silence while I was heating up the pan to start cooking the thunar steaks.

With a chuckle, “You realise you’re going to get your arse handed to you in the spar, right?”

“I know!” I groaned. “But I really want to spend time with my friends. We’ll part ways soon enough, and I’ll regret it if I don’t.”

Liane just nodded before snapping her attention to look at me.

“Did you try the new butchery technique yet?”

“No! But I really want to. I might do something once these are all cooked. Lily is not here, so she’ll want food at some point.”

My mind was racing about what I could prepare. I had a lot of carcasses left to be butchered, but most of them didn’t seem very interesting.

I could try doing one of the bears I avoided—it would be a good test, since I knew it would have taken several hours prior to the evolution.

***

A short while later, everyone was sitting around the table. I had served up everyone their food; even Milo was awake and looking far better.

I had made exactly the same as yesterday, just adding the mashed tuber and some steamed carrots with butter and salt to it, along with a wedge of lemon on each plate.

Once everyone had finished eating, Hari got down to business.

“Right, so I wanted to get everyone here to discuss our next steps. We’ve all been relaxing—or mostly relaxing.” His attention lingered on George and Darren.

“But we’ll need to move on. Our ultimate goal is the capital, which is over a month’s travel away. It will also be well into winter, so I suspect our trip to slow down due to that. As it stands, we don’t have enough horses, and it won’t be possible for us to ride double that distance.”

I raised my hand, not wanting to directly interrupt him, but I had been thinking about this exact issue.

“Just speak, Trev—you don’t need permission here,” Hari said.

“Sorry. Well, I had an idea about this topic. I was considering getting a wagon—that way I could make the sugar reed drink on the way, but it would also give the others a place to sit,” I began, but was interrupted by George.

“I’d like to avoid sitting in a wagon if it’s possible.” He was visibly pale, and it took a moment before it clicked that he’d likely have some trauma from his experience in the army. I was saved by Micca.

“You can ride the horse; I’ll pick the wagon any day.”

Hari cleared his throat, silencing the chatter. “It’s a good idea; however, we need to consider it would be both expensive—since we’d need to buy a horse to pull it regardless—and cumbersome later when we need to move fast, not to mention it would make the trip considerably longer.”

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“Are we really in a rush, though?” Milo asked.

Considering it, I had an idea. “I was also thinking, maybe I could store the wagon if I consider it a food wagon? If not, we could leave it with Micca when we get to the capital. I’m sure they’ll have a use for it, and it’s not like we’ll be keeping spare horses with us anyway.”

“That might work,” Milo said, appearing to be deep in thought. “If you consider it a food wagon, or integral for your cooking, perhaps if we get a small oven inbuilt into it—or even just chopping boards for prep—then it’s likely your skill will allow you to store it, and carrying people would be just a side thing.”

“That’s fine, but it doesn’t change the extra travel time—bearing in mind we’ll be in the middle of winter when we get to the capital,” Hari countered.

“We’re not in a rush anyway, and extra time will allow people to move on and the rumours of Trevor to die down?” Jen offered hopefully.

Liane laughed openly at that. “Not a chance. At this stage, trying to hide Trev’s association with Lily will only do more harm than good—it’s better to embrace it.”

Hari was nodding at Liane’s statement, but it was George who spoke up.
“I personally don’t mind if it takes longer—it will give us time to train and be ready for our role in the capital.”

Hari let out a sigh. “Okay, well—next, I think we should leave in about three days. I think that will be enough time to organise a wagon and get the customisations added to it. I suggest you all buy warm clothes while we’re here. By the time we hit Dunhearth, the snow will be starting, and by the time we hit the capital, it’ll be well and truly set in.”