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Description

You start settling in for the night...your tent has been placed up. You are sleeping in your sleeping bag. All seems calm...until you feel a quiet thud on the floor. You assume it is the night patrol. However it gets closer, closer and closer. You find yourself unable to sleep until you heard a loud THUD! Hearing the screams from the outside, you look outside of your tent.

""IT'S BIG ANGIE!"" A fellow Adventuer's Guild member calls out.

You see a larger than life female Squidmodo roar out a call! Various adult male Squidmodo come out, stealing your guild's rations!

It's a Squidmodo stampede!

Do you attack the Squidmodos, save the food rations, go back to sleep, or lead the Squidmodos away from camp?

-+-—-—-—-+-

2037 Words

The night air was still, calm and immediately cooling against Jane’s skin as she lifted herself from the log she was seated on and made her way back toward her tent for the night. Said temperature a distinct yet welcome shift from that of which was surrounding the campfire she had just left. The single remaining folk beside it, bidding her a silent farewell with a short yet slow wave of his hand before turning his focus back to the very last of the once roaring fire’s embers - eyes tracing their swaying movements as they danced sky bound. A gesture of which she returned.

It was to be extinguished in due course - already incredibly small in comparison to what it once was. But for the sake of safety, someone needed to tend it. An unsupervised fire in a forest is never safe. Even a log with no visible flame nor ember can reignite with enough heat still in its heart. That was basic. And while it would make surface level sense for at least one folk from the night patrol look outs to tend the flame throughout the night. Surface sense indeed, not holding under further scrutiny. Given the stationary nature of the mission, the less attention that could be drawn to their current location the better… And - unfortunately for those with less natural cold resistance - that included the very conspicuous plume of smoke. Needless to mention the scenario where the firewood needed restocking in the middle of the night. It was simply far too inefficient when the current night patrol set up worked just fine. The consistent movement both allowing for more observations and keeping the ether pumping to increase warmth without needing the fire.

But she was getting off track, this area had seemed decently quiet of predator activity thus far. The occasional bird chirruping or the rustle from a smaller creature skittering about the foliage overhead was enough to soothe her mind of that much. So she felt decently calm in her assertion that the folk scout would be fine as she unzipped the tent door and headed inside. Allowing herself to yawn in preparation to sleep and perching on the side of the camp bed she had been provided by the guild.

She understood why hammocks wouldn’t be the best choice for this. Needing to spring up at a moment’s notice and all that… yet it was consistently the single thing she missed about being at home. Of course, she on some level did miss her family. But the knowledge they were safe and happy back at the Great Tree was enough to sate that. Camp beds, however? While they kept her off the floor, she had still yet to figure out how on Earth to lay to make them even remotely comfortable. Perhaps it would be worth considering asking the guild if she could replace it with a roll up mat. The groundsheet was far too thin to protect her from anything as it stood, hence the camp bed, but with a thick enough mat between her, her sleeping bag and the floor… it could be the solution she was after. But that was for when she got back home… for now, she set about removing her cloak and draping it carefully over the little hook that was attached to a metal ring on the interior door of her tent. It wasn’t load-bearing - she’d learnt from her testing that in fact the entire tent was built with at least five separate contingencies to prevent collapse (embarrassingly over-engineered, she could only imagine the kind of folk who’d made the blueprints for it) - so that little loop could handle a little bit more weight.

A single paw entered her sleeping bag, barely even touching the fabric for a fraction of a second before,

“IT’S BIG ANGIE!” A folk from outside screams, the once still air suddenly filling with the sounds of many large lizard feet slapping against the nearby hillside. Squimodos. Wonderful.

Any ounce of weariness that would have been a hindrance was suppressed by the adrenaline of the moment. Her mind’s eye quickly flashed to life as she allowed it to race with the possible solutions to this situation - or at the very least best case responses to it. How many of the folk travelling were awake at this time? Probably quite a few now the patrol had sounded the alert. Would the situation end up far worse if she waited for orders? Perhaps the better question would be what could she do in this moment?

The stampede of male squimodos appeared to be travelling in a blanket group formation at the moment. Thus distracting or otherwise disrupting the squimodos by blocking their current path could be a feasible option. All it would take was a strategically summoned vine or two. That being said, while there was a chance doing so could get them to feel intimidated into retreat, getting them to scatter when grouped like that could cause more harm than good. More targets. The less to pay mind to the better. Plus with Angie around, her little pack of “chickens” - as some liked to call them - were far less likely to retreat as easy, no doubt in their attempt to impress her.

Number one priority for both them and the squimodo should be the supplies. Food was a limited resource for all parties involved and - while the adventurers guild members were in all technicalities encroaching upon the squimodos’ territory by camping out here - Jane was not by any means about to sit idle and let the snake-lizard-hybrid creatures take what little they had packed. This was a matter of survival.

Though survival or not, needlessly injuring the creatures for simply following basic instinct was off the table too. Again, they were the trespassers, not the pit of squimodo. No, no, she had a much simpler plan to ward them off.

If there was one thing squimodo were known for, it was their impeccable tendency toward travelling the path of least resistance. The squimodo themselves were at no risk of being eaten by Big Angie for not complying to her demands. Given how often they loitered around Circle of Moon operations, the simple supply of food the Adventurer’s Guild currently had on hand would be nothing more than bonus for the year. So. If scaring or injuring the ravenous horde of creatures until they retreated was off the table, what - pray tell - was on it?

Simple.

Make the target harder to get to.

Glancing back into the tent, she quickly set to work acting upon her thoughts. “Theo,” she called out to the cat-like folk who was staring startled at the entrance of the tent, fur bristled from the sudden noise. His heterochromatic eyes flicking up toward hers attentively yet still alert. “Spare groundsheet, please.” She instructed as concisely as she could with a point toward the location of said ground tarpaulin. They didn’t have much time for words, the squimodo closing in. He was the closest to it after all and scared though he be, he still managed to put on a brave face for long enough to toss it to her.

Catching it, her eyes next locked with Oru and Constance specifically. Their long legs would provide them with enough speed to make it to the closest supply tent on time. They both seemed to hold a little grogginess behind their eyes still but that was ok. She trusted they were awake enough to carry out this plan. “Oru, Constance.” She hurriedly alerted, a beckon of her hand for them to follow her as she sprinted full pelt out of the tent toward that which held the bulk of the group’s food. Confidence settling in her mind as she heard the rushing of paws behind her.

A quick glance around while she ran assured her that other folk were already tending to the smaller food-bearing tents closer to where the squimodos had started their descent. Good, that would buy some more time. Though it was a touch frustrating to see some of the folk there deciding that violence was the only course of action. Clearly those without knowledge of how nasty a bite from a particularly brave male could be… and while it did seem to work to scare off one of the more timid males, the rest were undeterred. Big Angie was still watching from the hillside above… and she wasn’t about to be left disappointed by her pit.

Taking a hard corner into the main tent, making sure not to lose her balance, Jane could see that there were already a few folk running around in there trying to figure out what to do with the piles of food both in their arms and set to the side still. And while the tent itself was large the amount of supplies needing protection was not nearly that big.

Confident in what she was seeing, she flicked her tail to fully ground herself. A small yet focused hint of a smile crossed her very corners of her mouth as she instructed Oru and Constance to hold the clean spare ground sheet open and called the folk holding food to help her get it all inside. It was almost entirely in bags anyway so it wasn’t touching the tarpaulin - not that it mattered for most of it as the outsides of the several items that weren’t bagged would normally need to be washed to prepare them regardless. But once everything was in, was when the true plan showed itself.

After unhooking part of the groundsheet of the tent and folding it back to expose the floor as not to damage it. Jane swiftly set about summoning a vine from outside, weaving it in a knot though the loops of the tarp until everything inside was wrapped securely. Enlisting the help of some of the nearby folk she recognised from her time in Angus’ magic class to coax further vines out of the ground. Winding them around the outside of the now balled tarp just to be sure it wasn’t going anywhere before finally instructing the vines to burrow. Then was the next step, move as much of the equipment in this tent as they could to make a further barricade and the ideal material was sitting right in the corner. Spare camp beds!

Quickly working with the other folk in the tent, Jane unfolded and lay each camp bed on its side around the balled tarpaulin until finally it was fully surrounded and just in time too as…

Thud, thud, THUD!

A group of three squimodo hurtled into the side of the tent, almost tearing the zipper off it’s rail as their long tongues flicked at the air with inquisitive excitement. One upon seeing the amount of folk in the tent attempted raising a paw and rolling over which was only met by it being ignored as the group focused on the other two which long tongue flicked around the tarp, vine, camp bed ball in the corner of the room.

The air felt thick as they waited with baited breath.

The squimodo attempting to scratch around the camp beds with their nigh-useless floppy little arms until…

One of them let out a small call of frustration, turning tail and scarpering back into the woods, shortly followed by its two friends.

SUCCESS!

As Jane peeked out of the tent, she couldn’t help but feel a sense of relief as she watched those same squimodo join back once more with the main pit. Of which all seemed to be both distracted and assured enough that there wasn’t any readily accessible food in the area to be safely shepherded away from camp. Good.

Yet as the relief hit, so too did the weariness strike back with vengeance. Already overtired with the sheer drain of using magic on top of it? It was a wonder she managed to trudge her way back to her tent and into her sleeping bag without collapsing half way there.

But if there was one thing she’d learnt from this experience it was that…

Maybe camp beds weren’t so troublesome after all.

…

For things other than sleeping, that was…

~~~~~~~~~

24/2847 Acorns

Description

You start settling in for the night...your tent has been placed up. You are sleeping in your sleeping bag. All seems calm...until you feel a quiet thud on the floor. You assume it is the night patrol. However it gets closer, closer and closer. You find yourself unable to sleep until you heard a loud THUD! Hearing the screams from the outside, you look outside of your tent.

""IT'S BIG ANGIE!"" A fellow Adventuer's Guild member calls out.

You see a larger than life female Squidmodo roar out a call! Various adult male Squidmodo come out, stealing your guild's rations!

It's a Squidmodo stampede!

Do you attack the Squidmodos, save the food rations, go back to sleep, or lead the Squidmodos away from camp?

-+-—-—-—-+-

2037 Words

The night air was still, calm and immediately cooling against Jane’s skin as she lifted herself from the log she was seated on and made her way back toward her tent for the night. Said temperature a distinct yet welcome shift from that of which was surrounding the campfire she had just left. The single remaining folk beside it, bidding her a silent farewell with a short yet slow wave of his hand before turning his focus back to the very last of the once roaring fire’s embers - eyes tracing their swaying movements as they danced sky bound. A gesture of which she returned.

It was to be extinguished in due course - already incredibly small in comparison to what it once was. But for the sake of safety, someone needed to tend it. An unsupervised fire in a forest is never safe. Even a log with no visible flame nor ember can reignite with enough heat still in its heart. That was basic. And while it would make surface level sense for at least one folk from the night patrol look outs to tend the flame throughout the night. Surface sense indeed, not holding under further scrutiny. Given the stationary nature of the mission, the less attention that could be drawn to their current location the better… And - unfortunately for those with less natural cold resistance - that included the very conspicuous plume of smoke. Needless to mention the scenario where the firewood needed restocking in the middle of the night. It was simply far too inefficient when the current night patrol set up worked just fine. The consistent movement both allowing for more observations and keeping the ether pumping to increase warmth without needing the fire.

But she was getting off track, this area had seemed decently quiet of predator activity thus far. The occasional bird chirruping or the rustle from a smaller creature skittering about the foliage overhead was enough to soothe her mind of that much. So she felt decently calm in her assertion that the folk scout would be fine as she unzipped the tent door and headed inside. Allowing herself to yawn in preparation to sleep and perching on the side of the camp bed she had been provided by the guild.

She understood why hammocks wouldn’t be the best choice for this. Needing to spring up at a moment’s notice and all that… yet it was consistently the single thing she missed about being at home. Of course, she on some level did miss her family. But the knowledge they were safe and happy back at the Great Tree was enough to sate that. Camp beds, however? While they kept her off the floor, she had still yet to figure out how on Earth to lay to make them even remotely comfortable. Perhaps it would be worth considering asking the guild if she could replace it with a roll up mat. The groundsheet was far too thin to protect her from anything as it stood, hence the camp bed, but with a thick enough mat between her, her sleeping bag and the floor… it could be the solution she was after. But that was for when she got back home… for now, she set about removing her cloak and draping it carefully over the little hook that was attached to a metal ring on the interior door of her tent. It wasn’t load-bearing - she’d learnt from her testing that in fact the entire tent was built with at least five separate contingencies to prevent collapse (embarrassingly over-engineered, she could only imagine the kind of folk who’d made the blueprints for it) - so that little loop could handle a little bit more weight.

A single paw entered her sleeping bag, barely even touching the fabric for a fraction of a second before,

“IT’S BIG ANGIE!” A folk from outside screams, the once still air suddenly filling with the sounds of many large lizard feet slapping against the nearby hillside. Squimodos. Wonderful.

Any ounce of weariness that would have been a hindrance was suppressed by the adrenaline of the moment. Her mind’s eye quickly flashed to life as she allowed it to race with the possible solutions to this situation - or at the very least best case responses to it. How many of the folk travelling were awake at this time? Probably quite a few now the patrol had sounded the alert. Would the situation end up far worse if she waited for orders? Perhaps the better question would be what could she do in this moment?

The stampede of male squimodos appeared to be travelling in a blanket group formation at the moment. Thus distracting or otherwise disrupting the squimodos by blocking their current path could be a feasible option. All it would take was a strategically summoned vine or two. That being said, while there was a chance doing so could get them to feel intimidated into retreat, getting them to scatter when grouped like that could cause more harm than good. More targets. The less to pay mind to the better. Plus with Angie around, her little pack of “chickens” - as some liked to call them - were far less likely to retreat as easy, no doubt in their attempt to impress her.

Number one priority for both them and the squimodo should be the supplies. Food was a limited resource for all parties involved and - while the adventurers guild members were in all technicalities encroaching upon the squimodos’ territory by camping out here - Jane was not by any means about to sit idle and let the snake-lizard-hybrid creatures take what little they had packed. This was a matter of survival.

Though survival or not, needlessly injuring the creatures for simply following basic instinct was off the table too. Again, they were the trespassers, not the pit of squimodo. No, no, she had a much simpler plan to ward them off.

If there was one thing squimodo were known for, it was their impeccable tendency toward travelling the path of least resistance. The squimodo themselves were at no risk of being eaten by Big Angie for not complying to her demands. Given how often they loitered around Circle of Moon operations, the simple supply of food the Adventurer’s Guild currently had on hand would be nothing more than bonus for the year. So. If scaring or injuring the ravenous horde of creatures until they retreated was off the table, what - pray tell - was on it?

Simple.

Make the target harder to get to.

Glancing back into the tent, she quickly set to work acting upon her thoughts. “Theo,” she called out to the cat-like folk who was staring startled at the entrance of the tent, fur bristled from the sudden noise. His heterochromatic eyes flicking up toward hers attentively yet still alert. “Spare groundsheet, please.” She instructed as concisely as she could with a point toward the location of said ground tarpaulin. They didn’t have much time for words, the squimodo closing in. He was the closest to it after all and scared though he be, he still managed to put on a brave face for long enough to toss it to her.

Catching it, her eyes next locked with Oru and Constance specifically. Their long legs would provide them with enough speed to make it to the closest supply tent on time. They both seemed to hold a little grogginess behind their eyes still but that was ok. She trusted they were awake enough to carry out this plan. “Oru, Constance.” She hurriedly alerted, a beckon of her hand for them to follow her as she sprinted full pelt out of the tent toward that which held the bulk of the group’s food. Confidence settling in her mind as she heard the rushing of paws behind her.

A quick glance around while she ran assured her that other folk were already tending to the smaller food-bearing tents closer to where the squimodos had started their descent. Good, that would buy some more time. Though it was a touch frustrating to see some of the folk there deciding that violence was the only course of action. Clearly those without knowledge of how nasty a bite from a particularly brave male could be… and while it did seem to work to scare off one of the more timid males, the rest were undeterred. Big Angie was still watching from the hillside above… and she wasn’t about to be left disappointed by her pit.

Taking a hard corner into the main tent, making sure not to lose her balance, Jane could see that there were already a few folk running around in there trying to figure out what to do with the piles of food both in their arms and set to the side still. And while the tent itself was large the amount of supplies needing protection was not nearly that big.

Confident in what she was seeing, she flicked her tail to fully ground herself. A small yet focused hint of a smile crossed her very corners of her mouth as she instructed Oru and Constance to hold the clean spare ground sheet open and called the folk holding food to help her get it all inside. It was almost entirely in bags anyway so it wasn’t touching the tarpaulin - not that it mattered for most of it as the outsides of the several items that weren’t bagged would normally need to be washed to prepare them regardless. But once everything was in, was when the true plan showed itself.

After unhooking part of the groundsheet of the tent and folding it back to expose the floor as not to damage it. Jane swiftly set about summoning a vine from outside, weaving it in a knot though the loops of the tarp until everything inside was wrapped securely. Enlisting the help of some of the nearby folk she recognised from her time in Angus’ magic class to coax further vines out of the ground. Winding them around the outside of the now balled tarp just to be sure it wasn’t going anywhere before finally instructing the vines to burrow. Then was the next step, move as much of the equipment in this tent as they could to make a further barricade and the ideal material was sitting right in the corner. Spare camp beds!

Quickly working with the other folk in the tent, Jane unfolded and lay each camp bed on its side around the balled tarpaulin until finally it was fully surrounded and just in time too as…

Thud, thud, THUD!

A group of three squimodo hurtled into the side of the tent, almost tearing the zipper off it’s rail as their long tongues flicked at the air with inquisitive excitement. One upon seeing the amount of folk in the tent attempted raising a paw and rolling over which was only met by it being ignored as the group focused on the other two which long tongue flicked around the tarp, vine, camp bed ball in the corner of the room.

The air felt thick as they waited with baited breath.

The squimodo attempting to scratch around the camp beds with their nigh-useless floppy little arms until…

One of them let out a small call of frustration, turning tail and scarpering back into the woods, shortly followed by its two friends.

SUCCESS!

As Jane peeked out of the tent, she couldn’t help but feel a sense of relief as she watched those same squimodo join back once more with the main pit. Of which all seemed to be both distracted and assured enough that there wasn’t any readily accessible food in the area to be safely shepherded away from camp. Good.

Yet as the relief hit, so too did the weariness strike back with vengeance. Already overtired with the sheer drain of using magic on top of it? It was a wonder she managed to trudge her way back to her tent and into her sleeping bag without collapsing half way there.

But if there was one thing she’d learnt from this experience it was that…

Maybe camp beds weren’t so troublesome after all.

…

For things other than sleeping, that was…

~~~~~~~~~

24/2847 Acorns