Chapter 642: Reflection
"Cole, Uta, could you gather some dry wood?" Maya asked, handing Nora a knife. "Stay close to the camp. We don’t need much."
The pair nodded and headed toward the surrounding trees, while Mayumi went to fetch water and Yaana reluctantly stepped forward to help with the cutting.
Elion took the opportunity to finish setting up his tent, though he kept glancing over as Nora began slicing the meat into thin strips.
"By the way," he said, pushing one of the tent pegs firmly into the ground, "I saw a couple of beast corpses farther down the path. I’m assuming those were yours?"
"They were," Cole replied, returning with an armful of fallen branches. "We took their cores, but we didn’t stop to butcher them. We wanted to get back before it got dark."
Elion glanced toward Maya, who shook her head before he could ask.
She was already crouching beside the cleared space in the middle of the camp, arranging a few stones around its edge.
"We have enough food for tonight. If there’s anything worth taking when we pass them tomorrow, we’ll collect it then," she said. "For now, I’d like everyone to stay where I can see them."
Elion couldn’t really argue with that, especially after what had happened the last time they left the girls alone.
He finished securing his tent and returned to the others, lighting the gathered wood with a small flame before settling down nearby.
Before long, the clearing was filled with the sound of sizzling meat and the warm smell of seasoning.
Nora worked quietly beside the fire, turning the strips in the pan while Yaana watched with far more interest than she had shown while helping prepare them.
The flesh curled as it cooked, its pale surface gradually taking on a light brown colour. Elion found himself leaning forward slightly.
He wasn’t really hungry, but the smell was too enticing, and damn did that meat look good. Nora’s cooking skills were actually quite decent, it turned out.
"That smells surprisingly good," he admitted, watching Nora transfer the first batch onto a plate. She looked up, a small smile appearing on her face.
"I hope it tastes good too," she said, reaching for a bowl and filling it before offering it toward him. "Here, you can try it."
Elion accepted it with a brief word of thanks, doing his best not to overthink the gesture.
She was serving dinner, after all, and he would look like an idiot if he started treating every bowl she handed him as some kind of declaration.
He picked up a piece and took a cautious bite, finding the outside pleasantly browned while the inside was firm and rather chewy.
It took a little more effort than he expected, but the seasoning had done its job, and he nodded after swallowing.
"It’s good. A little chewy, but good."
Yaana reached for a bowl of her own, deciding that his approval was enough for her to try as well.
The others followed, and for a while, the conversation faded beneath the sound of eating and the occasional crackle of the fire.
By the time everyone had been served, the last vestiges of sunlight were slipping away from the clearing, leaving the trees beyond their camp in deep shadow.
The air had begun to cool as well, and Elion shifted a little closer to the fire, enjoying the warmth against his legs, even though he didn’t need to.
His body was not one to suffer from the elements after all.
"Well, at least our first meal here isn’t dried meat and hard bread," Cole said, looking down at his bowl with a satisfied expression. "I was prepared to spend the next few months convincing myself that I liked those."
"You still might," Maya replied, though she was smiling faintly as she ate. "We can’t expect every monster we run into to be edible."
"Then let’s hope we run into plenty of the edible ones," Yaana said, reaching for another piece. "Preferably smaller ones that don’t try to drag us into a lake."
Maya paused briefly at that, her gaze dropping toward her bowl, but she recovered before the silence could become noticeable.
Setting her food aside, she looked around at the group and brought their attention back to the night ahead.
"We’ll need to take turns keeping watch. Two people at a time, and if you notice anything unusual, wake the others before going to investigate."
"I’ll take the first watch," Elion offered, resting his empty bowl beside him. "I’d rather stay up for a while anyway."
’I don’t really need to sleep anyway.’
"I’ll join you," Cole said, and Maya nodded before assigning herself and Uta the next turn, followed by Mayumi and Yaana.
Nora looked up when she realised her name hadn’t been mentioned, her fingers tightening slightly around her bowl.
"What about me?" she asked, glancing briefly toward Elion before returning her attention to Maya. "I can take a turn too."
"Tomorrow," Maya replied. "You spent most of that fight maintaining spells on several people at once, after all. Get a proper rest tonight, and we’ll change things around the next time."
Nora hesitated, but eventually nodded and lowered her gaze again.
Elion quietly began gathering the empty bowls, rather pleased that Maya had handled the arrangements without leaving him to worry about who might volunteer to sit beside him all night.
Once they had cleaned up, the others gradually made their way toward the tents, leaving Elion and Cole near the edge of the clearing.
It wasn’t so late that they all needed to sleep early, but it turned out that no one was feeling particularly chatty.
And tomorrow promised to be a long day.
The fire had been allowed to burn lower, its remaining light falling across the ground without reaching far between the trees.
Cole settled against a broad trunk where he could watch the path leading down the mountain, while Elion chose a spot facing the lake.
For a while, neither spoke, both listening to the unfamiliar sounds drifting up from the forest below.
Elion rested his Kurogoroshi across his knees, pulling it out of its sheath and examining the edge in the faint firelight, turning it slowly between his hands.
’Beautiful as always...’
The sword hummed happily in agreement, before going still again on his knees.
Now that everyone was fed and settled, he finally had a moment to think about what he could have done better during the fight.
Uncle Dorian had been quite adamant about reflecting after every fight, after all. His exact words had been:
A battle does not end when you sheathe your sword. It ends when you understand it. Revisit every step, every swing, every breath. Ask yourself what you could have done better.
Correct the small things: the angle of your wrist, the placement of your foot, the instant you chose to strike.
Then correct the greater things: where you stood, why you attacked, what you failed to notice in the heat of the moment.
Tiny adjustments sharpen your swordsmanship. Greater adjustments sharpen the swordsman. Do this after every battle, and even victory will have something left to teach you.
Elion breathed in and out slowly several times, allowing his heartbeat to settle. He let the stray thoughts fade from his mind until he was calm enough to begin.
He began with the moment he had rushed out of the trees, remembering the sight of the tentacles rising from the lake and the girls struggling near the water.