“Oh, that reminds me,” Danielle said. “When the Rangers came around doing med-checks – they missed everyone else in my room, did you guys see them?”

  “Yeah, they checked me and Gideon,” Ezra said.

  “We were home too,” Jordan said. “It was pretty early, still.”

  “OK, good. But what I was going to say is, they told me something we should keep in mind – and again, this isn’t secret, you can warn other people too. They said there have been sightings of two different wildcats around camp. There’s another big cougar like the one we fought with the other two parties a while ago, and there’s a smaller cat that people keep mistaking for the cougar because they just don’t get how big cougars actually are – but the small one is still stealing food from people’s traps, and it could be dangerous to people who aren’t prepared to deal with it,” Danielle said.

  “Two of them – yikes,” Akari said. “How small is small? I mean, smaller than a cougar could still be pretty big.”

  “Yeah, I don’t know the exact measurements, but the Rangers said I’d know it if I saw it, so it must still be bigger than a housecat,” Danielle said. “They said if we see it, gather the party and take it out – I guess they figure if we could handle the thrasher, we can handle a medium cat.”

  “What did they say about the actual cougar?” Cassy asked.

  “That it’s close to the level threshold, and they’re trying to get permission to just deal with it,” Danielle said. “They probably wouldn’t mind if we took that one out too, but they didn’t recommend we try. They probably consider it too reckless for level 1s if it’s that close to being a high enough level that they could get permission to take care of it for us.”

  “We’re not going to – to hunt it or anything, right?” Tom asked.

  “No way,” Akari said. “Not the cougar. Maybe the other one, though.”

  “Agreed,” Heather said. “I’d support hunting the smaller one if we found the trail, but we don’t need to mess with a cougar unless it’s another situation where we need to rescue someone.”

  “Yeah, and for that we’d get more help,” Sadie added. “Like before. Another Healer, more people to help hold it off.”

  “And this time I’d know how to help,” Cassy said. “No more locking up and getting lame backhanded assistance from the System.”

  Danielle nodded. “We learned from that experience, too. We could respond if we had to, but we won’t seek it out.”

  “Um, the first two servings of soup are ready,” Tom said. “I’ll, um, trade someone a can of soup for a sealed can of beef barley?”

  “What are we going to eat out of?” Cassy said. “We brought our mugs, but they’re not big enough.”

  “I guess we’ll have to fill up the mug, then eat some quick and drink off a lot of the broth, then fill it the rest of the way so Tom can get the pot working again,” Akari said. “Do you think making soup like this counts as food processing?”

  Sadie went first along with Ezra, eating quickly until she had enough space to accept the rest of her serving into her mug. “I wasn’t very hungry during the fever, but my appetite has come back for vengeance,” she said.

  “Let’s start weighing out the berries,” Cassy said. “They’re all system-dried, so it’s still equal portions, right? We just have to figure out what that adds up to.”

  “What if we make piles that look equal, then we do the balance thing to make sure they actually weigh the same?” Zephyr suggested. “We’ll take away a few berries here and there until they all weigh as much as the smallest pile, then we’ll add back the ones we took away, but evenly to all the shares.”

  “That should work,” Cassy agreed. “Let’s see if we can get it done before anyone else needs a mug to eat out of. After all, we need them for our balance.”

  Danielle slid out of the way, closer to Tom’s bed (or at least his footlocker) and let herself slip into a doze where she slouched against the half-wall, her staff laid across her lap. She woke periodically, as more cans and mugs of soup were passed out. One of those times, everyone seemed to be speculating on what exactly did and did not count as “processing” food. Another time, she jumped alert at a loud sound and realized that Cassy was in the middle of a dramatic retelling of the fight with the cougar. That one kept her properly awake for a few minutes. The third time, Tom was reminiscing about a time he’d been sick as a child, and Gideon followed up with a similar anecdote. Finally, someone handed Danielle a can of soup.

  The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

  “Are you awake enough to handle this?” Jordan asked.

  “Oh, uh, I am now. Thanks,” Danielle said, blinking herself awake and cautiously taking it in both hands. It had apparently been heated in the pot, not just put on the burner in the can, which made it safer to hold.

  “You and Tom both had soup, but your party put in some jerky for you too, so you’ve got seconds if you can stand to eat them,” Jordan said. “Has your appetite come back yet?”

  “I don’t know,” Danielle said. “A little, I guess. I had a whole can of soup at breakfast, and a regular lunch for out here. What time is it?”

  “You’re asking me?” Jordan joked. “You’re the one with the watch.”

  “Oh, right,” Danielle said, turning red with embarrassment. She checked, and it was 7:15. “Looks like I have some time to eat before I need to hit building seven. Will you come guard me again?”

  “Yeah, I’m coming. I wish you’d asked before you sent the message to the whole town, though. Why’d you have to go there to get people on the list? Why not in front of building three, or five?” he asked.

  “Building seven is where largest number of people that wouldn’t talk to the Rangers were.” Danielle took a drink of the soup.

  “Oh. Are you going to drag us around floor 1 after all, then? I was hoping the Rangers had basically taken care of that,” Jordan said.

  “Yep, gotta do it,” Danielle said. “It’ll be OK. Let me confirm with Akari and Gideon, but I don’t think the Wolves are crazy enough to attack a group of four. Besides, they’re still recovering too.”

  “If you say so,” Jordan said dubiously.

  Gideon came over and sat down facing Danielle. “Did I hear you two talking about going to building seven tonight?” he asked.

  Danielle nodded. “Will you come guard me again? The Rangers said people in building seven didn’t want to talk to them, so they didn’t get to check people very thoroughly there.”

  “I will. Ezra really enjoyed the sleepover last night, I don’t think it’ll be hard to talk him into hanging out here again,” Gideon said. “Besides, I ah – I was praying about what to do today, and God really put it on my heart to start a Career search from my interface, and I don’t know why, but I did it. Um, so now I’ve got to do Career stuff apparently, and since the instructions from that shared dream are to defend people, I figure I should practice defending and hope for a defending-type Career. I don’t know what else to do to help with that, though.”

  “Akari and I know some training that probably helps,” Danielle said. “We’ll introduce you to that tomorrow when we go out trapping/fishing/foraging.”

  “Won’t we be too busy with the fishing, trapping, and foraging, then?” Gideon asked.

  “No, I’m talking about an all-day trip,” Danielle said. “Hike out, set snares, fish, start drying the fish by a fire, divide into groups and take turns doing stuff around the fire vs. going out foraging. There will be time for training in there. It’s like, a dawn to dusk trip. Are you guys both recovered enough for it?”

  “Well yeah, we are, but are you?” Jordan asked.

  Danielle chuckled. “I might be less completely recovered,” she said, “but I also have Speed Improvement and have hiked the route several times before. You watch, by the time you’ve been with us a month, you’ll have Speed Improvement in your System and stamina improvement in your actual muscles.”

  “Yaaay,” Gideon said unenthusiastically. “Seriously though, I already have Speed Improvement, I’m more concerned about Ezra.”

  “It will do him good, too,” Danielle said. “Don’t worry, we’ll be going as a group, and we won’t be leaving anyone behind. We can pause to forage along the way if some of us need rest breaks.”

  “It’s no worse than the walk to the prayer meeting spot,” Akari said from the other side of the room. “You guys’ll be fine.”

  “Akari, are you good for going to building seven with me?” Danielle asked, since she’d joined the conversation.

  “I wish you’d just go home, but if you insist on going to building seven I’m definitely coming with you,” Akari said.

  “You don’t have to come with me, but I have to go,” Danielle said. “Sorry. I’ll be glad to have you if you come, though.”

  “I already said I am if you are,” Akari said. “Do you really have to, though? I mean everyone’s improving at this point, and the Rangers are getting ready to pull out, right?”

  “That’s what they said,” Ezra piped up.

  “They also said they’d be back around this evening to deliver the extra tokens they were selling. Do you have anything to do with that, Danielle?” Gideon asked.

  Danielle face-palmed and pointed to the door.

  “She’s gone, we checked,” Gideon said. “Right before Akari got into your bag and passed out the cold water bottles, and you didn’t even notice.”

  “Ah. I might want to bring a tent to nap in, tomorrow,” Danielle said, blushing a little.

  “Or rethink an all-day hiking trip,” Gideon retorted.

  “Wait, wait, back up,” Jordan said. “Danielle? Are you still involved in this token business?”

  “Oh – I think I told you guys yesterday that half the mana I made on Sunday, I set it aside to make cheap tokens for people here in camp who might feel the need to reconsider the token choice that they made on Sunday,” Danielle said. “So yeah. Obviously don’t tell anyone, but yeah.”

  “They’re saying the tokens are being sold at half price because of a charity deal with the Union’s youngest Skill Sharer, though,” Jordan said.

  “And that is?” Danielle asked, raising an eyebrow at him.

  “Uh – OK, but you don’t really count as being, I mean – ” Jordan floundered and looked to Gideon for help. Gideon just shrugged at him, and he tried, “I mean it’s not official until you get back Inside, is it?”

  Danielle shrugged in turn. “It’s official enough for the Rangers to remind me that the state wants me back alive every time they see me,” she said. “Agent Bea said the next-youngest one wouldn’t mind getting credit if it came back to him, though.”

  ...we all know it's not going to happen though.

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