"Wake up, Hikari."
A man's gentle voice.
"Wake up. Before the boys eat all of the meat."
Hikari sleepily opens her eyes.
Her vision was blurred.
She closes it again.
A nudge on her arm.
"I'm going to get the shared wash bowl if you don't get up soon. All of the boys had already used it. You really don't want it over your pretty face."
Hikari opens her eyes.
She rubs them.
"Gerald."
The mercenary captain stands right outside her pan.
He watches as Hikari supports herself on one elbow.
Her body was still inclined.
It felt sore.
Really sore.
As though she had just pushed a whole keep worth of stone up a mountain.
Every limb was sore.
Her back hurts.
She feels the weight of her huge chest on her back as she sits upright and leans forward.
"It hurts."
"Good! That's the feeling of your body improving. But you need good nutrition too. The supply convoy had arrived. Time to get cooking."
Hikari stood up.
She raised her arms and stretched.
Her fingers touch a support beam.
Her muscles under her shoulder ached.
She bent her back and touched her sock.
The ground sheet over her pen.
She kept it clean.
Her muddy boots sat right outside the pen and stayed there always.
She had been very careful not to let the mud onto the pen.
Especially her bed which was a stack of hay with a sheet laid over it.
She walks to the wall.
It was both her wardrobe and armoury.
On the left were stacks of fresh clothes.
She stashes them carefully in the covered wooden wardrobe to keep them clean.
Her claymore and array of smaller swords and throwing daggers hanging on the wall above.
On the right, her dirty training fatigues from the day before.
The stench from her sock was especially strong but it somehow didn't bother her.
It was competing with the poop from the horse sharing the barn with her.
She remembers cleaning out the poop just before going to bed the night before but it somehow still managed to appear.
She walks to the right of the wardrobe.
She'll stretch out the dirty fatigues for another day.
As for the dedicated set she wears to bed everyday after washing up, she'll stash it in the spot in between the two.
She expects it to be quite fresh at the end of the day.
She begins to undo the laces.
She stops.
Realizing something, she turns to look at Gerald leaning against the railing to her pen.
The man's eyes widened.
His half shaven beard.
"Gerald."
"Alright, Alright. I'll wait outside for you. Don't take too long on the makeup."
Hikari shoots him an annoyed look.
She doesn't do any makeup.
Gerald raises up both arms, a signal for a truce before turning around and making for the barn door.
Hikari emerges from the barn.
A plain baggy shirt.
Loosely tied laces.
Baggy pants held up by the belt around her waist, leaving her freedom of movement from her hips down.
She was greeted by a lovely sight.
The spring thaw.
The wind was still chilly.
Greens everywhere.
The snow had fully thawed, leaving the ground wet and soggy.
Spray.
"Gerald."
"Keep quiet and hold still."
Gerald aimed a spray bottle at her and pulled the trigger.
Hikari feels a tickle on her nostrils.
It smelled like soap.
Not the flowery kind used by nobles.
The repugnant kind made cheaply with mainly animal fat and various 'ingredients' that the farmers could find.
But it fights with the smell of her sweat enough to dampen it.
"Gerald."
"Alright, Alright. I'm done. This bottle comes all the way from the distant kingdom of Herdial. Quite pricey. The original actually smelled quite nice but we mixed it with some of our own stuff to stretch it out. Once the orcs advance again, this stuff is going to get hard to come by."
Hikari raises one arm.
She takes a sniff.
It's not half bad.
It is perhaps a third bad.
But it's enough to get through the day.
The weather is not ideal for washing as the cold makes her thick clothes take ages to dry.
She holds onto the clean ones still stashed safely in her barn.
"Load!"
The drill sergeant shouted.
The sound of musket balls being pushed into the chambers.
"Aim!"
The firing squad raises their muskets.
"Fire!"
The dry clicking sound of muskets.
The balls rolled out of the barrels harmlessly.
It was but a dry drill.
"Cmon, they'll be hungry once they finish their drill. It's our turn to do kitchen duty today. You did a lot of heavy moving yesterday so today we'll do some lighter stuff to let them recover."
Hikari looks over the courtyard.
Stone weights attached to steel poles.
She feels as though she remembers working out with them.
She looks across the street.
A heavily guarded warehouse.
Six sentries standing at even intervals around the rectangular building.
Two pairs of patrols constantly making the rounds.
There was a hole in the building right down the middle
A pile of bricks and jar of tar by the side for the builders to patch it up when they have the time.
In the meantime, Hikari could see the rows of cannons at the bottom shelve inside the warehouse.
Dried sacks of gunpowder lined the top shelf.
"Here, grind the beans."
A giant stone cooking bowl.
It was big enough that even Hikari would have trouble moving it all by herself.
Gerald carried a sack of beans and poured it into the bowl.
The full sack barely filled the bottom curve.
"Well, get to it, you're the only one who can move that thing."
A stone herb grinder.
It was the length of Hikari's arm and as thick as it.
A round head smoothened by whetstone.
Donk!
Hikari holds it up by the strapped handles and drops the bottom into the center of the bowl.
She leans it against her shoulder.
Push and pull in circular motions.
She uses the strength of her hips.
The stubborn beans were soon ground to paste.
Gerald poured more beans into the bowl.
More helpers showed up.
They shovel coal below the bowl.
A fire was lit up.
A helper was put on dedicated fanning duty.
"This is the last sack of beans I promise."
Gerald chuckled as he poured.
"Alright."
Hikari kept grinding away.
She could feel the heat rising from the stove below.
"That's enough for the beans. We don't want to grind the other stuff."
A bucket of water was poured into the bowl.
The grains and vegetables followed.
"The beans are the toughest to cook even after the grinding. so we give it a little head start."
Hikari puts down the grinder.
She takes a rest.
It was a strenuous task even for her.
The beans weren't even fully ground.
She could still spot tiny hard pieces poking out of the paste.
She reaches for the spatula.
It was impoverished for her using an armour plating welded to the end of a lantern pole.
"Don't flip it just yet, the beans need to cook a little longer."
"I won't."
She sees the beans cook.
They weren't cooking so well.
"Silora tits. Nevermind. Mix it up, Hikari. Looks like we're gonna have to cook it longer."
Hikari slides her spatula along the wall of the stone bowl under the layer of bean paste and lifts it.
The water was boiling, but the stubborn chunks of bean paste refused to break into pieces.
"You tried, but nothing we can do about it. There was an experiment using a roller that would ordinarily be used to straighten roads. The bean paste produced then was somewhat gentle on the stone. But we don't really have anything that weighs several tons right now."
The helpers toss in the vegetables.
Then the juicy part, a slab of roast pork.
Freshly off the flames.
It's oil dripping off its sides.
"That's a lovely roast. Not as mighty once we spread it across the whole bowl. But hey, if you're lucky you might get a small slice of it."
The helper tossed the meat. It had been carefully cut into small pieces but only scattered when tossed.
Hikari mixes.
Her eye traces the position of the meat crumbs.
After a few rounds with her spatula, she could no longer see the small pieces.
Gerald grabs a ladle and drops a bite into his bowl.
He tastes it.
The infantry line had just finished their drilling.
They looked at their captain with expectant eyes.
"It's all ready!"
He shouts.
"There's a whole slab of roast pork in there! May the goddess Silora smile upon you today"
The infantry line squeezed into line.
The stable hand knocks the ladle against the pan to signal breakfast.
It turned out to be unnecessary.
Hikari goes back to the barn to fetch her bowl.
She was able to kill the time until it was her turn with some stretching.
She sits down on a fallen log and digs in.
Gerald sits beside her.
He was up to her shoulders in height while sitting down.
Standing up, he wouldn't reach them due to Hikari's long legs.
"Another spring past. It felt like yesterday since we celebrated surviving yet another year."
Hikari stuffed a ladleful into her mouth.
She didn't taste any meat.
But the hot thick stew that filled her gullet was good enough.
"We'll have a few more days to train and then we'll be on the march again. I don't know where to yet. Hopefully not a major city that gets besieged for months on end. I'll rather meet my end giving those clumps of overgrown algae a run around in the deep dark forest than die standing in my own piss in a besieged city."
Hikari kept eating.
"Gerald."
"Yes?"
"What's that?"
There was a set of engraving in the dirt.
Sticks fixed in equal intervals around the circle.
An outer ring of runes.
A pile of seeds in the middle.
Gerald stumped.
"Hmm… I think that's a summoning circle. I'm not sure.. I don't know any of this stuff… A summoner will be a big help… Those guys are very rare from what I heard. I have received no word that we have a summoner joining us, judging from those runes…. Perhaps a frost beast?"
Hikari squinted her eyes, trying to make sense of the runes.
Her jaws were still chewing as she studied the runes.
"Fire beast."
"You think it's a fire beast? Ha. How bout we bet a cut of pork on that? Though I doubt it is a fire beast considering fire is not particularly effective against the orcs. Hmm… judging by the seeds in the middle, perhaps an Ent or a fairy. I read in books that you can summon certain spirits that could aid you in combat or heal you. Hope it's much better than bandages and a bowl of stew."
They watched the summoning circle as they ate.
A crow landed on the side of the summoning circle.
Its eyes set on the pile of seeds in its center.
It pecks the ground and taps its claws.
It hops side to side to check for ambush.
With a flap of its wings, it hopped to the center and began feasting on the seed pile.
Hikari and Gerald held their spoons in their mouths and watched.
The bird picks up seed after seed from the pile.
It was having the best day of its life yet.
Donk!
A stone hit the ground right next to the crow.
It immediately flapped its wings and flew off.
A boy emerged from the bushes.
He wears a cape around his neck and a cloth wizard hat.
He holds a long stick with a broken statue strapped to its tip and a sling shot in his other hand.
"Ah shoot! I missed it. It took me a while to gather that seed pile. Oh well, there's still a lot left."
A girl came out of the bushes after him.
"But fret not! For I, the grand magnus. The white! Conqueror of the mist! Folks everywhere sing my name. I have at last successfully summoned the mighty griffin!"
"You baited a crow with a pile of seeds and missed the sling shot."
"Silence my apprentice! For you have yet to witness my greatness. Come now, we will lay the ambush again."
The two children disappeared back into the bush.
Hikari and Gerald stared at the empty circle.
Their mouths agape.
They burst out laughing.