Akari opened the spar with a strike and a step to the right. Danielle managed to intercept the strike, and started working to force Akari back and away from the defended tree. With swords, she would have been quickly overwhelmed, but with staves, their skills were much closer; in fact, with her improved Body level, Danielle thought she might actually have the edge, physically, which she hadn’t expected. Akari usually also had a certain mental edge; she had always taken their weapon training very seriously in school, and was used to fighting competitively. Danielle had never really cared for it, and had put in the effort to get decent at one of the gym-class weapons mainly because she got tired of being mocked for losing all the time. This spar was different, though; mentally casting the trees in the roles of Tom and Heather gave her an entirely different level of focus and determination.

  Back in school, on the rare occasions Danielle let Akari talk her into meeting during free-play time at the gym, either Danielle would get in a point-hit pretty fast or Akari would wear her down in about five minutes. Here, neither happened; both of them fought more defensively than they would have in school, but they also began to ramp up their efforts as they approached ten minutes without a point on either side. Danielle made it her goal to push Akari back and out of reach of the trees, and she was making progress; Akari hadn’t quite been in striking distance of the tree when they started, but if Danielle had let her move forward one good direct step, she could have been. For about a minute early on, Akari had even been close enough, but Danielle had been keeping her staff busy deflecting Danielle’s own strikes. Now, Akari was at least two, nearly three paces away.

  About fifteen minutes in, Akari finally said, “I concede!” and lowered her staff.

  Danielle backed off and lowered her own staff into what she thought of as ‘subtle guard’ – a deceptively casual-looking hold from which she could still move easily to deflect a strike. She couldn’t count the number of times she’d had to fend off a retaliatory whack in gym class, or even just a casual attack between bouts. Vanessa in particular had been in the habit of breaking the class’s ‘no attacks outside the ring’ rules, if Danielle strayed into her reach. A fair number of the boys had some tendency toward being sore losers, too, especially if they lost to a girl, and extra-specially if they lost to a girl they used to tease as being useless on “historical weapon arts” days.

  Akari, by contrast, planted her staff on the ground and leaned on it, panting. “Heh, you look like you’re not convinced I’m done,” she said.

  “Some of my classmates liked to pull surrender fake-outs,” Danielle said. “I’m kind of in the habit of staying on-guard for a while after I won a bout.”

  “But not if you lost?” Akari asked, raising an eyebrow.

  “Most of the time, if I lost, I was safe; it’s when I won they started breaking rules,” Danielle said dryly.

  Akari huffed another breathless laugh. “I see. Well. You’ve definitely improved since the last time we had a halfway serious spar. I guess it helps that you’ve got a different definition of serious,” she added.

  “Yeah. I’ve recently been in the defender’s position for real,” Danielle said. “It gives me a different perspective.”

  “Well. I think your goal of teaching me things is already achieved,” Akari said. “Let’s take a five minute break, and then see if I can put any of it into practice.”

  Danielle nodded, and sat down on the grass. “Maybe ten minutes,” she said. “That was kind of exhausting. Carrying the tent and distiller pots and stuff wasn’t as bad as I thought it’d be, but I’m pretty sure my arms are going to be sore now.”

  Akari laughed and sat down as well. Danielle glanced over to the others, and discovered to her embarrassment that they had all stopped what they were doing and were looking on with expressions of concern.

  “Everything all right over there?” Cassy called over.

  “We’re fine!” Danielle said, giving her a thumbs-up. “We’re playing a game called Defend the Healer Tree.”

  “Looked like a pretty serious game,” Sadie said.

  “Defending our Healer while she works is serious business!” Akari called back. “I get to take the defensive role next round.”

  The other three exchanged glances and shrugs, and finally went back to their own projects.

  “You weren’t using your staff Skill, were you?” Akari asked.

  “No, the whole reason I’m doing weapon training now is I’m low on mana, remember?” Danielle said.

  “I feel better about your ability to defend yourself, now,” Akari said with a laugh.

  Danielle chuckled along with her. “Truthfully, I might still be in a little trouble if it’s not a staff duel,” she admitted. “We really need to figure out how to spar with the swords, or make practice swords or something.”

  “Oh – yeah, I mentioned something about that to someone on Sunday and I’m embarrassed to report that there’s a kind of easy answer,” Akari said. “You know those little ‘peace straps’ that you can snap over the cross-guard to keep the sword in the scabbard?”

  “Yeah, some kind of historical thing, right? From the days right after the apocalypse when most places were as painfully over-armed as the camp, except with guns too,” Danielle said.

  “Yeah, something like that,” Akari said. “Turns out with swords, if you buckle them down tight instead of relying on the snaps, you can use them to blunt and weight the sword for training. It’s not perfect, but it’s something. The ones we got from the Sending Authority even had a little fold of metal in there so the edge can’t cut through the leather if it hits something.”

  “So they might be made for that?” Danielle asked.

  “At least they might be made with that option in mind,” Akari said. “It would explain why there are buckles and snaps, too; snaps just for storing it, buckles when you’re prepping for a spar.”

  “Makes sense. We’ll have to try it out later. Maybe tomorrow, depending on how our arms are,” Danielle suggested. She glanced at her watch. “Two more minutes.”

  “So are you going to tell me what the deal with this tree is?” Akari asked.

  “Of course not – I want it to be a nasty surprise,” Danielle said with a chuckle. “It’ll be more memorable that way.”

  “Oh, great,” Akari said. “Is this going to be a painful surprise?”

  “I doubt it,” Danielle said. “As long as that last bout went, I never did actually land a point on you.”

  “Heh, true,” Akari agreed with a grin. “Plus, if your goal with the smaller tree to defend was to make it harder for the attacker to reach around? Well, now that problem is your problem.”

  Danielle blinked. “I honestly didn’t think about the size making a difference,” she said. She glanced at her watch again. “OK, we’ve had ten minutes.”

  They got up and took their positions. Akari positioned herself a little to the side of the tree, roughly where Danielle had started; and Danielle took her position about as far back as Akari had at the beginning of the last bout.

  “Rawr! I am a big bad wolf, come to devour the mana of the defenseless!” Danielle declared, and struck out even as Akari laughed.

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  Akari defended efficiently, and started trying to push Danielle back; Danielle pushed back in turn, though, and chose to retreat to her right when necessary so that they ended up circling just a bit. Akari began frowning, and pushed harder, fighting to get back between Danielle and the designated ‘healer’ tree. Danielle was forced to give ground a step, but again went a half-step to the right instead of straight back.

  Akari felt better once the designated tree was properly at her back, and went back to trying to push Danielle back. For several minutes, it was all Danielle could manage just to stay positioned where she needed to be, but finally she managed to turn a parry into a shove and create the opening she was looking for – not to strike the tree behind Akari, but to strike at the second, smaller tree, now to her right. She landed a wicked blow against the slender trunk, with a satisfying loud crack, then danced back a few paces.

  Akari looked at the tree, then at Danielle, then at the tree again in confusion, before laughing. “Danielle, that’s the wrong tree,” she exclaimed.

  “Hah! I, a vicious wolf, defy your ideas of right and wrong!” Danielle declared, spinning her staff dramatically. “Your healer may live another day – I have killed the patient and obtained the mana I came for, anyway! Muhahaha!”

  Danielle was about to throw in some over-the-top howling, but Akari’s face had fallen, and then darkened as she made her declaration, and now she ran at Danielle.

  “Ooh, didn’t expect you to be this angry,” Danielle muttered, going on the defensive as Akari attacked, not quite recklessly, but definitely at full strength.

  “THAT WAS A JERK MOVE!” Akari yelled in her face, swinging another vicious blow at Danielle’s ribs.

  “Yes, fine, OK, I concede already! Stand down!” Danielle replied, parrying the blow and retreating a step.

  Akari hesitated, then backed off several paces, swinging her staff wildly in the air.

  “Are you sure everything’s OK over there?” Cassy called.

  “Everything except Danielle’s cheating!” Akari yelled back.

  “Cheating how?” Sadie asked.

  “She changed the rules mid-bout!” Akari shouted. “That was a jerk move!”

  “It’s the exact jerk move that almost got Heather killed,” Danielle said. “I wanted it to be as firmly lodged in your memory as it is mine. Um, I didn’t expect it to hit quite this hard, I admit. I mean, it kind of was a jerk move, but at the end of the day, it’s trees.”

  Akari opened her mouth as if to shout something else, then closed it with a snap and looked down for a moment, her chest still heaving in fury; then she took a different sort of deep breath, and let it out more slowly, trying to calm down.

  “Should’ve at least told me the second tree was a bystander or something,” she said, leveling a glare at Danielle.

  “Yeah, OK, point taken,” Danielle said. “Sorry. I guess I kind of figured the tree-ness and the over-the-top villain clowning would take the edge off of it all.”

  Akari snorted. “Lucky for you there’s no one from the actual Wolf Pack anywhere within a mile, they’d kill you just for mocking them like that,” she joked.

  “Aheh. Deader than they’ll kill me for knocking that guy down and tossing his sword? Or deader than they’d kill me anyway just for having mana while they’re Outside?” Danielle asked ironically.

  “Deader than Healer Treeface’s patient, obviously,” Akari said. “Anyway. Back to starting positions. We’re going again.”

  “Saw that coming,” Danielle said, heading for the tree line again.

  It took two more bouts for Akari to get the hang of staying between Danielle and both of the trees, and by then, Akari had the mild advantage that Danielle was flagging. It seemed her endurance still couldn’t match Akari’s. Still, she managed to go a full ten minutes on the fourth bout before conceding.

  “How about another ten-minute rest, and then one more?” Akari asked.

  “No, come on, it’s noon,” Danielle protested. “We’ve done enough of this for one day. It’s time to check for fish, and then cook fish, and then you were going to do your plant-finding practice, remember?”

  “Later this evening, then,” Akari persisted. “When it starts getting dark under the trees.”

  “All right, but you have to give me another turn as defender, too,” Danielle said. “It’s not like I really need a lot of practice attacking people.”

  “Deal,” Akari said.

  They rejoined the others by the rocks, and Danielle activated Detect Mana Source to see if there were fish in the trap. As she had predicted, there were several. The other four did a quick comparison of their mana-to-level numbers, and Cassy and Akari were sent out kill the fish. Danielle volunteered to work on Heather’s plant identification exercises with her while they were at it, and they did that for a few minutes while the two in the river splashed in the trap with baskets and knives, eventually dispatching three small and one larger fish. They built up the fire a little, and cleaned the fish – everyone but Heather did one – then Danielle deboned the largest one. She helped get all but one of the smallest fillets on skewers, then Heather called dibs on salting and setting up the drying log for the last one, so Danielle volunteered to be the one to take the heads and tails back out to the trap.

  When she got back, she went through her usual routine of finding various ways to dry her jeans, then picked up the fish bones for closer examination.

  “What are you doing, trying to learn anatomy stuff?” Heather asked her.

  “Oh! The anatomy’s kind of interesting, actually, but mostly I was trying to decide if I could make bone needles out of any of this,” Danielle admitted. “Maybe the two biggest ribs, I think. I don’t know, I might be able to make bits for a hand drill out of some of the others. I doubt it’s the best material for the job, but it might be good enough for starting out.”

  “How would you power a drill?” Heather asked. “I mean, there must have been some way, in the way-back-when, but you’d need, um, gears at least, right?”

  “There’s a design in the guidebook for one that uses a little bow, with a string that coils around the part with the bit,” Danielle said. “I’ll have to find a sufficiently bow-shaped stick and see what I can put together.”

  “The book also has a design for a needle that just has a notch instead of an eye,” Sadie said. “It’s not great for small, catchy stuff, but it says it’ll work well enough for basic leather lacing.”

  “That’s an idea. I suppose it’ll depend on what we need it for first,” Danielle said. “I doubt it’ll do for needles fine enough to work on our uniform clothes here, but neither will the fish bones, and anyway, we’ve got the Necessities Store needles for that.” She carefully cut off four of the largest ribs, and set the rest of the bones to the side to be buried after they ate.

  They took their time cooking, eating, and taking turns using the latrine Akari had dug before. (As Cassy put it, “That’s one of the best reasons to do our camping here – she put effort into it, and it shows, and not having to make another one is pretty darn useful!”) Then they checked the trap again, and there was another largish fish. It was declared Sadie’s turn, and she waded out to dispatch it. Danielle volunteered to clean it, and deboned it again, once more keeping the four largest ribs. Then Sadie waded out to put the head and tail back in the trap while Danielle and Heather salted the filets and set them up to dry.

  “We can’t all go into the woods at once, now,” Heather said. “Someone has to stay out here and make sure nothing steals our fish. I propose we take turns: first me, Sadie, and Akari go while Danielle and Cassy guard the fire; then Akari goes again with Danielle and Cassy while Sadie and I guard the fire. That way nobody’s ever alone, but we always have three in the woods. Oh, and each group has one person with a Skill to find edible plants.”

  “I like it,” Akari said. “It keeps everyone safe, and I get two rounds of plant identification!”

  “It works for me,” Cassy said. “Maybe I can work on sling with Danielle while we wait – as long as we aim out over the river, it should be pretty safe.”

  “Are you going to look for food or materials, Sadie?” Danielle asked.

  “Both, but I’ll use my Skill for materials,” Sadie said. “You got requests?”

  “Flint for stone tools. Straight sticks for spear shafts. Rough stones for sanding and filing. Oh, and I doubt your Skill will help you with this one, but a stone with a hollow in it for a basic mortar,” Danielle said.

  Sadie frowned. “My Skill can’t do shapes – not yet, at least. I can use it for flint, though, and I can keep an eye out for the rest.”

  “Thanks,” Danielle said with a nod. “I will too, but I don’t know if I can even tell flint apart from any other gray stone.”

  “Let’s walk further down the river before we go into the trees,” Heather said. “It’s a good time to explore a little further, when we don’t have to get all the way back to town today.”

  Akari, Sadie, and Heather walked off upriver. Cassy got the slings out of her bag, and offered one to Danielle. “Sadie didn’t get around to whittling actual wooden balls, but we’re going to be throwing our ammo into or over the river anyway,” she said. “How about we just chop the ends of some sticks and throw those? They won’t fly so well, but at this point it’s more about getting a feel for when to release than about distance.”

  Danielle agreed, and they went just inside the tree line to find some suitably thick sticks. Danielle suggested cutting the knots and joints out of them, leaving straight sections for whittling. They more-or-less accomplished that, and rounded off some of the worst corners from the resulting small chunks of wood they intended to throw. Then they stood back to one side of the fire, facing the river, and took turns trying to sling their chunk of wood as far across the river as possible. Cassy got much further of course, even landing her shots on the other side a couple of times; the best Danielle could say was that she was improving. If nothing else, though, they had the craftable wood and a little pile of chips and bark for kindling.

  Cassy wanted to go back to her scroll, but Danielle talked her into doing some staff and spear practice too. Cassy laughingly requested not to spar, and Danielle rolled her eyes and told her she needed to master some of the basic forms first anyway. They took turns teaching each other drills, and correcting each other’s stances.

  When they got tired of that, Danielle took her extra T-shirt and all the distiller pots they could see without digging through people’s bags too much, and used the T-shirt as a strainer to fill them at the river. Then she set up the pots around the fire and practiced drying things again, on the shirt. Cassy, meanwhile, got back to her scroll.

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