Everyone but Breck was returned to Mishtaw’s tent the next day. The healers couldn’t keep an eye on us forever nor could what was left of our reputations allow us to stay there unless we wanted to be deemed life-ridden. I had already born that blemish for most of my life, but no one else needed to know that, especially after I had stolen healing ingredients. Of course, Prevna knew I had been a healer’s daughter but she didn’t seem inclined to share that information either.

Since we hadn’t caused any more trouble since returning to camp we were given more leeway after we returned to the tent. Petra was around taking care of camp business since she couldn’t join Mishtaw, Eliss, and Creed at the outpost with her shoulder injury. Occasionally, she checked in on us and helped us get what supplies she could for our mission. Mishtaw and the others returned in the evening for the evening meal and to sleep in the protected camp while another squad took the next shift, but other than that we were mostly left to our own devices.

I wanted to confront Eliss over how long it had taken her to come support us during the ambush, but I held my tongue. She had already made her stance clear during our last conversation. If she was going to help anyone I was going to be the very last choice. I wouldn’t have thought that extended to a battle where the lives of the other seedlings were on the line, but it seemed we were all expendable in her eyes. No doubt the ambush had labeled us all untrustworthy fools to her.

We spent the time making nets and bait traps. It quickly became apparent that we couldn’t use our nets to cover the shoreline like we wanted. There wasn’t enough material. Instead, we would have to pick and choose which spots we needed to deter the crawler away from, given that the nets would likely be too obvious a trap to actually catch it. Ento said that crawlers also liked to burrow under the sand at high tide before ambushing their prey when they walked too close after the tide receded, so there was also the chance that we could use a net to catch it when it was vulnerable in the sand. But to do that we needed to know exactly where the crawler would be and when—a question we currently had no answer to.

The crawler had struck another outpost shortly before we were attacked, further to the west. No one was seriously injured but it also hadn’t been caught and killed. Part of me was relieved to know that my mission hadn’t been ended before it even really got to begin, but another part just wanted the troublesome creature taken care of.

I drew a rough version of the map I had seen in the commander’s tent for the others and Prevna spent a long time pouring over it. She said knowing the territory like the back of your hand was the most important thing when it came to setting up an ambush—or overwhelming force. We didn’t have overwhelming force nor were we allowed out of the camp while we recovered and prepared, so she made due with the map.

Oddly, Juniper broke away from Idra and Ento a few times to sit with her. They talked more easily than I expected them to. Prevna even managed to pry a dry chuckle from the melancholy girl before Juniper quickly squashed it. I wanted to know what they talked about, but I tended to sit on the far side of the common area from where I had drawn the map while I twisted and wove my nets together. Moving after I had established my spot was too conspicuous, so I stayed where I was and debated whether I should ask Prevna about it later.

I did ask her where she had gotten the Asper’s Love. She pulled on a brave smile and said ‘special training’ like the fact that Jin had risked her dying from a bite from the dangerous snake was of barely any consequence. She also said that the snake had been trussed up so she could easily get the venom. Given what I knew of Jin’s training methods and the fact that she had tried to kill me on my first and only private training session, I didn’t believe Prevna about that last bit.

It did make me hate our terrible mentor even more.

The venom might have saved us, but I didn’t like the danger Prevna had been in to get it. If anyone was going to be in danger it should be me. At least I knew I’d live through it.

One of Prevna and Juniper’s soft conversations gave us unexpected insight into where the crawler liked to burrow for its attacks. When I had drawn the map I had also marked out where the creature had attacked in the past. Prevna had added her own marks for where she thought the crawler might strike next, based on factors her band had considered when they were readying for a raid. When Prevna gestured us all over to look, more than a little excited, I saw that Juniper had circled some of the marks.

“High water,” Prevna said and pointed.

I just looked at them and waited. Prevna wouldn’t have gotten so excited about something we already knew. Smirked at and ribbed the idiot for thinking they were so smart, but not eyes shining excited.

Juniper shifted so that we were all in her line of vision, including Ento and Idra, rather than standing over her shoulder and elaborated, “In these spots, if I’m not mistaken, the high tide climbs further inland than normal. Or at least the crawler can travel further inland in these places. We would need to go to them to be sure, but if I’m right, then the crawler frequenting those locations makes sense. It has a higher chance of ambushing the outpost patrols that way. They wouldn’t expect it to be that far from the water when the tide is low and it’d be closer to where they walk on patrol.”

I studied the spots she circled. “What makes you think the water travels further there?”

Juniper tapped the air near several spots. “These ones have large tide pools, others are low level areas surrounded by hills or rocky shore.” She leveled her steady gaze on me. “I can only tell so much from your map, but if I’m correct both those things would allow the crawler more opportunity than we originally thought.”

I nodded.

Her eyes narrowed slightly when I didn’t challenge her reasoning or press further, but I knew better than to try to get into an argument for argument’s sake with Juniper by now. She had a way of shutting them done and making you feel like a fool for even trying. Besides, the other two and her were supposed to have more expertise about the ocean and I could check her insights with my own eyes once we could scout again.

“Good eye,” I said, and suppressed a tiny smile as I turned back to continue working on my net. She had looked uncomfortable at the compliment, but there was no reason I had to be predictable just to keep her comfortable.

When our hands got tired and cramped from making our traps, we found a quiet spot in the camp to practice drills. Mostly they were for group combat in case we got blindsided again. Prevna didn’t have her deadly poison anymore, so if we got caught by another tentacle creature without a plan we would be as good as dead. Not that we were likely to kill it even with a plan—we hadn’t even been able to locate where its main body was when we were attacked—but perhaps we would last longer and in better condition next time around. More time for reinforcements to reach us, higher likelihood we could do more damage by working together.

I came up with the drills and scenarios, drawing on all the times Rawley had quizzed me in depth about how I would survive in case this or that happened. We trained in case we didn’t have Idra’s shield or we got split up, with various partners. We trained in case we faced a single creature like the crawler or a bigger threat, like the squid creature. We trained about what to do if a horde of fish came after us and we were overwhelmed.

Frankly, there was only so much I could do with the handful of days we spent in camp, especially without Breck being able to participate. It was quietly agreed that she wouldn’t be joining us the next time we set out after the crawler. Reopening her wound was too dangerous and trying to fight around that would only make her an easy target. She didn’t like being left out of the fight and I didn’t like losing our best fighter, but we all knew it was the smartest decision.

Sometimes our practice sessions drew a small crowd of whisper women and fire starters, curious about what the problem children were up to. We did our best to ignore them unless they offered up a bit of advice or went a round or two pretending to be the enemy. I’m not sure why those whisper women humored us, but we took the help when it came.

Kaylan was one of them. The second day we did our drills she came by after the evening meal and chuckled. “I’ve never seen a set of individuals pretend they were a group so badly before.”

I held up a hand, stopping the pretend attack on snow fish, and scowled at her. “We’re working together.”

She scoffed, “You’re running in the same direction, sure.” Laughter fluttered through the crowd on the edge of our practice area. “Do you know your distance from each other? Which fish everyone is attacking and what they are using to attack? How those attacks will build off each other? Do you know how everyone will move once their attack is finished?” Kaylan gestured to the first dome group. “Those three might, for each other at least, but as a whole group…?” She shook her head.

My jaw clenched. “”That’s what we’re working on.”

“Mmhmm.” She surveyed us, looking at us and past us at the same time. “Want to try to get a hit on me? No weapons or blessings, but if one of you lands a blow I’ll announce that my judgment was incorrect.”

We tried and we failed.

Several times over.

It wasn’t that Kaylan was super quick or strong, though she was decisive in her movements. It was more that she noticed our weaknesses and exploited them. Not that she aimed for our injuries or anything like that. One of the most frustrating things in fact was that she seemed to aim around them and her blows were definitely held back, and yet she still managed to beat us without a trace of surprise crossing her face.

Ento tended to rush ahead, Juniper wasn’t confident in her combat skills, Idra got in the way of Prevna’s attack, Prevna telegraphed her attacks…the list went on and Kaylan took advantage of every single one.

Juniper and I both tried to take control of the situation the second time around but that ended in a jumbled mess and a handful of whisper women loudly betting on which “little leader” would win. The next time Juniper seceded control over to me since I was in charge of strategy, but Kaylan saw through the opening we were trying to make. We all ended up on our backs or knees in the snow.

After that the whisper woman announced that she was done but that she would be back another day and that we should keep practicing. We did and she was.

Creed also liked to come help us train though rather than beating us up he took the time to check over our stances and attacks in careful detail, correcting wrong footing and timing with good natured patience. Getting taught fighting by a man was odd but we couldn’t deny that his teaching was effective. It reminded me of training with Rawley when she taught me how to use the sling and spear though her patience had had a deeper, quieter quality to it.

Mishtaw came with Creed a couple times, but she stayed back with the crowd and simply observed. I couldn’t tell if she wanted to make sure we weren’t being an embarrassment to her squad or was checking our skill level or was lending her authority to Creed through proximity. Perhaps all three, perhaps none.

I didn’t like that I couldn’t read her as well as I could most people, but it wasn’t a matter of her hiding her expressions. Rather she had a way of showing a full range of emotion, but each display felt deliberate, so you couldn’t be certain if it was fake or not. Unsettling, if impressive.

We made nets and traps and practiced until, with just under two weeks left to my deadline, Mishtaw declared that we were recovered enough to go back to the shore and continue our mission. She smiled as she said it, but I couldn’t have said if it was pride or happiness or hidden worry that fueled it.