Taren didn’t say a word during lunch, he hated Harlan, actually he was hoping he could kill him this week, but that was for later.

He appreciated the food and being told that the berries weren’t good to eat, he wondered why his father had tried to have the boy killed, but it didn’t matter to him, it was Harlan’s fault he died.

Obvious to this Harlan kept talking with the girls.

“So… What else do we do today then? I guess we could make and set up traps, did you see any fish by the river earlier?”

“Yes, they were green on their bottom and red on top, quite ugly looking honestly.”

“Perfect, those are Salmon.”

“Oh, did you learn that in magical creatures, Sir Fomoria?”

“First off, just call me Harlan. Secondly yes, specifically it was searching for signs of Mudslingers, nasty magical fish that evolve from Salmon. But where in the world are we then? Those fish are more northern but the stars in the sky I saw back in early morning weren’t right, so I guessed we were in the southern hemisphere.”

“Does it really matter that much where we are?”

“Yes, I could tear a warg in half with my hands but I don’t want to run into any sort of evolved bears, I could kill them, but I would rather not fight them if I can help it.”

“Oh you are a real funny person.” Ximena didn’t realize Harlan didn’t make any jokes, he didn’t want to talk about the circumstances but she now fully believed that he had made his way through a pack of wargs without a blade and she started looking at him in a different light.

She found him kinda goofy before, a country boy who somehow ended up as a noble, she wasn’t hooked into the rumor mills.

They spent the rest of the morning finishing their huts, they were all directly next to one another just in case they needed to reach the others quickly, Harlan had floated the idea of them all being connected with doors but the girls shot that down.

Taren tried to make a simple hut like Harlan did but he lacked his inhuman strength and his knowledge, nearly getting himself crushed by a tree he cut down before Harlan rushed over and grabbed it before explaining what he was doing wrong.

Harlan bore a great deal of ill will towards the boy, but he was trying to make peace, Tau said he could fight without hate, and Harlan had already decided back during the trial that he shouldn’t push the sins of the father on the son.

Lunch was a few Salmon that Harlan fished out by having Lugh sit in the water and spear fish as they passed by, he didn’t like doing it, but it was for Harlan.

By dinner the 4 huts were done, Harlan had to help Taren finish his, still the boy refused to share a single word with Harlan, and Harlan didn’t push for them to speak.

Delmet would be sleeping in a hammock in the trees, though he hadn’t helped at all he still got a share of the food, he had thrown away his berries and Ximena healed him of his food poisoning.

Night fell and there wasn’t much to talk about over a fire, Adina and Harlan knew each other and he had no desire to get into a deeper conversation with her while others were around, Ximena spoke of seemingly anything but her home, Harlan knew they were cagey about where they actually lived but he hadn’t heard one of them dodge questions like that.

He didn’t mind of course, everyone had their secrets.

Harlan yelled up into the trees.

“DELMET, DO YOU WANT TO SLEEP IN MY HUT? I’M GOING TO STAY UP AND STAND GUARD.”

“DON’T PITY ME FOMORIAN, I AM FINE AS I AM.”

He wasn’t going to bother with him past a single question.

Harlan sat atop his hut and listened and watched, just past midnight he saw shadows moving in the treeline.

He guessed by the size and speed that they were just normal wolves, though they did seem a bit large.

He held Lugh in his hands, realizing that it was actually pretty cold out.

He looked at Delmet, he had no blanket and was about 15 feet off the ground, wind had to be hitting him hard and it brought a smile to his face.

Another 15 minutes passed, Harlan pretended to be asleep until the wolves decided now was the time for them to strike.

He set up wards to stop the noise as he killed and butchered them, he could give Adina and Ximena nicer beds and blankets for tomorrow.

He hummed Isha’s song as he tanned the pelts, some of them had holes or were in two pieces where Harlan cut them in half, but at least they were clean cuts, while he hadn’t been taught how to knit flesh together, he did it with such ease that he disturbed himself considering what he knew Fomorians made.

Once he was done he washed his hands of the blood and cleared the ground, picking up any loose fur or body parts.

He decided not to waste the meat so he cleaned it and tried cooking some, it was gamey, but not altogether unpleasant, just with this he though they could easily hold out for the whole week, 8 wolves at 150 pounds each, less after he took them apart, he had a good haul.

The next morning Ximena was the first to wake up to the smell of stew, Harlan had started it hours ago, it was watery and he couldn’t find much in the way of seasonings out in the woods, but it was better than nothing.

What Lugh had noticed however, was that the herbs he found were odd, some of them grew in very different places and shouldn’t be together like here unless someone was growing them.

“Smells good, what is it?”

“Wolf.”

She tried to be calm.

“You didn’t even wake us up? Why? Are you some knight in shining armor?”

“You need sleep, I rarely need any, a pack of wolves is child's play not worth waking you up for. You know how to weave things, I figured it was better for you to do that in the morning instead of being groggy all day. Also, you and Adina get 3 pelts each. It is cold so I am taking the other 2.”

“I can do more than weave.”

“Alright then, what else can you do?”

“I am an excellent healer.”

“Are we in the same class?”

“What do you mean by that?”

“I genuinely don’t know who you are, I barely remember anyone in the class.”

She didn’t know if he was joking or if he really was that inconsiderate of others.

“Did you at least know my name before you spoke to me? They told all of us.”

“Lugh reminded me. If I had known you were a good person I would’ve remembered it, but I don’t linger on people who don’t matter, I remember the people I like and the people I hate so I can protect the one from the other.”

“Well, that certainly makes things easy to understand. Which one do I fit under?”

“You seem good. Do you have friends outside of here? I’ve known Adina since I came here. Got a few more people I like if you would like to join us.”

“I’ve got plenty of friends, but if by the end of the week we don’t hate one another I could see us being friends when we both have time for one another.”

They let the conversation die where it was and Ximena just asked more questions about how Harlan grew up, he had to skip over how he knew Zella and a few other parts, but he was nearly ready to run out of small talk.

He began to realize how little there was he could talk about, his hobby and his work were both magic which he doesn’t want to and to a varying degree couldn’t talk about.

He liked animals, but less in the warm and cuddly way and more as tools, food, clothes, where they live, what they eat.

He told her she could eat whenever she wanted before he set up a table and chairs made of stone along with clay bowls and wooden spoons that he made during the night.

It was better than it looked, she could see herself surviving on something like this for a while if she needed too.

Eventually Adina and Taren woke up and ate, Adina commented on his cooking skills, Taren remained silent.

He couldn’t understand Harlan, they hadn’t shared a single word, Harlan simply spoke at him when he thought it was necessary, he asked nothing of him, he didn’t say anything when he ate their food, slept in the hut he helped make, it just didn’t make sense to him.

He knew full well that Harlan hated him and he hated Harlan, he wondered what would happen if he hurt Adina on their little trip, would he go berserk and just tear him apart?

Would he bury him alive and act like he knew nothing?

Delmet eventually came down from his tree, gracefully landing but impressing no one.

“Today you should work on my hut, and it needs to be bigger than the rest of them, I am the leader after all.”

Before Harlan could find the right words to tell him that he was out of his mind Ximena spoke.

“Perhaps it would be best if Harlan was the leader.”

“Him? Never, his kind can only destroy.”

“Other than that hammock what have you done? You make our people look quite bad when you speak about him like that when you leech off of his food and his advice.”

They argued back and forth, Adina jumped in to defend Harlan, he thought it was nice, but he didn’t care about being the leader through some worthless vote.

When the time to do things came, Delmet would do nothing, the girls would listen to him, and Taren would probably do what he wanted within reason.

After another few minutes his mood was starting to spoil so he made his stance known.

“Stop arguing, it doesn’t matter, no one is going to listen to Delmet anyway so he can be the leader of his group of one if he wants. Eat your food and be quiet so I can rest for a bit.”

He didn’t really need the rest, but he thought it might get them to stop yelling.

His hopes were unfounded so he simply went to his hut and set up a ward, if they needed him they could get him, meanwhile he was going to clear his mind and think about what to do next.

He didn’t know how much time had passed before there was a knock on his door, it was Ximena.

“Harlan, are you upset with us?”

“Nope, I just don’t want to hear people yelling over something so petty. Did you need anything else?”

“No.”

Eventually it was getting towards dinner time, Harlan had simply practiced spell making, refining his long range soul searching spell until it stopped making people itch, then he started running that all the time to see if there was a long term effect.

From nearly 30 feet out he could tell where everyone was through the walls, he could also tell there were moles under the clearing but he wasn’t sure what to do with this knowledge.

The disturbing part was that even in this place there were spies or guards, he couldn’t tell which, right outside his house just beyond the range of his mine sense, he wondered how they actually knew his range in the first place.

The thought crossed his mind about the fact that this spell was effectively ruining any possible attempt to hide and any hiding spells would need to be remade until he couldn’t see them anymore, assuming he actually gave the spell out, which he was debating now.

Before he realized it night had come, Ximena came to ask him about her taking the first shift of guard duty and he didn’t argue with her, sitting out by the fire to eat stew and wolf steak to recover his power.

An hour passed before he could tell that Ximena was getting tired, he looked to the sky to see it was past midnight.

“Want to swap out?”

“No, I should watch for half the night at least since you went the whole night before.”

“Don’t compare yourself to me, I’m just not normal. Do Golden need less sleep than humans?”

“We like our sleep, but it doesn’t matter, I will be fine.”

“Do you mind company then?”

“That would be fine.”

As the night wore on she went inside to get the rest of her pelts, she could barely be seen under the 3 of them, he was reminded to look over towards Delmet, he could see that the branch was subtly shaking from his shivering.

This night was far colder than the last, instead of dew the trees were starting to get covered in frost.

Harlan climbed the tree and threw one of his pelts over the sleeping Delmet before he climbed back on top of Ximena’s hut.

“I thought you hated him?”

“He is a jackass, a self righteous prick who thinks he is better because of what he is. But I don’t want him to freeze to death because he is too stupid or prideful to admit he is outside of his element, he didn’t even set up a warming array or a wind blocking ward.”

“What about Taren, you’ve barely spoke to him and he hasn’t said a word to him.”

“We have history, I am trying not to blame him, my friend Tau has drilled into me that I should forgive him, but he makes it very hard.”

“How noble of you, what is your history together that you hate one another?”

“Any chance you are going to talk about your own time in the desert?”

“I understand your point.”

“Good.”

They sat next to one another, she had scooted closer over the night as it got colder, snow was starting to form. Harlan moved her back inside as he waited, something was outside by the treeline watching them, it had been for hours already, but it didn’t move an inch.

He stood in front of the beast or man, whatever it was. Just staring in its eyes, either they came to an understanding or it realized it was a losing fight, the eyes backed off and went back into the woods, it made no sounds as it left. Harlan sat on top of his hut, he threw the other pelt over Delmet and relied on a fire alongside a ward to keep more of the heat in, he still shivered.

Lugh said it first, but they both knew that something was wrong, this place was unnatural.

Tomorrow he wanted to try and investigate if he had time.

Redhead report #2

The group still hasn’t outright said it but Harlan Fomoria is the de facto leader, Taren Wardhold has shown little hostility or friendliness for the rest of the group, danger level is considered low still, Delmet will likely need more talking with the counselor as he shows no signs of working with the rest of the group.

Harlan still shows signs of his own scars, reacting poorly when someone he doesn’t know asks about his own past, though he has shown no violent tendencies towards Ximena.

Adina has been coddled by Harlan too strongly, likely she will learn little in the way of proper survival experience after this is done.

Something was in the woods, I couldn’t tell what it was but it wasn’t part of the test, the bear didn’t show up like it should’ve.

As permission has been granted to skip the advancing difficulty of days 2 through 4, I am putting in a second request, this time I am asking to be allowed to raise the level beyond 7 if I feel it is needed.