When I brought the boat to a stop in the waterway right in front of my house, everyone in the boat gasped at the sight, even Mage Lukas. It was either that or they could feel the protection ward.

“Yes, I built it.” I said and climbed out of the boat and dragged it up onto the dry ground without struggling. Only Mage Henrietta gasped this time. “I suggest staying in the boat for a few minutes. I need to power up the protection ward.”

“It's not already full?” Mage Lukas asked.

“No. I haven't been back here in over four months.” I said and walked over to the door. I dispelled the magic on the door and the mages gasped as they felt it. I took out my knife and charged it up, which made Mage Henrietta moan, and I sliced open the sealed parts. I took out the key and unlocked it and went inside.

I closed the door and touched the ward above the door frame and charged it up. I went to each of the other walls and did the same for the wards there, then went to my workshop. I gathered up the few papers I had and folded them up and stored them in a pocket of my bandoleer, then cut four planks of wood to cover the wards up.

I went to my bedroom to make sure that no secrets were exposed for the others to see. I checked the other rooms and made sure that was the case there, too. When I was sure that nothing was revealed, I started up the six new cooking pots that I had and added water to them to get the waterproof potion and number ten potion started. I didn't have any ingredients, so I only lit some of the wildwood on fire to let the water simmer. I would need about an hour in the surrounding area to get what I needed.

After four months, I could just imagine that my regular harvesting spots were well overgrown by now. I opened my secret potion stash and took out the last three spider juice and snake juice potions that I had. I still had the two strength potions on me that I had from before, since I hadn't needed them while in basic training, so I left the others in the stash and sealed it again.

I grabbed several large sacks and went to my workshop to grab the handsaw, hatchet, and axe I had. I went to the front door and stepped out to see that the others had stayed in the boat like I asked. I also saw that the mages were staring at the roof of the house.

“I have wards all over it.” I explained as I locked the door again and they nodded. “It goes out a hundred feet to cover the dry area completely and some of the land on the other sides of the waterways when they are fully charged.”

“We know.” Mage Lukas said and pointed up. “We saw a dozen five foot tall spiders flee through the trees.”

I looked up to see trails of webbing in the branches near my roof. “I'm glad I didn't have to fight all of them off.” I said and walked over to the boat.

The people in the boat stared at me as I handed the cutting tools to the construction crew.

“I need trees this big around.” I held my hands up and made a four inch wide circle. “Cut them into three foot long pieces and I'll peel the bark off of them later.”

“You don't expect us to go out into the marsh unprotected, do you?” One of the men asked.

I shook my head. “You're coming with me just over there.” I pointed. “I'm gathering ingredients and you can harvest some trees nearby at the same time.”

“Didn't you hear the Head Mage? He said there are spiders out there!” One of them exclaimed.

“There's always spiders out there.” I said and he looked surprised. “There were spiders all around the boats and it didn't bother you before.”

“There WAS?!?” He yelled, clearly frightened.

“It's what the protection wards are for.” I said and he didn't relax. “You can stay here in the boat.”

“But... it's outside.” The man said.

“The wards protect you inside or outside.” I said. “Unless they get damaged, then they weaken and fail pretty quickly.”

“We can come with you.” Mage Henrietta said and stood.

“Please, I don't want you to get hurt.” I said and she blushed a little. “You've sullen your robes by holding onto me for the trip here as well.”

“I assumed the smell helps you blend in.” Mage Henrietta said.

“It does.” I said and there was a loud snort from across the main waterway. “It's not enough to cover everyone's smell.”

“What do you mean?” Mage Lukas asked and turned to look at the noise. His face lost color as he saw three large boars were right at the edge of the waterway across from him.

“Excuse me for a minute.” I said and grabbed one of the push poles and used the skill the Hag taught me to make the end metal, then ran at the waterway. Everyone watched as I shoved the pole down into the waterway, perfectly in the middle, then used the pole to vault over the water. I let the pole go when I was about to land and drew my knife, charged it, and slammed my boot heels into the top of the middle boar's head.

It squealed in pain as I landed on it and shoved his head into the ground and cracked its skull. I rolled forward with the momentum and sliced my knife across the flank of the boar on the right, then I braced a hand on the stunned middle boar and kicked out with my foot and hit the third boar right in the butt. It squealed louder than the first one and hopped forward... right into the water.

It was all thick muscle and top heavy, so it sank right to the bottom, down about ten feet or so. I finished off the stunned boar by driving my knife into the back of its skull and then sliced the throat of the one I had gutted to put it out of its misery. I took a small piece of rope out and tied their back legs together, then I pushed the pole to get it to flop back across to the other side and then jumped down into the water.

It only took a moment to cut the drowned boar's throat, tie it up as well, then I walked over to the side of the waterway. I held the rope in my teeth and climbed up the side of the waterway where my house was and dragged the three boars with me onto the dry land.

“Good... good lord.” Mage Henrietta whispered.

I grabbed the pole and put it back into the boat and carried the three boars over to the post I had mounted by the house. I hung them up and quickly disembowelled the three of them, sliced the first boar's throat to let them drain of blood, and washed my hands in the full rain barrel by the corner of the roof.

“I better go over there first and clear the place out, just in case.” I said to them, then ran and jumped over the smaller waterway in the direction I had indicated before and disappeared from their sight. I caught five rabbits, three ducks, had to use a sack for the eggs, and the near-deer ran as soon as it saw me coming. I only found one tangling vine, no snakes, and the spiders must have cleared out from the protection ward, because there was only some webbing in the trees.

I was back at the house ten minutes later with my bounty and everyone just stared at me. I treated them like the boars, except that I saved the gizzards out of habit and cleaned the rest. I washed my hands again and went back to the boat.

“We need a way to cross.” One of the construction crew said.

I took the hand saw from him and jumped back across the space and cut down several smaller trees and used some number ten potion to secure them together and then put the impromptu bridge across the smaller waterway. I even left the branches on the side going into the water to help brace it.

“Do you even need us?” The same construction crewman asked.

“I only have two hands.” I said with a shrug and handed him the saw back. “Let's go.”

Only three of them followed me and the last guy, the scared one, stayed right beside Mage Lukas in the boat, because the man knew that Mage Lukas was the combat mage.

Half an hour later, the crew had two dozen appropriate sized logs and had dragged each of them back to my house. I had filled two sacks with appropriate ingredients and could have harvested more; but, I needed to get brewing. Like Alex said, I shouldn't waste any time. I went back to the house and picked up that little bridge and laid it beside the waterway, rather than leave it in place and then anything could cross it.

I unlocked the front door and went into my kitchen and potion making area, then quickly made a fortifying waterproof potion to refill my stock of it. I made more ingredient copying squares to treat for the next phase, since I had left the others back at the garrison. Once I had them ready, I quickly prepped the ingredients to brew a number ten potion and used number ten potion to increase the yield.

I added the increased ingredients to the remaining five pots and added more water, lit all of the wildwood on fire, and let the blue flames bring the potions to a boil. I went to my smoked meat room and saw that everything I had left was still there. I smelled it and checked to make sure it was still fine, then cut up a few choice cuts and ate them as I waited for the potions to brew.

“What are you doing?” A woman's voice asked and I went out to the kitchen.

“Waiting for potions to brew.” I said.

“Why?” She asked. “Everyone's just sitting around outside and waiting.”

“We can't do anything else for another fifteen minutes.” I said and ate another piece of meat.

“That's an odd color.” She said and motioned to the meat I had in my hands.

“It's water beast.” I said and took another bite.

“You really can eat those disgusting things?”

“Once it's treated properly and then smoked or cooked.” I said. “Then it's just meat.”

“Can I try some?”

“No, it's toxic.” I said and finished off what I had. “I'll cook up the rabbits when we get back to the strike team.”

Mage Henrietta smiled. “We're going to be much too busy to eat then.”

“I'm going to use the boars as bait for the dragons.” I said and her eyes widened in surprise. “I should have left the guts in them, just so it makes a bigger splash; but, they would be too heavy to launch with the catapults if I did.”

“You're serious?” She asked.

“If it works, we can get one or maybe two fire suppression potions into the dragon to stop it from using its breath on us.”

“Oh, no.” Mage Henrietta sighed.

“Don't worry. You'll be far away from the assault area.” I said.

“You won't be.” She said, concern on her face.

“I've faced... well, I can't honestly tell you if it's worse or not. I haven't seen a pissed off dragon up close to compare them and the Hag.”

Mage Henrietta blinked her eyes for several moments, then she came over to me. “Private Drake... David... I know you've been through some bad things...”

I raised my eyebrows at her and her face went sad.

“I really want to ask... no, to beg you... to leave all of this behind.” Mage Henrietta said.

“I can't. I'm a conscript.” I said.

“Not if I talk to my father and convince him that his future son-in-law needs to be released from the army to marry me and join our family.”

It took me a minute to figure out what she was saying. “You mean me?”

“Yes.” Mage Henrietta said and her sad face became a happy one. “I know you have something going on with the woman that runs the exotic shop in the village; but, that isn't going to take you anywhere.” She said. “You'll still be here, in the marsh, and people will look down on you, just because of where you came from.”

“Won't the nobles do that, too?”

“Yes, they will... but, usually not to your face.” She said.

I had to smile at that. “I'm glad you didn't lie about it.”

“So am I.” Mage Henrietta said with a relieved sigh. “I won't ask you to accept right away, or even in a week or a month. We're much too busy to discuss anything like joining our families together until after this mission.”

“It doesn't bother you that I'm in a relationship with someone else?”

Mage Henrietta laughed. “To be honest, you can keep her and bring her along.”

“What?” I asked, because that was a surprise to hear.

“Don't take that wrong. I expect you to be faithful and to perform your husbandly duties to the best of your ability.” Mage Henrietta said. “I am not a... what do the common people say? A... sex machine, I think? Anyway, I will get excited by things and I desperately want you to give me a child. Probably several, actually. However, I do not want to rut in an army cot like a common woman.”

“But... yesterday...”

“We both knew that you weren't going to ravage me in front of everyone else.” Mage Henrietta said with a demure smile. “That doesn't mean I don't want you to have me as many times as you can handle in my personal bed chamber.”

“You have a bed chamber at the garrison?” I asked, once again surprised.

“Of course I do. I could buy the garrison if I so choose.” She said and saw the surprised look on my face. “I do this work for my family, to gain both notoriety and prestige. With your help, I could gain both very easily.”

I opened my mouth to respond and saw that the potions needed to be infused. “Pardon me for a moment.” I said and went to all five pots and infused the potions.

“Oh, god.” Mage Henrietta gasped as she felt my magic. “I... oh, David... maybe... maybe I need to rethink my view of where we can have sex.”

I turned to look at her and her face was bright red.

“Please, consider my offer.” Mage Henrietta said. “My body, my hand in marriage, my family's backing, your freedom, and your woman on the side.”

I watched her try to walk out of my kitchen in a straight line and she almost did it. Almost.