Our trip to the dragon's nest area was surprisingly uneventful, even with stops to gather generic ingredients and springy trees. The massive battle that had happened around the nest had devastated the surrounding area and even a month later, it had barely started to recover. I wasn't sure if it was the magical fire that made it take longer or because the dragons had changed the main area to suit their needs. Either way, I wasn't getting any fungus blooms or delicious mushrooms for a while.

The others stayed in the boat while I went on my own into the marsh. I couldn't venture far, because I was making too much noise and I didn't smell like I belonged there. I had a protection ward in my pack, so I wasn't too worried, and I managed to find a very nice spot for rare ingredients. I didn't strip the area, because that could stop them from growing there permanently, and that was not something I wanted to be the cause of.

I took out the potions book and looked at the regeneration potion to make sure that I was getting the appropriate replacement ingredients for the ones in the list. I had to check it several times and read the list several times, then regretted not bringing paper and a pencil to write out the new recipe with appropriate ingredients to make it easier on myself.

I closed the book and kept hunting for more things. I half filled a canvas bag and shoved into my pack. That was all I could find in the area and moved off to gather the more generic ingredients. I easily filled another canvas bag, since they were pretty plentiful, and went back to the boat.

“Any luck finding a panther pelt?” Mage Henrietta asked, hope in her voice.

“All that was near the nest were charred remains. Magical fire pretty much destroyed everything.” I said and put the sack of ingredients under the front bench and sat down.

“They harvested the dragon parts two weeks ago.” Sandra said. “I can tell you that the Colonel's brigade made enough from selling them to run for another year, even if they are reinforced to full capacity.”

“Is that right?” Mage Henrietta asked, clearly surprised. “David and Gary made almost that much just from filling the shipping company's orders for carts.”

Sandra sighed. “It cost a lot to bring nearly an entire brigade across half of the country.”

“Why are you telling us?” Gary asked. “I thought that was privileged information or something.”

“I'm not the CO right now.” Sandra said with a shrug. “The official numbers will be released at the end of the month.”

“In the capital.” Gillis said with a chuckle. “Us lowly soldiers don't need to know how expensive it is to transport, feed, and pay for a brigade of troops and their supplies, weapons, and clothing.”

“Don't forget training. That's not cheap, either.” Gary said and then pointed. “David! There's a nice outcropping of more springy trees.”

I nodded and pulled over, then Gary and I climbed out of the boat and made short work of gathering piles and piles of them. We weren't worried about ammunition, because there were lots of normal trees that had been cut down around all of the defensive bases at the new front lines. They had cleared away a safe area of a thousand feet to give our troops and mages clear lines of sight without having to worry about the enemy assaulting them through the trees.

We had a lot built up now and wouldn't need to stop again to get more. We loaded them into the boat between the second and middle benches and used the large wooden squares I made to brace them on the sides so that they wouldn't roll or shift when I turned the boat. With them secured, I quickly made our way back to the village and went up the proper waterway to head back to the new garrison.

With no need to stop at the relay stations along the way, our trip back up the same passage went almost four times as fast. I did stop at the previous places that I had mentally marked as great places for gathering tons of fresh ingredients and filled six more canvas bags. Even Mage Henrietta was surprised when I came back to the boat with the filled bags as quickly as I did.

“The Colonel really messed up by annoying you.” Mage Henrietta said as I tossed the canvas bags on top of the huge pile of them I had already gathered. “You've collected more ingredients than all the squads put together, and they stripped whole areas to get the ones you wanted.”

“It took longer to sort through them than they took to gather them.” I said and sat down. “It's just all out from here. No more stops.”

Mage Henrietta smiled sweetly and wrapped her arms around my left one and held on tightly as she leaned in close. She enjoyed the ride a lot more than she normally did, I assumed because I had told her to hold on and she didn't have to ask, and because I really did go as quickly as the waterways would allow.

“Just remember that you can't go this fast when you take the boat.” I whispered to her. “It's too dangerous without the vigilance technique or a guide that knows the route to direct you properly.”

“I promise to only go at the normal regulated speed set in the plan, even when we hit those nice straight sections.” Mage Henrietta whispered back. “Your warnings about magic exhaustion when it happened to you are enough to convince me that I never want to collapse from it.”

“Are you bringing your testing crystal?” I asked.

“Do you think I should?”

“I would. You might need the boost when you least expect it.”

Mage Henrietta gave me a concerned look. “You really are worried.”

I nodded. “You should have Gary pick the squad of troops to go with you. He knows the best men for guard work.”

Mage Henrietta nodded back. “I'll have him do that before we go to visit the Colonel. Thank you for the advice.”

We were quiet for the remainder of the trip back to the new garrison at the edge of the marsh. It was getting quite dark now and we arrived at the large dock under the bright mage lights. A horse and cart was assigned to Lady Rivers and her entourage and Gary appropriated one for the supplies.

A group of workers loaded Gary's cart up with everything from the boat while Sandra, Gillis, and Mage Henrietta boarded the other cart with Sandra's trunk, her two guards, and Gillis' things. Gary arranged for the squad that Gillis and Mage Henrietta would need to guard the tribute treasure that would be filled with art and sculptures from the Eastern Empire, as well as gold and silver coins, all of which were things that couldn't be bought in the Gulf Kingdom.

We split up as Sandra's cart went off towards the command area to see the Colonel with the squad of guards walking behind them. After that, they would head to the storage area to load the cart up and then head to the mage's designated living area to spend the night with Mage Henrietta, then help her pack in the morning.

Gary and I headed to the main construction area to drop off all of the things we had, which was a significant amount, considering it had only been the two of us doing it, and then we went to our own beds to sleep. It had been a very long day and I really needed to sleep.

I had been very tempted to tag along when Sandra visited the Colonel to tell her... not ask her, tell her... that she was taking over ruling of the new territory and was sending an appropriate tribute to the King. My presence would only make things difficult, especially if she thought that I had a hand in it. She would automatically blame me if I was there, assuming it was my idea, even if I had no idea that such a thing was possible or something that had to be done.

I knew a lot about the structure of royal society and how things worked, thanks to Sandra's etiquette lessons; but, the subject of foreign land ownership and tributes had never been brought up. I took off my pack and my leg, then I laid in bed and let out a long drawn out sigh as I thought about the Colonel's reaction.

Maybe Sandra will be smart and ask to deal with Ellen as the Princess of the Gulf Kingdom and not as the military Colonel in control of hostile territory. I thought and closed my eyes. What are the odds of that?

The night passed by in an instant and I woke up refreshed. My ankle hurt and I stared at the wooden leg beside the bed. I couldn't understand why I would have pain somewhere that wasn't there anymore, even with Mage Henrietta's explanation that it was 'phantom' pain, because my magic was reminding me that there's supposed to be a foot there and to hurry up and get it back.

Don't worry, foot. I'll have you back in a few weeks, just as soon as I figure out how to properly brew a potion that I've never brewed before and using replacement ingredients. I thought as I strapped my wooden leg on and put on my pack. At least Mage Henrietta's reading lessons are finally going to pay off.

I left my sleeping room and stepped into the main construction area. Gary was up as well and came over to me.

“A quick breakfast and we can set up two more of the large mold squares as kracken tube molds, then you can get to work on the potion while I cut up the springy trees to the right length.” Gary said.

“Are you sure you can handle that all alone? You're pretty old.” I said.

Gary barked a laugh. “Shut up, you one foot wonder.” He said and we left the building. “If we try to get more people involved, it'll just make it harder for us to work efficiently.”

I nodded. Since it takes time for the potion to brew and to set, if we did it as a chain with me handling the brewing and peeling the wood, Gary could handle cutting the wood and setting the springy trees into the molds for me to pour the potion onto. With three of them going, that was twelve tubes we could make every half an hour.

With the wildwood tree I felled the day before and using the last mold to expand the coins I would need to cut, the only time consuming part would be making the enchantments for the ammunition and the small catapults and their wooden brackets to hold the tubes.

We sat down at breakfast with the other guys and told them what we needed for the kracken tubes as we ate. A few of the men had been there during the dragon fight and knew exactly what we needed, so they were set as leads to gather the right size logs for both the ammunition and the small catapults. When we were done eating, we all went about our tasks and started working hard to get as many made as possible.

Both Gary and I weren't surprised that we didn't see Mage Henrietta or Gillis at breakfast, because they should have been up and gone by then. This was confirmed when someone came into the construction area and said that three squads of troops and a construction crew had been co-opted by Lady Rivers to renovate a mansion.

I glanced at Gary and he gave me a thumbs up gesture, which meant it had worked. The tribute was on its way in the fastest boat possible, as was my ticket out of the army. I needed to get away from the front lines as quickly as possible, before the Colonel decided that my skills were no longer needed. That would be very, very bad.

For her.