Pali woke up the next morning still very much tired. The wolves had not stayed long. When he ran out of magic power to light his light and his fire went out, they had lost interest and left. As he had run into the river to get away from them; he had also caught a chill and had been shivering all night.

Since he was still cold, he got up and did some light exercises. While he did not exercise as much as many other teachers at The Kein School of Magic and Knowledge, he still liked to stay in shape. This was especially important to him because the few times he had let himself get out of shape he had suffered when he traveled like this.

When Pali had warmed himself up, his stomach rumbled. He had not brought the best food with him because he had not been expecting to be out like this, but fortunately, he had the habit of always keeping some food on hand. He just hoped it was still good.

His bag was still where he left it the night before. He had worried that a wolf might have gone after the smoked meat inside, but that appeared to not be the case. So long as other smaller animals had not crawled inside, he did not have to worry.

Sitting next to the bag, he opened it and started digging through his clothes to where he hid the food at the bottom. Immediately something felt off, but he was not sure what it was. Ignoring this, he continued. Nothing. He could not find the food. Had he remembered to pack it? Since there were no crumbs from the bread or small scraps of meat, it could not have meant an animal…

Was it the child? He had seen no signs of her since he had started down the river, but that did not mean she did not know where he was. But when had she come? Had the wolves left her alone? He did not mind her taking his food since she most likely had none, but if wolves had gotten her…

He leaned on his hand and immediately noticed something on his face. He rubbed his face and saw mostly dried mud fall off. Had he gotten mud on his hands and then accidentally gotten some on his face when he touched it or had he rolled into some in his sleep?

He went to a nearby puddle to clean his face. When he leaned over to the water he saw his reflection. What he saw was it covered in mud. How he had not noticed this much mud until now he could only attribute to how he was so tired, but it told him it was most likely the child that had taken his food.

Now that he knew that she had been here and might still be nearby, he decided it was time to resume his search. Not only was he now out of food, but there werewolves in the area and he wanted to be away from them as fast as possible. He also knew that even if the child had saved some food she had taken, it would not last forever.

He worried how she would fare in Stutra by herself being so small. He also did not know if she had money and knew that it was not likely that she would get food or money from begging, though her status as a Terran might remedy that. It would also make her easier to find.

So Pali continued. It frustrated him he could not reach the other side of the river when the child could come and go as she pleased. All he could do was call out to her and hope she came to her senses. He just could not understand why she was making things so hard. He did not know how much farther he had to go to reach Strutra but the sooner he got there and that child got there, the better off they would be.

***

I had slept pretty well. I had been so exhausted from walking half the day that once I had finally started getting sleepy; I hadn't had a problem. Despite this, I was still pretty stiff and my legs were letting me know that I had used them more than they had liked and that they did not want to do it again. Too bad legs, we're doing it again.

I woke up just before dawn. Mr. Recruiter was still asleep and very much alive. Since I didn't want to risk him seeing me, I decided that I might as well get going before he woke up. Since he was a deep sleeper, it wouldn't be too hard. I just wondered if I had time to *play* with him before I left.

I decided that I would stay on this side of the river. I hoped that he would think I thought it was safer on the other side and had gone back, if he even figured out that I had even come over. It was best not to overthink this so I went on my way, hoping I had made the right decision. Time would be the one to prove me right, wrong, or just needlessly worried.

Despite my having eaten the night before, I found myself low on energy. I had saved the last bit of meat and eaten it before I had gotten out of the tree, but it wasn't much and my stomach protested for more. I needed to get off this mountain as fast as I could and get food or find some. I was also now wishing that I hadn't used all that smoked meat luring the wolves.

The sun was now a good distance into the sky. My progress had been good for the most part, but I knew I couldn't keep my pace up for much longer. Not only was I super hungry, my legs were reaching their limits. I just hoped that I would make it before nightfall.

When I took my first rest of the morning, I saw that Stutra was getting very close. When I had started the day before it had looked tiny down at the bottom of the mountain but now I could see how big it was compared to Porra-Kel. If I had had a good meal, I could see myself making it there a little after noon.

This turned out not to be so. Not only did I have to take breaks more often as time went on, but I had to rest for longer each time to recover at least some of my strength. By the time I had reached the halfway point from where I had taken my first break it had reached noon, or what felt like three or four hours. It was now that I leaned against a tree and took a nap.

***

I had reached the base of the mountain. While this was a big milestone, I still had a good walk ahead of me until the forest ended next to Stutra. Since I was no longer going down a slope, I hoped that I would make better progress, but I doubted it. If I made it to town before nightfall it would be a miracle.

As I slowly moved forward, I soon found myself upon some men fishing. I figured that if Mr. Recruiter had seen them then he would have asked them to watch for me and if he had not come upon them yet, then he would ask them. So I decided to not let them see me.

I took another break.

As I watched them I wondered if it was possible to get some of their fish or maybe revealing myself and asking for some was worth it. Or maybe I would get lucky and they would leave something behind when I left. For now, I waited and see before deciding.

If there had only been one man, I could have easily ransacked the bucket the fish were being put in when his back was turned to me but that wasn't the case. Since there were two of them and the river, while now wider, was not as deep and moved more slowly so someone could wade across if they were tall enough. Unfortunately, the men had positioned themselves on each side of the river and were facing each other.

I watched them until I had left. When they had gone, I looked at where they set their belonging but found they had left nothing. I wished they had at least forgotten a line, hook, or something I could use but they had not. I had never gone fishing before so I didn't know how well I would do with that anyway.

Unfortunately, I found that I did not have much time to do anything. While rested but hungry, I noticed that I had two hours until sundown. Those men had been here for a few hours and hadn't caught too many fish, but they had known what they were doing. I, who had never fished before, would be lucky to catch just one in an entire day.

Still, there were fish in that there river and I wanted to eat them. Was there a way I could catch something that didn't require a fishing line and hook? There were some other ways that I could think of. One was spearfishing. Unfortunately, I had neither the strength nor the practice to hit something underwater like that and kill it.

This led to the last thing. Also the slowest, most boring, and probably most unreliable method. Using traps. Fortunately for me not only were there plenty of materials around for me to use, I also had some ideas on how to make one. Hopefully quickly.

An hour later with the sky darkening I set my crude trap into the water with its juicy bug bait. I had surprised myself with how quickly I had made the thing, though getting a few sticks and tying them together wasn't that hard. The hard part had been finding something to tie everything together. Young saplings had done the trick after a bit of fiddling.

Now I just had to hope the fishies would take the trap. All they had to do was swim into the hole without realizing the pointy sticks would, hopefully, prevent them from going back out. Then, when I checked it in the morning, there would be a fish smiling back at me, telling me how privileged it was to grace the confines of my glorious stomach. When that happened, all I needed to do was figure out how to cook the thing.

With my trap done and placed, the only thing I could do now was wait. Since it was almost nightfall, I would wait until morning. I also challenged myself to see if I could make another trip before it got too dark. I didn't have much time, but I figured that since I had built one, the second one would be faster.

It turned out that I got the second one done, but I had to fumble around in the moonlight to finish it.