While waiting for dinner, they made some light conversation. Lieutenant Elm returned after having given his orders, and Captain Vellis was very interested in the hunt for the nest, how it had been detected and their process of finding it. Apparently, he hadn’t really had any contact with adventurers so far, and he expressed admiration at how well thought out the systems were that allowed them to operate independently from their leadership.

Edwin couldn’t shake the feeling that part of it was that the soldier hadn’t expected much from the adventurers, and looking around, the reserved expressions of his companions showed him that he wasn’t the only one with that thought. Still, Vellis was nothing but polite and respectful, so Edwin decided to forgive him.

When the food arrived, the conversation was abruptly cut off. Both the adventurers and the soldiers had been on their feet the whole day and had been looking forward to a hot meal for most of it. Afterwards, food lethargy hit, and the siren call of their beds got considerably louder.

“We shall retire for the night, if you don’t mind.” Vellis said. “We still have to inspect our subordinates’ preparations, and we will have an early morning. Since we will spend the day travelling, I suggest we use that time to plan ahead as well as chat further.”

With that, he gave his goodbyes and left, seeking out the impromptu army camp outside the wall, while the adventurers headed to their rooms in the tavern.

--- ----- ---

Since Edwin needed less sleep than regular humans, he was usually up before the other adventurers. Sometimes he simply lay in bed a little longer, enjoying the warm covers and letting his mind wander. Other times, he wandered the streets of whatever town they were staying in, looking for interesting places or watching other early risers go about their work. Today, he headed for the gate.

A tired night guard who was clearly looking forward to the shift change let him out of the town and even pointed him in the right direction. Curious, Edwin followed his guidance along the palisade, and soon he spotted the camp.

There were only a few dozen soldiers, so it consisted of a few neat rows of small tents with a single blue flag hanging motionless in the still morning air. Several of the soldiers were awake, keeping a lookout for danger in pairs. As he walked closer, Edwin was quickly spotted, and one of the pairs walked out to meet him.

“Morning.” Edwin said cheerfully.

“Good morning.” the two replied reservedly. Like most of the soldiers Edwin had seen the day before, they were quite young. “Do you need something?”

“Not really.” Edwin said with a disarming smile. “I just woke up and figured I’d have a look at your camp before you tear it down. I don’t know a lot about how it is in the army, so I figured I’d take the opportunity. Do you do this every night?”

The two soldiers shared a look and a shrug, and the second returned Edwin’s smile.

“Yep, every night we’re not in the fort. If we were actually on campaign, we’d stay inside the town so we could all rest, but this is training, so we do it the hard way.”

“Any trouble with monsters?” Edwin asked. “We had to spend a few nights outside on monster hunts a while back, and one time we got snuck up on by a direrat.”

“Not so far.” the first soldier said, mention of a fight having clearly perked his curiosity. “But fourth banner was on an exercise a few weeks ago, and they got attacked by a direwolf.”

“Ouch.” Edwin said, grimacing. “Those can be nasty. I hope your friends are alright.”

“In the army it’s called ‘comrades’, not friends.” the second soldier chimed in. “They’re kinda like friends, but you don’t get a choice.”

“Have you fought a direwolf before?” the first one asked eagerly.

“Sure, several.” Edwin said off-handedly. “That’s our job as adventurers.”

“Are they really as big as they said? And have a horn?”

Soldier number two rolled his eyes. “I told you, all direbeasts have horns. Gods, Pemm, you’re such an egg.”

“They are pretty big.” Edwin agreed, gesturing to show the approximate size. “And yes, all direbeasts have horns. They’re kind of curved forwards, but on many of them they’re not really a threat, as they’re more likely to bite or scratch you than poke you. You’ve got spears, those are pretty good for keeping it at range. Aside from that, try to keep your shield between you and it and hope your comrades get it before it gets you. Worked for me.”

Pemm was about to ask more, when something made both of them look back to the tents.

“The bannermen are getting up.” soldier two told Edwin. “We better get back, we’ll have to break camp soon. Nice meeting you!”

“And you.” Edwin said, with a smile, as the two were already hurrying off. Edwin had to chuckle. He probably hadn’t been an adventurer much longer than they had been soldiers, if at all, and he’d spoken as if he’d been doing nothing but killing monsters for years. It appeared that he wasn’t as immune to the appeal of bragging as he’d thought.

He stayed back and leaned against the palisade, watching as life came to the camp. First, a horn was called, then orders barked, and a few minutes later soldiers were buzzing through the camp like bees. Only the ones who had been on guard were wearing their armor, but none that Edwin saw didn’t at least have their sword strapped to their hip, even if they weren’t wearing a shirt.

Maybe I could go for soldiering some day after all. It doesn’t seem too bad.

So lost in thought was he, he only noticed the figure walking towards him when he was a few steps away.

“Good morning.” The soldier called. He was wearing his tabard, but not his armor, and it took Edwin a moment to recognize the face.

“Good morning, captain. I hope I’m not disturbing anything, I was just curious about your camp.”

“Oh, not at all.” The officer said, waving off Edwin’s worries. “I just came to ask you if you wanted a bite to eat. One of the men is a fairly talented cook, although the circumstances put his skills to the test.”

Edwin checked the position of the sun, realizing that he’d spaced out for longer than he’d thought.

“An offer as gracious as it is tempting, but I wouldn’t want to eat your food when my room comes with breakfast. Also, I should probably get back to my party. We’ll want to leave soon, and I need to get my gear.”

--- ----- ---

Half an hour later, the adventurers met the soldiers on the road south. While the former were leaving the town in a casual group, the second were formed up in a marching formation three men wide, clearly ready to depart. Captain Vellis and the young lieutenant were standing at the back of the formation, greeting the adventurers.

“I apologize if we made you wait.” Doren said.

“Nonsense.” Vellis said. “Being early is simply the army way. Speaking of being early, now that everyone is here, we should move out. Lieutenant?”

Lieutenant Elm turned around, shouting an order towards the formation. More shouting followed, then the entire formation began marching as one, the sound of heavy boots on packed dirt and the jangle of equipment and armor announcing their presence far and wide. The adventurers followed much more quietly, the officers walking along with them.

“Now, let’s discuss how best to use our forces to achieve our goal.” Vellis began. “Lieutenant, what’s your take?”

The young officer mulled it over for a moment, then spoke. He sounded younger than he looked, but he spoke with confidence.

“The objective is to find small groups of goblin hunters hiding in the woods somewhere in the area. I see two options. One is to split up into small teams, maybe groups of five like the adventurers, and assign each of them a specific area to reconnoiter. The other is to keep the banner together, spreading them out in a long line and searching a wider area.”

“Interesting.” the captain said. “How large of a distance would you have them keep between each soldier in the second option?”

“Fifty meters? Close enough that they can see each other and communicate.”

Vellis walked a few steps without responding, then looked over to the adventurers. “What do our professionals think of the plan?”

Surprised, nobody responded at first. When the captain kept looking at them expectantly, Doren slowly spoke up.

“It sounds risky. Firstly, with such a long line, changes in the terrain might make it hard to keep line of sight. Secondly, if one of your soldiers gets attacked by something, the nearest help is fifty meters away. Depending on the terrain, that could mean that the first one gets killed before the next two get there, and then those are alone against the monster.”

Edwin couldn’t see lieutenant Elm’s face, but his shoulders seemed to tighten up the longer Doren spoke.

“My thoughts exactly, thank you Doren.” Vellis said with a smile. “The other idea is better, but still has some risk to it. You need to take into account that our men are not trained as scouts, nor to fight against non-human enemies. Your idea might be feasible with a banner of experienced veterans, but I would be uncomfortable sending five of our recruits alone against some of the threats that could hide in these forests. Or to have them do important reconnaissance without oversight.”

He turned to the adventurers again.

“We have a full banner, fifty soldiers divided into four squads of ten to fifteen, each led by an experienced bannerman. I suggest using the squads as they are, as they will be most effective and reliable. Training is also pointless if it kills my men, so I have a vested interest bringing them back alive as well. With your two parties and our four squads we should be able to search quite a wide area.”

“Sounds good.” Doren nodded. “You’ll know your soldiers best, and it definitely beats doing it alone. With your help we should easily shave a few days off the time we need to find the nest and have a much easier time destroying it once it’s found.”

Suddenly, a call went up, and the marching column quickly devolved into chaos, spears being brandished towards the sides. Edwin pulled his mace, scanning for a threat, when he realized that Vellis wasn’t reacting.

“I apologize.” the captain said with an embarrassed smile. “I should have warned you. The bannermen do ambush drills from time to time to improve reaction times. As you can see, there is still much to do.”

The adventurers relaxed and sheathed their weapons, looking at the spectacle ahead. Several blue-clad figures, the bannermen from what Edwin understood, were stalking up and down the line and berating their charges.

“You doing these often?” Doren asked.

“Several times a day.” Vellis nodded. “Time not training is time wasted, and we do not have time to waste. We only have a few more months to prepare, then these men will head to the front and face the Marradi.”

The soldiers up ahead resumed their marching formation and someone began singing a marching song, the catchy tune being taken up by the other soldiers immediately. Edwin thought of the two young soldiers he’d met that morning and sighed. Why did the damn Marradi have to ruin everything?