The First Legendary Beast Master novel Chapter 274

Chapter 274 Missing Deliveries

?Hawk found them another good cave for the night, large enough to be comfortable, but small enough to be easily heated with the door blocked by Rae's silk.

Tonight, they went one step further, since they were in a snow-covered area, and they had Remi keep a [Blizzard] spell active for half an hour after the entry was covered, obliterating their tracks, and piling snow over the entry points.

This cave had three, which wasn't optimal, but they were all small enough that the Frost Giants couldn't get in. That was the important part, as nobody expected the escorts for the supply convoys to be wandering in the woods and looking for hiding spots where ambushers might be waiting for them.

Lotus and Tessa started cooking, which got Tori panicked again, but the two clerics only laughed.

"Hawk is still out scouting, and Rae is in the tree outside. If there is anything coming for us, we will know. There is no reason not to eat well while we're out in the field, and it saves us from having to return to refill our rations every ten days.

In fact, we haven't touched any of the ones in our packs, so they're likely frozen solid right now." Tessa explained.

Tori nodded. "That's what happened to ours yesterday. Even after the heater stopped working, the food was still almost cold, but not frozen anymore. We even had to get the priest to create water so we could have something to drink, as we couldn't thaw our canteens."

"Your other mages had fire magic, why not just get some heat going? Even if you just defrosted everything first, it would have been better." Tessa asked, with a gesture to Karl's sword, which was currently doing double duty as room heater and hot grill for the cooking pots.

The blonde mage giggled and flashed a suggestive smirk at Karl. "Well, nobody in the other team was packing the same sort of impressive weapon that you've kept hidden away."

Dana and Tessa gave her matching disgusted looks, while Karl chuckled and Tori shook her head with a rueful smile. "Sorry, it's become a force of habit. My mother always told me, use what you've got to get what you need, and I might have gone a little bit overboard with the technique."

Tessa's frown faded into a malicious smirk, and she laughed as she tossed cut vegetables into the pot. "Might have gone a bit overboard? You nearly got killed because your group only came along hoping to get laid. They didn't even have any intention of doing their jobs. That's more than a little overboard. But we won't hold it against you as long as you are trying to act right.

Our group has a magical contract to travel together for the next year, and we don't need drama or infighting. Besides, if you lose the favour of the beasts, you'll lose the strongest defensive magic that we have right now.

We're happy to have extra hands in battle, but the easy girl routine doesn't make friends with the clergy."

Tori looked somewhere between mortified and humiliated, and Karl thought that she might actually bolt out of the cave in embarrassment, but after a moment, she began to calm, and wiped a tear from her eyes as she nodded at the War Cleric.

"I understand. Thank you for keeping me around. You have my word, by the time that we get back to one of the bases, I will have it together. Karl, I apologize for how I am. Dana, I apologize for flirting with your man."

Now it was Dana's turn to blush bright red, but she didn't say anything to refute the accusation.

Lotus put strips of sliced pig meat on a pan, causing a sizzling that distracted everyone.

"I'm glad we got all that out of the way early. Now, the food is almost ready, and then we will set the night watches. I will take the first, who has second?" She asked with an impish grin on her face.

"I will." Dana agreed.

"And I will take the third shift." Karl decided.

That would put him on watch when everyone woke up for breakfast, which was the best time to send Hawk out to start their morning scouting missions.

Karl got Rae to attach all the hammocks to the cave walls with her silk, and then turned down the flames on the blade a little, so the back of the cave would stay comfortably warm, but they wouldn't melt the snow that had built up around the exits after Remi's blizzard.