Renevere Mars: Part Two

Episode 9: Greenwreath Thieves

Ren trotted through the woods along a smooth, well-traveled path as the sun began to set. Cara and Samuel ran alongside her, pushing themselves inhumanly fast with ease. They were making good time on their travels to Maslouw, a small village located deep in the woods. It was not a bustling city, but it was home of a very rare herb called Greenwreath that was essential in highly potent medicinal remedies. For this reason, the lord of Maslouw hired extra protection from Ossilith to be present during their yearly trading fair in case bandits attempted to burgle the precious herb.

"All right," Ren called as she slowed to a stop. "We can set up camp somewhere nearby." It was getting late, and their stomachs were all churning for dinner.

"I'd be excited if we'd packed anything other than that nasty soup Cara makes," Sam grumbled, following Ren into the woods to find a suitable place to set up camp away from the road. She had her eyes set on a grassy circlet of flowers where the trees were spread wide enough to allow for a tent and a fire pit.

"We have to pack light for longer trips, Sam, you wouldn't want to be hauling it around, so don't complain," Cara said, slumping off her backpack in the center of the open space and starting to unpack.

"Just because I understand that, does not mean I don't get to complain. That soup tastes like dirty lake water and fish boogers."

"Well," Cara huffed, as Ren muttered at the same time, "How do you know what fish boogers taste like?" They didn't seem to hear Ren, and Cara continued, "It's not designed to be delicious; it's designed to be nutritious!"

"Blah, blah, I know."

"Hey, shut up and put the tent together," Ren said, tossing Sam the bag of rods and tarp that made up the unassembled tent.

"Says who?" he said incredulously.

"Says your team captain," she retorted with a mocking smile. Sam made a face of defeat and yanked open the bag.

In the past three since Ren had become a Carnol, she and her team had gone on plenty of Delta ranked missions, but this was their first mission without Master Duren present. He was preoccupied with some other important task assigned to him by the Rexus, but since this was only a Delta mission, there was no reason they couldn't go on their own. They'd already been through far more difficult.

"Temporary team captain," Cara amended, wagging a finger at Ren.

"Yeah, yeah, we'll see," Ren said, stretching. "Eventually maybe I'll just take over his job completely, since he's so busy."

"Yeah right," Sam huffed as he laid out the tent parts.

"Yeah, you'd miss Duren too much," Cara said, lifting her brows meaningfully. Ren smirked and rolled her eyes, because she had no come back for this. She couldn't deny it without making it seem truer.

Ren forfeited to helping Sam assemble the tent once the fire pit was made. Once finished they ate and traded aimless stories across the fire.

"Oh, guess who I saw the other day in Dan's," Sam said to Ren. She didn't like his mischievous expression, it made her think she could guess who he'd seen.

"Drunk Dan's? The pub?" Cara asked, brow raised.

"Yeah," Samuel said inconsequentially.

"What were you doing there?"

"Looking for my Mom, but that's not the point," Sam said, waving her away.

"Is that why you weren't at practice that one night?" Ren said, putting two together. Sam almost never missed training, and when he did, it was almost always because of his mother, though he would never admit to it.