Leave now, camp near the hills

Traveling was quickly becoming Alis' least-favorite part of life as an adventurer. After a few mind-numbing hours of driving past farms and meadows, they turned off the road and started following the stream Agatha had marked out for them, rolling fields gradually giving way to dense woods. As the sun began to slip below the horizon they stopped in a clearing to make camp, the thin line of the dirt road still visible in the distance through the trees.

Rosa hopped out of the cart, both hands on her slim rear as she stretched. "Oof, my ass! First thing we're buying with the reward money are some cushions, if not a proper carriage."

"Oh, don't be a baby," Sigrid said, stepping out carefully so that her long skirt didn't catch on anything before moving to unhitch the horses. "I'm sure you and your boney butt will be very happy tomorrow when we're hiking uphill through the woods for hours."

The redhead rolled her eyes even as she moved to help with the horses. “Happier than you at least, princess. I can’t believe you wore that dress to hunt kobolds, you look like you came straight from a royal gala.”

Alis just shook her head at their squabbling, pulling her bedroll out of the cart. Her and Fendis quickly busied themselves with setting up camp as the others used the last rays of sunlight to feed and water the horses. Soon enough they were seated around a crackling campfire, digging into their rations.

"Ugh, I'm already sick of dried food," Sigrid said, "we should have stayed in Maplewald for a couple days longer. This stuff was practically all I had to eat on the way back from Lorenzhafen."

"I can go hunt something," Fendis offered.

Somewhere beyond the clearing a branch snapped, causing Alis to flinch and draw her knees up to her chest. "B-better not risk it right now, with the kobolds around and all. Maybe in the morning, when the sun's up."

Rosa sat up suddenly. "Hey," she said, "you can grow goodberries now, right?"

All three of them turned to look at Alis hopefully, Fendis' tail kicking up dirt behind her as it wagged. The young sorcerer gulped, color rising to her cheeks. While they had all heard by now that she had been at least partially undressed for her lessons with Sedainaris thanks to Fendis' loose tongue, not even the wolfgirl herself knew that she actually had to be completely naked to channel mana properly. Alis knew intellectually that she would have to come clean eventually if she wanted to be any help at all on their adventures, but that realization didn't make it any less embarrassing in the moment.

"Well, yes. But..."