Whelp enjoyed the New Moon feasts the best. The food was warm, but not spicy, and they had his absolute favorite: copper-tail fish. He had no idea where it came from or what a “fish” was, but the flesh was soft and salty, and he savored every bite. A thought came to him.

“What’s a fish?” Whelp asked his parents. Scorch and Conquer looked at each other, and Scorch pointed to her jaw, currently occupied with chewing. She gave a wide-eyed look at Conquer and grinned.

“It’s an animal.” Conquer answered, huffing.

“I know that!” Whelp huffed. “What kind of animal? Where does it come from?” Obviously it was an animal, it was all fleshy, but all that Whelp had ever seen of it was the side that was served on the New Moon. What did the rest of it look like?

Scorch swallowed her bite of fish. “It swims, Whelp. It lives in an ocean — like the Red Desert, but full of water,” she explained when she saw the confused look on Whelp’s face. Her answer only confused him more, though.

“Full of water? There isn’t that much water!” Whelp protested.

“There is, now quiet down and eat!” Conquer commanded, prompting a fit of giggles from Scorch. Fish sprayed out of her mouth, which set Whelp laughing too.

Conquer looked annoyed, but a smile tugged at the edges of his lips and he soon joined his mate and child in their innocent revelry.

Learn and Best made their way to the outer wall. Learn’s mental walls against the pain were breaking down as they traveled, and he began to bore down heavier on Best. The journey was a haze, but Best managed to talk them past the sparse guards at the outside and into the battle camp. She came back and clasped his hands together with something metal. He was too tired to stop her, or even to ask why. He understood why. They wouldn’t trust a free orc.

The camp was a familiar sight to Learn. Rows of cots with injured laid down to rest on them, rows of dead covered with stiff blankets laid down to rest forever. Apparently the battle had slowed today, because Learn couldn’t hear the clash of weapons in the distance, and there were more soldiers sitting around the bodies than he would have otherwise expected.

He recognized the soldiers’ looks too. The far-off stares, the deep shadows underneath the eyes. He was getting odd looks from a lot of them; under the circumstances, he understood them. He was The Enemy, right now, walking through camp injured and helpless. These people were fighting a war, he wasn’t going to waste their energy to force them to accept him as a person.

Learn and Best made their way to an iron doorway in the wall. The door, once Best got them through the guards, let up to the very top of the walls, through thin stairwells that folded in on themselves as they ascended. By the top, Learn’s shoulders were scraping the stone on both sides, and he had to hunker down to avoid the ceiling.

They came upon Celeste, who sat at a table talking to a thin man carrying a bow that looked sized to an orc. Learn waited for Best to get their attention before walking over himself. So many weapons, and he was at first glance an enemy. He had to step lightly, or end up with a few extra holes in his body.

“You look terrible,” Celeste said as Learn sat. The human was obviously tired; her eyes were sunken and dark. She rubbed at her eyes with open palms, but mustered the energy to give Learn a tired, empty smile, then went back to scratching on the map in front of her with a quill, the smile fading as quickly as it had appeared.

“You don’t look better,” Learn shot back.

“Good,” Celeste answered. “If I look good, I’m not taking my job seriously. Learn, Best, meet Asch. Second in command of the Herald Hawks.” She gestured with the end of the quill toward the tall man. Learn nodded, and the man scowled in return. He leaned down to Celeste and whispered something in her ear. She sighed and muttered back, equally unintelligible.

“Darling, I thought you were the second in command, no?” Best asked. The man — Asch, cracked a wan grin, but his eyes were indescribably sad.

“Yeah. I’m… Miles died. I’m in charge of the Hawks now.”

A bitter coal settled in the pit of Learn’s stomach. He knew that it was unlikely for Celeste to be able to join them as it was, but if she was in charge of the entire army… no chance.

“Sorry to hear.” Learn started to reach out his hands to comfort Celeste, then thought better of it. Best looked uncomfortably at the orc, then at the human. She clutched her thick woven shawl in close, then interjected:

“So… Celeste, darling, we’re going to the tavern. You know the one. Learn, Alvin, Lgthpt, and I, and we wish you would join us. Learn, the sweet thing, has told me that he has a plan for us, to deal with the current situation.”

Celeste put down her quill, and calmly, carefully folded her hands together on the map and looked at Learn.

“Am I hearing correctly, then, that you have some useful information regarding the enemy forces currently surrounding these walls?” Her tone had a level of seriousness that it rarely carrried. All humor was gone, replaced with the empty terseness of someone who was carefully weighing their options. Her eyes met Learn’s; they were rimmed with deep bags. The war was weighing on her, as were her new responsibilities.

Learn paused before answering. If he answered truthfully, it could cause serious harm. Yet, his idea could end the war in the earliest stages. But it needed timing. It needed weight to it, needed his people to see the damage Shrike could deal to them.

“Nothing for public eyes.” He answered eventually. The slight glint of hope in Celeste’s eyes faded, and she slowly picked up her quill again.

“Then, Learn, I will not be able to join you.” Her voice spat, she couldn’t hide the anger and hurt. “If you could please see yourself out so I can get back to the war efforts…” she let her sentence peter out.

“Celeste—” Best began.

“Please!” Celeste interrupted slamming both clenched fists into the tabletop. “Go. Asch. Show them out.” The tall man nodded, and gestured to Learn and Best, motioning for them to leave.

“Well, that went terribly. I’m sorry, dear.” Best said as they went down the stairs.

“Lgthpt next. Then Alvin.”

“Oh, Lgthpt is already there, my sweet.”

Learn stopped and looked at Best, confusion clear on his broad face.

“The dear has such a way with things, don’t you know? An intuition, of sorts. She told me she was heading to the tavern before your whole… experiment, with those.” The elf waved a hand at the tusks hanging from Learn’s neck. Learn grunted.

“Good. Alvin, then.”

————

“I— I’m not sure, Learn.” Alvin stuttered. He looked absolutely terrible, though that was still true of all of the motley bunch, save for Best. The dwarf was sitting stock-still in his small bedroom, hands clasped around one of his amulets; this one had a symbol referring to Pater Agathe carved into the metal.

“What happened?” Best asked, before Learn could tell her not to. Stupid! It was an oversight to not inform Best. Learn didn’t know what had happened outside in the sewers, but whatever it was had clearly shaken Alvin enough that the young dwarf didn’t want to talk about it. Even the possibility of having to discuss it drained the color from his face and set his mouth to flapping like a fish.

“Nothing.” Learn insisted.

“But—”

“Nothing.” Learn stated, meeting the elf’s eyes, trying to communicate nonverbally. Did she not know how to treat trauma patients? Probably not, Learn was sad to think. He was taught as part of his surgeon training, but there would be no real reason for a musician to know. Still, it irked him. These were important things for everyone to know, just in case. He could see it, why could nobody else?

Best let out a huff and crossed her arms across her chest. Learn just shook his head and put one hand on Alvin’s shoulder in an attempt to comfort him. He couldn’t tell if it was working or not.

“No fighting.” he said after a moment of pause. Alvin looked up, still shaking, and suddenly Learn wasn’t so sure whether Alvin would be any help with his plan. He hadn’t slept, he was a mess. Could Learn rely on him in this state?

“A—are you sure?” Alvin asked. Learn nodded, under the idea that some unreliable help was better than no help at all. Besides, Celeste couldn’t make it. And he liked Alvin, still. The dwarf needed to learn what to be scared of and what to ignore, but Learn couldn’t fault him for still working on that, he was so young.

“Okay.” Alvin said, brows knitting together into an expression of resolve. A sense of pride flushed through Learn, and he lifted himself into a standing position. He reached out a hand toward Alvin, who took it. Alvin’s hand was no longer shaking as Learn felt it in his, and the dwarf bared his teeth, mirroring Learn’s own expression of jolted excitement, of pre-event excitement.

————

Where Ends Meet was chilly, a first in Learn’s experience. The usual warm atmosphere was just… missing. As the big orc shouldered his way through the door, Ben… Host looked at him and frowned slightly. Learn understood; while this wasn’t a sacred place, it was special. Using it as a location to make plans around death was allowed, but only just; Host wouldn’t intervene, but neither would he appreciate it.

Learn held himself back from ordering that hot drink then, the one that tasted of joy. He would leave money for host, but the location was trampling on the odd, plain man’s hospitality, he would not ask anything more.

Learn, Best, and Alvin went toward the table where Lgthpt sat, nursing a mug that was larger than her head. As Learn next to the goblin, he got a whiff of the contents of the cup — pure, black, bitter coffee, close to half a gallon. Lgthpt gave a waning smile and took a deep chug from the steaming cup.

“Celeste couldn’t make it?” She asked once she had swallowed the brew. Learn shook his head.

“Yeah she could,” came a voice from behind them. Celeste stood in her civilian clothing, with nothing but her whip at her side. She looked as tired as she had before, but she looked to have a better handle on it. The war was weighing on her, but she was able to walk away.

“Celeste!” Lgthpt shouted as she rocketed out of her chair directly at Celeste. Learn had to reach over and steady the mug that was left behind, nearly knocked over. Celeste laughed as the goblin scampered all over her, eventually settling over her shoulders.

“Asch took over my duties for the rest of the day — sort of.” Celeste explained.

“S-sort of?” Alvin asked.

“I left a note. Well, I left a parchment.” She paused again. “Well, it should be pretty obvious that I’m not there. But my armor is, so they’ll know that I wasn’t taken.”

“Should you have left?” Alvin asked. The humor that had grown on Celeste’s face grew smaller.

“Possibly not. But Learn said he had information that he couldn’t share in public, so I came. Two bad choices, only one had friends there.”

Best let out a pealing laugh, which echoed in the empty tavern. It heralded a chuckle from Alvin, and a raucous giggle from Lgthpt. Soon all but Learn were doubled over. Learn, to his merit, wasn’t feeling the humor of the situation. Regardless, he let the laughter settle down before beginning to speak.

“Friends,” he began, “I have a plan to get my people back to the Red Desert.”