~~~

You wake up from the sun hitting your face. After dinner the talk and activity petered out, and everyone went to sleep with you, Frederic, and Leon taking shifts on the watch.
The forest is quiet, and the sun is a bit above the horizon, light making it through only small gaps in the trees in bright, sharp beams. Crawling out of your bedroll, Leon greets you from his seat by the embers of the fire.

Leon: "Mornin'. Uneventful night. Just dark and quiet for hours.
Can you get a pan of bacon going? That'll wake everyone up."
He gets up and starts pulling apart small branches to kindle the fire before waiting for a response.

You get yourself up, smack yourself awake, and grab your weapon belt next to your bedroll. Gun still there, knife still there, ammo still there, good.
Grabbing the pan from last night and making sure it's clean enough, you root around in Frederic's big pack for the food. It's a standard tall, deep canvas and leather bag full of camping and wilderness gear and rations, including foods. Jerkies, cheeses, breads, dried fruit... Wow, Fred stocked up. No bacon though.
To one side, there is a wooden box with a strong latch on it, about as long as your arm and wide as your hand, labeled "Icebox". Huh... No, that'd be silly, iceboxes are big, and expensive, and live in kitchens. But...
Just in case, you pull the box out and crack it open, and-
Oh wow, it IS an icebox, it's COLD inside! That's new. Moving quick to keep the cold in, you grab a wrapped and twined package labeled "back bacon" and shut the box again.

Within a few minutes and with Leon's help on the fire, you've got a pan full of rashers sizzling and spreading an enticing scent. It doesn't take long for most of the others to stir with this in the air, and they begin getting up and waking themselves. Leon seems to have dozed off again while waiting, he was the last one on watch after all.
Karina: "Mmm... smells good... did we bring that?"

Karina: "Mm, iss fine. It was in an icebox right? Would go bad in a few days if it's fresh then. He would have us eat that first. Probably last night if the other guys didn't whip out their meat first.
Oh right, he's still asleep is'n he? Sleeps like a mountain."
She sways away at that and goes to push Frederic in his bedroll until he wakes up. Which, actually takes a fair bit of time. She wasn't kidding about him sleeping like a mountain.


After everyone has breakfast and wakes themselves up, you all get your gear together and ready for another exciting day of standing watch.

Jacik: "Alright, day two. The trees have been cooperative, I think we'll be done some around 3.
You know... I know the job was only for this one grove. But Jason saw another a bit further up the hill. It's rare to be this lucky with the trees like that.
If you're up for it, would you be willing to stay another day or two and scope out those too? I can probably get you a bit more than double the pay, with what we'd be saving on making a second trip up here."

Frederic: "Good safe paying work isn't always easy to find. I'm certainly up for it."
Leon: "Yeah, I can entertain myself for another round of this."
Karina: "Aaaaa do we have toooo?"
Frederic: "You can't always fall back on your family, Karina. Like I said, being an adventurer isn't always adventurous. Just be happy no one is bleeding this time."
Karina: ...mrgrgr... okay, fine. I'll stay."

Jacik: "Great! We'll camp up near that grove tonight then."
And with that, you all get back to work, standing around while the surveyors survey. This time you're paired with Karina by the camp, while Leon and Fred take the far edges.
Karina is still pouting a bit, and frequently looks back into the trees whenever the squirrels chitter, trying to catch a glimpse of them.

[ Timeskip ]
[ Talk to Karina ]
[ Other ]

You keep on the lookout, for threats and also slugs.
None of either at the moment, but you DO see a black millipede cross your path. Much cuter than centipedes.

Karina: "Hm? Oh, um, a bit. My papa never let me leave the city much, so I didn't get to see much nature unless I snuck out.
I've only been this far away from civilization like this once before, when I met Frederic. Hiking is hard. But the forest is such a fresh experience!
Mostly I wanna see these squirrels though. Squirrel monsters! I wonder what their magic is like."

Karina: "Ehhh, more of a dog person...
They're just the most interesting thing around. Playing with them would be fun though! I've never met a monster before, even if they are small ones."
There's a rustle from the leaves above you, and both of you look up. There, looking straight at you, is a lone brown squirrel, bushy tailed and alert. In the corner of your eye, Karina goes stock still.

Karina: "Shshsh"
The squirrel is now closely watching you after you make the move with your gun, but it maintains its perch on the tree.

Then, Karina starts making small noises with her mouth, halfway between clicking and tutting. The squirrel switches attention back to her, watches for a moment, then makes a small hop towards the tree trunk. Karina keeps going, and after a moment the squirrel moves again.
This continues, with it making small bursts of movement towards the ground every few seconds, and stopping dead still and waiting between them. Eventually, it reaches the ground, and Karina slowly kneels down, extending a hand to the ground.

You silently prep the spell, ready to inject it with mana at a moment's notice.

Karina: "C'mon... issokay, I'm friendly... it's safe..."

The squirrel inches forward again, pauses, looks around, then climbs onto her hand. She carefully lifts the squirrel up as it sniffs her hand and looks around from its new perch on her hand.
You let the shield spell fade away, clearly no threat here, as Karina looks over at you beaming happily. She turns her attention back to the squirrel and gently strokes along its head and back as it seems to calm down.
Karina: "Gram! Gram it's so cute! Do you wanna pet it?"