The morning light and the hard ground (or stinky manticore skin) woke most of the princesses very early. Even Serena was awake and she stared around at this thing called morning, of which she had heard but never seen, in wonder. Minako woke up sore all over from the rocky ground and the wildness of yesterday. It was hard to swallow and she felt rotten, her eyes and skin were dry and crackly, and the blood on her shirt had blackened and hardened, also creating a coating over the scratches, closing them up a bit. She was itchy. Whenever she had spent the day wandering the bazaar and having adventures at home she had always managed to have a long hot soak in the bath before going to bed in her own soft warm bed. She had never slept in her boots before. She missed Artemis' bundle of warmth. Ami had Luna. Serena had curled against Makoto during the night, and Rei, Rei had watched the fire until late into the night, and was now asleep, propped against the rocks as if they were cushions.

Makoto stood up, looking around, surveying the camp and everything in the vicinity.

"I'm going to get water. We haven't strayed too far from the river."

"What are you going to get it in?" yawned Minako. Makoto glanced down at the manticore skin.

"No!" exclaimed Ami, "You'll kill us all with the germs!"

Makoto smiled at her, "I was just regretting that we didn't have the time to cure in, nor the ability to seal it. I wasn't going to put water in it. I should have kept the skull."

Ami grimaced in horror. Minako failed in restraining her grimace. Luna shuddered and began to clean herself.

Makoto unbuckled her breastplate, "then I'll use this, it's deep enough, and we can heat it up."

Minako giggled. Serena stood up, "can I come with you?"

Minako and Makoto looked at her. "Sure," said Makoto, "you can carry."

She passed the breastplate to a wide-eyed Serena and caught up her spear, her knife was in her belt. She headed toward the scent of water, Serena scurrying behind.

Something else was drinking at the river. The chimera's snake tail hissed, and its lion's head turned around.

Makoto's grip subtly changed on her spear, her other hand rested lightly on her thigh. There was a low growl; the chimera lowered on its lion paws and goat hooves.

Both Makoto and the chimera were flying forward at the same time, the spear thrust, the strangely bent machete slashed wildly. The chimera pulled back for another pounce, the knife was flying. It didn't come back. It was wedged in the chimaera's neck.

Makoto walked up and yanked her knife out of its neck. She cleaned both her weapons and then turned back to where the princess should be lying passed out. But she wasn't.

Terror struck Makoto, she had been taken, killed, eaten, and then she saw her, standing up. Admittedly she was holding onto a tree, but she was upright and conscious.

"You didn't pass out," said Makoto, smiling. Serena's eyes were a little wide and wobbly, but they were steady enough.

"Nope. I tried really hard."

"Good job," Makoto slapped her on the back and she fell into the dirt. Guilty, Mako helped her up. Serena kept hold of her hand and looked at it. It was at least a knuckle joint longer than hers, and it was rougher and stronger. She looked up at Makoto, "do you think you could teach me to throw that knife. I was fine being helpless, but it's so horrible here, there are so many horrible things."

"I don't know, the boomerang is pretty tough, you'd have to work very hard."

"I will, I promise."

"I'll cut you one to practice with. You'd cut your hand off with mine. I have scars from it." She traced the little white lines that cut across her palm and her fingers, "from trying to catch the wrong end. I'll cut you a nice little wooden one with rounded edges."

Serena looked as if she were doubting her decision, but she nodded quickly, and then turned to the river.

"Fill it up," instructed Makoto, "here's my canteen, fill that too." She tossed over the leather bag.

Then she went to look at the plants that grew by the water's edge. She plucked one leaf and chewed on it, nodding, and tasting carefully.

Carefully holding the breastplate full of water, Serena inched over to where Makoto was collecting plants.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm trying to make the manticore taste less bad."

She nodded. Makoto took the breastplate from her and she strode back towards camp.

Back at camp Luna was worrying again. She felt that they were still off course, and wasn't quite sure how to get them back on again. She padded up to Ami, jumped on a rock behind her, and peered over her shoulder at the computer screen. Ami slammed it shut and turned towards Luna, her hair spinning out from the force of it. Everyone stared at her. She looked back and pushed her glasses up her nose.

"Sorry," she said, looking at the ground, "I was just doing something private."

She pulled away from Luna and opened her computer, then moved her fingers in esoteric ways.

"I, I was wondering if you could find our position, and see how far we are from the route."

Ami nodded and stared at the screen, not meeting anyone's eyes.

Makoto was hammering four posts into the ground around the embers of the fire. She set the breastplate on top of the posts and began to build up the fire. She added some of the plants and hunks of meat. Then out of a very secret pouch she added something white. Instructing Serena to watch it, but not actually touch anything, she went off into the woods.

Rei continued to sleep like a rock, on a rock. Minako sat around, disgruntled and bored. Her hand rested on the hilt of her rapier, and she worried about many things. She worried about her bade, how much longer it would last. She worried about her ability to defend herself. She wondered if she had the choice would she save her princess at the sacrifice of her own life. She didn't really want to, but she had promised she would. She happily gossiped in her head about Makoto's fiancée and why Ami slammed her computer shut. And she pointedly avoided thinking about Rei, at all. That led down avenues, which she did not want to explore. Emotions were so much more interesting when they involved other people. Then they were exciting and fun, but hers just made Minako feel sick to her stomach, and as she had already been sick the day before, it was a telling nausea, and she did not want to repeat it.

Makoto came out of the forest and tossed Serena a bent piece of wood, all white from where she had carved it down to the perfect shape. Serena missed the catch, but it bounced harmlessly off her forehead and fell into her lap.

Makoto leaned over the bowl and stabbed a piece of meat with her knife. She bit into it, and it was only a little pink on the inside. She grabbed the hot metal with her bare hand and set it in the dirt.

"There's food."

Serena looked at it with a depressed expression. It was to be sure that she was not necessarily a fastidious eater. But the roast rabbit last night had unnerved her. It involved tearing chunks off and burnt fingers. This meal seemed to involve stabbing chunks of meat with a knife and eating it off the knife. Setsuna had carefully trained her to never eat off her knife. And now everyone was eating off their knives, there was no other utensil. Minako was not feeling the exact opposite. But she was not going to be a wimp, and got out the knife Rei had tossed her the day before. Rei woke up at the word food, and crouched quite comfortably by the "soup tureen" wielding her knife.

Luna approached the gathering. "Ami has discovered," she began; then, when no one appeared to be listening, she coughed and started again, "Ami has discovered that we are only a few miles from our correct starting place, and we should be on our way in all haste so that we may finish our seven day course in less than nine days. Once we finish eating we shall begin."

"Isn't one of us supposed to be leading," asked Minako, holding a hunk of meat on her knife by her ear.

"I do not believe that any one of you has shown enough aptitude for leadership to be trusted. You all do your own thing. Food appears, directions appear, you volunteer. There's no organization!"

Minako ignored her, and continued masticating, staring firmly at a position nowhere near Rei.