(A/N: You know how I said that the characters mentioned in the Mock Battle chapter weren't necessarily the ones to be featured later in the story? Well, screw that. I held a number of votes and got about ten people's opinions, but there won't be much highlights besides Eisso, Kenzie, Lucina, and Morgan. Sorry to disappoint, but I can't handle extremely large casts.)
The first few days of camping out were a bit hard. Morgan showed them the most straight-forward route, then the route that they would have to take to avoid towns. In most cases, they had to split up into a few separate groups to avoid trouble with thieves or avoid panic.
Eisso and Kenzie, being among the lesser-known of the group, were the ones to go to the town and restock supplies. Occasionally one of the others would join them, but usually they just went together.
Eisso normally shared his tent with Morgan or Owain, since those were the two that he knew best. Over two weeks away from Ylisstol without much progress, at least they haven't encountered that much violent situations.
The day-to-day life for them was simple; eat breakfast, pack up, travel until sundown, eat dinner, set up, and sleep. It wasn't the largest army, but with everyone having varied skills and drawbacks, packing alone took an hour. Food was eaten quickly and supplies had to be replenished almost daily. Thankfully, though, it wasn't too stressful for anyone. Most of the time, everyone enjoyed themselves—the more optimistic members compared it to camping instead of a grim march. It helped morale.
Eisso was able to sit down with Morgan shortly after dinner, since they were sharing a tent tonight.
"When we actually come across conflict, we need to be prepared," Morgan said. He had laid out some maps that were brought with them from Ylisstol. "The more experienced fighters—such as Lucina, Gerome, Inigo, and Kjelle—should guard the others while the less experienced fighters stay more cautious. We can afford risky strategies, but they should be likely to land us a win. And honestly? As long as everyone can walk away from the battle, I would call that a win. Retreats can also be risky, but if there's too much people injured for Brady and Kenzie to heal then it would be the best option."
"I expected to get at least one thief by now," Eisso admitted. "Our march must've been noticed by someone by now. "But instead, we've been able to get this far fairly easily."
"We're still close to the capital," Morgan replied. "A few more days and we'll be surrounded, I'm sure. Unless the Grimleal are getting rid of them first, following us, to draw us into false security… We have to keep every possibility in mind. A kind gesture could be a ploy to get us to lower our defenses, or it could be genuine. There's also the chance that they WANT us to think that they're trying to trick us, but they're not and they actually have something worse planned that—"
"You're overthinking it," Eisso said, cutting him off. "Just because it's a possibility doesn't mean that they would do it. You said yesterday that they were likely to use tactics that were common in Plegia. Until we get there, though, I'm more worried about bandits. Everyone here can be captured and sold for ransom, or slavery, or worse. Me and Kenzie are the only ones without famous war-hero parents. I know most of you can fight, but I don't want anyone getting hurt."
"I've been trying to get camp set up in tactical locations," Morgan said. "From any direction, we'd be able to predict where thieves come from and how to counteract them. I haven't quite decided how we're avoiding murder, though…we can't very well leave them there. Or send them on their way. And Mother—or anyone, really—would prefer it if we didn't have blood on our hands. Although…I guess it can't be helped… When I study, the most successful tactics seem to be small hit-and-runs or full-out massacres."
"If we need to kill anyone, Grimleal or bandit, I can do the final blow." Eisso said, confident but not entirely sure why. "That way, I'm the only one who has to deal with the guilt of taking a life."
"That can be stressful, though," Morgan replied. "It's ill-advised in most cases. But a few of the others would be willing to kill, if need be. I've already come to terms with it; Lucina might be fine with it as well, but she's still in a brooding mood so it might not be a good time to ask. Cynthia and Yarne might not be willing to, and Brady is currently unable to wield anything but a staff—he's showing interest and progress in axes, though. Gerome, Owain, Nah, and Kjelle might be okay with it as well; I can ask them tomorrow. I'm not sure about everyone else."
Eisso nodded. "Maybe we should get some rest? I was hoping to leave earlier tomorrow."
"Sure," Morgan said. "Good night."
With that, the candles were blown out and they made their way to their separate cots.