Liara happily sat close to the fire, chilled by the cool night air. Shiala shooed her back a pace in case the wood or coals popped and sent out embers while Benezia prepared to cook their dinner. Shiala had balked at bringing out a stove with them, Benezia had wheedled a promise for at least foil wrap, and Liara had happily dug a hole where their fish now sat cooking with coals. It was their second night on the trip and it was Yavel's skill with a fishing rod that got them more than bread and root vegetables or worse MREs the commando had brought as back up.
Admittedly, few regular people would think of this as a simple camping trip, after all Benezia had decided to bring ten of her acolytes and their omnis to keep things running smoothly. And Shiala had barked out orders for more of her commandos and guards to keep a perimeter. Liara however found it all wonderful and thought it no more strange than any other girl on a more standard version of the trip.
Yesterday she had learned about choosing a camp site, looking for signs of animal tracks and rocks to shield the site. She'd been allowed to run up and down the hill as much as she'd wanted, and had done so even after they had her start hauling the split logs from the bottom back to the top where the tents were. When they'd gone on a short hike learning about the trees and plants, she hadn't gotten in trouble for slipping and getting half covered in mud. Liara had climbed a tree at camp and when she was scared to come down her mother had climbed up and sat with her for a while. They sang a few short songs and Benezia pointed out what she could see from their vantage before managing to convince Liara that descending the tree would not in fact cause her any harm. Before dinner Benezia had happily caught her daughter in a biotic field every time she climbed into the trees low branches and jumped out. At night the commandos had spirited her away without her mother knowing to teach her about the bioluminescence and biotics that the local wildlife had and how to tell the difference between an animal (or Yavel who grumpily moved about pretending to be an animal) and a plant that might use its powers to draw in insects or scare predators away.
Today she had gotten to sleep in as the sun allowed, run up and down the hill again, and splashed around in the river. As she gazed up into Thessia's ever moonless sky she felt happier than she could ever remember.