Month of Wyvern Moon - Late Night Schemes
Chapter 34
A little while later I wandered back into camp on my own accord. Walking among the darkened tents and flickering embers of the bonfires I made for my house's supply tents. My thoughts became even more dark and sour as I contemplated my newly acquired information.
Despite the contention, Sylvain remained true to his word and, in between heated gasps of air, he informed me of the details of the Blue Lions plans. Reflecting on that, I reached our supplies and caught sight of the water canteen. Looking around, I decided to grab a drink as the fires continued to smolder in the night.
As I sipped my water through slightly bruised and swollen lips, I waited for my next accomplice to arrive.
It was turning into a stressful night.
As I cooled my heels. I leaned against a couple of crates contemplating what my informant had diverged to me. Brooding about the classes and formations Byleth had chosen, I felt an unhealthy amount of unease in my gut. I halfway pondered the notion of whether Dimitri would accept me transferring into his house in the morning just to avoid the potential bruising that seemed almost inevitable at this point.
Similarly dower thoughts filled my head as I tilted the cup up and drained the contents of it with a heavy sigh. I had made a promise to my scheming house leader that I would help him pull off some minute plans after the sunset.
I scrubbed my unoccupied hand through my hair uneasily as I dripped the last few droplets of water out of my cup. Maybe the new bits of information could help turn the tide, along with his last minute late night schemes and a few prayers to the Goddess.
Darkly thinking we had a cold chance in the abyss at winning tomorrow, I leaned over and filled up my cup a second time. As I finished scooping out another cup of water a cheeky, mischievous, voice drifted out of the darkness behind me. "Sooo, how did it go? Did you enjoy yourself?"
I rolled my eyes as I took a drink, pointedly ignoring my house leader's gloating.
Unable to contain himself, the Golden Deer continued his teasing as he stepped into my field of vision. "Aww, you're being so quiet Petal. Did he not measure up to your expectations?"
I didn't even pause as I stopped mid sip and pointedly flung my entire cup at him.
The Golden Deer impishly avoided being soaked by the flying projectile with an artful sidestep. At the same time Claude managed to pluck the projectile out of the air as the water splattered onto the tent behind him.
A deep rumble formed in my chest as I realized I had missed my target. Already irritated by how this exchange was going, I crossed my arms grumpily. "Shut up Claude."
My house leader's eyes sparkled as he twirled around with an elegant flourish of his cape. "Oh? I seem to have struck a nerve there, huh? Well if you're done having your fun for the night, are you ready to go dig some even deeper holes Petal?"
I snorted as my house leader stressed his offer and looked away from the Golden Deer. Clearly Claude was not picking up on how irritated I was with him teasing at me. "Tch, no. I want to sit here and contemplate the consequences of my actions."
My house leader took a few steps closer to me with an unyielding smirk of mischief plastered onto his face. "Uh huh, you can do that some other time. I have been waiting for your return for well over an hour. I think you have earned some teasing."
I leveled my gaze at the Golden Deer and arched an eyebrow in knowing exasperation. "Like you and Hilda didn't follow me."
My pointed remark earned me an instant reaction. As soon as the words left my lips, the Golden Deer dramatically clapped his hand over his chest in mock surprise. "Never! Why would I be interested in watching you make out with the next heir to house Gautier?"
I rolled my eyes and tapped a finger to my cheek sarcastically in thought. "Cause you're into voyeurism and that and wanted to see how far I went. If I had to hazard a guess, it would be to probably judge how far I was willing to take things to get information."
The game was up almost as quickly as it started. The twinkle in my house leader's eyes faded to something less than good natured teasing as he dropped his hands to his hips and clicked his tongue. "You got me there Lilianna. Totally what my mind was on during the entire wait. Though, I will admit, it was kind of difficult to see you up there. I kind of figured you saw us after you started to stick to the shadows."*
I snorted as my shameless house leader confirmed he had indeed snuck up to spy on me. I felt the corner of my mouth twitching into a side smirk of my own as I crossed my ankles and leaned back against the stack of crates behind me. "So tell me Claude, did you enjoy the show then?"
"Maybe a bit." The Golden Deer winked at me, but the shadows that flickered across his face made it hard to tell what he was really thinking. Reaching out he held my cup loosely in his hand as locked his eyes on me. "Since you're back now, I'm going to go get Leonie and Raphael. You can meet us on the edge of camp when you are done contemplating the consequences of your actions. Don't forget to grab your shovel!"
I took the cup reluctantly from his hand and dipped it back into the water barrel grumbling. "Just what I need tonight...to dig more holes."
"Least these are just physical ones!" The Golden Deer chirped as he sauntered away into the night.
I touched the cup to my lips as I watched Claude disappear into the shadows. Something spiteful came to mind and I found myself half yelling down the row of tents.
"And for your information, NO! He did not disappoint!"
I heard my house leader's maniacal laughter as I caught a flash of his golden cloak on the edge of the tent line.
A quick stop at the supply wagon later found me replacing my battle axe with a rough handled shovel. Slinging my newly acquired grave digging implement over my shoulder, I found myself the last of the group to arrive on the edge of camp.
The embers of the fire were barely lit at this point and most of the camp was entirely silent. Only a few select lights flickered spontaneously in the other houses' camps. I watched the lights warily as, under that cover of darkness, as Claude had us huddling together to go over the last minute plan.
We spoke in quick hushed whispers before cutting away from camp in order to escape patrolling professors. We snuck over the river without any incidents and once we were all accounted for again I began leading the way back though the field I had scouted earlier that day with Raphael. I picked my way carefully over the moonlit grass with care, using the stars to mark my direction and progress. The lack of navigable light made seeing holes and divots in the ground harder than normal. Regardless of those minor impediments I steadily picked my way across the field with my mouth set in a grim line.
Next to me Leonie followed suit and we used simple hand gestures to move silently over the moonlit grass. However, while the huntress and I were more used to navigating rough terrain, our other two companions were much less accustomed to the darkness and pathfinding.
Silence also wasn't their strong suit.
Leonie clicked her tongue as I proceeded to forage ahead, making a bee line clearing on the edge of the small forest. "Hey Lilianna! Do you think you could maybe slow down a little? We are losing Claude and Raphael just stopped to pick flowers."
The huntress's warning caused me to groan and halt my progress as she called back to the two lagging party members in a hushed voice. "Come on you two! Unless you want to be out here digging until sunrise I suggest we get a move on."
"Alright, alright already. If I didn't keep having to watch out for these rabbit holes I would be fine." Claude lamented as I looked over at Raphael.
The gentle giant was bent over a patch of glowing white flowers that vaguely resembled daisies with red centers.
I walked back and helped him collect a few while we waited for Claude to catch up. The brawler held the blooms up almost tenderly in his huge hands and smiled brightly.
I plucked a few flowers of my own and handed them over to Raphael with a nod toward our stumbling house leader. "Say Raphael? Think you could do me a favor?"
My classmate looked over at the stumbling Golden Deer who used his shovel to avoid falling in a fox hole at the last minute. "What's up?"
I clicked my tongue, thinking about my question, as Claude leaned on his shovel and had a quick word with Leonie. "Do you think you could carry him? We will be done quicker if you do."
My huge classmate nodded as we both stood there watching as Leonie skirted a dark patch on the ground and jogged lightly over to us with a hand gesture to keep moving. Claude, on the other hand, was not so lucky.
I rolled my eyes as he stumbled over the obscured rabbit hole.
A second later the frightened wildlife bolted out of the hole in the ground as I heard the Golden Deer swear softly.
"Sure, no problem!" Raphael grinned and strode towards our struggling house leader with a huge bouquet of flowers in his arm.
I planted my face in the palm of my hand as the tall blond unceremoniously grabbed my house leader and promptly stuffed the entire bouquet of flowers into the Golden Deers arms. Claude barely had time to squeak in a word of protest as Raphael picked him up and began to carry him like a precious bride over the grassy terrain.
"Well at least I don't need to worry about twisting an ankle anymore." My house leader joked sheepishly as Raphael trundled on towards us.
I rolled my eyes in unison with Leonie as Raphael grinned from ear to ear. "I really appreciate you carrying my flowers while I carry you Claude! Hilda said I needed to bring her back more pretty flowers."
I eyed my house leader who was examining the flowers in his arms with an array of interest that mildly concerned me.
"Flowers for what?" Leonie followed up with the question as I shrewdly narrowed my eyes at Claude.
My house leader popped a head off the flower and promptly began shedding the petals. I decided it was better not to ask questions and averted my gaze as Raphael explained about Hilda's strange request for flowers.
"Well you see I was making this necklace for my sister and Hilda offered to help me make it pretty. I'm not really good with pretty. I wanted to give it teeth and horns and stuff but Hilda said that was a bad idea and that I should gather flowers instead. I only just now thought of it because of the way the moonlight was playing off them that I thought it might be a good idea to pick some."
We started walking again.
"That's really kind of you to make something for your sister, but did Hilda really offer to help you?" I inquired out of pure interest as the mountain of a man walking a few steps behind me.
Raphael's booming laugh sent shivers running down my back as he answered me. "I couldn't believe it either! It was really nice of her though. The first flowers I brought back, she made this really cool necklace with some shiny crystals I got. My sister loved it!"
A cool breeze drifted along the open field as we walked. The tall grass waved and rippled back and forth as we got closer to where we planned to set up our first surprise of the night.
"It's getting kind of late." I commented as I watched a patch of clouds slowly drifting across the moonlight shadowing us under the cover of darkness.
"Well maybe if someone had been on time we could have been able to dig more holes." Leonie snorted as we marked off the first spot.
Raphael started digging like a madman in the center of our markers. Dirt flew as I sniffed and snapped back. "I had better things to do than dig holes."
The huntress was not impressed with me as we both began digging."Oh ya? Like what?"
Her snapping tone of voice informed me that Leonie wanted a fitting answer. However, I was rather reluctant to tell her I had been with Sylvain on a moonlit hill in the dark of night. Rather than starting up any more rumors I shrugged and lied. "I was sleeping."
My half-hearted excuse caused the huntress to stop and glare at me. Her eyes felt like accusatory daggers and she growled. "You were sleeping?! Is that why we were waiting so long?!"
I rubbed the back of my head and shot a glance at Claude who was leaning on his shovel listening to the whole thing unfold. It seemed like he was intent on letting things play out.
I bit my bottom lip as Leonie's face turned red. I pursed my lips and stopped digging as it felt like I was going to be lectured momentarily.
Right before the flood gates opened the crafty Golden Deer gave me a sly grin and yawned. "You're right it is getting pretty late. So how about we split up? Get the job done faster. Leonie, you're good with masking the traps so you can cover the holes once Rapheal is done. Petal and I are going to start walking to our next location."
"So you're just going to leave us here alone in the dark?!" Leonie immediately switched her tone and target as I raised an eyebrow at our sudden change in plans.
Claude shouldered his shovel as I dug around in my bag for a small candle. "Would you like a candle? Though if there is a light out here, someone might come investigate."
The huntress ground her teeth as our house attempted to placate her. "Look, we are just going to be down the hill a bit. Raphael here can dig at the speed of like, three people, so it makes sense that he digs the holes here while we work at a normal person's pace, well while I work at a normal person's pace. Sleepy over there might be able to go twice as fast, because she was so full of energy since she was napping."
Any goodwill I was feeling at being rescued flew right out the window as I bit my tongue. Internally wanting nothing more to beat Claude with my shovel.
"Don't worry we won't be long." I muttered darkly as I tucked the unlit candle away in my pack while trying to hold back my irritation.
"You guys owe me!" Leonie grumbled as Raphael hopped down into the sizable hole he had already made.
Claude winked at me as he began ambling down the hill. His shovel was suspended casually across both shoulders as his arms hung loosely off the shaft.
"I think you said it was over here, right?" My house leader called over his shoulder as he pointed further down the hill.
I grumbled a half formed response as I carried my own shovel in one arm, intent on taking my sweet time. "Ya somewhere over there."
The golden deer ambled down the hill a little further stumbling a few more hidden rabbit holes as I followed along behind him struggling to hide a yawn and thinking darkly.
After about the third one Claude stopped and sunk his shovel into the ground. "Right, well this looks like as good a spot as any."
I gave another half-hearted yawn and unslung my own shovel grumbling. "Whatever you say, oh supreme house leader."
My house leader picked up on my snarky discontent and looked back at me. "What's gotten into you all of a sudden?"
I narrowed my eyes at the golden deer. His cape fluttered in the breeze as we stood in the light of the azure moon. I dug my shovel into the ground next to his with a sneer. "If you must know, I am trying to decide if I want to deflect over to Dimitri's house. You know since my new boyfriend is in that house, and as an additional bonus I'd get a chance to smack you with an axe tomorrow."
The golden deer used his heeled boot to press the shovel deeper into the ground. We both worked in silence for a couple of minutes while the dirt on the mount next to us grew higher in relation to the deepness of pit we dug together.
After a while the golden deer stopped and sighed. "You know, that sounds exceedingly painful. I would like to avoid having you wallop me with an axe. I'll admit it sounds rather unhealthy for me."
I stopped digging and glared daggers at my house leader before raising my shovel up threateningly. "Well would you rather me pay it forward now and just take out my grievances with a shovel?"
"Ouch, touchy tonight aren't you Petal? If you feel that it's absolutely necessary..." The golden deer held up an arm to protect his face as he flinched and stood his ground.
I let the improvised weapon hover in the air for a second and then out a low groan.
"I'd rather have you apologize for getting me into this mess in the first place! I don't actually want to hurt you." I admitted softly looking away as he peeked out from under his hand experimentally.
"Are you sure you're not going to hit me?" Claude's hesitant, questioning, tone of voice took me by surprise. It forced me to question if the golden deer actually had expected me to hit him.
I sighed as something in my chest twisted. Resigned I reached out to softly push his arm back down. "It's nothing. I'm just exhausted, let's just keep digging. The sooner we get back the sooner I can actually go to sleep."
Claude gave a collective sigh of relief as I dug my shovel into the ground and resumed digging. "Right, cause you definitely were not napping earlier."
"No, I wasn't and I'd appreciate it if you wouldn't tease me about it." I shoveled a few more piles of dirt on the hill next to me, still refusing to meet my house leader's eyes. "I only did what I did to get information."
The golden deer started digging right alongside me once again. "Sure, sure. Whatever you say Petal. Totally did not look to me like you were enjoying the process."
I rolled my eyes at him and proceeded to dump a full shovel worth of dirt into the small hole he had managed to make. In a tart tone, I clicked my tongue and continued to dig like nothing had happened as Claude turned back to realize that his hole had suddenly refilled itself.
Making an annoyed sound the golden deer threw a few more shovels full of dirt into the pile and then stopped again. "Just which mess are you referring to by the way? The fact that you hooked up with a nefarious player for information, or that you're out here digging holes with me?"
I continued to steadily throw dirt onto the pile as I answered without breaking my stride. "Neither of those. Sylvain and digging these holes...those are things I can handle."
I let the silence stretch on as I unloaded several more shovels worth of dirt as my house leader waited for me to continue. When he realized I wasn't going to sate his curiosity, Claude tried a different angle.
"So then, besides me being me, what's the problem?"
I straightened up and emptied another shovel full of dirt on the growing pile. I gritted my teeth so hard my jaw hurt as I looked up at the stars.
"If you really want to know what is getting under my skin. It isn't you. It's...it's….the battle tomorrow. I'm really concerned about taking on professor Byleth tomorrow." I confessed as I struggled to unclench my jaw.
Claude started digging again as I continued my train of thought through gritted teeth. "Look Claude, I have no desire to take on a battle I have no chance of winning, all to just test my strength against others? It's one thing to risk my life when others are trying to kill me, but for some noble sport? Bragging rights and honor? This whole battle just isn't my thing."
The golden deer patted the back of his shovel on the pile of dirt next to him to prevent it from falling back into the hole he was digging. "I totally understand your feelings, but do you really think we have no chance at winning tomorrow?"
I snorted and broke the dirt between our two respective holes. "I'm not going to give you lip service and tell you that I believe we can win Claude. I'm going to give you an honest opinion, because lying and games are not going to help us right now. After what I heard from Sylvain and based on our units it might have been possible, but when I factor in personalities and combat experiences, the odds are downright terrible."
My house leader rubbed a dirt covered hand over his chin leaving a smear of earth across it as he thought about it. "Huh, I can appreciate that. It's nice to have a straightforward opinion once in a while. Still, I never would have guessed with as much as you train, that you have a much more passive attitude towards these types of things."
I snorted and stepped into the hole.
We worked quickly, trying to make as much progress as possible in the short time frame we had. We were getting pretty deep, with the hole getting deeper by the minute.
The silence was not comforting as I lifted shovel after shovel's worth of dirt out of the hole. From where I was currently standing, the trap was somewhere around waist high before I answered Claude again.
"I train so I am not killed while traveling and so I am not a liability anymore. I chose to practice magic because my father enjoyed teaching me."
He grunted and threw another shovel's worth of dirt into the air. "That. Is. Interesting."
He stopped huffing for air as I threw a few more loads of dirt up before taking my own break. I answered my house leader's question before he was able to regain his breath.
"It was a while ago, Navan saved me from some bandits when I was younger." I muttered as I changed the topic with a clearing of my throat. "Personally, I thought your first proposal had our best chance at winning."
I wiped the sweat off my forehead as I started digging again, pointedly making sure to distract my house leader from personal questions back to the task at hand. "You know, the one where we just poisoned their food supply and then picked off the brave ones? It seemed like it gave us the best chance at winning."
My ploy worked as it caught Claude's attention immediately. "Ohhh, yes I was rather fond of that plan myself. Teach was on to me and I was warned that I had to play 'fairly.'"
"Tsk, I will never understand nobles or this fight fair stuff. Did you know, Dimitri likes to use that on me when we are training! It's kind of overrated if you ask me, this chivalry and fairness? If you're going to fight you might as well pick fights you can win, slanting the board in your favor shouldn't be a penalized." I snorted at the entire concept and missed throwing a pile of dirt high enough to escape the pit.
Dirt tumbled down on us both as Claude used his cape to shield us both from the falling debris. His uncanny, sly, smile lit up the small space between as he shook off his cape. "You know Petal, I completely agree with you."
As the night wore on, I imparted the rest of the information Sylvain had left me with, while at the same time leaving out some of the more creative bits. I loathed to give Claude any more ammunition to tease me with. As it was, the golden deer was almost all ears with only a few side quips mixed in for good measure.
When I finished relaying my information, we both looked up at the top of the hole and then back down at each other with raised eyebrows.
"I, uh, forgot to tie the rope up top." I commented dryly as I reached behind me to grab the rope on the back of my belt with a sigh.
My house leader shrugged and brushed some dirt off the tip of his nose. "I thought something was missing, ah well too late now. Come here and I'll give you a leg up."
"How about I help you up instead and then you can pull me out?" I offered sweetly, already guessing on the game my house leader was playing.
Claude confirmed the game a second later as he tested the walls of the trap. The loose dirt crumbled under his hand and offered no chance at a decent handhold. "You are no fun Petal."
I rolled my eyes and stuck my shovel into the ground. "It's too dark to see anything anyway, I don't know why you're upset."
"I live in vain hope of a dream." He joked as he shrugged and dug his own shovel into the dirt next to mine.
I groaned heavily and handed him the rope. "Spoken like just about any guy I have met in a bar, come on just get over here."
The golden deer gave me a dimly lit smirk and approached. "I think you're better at climbing than me. I really do think you should go first."
"I'll worry about it if you can't get to the top of this hole." I retorted as I let Claude climb onto my shoulders.
His response was to ask if I could lift him any higher.
"Why did we dig such a deep hole?" I muttered as I planted my back up against the side of the hole as he stood up on my shoulders. My arms braced the golden deer's calves as he scrambled for purchase.
"For the cavalry units, remember?" Claude grunted as he dug his heels into my shoulder blades.
I closed my eyes and prayed he would find some kind of purchase and pull himself out of the hole. "It was rhetorical."
"I know. I'm just answering because I can't seem to get a hold on anything up here. The sides keep crumbling."
I shifted restlessly as a shower of dirt cascaded down on top of my head. "Ya, I figured. You're sending it all down here. Look, the idea was to dig holes, not fill them back in once we did all the hard work."
The golden deer hopped once and hung onto the side of the trap for a second before the whole side crumbled and he fell back down into the pit.
I had a split second to grab Claude to make sure he didn't fall down on top of me or the shovels. The golden deer grumbled as I pushed him back onto his feet. "If you think it's so easy, why don't you do it?"
"Fine, I'll give it a try." I huffed as he finished shaking the dirt out of his hair and knelt down.
"Alright I'm taller so I'm going to give you a boost up, you should be able to get it." He reassured me as he cupped his hands together and nodded to me.
.
"I regret my life decisions." I muttered darkly as I placed my boot experimentally in his hands.
"That's the spirit!" My house leader reassured me as he tensed and I jumped.
Claude hiked me up into the air a second later and I about popped to the top of the pitfall trap with ease. I hurried to throw my leg out to prevent myself from falling back in and then scrambled to pull the other leg over the ledge.
From below I heard the golden deer cheering. "See told you! You totally were able to make it without any problems!"
I did not bother to answer him as I located the rope Claude had left up here and proceeded to dust myself off.
The voice down in the pit hesitated a second and I sensed a moment's hesitation. "Uh, Petal? A little help here?"
"Ya, ya, hold your wyverns." I responded dismissively and proceeded to look down the hole at him. "How about you toss those shovels up here first?"
The golden deer's scowl was dim in the moonlight as he tossed one and then the other shovel up to me before I dropped the length of rope down to him.
I watched him grab it and then tie it in place. "Got it?"
"Yup!"
I groaned as I began to haul Claude's deadweight up the side of a soft dirt pit. Once on the edge he scrambled for purchase again, but eventually we both were laying with our backs in the grass. Covered in dirt, as the fireflies danced around the grassy clearing, we lay staring up at the moon.
Leonie arrived not long after our escape and was unimpressed that we had only managed to dig one hole. Raphael supplied her with sticks and leaves and we all worked to disguise our last trap before we headed back to camp to finally get some sleep before battle.
Author's Note:
Hello again! Long time no edit! (No, not really - I have been picking at this for the better part of two months but progress has been slow due to work and stress.) So I am sorry for the infrequent updates - but I have cleared a lot of my obligations again so I will be working to release chapters much more regularly now! Ok I hope so anyway - cause life happens sometimes - ok ok often - but for real I am not drowning under commissions right now and have time for more personal projects again! I am actually really excited to get back to Lillium and pick things back up - cause I still have a hell of a lot of content to cover and a lot of things I want to share!
I actually really missed writing and editing - so I am super excited to return to it. Personal pet projects are always fun - and mostly not planned out so things happen with as much surprise to me as they do for you! (I shouldn't admit that but that's why this is fanfiction and I don't write for profit.)
Anyway on to the chapter review! This chapter see's Lili paying for her little moonlit information exchange with Sylvain as Claude is on her tail about sneaking off with the enemy in the middle of the night - especially since there is work to be done. However - one way or the other (We really can't tell what Claude is thinking about what Lili was doing in the last chapter, but I think his actions might have some indication.) - The golden deer is teasing her and not letting her live it down - something Lili knew would happen but probably didn't expect to happen quite so soon. Thus she is irritated and snappy with the golden deer who seems to be pushing a little too far.
Actually it's about the first time we have seen Lili irritated with Claude, and she's irritated (and scared enough) to threaten him into deflecting to the Blue Lions. We see some of Lili's personality come through here with her not wanting to fight losing battles and that she has no problems fighting to win and from there Claude mostly calms down and starts assessing things from a different angle as he realizes that she doesn't make idle threats. He takes a different approach to the conversation and genuinely listens to her concerns, though he isn't offering anything to support or help with her fears, he simply agrees.
Which is enough for Lili, who more than anything is having a bit of a wild night. She passes along the information Sylvain exchanged with her, and the golden deer was all for information - only for them to realize they talk too much and forgot to plan for a way out of the pitfall trap. (How did you like that bit of creativity? Did you guess that is what Lili was scouting for and what the golden deer was scheming to try to level the playing field?)
A little bit of rough teamwork later - and some mischievous planning from Claude the night ends with three pitfall traps being dug and a well deserved rest. (I fully think Claude realized Lili forgot to tie the escape rope up and he was just going to roll with it and see what happens. Worse case scenario is Leonie would have to find them and help them out, Lili on the other hand has clearly been distracted by her house leader and a certain blue lion knight.)
So wait and see what happens next time during the actual battle of the Eagle and Lion! Make sure to follow if you don't want to miss the chapter release - and if you're enjoying my long head cannon it would mean a lot if you could drop a Kudo/Favorite! The support and knowing people are enjoying the content really helps me push to release more - and if you're currently doing those things - thank you so much for your ongoing support. It means a lot more than I can put into words.
On some tiny side note - this chapter was kind of heavily edited (well they all are) But this is one line I decided to bookmark and keep for some fun. This is back when Lili was drinking water by the tent and Claude first approached her after her little walk with Sylvain. This was one of Claude's lines - where he admits he and Hilda followed her.
*"Oh is that what you two were doing up on the hilltop? It was kind of hard to see when you stuck to the shadows so much."
