[over the palisade]

chapter sixteen

tw// blood, death, mass death, arguing

The light of day flooded over the steppe that had set up their camp early in the morning. Tommy had been woken up by Wilbur tuning his lute in the crisp morning. Dew made everything that was left out in the open a little damp and chilly. Tommy was the one to figure this out between him, Jack, and Tubbo as he stood up and bonked his head against a pole that held their tent up and proceeded to get soaked by the water that rolled off the water-resilient linen.

Wilbur must have seen it happen because he chuckled, but when Tommy looked up to glare at him, he was looking back down at his lute with a hidden smile. Across from him, Phil and Techno were sitting around the long burnt-out logs on the fire they gathered around the previous night. They were laughing about something or other.

"Hello, Boys," Tommy greeted, yawning and stretching his back out then walked over beside Wilbur and sat down.

The three all muttered something about good morning to the boy. "What's the plan for today, Phil?"

"Ah, we're headed towards another city but we're a good day's travel away so we'll have to get a move on soon. Though if we get to the town today, we'll make it to the capital tomorrow," Phil said merrily.

"Oh wow," Tommy said, he hadn't realized they were so close to the capital. "And then? What will we do when we get to the capital?"

"I figure we'll stay a night or so and see what has been happening. I sent a letter by bird way back before we left so I assume the Good Captain will be aware of our arrival and our mission and will be prepared for us," Phil told him, "Once we get to planning with the Captain, we'll plan our strike."

"So we're going to be greeted by a feast?" Wilbur said with an almost excited smile, "Oh, how I miss well-prepared food."

Techno deadpanned stared at him, being the main preparer of foods, "What's that supposed to mean?"

Wilbur rolled his eyes and turned his attention back to Phil, who nodded, "Probably. I'm a minor god visiting their city, I wouldn't expect much less from them," He said casually.

"God, that's weird," Tommy muttered.

Phil wheezed, "I forget about it too until we walk into a city and people act like I'm the best thing since sliced bread."

Techno patted him on the back, "Ahh that's because you are." Phil smiled at him.

"Geeze, how long have we been on the road?" Wilbur asked.

Phil did some math on his fingers, "Ehh- two weeks from the palace to the coast, five days on the sea, and it's been what, three days since we landed? And we've got two ways left. Today and tomorrow." Phil rambled on, "We've been traveling for three weeks."

"God, that means it's three weeks back," Tommy said, already dreading it. "Yeah, I'm definitely going to enjoy that feast."

"It's probably going to be a whole gala type thing," Wilbur added.

"We can only hope," Tommy grunted.

Within the next half hour, everyone else had emerged from their tents and the family around the dampened-out fire had gone back to start helping to collapse the tent. After three weeks, you get pretty good and collect all your tents and materials in a timely manner. Tommy laughed when he looked back at him all those weeks, it took them well over an hour to get it all together, and not to mention getting it all onto their horses.

By the end of the hour, they were saddled up and Phil was telling the group about their pace and the city they were set to meet by the end of the day. They all seemed to be buzzing with the news, they were really almost done? They really hadn't run into any problems except for in the very beginning, they were all impressed with themselves.