Fit for One

Simon chuckled at Katya's joking praise, his eyes looking around the woods around them as they moved towards the clearing. He had been slightly bluffing with his confidence of their safety in the woods, but he knew for a fact the dangers that would come if they went on their way in their current state of drowsiness. He felt a yawn building up in his chest as they reached the edge of the clearing, but he stifles it by breathing in continuously and then letting his breath out slowly. Of course, it had causes his eyes to water, but he quickly wiped them off along with the sweat on his brow before responding, "I'm not sure how much further into the stupid category she could travel, stealing from the royal library and then running off to Dalen. She'll be lucky if she gets to keep her head when we get back home. But, I guess that's all the more reason to find hwr and fix anything she may have broken."

Chuckling softly as he stopped Maddox on the far side of the fire, he knelt down beside the warhorse and hobbled his front and back left leg. Tying a leather strap around the ankles allowed him to stay standing and moderately mobile, but would not let him run off and abandon them if he got spooked. Offering an identical strap to Katya, he answered her question, "I brought a small tent for one person as well as a sleeping mat for one. I'll get them set up while you hobble Striker."

Taking his axe, he strode off into the woods in search of a thin sapling. He needed something to form the backbone and two arms of the tent so that one end was open for either of them to crawl into. Seeing one not too far, he cut it in half carefully, making sure to leave branches with leaves under the cut so that the tree would continue to grow. Coming back, he immediately began delimbing the trunk, intending to use it as the spine. Taking two of the bigger branches, he cut them so that there were two identically long legs that were about two and a half feet in length. Tossing the rest of the tree over towards the horses, he got the canvas sheet from Srikers saddlebags that would be used as the tent wall. Spreading it out on the ground, he situated in such a way that one end was open with drapes and the other laid flat on the ground. Smiling at his handiwork, he pushed up from his knees in order to walk over to Maddox and pull a rolled bundle from his saddle. Pulling the cord that tied it closes, he left the bedroom come open before offering it to Katya and speaking, "I get the first watch."