Kace Immediately ordered for us to gather all additional supplies and a few more carts full of support personnel that were assigned to us for the time being. We left the Outpost the next morning, little sleep was to be had that night as we made our way towards our new post.
It took us 4 days to get to Kuda Valley, we finally crested the last hill and were treated with the site of the outpost we would be taking over and building up, it was halfway down the to the valley a few hundred meters under the snowline in the cover of the woods, a squat 500 x 500 square foot compound was surrounded with a wooden palisade, it was on a small rise between two tall edges of the mountain, it effectively held the gap between the mountains like a gate, if anyone wanted to just go around then they would have to pay a very heavy price in blood.
Tall wooden towers that could hold up to 5 men easily were spaced every 100 ft on each side of the compound, all the brush within the gap had been cut and stacked closer to the wall as building materials and to clear the line of sight for all the archers posted in the towers and walkways on the wall.
This small compound had been well thought out and had a well and a few small dwellings along with the typical camp semi buildings like the quartermaster's shop and the barracks, even a portable smithy was set up on the edge of the camp near where the horses were picketed.
Volk had us all report to the barracks for bunk assignment by gender so as to not add temptation to the men and women under his command any more than they already were. Numerous "walks in the woods" happened after hours I found out later.
I walked to the open bed in the corner of the building after we were shown where too bunk, 20 beds were spaced out in each sleeping section, they all had a chest at the end of the bed, the washrooms were off to the side, and the latrines were outside and to the south, they were just far enough away that it wasn't terrible to walk but the smell was kept to a minimum with new latrines being opened up twice a week.
Our quarters were slightly better than the common soldiers, this section was for mages, we each had privacy curtains between beds for one thing to give us the illusion of semi-privacy, I didn't care for it much and so just sat on my bed in the corner while the rest of the male mages that arrived with us spread out, a few beds were left up empty but with Richard and the twins nearby, we claimed that quarter of our building as our personal area.
After we got accustomed to the building we went to chow time that was happening in numerous sections of the camp, a few large cooking pots that supplied the vast majority of the military personal were set up with beans, cheese, and travel bread, the group of camp cooks we had brought with us hadn't had enough time to make fresh bread but they did manage to finish off the last of the hard travel bread, it was almost inedible without the watery beans to soften it up by repeated dipping in the sauce.
we were all exhausted, we finally had a moment to rest, the journey was over finally now the real work could be done. We had a few short months to shore up defenses in the area before the raiding party came in full force after which the real army would arrive.
Volk gathered us all up for a cross-group orientation, meaning we all had to chat with the other mages that had come and established this outpost with the advanced elements of the military. I was mostly left alone during the meeting, Volk mostly talked with the other squad's Sergeant so we were all left to listen and ask a few questions from time to time for clarification.
The mages were mostly helping with the construction, Terramages, and Firemages with enhancement magic did most of the grunt work while the air mages were in charge of communication, they made the best couriers due to the Haste spell if the distance wasn't too far to be using the Air telepathy method of communication that we had seen Sergeant Volk use before.
Water mages were in charge of the central well situation, they had to set up a distribution centre as well as a purification area where they purified the water from the well and made sure to fill up all water barrels next to the buildings in case of fires as well.
After the grub, we went back to the barracks and passed out as we started our morning off with assignments, I was put with a Terramage to start clearing the forest back more, I couldn't be happier to burn down a forest, I rejoiced at the sound of the trees cracking when they went up in magical conflagrations as I summoned my Burning rain spell.
The Terramage was terrified with my powers within seconds of us arriving at the first area of wood clearing. I told him to wait back near the edge of the forest as I started to walk in further, he had heard stories of my deadly exploiters and power but now the poor Terramage was actually getting a taste of it.
Fire started to gather in the sky some 20 feet above the tallest tree, it spread in a circle floating far above my head. Drips of what looked like the liquid fire started to fall from the sky as I walked further into the area we were in charge of. When it landed it immediately ignited what it came into contact with, none of the destructive rain made it within a few feet of me, I used my mana control to form a barrier to keep the heat at bay as I walked and started a small forest fire. I walked out after a while back to the other mage.
He first caught a glimpse of me as I walked back to the edge of the now burning forest, the mana kept all heat and damaging flames away from me in a halo of swirling destruction. "He is a walking calamity, thank the gods he is on our side," he muttered to himself as he noticed the glow from my eyes finally started to dim a little the further from the burning forest I got.