It's now the day of the mining trip, the 56th of Spring. Yesterday I went to Mr. Smith asking where I should meet him, and he responded that everyone would meet at the diner to get a good meal before heading out. He told me there were 12 people on this expedition, so I set aside a large table and chairs for everyone. He and his wife were the first to arrive, followed by the guard captain's son, Bravo, with two members of the guard, Conner and Liam, the butcher's daughter Madeline, the carpenter Jack and his wife Holly, the stonemason Diana with her apprentice Troy, and Jake.
Surprisingly, I'm not the youngest in the group. Due to the new calendar, we have accurate ages for everyone, so I'm 19, Mr. Smith is the eldest in the group at 44, and the two who are younger than me are Troy and Madeline at 17 and 16 respectively. I recognized almost everyone there, with the exception being Jake. He's the only person that I've never talked to, even though I don't think I've said more than passing greetings to Bravo and Madeline, but this group seems reliable from what I know about them.
Everyone took a seat, and I asked Kaleb to bring 12 Chicken Breakfast Platters for everyone before taking mine between Troy and Madeline. Mr. Smith then put a map on the table and began to address us: "Thank y'all for volunteering for this expedition. This trip won't be easy, but it will help improve the lives of everyone in this town." Jake looked like he wanted to say something, but never did. Mr. Smith continued, "While everyone will be helpin' in all aspects in this trip, some of you have more specific roles that ya will be asked to perform. Bravo, Conner, and Liam will be preforming guard duty for most of the trip."
The three of them nodded, Bravo with a smile, "We're heading into unknown territory, and this map ain't exactly accurate, so it may take longer than we think. Based on that note, we'll be relyin' on Madeline and Holly for food on the trip."
Holly smiled, and Madeline crossed her arms and cocked her head to the side with a slight nod, "Diana, Troy, and Jack will be helping construct shelters when we arrive, as I'd like to be able to go back to this place and set up a large encampment for future trips if we can." "You got it boss!" Diana said, "Anything you need from us, consider it done," she put her hand on Troy's shoulder, "Right Troy?"
Troy appeared embarrassed by this attention, but composed himself, sat up, and said, "Yes ma'am." before returning to his prior position. While Jack gave a salute with two fingers and a nod.
"And to make sure we get there in one piece, we have Prestin here," when he said my name and when everyone's eyes turned on me, I knew how Troy must've felt, "who has years of experience in finding his bearings in the deep woods, as well as a bit knowledge of cooking techniques and medicinal herbs." I felt a specific glare from Madeline but decided to ignore it. It was about this time when Kaleb started bringing out the Breakfast Platters, two at a time.
"Then here we have my wife Jane, who's good at keeping things on track." She smiled with a wave. "And lastly we have Jack." There was a short pause, everyone expected some sort of introduction, but Mr. Smith moved on to the map and the journey itself.
By now everyone had their Breakfast Platters, so I gave Kaleb a 5000 Sil tip and told everyone the meal was on the house. It ate into my savings a little bit, but it wasn't too much for me to part with. While everyone was eating, Mr. Smith asked me to see to the map, so I headed over to the head of the table. The map only had approximate distances for everything more than a few dozen yards from the town, but had accurate topography and distance for everything south of the town until Arkun lake, and barely had anything for areas west of Holden River.
"So, Prestin, how long to ya think the journey will take?" When Mr. Smith said this everyone stopped and looked over, anticipating my response. Using the distance to Arkun lake as a reference, I approximated I could get to the potential spot near the south end of the eastern mountains in 7 days non-stop. However, we'll need to sleep, so that doubles to time assuming we spend half of each day walking and the other half sleeping, gathering food, or other preparations. Then I added a few days because I don't know how fast everyone else could move, and we won't be taking the most optimal path like I do to Arkun lake. So I after this thought process I said, "It's gonna take a while. Since I've never been there before, we're liable to get turned around. We also don't know what the terrain is like, so it could be difficult to get through. Definitely 15 days at a minimum and probably no more than 20 at a maximum."
Everyone's looks varied, Madeline and Jake looked annoyed, Jack, Holly, Mr. and Mrs. Smith were all impressed, and the rest were concerned. I wasn't sure how to deal with all their stares, so I went back to my seat and finished eating. It was a little cold, but I was never one to complain. Luckily Mr. Smith got everyone's attention off me by saying, "Well, I guess we're gonna need to expect a longer journey than we thought. Is everyone still good with that?" while looking around the table.
"Of course." replied Diana, "When we agreed to do this, we expected that there would be complications."
"Yeah, this needs to be done." Jack chimed in.
Everyone else either nodded in agreement, or sighed, but no one voiced any complaints or objections, so it was decided that we would head out in 30 minutes. I gathered up all the plates for Kaleb to get practice cleaning, thanked my grandpa for the meal, and ran upstairs to grab my things. I have a backpack I used for hikes through the forest before, so I brought that, my fishing pole, and my walking stick. I also grabbed a flint rock I found and tucked it in my bag, just in case. It was pretty large and pointy, so it could be used as a knife and as a fire starter if needed. I said goodbye to mother and grandpa on my way out the door, told Kaleb to look after the place for me, and met up with the rest of the crew with a proud smile.
We had two carts for the 12 of us, one of which was full of dried fruits, vegetables, and preserved meat alongside rope, quilts, and charcoal, while the other cart had more rope, 16 stone pickaxes, 4 stone axes, 1 metal axe and pickaxe and had some space for 4 people to sit and sleep in. You could probably fit two people in the other cart, but since they were hand-pulled, we were told that we're only allowed to sleep in the carts at night, to lessen the burden of the pullers.
With everything squared away, we set off east. The first two cart pullers were Liam and Jack, but it switched to Conner and Bravo later on in the day. Everything went smoothly for the first day of travel. The ground was relatively flat and there were only a few large roots and rocks, so the cart only got stuck once, but with half of us lifting and pushing on it, it came out no problem. Along the way I grabbed berries and mushrooms that I knew were edible to add to the food cart, and any medicinal herbs, which I put in my backpack.
As the sun neared the horizon, I found a flat patch between the trees and suggested we stop here for the day. With that Conner and Bravo set down the carts, and everyone started preparing dinner. We didn't need to go hunting just yet, but we only had enough food for 3 days, so it'll be necessary soon. We agreed to let the older members sleep in the carts, so Mr. and Mrs. Smith went in one cart, and Jack, Holly, Diana, went in the other cart. We offered the other spot to Liam and Conner, but they refused, so Jake snuck in and slept there when he thought no one was looking. Everyone else rolled themselves up in the quilts we packed, but I scaled a tree to get a look at our surroundings.
The view of the tops of trees with a pure starlit sky above it gave me a rush when it caught my eye. I must've stood there for an hour, just staring at the night sky, smiling. "My journey starts here." I remember thinking. I eventually shook myself back to the present and laid down on a lower branch on a tree on the edge of our temporary campsite, and drifted off to sleep.