The further actions of each side were to tip the scales to one side or the other, and everything depended on a rather large group of people who had not yet indicated their opinion in any way. Everyone went away excited.
But most importantly, one important decision was not made that evening. Alexey Gennadyevich was not officially appointed the head. He still remained in charge because of self-appointment and traditions of the old life.
The vampires, who had returned to their habitats, first of all began to try out their new abilities. There were traces of magic here and there. The most surprising was Maria, who had made a tight-fitting suit out of fallen leaves. As it turned out, it was possible to transform matter, and she had transformed the leaves into a rather dense but soft material, from which she had made a tight-fitting jumpsuit with a spacious hood.
The whole thing was completed with elegant gloves and moccasins. When Olga saw this miracle, she was delighted and demanded the same. Her enthusiasm was cooled down by the message that the costume fulfillment was connected with energy expenditure and making up for the losses was covered with a whole mother wolf, drunk to the last drop. Now that the meal was over, Maria didn't mind having another snack.
The feeling of malnutrition, however, was almost universal. Having had their fill of the miracle that was magic in their eyes, people hadn't really heeded the warnings, and by the time night fell most of the camp was hungry. Another hunt was needed.
Looking up at the first stars and seeing completely unfamiliar patterns, the men went off in different directions through the forest. For now, their existence was subordinated to only one thing: the desire to survive. They were either building shelters for themselves or getting blood.
A short stretch of the day, when they were all forced to loiter and hide from the sunlight, forced the minds of many of them to start working and looking for a way out of the vicious cycle of the last few days: hard work-food. Accustomed to a different way of life, people were recovering from the shock.
There was a moment of some final epiphany and understanding of the situation. They were in another world, no one was coming for them, it was pointless to wait for help and it was not a hallucination. People began to look for their own ways out of the situation - living in the ground and living a miserable existence did not suit anyone. Looking at the strange stars, everyone could only see their own so far.
The night also brought its own surprises. It turned out that the local moon - Mur, naturally shining with the reflected light of its older brother Demur, was not so harmless. Even the reflected light of the star was unpleasant. It didn't burn, it didn't maim, but it warmed. The planet's satellite hanging in the sky was as warm as a good southern sun at noon.
Looking at it with your eyes wasn't worth it either - dark spots followed, like looking at the sun. But it was all perfectly tolerable, and only caused a minor disturbance. The vaults of trees protected the camp reliably from being constantly under the reflected light of the Mur. The surprises did not end there. One of the squad of hunters had discovered a large camp of humans.
Questioned by Oleg, they gave enough clues, but just in case, he drank a drop of blood from one of them. There was no doubt left. The vanguard of the Orod army had finally reached. The blood of the vigilantes, drunk on the first day, gave enough data about the forces of the detachment. Four hundred warriors, three knights with their spears and five mages, plus supply workers and servants. Just over half a thousand men in all.
Alexander was not in camp when the hunters brought the news. He'd run off to hunt what he called "the far cordon" - beyond the track. The forest was thicker there than on their side, and there were more animals of all kinds. He had already drained a bear and a wild boar, and was now busy skinning them.
There was more than enough dried meat in the camp, and its quantity was growing, but the skins were obviously not superfluous. Why had he run so far to hunt and drink so much? The answer was simple. Having seen the costume that Masha (Maria) had made for herself, he decided to repeat the experience, only, of course, to make himself not clothes, but weapons.
The weapons he had gotten as trophies were of rather low quality. Even ordinary household chores had damaged them. The sticks he liked, which he was used to working with when hunting, had wooden handles, as did the axes, which lowered their value drastically.
The wood could easily break under hard blows. He wanted something like a pole-axe with a needle-pin at the top, or, at the very least, a mace. But a poleaxe was preferable. He also really wanted a claw axe.
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