328 North and South

They split up. Alani, Gary, Jamie and Juni would go to Dragon Lake to scavenge parts, while Isabella and Siti went north to Kara-Goth to procure supplies and find suitable convoys.

"Ask Mindy if we could borrow her Kara-Goth workshop and tools. We'll meet up there." Alani suggested. "See if you can move the Lockjaw from the docks to the workshop while you're at it."

The north team didn't have much trouble. Most of it was math and arguments over spending. Isabella, in charge of logistics, wanted to save as much of the budget as she could.

Siti wouldn't hear of it. "A balanced diet is a must! That's a basic for health!"

"It's just a weekend…"

"It's a big weekend! The bigger the weekend, the more important it is to keep everyone in good health!"

So despite Isabella's complaints, Siti made sure everyone had more to eat than just biscuit rations. Meat, vegetables, fruit… she bought them all in precise proportions, according to everyone's height and weight. "I may not have learned much about medicine, but at least I know something about keeping everyone in good health!"

By that time, Isabella had given up trying to interfere with Siti's shopping and went to see about a convoy heading to Ashdale.

There wasn't one. The best Isabella could manage given the demanding timeframe was a convoy to La Vive. They would either have to find another convoy heading to Ashdale from there, or cross the Wild-infested neutral zone on their own.

Isabella seriously considered going it alone. After all, they were sort of friendly with the Wilds. They only worried about pirates.

"What do you think?" Isabella asked Vigil, who had been following her around all day.

"Yip." Vigil said, seriously.

"Mmhmm." Isabella nodded. "I thought so."

***

Meanwhile, the south group got beaten up.

The reason for it was for quality parts. They were lucky enough to find an intact, quality cabin that they could pretty much just stick on deck and bolt down. They were also 'lucky' enough to run right into a group of Song Clan scavengers.

"Hand over all your valuables, and we'll let you go." They 'generously' offered.

"No way!" Juni roared.

There were six Song Clan scavengers, and they were all trained in martial arts since young. In the ensuing struggle (which could not honestly be called a 'fight') Juni and Jamie were pummeled while Alani and Gary were pinned down (that is, shoved into the ground with an arm twisted behind their backs). All told, the struggle lasted roughly five seconds.

"This girl's not bad…" the guy holding Alani down said in a creepy voice.

It was at that point that the wolfcats howled. Ember, Scarlet, Moonlight and Flare raised their muzzles and let out a din that Remian could probably hear all the way over at Fal'Herim.

In moments, there was a flurry of barks and snarls and twenty wolfcats charged in. In the ensuing struggle (which also could not honestly be called a 'fight'), six Song Clan scavengers were routed and pinned down all together (that is, shoved into the ground with paws on their backs and bite marks on their butts). All told, the struggle lasted roughly four seconds.

Anyway, the south team left the wolfcats and the scavengers as they were and made off with their haul all the while bemoaning their lack of combat strength. That, and promising lavish treats to the wolfcats accompanying them.

All this was clearly and succintly reported to Remian who was monitoring them from Fal'Herim.

[Twenty beef thigh bones?!] Remian gasped. [She really promised that?]

[That's what Flare said.] Carrie whuffed a laugh. ['No wolfcat goes unrewarded!' Alani said.]

[Well, she's learning something of personnel management, at least.] Remian mused. [Though I don't remember teaching her that.]

[The young ones learn by watching their elders. All cubs are like that.]

[Not all. Not on this issue. How many would even pay attention to their elders? I think it's result of expectation.] Remian mused. [Alani knows I expect her to become a personnel manager in the future. Knowing my expectations, she has already begun to prime herself for it. It has to do with the way she envisions herself.]

***

Anyhow, the south team loaded up the Lockjaw and returned with their salvage. They found Phoebe waiting for them as they returned to Craggy Falls and she patched them up carefully. Then, they headed north, for Fal'Herim.

There, they met up with Isabella and Siti and plied Remian with half an hour of complaints, mainly about their treatment by the Song Clan.

"The world is like that." Remian didn't try very hard to console them. "There's bad guys everywhere, even under the noses of good people. Just keep the wolfcats close."

That offered little comfort, of course. Every guy and Jamie wanted to be strong enough to fight off their dangers and enemies on their own. Even Alani looked disgruntled.

"Let's add in some martial arts training to your classes." Remian 'suggested'.

They all leapt for it. Even Siti, who feared having to patch them up more and more in the future.

"Can we really afford it?" Isabella was the only one who hesitated. "Even if we had the time in between all the other stuff we're learning, how much would it cost to hire a teacher?"

"I'll ask my brother." Remian assured her.

At that, even Isabella lit up. "Your brother…? You're asking Darian?!"

When it came to martial prowess, Darian was a legend to their generation.

Of course, he didn't tell them that this was the plan all along. Nobody thought to ask why the wolfcats only howled after they were all pinned down and not before. Or at least, they didn't ask it of Remian.

After that, Mindy had them bring the Lockjaw to her shipyards and left them to fix it up.

Half an hour later, she couldn't take it any more and had a team of her workers direct them in patching up their airship. Another hour later, they'd given up trying to guide them on the job and ended up doing it themselves.

"Is that okay?" Mindy asked Remian.

"It's fine." Remian assured her. "They don't need to learn everything right away. The important thing is that they now want to learn."

"Do they, though? Alani seemed awfully happy to be able to hand it all over to my team."

"That's…" Remian paused and scanned Alani's thoughts, then nodded. "That's also fine. She's learning something different, but more important to her specialty."

"What's that?"

"Delegation." Remian nodded to himself. "And the value of different skillsets in community."

Alani's thoughts weren't so much 'I need to learn how to do this myself' as it was 'I don't have to be able to do everything. I just need people who can do what I can't.'

But then, she grew up in a refugee community which migrated together from the islands to the Wildlands. She understood how people needed each other. The others had grown up differently. They had grown up as orphans, having nobody to depend on, often needing to do as much as they could themselves or suffering for it, and at times their capabilities determined their value and how badly or how well others might treat them was dependent on what they could do.

Neither was particular wrong or right. After all… wasn't that why he picked them in the first place? Alani aside, in terms of desire for self-improvement and the drive to learn on their own, almost nobody of their generation could match this bunch. Mindy had thought to do them a solid by getting them into the magic academy, but magic itself was drying out in this world. Even they understood that. None of them protested when he called them to shift their subjects of learning.

There were three more members of their group who weren't part of this class. Two of them were members of Club Fairy Wing and had actually returned to the Academy at the very first opportunity. As for the last one… Loh was still in the Dragon Empire buying stuff for Mindy, at least on the surface. Remian had his private suspicions on what he was really doing there, but he didn't say anything. He saw no reason to interfere in Tim's business.

As the time neared for the convoy to leave, Mindy called in two other teams to help rush the modifications. They scrambled to have everyone and everything they brought loaded and then hurriedly joined the convoy three minutes before departure.

With that, Group-2 was off on their first exam international field trip!