Chapter 102 - Diana And The Camp

I was sure that my legs would fall off from my body by the time Alexandra told that we were almost there. Only my pride was saving me from asking "How much longer yet?" every five minutes or complaining about everything wrong with this hike.

And then the forest thinned into a wide clearing with an occasional tree there and there I saw it, the camp. It was huge. I couldn't see the other end of it, only endless tents and people strolling around. Colourful flags and flower chains were hung everywhere, and I would've been amazed to see it all if I wasn't so damn tired.

Alexandra was winded too, by now, but that didn't change her general attitude.

"Now we just have to enter our names at the registry and we will rest and make our lunch," she said, pointing at a wooden booth next to a line of rope that walled off the camp. With nothing better to do, we all trudged after her.

"Orion Coven, nine people," Alexandra said to the two women at the registry. They looked about as old as her, and both were dressed in long white robes with traditional red ornaments embroidered at the hems. I spared them a glance before my eyes turned to a strange detail about the booth.

I couldn't spot a single nail or a gap in it. It was made from unpolished wood, but looked like it was carved from a single piece of it, except I still could see the edges between one board and another in the breaks of the age rings. It was clear that magic was used to merge the boards together.

"Orion Coven… you can come in," a woman from the boot waved us in after her colleague wrote our names down. I guessed there wasn't much need for more security measures. You either were a witch, or you weren't, and I was sure they just checked out auras.

After this, Alexandra led us to what she referred to as "our spot". As we walked, I noticed a clear distinction between some part of the camp and another. Some tents were just bigger than others, and some… some weren't tents at all. They were houses.

The sight of one of these made me stop in my tracks.

"These were built with magic," a witcher, Maxim was his name, told me as he stopped next to me. "You will see a lot of stuff like this around here. We don't have to hide in this place, so many people go wild. Those with houses came here at least a day earlier, though."

"Going wild… I wonder if there's some spell against mosquitoes," I said, fighting an urge to scratch my arm.

Maxim sighed wistfully. "If there is, I wish I knew it."

The place Alexandra brought us to was on the edge of the camp, in the area with smaller tents and many individual campfires and many small covens. Thankfully, the tasks of establishing everything necessary for living in the wild were split between people that weren't me.

Instead, I sat together with a couple more of the physically weakest members of the coven and ate baked under the sun sandwiches that we brought with each other. It wasn't long before others joined us around a campfire where a pot of water slowly boiled. For tea, they said.

"I can't imagine how you will drink anything hot in this weather," I said. My clothes were drenched in sweat and the disgustingly warm water from my bottle helped against that not one bit.

"It will get cooler later, in the evening. Hey, does anyone want to take a swim with me?"

The offer was met with enthusiasm. Even I joined in, grateful that Alexandra told me to pack a swimsuit. I didn't even own one before my last shopping trip. When he saw it, JJ said that one day he would have to bring me to a beach at night to see me in it. It was a memory that made me wish he was there to see me in it now.

Too bad witches and vampires didn't mix well.

The water was a cool blessing on all my aches and itches and swellings. I just let myself soak in it, while others swam with energy I didn't know where they got from after all that walking. Tons of people were swimming right now, some right in their clothes. The river was bustling with people.

It wasn't just the heat. Alexandra explained to me that swimming on the day before Ivana-Kupala was especially cleansing. I could feel it, too, if I looked through my well. The water in the river shone with the cleansing aspect—not physically cleansing, but metaphysically. It washed away emotional traces as well as dust and sweat I accumulated from all the walking.

Soon enough, though, my own heat became not enough to warm me and I left the water to redress, much more rested than before. I had come to this place with a mission and I was intent on fulfilling it. It was time to explore the camp and find out how much people knew.

I started with the campfires closest to my coven's, looking for familiar faces. It didn't take me long to find stops of the Goliath, Twilight and Dragonfly covens—the ones Alexandra introduced me to earlier. They camped in the same general area as Orion Coven. I've met familiar people from them, too.

I didn't stay to chat for long, though. I had an impression that they knew as much as Alexandra did, and if they didn't, at least I had some contact with them already. No, I had to establish new acquaintances, and with someone who was better in magic than I was. There was only one place where such people were for sure—the houses. Building a house out here, in my opinion, was a great show of magical proficiency.

This is exactly where I walked towards, and I hoped I would be welcome.