It was nice not having to worry about lessons and practicing as we set a comfortable pace following the river. Not that we did not do anything of the sort. Korine and I were both doing our vocal exercises and singing, but we were taking turns so we would not strain our voices too much. Sometimes, Vesha would join us in a song, and we ended up teaching Kalara the basics of vocal training as well since there was not much else to do as we walked, and she seemed interested.

Still, the pace we set was relaxed and the singing was just to give us something to occupy our time as we walked. Vesha and I were both trying to stay alert for trouble as well, though I was not expecting us to run into anything dangerous. The river was very well-traveled after all, we could see the occasional barge or smaller vessels on the water, and we were following the bank. If there was anything more dangerous than the usual wild animals, it would have likely been spotted and investigated by now.

It was late morning when Vesha spotted a large grove of rushwillow trees atop a hill ahead of us. I had never seen one before, but both Vesha and Korine had and, as it turned out, they were very distinctive. They looked a lot like the weeping willow trees that I had occasionally seen where I grew up, but the leaves had a silvery color rather than green and they were adorned with violet hued flowers now that it was well into summer.

They were very pretty, I thought as Vesha pointed them out and explained, “Those are rushwillows. They only grow around large sources of freshwater. The sap is really sticky when it gets hot enough and gets mixed with ashes, and when it cools, the mixture is almost impossible to pry it off whatever it’s stuck to. A lot of instrument makers in the Bardic Guild use it as a glue, carpenters and woodworkers do too, when they can get it.”

“We’ll have to be careful not to get any on our skin,” Korine added. “The sap mixture is scalding when it’s hot enough to use and if you let it cool, trying to get it off will take skin with it.”

I winced at the thought as I held Kalara’s hand and followed my fellow apprentices toward the pretty trees. The bank was steep in this area, but that problem was solved easily enough when I scooped up Kalara in my arms and Vesha did the same with Korine. Then, we just needed to use our wings and fly to the grove. As we closed in, I was greeted with a wonderfully heady floral scent. It seemed that the trees smelled as pretty as they looked, at least when they were in full bloom.

As we landed in the grove, I set Kalara back down on the ground and took a moment to enjoy the scent of the flowers around us. Vesha, who had been speaking quietly with Korine while in flight, put her down as well and the pair began looking over the nearest trees for a good spot to gather some sap. It wasn’t long before Vesha was kneeling at the base of the tree, looking at something that caught her interest.

“Huh,” she said as she looked at whatever had caught her eye. “It looks like somebody has already tapped the trees in this grove, that should make things much easier.”

“Yeah, this one has been tapped too,” Korine agreed from where she was similarly crouched at the base of another tree close by. “It makes sense though. These would be visible from the river and the sap is useful to plenty of different types of craftsmen. Either one of them decided to come ashore and stock up or someone is harvesting it and selling it off to craftsmen down river in the capital.”

“Should we leave these trees alone and look for another then?” I asked the pair.

Vesha promptly shook her head in reply and said, “No. I’m not picking up any scents but ours, not even faint ones, just us and some small animals. Nobody has been here for a while, so whoever tapped the trees is probably only coming to harvest them infrequently, and there are no homes nearby to indicate that the land is claimed by anyone.”

With that, the Salamander placed one of the ceramic jars beneath the tap and gave part of the strange-looking device a twist. It took a moment, but soon the sap from the tree was drizzling slowly into the jar. We were still waiting for the jar to finish filling when a familiar shriek overhead caught my attention. I looked up to spot Zaiya circling above and smiled. “It looks like Zaiya found us some reeds.”

“This should be finished soon, beautiful,” Vesha said as she looked up from her task to smile over her shoulder at me. “Did you want to wait or fly ahead and grab the reeds yourself? All we’ll have left to gather after the reeds is some clay, and we can try digging in places along the riverbank on the way back to camp for that until we find some.”

“I can go gather them, if you two do not mind watching Kalara while I am gone,” I replied after considering it for a moment. “I can meet you back here and we can have an early lunch before heading back to camp.”

Korine grinned and agreed as she reached and fumbled under her long and colorful skirt for a moment to produce a sheathed dagger. “That sounds good, Kaelyn, but you might need this. We’ll keep an eye on the munchkin for you. Come on, Kalara, I know something fun we can do while we wait for your maera to get back.”

I was glad that Korine took charge and got Kalara curious with a distraction. I was not sure that I could carry my daughter for long a long time while flying and things would probably go faster if I went on my own. I also figured that since Vesha had not mentioned smelling anything dangerous, Kalara would be safer here with her and Korine.

“Thank you,” I said as I caught the sheathed weapon, noting the slender leather belt attached to the sheath. I gave Kalara a brief hug and a kiss and assured her that I would not be long. Thankfully, she did not complain and, while Korine led my daughter off to whatever activity she had planned, I lifted my skirt to secure the dagger to my outer thigh with the small leather belt. It felt a little strange there, but it was well concealed under my skirt, and I could see why the other Voyager women carried weapons in such a way.

With the dagger secured firmly in place, I quickly began to work my wings and took to the air, delighting in the freedom of being in the sky once again as I joined my familiar. As soon as I was close, Zaiya winged her way eastward, following the river below. I spotted a few sandy patches along the shoreline, but most of it was dominated by thick grasses and reeds of the more common sort. It all seemed to blur together beneath me though as I hurried to keep pace with Zaiya.

Soon, I was glad that I had left this task to the hawk-owl’s sharp eyes, because I never would have been able to spot the large clump of reeds from the air on my own, hidden as they were amongst the thick and tall grasses that grew along the riverbank. I followed her as she circled downward and did not actually spot the reeds until I was a few body lengths above them. Once I landed safely on the ground, I reached out my padded arm for Zaiya to alight upon.

“Good girl,” I told her as I gently stroked her feathers and showed her some affection. Only once I had her squirming happily upon her perch did I stop with the gentle stroking and scratching. “Go hunt yourself something to eat and warn me if you see anything dangerous.” Zaiya happily nuzzled me in confirmation and then took to the air once more with a shriek.

I had to carefully saw through the bright bluish-green kava reeds with the dagger that Korine loaned me, once I managed to clear some of the thick grass away so I could work. At least being hollow made the work easier, but they were very sturdy. There were not many of them either, only sixteen in all in this clump, but they were each almost as tall as I was so I believed that there would be plenty for our purpose.

Even with the four of us making pipes, and taking into account possible mistakes, this would probably be enough. Still, I tried to cut them as close to the damp ground as possible to save as much length as I could. Once I had all the reeds cut and laid out on drier ground, I began to weave some rough rope from the abundance of grass to lash the lengths of reeds together and make them easier to carry.

Thankfully, this was far from the first time that I had to weave rope from grass, and this grass was long and thick, so the task did not take as long as it could have otherwise. I was soon on my way back to the others with Zaiya trailing behind and keeping her sharp eyes on the ground below for anything dangerous. The grove of rushwillow trees was easy to spot from the air once I got close enough and when I landed, I quickly spotted the others sitting together near the tree that Vesha had been gathering sap from.

Kalara was wearing a crown of rushwillow flowers and was the first to notice me. “Maera!” she squealed happily before rushing over to hug my leg. I carefully set the bundle of reeds down and picked my daughter up to hug her properly.

“That is a very pretty crown, did Korine help you make it?” I asked as I held her close and kissed her on the cheek.

Her little head bobbed rapidly up and down as she replied, “Uh huh, an’ we made you one too, Maera.”

Resisting the urge to ruffle her hair since it might mess up her pretty crown, I smiled at her and put her back down on her feet. “That was sweet of you, Kalara. I am eager to see it.” Then I walked with her the short distance to join the others, where Vesha was reaching into the haversack and setting out food and drinks for lunch. It was almost midday now and my trip to get the reeds had taken a little longer than expected.

Soon we were all eating and I was wearing a crown similar to Kalara’s. It wasn’t quite as well-made as the one Kalara was wearing, but that was because she had done a lot of the work herself while Korine supervised and only assisted when necessary. My sweet little girl had insisted on doing as much of it as she could on her own since she wanted to make something nice for me by herself. I wore it proudly.

Our meal consisted of small loaves of bread that were left over from breakfast, cheese, dried meat, and some strawberry pastries that Selice started baking this morning. It seemed that a lot of baking had been going on this morning before breakfast while Shava and I were training, and Korine mentioned that some of the women of the troupe were going to take advantage of a day without traveling to do some more while they could. She said that baking while the wagons were on the road could be tricky and it was not something I intended to try any time soon, even if I did know how to bake.

I was more than happy to enjoy the fruits of their labors though, and the strawberry pastries were delicious. Mara and Hagen had discovered a plethora of ripe and nearly ripe strawberries while scouting ahead a couple of days ago and, while having fresh berries had been nice that day, the pastries were an unexpected treat. The chilled water in the enchanted bottles hit the spot as well as the temperature started to rise. As a result, we were all in a very cheerful mood as we enjoyed them while sitting in that grove overlooking the river.

This was such a nice way to spend a day. I was sitting close and snuggling Vesha as we enjoyed the sights, the smells, and the food, and Kalara was seated in my lap snuggling against me too. It was truly too bad that we still needed to gather some clay and return to camp. Master Nirlyn had not set any sort of deadline, but she would probably want to have time to show us how to make the pipes we were gathering the materials for today as well since we would be back on the road tomorrow.

While I did not want to ruin the moment, I decided that I should probably be the responsible one and soon we were walking westward back along the riverbank toward our camp. Occasionally, we would stop so Korine could dig a hole with the trowel we had borrowed and check for clay deposits. It took four tries before she found what we were looking for without having to dig too deeply though. The clay was damp and soft, and we hoped that it would be easy to work with.

Then, once Korine had enough clay to fill the other ceramic jar that we brought along, with some water to keep it damp, we were back on our way to the camp and our troupe. It was midafternoon, and getting very hot, by the time we saw the first signs that we were getting close to camp. We turned a bend to see the massive ancient bridge connecting the two opposite sides of the river ahead and there was a shallow pool of water fed by the river that we had to go around early that morning.

I wiped at the perspiration collecting on my brow as I looked past the pool and toward the bridge in the distance. I could make out the wagons of our camp off to the side and most of the men from the troupe seemed to be fishing along the riverbank, spread out to not get in one another’s way. From the look of it, they seemed to be enjoying themselves as they reclined on the shore, relaxed, occasionally cast their lines, and waited for something to bite.

Glancing again at the pool ahead of us and then up to the blazing sun above us, I felt conflicted. The water looked so cool and inviting. I was hot and sweating, and a nice cold swim would be a nice way to finish off this afternoon with my daughter and fellow apprentices before Master Nirlyn put us to work making our new instruments. Kalara was getting tired from all the walking as well.

-What troubles you, Kaelyn?- Sharai asked gently in my mind.

“I am thinking about how nice a cold swim would be right now, but I do not know if Master Nirlyn wanted us to come straight back to camp once we found these supplies,” I admitted.

To my surprise, my spirit guide laughed. -I would suggest that you reach out with your magic sense. Where is your master right now?-

The camp was barely within range of my magic sense, but the familiar, faint tingle of magic that I usually felt from her was not there. Wait, it was closer, just up the shoreline a bit. Had she truly been relaxing and fishing with the men this whole time that we had been out gathering supplies to make our new pipes? I stopped short and the others stopped to look at me, “What’s wrong, Honey?” Vesha asked, looking concerned.

I sighed, approached the shore of the pool, and put down the bundle of reeds I was carrying before turning toward the Salamander and leaning up to plant a kiss upon her lips as she caught up again. “Nothing, Vesha,” I replied. “I was just thinking, this is a wonderful afternoon for a swim.” I had barely started stripping off my clothes before my fellow apprentices grinned from ear to ear, placed their things down beside the bundle of reeds, and followed suit.