[color=f26522]"And so then, finally, I looked over at Serell, and he just looked up at me from the desk, and he said, 'Oh, you mean the blue cup? I had it the entire time!'[/color]

Awash the roaring laughter of the other men, Kal rocked back on the boulder he had been using as a stump, smiling.
They were camping out for the night by the side of the road. Kal had reasoned that a group of such well armed men would certainly draw the attention of any Turnip bandit who was in the same inn as they were. So instead, they were camping out on the road. 
In truth, this was a flimsy excuse for Kal, as he just enjoyed sleeping outdoors. None of the men minded it either, they were able to get rowdier around the cheerful campfire than they would in an inn.

Filled with good cheer, Reindolous began another story, one that Kal had heard before. As the old knight fell into his rhythms of the story, Kal thought about what had happened earlier in the day.

  After excusing himself from the women's company, Kal sent runners out to collect the soldiers that he would need on the raid.
Ultimately, the toss-up was between having enough men to handle any threat, and being small enough to avoid drawing attention. 
Kal tried to find a middle ground between the two needs. Taking 12 men, excluding himself and Reindolous, Kal sought to have a large enough force to be able to resist most bandit parties, yet small enough to travel somewhat incognito. 
Kal also knew that now would be the time to begin building rapport with this generation of soldiers, when they would both be serving side by side to get rid of an obvious threat. Of course, going in only with fresh recruits would be a bad idea, so he was taking four veterans with him. These grizzled men had seen countless battles go by, and would be able to provide the order and backbone he needed to keep the rookies in line.

After selecting the men he needed, Kal also called in Tamlyn, who was grateful to see such immediate action being taken about the threat to his community. Kal peppered Tamlyn for information about the region, learning on the map where the bandits would most likely be hiding. Kal then offered to escort Tamlyn back to his village, in exchange that he show Kal where the Turnips were camping out. The farmer agreed. 

A good portion of the day had been spent in preparations, having horses saddled for the trip, making sure enough blankets and coats and swords and money and the countless other things a raiding party needed when going on an expedition. Serell assisted Kal, and Kal was reminded why Serell held his position. The man was a genius when it came to logistics, solving problems before Kal could even think of them. Serell declined joining Kal on the expedition, saying that he never liked Turnip soup anyways.

When they did finally set out, it was already midday, and they had to stop far earlier than Reindolous would have liked. 
They were now a half days ride away from Helcomb.

Kal settled back against the boulder, smiling as one of the veterans pulled out a wine bladder.

Kal wasn't sure what would happen tomorrow. But he was happy with tonight.