The night passed without further incident. Apart from those on watch, Gallus gained the least sleep after butchering the prisoner for edible flesh and burying the remains in a shallow grave. He figured that even as the wretch that he was, the prisoner would not go to waste any further.

The first to awake with the dim blue light preceding dawn was Sabine. It was no wonder when she felt a sore jaw from clenched teeth and a certain tension in her shoulders. It wasn't nightmares that caused her the stress this time, but likely the emotional tumult of the previous day. She awoke with surprise to find a number of new faces, obviously the rescue was successful. She detected motion to one side and spotted Fendros on watch, they exchanged a wave. Due to the already building heat in the air, Sabine quietly found her breakfast and began eating it raw. In the wait for everyone to stir, she kept looking over the new faces, but she also found herself glancing at Peiter again.

The next to wake up was Rhazii. The small gasp that Sabine heard and the immediate motion to reach for Ahnasha and hold onto her suggested a nightmare.

Smelling food, Leaps eventually stirred and gave Sabine a good morning in his excitable croaking of an animal language and begged to be fed. Sabine giggled and gave him a scratch under the chin, before pointing to the still sleeping Janius. "Go wake Janius, go on," Sabine whispered. Leaps understood enough to start waking Janius up as he usually did, likely waking Kaleeth and Newt in the process.

Within the hour, just as the sky turned orange, just about everyone had risen. Once Gallus was awake, he retrieved the map leading to the fortress and gathered both Meesei and Ra'kalesh. "We need to plan our next move. Once we get orientated and packed, we ought to scout out this fortress, see what we're up against. Ra'kalesh, can you join us to fight, or do you and your pride need to recover further?"