Bathala's Forsaken Daughter
The Red Jaw Company's camp was exactly what a mid-tier Blood Clan looked like when it felt secure enough to stop being careful.
Seven fighters in two sleeping shifts. Three tents arranged around a central fire pit. A supply cache under a tarp on the eastern edge — food, mostly, taken from surrounding settlements. Two cultivation beasts on short leads tied to a tree at the north end, low-rank predator types, more for camp security than actual combat. A cook fire that burned through the night shift because the man tending it was cold and did not care that the light made him visible from fifty meters.
Sloppy, I thought, watching the firelight through the trees on the second night. They've been