It was cold here, way too cold. There, ten feet or a thousand, it was too hard to tell which without a frame of reference, the dying remains of what must have been a wonderfully raging fire, cast out from its few remaining embers a feeble orange light, barely illuminating some sort of butternut canvas. As eyes adjusted to this feeble source, Akana began to make out the state of affairs of the current situation. A headache was tearing at her skull, she was shivering, her blanket and outer clothing had been cast around the tent, and she desired a deluge worth of water. The last memory her mind possessed was of her exhaust filled body collapsing onto her cot, immediately giving in to the sweet temptation of refreshing sleep. She was still fully clothed then, head scarf and all. But in the interim between then and now, she, or someone else (a much more worrisome possibility) had reduced her coverings to nothing more than a pair of spats and a pair of green wool stockings. As her mind cleared away the remaining sleepiness, the probable idea made its debut; in a fit of sleepy irritation at the cold, Akana had cast away the garments that were preventing the even distribution of body heat beneath the blanket. Some time later, in response to some nightmare now fortunately forgotten, Akana's thrashings had cast the protective covering aside, allowing her body's heat to escape into the surrounding. Not nearly enough to keep the tent warm, but it did produce the effect of eventually waking her up before she began suffering from hypothermia. Quickly gathering up the woolen square, Akana fashioned the blanket into a makeshift robe, and such her head outside the tent flap, now visible in the darkness. A campfire was merrily crackling, a kettle of some sort of sweet smelling liquid bubbling inside. Daniel was sitting on a tree stump facing towards the forest and away from the campfire and Akana's tent. It was unclear whether he was asleep or intently monitoring the border to the outside world. Akana didn't want to risk Daniel seeing her, not like this, so she retreated back into her tent. There was enough firewood to get the embers ignited again, and shortly Akana had the fire crackling and warm. There was enough light to do a quick search of the tent that revealed that any water that might once have been in any skins was now frozen solid. The only immediate cure for her thirst lay in that bubbling kettle on the fire. Another peek out reveald that Daniel had gotten up and gone somewhere. It was definitely not safe to assume that he had roved into the forest. But, there wasn't any sound around the camp. Nobody walking around. A quick dash there and back again, and the kettle was Akana's. The liquid was some sort of tea and not only did it clear the thirst, but it also cured the headache that had been plaguing Akana since she woke.
The next couple days had been fairly routine. Paperwork, training, paperwork, teaching Loolayannie, paperwork, and sleep. Daniel had been complaining about the damned thief who had pilfered his kettle and what he'd do to the man that had taken it. Red felt bad about it, and intened to return it once he was on the mid watch again. But that would be tomorrow night. Right now, Loolayannie was standing across from Red, trying to hold a proper stance. "Worry not. I laugh not. I had skill not when I the sword have began to learn. Place your hand here. Good. You will a good swordsman one day to be. We will a set now to perform. Wehrhaft!" Red attacked Loolayannie, demonstrating basic movements of the Balone movement, giving Loolayannie a chance to use basic parrying and blocking. Contrary to a real battle, Red allowed the magician in training to get in attacks of her own, giving her a chance to put that theory into practice as well. After a few rounds of this back and forth, Red stepped up the attacks a bit, and promptly broke through Loolayannie's defences. "Alright. You gain improvement. We will a break to have. Sit by the fire. We will science to learn." Red sat down by the fire and began drawing figures on a tablet preplaced there. When Loolayannie joined Red by the campfire, she was shown the figures, depicting various principles of hydrostatics. "Observe the cup. The pipe travels to the top. It loops and near the bottom it extends. The water will in the cup until the level of the loop to remain to reach. The liquid will until empty to flow. It is a siphon. It demonstrates gravity and pressure of air. Observe this container." Red pointed to a container that consisted of a tube at the bottom connected to several vessels of various shapes. They were all connected to the pipe at the bottom and depicted an equal water level in each attached vessel. "This shows communicating vessels. You increase the level in one vessel and the level in every vessel will increase. This has importance for systems of fluid. We will tomorrow discuss hydrodynamikk. Have you questions?" Daniel at this point spoke up. "Yeah, I've got one. Why's teaching the enemy Khitain science and fighting, may I add, so important? We should keep her locked up." Red stared at Daniel, eyes turning a darker shade of gray at every syllable. "Some Khitai desire not to fight. They desire to learn. I will every person with desire to teach. End of." With that, Daniel left to take a walk into the forest, leaving the rest of the strike team to carry on with their own devices. "I will this situation with him later to discuss," Red assured the group. "He has frustration. Loolayannie, have you questions of hydrostatikk?"
