Forging Day (Crucible of Change Book 1) Read Online Free PDF Page A

thin lines that would set off the cowbells that were carefully concealed up in the trees. Leo was a good teacher and wrote excellent directions.
    Kat sighed when I got back. “I can guess where you went. Whatever you did this time, I hope it doesn’t come back to bite you. That guy is a jerk and a bully, and one of these days you’re going to push the wrong button with him.”
    “Relax. I’m just teasing. It’s not like anyone is going to get hurt.” Now I was ready to help set up camp.
    I had a nice three-room tent that Leo had helped me pick out. It had a central area which unzipped on each end, with separate rooms on each side. I always set up the middle area as kind of a living room. I kept my bed and stuff on one side, and set up the other as a combination dressing room/bathroom. Leo had even got a small porta-potty for me last year so I wouldn’t have to run out to the privy in the middle of the night.
    Kat’s tent was a basic one-room number, but the inside was always amazing. She had this large velvet-covered dark blue air mattress that was the envy of all those who had been privileged enough to see it. All of her bedding was plush and inviting, and she had all these gorgeous pillows that looked like they’d been plucked from someone’s harem. Everything in her tent was soft and sensuous.
    If the inside of Kat’s tent inspired envy, the boys’ pavilion was utterly mind-blowing. It wouldn’t have looked out of place on a movie set. They had a custom tent made of light and dark purple-striped canvas with little flame banners that snapped in the breeze. The matching floor was insulated from the ground, and the place was quite cozy when they zipped it closed. They even traveled with a little battery-powered space heater in case the weather got cold. We’d been camping during some impressive rainstorms, and they had always kept warm and dry. Even better, they were never averse to letting a friend crash with them when she’d forgotten to keep her sleeping bag from touching the sides of her tent when it rained.
    Between the four of us, it didn’t take long to get the vehicles unloaded and the tents up. We all pitched in to help Kat set up her kitchen area. Even though the campsites all came with grills, she always brought her own special cooktop from home. We had an extra screen tent we set up to shade the table and keep her cooking stuff dry in case the weather didn’t cooperate. She used a sturdy lockbox to store the actual food. This was bear country, so the provisions needed to be secured, and we knew better than to keep anything edible in our tents.
    This year we’d had a reasonable amount of rain for June, so this trip we didn’t have a fire ban for a change. We’d brought along some firewood in anticipation, and Mikah worked on setting up the campfire. We wouldn’t light it until dusk, but it helped if you set it up while the light was still good.
    We did see a few other cars arrive over the course of the afternoon and on into the evening. While Kat was fixing dinner, Berto did the rounds and invited folks over to our campfire later. Mikah had brought a few bottles of blackberry mead to share, and Kat said she’d made a special cake. Kathy and her husband, who were part of Wendy’s crew, said they’d bring raspberry ice cream.
    I was starving by the time we finished setting up camp. Dinner, as usual, was wonderful. Kat had warmed up some beef stew she’d made at home. She had croissants and fresh butter to go with it, along with a platter of fresh fruit.
    The campfire was snapping and popping when folks started showing up with their camp chairs. There is no smell in the world like the scent of pine trees and a campfire in the mountains on a beautiful June evening. Kat waited until everyone was settled before she unveiled the cake. It was beautifully decorated with trees and little forest animals, and looked perfectly innocuous until you noticed the dryad and centaur getting busy in the