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When Mara’s village was burnt down and her parents were reduced to ashes, she picked up her mothers axe and set off into the wilderness.
That was the first time she had ever left her village, so naturally she wasn’t prepared for the rough weather, groups of bandits or inhospitable climates she would come across along her journey, so she definitely wasn’t aware how important a proper night's sleep was to adventuring.
So after her first stop at a village where she was able to pick up supplies, she took great care to make sure her sleeping arrangements worked for her and didn’t disturb any other travelers nearby.
Those sleeping arrangements were quite simple.
Step 1: Find a cave (preferably unoccupied)
Step 2: Sleep
This arrangement worked because most of the time, Mara traveled alone. There were no survivors from her village that went into adventuring and she didn’t know much about adventuring before starting out on her own so she didn’t know where to look for more party members.
But it was fine for Mara.
She enjoyed traveling at her own pace, taking time to reflect on her past, meeting lots of interesting people whenever she took commissions for extra gold and looking up at the stars. Her village was tiny so Mara took time to read up on academics and literature as well as allowing herself to make and slowly complete a bucket list of fun things that her younger self would have loved. Along her travels, Mara gained a new appreciation for the night sky. It didn’t matter where she traveled, the stars were the same as the ones in her village. The same stars that looked down at her when she was a child were the same stars watching over her as she hiked from town to town.
It was nice having something that constant in her life.
But there were nights when her loneliness stung and she wanted nothing more than to be back in the arms of her parents, back in her village, safe and warm. The stars were calming, but couldn’t help her when the monsters attacking her were only in her mind.
This is why Mara wasn’t dismayed when she learned that although her new adventuring party had tents, she was sleeping with the two other girls, Rayne and Pepper in a tent that wasn’t made to accommodate the extra height that most orcs have over other races.
Mara was just excited to have friends, to have people who would care about her again, so the sleeping arrangements slipped her mind.
“Sleeping with others would be fun!” Mara thought as she chopped up a couple logs for a fire. Grabbing the bundle of wood, she walked back over to the group and waved Pepper over to her.
“Hey Mara!” Pepper greets her with a smile and a cheerful little wave, “What can I help you with?”
“Greetings Pepper.” She smiled back at Pepper, her good energy was infectious, “Where would you like this firewood to be placed? If you are on the first night watch, then it is only logical for you to know where the wood is located. Just in case the fire goes out.”
“Ohh, That's smart!” Pepper exclaimed as she glanced around their camp. Located in a small clearing only a few feet away from a trail, their camp was quite small for how many adventurers were living there. with Two tents, a campfire, one horse that looked too nice to be theirs and a cart, There was plenty of space for wood piles to be located.
“How about right here?” Pepper pointed at a spot right beside the hole where the fire would be, “If it's too far away then no one else will be able to find it!”
“That is a good idea.” Mara agreed, moving to place the wood a little farther away from where the fire would be, “I’ll do that now.”
Setting up the rest of the camp was simple and after a quick meal of dried beef and nuts, Mara’s enthusiasm started to waver when she and Rayne got ready for bed while Pepper prepared for her shift at the night watch.
The tent was smaller than she thought. Which would make sense, as it was originally Jackson’s tent that was made for one person, but it was going to be a bit of a tight fit with the three of them in there. (not that Mara minded)
She was glad that Pepper wasn’t going to be in the tent with them for the first hour.
Sleep came quickly but didn’t last long because instead of being woken up by pepper, letting her know that it was her shift, she was woken up by Rayne’s arm poking into her back. After gently moving Rayne’s arm away from her back, Mara laid back down only to be interrupted by Rayne’s leg laying across her sleeping bag. Attempting to move Rayne’s leg led to Mara getting a hand in her face as Rayne, despite meditating, seemed to be fighting back against Mara’s attempts to have enough space to sleep.
Realizing her attempts to fall back asleep were futile, Mara resigned herself to getting up and starting her shift early. So she struggled her way out of her tent and walked towards the fire where Pepper was strumming a song on her lute that Mara didn’t recognize, but it seemed to make Pepper happy so Mara sat down beside her and waited until the song was over before addressing her.
“Hello Pepper.”
“AGH!” Pepper shrieked in surprise, although Mara didn’t understand why. That seemed to be a common trend with the two of them. “OH! Hi Mara! I didn’t see you there.”
“I gathered that from your scream. Although could you not hear me walking towards you? I was walking rather loudly when I stepped on that stick.”
“Anyways!” said Pepper, not responding to Mara’s question, “What are you doing up? I should still have some time left on my shift, right?”
“I believe that is correct. I was awoken by Rayne’s unusual style of sleeping and decided to start my shift ahead of schedule.”
“Cool! Any song requests? I’m pretty good with my lucky lute.”
“I do not have any preferences concerning music. Play whatever you would like, I would just like to look at the stars.”
“Really? I didn’t take you for the star watching type.” Pepper confessed while looking at Mara.
“Have you ever tried it?” Mara asked, she didn’t know what the “star watching type” was but perhaps Pepper didn’t understand what she meant. “You sit and look up towards the stars.”
“Oh, I’ve never done it before.” Pepper chuckled at that idea “I can’t sit still for that long.”
To prove her point, Pepper got up and started to walk circles around the campfire
“But if you’re gonna do it, then I promise not to step on your face.”
“Thank you Pepper. Please alert me when it is my turn to watch over the camp.”
“No problem!”
As Mara stared up at the stars, the same stars that had watched over her for years, she felt at peace. This new adventuring group might not be perfect, but they were everything that Mara wanted and more.