Forging Day (Crucible of Change Book 1) by Noelle Alladania Meade Page A

was no point in going back to camp to change, and while Berto was probably overreacting about Derek, I decided to take his advice for once and not go off alone. I took our feast kit and picked out a table with a decent amount of shade. Bless him, Berto even came back to help me with our set-up. “Mikah is taking a quick sponge bath before dinner and he said I was too distracting. Here I am, to help you instead.”
    We were putting the finishing touches on our feasting spot when Berto whistled under his breath. I gave him a sideways look. “I’m gay and married, not dead.”
    I looked up and saw Kat and Mikah, and almost didn’t recognize the young woman walking with them, holding hands with Kat. Tessa was stunning. She was wearing one of Kat’s forest green bodices, laces pulled tight to give her some truly amazing cleavage, with a matching skirt that really set off her caramel skin. Her hair was sprinkled with gold dust and styled back to show off perky little cat ears. Whatever magic she did with her eye makeup made her eyes smolder.
    Berto nudged me and murmured, “Close your mouth Olivia. You’re starting to drool.”
    Hastily, I looked over at Kat, who winked at me and smiled—if anything, she looked pleased at my ogling. There was a fresh love bite on her neck.
    With only a minor amount of shuffling around, we all took our seats—Kat, Tessa, me, and Mikah, with Berto on the end.
    I leaned over and whispered to Tessa, “Wow, you look great. I’m glad Kat always brings more garb than any one person could wear.”
    The smile she gave me in return made me warm all over. “Kat helped me with the bodice. I couldn’t have done it without her,” she said.
    My mind was telling me that she was a teenager and a damsel in distress— and what about Kat? —while my body was saying, Shut up, she’s hot! Given Kat’s fresh love bite, I was pretty sure Kat had more than just helped Tessa with the bodice, too.
    As folks were settling into their places, I glanced around to see if I could spot Derek’s group. I was glad to see that he and his crew were on the far side of the feasting area. It took me that long to notice all of the fanciful creatures adorning the tables. The Trolls had a cluster of what looked like plush baby dinosaurs with brightly colored feather mohawks. A few of the Elven types had little dragons perched on their shoulders. I couldn’t quite see how they were fastened on, but they looked amazing. Even Derek’s crew had an assortment of colorful small wolves and sheep.
    Kat told me, “They’re for the sheep-stealing competition. No one trusted leaving their sheep at camp over dinner, so everyone brought them along. Korembi and Razaini did an amazing job at their sheep-building workshop. They even gave out all of the materials for people to use. Of course, they brought the compys with them, already made.”
    “The what?”
    “Compys—you know, the little tiny dinosaurs? Proper name Compsognathus.”
    I stared at her like she’d grown an extra head. “How on earth do you know what they are and what their proper name is?”
    “Oh, I didn’t. Korembi and Razaini told me. They’re paleontology professors at the university in Wyoming. The rest of their group is all grad students. This is their fun event to start the summer, and then they’re all off to their next dig. You should see the mascot they have in their camp. It’s a giant raptor skeleton.”
    “Velociraptor? Like in those old dinosaur movies?” I asked.
    “No. Velociraptors are actually the size of a dog, according to Korembi.” Kat held up a hand just over knee height to illustrate. “The ones in the movie are the size of Utahraptor—around seven feet tall. That’s the skeleton Korembi has.”
    “Cool. I wonder how they get it in their car?”
    Unfortunately, our little conversation was interrupted by the not-dulcet tones of Sir Mehmet. He apparently hadn’t recognized Tessa earlier with actual clothes on, but now he was