Anna shrieked and jumped to her feet. She ran for the hide and quickly took it down before stuffing it into the tent. She was about to get inside the tent when she remembered Adrian was still by the fire. One glance told her he was heavily mired down in the mud. She dashed over, scooped him up and darted into the tent. It was rather cramped with the hide thrown in carelessly like it was.

Anna set the human by her thigh and leaned forward to zip the tent closed. She then took great efforts to roll the skin up and put it on the unoccupied side of the tent. She had to bite back a laugh at the muddy human standing on the floor of the tent.

"Would you like a hand in getting clean?" she asked, barely restraining her laughter.

Adrian grumbled and bit his lip as he crossed his arms. "When I was trying to get you to perk the fuck up I didn't mean for it to happen at my expense you know." He huffed for a moment longer before finally giving in with a sigh, "Yes, I suppose I'd like a hand getting clean, because this shit sucks." Adrian's hands tended to his now muddied hair with visible sadness. "I had just bathed this morning dammit."

Adrian looked up rather helplessly as he waited for her to act, and he was forced to continue adjusting himself lest the mud which caked his body harden and paralyze him.

"Uh, the sooner this shit's off of me the better, but hey, no rush. Just sit there and giggle while I turn into a fucking statue."

She rolled her eyes, opened the tent and dumped him outside. This time, the ground he was on was a natural spot of stone so he wasn't in the mud. But the downpour was brutal until it suddenly lightened. He looked up to see Anna holding her hand above him, shielding him from the majority of it. The runoff cascaded down her fingers and flowed over him at the perfect pressure. It was almost like being in a nice hotel shower.

After just a couple minutes, the sticky mud washed away. Anna gave him another sliver of soap to scrub himself with before rinsing again. When he was done, if not completely soaked again, she pulled him back inside and zipped up the tent. She retrieved her towel from her pack and dropped it by him.

"You can use it first. I'll dry off in a little bit." She stretched out on top of her bedroll and just relaxed. As Adrian dried off, the sound of rain on the roof of the tent was the perfect sleep inducer. Within minutes, she was sound asleep.

"Well, I suppose now she'll have a hard time blaming me for the wasting of an afternoon when she went ahead and passed the fuck out anyway." Happy to finally be dry and mud free, Adrian considered what to next. Clearly he would be unable to continue with the outdoor conditions as they were, barring the fact that his semi-captor/companion was in a veritable coma.

With no real option as for how to proceed, he snuggled into the towel and decided he'd might as well take a nap too, which, on a regular given day in his prosperous life, he probably would have done anyway.

The weather shifted again during the night. The temperature dropped drastically, causing Anna to wake up with a shiver. She kicked off her boots and slid into her bedroll before remembering Adrian.

She sat up and pulled away the towel to check on him. He was dry but the damp towel was cold and so was he. She gently scooped him up and put him on the bedroll. She laid down, pulled him to her stomach and curled around him before pulling the blankets back up to her nose. In no time, she was toasty and drifting back to sleep.

Upon awakening, Adrian was, similarly to last time, significantly confused as to the nature of his location. Oddly, he didn't seem to feel the sensation of movement, and he heard what he eventually understood to be Anna's slow breathing reverberating around him. It was immensely satisfying, and surprising, to know that he had woken up before her. A few moments after that he discovered that the huge fleshy thing before him was her hand, and it was at present pinning him against her stomach. After a few minutes of wriggling, he managed to scoot his way to freedom as he tumbled over her hand and landed on the interior of her bed. He'd just have to meander his way through the mess of tightly pulled covers to her face and wake her up.

The journey was a struggle however, and he constantly found himself either entangled in darkness and blanket or being pressed into her body as she slightly fidgeted in her sleep. It was slow progress, and he hoped she wouldn't wake up and get the wrong idea of what he was trying to do.

She fidgeted a bit as something seemed to travel up her body and tickle her. The hand that had been holding Adrian was empty, her mind processed. Not even half-awake, she vainly felt around the general vicinity of her stomach for him. Finding nothing, she grew more worried. Had the idiot gone and run off again?

She sat up and looked around the tent. Even in the darkness of pre-dawn, she could still see very well. She didn't see him and was about to call out for him when she felt something dangling from the side of her shirt. It kicked and writhed and cursed.

Completely confused, she looked down to find Adrian suspended in the air. His fingers slipped and he started to fall, only to land in her hand.

She held him up to her face and spoke in a voice that was still heavy with sleep.

"What are you doing?"

"Trying to wake your dead ass up of course! But then I couldn't see and you kept moving and the blanket was in the way, and next thing I know you're shooting up awake. I suppose I should be thankful you didn't roll over and smush me…jeez."

He flopped down onto his back with a huff and sprawled out. "I was so pleased that I had beaten you awake, but I think I like it better when you wake up first. Tell ya what, you start your day, and I'll just crash right here." He closed his eyes for a moment before chuckling," I'd also like to point out how amazed I am that you continually seem to wind up with a hot, nearly naked man literally in your hands and yet you're completely unfazed."

"You're warm, although your body temperature is significantly lower than mine, but I wouldn't say you're hot. And you are clothed."

Adrian raised an eyebrow, "There's a difference between just wearing pants and being 'clothed.' And hot is a casual way of saying attractive. God you can be so dense."

She rubbed at her eyes and grumbled. "It's too early, still. There's another hour or two until I have to get up." She yawned and laid back down in her bedroll. This time, instead of putting Adrian by her stomach, she gently held him to the top of her chest.

Almost instantly, she was asleep again. Her breathing was deep and regular and her hand pinned the human to her so he rose and feel with each breath.

As she laid back down, Adrian realized she hadn't yet let go of him. "Hey! I'm not your teddy be-" his complaint was cut short as he was pressed into her. "Well…I guess this isn't terrible…hmph." In no time at all he too was sound asleep again.

An hour and a half later, she woke up for real. She let the struggling human go and sat up after he was off her. She rubbed her eyes tiredly as she spoke.

"The paths are going to be muddy and slow today. It may take an extra day or two to get to the human village. I suppose that also depends on any detours I have to take and if anything major has been changed." She groaned a bit. "I hate mornings."

When she had woken up for the second time and tried to remove him, he found that he was quite content and struggled as her hand wrapped around him. Moved to the floor, he managed to find plenty of comfort there too and tried to lay back down. "I was all gun-ho to be up earlier, but then you forced me back to sleep. Well, now I'm sleepy…" He was mostly coherent with a hint of exhausted mumbling. He found it funny that they had finally stumbled upon something upon which they both agreed: mornings sucked. Luckily, being smaller than even a Barbie doll meant that he didn't really have to be up in order to keep travelling. "You should carry me…if nothing else, if I'm sleeping, you won't have to hear my incredibly witty, clever, and logical quips…"

Anna rolled her eyes as she checked on the sliade skin. Thanks to the humidity, it was still moist enough to be saved. She rolled it back up and set it outside. She then pulled on her boots and rolled up her bedroll. She glanced down at Adrian and pursed her lips in thought.

"I suppose I can hang my backpack from a tree branch and set you on top of it while I collapse the tent. I don't know what else to do with you to keep you out of the mud."

Adrian shrugged dismissively, "It's all good man…" He was really too sleepy to care. "Backpack, pocket…hand…whatever you think is best…" The poor musician wasn't at all equipped to handle being up before noon, and he was really struggling with the whole consciousness thing.

"Man, I really miss the hotels…nice warm bed…room service…" His thought lingered there incomplete as he dozed off yet again.

She snorted. "Pampered brat." She, too, was struggling with morning. She just had a whole different attitude about it. She backed out of the tent and hung her pack up on a low tree branch. She then scooped Adrian up and set him on top of the bag. She quickly collapsed the tent and packed it back together.

Now came the problem of attaching it to the backpack while Adrian was still on it. She really didn't want to cause a fight by putting him back in a pocket, she might do something drastic in her short-tempered state if he got mouthy about it. And she couldn't put him on her shoulder since, one, he was asleep and, two, she would be using it a lot. She thought about where she could stow him for a few minutes while she worked. Her thumbs hooked through her belt by force of habit as she brainstormed.

She glanced at her thumbs and smirked. Her belt would work perfectly. She picked the still-sleeping human up and gently slipped him through her belt. She stopped when the braided leather ran across his waist. She held him there with her wrist as she tightened the belt a couple notches, just enough to secure him.

Satisfied he wasn't going to fall or be a nuisance, she set about strapping her tent to the carry-frame. She then looped the backpack straps through and settled it on her shoulders. She fastened the buckle across her chest and glanced down at Adrian.

Adrian remained in a state of blissful unawareness, slumbering away contentedly. It was several hours before he finally regained consciousness. "Oh man, what a great nap…" He stretched his arms out with a moan and a yawn. "So, how has your morning been? We make a lot of progress?"

Finally aware of his surroundings, he couldn't help but laugh at his situation, "Wanted me in your pants but not quite all the way I see. Well, I'm always one to welcome a challenge, so no need to worry. Though really, usually I prefer a bit of conversation first…" He looked up and found her to be mostly obscured by her own chest. Regardless, he winked. "This isn't so bad truly, minus a bit of a stomach ache from the pressure."

It was then that Adrian realized how cordial he was being, and he wasn't sure if that meant his general dislike of her had subsided or if maybe he was just in a great mood.

Anna stopped and unhooked him from her belt. She lifted him up and let him slide off onto her shoulder. When he was settled, she started walking again.

"The progress has been very slow. The paths I usually take were flooded. The river that feeds the spring we camped by flooded. So, I've had to trek through uncleared forest which doubled how long it normally takes. So, even though it is midday, and we should have reached our stopping point, we aren't anywhere close. Of course, that's no problem for you since you aren't walking or carrying anything. But I am actually tired."

She grumbled as her pace was slowed tremendously by tangled vines and snarling shrubbery. "I wish I had thought to bring my machete. It would have been a huge help."

She continued walking through the forest, very carefully, but the inevitable happened. Her feet became tangled. The toe of one foot slipped under a running ground vine and the other one caught on a low branch. She yelped as she went down.