Anna's extensive training with her great-grandmother took over and she twisted to put her back to the ground. She grabbed Adrian and pulled him flush to her stomach. She ended up hitting the ground with her shoulder. That hurt, but the additional weight of the backpack jarring her shoulders hurt worse. She groaned.

"That's going to bruise."

The suddenness of the fall caused Adrian to, quite effeminately, let out a shriek. He clung to her hair until her hand tore him away and pressed him tightly against her stomach, whereupon all of his exclamations were completely muffled into silence.

When Anna had finally regained her footing and ceased smothering him into her gut, he looked up with a smirk, "Walk much?" There was a moment of somewhat nervous chuckling. "But ah, in all seriousness, you didn't sprain anything, did you?" Despite all of the crap she had put him through over their thus far brief journey, he did seem to have an ounce of concern for her. Furthermore, if she were hurt and unable to continue, then she might have to resort to eating him in order to survive. And that would really suck.

"Well, not that I can do much, but, in the interest of me getting the fuck home as soon as possible, let me know if I can help." He was trying really hard to maintain his moderately egotistical streak: no need to let her get any funny ideas that he might be warming up to her rather cold personality.

"You scream like a girl." She rubbed her ear. "Right into my ear, too. Did you break glass with that voice back home?" She shook her head. "It's still ringing."

She started walking again. "I'm fine. I'm going to be sore as hell, but I'm fine." She lifted him back to her shoulder. She barely repressed a smirk when he nearly wrapped himself around her neck. "Scared much?" She parroted back at him.

"I'm not scared, just making sure that I make it home in one piece. I couldn't bear to let the entire world's population of women miss out on seeing me alive and well. As for the voice, I do occasionally do backing vocals for the band when necessary, so…" He shrugged. "And it's really fitting that someone as attractive as myself would have a voice to match."

"So, out of curiosity, have I convinced you to change your archaic views on men yet or am I gonna have to work a bit harder?"

She had a flat look on her face. "You will have to do more than be a piece of entertainment and annoyance for a couple days to start changing my mind. Although you really should put a shirt on. Where is your shirt, anyway?"

She stopped and glanced around the trees. It had suddenly gone eerily silent. And it wasn't from her presence. She frowned. "Hold on and shut up." She eyed a couple of tree branches before crouching and leaping. She caught one of the lower ones and hauled herself into it. With her feet balanced on it, she climbed higher. She was about halfway up the tree when she sat down and pressed her back flat against the trunk.

Sure enough, down below an absolutely massive beast lumbered by. It was easily twice as tall as Anna, possibly more, and outweighed her by several hundred pounds or more.

Adrian looked down at the giant beast and pantomimed a whistle, too afraid to actually make the sound. His glance shot upwards to Anna, wondering what exactly the plan was and praying she didn't decide to suddenly leap, drop, or do some other death defying stunt while he was hanging on to her neck with his tenuous grip.

For all of his efforts to be silent, Adrian was unable to prevent a gulp, though he assumed that, small as he was, it'd be far too sensitive of a sound for the monster to notice.

Anna breathed a sigh of relief when the creature went past them without stopping. She reached up and gently patted Adrian. "You don't have to hold so tight, now. It's gone. But keep your grip."

She stood and peered around the tree, making sure the beast was actually gone. Satisfied, she began to carefully climb down. On the last branch, she let go and fell. She landed in a perfect crouch to absorb the force of the impact. She stood and began walking again.

"Well, that was fun. Hopefully in another hour or so we'll reach our stopping point. Which will probably be the stopping point for the day, since we definitely won't reach my original destination before nightfall."

With the danger finally gone, Adrian let out his long awaited whistle. "Wheeeeewwww. God damn. I could feel my balls in my stomac- er, man, that was intense." He loosened his grip and rubbed the back of his head, looking over his shoulder expecting the thing to return at any moment.

After several glances proved that the creature wouldn't be returning, he let out a sigh of relief. "So, are we ever gonna actually reach where we're going? I mean, I'm sure you're gonna miss me and all, and maybe I'll miss getting the chance to make a commentary on your ass-backwards views of sexuality, but I'm getting sick of this danger thing. Having to survive just isn't really my style, you know? I'm more of a, well, luxury type of guy."

She rolled her eyes. "We will. Eventually. And I won't miss you. Besides, who is doing the surviving? Me. You're jut clinging onto me like a leech. I feed you, show you where you can bathe, carry you, save your ass twice now. I'm pretty sure I'm the one really doing the surviving."

She casually leaped over a small stream. One hand automatically steadied Adrian when he seemed about to tumble from her shoulder. "It's normally a five day trip to the human village. Although, at this pace, it will probably take closer to ten days."

"Ouch man. Those are some harsh words there. You must like me a little bit or you wouldn't be going through all the trouble: and if you really don't, then you know you can always just set me down somewhere and go. It's not like I could chase after you anyway."

For all of the bravado and charisma he put on, the sudden onset of what could almost be described as a melancholic disposition seemed to suggest that he did indeed have feelings and, in spite of all the harsh things to have come out of his own mouth over the last few days, her words had actually managed to hurt him a little bit. As if in protest, he sat in silence for the next chunk of the journey.

"At this point, it's not about whether or not I like you. I gave you my word I would keep you alive and I do not go back on my word. I'm going to get you to the human village and I'm going to bring your situation to my grandfather's attention. At that point, it will be up to him."

She let the silence fall and felt a little guilty. Apparently she had hurt his feelings. She had been joking, somewhat, when she said all that. By the time they reached the camping spot, Adrian was still not talking. She hung up her pack on a tree branch and set up the tent. She put Adrian on the ground and let him do what he wanted since the ground was dry. When camp was set up and the fire going, she looked down at the still sulking human.

"Do you want to go swimming?"

Adrian canted his head from side to side as he considered Anna's proposition. "Aaaaah, I dunno. I mean, I don't have any other clothes to change into, and, unless you've changed your views on guys, you have absolutely no interest in seeing me naked, sooo yeah." He shrugged and lazily let himself fall onto his back.

"But, on the other hand, if you're bound and determined for me to go swimming I couldn't exactly prevent you from making me…" He sighed, "Last time I went swimming was at a meet and greet with about 300 screaming fans…"

"Cut your pants into shorts." She arched a brow at them. "They're torn enough already. I'll make you some clothes from the sliade hide. They'll be warmer and sturdier than whatever you're wearing. Make your choice, I'm not going to force you. It's humid, though, so I am going to swim."

She dug a swimsuit from her pack and stepped into the trees. She came back out a moment later in a two piece swimsuit. It was black with hot pink piping and left little to the imagination.

She looked down at the gobstruck human and arched her brow. "Still want to stay behind? It's your choice." With that, she turned and headed for the creek.

Whether intending to swim or not, Adrian was certainly interested in seeing more, and with that in mind he trailed after her. He didn't really understand how cutting his pants up would help, but he recalled that he could always just swim in his underwear and then go 'free-balling' later.

"I gotta say, if you weren't so good at putting people off with the attitude, you might just come across as attractive. Again, not that I'm checking you out or attracted to you personally. But," he shrugged, "well, daaaamn."

"There is nothing wrong with my attitude," Anna sniffed. "Some people just find the truth offensive." She looked down the steep bank to the gentle looking creek. She took a couple steps back before launching herself at a run. She hit the edge of the creek and kicked off.

She squealed a bit when she hit the chilly water. "It's cold but feels good!" She gave an alluring smile up to the human. "Brave enough to join me?"