"Kate!" Anton yelled after her, watching her tumble down the slope. She yelped as she rolled, and fell into the rushing water.
It was 3 degrees fahrenheit, with a 20 mile per hour wind from the North. It whistled right down the valley they were walking through, prying at the seams in their clothing. If she wasn't careful, the stunning scenery was about to become her cemetery.
The stream wasn't very deep, only 4' or so in the middle. She hit it ass over teakettle, every part of her soaked as she frantically swam to the edge and started to climb out. Anton bounded over to her, dropping his pack off his back.
He wore wool lined pants of waxed canvas, and a coat of the same style. She wore a synthetic rain jacket, with a down lined puffy jacket underneath, and a polyester base layer. Something she'd soon regret.
As she stumbled out of the stream, hyperventilating like she was trained to, Anton opened his pack and produced a dry midlayer, pulling the pants and hooded jacket out of its compression bag while she stripped as fast as possible, racing against her fingers going completely numb.
He held out the dry layers, opened up so she could step into them. He pulled her soaked hat off, and put the hood up on her coat as she zipped it up, putting the soaked fleece skull cap into his pack. He gathered her soaked warming layers, and shoved them into his ruck. She did jumping jacks while he put everything away, picking up her pack and throwing it over his shoulder.
He removed his lined leather gloves and put them over her hands, not completely numb yet. She winced at them, feeling like she'd just shoved her hands into boiling water. "Back to the cabin." He said, pointing the way they'd come. The snow was about a foot and a half deep, and it was a little over a mile back to their shack.
Her mouth watered thinking about the fire they'd left burning low in the stove. Too bad it might as well be on the moon.
She shakily nodded at him. Shivers were good, feeling warm and sleepy weren't. Hypothermia isn't a bad way to go, you get warm and sleepy, no pain.
"Side by side, I'm right here with you." He said, clapping her on the back, breaking her from her trance.
They hiked back, going as fast as possible, generating as much body heat as they could. Her face looks so angry.
Her toes quickly went numb as they trudged, and the tips of her fingers, her nose, earlobes, and even lips felt like they were burning with pins and needles. She stumbled a few times, but Anton was right there to help her up.
"Why does this feel worse for me than it looked when this happened to you?" She stammered as they walked, her mouth feeling gummy. The wind felt like it cut right through her, strumming her ribcage like a xylophone.
"I wear different clothing." He stated simply. "What I wear that isn't waterproof still insulates when wet."
"You're going to have to tell me all about it, because this fucking sucks." She laughed crazy.
"How many rewarming drills have we done together?" He asked her, trying to keep her mind active, and her mouth moving.
"Twelve." She said. "Guess this would count as thirteen."
"What do you always say?" He said, a grin on their faces.
"That I love every second I get to spend in that sleeping bag with you." She admitted, almost eating shit again on a tree stump, but he caught her, and hoisted her right back up.
"That's something to look forward to at least." He said, grinning while they were close. The wind hit her in the face as he said that, making her wince. "Come on, I can see the smoke from the fire." He said, the plume scattered by the wind being just barely visible through the trees.
"I want you to know that I fucking hated artic warfare school." She said, trudging forward ever still.
"Everybody does, but look at us now, on vacation it the alps." He said, making the tress shake with his laugh. "You can't hate the cold that bad."
"I'm not going to let this ruin our trip." She said. "And this isn't cold, it's frigid."
They reached the door after what felt like eons. The cabin door smacked the wall, and Kate started to strip again as Anton left her, closing the door and rushing to the stove, putting more wood in and shutting the metal door with a squeak. She took each layer off, keeping her breathing deep and slow. The interior of the cabin already felt far, far warmer, simply due to the absence of wind. Her skin was humming, and her extremities mostly numb.
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Anton gathered all of her clothes, and hung them on a string ran across the length of the cabin to dry. Her still soaked pants and silk weight long underwear came off just before her silk weight polyester base layer top.
Her skin had goosebumps that felt like gravel against the sleeping bag as she climbed into it. She stared blankly at the wall in front of her, watching the fire dance on the wall, and listening to Anton move around behind her. She shivered violently, her teeth chattering.
"You already know this, but you're past the worst part." He said, removing his own clothing after hanging up everything of hers to dry.
"Shut the fuck up and get in here with me." She stammered.
"Okay okay." He said, unzipping it behind her. The cool air hit her, and she wanted to whine in agony at the sensation. He climbed into the two person sleeping bag and enveloped her in his arms. She wanted to get away from his touch, it felt like hot irons being pressed against her. She forced herself to stay stationary and just shiver, taking a deep breath and focusing on her breathing. In through the nose out through the mouth.
"God it hurts." She said, squirming against him.
"What does?" He asked.
"My clit, silly." She said, making him wonder if she was delusional. "It burns like a motherfucker." She giggled. Oh, the pins and needles there must be... Uncomfortable.
"I wish I could help you with that." he laughed with her.
"Let me put my hands between your thighs." She said, turning around and facing him, putting her ice cold hands between them. Then she put the back of her head against his chin, and her forehead against his upper chest.
He rubbed her back lovingly, and let her relax, shivering against him.
—
Two hours later
—
He got up, zipping the sleeping bag back up again after getting out, letting her sleep in her warm cocoon. Then he put a pot of water on the stove to boil, and put another two pieces of firewood into the maw of the black iron box. With the water heating, he prepared oatmeal, and opened a MRE, putting the main meal into the warming water.
He munched on some MRE crackers, dry, and nearly tasteless as he watched the fire, listening to it crackle, and the sound of Kate's soft breathing behind him. She'd eaten lunch prior to them going out, so she hadn't done all that on a completely empty stomach.
"Hey." She said behind him. He turned around to see her laid on her side, the sleeping bag pulled over her.
"Just letting you know I was staring at you." She told him, "felt kinda creepy."
"I'm making you something to eat if that's an improvement to your mood." He said.
"Good. I'm starving." She replied, getting out of the sleeping bag and standing in the now warm cabin.
"You should take it easy." He reminded her.
"I'm fine, my muscles hurt. I'm stretching them." She said, putting her arms over her head and doing just that. The shivering had left her tight all over, and she wanted to get rid of that, though she liked the feeling of the pumped muscles.
By the time she finished with the usual routine she did when she woke up every morning, the food was done, or reheated.
"I'd like to thank you." She said, looking up at him, holding her mug of hot chocolate, half finished.
"There is no need." He told her, putting a hand on the side of her face, and tracing the curve of her jaw softly before his hand left her. "I did exactly what you would have." He said, sitting down, and letting her lean into him.
"At least you'd hope, right?" She giggled, staring down at her lap, holding her mug there with both hands.
"I know you wouldn't leave me behind." He said, rubbing her shoulder with both of them now watching the fire through the glass of the woodstove. "We need to use more of our leave." He said after a long time.
"As long as it doesn't involve another polar plunge." Kate replied, eating her oatmeal she'd sat on the bed to cool. She smeared some on an MRE cracker, and took a big bite. She finished her food shortly after, and laid her utensils on the floor.
"Where should we go next?" He asked her, thinking about all of the places they've been, and how beautiful some of them were.
"I'd like to go hiking at the grand canyon park." Kate said.
"I was going to say the same place, actually." Anton said, chuckling.
"It's meant to be, then." She said, then burped, and giggled to herself. "I'm never using that synthetic shit again." She said, looking at it all hanging up on the drying line.
"Wool is the way." he rubbed her back, she found his usually slightly cold hands warm, which was new, but not unwelcome. I'll be alright.
"Why is that, exactly." She turned to him as she asked.
"Well, even though polyester or silk is somewhat warmer, wool helps to regulate the body temperature better than either. The fibers are hollow, and they provide insulation even when wet." He said. While he spoke, she moved to lay across his lap, crossing her legs at the ankle, her hands atop one another on her stomach.
"Wool garments, by comparison, are more durable, breathable, softer, and provide natural odor control." He said.
"I've noticed that you don't smell near as bad as me after being in the woods." She replied.
She'd nearly knocked him over after a search and rescue operation in Montana. He, on the other hand, still smelled of deodorant and cologne.
"That's why you wear your socks for several days, just letting them air out?" Kate asked.
"Exactly, underwear and tops too."
"What brand is your coat?" She asked after a lapse in conversation, seeing it hanging up near the door. It looked like any old coat, but shiny with wax.
"Filson, though I had it and the pants custom tailored with wool from an old blanket I had laying around." He said.
"I like your base layer top, it's thicker than mine." She said, remembering how it felt between her fingers as she tested the fabric while they packed.
"I think that is one from Merriwool, it's one of the better I've worn." He said, looking at it hung up on the line.
"How much was your button up?" The butt ugly green striped one I mean." Kate asked, pointing at the shirt.
The garment she was pointing at was a Filson northwest wool shirt in the "brown/spruce plaid" color.
"Too twenty five American." He shrugged. "What?" He said to her stunned look.
"They're the only clothing brand that fits me right and good clothing is hardly cheap." He rubbed her bare stomach. She smiled at him and shook her head.
"You spend lots of money on the weirdest things, you know that?" She told him.
I want to spend more time with you like this.