Wandering Prince
Avatar the Last Airbender, Zuko SI
10
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I woke from my nap and gathered my things. Leaving the spare bedroom, I set my bags by the door and made my way to Senna’s bedroom. Pushing aside the fur divider, I found her laying on top of her bed, fully clothed. For just a moment, I almost mistook her for Yagoda, given how closely they resembled each other now that she had also had her youth restored. Her eyes snapped open when I shook her shoulder and, after only a moment, she was up and moving, grabbing her own bags.
We left her home, Senna bending her door closed with ice, and quietly made our way through the streets, sticking to the shadows and alleys as we made our way towards the oasis. We spotted Yue standing in a shadow beside the small, round door, her bright hair hidden by the hood she wore. She smiled and waved a silent greeting, then opened the door and we piled in. Yue’s bags were just inside and she shouldered them before we hurried to the back of the chamber.
“Just a moment,” Yue paused, opening her backpack and producing two large, metal thermoses. She hurried back to the pool and bent a stream of softly glowing water into both.
“Aren’t they gonna get pissy that you took that?” I asked, as she hurried back and put the containers back in her bag.
“Not really,” Senna shook her head. “The gift of the water and moon spirits is our legacy. No one can fault her for taking it. Now, let’s get a move on.”
Yue got her bags back in place and we hurried to the false wall in the back she had made on our little trip outside the walls. Once she lowered it, I conjured a light and we hurried into the stairs. Yue closed the wall behind us and filled in the stairs for the first several yards after that, before we began the long, winding trek up to the top of the ice sheet. Once we were up top, I dispelled the light sphere I was using and Yue closed up the top the same way she had the bottom, but left a pillar to mark its location.
It was the night of the new moon, so there was no moonlight to guide us, but the stars were bright enough and the sky was clear. We found the groove Yue had cut in the ice sheet and hurriedly followed it. Eventually, we spotted the pillars she had left to mark the parking spot for my boat and Yue led us down and closed the path behind us as I once more provided light.
Once we got to the boat, we stowed our things in the cabin and I got the engines warmed up, but didn’t start them yet. Yue lowered the wall and flooded the inside of the chamber enough to get us out, using her bending to pull us out before again closing it behind us. “Alright Yue, the next part’s all you,” I told her, taking a seat at the tiller.
“I’ve got it,” she nodded and moved into place in front of me.
“Show me what to do. I can help,” Senna offered and Yue nodded. After a few moments of speaking quietly and demonstrating, the two waterbenders had us moving along quickly on a continuous wave of water. I kept watch around and behind us, ready to start the engine if we were spotted.
Eventually, the cliffs of the ice sheet and Agna Qel’a disappeared over the horizon. I waited several minutes more before raising the mast and climbing to the top. Seeing as the ice bergs were also below the horizon, I climbed down and raised the sails.
“Alright ladies, I’ll take it from here,” I offered as I turned us for Chenbao.
“I can go for longer,” Senna shook her head.
Yue nodded. “So can I.”
“And I’d rather get to shore faster, in any case,” the elder of the two said.
Shrugging, I took my seat and fired up the engine, sending us shooting forward and the ship rising a bit in the water. It took them a moment to adjust, but soon enough we were flying along and, as I saw the sails were doing more to hinder than help, I lowered them and the mast again.
“So Senna,” I asked after a while, “how do you plan to explain how you look?”
“Easy,” the woman turned a grin over her shoulder. “I set things up in advance for a successor. I’m old Senna’s niece, young Senna.” Yue and I laughed at that and she ignored us as she continued. “I’ll talk to the right people, say the right things, and everything will transfer over to me.”
“Where are you going, once we reach Chenbao?” Yue asked, curious.
“Ba Sing Se. Then Gaoling. Then mostly stick to the coast as I head back north, visiting all of the Earth Kingdom villages and Fire Nation colonies and stopping by Omashu. All the way to the Abbey, then cut back east to Zigan, get on a boat, and return to Chenbao. From there, back up north. That’s the route I established, years ago. By then, they should have cooled down. What about the two of you?”
Yue beamed a happy smile. “Wherever we want.”
Chuckling, I gave a more definitive answer. “Well, I’ve already visited the western air temple, I figure we can go see the northern one next, since it’s not far.” Yue perked up at that, looking excited. “After that? Not sure. I think I’ll avoid Ba Sing Se for the time being. The other air temples are on the list. So is Gaoling and Kyoshi Island. Eventually, we’ll head south and visit the southern water tribe.”
“Why avoid Ba Sing Se?” Yue asked, curious.
Senna chuckled. “You’ve heard the rumors, haven’t you?”
“Which ones?”
“Of a secret police force who does the kingdom’s dirty work of removing political dissidents, so their precious Earth King doesn’t have to be troubled by unsightly things.”
I nodded. “That’s the one. You know if there’s any truth to it?”
Senna shook her head. “I can’t say for certain. Damn near every drunk in every bar in that place claimed to have seen them.”
“Maybe later, then.”
I fell silent, focusing on the engine and putting miles between us and Agna Qel’a. With the help of Yue and Senna, we got most of the way there before we agreed to take a break and I raised the sails again. The ladies went into the cabin to try to sleep for a while and I rested my eyes after locking the tiller in. Eventually, we reached Chenbao as the sky was beginning to lighten.
I pulled into a berth at the end of one of the docks and tied us off, then Yue and I helped Senna take her bags to the same inn I had met her in, where she booked a room for a few days. Turning to look at us, she sighed and smiled. “Safe travels, you two. Stay out of trouble.”
“It’s Yue that’s the troublemaker,” I teased, and the princess stuck her tongue out.
“I’ll make sure he behaves,” she promised.
We said our goodbyes and Yue and I made our way back out to the boat, where I quickly cast off and Yue got us turned around. Then, I set course east, along the coastline, following my map towards the mountains where the northern air temple was housed.
“You know,” I spoke up as Yue sat beside me, looking around and taking everything in. “If you’re going to come with me, you’ve got to look the part. Can’t look like a princess.”
“What do you mean?” Yue asked, confused.
Chuckling, I reached up and once again took her hair down, before handing her Water Tribe themed hair ornament back to her. I did the same for the two decorations on her braids, earning a pout.
Yue gestured and pulled water over the side of the boat, freezing a stand in place in front of her with a mirror made of ice. From there, she undid her braids and made herself a comb, and began straightening her hair.
“Maybe I should cut it…”
I considered her for a moment before nodding. “It’d look good shorter. I also like it long, so I’m not the best person to ask.”
Yue giggled, shifting and bumping me with her shoulder. Pulling her hair together, she began tying it in a braid just above her left shoulder, the length of it reaching down to pile in her lap. Humming, she made a pair of scissors when she was satisfied and cut of off just above her breasts. “There,” she said, and began gathering up a length of the leftover hair, weaving it into a rope.
“What are you doing?” I wondered, eyeing the excess hair curiously.
Yue dumped the leftover hair overboard and turned to me with a smile. “Hold still.”
“…Where do you think you’re going with those?” I eyed the scissors skeptically.
The woman merely smiled, taking my head in both of hers and turning me away from her. I felt her playing with the tail I kept the back of my hair in and heard the snip of scissors. A moment later, she pulled the leather tie I kept it in loose before retying it. “All done.”
“Did you,” I started to ask, before sighing as I saw her tying together a lock of my own hair in her lap, before using the resulting cord to tie the end of hers off. “Never mind.”
Yue looked happy and I’ll admit it was kind of cute, so I left it alone.
“You didn’t tie it in a bow, did you?” I asked, and received only an impish smile and a giggle in answer. “Yue? Come on!”
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Senna yawned as she sat near the fire, sipping on a cup of tea. The door opened and a pair of young women walked in. The taller of the two, a stoic looking thing wearing dark clothes under a thick coat, looked around before grabbing the shorter of them by the elbow and pulling her towards the counter. The shorter of them likewise wore a thick coat, but under it some kind of loose outfit with entirely too much pink for Senna’s taste.
‘Grumpy cat with too many knives and a hyperactive monkey,’ Senna mused, remembering some of the stories she had pried out of Zuko. Could it be them?
“We need a room for the night,” the tall one said, pulling out a coin purse and laying several silver coins on the counter. “And we’re looking for our friend.”
“What’s he look like?” the man behind the counter asked, swiping the coins up and handing them a key.
“My friend’s height,” the shorter one beamed. “Black hair, eyes like molten gold. Reeeally cute, but also kinda dangerous, you know?”
The innkeeper frowned, but eventually nodded. “Yeah, the wife told me about someone like that a couple of weeks back. Hired on as Old Senna’s bodyguard and left out of here the next morning, heading north.”
The two young women exchanged looks before the taller one asked, “What’s on the menu tonight?”
“Stew and bread. Got a nice ale if you want.”
“We’ll take two,” she said, placing down another coin and pulling her friend along to a table. Senna focused on her own meal as she listened.
“Did you hear that, Mai? Zuko’s been here! You were right!” the shorter girl gushed quietly.
“Mm. But our detour cost us time,” she sounded displeased. “I blame you.”
“It’s not my fault we came over land!”
“I blame you.”
“So mean~.” Sighing, the smaller girl asked, “So, you think Zuzu is still up north?”
“Possibly.”
“Too bad we can’t get ahead of him.”
The girls fell silent as the innkeeper brought them their food and drinks, before making his way back to the kitchen. Senna picked up her bowl and glass and made her way over to their table. The tall one eyed her warily while the short one smiled brightly as Senna sat.
“Can we help you…?”
Senna smiled. “No, but maybe I can help you. Mai, isn’t it?” she asked, before turning to the much more cheery girl, “And that makes you Ty Lee, doesn’t it?”
Ty Lee gasped quietly. “How did you know?!” She turned to Mai and gestured to Senna. “How did she know?!”
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Mai frowned, humming quietly. “You’ve been speaking with Zuko.”
“I’m Senna,” she introduced herself.
Mai raised an eyebrow while Ty Lee tilted her head curiously. “You don’t look old…?”
“Old Senna is my aunt,” she chuckled.
The shorter girl frowned minutely. “You’re lying. Why?”
Senna raised an eyebrow at that. “You wouldn’t believe the truth without seeing it for yourself, girl. I have met your friend, though.”
“Prove it,” Mai demanded, and Senna blinked as she felt something sharp poke her in the inner thigh. Looking down, she found a bare foot between her legs, toes clutching a small, jagged little knife hovering right over a major artery. If the girl decided to do it, she’d bleed out in moments.
Senna shrugged, before reaching up and touching her chest. “Lightning scar on his chest.”
The dagger left her thigh and Mai nodded. Leaning forward, Ty Lee asked, “He told you about us? What did he say?”
“Just that you were his friends and his sister had likely sent you to drag him back home.”
Ty Lee seemed to deflate. “Aw. Is that all?”
Senna laughed. “What were you expecting, girl?”
“I dunno. Maybe that he missed us?”
Mai sighed, shaking her head. “Focus, Ty Lee.” Turning back to Senna, she asked, “When did you see him last?”
“Oh, that would be this morning.”
The girls shared a look of frustration, before turning back to her. Ty Lee beat Mai to the punch as she asked, “Where did he go?!”
Chuckling, the trader shrugged. “It wouldn’t matter. By the time you got there, he’d be gone.”
Mai frowned, but nodded. “Then do you know where he’s going?”
“I do. In so much as Zuko himself knew where he was going. He didn’t seem terribly sure.” When the girls leaned forward expectantly anyway, Senna sighed. “Alright. I’ll tell you. He had a short list. Gaoling, Kyoshi Island, the other air temples, and then the south pole. It seemed like he was saving that one for last.”
“I’ve never heard of Kyoshi Island,” Ty Lee hummed, looking to Mai, who shrugged.
“Not many have. It’s small and off the normal seafaring trade routes. Legend has it, Avatar Kyoshi made the island. It doesn’t get many traders in or out, mainly because they don’t have much to trade and don’t want for much.” Quieter, she added, “I think they would react poorly to you showing up on a Fire Nation cruiser.”
“So, Gaoling or one of the air temples, then,” Mai hummed. “Gaoling will have readily available supplies and somewhere to stay, but if it’s a large city…?”
“It is,” Senna confirmed. “Third largest in the Earth Kingdom, behind Ba Sing Se and Omashu.”
Mai sighed. “Then finding him will be difficult. The air temples are our best bet, then.”
Ty Lee looked confused. “Why’s Zuzu going to those old things, anyway? Weren’t all the monks, you know?” She drew a finger across her throat. “A hundred years ago?”
“He did say he was searching for sign of the Avatar, if he somehow survived into the present, or had reincarnated already,” Senna supplied.
“Either way, the Avatar would be drawn to remnants of the Air Nomads, either out of sentimentality or to try to learn airbending,” Mai nodded. “So that was his plan.”
Ty Lee studied Mai for a moment before her eyes went wide. “You mean—?”
“Shh,” Mai shushed the other girl. “Later.” Looking to Senna, she guessed, “He’s heading for the northern air temple now, isn’t he?”
Senna nodded. “Aye.”
“Chase and stay a step behind, or rush ahead, and hope he comes soon, and we didn’t miss him?” Mai wondered.
“We’ve got a day or two to figure it out before they get here. We may as well stay and wait for the ship,” Ty Lee shrugged, earning a nod from Mai.
“Fine,” Mai agreed. With the decision put off, she began eating.
Sending Senna a grin, Ty lee asked, “So? How is he?”
“Oh, I imagine he and his fiancee are doing well.”
Mai choked on her stew as Ty Lee’s mouth fell open. “His what?!”
Senna picked up her drink and took a sip, smiling into her ale as the girls demanded explanations. He was right. They are fun to tease. I should be gone before their ship gets here though. Just in case.
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“Amazing view, isn’t it?”
“Breathtaking, sir,” the captain agreed, looking out over the island they were on and the sea, their ship looking tiny below.
“A shame those who once called this temple home are no longer alive to see it,” Iroh sighed, his hands clenching on the stone railing.
“Sir?” the captain asked quietly, aware that they had the area to themselves for the moment. But still, to voice disapproval of Fire Lord Sozin’s actions could be considered almost heretical. It certainly spat in the face of the hundred year long war they had fought, trying to bring the light of civilization to the rest of the world.
Iroh nodded. “Of all Sozin’s mistakes, of which there were surprisingly few, this was his greatest. His second greatest being the betrayal of his friend, Avatar Roku.”
“But that’s…”
Iroh scoffed. “If we cannot look back upon our past actions and question them, call them out for the mistakes they were and learn from them, where does that leave us going forward? Unable to learn from the past. Always repeating the same mistakes. Unable to question those in command. Blindly carrying out orders we know are wrong. We would be little more than slaves. Worse, even. Insects.”
“What do you believe we should have done, then?”
Iroh shook his head. “It is an easy thing, to sit and criticize the actions of those who came before us, knowing what we know now. With the weight of history showing us the results of those decisions and information that those in the moment didn’t have. To say we should have done something differently. I do not know what Sozin could have changed to avoid the war, or to keep it as short and bloodless as possible. I can only say that betraying the Avatar, and his fear of the Avatar seeking revenge for that betrayal leading to the murder of the air nomads in a desperate and foolish attempt to disrupt the reincarnation cycle when he could not be sure it would even work, were folly. What we can do is learn from our mistakes and move forward.”
Nodding, the captain quietly asked, “It’s not Fire Lord Sozin’s mistakes you’re referring to, is it sir?”
“No,” Iroh murmured. “I have made more than my share of mistakes, blunders, poor decisions, and failing to take responsibility when I should have. I feel like I’ve made a mess and I should be the one to clean it up. If only it were as simple as daubing up spilled tea and sweeping away shards of a broken teapot.”
“If you’ll pardon my saying, general,” the captain paused for a moment and Iroh nodded. “The nobles and the upper ranks may have favored your brother, but I speak for most of the enlisted men when I say, we always hoped it would be you who led us, when you father stepped down or passed on. We would have preferred to have someone who had served on the front lines and understood the war, if we could choose.”
Chuckling, Iroh turned and patted the captain on the shoulder briefly, before making for the stairs. “Then I failed all of you as well, when I stepped aside in my mourning for the loss of my son and father.”
Their footsteps echoed off the stone steps and the curving mountain path for a time, before the captain finally asked, “Between your nephew and niece, who do you think will succeed? That is, assuming…”
“Assuming Zuko survives,” Iroh finished. “It’s hard to say. I spent much time away from them. More than I should have, really.”
Reaching up, Iroh stroked his beard as he considered. “Azula is aggressive, decisive, and relentless. Once she has set her mind on something, she will not hesitate and will stop at nothing to see it through. She is a prodigy. Blessed by the heavens, or fate, one might say. But for all her strength, she lacks wisdom, temperance, and I fear even empathy at times. She would be a strong leader, certainly, but one who rules with an iron fist.”
“Just like her great grandfather, grandfather, and father.”
“No. Sozin only changed in his later years. In his early years, Roku tempered him,” Iroh shook his head. “Sozin in his early years was a strong leader who managed to avoid most of the pitfalls of leadership. His dream of advancing the world came from those early years, but it was a different, much harder man who tried to see them through, and chose the methods he did.”
“And prince Zuko?”
“Zuko… is a hard young man to pin down,” Iroh hummed. “He is not the prodigy that Azula is, but he is able to think outside the box that the mindset for bending puts most of us in, and is willing to try new things. He once told me that it didn’t matter if he tried and failed ninety-nine times, so long as he succeeded on the hundredth. Where Azula is aggressive, Zuko is humble. Where she is decisive, Zuko is meticulous. Where she is relentless, he shows temperance.”
“They’re opposites, then?”
“Not quite,” Iroh denied. “They would work best together, in my opinion. With Zuko to temper the worst of Azula’s tendencies and Azula to drive Zuko to do more.”
The captain sent Iroh a considering look. “That hasn’t been done in a while, has it?”
“No, but it’s not unheard of.”
The captain fought down a smile as he said, “I just hope I’m there for the conversation where you sit them down and tell them the best thing for the country is for them to marry each other.”
Iroh let out a sigh, even as he chuckled. “I am not looking forward to it.”
A thought occurred and the captain asked, “What if he’s already found someone, before then?”
“That is not unheard of either.”
Unspoken was the fact that, in order for it to happen, the current Fire Lord would have to be dealt with, one way or another.
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“Is that it?”
Passing Yue my spyglass, I grinned. “See for yourself.”
She brought it to her eye and took a moment to sweep it around, before landing on what we had spotted from the sea. Just barely visible on top of a mountain, in the middle of a white capped mountain range miles distant, through a gap in the clouds I had spotted something that looked funny on top of one of the mountains. Through the spyglass, it became obvious that it was a manmade structure.
“It is! The northern air temple!” Yue gushed, before handing the glass back.
I pressed it together and slipped it back into my pocket and took the tiller, pointing us at the shore. “You ready to go ashore?”
“Absolutely. I’d like to stretch my legs. I could use a bath, too.”
“Same,” I agreed. “But unless we make one ourselves, we’re kind of out of luck on that front, unless you want to take a river bath in freezing water.”
Yue blushed and looked away. After a moment, she nodded and sat up straighter, before sending me a smile. “We’re engaged. We’re going to see each other eventually anyway. And as I’ve had to learn over the last few days, privacy when you travel is a rare thing.”
The reality of traveling by boat meant that eventually, someone needed to take care of basic biological functions, and we weren’t always close enough to land to pull over and run into the woods. That, and stopping every time someone had to go was impractical. That meant going over the side of the boat, or using the bucket with a wooden seat I kept for that purpose. Either way, whoever was doing their business was exposed to the world.
On a side note, that this world actually had something resembling toilet paper was a minor miracle. One I was thankful for every day.
“Alright. You make a tub out of ice and fill it with water, I’ll heat it, and we can both climb in and scrub?” I offered, and Yue nodded.
“I brought my soap!”
I chuckled, shaking my head. “I brought a few bars, but not much. Didn’t like the stuff they were selling up north. Going to need to hit a town and restock.”
We made landfall not long after and Yue used water to move the boat further inland. “Are we just going to leave it here?”
“For now,” I confirmed. “We’ll take what we need and come back for it later.”
I grabbed my main bag and pulled it out of the boat, while Yue had to do a little repacking under my direction, so she wasn’t carrying a bunch of stuff she didn’t need. Taking out my bow, I went ahead and strung it and set my quiver in place, before we started walking, following a stream that seemed to come from the direction we needed to go. As we went, I kept an eye out for edible plants, showing Yue and gathering things to go with our food—onions, garlic, berries, and mushrooms for her.
“It’s all so beautiful. There are so many trees. But I didn’t expect this much snow,” Yue mused, looking this way and that as we walked, taking in everything she could with wide eyes.
“Well, we’re still pretty far north. It stays pretty cold year round.”
“This is all south to me,” she giggled.
We walked for hours, until eventually, I spotted what I had been hoping for and heard a call in the near distance. Holding up a hand, I motioned Yue to be quiet and get down. Moving closer as she crouched, I pulled off my bag and set it down, untying a length of rope from the side and hooking it to my belt. “Stay here. I’ll be back in a few,” I whispered, and she nodded.
The pine needles underfoot were wet with snow and meltwater and made not a sound as I slipped along slowly through the trees. Eventually, I spotted a small herd of animals that looked like a cross between an arctic fox and an antelope. They were the size of an antelope, with fox-like bodies and tails, but the head of an antelope.
Drawing an arrow, I took aim at the closest and let fly. The animal squealed as it was struck and started running, spooking the rest of the herd into fleeing. After only a few steps however, the fox antelope fell over onto its side and lay still. Pulling my knife, I made my way over and finished it off. I took a few minutes to hang it from a tree, open it up, field dress it inside the skin, and let the blood drain before cleaning my hands and knife in the stream and making my way back to Yue.
“Come on, I’ve got dinner. I’ll need you to carry my bag, though.”
“Oh? Alright,” she agreed, and followed after me. Upon seeing the fox antelope she made an appreciative noise as I picked it up and tossed it over my shoulder. “It’s big.”
“I just hope it tastes good,” I chuckled, following the stream further for several miles, away from where I’d made the kill and had left the remains.
Eventually, we found a good spot to make camp for the night, near enough to the stream and with some natural cover in the form of several large boulders jutting out of the ground. I hung the fox antelope up and got to work making camp for us. Fire burned and dried a circle of ground around the rocks, leaving a nice, clear, dry area for us to camp on.
“So, what do we do next?”
“Shelter first,” I explained, and she nodded, watching as I worked and explained everything I was doing as I did it.
I took my bag from Yue and set up the tarp inside as a tent, before cutting down some limbs to make a lean-to over it. Our sleeping bags went inside and backpacks outside. With shelter taken care of, we gathered up some fallen limbs to make a fire. I took care of drying them and got a fire going, then moved onto the fox antelope, showing Yue how to remove the hide.
Despite being a sheltered princess, she was eager to learn whatever I wanted to show her, and not squeamish at all about helping. Her waterbending made cleaning the meat of any remaining blood an easy task, and then we got it set up on a spit over the fire, as soon as it died down a bit. Pulling one of the bottles from my bag, I had her use her bending to coat the meat with a bit of the hooch I’d gotten from the Sun Warriors for flavor. Combined with fresh garlic and onion, it quickly started to smell great after a long half-day’s worth of hiking.
With everything set up for the night except our defenses, which I would leave to Yue later to make an ice wall around our campsite, we made our way down to the river with our soap, rags, and towels. Yue quickly had us a large, thick tub made of ice and filled with entirely too cold water from the stream. A bit of fire had that steaming nicely, and a bit more bending on her part had the water inside soapy.
Yue eyed me nervously, hesitating at taking the final plunge. Chuckling, I shook my head and began stripping. The girl blushed, covering her eyes, but I caught her peeking through her fingers more than once.
I tossed my clothes, except for my jacket and boots, into the tub first and climbed in after. She dropped her hand and stopped pretending not to watch as she asked, “Why did you put your clothes in?”
“They need to be washed or they’ll start to stink,” I explained. “You should do yours too while we’re at it. Actually, with your waterbending, you could probably do them in like, thirty seconds, then just pull the water out.”
“Oh! I’ve never washed my own clothes before,” she murmured, then began undressing. When she saw I wasn’t even pretending not to look, she blushed down below her neck, but didn’t try to hide as she quickly stripped down.
Yue was sexy, but it was the soft kind of sexy of a healthy, fit young woman who didn’t really have that much physical activity in her life. She had a nice, full set of breasts, thick thighs, a trim belly, and a plump ass that looked like it had a good squish to it. It wasn’t the athletic, harder physique of some of the other girls in my life—Azula, Ty Lee, and Mai, for instance, I knew from experience were all much more active girls with more athletic builds. But what Yue had was just fine too, in my opinion.
“Don’t stare,” Yue pouted as she flung her clothes into the bath and climbed in, exposing a white bush and puffy lips briefly, before slipping into the water up to her neck.
“Can’t help it. You’re nice to look at,” I grinned, earning a pout, even as she preened a bit under the attention. “Come here, I’ll wash your back.”
Somehow, through some Herculean act of self-restraint, we kept it to just a bath… and a little kissing and cuddling, once she settled down enough to relax. When we got finished, we dried our clothes and got dressed, ate a nice meal of fresh venison before I strung the leftovers high up in a tree, and Yue erected a wall of ice around the campsite to keep us safe for the night. I tossed a few more logs on the fire and we turned in for the night.
“I should do something about our sleeping bags,” Yue yawned as we lay in the tent and it began to snow outside.
“Yeah?”
“Mm. I’ve got a sewing kit. I’ll pull out the stitching and put them together.”
“Oh? Why’s that?” I teased.
Yue pouted. “It’d be warmer.”
“Is that the only reason?”
“Shut up and go to sleep!”
“Regretting this already, huh?”
Yue shook her head. “No. Not even a little.”