Important announcement: Season 3B premiere has been pushed back to fall, so once again, I will make my shameless plug for SaveSpashley(dot)com. We need your help now more than ever. We will not be silenced. We will not take this insult laying down. We will instead strike back with everything we have. Please lend us your voice if you haven't already. SoN is Love. Spread the Word.
Chapter Twenty-eight
Much to Spencer's relief, Ashley's fever had broken in the hours after the girl had fallen asleep. After waking, the exhausted brunette and the equally exhausted blonde shared another pot of soup. The older girl's headache faded, and she fell back asleep soon after.
Not willing to lower her guard in case Ashley had another flare-up, Spencer looked for tasks to keep herself awake. With her lover curled up comfortably in the bear hide, she gave the sleeping bag a much needed washing under the falls to cleanse it of the sweat and grime from Ashley's sickness. Wringing out the moisture as best as she could, she draped the sleeping roll over one of the rock ledges and out of her way.
With the deerskin no longer being sat on, Spencer decided to act on her idea of an arrow quiver.
Needing only half the hide, she sliced across its width with the hunting knife and set one section aside. She rolled the other portion into a tube with the hair on the outside, figuring this would provide some degree of water resistance. Using the tip of the knife, she punched holes through the leather along the connecting edges. A length of gauze roll from the first aid kit was threaded through the holes and tied off. On the bottom of the tube, she cut two small slits, one up either side. She folded the two opposing flaps up to close the end, punched a few more sets of holes, and stitched the edges shut.
After a few minutes of deliberation, Spencer ducked into the grotto to detach the shoulder strap from the tent pack. Creating two more holes, she clipped the strap onto each end of the leather case. Satisfied with her handiwork, she collected their bundle of flighted arrows and slid them into the quiver.
"Perfect."
When Ashley awoke, her strength had somewhat returned, and she was ready to eat something with a little more substance than soup broth. Two steaks of deer venison were soon cooking. Laying on her side, remaining snug in the warmth of the bearskin, the still recovering brunette watched Spencer with a strange little smile.
The blonde caught her stare. "What?"
"I was thinking…you should write children's novels."
"And you're basing this off of what? My explicit recounting of the forbidden affair between two stuffed animals?"
Ashley seemed to give it a bit of thought before offering a firm nod. "…yes."
Spencer smirked and shoved a venison steak into the girl's hands. "Shut up and eat that."
The brunette mirrored the smirk. Hunger satisfied (and still contentedly naked), Ashley pulled a reluctant Spencer down into the folds of the bearskin. She divested the blonde of her clothing—which had at some point materialized on her form, the brunette noted in disapproval—and snuggled up against her back.
"You need to rest now," Ashley murmured, dropping kisses onto Spencer's bare shoulder.
Any thought of protest in the younger girl's mind flew out the window as she seemed to melt into the warmth of the thick fur blanket and Ashley's body pressed up against hers. Her eyelids grew heavy, and the gentle caresses of the brunette's fingers across her stomach lulled both girls to sleep.
The rest of that day and night passed in the realm of dreams, where the girls only woke for a meal or other necessities. As evening came upon them, they moved back into the grotto, using the bearskin in place of the still damp sleeping bag.
It was two more days before Ashley was back to one hundred percent health. Her dehydration, muscle weakness, and bile-burned sore throat were resolved with regular meals, frequent liquid intake, and strict bed rest. Spencer had been coerced (read: dragged willingly) into partaking in the latter by the brunette's insistent pout. When asked why, Ashley gave a cheeky smile and a simple response.
"Hey, if I'm going to be stuck in bed, I want to be stuck in bed with my hot girlfriend."
The blonde's retort was equally sassy. "Still as one-track minded as ever, huh? Good to know the fever hasn't caused any brain damage."
The girls spent those two days of bed rest comfortable in each other's arms and more often than not, nude (who needs clothes, really?). They shared idle chitchat of the mundane, serious discussions about the world, and deep conversations about their lives. They played Anywhere but Here, made up word games, and delved into the continued adventures of Amanda and Gabrielle. They exchanged loving caresses and tender kisses throughout, never tiring of each other's company.
When finally neither could stay idle any longer, they both dressed (with Ashley grumbling complaints about the necessity of clothing) and stepped outside into the morning air…
…then jumped right back into the grotto with an exclamation from Ashley. "Jesus, it's cold!"
The temperatures had been dropping in the last week but evidently, they had plummeted the previous night.
"How can it be this cold? Isn't it not even October yet?"
Spencer shrugged. "Early winter?"
"…fucking Canada…"
The ring of ice around the edge of the lake was even more pronounced, and the waterfall seemed to have lost a certain degree of its flow. Their best estimate? The temperature had fallen to single digits. A cold wind blew directly into the grotto, its icy hand slapping them in the face, bringing another problem to their attention: below-zero wind chills.
The two girls exchanged telling looks.
This was bad.
Their meager hoodies weren't going to cut it anymore.
The grotto had protected them this far, but with nothing to stop the harsh chill from seeping in, it wouldn't be enough for long.
Ashley sucked in a breath (almost choking on the frigid air invading her lungs), and blew it out in a curse. "Well, shit. You see what happens when you make me stay in bed for two days? The world retaliates. It doesn't like being deprived of my utter hotness."
Spencer rolled her eyes. "I don't remember you complaining much in the last forty-eight hours."
"You were naked," Ashley defended. "It was mentally incapacitating, therefore impossible for me to complain."
"And whose fault is that?"
"It's not my fault you have a nice body. Nor is it my fault that my incredibly hot body fits so well with yours."
With a soft smile, Spencer squeezed the brunette's hand. The light mood changed with a gust of wind. "What should we do?"
"No idea." Ashley ran a hand through her hair. "All right. Simple things first. Firewood's getting low."
"Sleeping bag needs to be, uh, thawed."
"It's fucking cold."
Spencer snorted. "You're going to need my sweatshirt when you go out."
"And you're going to need a fire close by when you stay in."
"So…we make a second fire pit right at the entrance."
Together, they hauled rocks up from the lake shore to make a half-ring on the stone ground against one corner of the grotto entry. A handful of dried leaves and grass from their pre-snow stockpile was lit beneath a few sticks of wood, and the blaze was gradually built up. The fire's placement seemed to find a perfect balance between smoke ventilation to the outside and heat permeation into the shelter. The sleeping bag—half frozen from its 'drying' time on the rock ledge—was brought back inside. Spencer's hoodie was stripped off and soon replaced over Ashley's own.
Picking up the axe, the brunette gave her lover a one-armed hug. "You sure we can't stay naked?" she murmured in the blonde's ear.
She was rewarded with Spencer's trademark head tilt and eye squint. "I'd take it over the cold any day. But…"
"But," Ashley repeated with a sigh. Shouldering the axe, she set out to accomplish the chore of wood chopping. Unfortunately, it seemed Mother Nature was against her.
As soon as Ashley stepped back out of the shelter, the first of many snowflakes hit her nose.
"Fuuuuck."
