It is taking them even longer than they had anticipated to get out of the wretched desert. They had worked it out to be roughly a nine-hour walk but with the slopes, the unsteady ground and their fatigue it took them almost eleven and they were so done with all of this walking already.
They are taking it in turns carrying Esme, the little one having tuckered herself out in the first few hours. It's currently Nia's turn and she is clearly struggling a little bit, having been holding her for about thirty minutes already.
"Here, I'll take her," Kara whispers, noticing that Esme had fallen asleep, a blanket over her to protect her from the sun.
Nia hands her over with no hesitation and then shakes her arms out, trying to get some feeling back into them.
Kara tucks her niece under her chin, holding her to her body tightly so she doesn't drop her. Her and Alex have done most of the legwork carrying Esme with the others having a turn here and there to show willingness.
Alex was lagging behind with Kelly whilst the others were a few metres ahead of them, but she moves up next to Kara. "Hey, do you have any idea how much further before we get away from this sand? We can't keep going for much longer and we can't set up camp here."
Kara sets her eyes on the details of her surroundings, gazing at the little amounts of plant life growing in the sand and the little tracks left behind by animals. "Do you see that plant there?" She nods her head at a head of green leaves poking out of the sand.
Alex nods. "Yeah, looks like a desert cabbage."
"That's a very deadly desert cabbage, don't eat it." The fixes Alex with a look. "They generally grow between desert and grassland, so we have to be getting close."
Alex pants as they trek up another slope. "How close are we talking here?" She looks over at Kara as she watches her step, purposefully slowing down so she doesn't slip with Esme in her arms.
They come to the peak of the sandhill. "Look up."
And just like that they can see actual foliage, not just a random bit of green in the middle of a colossal sandpit.
"Oh, thank Rao."
Kara gives Alex a strange look.
"What, I have to speak like the locals now, right?"
Kara doesn't say anything, just keeps on walking until they finally reach the stable ground as sand turns to grass and dirt.
"I say we go a little way in, there's a few kinds of nocturnal sand snakes that we want to avoid, they don't really leave the desert but the further in we go, the safer we are."
"Just another ten minutes then, my feet are about to drop off." Lena chimes in for the first time in a while."
Kelly steps into line with the others, "I second that."
Nia wastes no time. "Third."
"You guys don't have to convince me, I'm ready to eat and then sleep all night long." Kara chuckles.
Alex very much enjoyed watching everyone for those ten minutes, their expressions as they tried to mentally calculate how much longer they had to walk before they could stop.
When they reached a small clearing between some trees, Kara suggests they set up their tents. They all readily agree and begin working on them right away, eager to have somewhere to retire to.
They have three tents between them, one bigger one and two slightly smaller ones. The Olsen-Danvers family bagged the biggest since there is three of them. All of the tents are big enough to fully stand up in fully upright but don't have a ton of extra space when all is said and done.
They have the tents set up in no time, as they are designed for quick packing and unpacking in case of an emergency. Alex and Kelly take Esme into their tent and Kara takes the opportunity to ask the next obvious question. "So, who wants to bunk with who?"
Nia and Lena share a competitive look.
"You never know what the red sun did to my powers, do either of you want to be next to me when I experience my red sun dreams for the first time? I could get violent, who knows? I'm thinking of you guys really." Nia rambles.
"You just want the tent to yourself don't you?" Kara smirks at her, folding her arms.
"Yes, and I will be grouchy if I don't."
Kara flicks her eyes up to Lena. "Looks like we're roomies."
Lena is speechless for a second before she stutters out. "W-what? Just like that? I wouldn't mind having my own space."
Kara shrugs her shoulders as Nia sticks her tongue out at her playfully, tossing her bag into one tent and diving in after it, zipping it up after her with a flourish.
"Sorry Lena, I knew from the way you were looking at each other that there was no way I would get it to myself so you're my pick for sharing a tent. I love Nia, don't get me wrong, but I can relax much better around you, you don't get quite as excitable early in the morning when I'm still half asleep."
Lena tilts her head with a smile, directing Kara to enter the tent first by holding the tent flap open for her. "Understandable, for someone whose power is dreams, when that girl is awake she's awake.
They make quick work of setting up their small inflatable mattresses with a small hand pump, Kara doing both of theirs. They put them either side of the tent, leaving a small walkway of a couple of feet.
They plop down on their respective mattresses when they hear Kelly shout. "We'll have dinner in an hour, meet you guys outside in thirty minutes to start cooking."
They shout their agreement and hear Nia do the same. "Can you pass me my book from in my bag?" Kara murmurs.
"You're closer."
"I'm tired."
Lena sighs and complies, digging through the bag. "How in the world did you fit everything in here, it's like Mary Poppin's luggage, if I look hard enough I will pull out a coat stand."
Lena finds the book and hands it to Kara then sits back down on her bed. "I just crammed it in, we need it all, so I had to make it fit." Kara smiles as she flips through her book.
"I got Brainy to make this for me. It's a bunch of info about Krypton's animals and different edible plants that we might come across. There is an edible fungus that grows in this area and most other areas too that we can have with whatever it is that Brainy packed for us."
Lena pulls a disgusted face as she speaks. "Yummy, fungus and dried-out meat. Sounds delicious."
"The fungus is nice, I had it a bunch when I was a kid. It's called 'tahn jraolahs' and it basically translates to ground tree. It's the most common type of fungus and is very edible. It's in a lot of Kryptonian dishes." Kara explains, rolling onto her side to look at Lena as she talks.
Lena looks genuinely interested as she explains about the tahn jraolahs and says as much once Kara finishes explaining. "I always say that I'll try anything once. I'll come with you to go find some, you can show me what to look for."
"Alright, let's go because if I lie here any longer I am likely to fall asleep." Kara heaves herself up and grabs Lena's hand to help her up too.
They poke their heads into the other tents to let them know that they would be back soon and aren't planning on going far. Nia is fast asleep, which isn't totally unexpected, but Alex and Kelly wish them good luck and tell them to be back soon.
They head deeper into the foliage, ducking under some low branches of trees. Lena is in awe of each new plant she sees, she hasn't seen anything close to a lot of them, they have strange leaves or funny coloured stems or in some cases, whole trees are completely purple, trunk and all.
"Wow, this is really incredible. I never imagined that it would be so different to what we have on Earth."
Kara smiles and ducks her head, she is enjoying the perks of her home planet once again. She was afraid that seeing these kinds of things would make her sad but instead, she just feels like she has been given a second chance to truly appreciate what she once had but lost.
"If you think this is weird for you, imagine what it was like the other way around. I was appalled that you didn't have any purple trees. We have normal brown and green ones too but seriously, you have no purples ones and that's just sad."
She gesticulates with her hands wildly as she talks, making Lena cackle at her overplayed hatred of Earth's lack of purple trees.
Kara joins in with her laughing but freezes suddenly, halting in her spot, and causing Lena to bump into her.
"What are you doing?"
Kara points a single finger to the base of a tree. "There!"
Lena follows the direction on the finger and sees a light blue mushroom-like fungus growing up the base of a tree and across a rock. It has a long flat head and a thick stem attaching it to the ground.
Kara is quick to break away from her initial shock of spotting her prize, so she kneels down closer, inspecting it and double-checking against her little book to make sure it is the right one, she has no interest in poisoning the group tonight. The last thing they need is to abort the mission early because of a bad case of food poisoning.
Once she confirmed it was the right one she pulled a little netted bag out of her pocket, which she had grabbed from in her backpack before she left and began to pick them and pop them into the bag.
Lena watches her from a small distance. "Are you helping or are you just going to stand there and look pretty? If we get enough then we won't have to forage for another couple of days."
"I look pretty no matter what I'm doing, I'll have you know." She places her hands on her hips as she rolls her eyes. "I don't want to get my pants dirty, I'll hold the bag whilst you scramble in the dirt."
Kara leans up from where she was hunched over, collecting the tahn jraolahs to shoot Lena a dirty look. "You're of as much use as a chocolate teapot right now, you know that?"
"I resent that, I'm great company."
"Yeah, sure you are," Kara grumbles, filling her bag to the top, making sure she has as many as possible, trying to calculate how long it will last them. Maybe four days if they are lucky but most likely three. She spots something behind Lena. "Oh, behind you, those leaves on that bush, with the little yellow spots. Grab some, they're great for adding flavour."
"Hey, can I ask you a question now that we are away from the others?" Lena asks her in a soft, unsure voice.
It takes Kara by surprise as she wasn't expecting the rapid change in mood. "Yeah, of course."
"Why did they bring Esme along instead of leaving her with J'onn? I would have thought that it would be better for her to be with him rather than dragging her on a super long trip, especially since we can show up pretty close to the exact time that we left."
Kara sighs. "Alex said that they thought it would be safer but that's not true. We will be pretty close to getting back on time but with the rough landings and quick take-off we will have to do, it's likely the ship will take damage and we will be off by a few days. I don't think they want Esme to feel abandoned and I don't think that they could cope for months without their daughter."
"It still feels a bit wrong though."
"I know, but I needed them to help with the mission and they couldn't stay behind. I told Alex that I would do anything to protect Esme and I think that was the final straw to make her just bring her along with us. I do believe that we can keep her safe, however, if I was in that position, I don't know if I would make the same choice, but I'm not a parent either so I don't know."
Lena hums in acknowledgement as Kara finally takes a breath. "Esme is surrounded by people that would gladly die for her here, she will always be protected, and I suppose that this way, she at least gets to learn some new things about her aunt Kara and make some memories to last a lifetime."
By this point, they are nearing the tents, bounty in hand. "It'll all be ok."
Lena nods in agreement because of course it will, even without them, Esme is one special kid.
They come from around the back of the tents, seeing Alex and Kelly already outside setting up a fire pit. Alex is just getting ready to light it when she sees them. "Hey! How did you do?"
Kara holds up the bag, pride written across her face. "Really good, this will last us a few days plus it's super nutritious, so we'll have plenty of energy for tomorrow."
Kelly looks impressed. "I wasn't expecting you to find anything on your first try, especially so close to camp."
"These are super common so we shouldn't really go without on our trip, but we will have to stock up at times just in case, they don't like to grow in certain areas, but there is also different plants we can harvest too." Kara tips part of the bag into their pan and Lena adds some of the leaves she gathered, watching as Alex rinses them off with some clean water from her water recycling bottle.
Kelly tips out the excess water as Alex lights the fire. "Will one of you go and wake up Nia? I have a feeling that she doesn't want to miss out on dinner."
Lena pats Kara's arm gently as she passes her, making Kara's lips twitch upwards slightly. They listen as Lena tries and fails to wake Nia up several times before she simply unzips the sleeping bag and pulls it off her then grasps her wrists and hoists her upwards.
The movement jolts her awake and she pulls her arms loose and into fists like she is about to be in a boxing match. Lena rolls her eyes at her and pushes her back down playfully with an open hand to her forehead. "Come on, Dreamer. We're all hungry and want to eat."
Before she turns to exit both Lena and Nia hear a childish giggle from behind them, they peer towards to entrance of the tent and see Esme laughing at them, peeping from one side of the tent.
"What are you laughing at little miss giggle pants?" Lena chases after her, making her squeal softly as she runs around the tents, ducking under the guy lines of the tents in a way that Lena definitely could not.
Alex, Kelly and Kara are sitting around the fire, watching the food cook. They watch Lena play with Esme as Nia rolls herself out of the tent to join them. Kelly clears her throat. "I thought this would be awful and it might still be, but I wouldn't want to do it with anyone other than you guys."
They murmur their agreement, getting sentimental for a second before Kara adds, "I wouldn't mind doing it with Kate or Barry though."
"Way to ruin the moment." Alex sighs.
Kara grins, having successfully annoyed Alex.
Kelly stirs the tahn jraolahs and leaves then adds in the dried meat that Brainy packed for them. They have enough to last them a couple of weeks but after that, they will have to figure something out.
"This is pretty much done guys, everyone come sit down," Kelly calls Lena and Esme to come over to the fire. They sit in a semi-circle with their backs to the tents. Lena uses Kara's shoulder to steady her as she lowers herself onto the ground next to her.
Esme plonks herself between Lena and Kelly, pressing into her godmother's side. Lena wraps her arm around her, holding her.
Kelly and Alex divide out the food evenly between them and they all happily dig in except for Esme who is eyeing the food up. Kelly hums in satisfaction with her first bite. "Holy crap, that's incredible. It's definitely a taste that I've never had before."
"I have missed Kryptonian cuisine so much which is why I'm wondering why my niece won't try it."
"It looks funny." Esme complains, bringing a spoonful close to her face for a sniff before lowering it again."
"Taste." Kara urges but Esme doesn't look convinced. "Ehflum."
The group watches as Esme takes in the unfamiliar word, she furrows her little eyebrows before trying to repeat it. "eyflun."
"No little one, ehflum. It means 'taste' in my language." Esme tries again and gets it, the new word spurring her to try the food. Her little face lights up as she swallows her first bite.
"It's good!"
The group cheer softly for her as she digs into the rest of her meal, continuing to eat theirs as well, savouring each bite and enjoying the sustenance after such a hard day.
Once their bellies were full they all had droopy eyes they decided it was best to get some rest so they can keep on moving first thing in the morning, after all, they do have a long way to go and the grassland that they are in only supplies so much cover, leaving them partially vulnerable until they get into a more thickly wooded area.
Kara zipped the tent behind her as Lena situated herself in her sleeping bag, taking one last glance at the dark red sky before it fully closed. She climbed onto her own mattress and rolled onto her side, facing Lena.
"One day down, only several more months to go." Kara is sure to keep her voice low, not wanting to disturb the others as they drift off.
Lena chuckles quietly, "You don't have to say it like that, it makes it sound way worse."
"Sorry."
"Don't be, I don't actually mind it so much, I get to be away from my psycho brother and still get to hang out with my family all day, sans J'onn and Brainy. It's an all-around win in my book." Lena rests her head on her hand, leaning up on her elbow.
"Well, I'm glad."
"How are you coping with being back?" Lena stretches over to take Kara's hand in hers. She is practically falling off of her mattress, so Kara stretches her arm to meet her halfway.
"Much better than I thought I would, it's just a whole lot of nostalgia so far but I think it will hit me at some point soon, that's another reason I wanted to share a tent with you. I don't have to hide when I'm with you." She squeezes the hand in hers.
Lena gives her a squeeze back in return. "You know I'll always be here for you, even if all you need is a cuddle."
Kara smiles through the dimmed light of the tent, her eyes adjusted just enough to make out the outline of Lena's body. "And what if I don't need a cuddle but want one?"
Kara can practically sense the eye roll from across the tent. "Then come shove your mattress against mine and get on with it, weirdo."
Kara does just that, shifting over until they are pressed as close to each other as possible but still in their respective sleeping bags.
"I said come here, not try and get in my skin."
"Same difference, shh." Kara closes her eyes, the day's exhaustion sitting heavy on her bones.
The pair of them are shifting slowly into the sanctity of sleep when they are awoken by a loud noise, sounding way too close for comfort. It was somewhere between a roar and a screech, the sound ricocheting through their bones, leaving them feeling like the very atoms of their being are shifting.