The sound of soft raindrops against the canvas of their tents wakes them up gently, the staccato soothing to their ears even as they realise that it means they will have to walk in the rain today.
Lena is the first to wake and rather than waking her blonde counterpart, she pulls out one of the books and starts reading, letting herself fall into the pages and become blissfully unaware of the world around her.
One hand flips the pages as the other absentmindedly combs through Kara's hair as her head rests just to her right. The light scratching against her scalp brings her slowly from the land of dreams and into reality.
Lena is only nudged back to reality when Kara's warmth leaves her side as she rolls away from her and onto her back so she can sit up. "Oh, hi."
"Hey, how long have you been awake?" Kara's voice is still clouded from sleep, making it sound raspy.
"Not too long, I just took the opportunity to get started on these books whilst everyone was still asleep. It looks like we'll have a long, soggy day ahead of us." Lena flits her eyes up to the roof of the tent to show that she is referencing the rain.
Kara listens to the pitter-patter for a second before responding. "Yeah, that won't be fun. It's a good job our packs are waterproof, you won't be able to read if your pages get soggy."
"You can say that again."
They hear voices from the Olsen-Danvers tent and determine that it is time to get up and get this day over with, the rain isn't too heavy right now, but it could get worse and no matter what it is like right now, after hours of walking they will definitely be soaked through to the bone, no doubt about it.
They stick their heads out of their tents so they can all speak to each other whilst keeping themselves mostly dry.
"Hey! We'll have to walk for a little bit, so we have somewhere with more coverage. A fire won't light here because of the rain, and I like my food to be cooked ." Kelly lets them all know the plan.
Kara groans, she hates doing anything before breakfast, let alone physical exercise. She knew that there would be challenges in this mission, but this isn't one she signed up for.
"I'm not going to make it."
"Doing be such a baby, come on." Lena offers her no sympathy as she climbs out of the tent and meets up with the others.
Kara purposely takes longer than she has to so she can put off going out into the rain, wrapping up both of their sleeping bags and mattresses then packing up everything else. Lena is just coming back to drag her out by her hair if she has to when she pops out and begins to disassemble the tent.
"We're all packed up."
"Thank you, darling."
It turns out that the rest of the team is even less inclined to hurry, and Kara, Lena and Esme find themselves fully packed up under the canopy of a small tree, watching the rest of the team packing up their own tents.
The only thing that motivates the others to move faster is Kara's incessant whining about needing them to be quicker so they can find somewhere to make breakfast. They haven't missed a breakfast yet and she isn't planning on today being the first.
Their clothes are soaked through within the first hour of their trek and unfortunately for them, there hasn't been anywhere with suitable cover around so far. The ground is rich with wet mud that crumbles beneath their feet and makes their journey unstable.
They are heading down bank towards the ever nearing canopy of lower-set trees but when their feet begin to slide they have to slow their pace, trying as hard as they can to stay upright.
Esme is loving it, Lena's waterproof jacket tossed over her head to keep her dry whilst Kara carries her and tries not to fall.
Their boots are absolutely caked in mud and the water is dripping against their skin making them shiver.
"Today is already the worst," Nia says as she slips, dipping forward in an effort to catch herself and skidding onto her knees so she is now wearing leg warmers made of mud.
"Here." Lena offers her a hand to help her up, her other hand clutching the sword, which she has been keeping in her possession because Kara gets way too excited at the prospect of owning a sword to be safe about using it since she just wants to swing it about like a knight.
The handle is gripped tightly, and the sheathed point is being used to jab at the ground, so it is a makeshift walking stick to help her keep her balance.
"If you blunt my sword I won't be happy," Kara says as she slams it into the ground. "You could at least unsheathe it so it doesn't damage it, the blade can at least be sharpened."
With a huff, Lena pulls the sheath off and plonks the muddy leather across Kara's shoulder. Esme erupts into giggles at the horrified look that crosses her face.
As wet and uncomfortable as they all are, they all take a sick kind of pleasure in the strange torment that has been inflicted upon Kara.
"I cannot believe that you actually just did that to me!" Kara's voice is smooth and steady, almost frighteningly so. Lena takes note of it and smartly shimmies her way further down the unsteady bank to take refuge beside Alex.
Once she's at a safe distance, Lena feels safe enough to let out a small laugh and she can immediately feel the daggers being shot at the back of her head.
"If we were under a yellow sun then I would have holes burnt right through my head." Lena stage whispers. The joke lands and the whole team, excluding Kara, chuckles. Kara's pout is in full force but since she's at the back nobody can see it.
She kicks a rock lightly as she walks out of petulant anger but regrets it when it splodges down into the mud and splashes it up her leg. Great, just great.
They are forced to turn a corner as they reach the edge of a high rocky drop, the path they have to take is a much worse path than they were already on, its slope is much steeper and the rain is trickling down the dirt, so it is glistening with moisture, meaning it is without a doubt, slippery as hell.
They stop right before the sudden decline to explore their options.
"We can either go down the bank or try and reclimb the slope we have just spent over an hour coming down and be no closer to breakfast," Kara states bluntly.
Nia hums her acknowledgement. "Or we could just use it as a slide."
The resounding, "No." She gets in response from everyone makes her deflate quickly and hold her hands up in surrender.
"The slope is dangerous, we can't really see what is at the bottom, or even in the middle for that matter." Kelly tries to see through the rain but by now, it is absolutely hammering down on them, and they can only see a few feet ahead of them.
Alex really doesn't know what to do. This is what she was afraid of with bringing Esme along. She is putting her own daughter in a situation that could be really dangerous, all so that their family isn't separated. She can't decide if it is worth it.
"I don't think we really have a choice," Lena says.
Kara bounces Esme up onto her hip a little higher and tucks the jacket around her tighter, doing the best she can to protect her from the rain. "If this path is this bad, then any other we find is likely just as bad. I'm willing to bet that even if we were to make it back up, the ground would be too uneven up there to even set up camp again and wait it out."
"I guess we have no choice then," Alex admits. "We will have to take precautions with the ground being so unsteady."
They each have a spool of rope attached to their packs so they unravel them and tie them to each other to make one long rope and create harnesses around each of them so if someone slips, the rope will catch them.
Alex attaches Esme to her front with a harness so that she doesn't slip. As much as she trusts Kara with her daughter, she's been carrying her for a while so she is fatigued, and she needs to keep Esme as safe as she realistically can in this situation.
The knots are double-checked on everyone, nobody is going to be slipping out of it because of a simple, stupid mistake that could have been very easily prevented. The harnesses aren't very comfortable on their waists, but the physical presence of a safety rope makes them feel more at ease as they step over the edge one at a time.
They have to immediately scramble for stability as their boots slide into the slick mud, each taking the hand of the person still on the upper part of the path to steady themselves until they get their footing until it is just Lena left.
She has to admit that she has never felt quite as cool as when she instinctively stabbed the sword down into the earth as she allowed herself to slip over the edge. The blade doesn't stick immediately, just slows her down as she slips down the bank and leaves an impressive line behind where it has cut through the sloppy mess.
She tries to slow herself down but can't seem to, no matter how hard she digs the sword into the mud. Her eyes widen then scrunch closed when she sees how close she is slipping towards Kara's back.
They meet with a mighty whack, Lena faceplanting into the pack strapped to Kara's back as her momentum forces them to slide together, the sword still in place. The added weight finally makes them stop after a few seconds and they stand there frozen in shock.
Kara turns around very carefully and plants her hands on Lena's shoulders to steady her. "Just because Alex is carrying Esme, doesn't mean I'm carrying you. No piggyback rides today, thank you."
Lena rolls her eyes and pushes her without thinking. Kara loses her footing and slips, landing on her butt in the mud and sinking into it.
"I'm so sorry! I didn't mean for that to happen." Lena rushes to help her up, offering her a hand just to get ignored as Kara sits there dazed, her feet digging down to stop her from slipping.
The look on Kara's face is terrifying, she gazes up at Lena with a blank stare, nothing behind her eyes. "You're about to regret being tied to me."
Before Lena can process the word, the rope has been grasped in Kara's hands and pulled with as much force as she can muster from her position.
The amount of joy that the act brings Kara is almost worth the mud Lena can feel in the crevices that mud should not be in as she is brought down to Kara's level.
"Are you two being serious?" Alex tries to storm up to them to make them get up but can't get the grip, her anger clouding her judgement, so she misses her step and her and Esme end up in the mud too.
Since Alex went first, the force of the fall pulls both Kelly and Nia down too, eliciting many understandable complaints.
Glares are passed around like party favours at this point, switching between team members as they try and settle on who they should blame.
It eventually lands on Nia when she makes an unappreciated comment. "I guess I was right, we are using it as a slide."
As much as they all hate it, now they are all covered in mud, there is no reason why they shouldn't just slide down on their butts. It's probably the most undignified they have ever felt as they let themselves slide down a few feet at a time before digging their feet down to control their descent.
"This is not how I pictured the day going." Kelly huffs, panting as she stomps down a second time, her first stomp just slipping through the mud and flinging a dollop of it into the air.
"The day shouldn't have gone anywhere before we had the chance to eat. I'm starving, surely we could have at least had some of those crackers from the accommodation that we brought with us." Kara can't deny herself the pleasure of complaining at the group again. Her stomach is not appreciative of the wait.
Before Kelly and Alex can stop her, Esme speaks, unaware of the trouble she is about to get her parents into. "Those are really good, we had those in our tent this morning!"
If Kara wasn't grouchy before, she is now. With a swipe of her arm, she pushes the raindrops from her eyes before lifting her feet and letting herself career down the bank towards Alex and Kelly.
Unluckily for Lena and Nia, they get dragged along with her on her crusade but then again, they are very close to joining in with her, so they just let themselves be taken along for the ride.
Kelly tenses her body when she sees the speed Kara is coming down the hill towards her. She doesn't even realise what is happening for a while until her sliding comes into view in her peripheral vision.
With the rope between Nia and Kelly in hand, Kara pulls herself towards them and digs her feet back down, instructing Nia and Lena to do the same. This causes them all to come to a grinding halt.
"You owe us an apology."
"Are you kidding me?" Alex shouts through the absolute wall of water.
"No, you need to say sorry and set a good example. Make it a good one." Lena is all in on this now, she is practically frothing at the mouth from the intensity of it all, so she edges forward a little more.
The ropes are being held with a tight grip, the slick twine difficult to hold but still enough to keep them from slipping away from them.
They share a look before Kelly nudges Alex and does the right thing. "I'm sorry, I would have shared if I'd known it would take this long, we were selfish, and it wasn't fair on you guys."
Nia places a reassuring hand on her shoulder. "We forgive you."
Kara is quick to jump in. "But not Alex, we still need your apology."
With a huff, Alex does so. "Sorry."
"Great, let's keep going." Lena restarts her shuffling, prompting the others to do so too.
They may just be the unluckiest people on Krypton because almost immediately after they get moving, the ground begins to shift beneath them and they find themselves careering downwards with no hope of stopping, the water and the loose ground no match for their scrambling limbs or the single sword.
With the rain and the dirt being thrown into their faces, there is no way for them to see what they are falling into, the abyss seemingly so close and so far away.
Alex's arms are wrapped tight around her daughter as the ground disappears from below her. On pure instinct, one of her arms wraps around Esme's head for protection as they drop.
Someone screams. Or maybe they all do. It's hard to tell when they can't see in front of them or feel anything below them. The adrenaline is making it hard to make sense of anything around them, it just forces them to scramble for something to grab hold of.
The wind and rain whips their faces, and they thud into what they can only assume are rocks at regular intervals before they lose all sense of where the ground is once again. All they truly know is that they are going down.
Nia feels someone grab her, she isn't sure who it is, but she clings onto their hand and does her best to pull herself closer to them. Nails dig into her leg but that's nothing compared to the pain coming from her ass when she hits yet another rock.
After a very long, very scary ride, they gradually slow back down until they are firmly back on the ground, still moving but only barely.
They haven't got much energy left after that to even try and stop themselves from moving so they allow themselves to slither down the last of the hill until they plop down a short drop onto the flat surface at the bottom.
It's hard to decipher whose limbs are whose since they all landed in one big muddy pile.
"Well, today has been even worse than I could have possibly imagined." Kara quips, untangling herself and ridding herself of the rope harness when she evaluates her surroundings.
Lena follows suit which spurs the other team members to do the same, Alex and Kelly checking on Esme before they so much as attempt to stand. Of course, the baby of the group is absolutely fine and is acting like she just got off a ride at a theme park.
Through the rain, they can make out a large cluster of trees just up ahead and jump at the chance to have some semblance of cover.
"I swear to Rao, if there isn't enough cover there that I can make food or at the very least be able to put up the tents to have a break from this weather, I will scream."
"We all heard you scream enough on the way down but thanks for the offer," Lena says the line without really thinking, her brain trying to figure out how she got all the way down that bank holding a sword without somehow getting cut.
"That wasn't me."
"Sure it wasn't."