Following the events that transpired with the pollen pods and the group getting separated, albeit only briefly, they made the decision as a group that from then on, they would be as cautious as possible, giving into boredom in order to be as safe as possible.
Everything turned out ok before but next time, it might not so they needed to change their attitudes and behaviours to better keep them safe.
This led to them simply following along the ravine. Thanks to all of the boulders littered around, they have to climb over several miles of rock, being overly careful to not injure themselves but within a week, they get back to normal ground, something they were all grateful for.
That being said that week of climbing over those boulders was, as you would expect, absolutely awful. Their hands and feet were sore by the end of every day from the rough surfaces and their fingertips ended up cracked and bleeding, the only one free of that pain was Esme, who enjoyed the experience immensely, clinging onto whoever's turn it was to give her a piggyback across the rough terrain.
Kara slowly healed, the climbing not helping a whole lot with that, but within a couple of weeks, she was pretty much right as rain, her bruises fading into a soft yellow colour, fading with each passing day.
There's not a lot to say about the rest of their time between then and now, it's like they have been living the same day over and over again, walking along a path that is as familiar and unstimulating as it was the last day.
They have been walking it for almost five weeks, nothing of any significance happening, living in a constant cycle of waking up, eating, walking, taking a break, walking, eating and sleeping.
It's been a long, tiring process but now, now they are finally at a point of change, a point where they won't have to stare at the same dirt walls all day anymore.
"Please tell me we are where I think we are," Kelly says, her feet aching and her jacket tied around her waist.
"We are where you think we are," Kara says, voice filled with excitement and notebook in hand, mapping out their new location, an easy feat because they have officially reached the end of the ravine and by the heat in the air, they are well on their way to The Fire Falls.
Nia cheers tiredly, leading the rest of them to do the same, their eyes simultaneously drooping and trying to drink in the fresh sights of something different.
Up ahead of them, they are able to see the ravine sloping upwards, giving them a perfect ramp to walk up to get out of the pit of boredom and beyond that, a line of trees, something they haven't seen a whole lot of in the past few weeks.
Lena shakes her hand, grabbing the attention of Kara, whose hand is clasped in her own, both palms slightly sweaty but neither caring. "Now that's a sight for sore eyes."
"Isn't it just?" Kara answers, swinging their arms and pulling her to get her to keep walking, prompting the others to do the same since they had slowed to take in the sights. "I'm excited to be done with this part, this has been the most boring period of my life that I've ever lived through, definitely the least action-packed part of my life so far."
"We have been surrounded by deadly plants the entire time, how is that not action-packed?" Alex asks, frowning.
Kara shrugs. "We weren't that close to them, we just walked in a long dent of dirt for forever and a day, it's not the same, as much as I hate danger, you need it around or else you'll have a dull life."
Alex shoulder barges her as she overtakes her, eyes pinned on the slope, ready to be out of this damned ravine, "correction, dear sister, you'll have a safe life."
"And a boring one." Kara reaffirms, throwing her arm out quickly enough to get a light smack to land on Alex's arm as she passes, her attempt to rush past fast enough to avoid any retaliation foiled.
They all find themselves speed walking, ready to get back out into the rest of the world, barely even sparing a second thought for what might be waiting for them up there, not appreciating the safety that the ravine has been giving them, their need to be free too strong for them to think on it too much.
The tension from Kara and Lena's joined hands slackens when Kara stops dragging Lena along with her, Lena getting excited enough herself that her pace naturally picks up, looking forward to having the open space of the forest surrounding them once more, even if it does mean that they will have to watch where they are going now, shutting off their ability to zone out and stare at nothing in particular while they walk.
The group races up the slope, closing their eyes and looking up at the open sky when they reach the top, thriving in the space they now possess and rejoicing in the milestone of the mission that they have reached, something they have desperately been needing since all of the setbacks they have had to deal with.
Now that they aren't surrounded by the walls of dirt, they are more attuned to the sounds around them. Having been surrounded, they were sheltered from a lot of the noise that they hadn't even noticed before, but now that they are here, the sound of the leaves rustling and their boots squelching on the slick coat of leaves on the ground is welcoming in a way that they didn't know they needed.
"We should head for higher ground, we want to make sure that we are heading around The Fire Falls, not towards them, we aren't going for a family swimming session any time soon." Kara declares, taking a look around to determine where they might find higher ground the quickest.
Nia and Esme are smiling over to the side, Esme on Nia's shoulders and looking around at everything going on, thrilled to be somewhere new. "Aunt Kara, Aunt Kara, over there!" Esme calls out, pointing a finger into the trees and wiggling happily on Nia's shoulders, Nia gripping her legs to stop her from tumbling right off because of her happy little jig.
Everyone starts moving closer to try and look where Esme is pointing and all of them are immediately turning to Esme to praise her for her keen eye, setting their internal compasses towards a tall hill that will let them see above the treeline so they can map out their journey from here on out.
Alex leans up to take Esme down from Nia's shoulders, spinning her around until she giggles and telling her, "you're the best lookout ever, much better than the rest of us combined. You're a little walking genius!"
"We all know that! We have the smartest most beautiful daughter on the planet." Kelly gushes, joining her wife and daughter in their giggling, joining in to tickle her daughter's sides while she's perched on Alex's hip.
"Technically, the child version of me is on this planet along with my parents and I should be offended." Kara murmurs, shutting up when Lena nudges her with her elbow and shoots her a steely-eyed glare, daring her to say anything else that might ruin the moment the Olsen- Danvers clan are currently having.
"Sorry," Kara mumbles under her breath, fearing the wrath of her pissed-off girlfriend. If she stops now, she won't have to pout until her lips are sore later trying to rid Lena of the frown that would inevitably be in place if she continued.
"Wait until we get into our tent tonight, you will be." Lena leans in close to whisper it to her, her words sultry and full of promise.
"Absolutely not, please don't not make me ask you a second time." Nia steps between them, taking a hold of each of their wrists and breaking apart their joined hands. "I don't know what you just said but I have been overhearing noises from your tent at night that no innocent person, such as myself, should be hearing. Additionally, if I can hear you, so can the others and they have a child. Think of the children."
Kara and Lena share a panicked look before Lena's turns into mild confusion. "Children?"
"Yeah, me and Esme, we don't need to be traumatized the way you have been doing."
Sucking her lips into her mouth and biting back her laugh, Kara jumps into the conversation. "I have a good pair of earplugs in my pack if you want to borrow them?"
Nia's face twists in disgust, her body shuddering in a way that makes Lena snicker too. "We'll put up our tent a little further away from yours tonight, how does that sound?
"I hate you both, and you can keep your earplugs, I don't want anything that has touched your filthy, filthy bodies, you horny teenagers."
"What's horny?" Esme's sweet voice cuts into their conversation, horrifying all five of the adults there.
To Kara's great surprise and relief, all of Kelly and Alex's anger is being directed to Nia rather than her since she's the one that said the word.
It is funny to see the way that Nia is faltering beneath the two harsh gazes burning holes into her skull and the way she is almost sweating from the hard work her brain is putting in trying to figure out how to ease the death glares.
"Um, Kara, you know what horny is, why don't you take this one." Nia speeds out before speeding off in the direction of the hill, having no qualms about taking the coward's way out on this one.
"Nia!" Kara hisses after her, eyes wide and apologetic when she turns towards her sister, shrinking in on herself and praying that she doesn't get murdered tonight.
Lena, as always, comes to her rescue. "Esme, honey, it's a word that is used when adults that love each other want to cuddle for a super duper long time."
Kara nods along right away, Lena just saved her so she isn't going to put her foot in her mouth now. "That's right, now let's go and catch up to Nia!" Her words are loud and way too overzealous but they do the trick and get everyone walking, Esme gives no indication of whether or not she believes Lena's explanation but drops it, suddenly more concerned with reaching up to touch the leaves of the trees they are walking under.
Kara clears her throat, running her fingers down Lena's wrist to take her hand again, meeting no resistance but not having Lena tighten her fingers around her own like she usually does shows her that she's mad. "Sorry."
"You will be," Lena answers.
"In a good way or-" The sideward glance she gets answers her question well enough. "Right, nope, got it."
They fall into silence, the wind whistling through the branches of the trees filling the air enough that it doesn't feel uncomfortable, quite the opposite if anything. Lena takes a look at her girlfriend out of the corner of her eye, spotting the pout immediately and feeling her heart being filled with fondness even if she is annoyed that she was acting like a child.
She tightens her fingers around Kara's, giving her hand a little squeeze to show she isn't actually mad and does her best not to react when she slyly watches the pout melt off of Kara's face, a content smile taking its place.
"Love you." Kara murmurs, quiet enough for it to only reach Lena's ears.
Lena rolls her eyes, dropping Kara's hand to instead wrap her arm around her waist, tucking it beneath the weight of her pack. "Love you too, weirdo."
"That's not very nice."
"It's very fitting though."
"Debatable."
"Not really."
Lena can't keep the smile off her face by this point. Kara is going to be the death of her but she can't lie, Kara has made the past few weeks tolerable, she's really been her rock and has kept her positive throughout their endless trek through the ravine and has been doing whatever she can to keep her in good spirits, telling her jokes and funny stories, reading the books out loud to the group to keep them entertained and doing the voices for the characters, and being emotionally present, something she doesn't have much practice with, but something that now she's had it in a romantic sense, she could never compromise on again if this doesn't work out.
Something tells her that it will though, she'll make it work. They'll make it work. Every night when they get to their tent, they've been spending at least an hour or two just talking, having every kind of deep and meaningful conversation you can think of and the lightest fluffiest ones too, as well as everything in between.
Of course, there are some kinds of conversations that led to a little less talking happening, something that they are now aware that the others could hear too, all thanks to Nia. They are definitely moving their tent further away from the other two tents tonight.
Kara's giggles at their little discussion cause her to join in, she makes a show of trying not to laugh but doesn't really try that hard to hold it in. "You're a goofball."
"So are you," Kara argues. "That's why we're doing so well together."
"You're the goof and I'm the ball because I have a huge-"
"Please minimize the likelihood of you traumatizing everyone here, Lena, by shutting up now before you say something that gets a certain someone to ask more questions that are not age appropriate." Kelly cuts in, overhearing the whole thing. She does find them very cute together but, at times, they lack some serious common sense on volume control around other people
Both women shoot her an apologetic look and instead fall back into the comfortable silence, content to make the rest of the journey to the hill, that is just up ahead, maybe a ten-minute walk more, completely peaceful so that they can enjoy nature and each other's company.
The closer they get to the hill, the more they can see it and realize that it's more of a random lump of rock sticking up out of the ground with a completely smooth surface on the side that is facing them and unless the sides are any different, it's going to be a major pain in the ass to try and climb.
They get nearer still until they are right up to the base of it, rounding the side of it to see if it will be any better for them to climb. It seems as though it's their lucky day though because there's a split in the rock that is the perfect width for someone to use as leverage to shimmy their way up to the top.
"I'll go up, I have the notebook and know what to look for so we can get going properly." Kara determines, sliding her notebook into her pocket and taking off her pack, leaving it on the ground next to where the split is.
"Kara?" Lena stops her as she's getting herself into position.
She freezes in position, getting ready to start her ascent. "Yeah?"
"Don't fall because I won't catch you, you'd break both of our bodies if I tried."
"That's the least romantic thing you could have possibly said," Kara complains, dragging herself upwards, using her arms and legs to scissor outwards and press against the rock on either side of her to keep herself up.
Alex moves to stand beside Lena, who is fully concentrating on Kara and her climb up the twenty-metre hill, well, more of a giant rock than anything. She's more nervous about watching Kara do it than she let on, masking her fear with bad humour.
"She's a good climber, don't worry too much."
Lena jumps at the sudden appearance of Alex over her shoulder but quickly schools her features. "I know she is, I don't have to like it though."
"I don't like it either," Alex says, surprised at how quickly Kara is getting up to the top. She knows Kara is good but she's really showing off her skills here.
They leave it at that, watching like hawks until Kara is safely over the top, looking away once she's out of view because it hurts their necks to be looking up for too long.
Since it's getting later on in the evening now and they won't have much daylight left they make the decision to pack up for the night. It makes sense to do it now, they can take the time to really get their bearings after coming out of the ravine and there is a great clearing just a couple of minutes' walk back the way they came.
Lena waits where she is for Kara to come back while Alex takes their packs for them, getting started on the tents and setting up a fire.
About ten minutes after she'd crawled over the top, Lena's eyes are pinned to the top ledge whole she wonders where her girlfriend has gotten to, causing her to worry because it shouldn't take long to figure out where they are.
She's still looking up when a hand touches her shoulder, scaring her to death. "Ooh!" She lets out a breathy sound that causes her cheeks to flush while spinning around, arms raised to fight.
Kara stumbles back from her, not expecting that reaction. "Woah, it's me. I came down the back, it was just a slow gradient that I could walk, I should have gone up that way, it would have only taken an extra five-minute walk."
"Of course, there was an easier way." Lena runs a hand down her face, annoyed for Kara because she's the one that climbed for no reason. "The others are setting up camp for the night, are you ready to head over to them."
"We'd better hurry so we can make sure our tent is put up far away from theirs."