Scenic Route •A Bear Grylls Fanfiction•

Chapter Three: Lost

(Before I start, two things I wanted to mention- First off, not all of my header pictures I put at the beginning of each chapter are necessarily going to correlate with the contents of that chapter, such as a picture of a lake doesn't mean they are going to be near a lake or find one in that chapter haha its just a nice picture. Two, I also realize that in most of the pictures I found to use as header photos at the start of each chapter have paths or trails in them that are visible through the trees or whatever, but ignore them, please! They are lost in the forest, therefore they are not following any paths or trails. Again, it is just a nice picture of the forest from Tumblr haha Thanks!! ♡ )

I woke to the sound of a crackling fire. I peered out from under the blanket to be greeted by a smiling Bear underneath the cloud-covered sky. He tossed me my warm clothes as a wave of chills ran down my spine. There was still mist shrouding the base of the trees outside of our little rock overhang, but I assumed it hadn't rained through the night.

I wrapped my torso in the thin blanket as I crept out from our shelter, grasping my clothes in my arms. I weaved my way, barefoot, around behind the rocks as I dropped the blanket, pulling on my warm clothes, grateful that the fire had warmed them in the night.

I made my way back around to Bear, taking a seat on the log where I sat the night before. Bear sat beside me and he told me what he thought we should do about figuring out where we were. "I suggest we climb a tree so we can get to a high vantage point, and we can see where we are and which way we need to be heading in. Sound like a plan?" I smiled. "Sounds like a plan." Bear patted my knee as he walked over to his pack, tossing me a bag of beef jerky and a protein bar.

I sipped my water as he asked, "So, how did you sleep?" I thought back to when he had put his arm around me, unconsciously, and pulled me closer into him. I rubbed my arms, trying to warm them up near the fire. "Fine, thank you." Bear gave me a wink as I finished chewing the last bite of my granola bar. Bear then pulled on his jacket and grabbed my boots, which were now mud-free. I stood to take then from him as he told me to put them on so we could go scope out our tree to climb and figure out where in the hell we were.

I reluctantly gulped as I did as I was told, slipping my flannel on overtop of my pink shirt. I trudged along behind Bear, truly not looking forward to hiking myself up a big-ass spruce tree. Bear eventually picked out a "suitable" tree with plenty of branches that was tall enough to let us see out over the valley and figure out where we had ended up during the storm yesterday.

"Okay, now follow what I do. You're just going to want to grab onto the branches, swing your legs up, and move on from there. I'll be right behind you." I looked up at the tree ahead of me. "I suppose.." I held my head high as I approached the monstrous trunk. I looked above me, noticing the lowest branch was about four feet above my head, and I knew I wouldn't be able to jump high enough to grab it.

I think Bear knew it too.

He laughed to himself as I gave him a pleading smile over my shoulder. He approached me, grabbed my waist, and effortlessly lifted me up so I could reach the branch. I gripped it in my hands, trying my best to avoid the sap that dripped from the needles. I hoisted my legs up, and continued to climb on from there, not daring to look down at the forest floor below me as I shifted my weight, creeping from branch to branch.

I felt the trunk shake as Bear swung his legs up into the tree behind me. I held on tight, and willed myself not to plummet down to the wet ground. My hands were already burning and fading into red from the rough bark against my tender skin. I have never done anything like this before. Bear soon climbed up so he was ahead of me, and showed me where to place my footing so I wouldn't fall as we ascended higher into the tree and the trunk got thinner, along with the branches themselves.