Scenic Route •A Bear Grylls Fanfiction•

Chapter Eight: River Run

The following morning, I was awoken by hips pinning me to the ground. Two knees held my sides in place as sloppy kisses we placed all over me. I laughed sleepily before placing my seemingly frozen hands on his cheeks and shoving his face away from me. "Good morning sleeping beauty." I grinned wide as he wrapped his arms around my back, helping me stand up.

Bear said my leg was healing nicely, but it only seemed to feel worse and worse everyday. I was nervous about not having proper sanitation tools and medications to clean it up better, but we dealt with what we had. I winced, trying to stand on my leg. I couldn't put pressure on it, but I was able to slightly drag my foot behind me, limping slowly on my own. I hobbled over to a large stone by the fire Bear had started, warming up my frozen toes. We skipped out on breakfast, hurrying to get on our way towards the base of the valley where Bear assumed there would be a river. I climbed up onto his sturdy, muscled back as we set off into the great unknown.

Around noon (or so I assumed), Bear suddenly stopped in his tracks. He peered through the foliage ahead, suddenly his eyes widened. "What? What is it?" I whispered over his shoulder. He didn't say a word as he suddenly took off sprinting. Downhill he bounded, faster than I could have pictured, especially with the extra weight of my on his back. I held onto his shoulders, willing our backpacks not to fall off of me. Then, I could hear it. The sound of water rolling over stones.

A river.

I screamed out with delight as the water glistened through the branches of the trees ahead. I lowered myself off Bear's shoulders carefully and crawled on all fours to the water's edge. I slid on my grumbling belly into the shallow, icy water, not even caring how cold it would make me. I gasped, soaking my greasy hair, finally getting a sense of cleanliness again. I could feel my clothes start to freeze, but all I could focus on was how dehydrated my body was getting.

I put my face into the gentle current, below the surface of the water, and reached my hands up, washing my sticky, dirt-stained face. I drank in the water. It was the most refreshing feeling in the world. The cold, clean water soothed my irritated leg, rinsing out the pebbles and dirt from my wound. My throat was no longer dry. My skin no longer felt gross. I blew bubbles out of my nose, flipping my hair back out of the water, breathing in the chilly air. I shot bear a giddy smile as he splashed in the water towards me, stumbling over rocks and branches on the riverbed. I giggled as he scooped me up bridal style, spinning around, the water droplets flying in all directions off of our skin.

My head fell back into the crook of his chilled arms, letting the pale sunlight warm my skin. My arms pulled him closer to my body. This day was perfect. I cherished the smell of the pine and trees, the frigid breeze through the valley, the rushing of the water, the chatter of animals, the crunching of the leaves. Nothing could be better than this. Sure, it would be nice to know where we were going, but as long as I was with Bear, nothing could bring me down.

He is my world.

This was it. This was the moment I knew.

You're never going to look at your life and know for sure that you're doing it right. You're going to question if you're living in the right place, or if you're doing the right job, or if you're spending your time with the right people.

You're going to have ups and you're going to have downs. And you're going to feel too old to be so utterly confused. But it's okay to be confused. And it's okay to not have it all figured out.

It's okay to take it one day at a time and hope that you're doing it right.

I was in love with Bear Grylls. Inevitably, truly, dangerously in love. He was everything I could have ever hoped for and more.