Wild Desperation

Chapter 26

                                           Sang

I sipped at the tea Nathan handed me as I glanced around the boys who were watching me intently, they looked like they'd all seen a ghost. I couldn't really remember much after I patted Nightmare, although there was a moment of clarity where North had dropped me into the stream of ice cold water. "So is there any particular reason why all of you look like c***?" I croaked out over my tea, it seemed to break the spell of frozen staring that the lot of them had been under. "Because we were up all night trying to make sure you didn't burn alive in your own f***ing skin to be busy worrying about our appearance!" Gabe shouted with a pout and I smiled slightly at him. 

"Thanks for that, but I do have to admit that I'm a bit curious as to what happened with my clothes?" I raised as they all started to sputter out responses at once before Owen quieted them down. "We needed to get them off to cool you down Pookie and we didn't want to leave you in wet clothes, not to mention I like the bikini better." Sean winked and I rolled my eyes with a snort. "Shut up Sean." I puffed out as he gasped at me before pouting towards Owen. "What have you been teaching Pookie, she's starting to sound like you?!" Sean protested. "Shut up Sean." Owen sighed out and I had to admit I was surprised but pleased with the lack of formality as I sent a tired grin his way.

 "You must have gotten sick from the rain and cool weather, you should have let us know you weren't feeling good." Kota frowned as Nathan handed out their own immunity tea. "I only had a headache at first and thought I was just tired from the traveling, those are usual so I didn't think anything of it. I'm sorry if I worried all of you but I am starting to feel better now even if I am still a little tired and sore." I sighed out as I downed the rest of the tea in my cup. "Here Sang Baby, eat this." North huffed as he handed me a ration of meat, I was glad to see they'd gotten it from my bag before it could spoil.

 "Is this an apology offering for dunking me in the freezing cold water?" I asked as I took it and he stilled with his eyes meeting mine. "I don't regret dunking you Baby it was for your own good, but you do need to eat to build your strength up." North grunted out, fair enough. I nibbled at the meat since my appetite wasn't exactly top notch at the moment, once I ate enough to make North happy I gave the rest to Arrow. "You know that mutt hunted us down just to bring us back to take care of you, he really is amazing." Victor shook his head as I smiled down at the wolfish head in my lap and scratched his ears. 

"You really are my brilliant boy, aren't you big guy?" I smiled as he whined before sitting up to lick my chin happily at my soft giggles. "We're going to keep in this area for another day just to let you rest a bit Pookie and let me keep a better eye on your fever." Sean stated as he took his cup of immunity tea from Nathan with a quick thanks. "Wait but who's going to go hunting and setting traps if I'm sick?" I croaked out with a wince. "You showed me how to set decent traps remember, I can show Si and a few others so we can at least catch something." North mumbled out.

 "Yeah and as long as you get the carcasses checked by Arrow first it should be good to eat, but small game won't last us very long." I sighed out. "I can go with them, I'm a decent enough shot if there's any deer or pigs in the area." Nathan stated helpfully but I still frowned. "You shouldn't waste your bullets on a hunt, do any of you know how to shoot a bow?" I wondered softly as Nate and Owen both stepped forward. "Who's the better shot with a bow though?" I huffed out as they shrugged. "I'll tell you what if you get me some bendy branches and some good vines we can figure it out." I stated as I explained to them what to look for and they brought it to me.