Adam made a vaguely interested noise as he nodded slowly saying “Hard pass, but thank you.” He felt the need to itch at the back of his neck but was unable to due to both his hands being busy. “Well….you’re good at climbing.”

“Thanks...I’m good at a lot of things.” Number Tree said with a sly look.

“Nice to know. I’m sure someone will eventually appreciate that. No me, but...someone.” Adam said quickly, coughing awkwardly.

He watched Number Three grimace and twist a little to look toward the sound of water, staring at it with his unseeing gaze before he slowly looked back to seemingly stare up at Adam and his frown.

There was a long minute of silence between them before Adam purposefully let the belt in his grip slip a little, Number Three’s eyes narrowing.

“The water is very cold if we fall, little love,” Number Three said, looking like he was salivating, We’ll have to immediately take shelter and preserve our body heat together in a ditch.”

“We?” Adam drawled, “Who’s this we? I’m holding onto a rock. You’re the asshole hanging onto a belt. There’s only going to be one of us falling down into the river, Number Three, and it’s not me.”

There was another long stretch of silence between them as a large rock rolled off the mountain and splashed into the river, the noise of it visibly concerning them both.

“It’s not that far down,” Adam stated plainly.

“It’s far enough, though.” Number Three stated plainly back.

“Well, then you better brace for impact!” Adam said before he released his belt, watching Number Three slid down the rest of the hill before he became air-born, landing into the river with a splash. Adam waited until he saw Number Three break the surface for air, the hunter bobbing down the river before he grabbed onto a rock to hold on for dear life.

Adam nodded to himself and sighed with content at the ability to finally relax his legs, reaching up to switch his hands and reach down to rub the muscles over his ribs that had been pulled while he hung. Damn, those hunters were heavy fuckers. He heard once that they had bones that were a lot denser, but being able to hold onto him for that long….fuck man.

Adam felt himself jolt and he frowned to look up and see the rock he was holding onto was moving. His mouth opened in slow horror as it pulled away from the hill completely. He tried to grab onto something to keep from falling, but everything he touched gave away under his hand and slid down the hill, and when he hit a bump he became air born and seemed to never come down before he went away from earth completely and flew through the air.

Adam hit the water on his back with enough force that the air in his lungs was punched out, and for a brief few seconds, he thought he was dying. He choked on the water as he frantically swam to the surface, breaking it just as he was beginning to blackout from the lack of oxygen.

The water, as Number Three had guessed, was very cold – shockingly cold, actually, but just as bad, it was also very swift-moving. The two elements combined meant it was impossible for Adam to swim, and so he was at the mercy of the river.

He struggled as he coughed out water, falling under the surface briefly before he hit a rock. He scrambled to try and grab it but failed, instead bouncing off another rock before he was finally able to get a gulp of air, if only briefly. He was thrown further down the river and as he nearly drowned in the waters, he realized that in all actually, he really hated water.

Like, a lot.

He latched onto a rock when he hit it with his back and dragged himself up it to suck in a breath, coughing violently as he rested his face against the almost too smooth stone, his fingers having issues finding purchase.

He saw Number Three was clinging to the other side.

There was a flash of movement – Number Three lurching to reach out and grab him, and Adam kicked a foot out to hit the hunter right on the groin with enough force that the taller man lost his hold and get thrown off the rock and back into the mercy of the waters.

Adam watched Number Three get washed down the river and he laughed a little, grinning as he turned to face forward and climb along the rock toward the river bank. If he stayed in the water too much longer he’d freeze – it was so fucking cold it hurt. He didn’t know how the fuck he was going to warm up without drawing attention to himself, though, and he would need to warm up if he didn’t want to get sick.

He grabbed onto the next rock and slowly dragged himself along it, looking to where the water ended against the dark soils of the land. So obviously the river was NOT the preferable way to wait this hunt out. With that in mind, he tried to think about how he might hide or get to Point B. He didn’t even fucking know which direction Point B was anymore – he vaguely remembered it being at the bottom o the mountain, but right now all his brain could think of was how fucking cold he was, his teeth chattering uncontrollably in his mouth as he got to the edge of his rock.

The riverbank was still too far out of reach. He hissed in a breath and looked back toward where there was a hollowed-out tree further down the river and figured if he released the rock he’d wash down the river a bit further and then be able to grab onto that, dragging himself to the bank.

It took him a minute to summon up the courage to release the rock, but when he did he fell back under the water and was thrown far quicker than he remembered down its length before he collided painfully with the log. He struggled to pull himself up onto it, choking on air as he rested his chin on the top of the log, throwing a hand up out of the water to grab at the wood and pull himself up enough to suck in another breath, shaking out his soaked hair as he tried to kick his feet up to give himself purchase and push himself up further out of the water.

His hand slipped and he was nearly dragged under the water again, only being saved at the last minute when his wrist got stuck in the branches log enough for him to find a better place to grab with his other hand. He kicked against the water wildly as he forced himself up onto the log, now only halfway in the water.

He rested there, sucking breaths as he tried to stop the chattering of his teeth, but found himself unable to. He was just too cold. He’d known cold before – it came every fifty days to the moon, but he had never been so stupid as to actually allow his own body temperature to get this low.

He had to get out of the water.

Adam looked down the log toward the side of the river and saw it wasn’t that far off, but he would need to be careful as the tree was slippery and the water poured over it at some points. He could crawl along it, he supposed, but his limbs felt stiff and he didn’t know how good his coordination would be. If a hunter happened upon him, he’d be fucked.

And just like that, Number Four reappeared.

Adam saw Number Four leaping down from a low cliff on the side of the river further up, now down to just a pair of very tight shorts that showed off what a literal pain in the ass being the hunter’s pet would be.

Because Number Four was fucking packed.

Adam gritted his teeth as he watched the hunter tilt his head this way and that, listening. Adam knew he had alerted the other to his location – either his scream of frustration or his chattering teeth, but either way, Number Four knew he was here.

Adam’s brain briefly weighed the options of allowing himself to be captured so he could be warmed up by the other, but he knew that if he did that, at some point he’d be looking back at this all and hate himself for giving in. He didn’t know what kind of life this Hunter would give him, and once again, it just wasn’t worth the fucking risk.

He figured if there was this tree, there would be more further down the river, so he’d just have to chance it.

He released the log and let the river drag him away.

There weren’t any more logs like that one though, and very few rocks. He ended up beating the clock like that, being dragged down the cold water of the river, but to his dismay and partial amusement, it took the Zerric several further hours to fish him out of the river when he ended up floating well out of the boundaries of the hunting grounds.

He was taken someone to receive medical treatment, which ended up being a two sun cycle stay due to his severe hypothermia and pneumonia, which he had very nearly succumbed to. But he survived it, and once he was given the all clear, he was sent back up to the moon to recover the rest of the way at home.

His sister’s family came to stay with him at his farm, something his brother-in-law wasn’t all that keen about, but as Adam needed help recovering, his sister didn’t give her husband choice. She and her family helped him on his farm while he slowly build up his strength again, leaving before the time came for the selection.

To Adam’s surprise, the hunt was almost called off. Zerric’s storms were going back into an active period after the two years of quite they had enjoyed, and there were serious questions about the safety of the participants. Soon, everything would be under the eyes of the storms and all would feel it’s wrath.

But still they decided to hold the runs.

Again though, Adam was almost spared as his health was called into question. But they did a medical check and figured that while he was still recovering from pneumonia, he was fit enough to take the run.

When he tried to train to get his strength back up, he found that he was nowhere near where he used to be and knew that this would be the time he got caught.

So he made sure all his affairs were in order, that his eldest niece, who had shown interest in possibly spending some sun cycles here on the farm, would inherit it if he didn’t come back, and packed more heavily so that he brought more down with him.

The shuttle down to Zerric was not a gentle one this time, the storm making everything rattle and adding an all new level of anxiety to the hunt. The hotel was as nice as the others, though, and there Adam slept to try and gain whatever strength he could before the run.

It didn’t work.

The time for the hunt came, and Adam was sure he was about to be completely fucked.