Finn didn’t take them far, her sore legs by then starting to tremble due to her magically assisted sprint up the hill behind the lodge. They went as far as a small mountain stream that Finn heard flowing nearby, stopping on the pebble strewn shore of the creek to unpack the bag and go over its contents together.
The two of them spread their new supplies out over the relatively flat surface of the creek bank and looked over their haul. Adi cooed happily and immediately shoved a stick of deer jerky in her mouth to chew on. Finn tried to restrain herself to just a piece of the mystery dried tuber she had found, and was pleased to find that it was indeed sweet potato. After sampling some of the rest of the dried food Finn had snitched, they stopped to ponder over the clothes for a moment.
“Well, I’m not fitting into those pants,” Adi sighed after picking them up and briefly eyeing up the waist line.
“If you leave them unlaced, they might fit,” Finn suggested, already feeling guilty about the pants. She reminded herself that if she had found another pair, she would have taken them, but this was the only pair of pants they had in the cabin.
Adi shook her head and handed the long, narrow pants to Finn without saying anything else. Finn took them, but just folded them in her lap. She didn’t want to get dressed before Adi. Somehow, it seemed rude. She was going to be the only one of either of them with pants, so the least she could do was let Adi get dressed first.
“I guess these are for me?” Adi asked, holding up the old pair of underpants with a teasing smile.
Finn had the sense to look ashamed. She nodded. “They didn’t have any other bottoms,” she explained.
Adi waved a hand at Finn. “I’m just glad you found something,” she said, standing up so she could step into the pants. They were short, and the waist sat just a bit above her belly button. Even though they probably would have been loose on a full-grown man, they strained tight across her ass.
Finn had to look away. Somehow, the old fabric straining to contain Adi’s plentiful ass was more lewd than looking at her when it was completely nude.
“You should take the long sleeve shirt,” Adi said after a moment. Finn had been studiously looking off downstream for a while, so she hadn’t noticed Adi kneel back down. Adi held out the long sleeve tunic to her.
“No, you should take it,” Finn protested, holding up her hands palm out. She couldn’t take the long pants and the long shirt. That seemed like such an uneven way to split up the clothes to her.
“You’re always cold,” Adi said flatly, tossing the shirt to Finn and not bothering to watch to see if she caught it. “You’re nothing but skin and bones. Just take the shirt.”
Finn did manage to catch the shirt after a little bit of fumbling and clutched it to her chest for a moment. It was scratchy green wool, threadbare on the shoulders and stained at the hems. It smelled like the back of the locker she had dragged it out of, which meant it smelled like smoke from a campfire and pickling spices.
Adi picked up the bigger short sleeve tunic and looked it over. Out under the early morning sky, Finn could tell that it was a pale brown color, with laces at the collar and along the sides at the hips. Adi flipped the shirt around and pulled it over her head without any further comment. She flipped her thick dark hair out over the collar, but left the laces loose. The shirt was big on her and long enough that it almost completely covered the shorts underneath.
She started to pack the food and remaining clothing into the pack, leaving out only one pair of thick green socks.
“Take the boots,” Finn said before she could finish packing everything up.
“What? No, that doesn’t make sense,” Adi protested, but Finn leaned around her to untie the laces of the boots from the pack. “Listen, you’re the one that’s been leading us and running the hardest and everything. You need to protect your feet and-”
“I can run better without boots,” Finn said, cutting Adi off. She sat the boots decidedly in Adi’s lap, plopping the socks on top. “I can walk quieter without them, too,” she added softly. “You already sound like a bull pushing through the underbrush barefoot. Adding boots won’t make much of a difference.”
Adi opened her mouth and drew her eyebrows down like she was ready to protest that dig, but something she saw on Finn’s face stopped her. She shut her mouth and looked down at the boots on her lap, twisting her mouth a little in thought.
“Yeah, okay,” she sighed out, shifting the boots and socks off her lap so she could pull the socks over her dirty feet. They were already covered in little scabs from days of walking through the woods. At least Finn could rest easy knowing that Adi's feet at least were safe.
Finn sighed through her nose, tension she wasn’t aware of bleeding out of her body. She may have gotten the long pants and shirt, but Adi had the boots. That made her feel a little better. A niggling voice in the back of her head wanted to know why Adi hadn’t insisted on any of the good clothing for herself, but she pushed it away. They were still too close to the hunter’s lodge to have any in depth conversations. Better that they get moving, first.
Adi finished pulling the last boot on and then got to her feet. She shoved the last few things in the bag and then stopped at the knife and the bow and arrows. There was no quiver for the arrows, so she held them in her hand and looked at them quizzically, probably unsure how to store them.
“Do you know how to shoot?” Finn asked, gently taking the old, dried out bow and arrows from Adi’s hand.
Adi frowned, her nose wrinkling cutely. “I know the general idea of how it works, yeah.”
“But, have you shot before?” Finn asked with an arch of her eyebrow.
Adi frowned a little more thunderously, but her gaze was aimed at the bow like it was the one that asked and not Finn. “I have. Not well.”
“Why don’t you keep the knife, then?” Finn asked, gesturing with her chin at the nice knife still held in Adi’s other hand. Adi looked down at it in surprise, like she had forgotten it was there. “I think I can rehab the bow back to working order, and then I can hunt for us. You said you would filet fish and shuck oysters and stuff in your village, so you’re probably better with that knife than I am. Keep it,” Finn expounded.
Adi frowned at Finn, but otherwise didn’t say anything. She grasped the knife with both hands.
Finn decided to ignore it. If Adi wasn’t arguing, then that was fine. It was a better idea to keep their gear split up between the two of them as much as they could, anyway. That way, if one of them got lost or caught, they wouldn’t be completely fucked.
Bending over, Finn tried picking up the pack with their remaining supplies and almost collapsed onto her butt. The pack was either heavier than she remembered or her legs weaker than she expected.
“Hey!” Adi shouted, obviously having seen Finn fumble. “I’ll carry the stupid bag,” she snapped, pulling a shitty belt out of the top of it and looping it around her waist. She tied the knife onto the belt and then hauled the pack onto her back like it weighed nothing. “You lead the way, sir knight,” Adi teased, gesturing upstream with a little bow and a wave of her hand.
“Ugh,” Finn grunted, rubbing her hands over the tops of her still quivering thighs. “This sucks,” she muttered toward her knees.
“What?” Adi asked, frowning down at Finn.
“Nothing, princess,” Finn teased back in a flat monotone. “Allow me to lead the way.”
Adi snorted but otherwise didn’t retort.
Comments (0)
See all