<span style="font-size: 15px"><span style="font-family:Open Sans">Eivind watched Blue wiggle out of his wet clothing, as best he could see him anyway before he crawled over to sit beside him.<br/>
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“The good thing about not moving camp every night is we have a lot more free time to do whatever we want. We'll actually get to relax. Sig already has the fire pit set up for us. It won't take that much more forget it going and we still have dried meat and some of the roots Sig sent with us,” Eivind answered.<br/>
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“I'm sure you'll be able to find things to paint with if you wanted to do that.” There was plenty of blank canvas, and as he said, their time could be used doing whatever suited them. It was easy to let his mind wander when they were sitting still, but Eivind didn't laze very long. <br/>
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“I'm going to gather some dry wood while we still can. Stay here so you don't get soaked again,” Eivind told him, heading back out of the cave to bring handfuls to mostly dry matter that Blue could use to start a fire. He gathered enough for a few days, should the rain decided it wasn't going to let up. At least they'd have a dry source of firewood. By the end of it, it was coming down in sheets, and Eivind didn't think it mattered at that point if he gathered anything else. Eivind tried to scrub away some of the sticky sap from his body before going back into their little cave. <br/>
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“How are you feeling? Are you hungry?” Eivind asked as he slicked some of the rainwater from his body. There wasn't any meet for them to cook, and Eivind didn't feel like the roots Sig packed were tasty enough to go to the trouble of preparing them without the addition of meat, so it seemed like they'd be eating their jerky that night. Which suited Eivind just fine. He wasn't too optimistic in his hunting ability in the downpour. <br/>
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“Good thing we made it tonight. Would have been miserable otherwise. It's coming down hard enough that I doubt we'd be able to keep a fire,” he commented, and luckily with the cave elevated it was mostly dry. Some water collected in some areas of the cave, but that was fine. If for some reason they didn't want to leave to collect water from the river, they could boil it. As it were, the rainwater suited Eivind just fine and he filled the container before drinking his fill and bringing it back to Blue once he refilled it. <br/>
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“Hopefully Sig fares all right,” he added, remembering that their freshly departed traveling companion was out there. Most likely he was used to that sort of thing, and it was nothing Eivind hadn't spent the night in himself. Annoying, but it wasn't cold enough yet to become a real problem for a werewolf, even soaked to the bone. <br/>
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“Who am I kidding. That crafty bastard has probably stayed drier than we have,” Eivind decided dismissively, coming to sit beside the fire. He pulled pieces of jerky, but they had the luxury of grazing since they weren't cooking a big meal. Their supply was more diminished than Eivind would have proffered on account of feeding a third, but he'd decided Sig's helpfulness had been worth it. For tonight alone, directing them to shelter in perfect time. They'd not rationed at all, as Eivind wanted Blue to eat as much as he could tolerate. He was a top predator for a reason, and he didn't bring them out to starve his mate. <br/>
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“I'll have to go hunting again. I almost had a rabbit the day you decided to make friends with a moose,” Eivind told Blue, a flicker of amusement there. “At least I know they're still out here.” He motioned Blue close to him, once he'd dried and warmed up some, to nestle him up against his side, much more relaxed now than when they'd started the trip. All was well, and for the most part, it had all been worth it. Blue even thought so, and he imagined that the trip together had strengthened their precarious bond. It had been the right choice, rather than allowing Sieger to keep pressuring them. <br/>
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It was different being out in the wilderness with someone, especially with someone he'd come to care about to deeply. They'd more so planned to stay put, so they could finish getting to know each other, whereas if Eivind had been alone he doubted he would have stayed long before moving on again. <br/>
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“I like the journey. It's not so much the destination usually. In this case, it's a little different since I don't think we've had all that much time to just stop and spend with one another.” Eivind realized his infatuation with Blue was bordering on obsession, but that was to be expected. He'd changed a great deal over the course of time that he'd known Blue, and he realized some of it was for the better. <br/>
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“I'm glad I stood up to Sieger. It's not something I typically would have done,” Eivind admitted. There was no changing the belief that the alpha was in the wrong in that instance, and it wasn't fair to Blue in any form. Even now, Eivind had seemed to learn some control. The maintained contact seemed to soothe the aggressive need to grab and pin Blue, though it hadn't diminished it completely.</span></span>