2022-01-03 - A Lovely Winter Hike

"Maps. Compass. Water for both of us. Dry socks. Extra shoes or boots. Protein bars. Machete." Garrett re-checks the packing list, the vast majority of which Garrett had put in his own pack, only sticking Dita with carrying her own water.

"We won't go too far," he assures Dita, tightening his boots up, eyeing the trail head. He's dressed in layers, a black turtleneck visible beneath a blue hoodie, which in turn peeks out from beneath a 3/4 zip light gray windbreaker. The pants are just khaki cargo pants, a thin thermal layer under them.

"Ready?" he asks Dita, flashing an encouraging smile, breath just barely visible in the chill air.

To her credit, Dita has a small pack of her own with extra socks, an extra knit cap, one of those big emergency blankets and some rope, because you never know when you'll need to tie something down. Her long hair is in twin braids on either side of her head, ears covered with a thermal headband. A bright red fluffy winter coat with a hood, though for once it isn't faux fur or weird teddybear material, it's proper quilted nylon. Beneath that, a form fitting jumper, and beneath that a thin turtleneck, because layers matter. She wears a pair of sturdy denim jeans with thermals beneath, and look.

Hiking boots. Shoes without a heel. Perdita's not almost even in height with Garrett! "I'm still not sure why I let you talk me into this, but if I can wander around a damp cave under our home, I can manage the forest. But at the first sign of man eating wolves, I'm climbing a tree." she warns, smiling. "I'm ready."

A bright smile from Garrett at Dita's readiness, and he gives a nod. "Okay. My phone is off; it's our backup flashlight," he adds, patting his pack, giving the drinking tube at his chest a quick check, the nods.

"Here's to not getting eaten by wolves. Shall we?" At which point he'd probably normally offer an arm or a hand, but they're hiking, and he's using one hand to hold a sturdy walking stick, and the other is being kept free for balance; the trails are less than ideal this time of year, after all.

With one last confirmation that they're both ready, he sets off down the trail.

There's a quick kiss on the cheek, and Perdita gestures for Garrett to lead the way. She doesn't carry a walking stick, however, because she doesn't have one, instead depending on her own balance and reflexes. "We shall."

"So... I've got to admit. There's a certain... prettiness... to the forest in winter." Especially since there's snow to disguise all the brown and grey dead things in fresh drifts of white, and it doesn't hurt that there's a lot of green, still. "If it... gets to be too much, let me know and we can go back, okay?"

"It's pretty all year," Garrett counters over his shoulder, tone more playful than actually argumentative. Then he laughs. "Shouldn't I be the one telling you we can go back whenever?" he wonders. "Hiking is supposed to be my thing, if I recall correctly," he teases.

"Give me my concrete jungle, anyday. Where the sidewalks are uneven because the city lacks the funds to repave, not because a tree decided to put a root there." She steps over one, carefully, smiling. It sounds like good natured, playful bitching, though.

"Oh, I know. I was telling myself." Perdita counters with a grin. Still, there's a bounce in her step, and her dark eyes move over the landscape with appreciation, more than with wariness. She knows the forest can be dangerous, especially around Gray Harbor. But it's important to Garrett, and she wants to share and understand that.

"Mmm, yes, a nice place where the sidewalks are supposed to be flat and you don't notice the unevenness until it's too late, as opposed to where you go in fully aware of the unstable footing you're getting involved with. I can see why you prefer it," Garrett teases back.

He whistles quietly, tunelessly, as they walk. "Is it too soon to ask what you think?" he asks, fishing out a head lamp from his pack's side pocket, putting a red filter over it and switching it on as they move a bit further into the woods. And come to a fork.

"The old sawmill is that way," he informs her, pointing at one path and very deliberately turning down the other.

"Sidewalks aren't supposed to be flat. If they were supposed to be flat the city would have funding for them!" Perdita counters, with flawless logic.

"We haven't gone very far in yet, but I don't hate it? I can see why you'd like it, it's decent exercise, and there aren't random assholes driving by shouting about how my ass looks in my athletic wear." as they pause at the fork, Perdita glances down the path toward the sawmill and nods, warily... then follows Garrett down the other path. "I have been informed to avoid that place at all costs."

"Well, can't argue with that," Garrett laughs, slowing slightly as they turn down the path AWAY from the sawmill. He's fairly certain. He waits until Dita is beside him, then matches her pace.

"I could tell you how your ass looks, if it'll make you feel more at home," he offers brightly. Such a gentleman. "But yes, avoiding the sawmill is absolutely good advice," he confirms.

Matching pace with Garrett seems to make her pleased, because now she can enjoy the scenery and the company of her boyfriend, side by side. "I will never be upset when you want to tell me how my ass looks." Perdita tells Garrett with a grin, a bounce in her step now.

She's moving at a steady walking pace, keeping an eye on the trail when she's not looking at the scenery... though now she's sneaking little glances at him, too. Inspired by his whistling, she starts humming a tune of her own, cheerfully.

Garrett glances over. It's dark. Red light isn't ideal for checking out asses. He grins all. the same. "Your ass looks great," he assures. He doesn't need to get a good look to know, and he gives a careful hip bump. Careful, because footing leaves something to be desired.

"Next fork should start taking us to a hill with a nice view of the city, if you want?" he suggests/offers.

The hip bump is easily met and recovered from, because what kind of balance would she have if that put her down? "Thank you." she responds. The coat also mostly covers her butt anyway, so it's not like he could see a lot with regular lights, either.

"I'd like that, a lot. That sounds very romantic, actually." she tells Garrett, with a softening smile. Her own night vision is pretty good, enough that his headlamp has been enough for her so far.

"To the hill, then," Garrett declares, far more dramatically than is entirely called for, smiling as they walk.

"It is romantic. Moreso in warmer weather, since this isn't really hanging out and loitering weather, but the view is nice," he confirms, looking pleased with how things are going so far.

"I did bring one of those blankets, you know. Probably not enough to keep us warm but we can at least sit and enjoy the view for a few minutes before we have to get up and keep going." She smiles up at Garrett. "I can't believe I let you talk me into coming out here at night though. Your powers of persuasion are as great as mine."

"We can loiter for a little while," Garrett agrees. "There's a big rock up there that makes a decent seat, too," he adds, then smiles over at her, even if it's hard to see in the dark.

"You're just a sucker for the accent. It makes everything sound reasonable." Pause. "So I've heard," he adds, relaxing more the longer the hike goes on.

"I'd like that very much, then." Perdita admits. "Sounds like a great place for a little picnic in warmer weather."

Upon being told it's the accent, Perdita laughs, then, in a surprisingly good copy of his accent, states, "I think that's probably a good thirty percent of it, yes. Everything sounds more reasonable when you've got a charming accent to distract your listener."

"Deal," Garrett says brightly. "Once everything is thawed and maybe kind of dry, we can come back for a picnic," he agrees. Then gives Dita side-eye at the accent.

"Are you mocking me, Perdita?" he teases, sticking his tongue out at her. Again, something that isn't overly useful in the dark, but it's the thought that counts. "You don't need a fake accent to distract me. I'm sure you know this by now." He grins.

"I would never mock your accent, I merely find it so charming that I wanted one of my own... so I stole it." Dita teases, then lets the accent drop, back to her normal perfectly impossible to pin down accent. She bops her head against his shoulder, then skips ahead a few steps. "I know. I can just... bat my lashes at you. Or lick my lips... or break out a catsuit."

"No stealing voices. You're a succubus, not some sort of fae," Garrett points out, sneaking a kiss on top of Dita's head when she boops his shoulder.

"Perdita! I am shocked and offended!" Garrett's tone is very exaggerated. "Not that you think I'm that easy to distract. That's fine. But why have I not seen you in a catsuit yet?" He is very clearly concerned about this development.

"What, I can't be both?" Perdita asks with a smirk, then shrugs, exaggerating it slightly so it's easier to see in the dark. "I honestly hadn't even thought of wearing one, but maybe if you ask nicely I'll break out the Catwoman cosplay." she twirls a cartwheel, into a front handspring, landing steadily despite the uneven surface... most because she specifically found a spot that was relatively flat and steady, with no real obstacles to work around. She then dusts off her hands, smiling.

"I have concluded," Garrett says, "That there is, in fact, some sort of higher power, and they are on my side," he informs her. "Because there is no other explanation for me having been lucky enough to stumble into you." He smiles wide at her, though that looks briefly concerned at the sudden acrobatics on the dark. But then she lands it, and he wraps arms around her while she's dusting her hands off." You're amazing," he informs her, lips looking for hers, briefly, in the dark.

The arms are sunk into, and then Perdita is kissing him back, deepening the kiss, reaching back to get a double handful of booty with a playful squeeze, before she pulls away. "I was thinking the same thing about you. You're kind, you're smart, you're patient, and you've got a great... personality."

Garrett does not object to a deeper kiss, moaning playfully against Dita's mouth as he wiggles back against her hands. "Well, aren't we just a lucky pair, then?" he murmurs. "You, all clever and confident and bold and gorgeous." He smiles wide down at her.

"Also modest." She tells Garrett, tilting her head slightly as she starts walking again, moving easily along the trail. "So. How much further to the spot?" Dita asks, sounding a little excited, now.

"And incredibly modest," Garrett confirms. "The modestest," he adds with a grin, moving along beside her again. The walking stick is being used more like a blind person's cane, now, poking ahead for roots and whatnot ahead. "Ballpark? Ten minutes? Hard to be positive at night, though," he answers.

There's a nod from Perdita, and she falls into step with Garrett, not risking any more acrobatics because that seems like a great way to get hurt and need to be carried the heck out of there on a stretcher or something. "I'm also very demure and the perfect model of a lady." Perdita tells him, smirking in the dark. Needing the extra light, now, she flips on the light on her pack, which also has that lovely red effect at the moment for very different, though similar reasons than Garrett's. How many robberies has that pack gone on?

"Of course. I thought those went without saying," Garrett says lightly, smiling over at Dita. He gives a vaguely approving nod at the red light being turned on. Does he realize what that pack was for? Unlikely.

"If we are where I think we are, this next fork will bring us right up the hill, and it's only a couple minutes from there," he says.

And there's the next fork... same as the last fork. Perdita doesn't seem to notice, glancing over to Garrett with a smile. "Good. I'm enjoying spending time with you, but I'm excited to see this view, now. You better not have oversold it, I will be sorely disappointed ."

"I promise, the view doesn't dis... appoint..." Garrett stops at the fork. He stares. He blinks several times, silent. His flashlight points down one path, then then the other, and he stays silent. He fishes his compass out. Looks at it, then the paths again.

All this happens in a matter of moments, and might now draw much suspicion. But then, "Bright light," he warns before he flips the red filter up on his headlamp, getting a better look at the paths, and frowning as his hand unconsciously reaches down to rest on his machete.

With the warning for brighter light, she looks away. Dita frowns and glances about, having caught Garrett's upset, even if she hasn't understood the why just yet. She pulls her phone out of her left pocket, holding it warily at her side. "So... what's going on?" she asks, pitching her voice low and calm, so it doesn't carry.

Garrett takes several deep breaths. He looks at the paths again, then moves a but closer to Dita.

"This isn't the fork it should be," he says softly. "That path," he says, nodding left, "looks an awful lot like the sawmill path." By which he means he's pretty positive that's what it is. "Or, I'm wrong, and I don't knkw where either of these lead, because that definitely isn't the hill path." He looks around again, then silently holds the walking stick out to Dita. It's sturdy wood, and better than nothing. And he has a machete, after all.

"...I think we should turn back now."

The stick is accepted, tucked easily under her arm, more to keep it out of Garrett's way than because she has any kind of idea how to use it as a weapon. "Okay... we'll come back when the weather's warm... and it's a little easier to see out. Maybe for the 4th of July." Dita says softly, still holding on tight to her phone with her free hand, fingers hovering over the volume control buttons, but not pressing anything yet. "We can go home and watch the city from the living room, with a nice fire." She turns, carefully, preparing to head back to the car now.

Another deep breath, then Garrett nods. Red filter, back on. Machete, sheathed but held tight. "We'll just go back the way we came, and go home, and watch the city from the veranda." The nice, safe murder building. That's a much better plan. "No more night hikes here," he decides.

"Um... thanks for letting us leave." Perdita tells the forest, slowly slipping her phone back into her pocket, handing Garrett his walking stick back.

"Maybe we can go camping sometime, like... up north somewhere, or rent an RV for a weekend." That seems like a nice compromise, right? She starts walking, keeping her steps light, her pace steady. She's not panicking, it's letting them leave, she had a great time up until that...

"We'll go to Olympic, and camp somewhere nice and mapped and not Weird," he agrees. "An RV.... seems like cheating to call it camping, but I'll allow it," he says. Eyes stay on the trail, focused on getting out and not getting any undue attention and just making it to the car, stuck to Perdita, keeping her on the not-machete side.

"Not," Perdita adds, "that there's anything wrong with being Weird." read: Don't taunt the damn forest until they're out.

Nothing untoward happens on the walk back, except an A N G U R Y bunny rushing across the trail, kicking up a tiny storm of snowflakes, chased by another bunny. Who knows why, but it makes Perdita jump and let out a little girlish squeak of surprise.

Garrett jumps as well, damned bunnies. His machete is even half-drawn before he realizes its just bunnies.

"Thank God," he mumbles as the edge of the forest appears, along with the car. "Thanks, forest," he adds, waving to the trees behind them, relief audible in his voice.

Dita unlocks the car with her keychain fob, slipping off her pack, flipping off the clip light, and tossing the pack into the trunk. "You want to drive, or do you want me to?" she asks.

The question is answered by the soft sound of a woman's voice humming from somewhere within the trees, the lullaby haunting, beautiful and above all, ominous...

Upon hearing the humming, Perdita looks up toward the trees, brow furrowing. She knows that song...

Garrett is just reaching the trunk when he hears the humming. He doesn't recognize it, but he does recognize it as something you definitely shouldn't hear in the woods at night.

"Get in. You drive," he answers quickly, moving to the passenger door. The machete is fully out, now, and he stands at the open door, waiting until Dita is in the car before getting in and closing his own door, eyes glued to the treeline.

There's a second where Perdita doesn't seem to respond at all, looking out into the darkness, as if trying to place something... and then Garrett's words seem to sink in, and she rushes into her seat, getting the car started. Her foot holds down the break, and she throws the car into reverse once Garrett's in his seat and his door is shut, whipping the car about on the parking lot and rushing it out of the parking lot.

She doesn't speak, focused on driving, getting back on the main road before she even slows enough to get her seatbelt on.

Garrett does not speak out against debatable safety. He's fully on favor of putting distance between them and the woods. Only when their driving on a main road at normal speeds does he speak.

"God, what the fuck, what kind of bloody idiot goes hiking on these bloody woods at night? God!" He hits his head against the headrest and gives it a shake. "God that was fucking creepy."

"We... probably shouldn't have." Perdita says softly, reaching out to take Garrett's hand, squeezing it gently.

"I know that song." she finally says, expression looking... haunted. "It's a lullaby my grandmother used to sing." She glances in the review again, hands clenched tight on the steering wheel. She sings a few words, "'Mirno-mirnomos besh mirno...'"

Garrett takes slow, deep breaths. He doesn't squeeze back; his hand is so tense he probably doesn't have much control between 'open hand' and 'death grip', and would rather not give Dita's hand the latter.

"...that was a lullaby?" Garrett looks faintly surprised, then shivers. "Sorry. Maybe it's less horrifying when you're not in a haunted woods at night and you don't speak the language."

"No... it's pretty fucking horrifying if you speak the language, too." Perdita says softly, "'Be quiet, don't sleep on the edge of the bed, or the grey wolf will come... He'll drag you into the dark forest, and under the raspberry bush...'" Her hands tense on the steering wheel.

"Basically... we're sleeping with the lights on tonight, and the bedroom door locked, even if it drives Tsinyorri crazy being trapped in one room."

"Christ. And I thought cradles in treetops were bad," Garrett says, shaking his head. He grips the door handle tight. The machete has made it back to the sheath, but that sheath now rest between his legs, just to be sure.

"Bold of you to assume I'm going to sleep," he sighs, shaking his head.

The drive doesn't take long, at all, before the car is pulled into the lot across the street. "Honestly, same." Perdita says softly, finally parking the car. "Do we want to grab the stuff, or just... book it for the door?"

"...my phone is in there," Garrett says, looking contemplatively towards the back. "But, nobody really gets a hold of me, so fuck it, it'll wait til morning. Let's get inside." To the comparatively less threatening Weird. He takes a deep breath, then nods. "Ready when you are." And at her signal, wastes little time heading for the door.

At the mention of his phone being in the trunk, Dita nods. The trunk pops open, and Dita throws her door open. Bags come rushing around the car, one on either side, Perdita snatching hers as she gets out, speed walking toward the apartment. The trunk shuts on its own, and the doors to the building unlock themselves as she moves closer, allowing the pair easy entry into the apartment.

She generally tries to avoid doing this sort of thing... but she's fairly confident They won't notice, right now... and one hand makes the ward against the Evil Eye, just in case.

...well, that works. There's a conflicted look on Garrett's face a she grabs his bag and joins Dita in rushing indoors, but he stays quiet, constantly checking over his shoulder until they're safely in the apartment.

"...you could have just left the bags," he says softly once they're inside, a hint of concern in his voice. "...but thanks," he adds, giving a half-smile. He looks somehow simultaneously drained, like a stiff breeze could tip him over, and impossibly tense, carved rather than living.

"Lets... go hunker down for the night, I guess?"

Once they're inside, Perdita checks every single door, twice, making sure the deadbolts are thrown, before she's able to relax even a little. "My phone was in mine, too." she explains, setting her bag down and pulling off her coat and her headband, collapsing onto the couch. She pulls the phone that was in her coat out, holding it up.

"This?" she presses a button, and the tip of the device shoots sparks between two partially concealed prongs. "Don't try to place a call with this." she flips its safety back on then sets it on the coffee table. "I think that's a good idea."

Garrett helps. Two sets of eyes are better than one, and it can't hurt to make sure all hatches have been battened down. Once that's as confirmed as it can be, he looks at the 'phone' and nods.

"Nice. A little.... up close and personal, but nice. I'm guessing you've got it more for.... not-Weird things, though?" he ventures, sighing and shaking his head.

"What a fucking night. Sorry our first hiking trip sucked," he says, shrugging his coat off, abandoning his boots and bag by the door, a d holding a hand out. "Shall we?"

"It wasn't your fault, I wanted to go with you... I wanted you to feel safe out there again." Perdita says softly, slipping off her own boots. She takes grabs their phones out of their bags, taking Garrett's hand and squeezing it. "I think we shall, drágo."

"Yeah. Me too," Garrett agrees, voice heavy, looking generally unhappy about things. Dita helps, though, the 'drago' and hand squeeze bringing a ghost of a smile to his face as they head towards the bedroom. "This is going to be a long night," he says.

"I'm... sure we can think of something to pass the time." Perdita promises. Tsinyorri is asleep on the stool under the vanity. The bedroom door gets shut firmly, and locked.

"Maybe you can help me see if my catsuit still fits?"