"If it's not, then that's not any different than what we're doing now, right?"

"Yeah."

So he tries it.

She does not panic this time. She is maybe kind of passive and nervous about it because nobody has every kissed her - nicely, before, and she really really really wants him to like her, but it's - kind of nice, actually, even with all of that.

He smiles at her and then waits uncertainly for a couple of seconds and then - lies down to sleep, but pulling her close when he does.

Oh good. 

She clings to him in her sleep and is very very happy.

And they continue south. There is not a lot of food. There are somewhat reliably flowers and somewhat less reliably berries and tree nuts. On one occasion there is a bird's egg, smashed but not yet eaten by a snake.

It's not the most balanced diet ever, but she doesn't feel like she's starving. And Ingolfr likes the flowers.

They travel slower than they were planning to. Walking across a kingdom is hard, it turns out, especially if you've never done any real walking before, and while she might get stronger it's going to take her a while.

He keeps a nervous eye on the sky, in which the sun is moving, very very slowly. They should still be easily in and out before nightfall, even if they won't have as long to scout wherever they settle as they ideally would. 

When they reach the sea, there's a storm. Raindrops hang frozen in the air, and the water's choppy. 

" - we should maybe wait until tomorrow for this part? You've got to do water all in one go, without stopping, or you sink into it a bit."

Nodnod.

So he finds a spot and raises a stick above their heads to burst and dissipate all the raindrops that'll fall while they're sleeping, and then they can snuggle and look at the water. "We're well more than halfway, now."

"That's good."

"Tell me a story?"

"Okay."

She tells him a piece of the Odyssey, some portion of the trials that Odysseus had to overcome to return home after the Trojan war. 

They wake up to rain, apparently falling fast enough for some of it to have caught up with them while they're sleeping. 

Oh well.

"Over the water today?"

"Yeah." He shakes his hair annoyedly. "And maybe we should keep going until we're out of the storm, too."

Nod.

She holds her baby close to warm her and follows him over the water.

Walking on water is simple where it's smooth and unpleasant when it's choppy; you have to be careful not to roll your ankle, and if you fall you immediately start sinking in, though slowly enough you can usually retrieve yourself. The rain doesn't make it pleasanter. He brought food with him but there's nowhere to go small to eat it until they reach the other side.

Well, she's not short on determination. She's very tired when they make it to the other side, but she makes it.

Then they can get small - slightly hazardous in a rainstorm, but safe enough for a short time - and eat some of the food he carried over and then keep going, out of the storm.

Yeah. 

It's a ways farther. By the end of it she's not much better off than she was at the end of the first day of walking.

He has at no point on this long trip seemed tired but he looks rather bedraggled.

”’s only three more days  of travel now. Maybe four.”

Nodnod.

“You’re doing great, really.”