It turns out it is sort of difficult to fall asleep in these circumstances, so Lucien is going to stay awake as the temperature drops down to quite a bit colder than anything Florida gets.

She manages to sleep, eventually. She talks in her sleep.

Cute.... And honestly sort of relaxing in a way that helps Lucien start to drift off...until he hears the sounding of crunching leaves of twigs coming from outside their lean-to. Probably it's nothing? It's - oh that breathing is heavy and loud ad does not sound like it belongs to a small forest creature. 

"Cube. Hat. Triplicate."

The crunching stops, and then starts approaching closer.

She can't see him. "Hm?"

[There's something large outside that is looking for us, I think.]

Isabella can hear it herself if she listens - it stopped moving once the stream of nouns stopped but it's breathing is still audible.

She stiffens up behind him and does not fall back asleep.

Leaves start crunching again, interspersed with heavy breathing. It gets closer, than farther, than even closer than before... it can't be more than thirty feet from them.

It's so tempting to look ahead, but she has only seconds, and there aren't a lot of things she can do differently, here, if it's going to attack by default.

[I could check hunting patterns maybe if there's a specific thing that would be helpful.]

[I can't think of actionable information about it. If it's an herbivore, great, we lie here, if it's a carnivore, shit, we still lie here.]

[Any chance you can speak in animal minds?] 

[I cannot.]

It gets closer, bit by bit, as it search back and forth.

- and then, in the distance, what might be the sound of a twig breaking under a different animals foot, followed by the sound of the creature outside their lean-to spinning and bolting at top speed away toward the new sound.

[So probably the problem is that I talk in my sleep.]

[Probably - though it's not impossible I'll snore or one of us will turn over and snap a twig even without that.]

[When it's had more time to get a distance away I'm going to take off one of my socks and put it in my mouth, it'll be unpleasant but less unpleasant than getting eaten.]

[I'm considering whether it's worth it to check how frequently they pass through areas like this.]

[Is it actionable?]

[We could try moving if it's only once or twice a night? And finding somewhere with fewer of them.]

[If it's not actionable tonight, save it for when we find out if we're going to find anything to eat.]

[Okay.]

She risks the sock after another few minutes. Puts her shoe back on. Snuggles back up for warmth. Quietly.

Lucien does not succeed at getting back sleep but skipping one night has pretty minor side effects and costs barely any calories so it'll be fine.