***More or less a double update if you haven't read chapter 25 yet, so please make sure you have or this one might not make a lot of sense (and you'd also be missing out on a couple of cute scenes)***

Whatever Burn Out was, Chanyeol seemed to have recovered from it after a good night’s sleep.  That said, it did seem to have knocked him out for a while, since Seoyeon woke up substantially before him, which almost never happened.  Without much to do, and a bit unwilling to break into their meagre food supplies without Chanyeol having some kind of say in any rationing, Seoyeon looked over her various injuries, treated them, took an inventory stock of her herbs (there was lots of whirtlewort and precious little else), and eventually began sewing up all the little nicks and holes that their travels so far had produced in her clothes.  They were still horribly dirty (her dress she was going to have to burn when they got back, because she didn’t think it would be possible to save it anymore), and she was reminded yet again of her desire for a good bath.

Once she had finished with all that, she cast about in boredom for several long minutes before remembering that Chanyeol had several tears on his tunic.  She wondered if he would find it creepy if she fixed it for him while he was still asleep.  Come to that, which would be creepier — undressing him while he slept (scandalous) to fix it, or sewing up the rip while he slept still wearing the torn tunic?

Deciding it was best to leave his clothes on, Seoyeon rummaged for needle and thread as she eyed up the tears.  It was surprisingly hard to keep her attention away from Chanyeol’s face.  She had to force herself to focus so she didn’t accidentally stab him.

Thankfully, Chanyeol was not the kind of person who moved around a lot in his sleep.  The only real issue was stitching rips over his chest, because he was breathing deeply and that shifted the material Seoyeon was trying to sew.  Still, she worked hard at it, and when she finally finished and was able to sit back and admire her handiwork, she had to admit to herself that it was some of the neatest sewing she’d ever done — outside of stitching up injuries, but she wasn’t sure that counted.

“Finished?” asked a sleepy voice, and Seoyeon nearly leapt out of her skin.  She hadn’t realised Chanyeol was awake — when had he woken up? — and nor had she realised just how drool-worthy his voice sounded when it was still drowsy and deeper than normal and a bit rough.

Seoyeon almost flailed for a response.  “How long have you been awake?” she demanded.  “That’s kind of creepy—”

“Long enough to be creeped out.”  He rolled onto his side and sat up, mussing up his silver hair.  “What are our food supplies like?”

Before Seoyeon could answer, her stomach growled.  Chanyeol glanced at her with a chuckle and started taking out all the food that they had.  There was still some fish left, and a little bit of meat from the birds, but they were running low on other things.  He surveyed it before passing her half a fish and taking the other half for himself.

“I think we’ll have to hunt, or at least forage,” he told her.  “We should get to somewhere with less snow where I can open a whorl by this evening, but after yesterday it might be a little while before I’m strong enough.”

“How long is a little while?” Seoyeon asked.

Chanyeol put his hand in the fire, which was burning low.  He hadn’t had to use any fuel for it, and it had lasted the night, which meant that his magical powers weren’t completely exhausted (however that worked).  The flames noticeably responded to his touch, turning brilliant white and burning much hotter.

“I don’t know,” he admitted.  “I’ve never been in this situation before.  Probably a day or two?”

Seoyeon pulled a face.

“We’ll probably be below the snowline, though,” he told her, “if it’s somewhere I can open a whorl.  More monsters, but easier to find food.  That or it’ll be the crater of an active volcano, in which case we won’t find anything.”

Chewing at his fish, he stood up and wandered to the cave mouth.  At first, Seoyeon thought he was just looking outside, but then he came back with two large snowballs and sat by the fire again, opening his water flask.

Reshaping the snow into a long, thin column, he began to melt it at the bottom.  It was a fascinatingly quick process.  The snow quickly vanished in favour of a small flow of water, and once he was done, Chanyeol looked up at her.

“Do you need refilling?” he asked, but Seoyeon was already handing over her own flask for the second snowball.

They finished up quickly after that.  It wasn’t snowing outside, and Chanyeol carefully set Seoyeon’s shoes on fire again, and then they were off.

The terrain was very different compared to the previous day.  They were surrounded by rocks and caves on all sides, a few stunted trees here or there, and while the path was wide enough for them to walk with no problem, it rolled and dipped all over the place.  There was very little in the way of any kind of life (which Seoyeon was thankful for, especially since it meant no monsters), likely because of the snow and cold.

As Chanyeol had predicted, after they stopped for a rather meagre lunch, they began to descend and the snow lessened.  The path took them alone the base of the snowline for a while and then down into a broad valley with trees and a lake.

Chanyeol stopped.  Initially, Seoyeon was wary, since on the last Plane he’d kept them away from lakes due to monsters, but then he looked up from his orb and tilted his head at the body of water.

“Want to wash?” he asked her.

If he’d been able to guarantee returning to Ximo that day, Seoyeon wouldn’t even have considered it, but they did still have at least one more plane to go once Chanyeol was up to it and she had no idea how long it would be.  She considered.

“Won’t the water be cold?”

“I can warm it.”

Slowly, Seoyeon nodded.  It would be nice to be clean, and it would also be an opportunity to scrub her clothes free of some of the dirt.  Chanyeol immediately started removing his weapons and his belt, stepping out of his boots and leaving them all on the lake shore.  Seoyeon only realised that he was planning to strip when he started pulling his tunic over his head.

“Wait!” she objected, face red as she turned it away.

He laughed.  “Seoyeon, I need to go into the water if I’m going to warm it.”

“But—”

“Fine, I’ll tell you when you can look.”

Gulping, Seoyeon hoped that he’d be honest with her.  She squeezed her eyes shut.  There were a couple of splashes and the sound of somebody wading out into the water.

“All right,” Chanyeol called to her.  Cautiously, Seoyeon turned.  Only his head was visible, but steam was already beginning to rise around him, and he looked supremely comfortable.  She glanced down at his clothes and other accessories.  It really would be better if she could take her own clothes off — for one, it would be easier to get the dirt off them, not to mention that she’d feel much cleaner herself.  She glanced back up at Chanyeol, then motioned for him to turn around, throat dry.  He got the hint and did so.

Quickly, Seoyeon undressed, shivering in the cold air, and chucked her clothes (and Chanyeol’s tunic, for good measure) into the water before stepping quickly into it herself.  It was quite cold, but once she’d splashed her way in, she was greeted by a sudden wave of warm water.

It was still a few moments before Chanyeol asked if he could turn around.  Seoyeon sat on the pebbled lake bed, submerged up to her neck, before acquiescing.  He must have been doing what she was doing, because it turned out the lake wasn’t all that deep — the water only came just over his waist — but he appeared to be steaming himself quite happily with his ability to warm the water.  Caught unawares, Seoyeon goggled at his physique, then realised she was staring and hastily looked away.

There was a splash and then she was hit by a small wave of hot water.

“You’re so sheltered,” Chanyeol teased when she looked back round, spluttering in indignation.  He splashed more water at her.  Without thinking, Seoyeon ducked under the surface to avoid it and promptly got water straight up her nose.  She emerged choking to Chanyeol unsuccessfully trying not to laugh.  Annoyed, she splashed water back at him.

That was all it took for it to devolve into a water fight, though Chanyeol was much more successful at getting her than she was at getting him, since Seoyeon insisted on staying where she was so that the water would be deep enough and refused to let go of the clothes.  Since everything except going towards shore was at least waist high for him, Chanyeol had no such concerns.  Seoyeon soon forgot her annoyance in favour of trying to get revenge, but that all stopped rather abruptly when Chanyeol suddenly froze, looking towards the bank.  She turned to see what he was looking at.  A moment later, his hand was on her head, pushing her down until only her nose and up remained above the surface.  She glanced sideways to see that he had similarly submerged himself.

Movement on the bank, much further round from where they’d gone in, attracted her attention, and when Seoyeon turned carefully to see what it was, she caught sight of something about the size of a wolf, but with far too many legs, moving slowly along the bank.  The shape was oddly familiar for some reason, but it was only when it came closer that she realised why.

It was an absolutely gigantic, hairy spider.  It had vicious-looking pincers, and large, beady eyes.  She gulped, glancing sideways at Chanyeol again.  He kept his hand on her head, unmoving, as he watched the creature.  The water around them remained warm and soothing.

Some time passed before the creature slowly wandered away and Chanyeol allowed her to raise her head again.

“What was that?” she asked.  “Was it dangerous?”

“A tannit,” he said.  “And no, not particularly.  Just slow moving.  But if it