Chapter Text
Swamps were the actual worst places in the world. There, Nil finally said it.
They were wet, and hot, and pungent with the smell of rotting wood and bugs and fish and frogs and all sorts of gross stuff. And it’s not like Nil was a stranger to that anymore, sure. But with swamps it was all turned up to eleven, and she had had maybe as much of it as she was interested in after the first day.
But then that turned into the second day. Into the third day. By the fourth day Nil felt like she would never be dry again. Her boots felt saturated with muck and this morning- oh, this morning. The last straw. The very last!
Nil had woken up to a frog in her bedroll. Like it had decided to cozy up with her in the middle of the night. It was so slimy. It was so wet. It was surprisingly cold. And, well. Nil didn’t panic, but she did have a very loud, violent and explosive reaction. So much so that in her frantic attempt to get out of the sleeping bag, she rolled down the grass and into the shallow swamp water near the camp, bedroll and all. And had to be fished out by Polly, who in the process also kicked her own bedroll into the water. The frog was unharmed, and simply waddled away.
Needless to say, Nil was ready to leave this swamp as soon as possible.
“I think they smell fine, if I’m being honest,” Polly remarked, as she hung up the bedroll to dry. “I’ve smelled worse. You smell fine too.”
Nil gave her a withering look, and Polly snickered. “- sorry, sorry, you look like a… wet egg right now.”
Nil smacked Polly in the shoulder and she just laughed a little harder, so she kept doing it, and eventually Polly relented. “Ack- okay okay okay! I take it back!! Stop!!”
Nil glared at her. “We need new bedrolls.”
Polly held up her hands in a placating gesture. “They’ll dry, Nil, don’t worry,” she hummed, hanging the other bedroll up beside the first. “Just leave it up all day and we can come back to-“
“I don’t think you’re hearing me, Pol. We need new bedrolls. I’m not sleeping in that thing again.” Nil wrung out her jacket, trying to get the very last of the water out. Eugh eugh eugh…
“Oh, don’t be a baby, you’ll be fine!” Polly reassured her. Then she smirked. “And I’ll check it for frogs when we go to bed.”
Nil thwacked Polly with her wet jacket. “I’m not doing it!! We need new ones!!”
“Ow- well where the hell do you suggest we go to get some?” Polly retorted, grabbing onto Nil’s jacket. “You can rough it for a little bit, it won’t kill you!”
“It might! You don’t know!” Nil shot back, yanking their jacket back. She threw up her hands. “Come on, Polly, let’s go to a village, I’ll get us new bedrolls.”
“Ugh, I don’t want to go to a village, Nil! I’ll have to wait out in the woods somewhere by myself again!” Polly put her hands on her hips. “I hate doing that! You know I hate doing that!”
“I’ll sneak you into their barn or something, you’ll be fine!” Nil slipped her jacket back on. “And it’ll only be for a few hours!”
“No, that’s- that’s not the point! I don’t like being separated!” Polly rolled her eyes and groaned. “You’re overreacting. You’ll be fine sleeping on the ground. We don’t need to go to a village.” She turned away to start packing up.
“Pollyyyyyeuh!” Nil pouted, coming around to Polly’s front. “Please?”
“No, Nil,” Polly returned quickly, then she finally looked up. “… don’t look at me like that.”
Nil kept pouting. “Please?”
“Nil,” Polly scoffed, meeting her eyes, and folding her arms.
Nil pouted harder. “Pleaaaaase?”
“Nil…” Polly muttered, starting to crack.
Nil tilted her head, like a cat begging for a treat. “Please?”
Polly pressed her lips into a thin line, trying to hold it together… then sighed and scoffed. “Oh my- okay, fine, we can go to a village.”
Nil’s pout turned to a grin rather quickly. “Thank youuuuuu,” she crowed, rather cheeky. Polly scoffed louder.
“Vexes- y’know, you need to stop using your powers of persuasion on me, dummy! One of these days I’m not gonna take it anymore!” Polly jeered, and lightly shoved Nil’s shoulder, laughing a little.
“I will never stop! And you will never be immune,” Nil retorted back, and Polly barked a louder laugh.
“Oh yes I will! And then you’ll be roughing it in the swamps like the rest of us,” Polly chuckled, and Nil couldn’t help but snicker too.
“Ha. You wish. Now c’mon, the next village is probably close,” Nil returned, scooping up her bag.
It’ll be so easy. We’ll have another set of bedrolls within the day.