She groaned when he set her down, keeping her eyes tightly shut. The spinning nausea hadn’t stopped and likely wouldn’t stop for a while. She could hear the stream rushing close by and the sound was the finest music she had ever heard. 

“I can move well enough.” She answered through gritted teeth, though it was almost a lie. If he hadn’t dragged her carcass through the woods she’d be lying there still, tripping until who knew when. As it was the little effort she’d had to put forth had done her in. 
 
“I’ll just submerge myself and then after all the shit is washed off I’ll need to take the armor off. It’s got to dry. Fuck, I just got the chest piece too. Well it did its job I suppose.” 

There would be too much fumbling with buckles that lay near leather spattered with the ichor, she didn’t want to risk contact with it for either of them. The last thing she needed was a disoriented Alexi to tend to when she didn’t know which way was up. She swallowed hard, fighting back the nausea and forced herself to move. 

“Just point me in the right direction and make sure if I go under I eventually come up.” She followed that with a gravely, graveyard chuckle as she began to crawl towards the stream. Because dignity be damned. 

She lowered herself into the water, the moment she felt the cool rushing wet on fingers and the smooth pebbles sunk into mud. The water rushed over her face, the relief from the burning on her skin was immediate though her dizziness was unaffected. But then she really hadn’t expected it to. Finding her way to the surface, even from the shallow edge was harder than it should have been and she was near panic when it was managed, either through her own efforts or with help from her employer. Gasping for air she tried her sight again and found it still spinning. She cursed under her breath, unsurprised, and began to rub her hands over the soaked leather that covered her body. She sluiced it off, peeking every now and again to see if she had missed any of the glow and when she was satisfied she called for Alexi to help her back to the fire. There was no way she was going to make it on her own. 

“I’m sorry to ask this.” She said as he helped her along. “But I need you to get the armor off of me. I’m not going to be able to manage. But first thing, go change your shirt. Then we’ll hang this stuff to dry and see how things stand in the morning.” 

She cocked her head and listened to the night sounds around them, feeling a little bit of relief that they would likely be left alone most of the night. She hoped.