"It gets quicker once you get the hang of it," Poppy said cheerfully, setting to work, her fingers thin but deft. "We may not finish it tonight, but that's okay. We don't have anything else to do."
"You have point." He continued to work quietly, his hands a bit clumsy and inexperienced with the vines.
She noticed him struggling slightly and reached over. "Here," she said gently. "The stick isn't the constant, the vines are. So we establish the vines first and the stick works around them, not the other way around. See?" She took the stick from his hands and guided it smoothly through the vines.
He watched carefully. "Yeah, I understand. I can do it on my own." He took it back, weaving the vines again. This time, he was more diligent with his movements.
She nodded in satisfaction. "Good," she said, returning to her work. The sun sank lower in the sky until Poppy was squinting to look at her work. "Maybe we should call it a night," she said hesitantly.
"That's probably a good idea." He finished a row, then put it down. "It's getting difficult to see. I'm sure we won't fall off for tonight."
She flashed a smile that was difficult to see in the dark. "Do you roll around in your sleep?" she asked, standing up and returning to the tent.
She sat down on the unzipped sleeping bag, holding her knees to her chest. "Of course not," she said, pulling her bag closer to her. "My sister used to, though, which made sharing a room difficult."
"Did you two share a room?" she inquired, surprised. She took out a disinfectant wipe and pulled up her shirt slightly to unwrap the bandages around her waist.
She chuckled lightly, but it quickly turned into a grimace of pain as she unwrapped the bandages from her wound. She quickly pressed the disinfectant wipe to the wound, and she winced, but she quickly cleared her throat and began re-wrapping the wound with a clean bandage. "Well, luckily for you, I'm a pretty normal sleeper," she said. "So no sleepwalking here. I sleep talk sometimes, but pretty rarely."
She glowered at him playfully and finished wrapping her bandage. "I'm good, don't worry," she said, laying on her back and looking at the ceiling. Wire mesh covered the roof of the tent, and she could barely see the stars through the trees. "Fortunately, no one has every reported anything of interest with my sleep-talking, so I think I'm safe." She paused for a moment, and then sat up, a look of concern on her face. "How are you feeling, by the way?" she asked. "I'm sorry, I didn't even ask."
"I'm alright, I think. I haven't felt anything weird. So, nothing to worry about." He decided to lay back, his hands comfortably behind his head.
She stayed sitting up, quiet for a moment. "Okay," she said finally, her voice gentle. "But you'd tell me, right? If you felt like something was wrong?"
