Belle snorted. "Ha ha, sucker." She grinned and kept walking. "Yeah, this kind of camping out is fun. Because if it starts raining we can retreat into the PD rooms."

Andy grinned.

"My mother's idea of 'roughing it' was staying at a hotel," she said. "Used to be I agreed with her. Then I came here and had to improvise. Sess can tell you, it was rough at the beginning."

"It always is," Belle said sympathetically. "Lucifer was one of the first. One night I got so mad at him I made him go sleep in a tree."

"Which, by the way, is very uncomfortable," Lucifer added, his wings rustling.

"And then you fell out of the tree."

"Which was not my fault. Something landed on me while I was asleep."

"And you fell on Duo."

"Also not my fault he was stupid enough to sleep under the tree." Lucifer gave Belle a look. "It was all your fault."

"Love you too." Belle grinned.

"It rained on us for five days straight, the week after I got here," Andy said. She shook her head. "It was miserable, because we were three days from any town and I had no idea what I was doing yet."

"I remember the first time it rained on us. I used Lucifer as an umbrella." Belle chuckled. "We shared a sleeping bag. And in the morning when we got up I took about five steps and slipped and fell on my ass in the mud."

"Which was worth it." Lucifer smirked, and Belle punched his arm.

"I'm usually good about not falling in the mud," Andy replied. She grinned. "The snow, however is a different story."

"I remember that one," Lucivar added in.

"Yeah, yeah, I shrieked like a six-year-old, I know," Andy said before he could tease her about it.

Belle was about to reply when something big and furry raced out of the forest on one side, bowled her over, yelped, and darted off to the other side. She blinked up at the sky, more stunned than hurt.

"Belle?" Eclipse and Lucifer both leaned over her.

"The hell just hit me? Fricken wrecking ball?"

It had startled Andy, as well, and she jumped a bit. By the time she got her wits back, whatever it was was gone. She offered Belle a hand up.

"I didn't see what it was, it was too fast," she said.

Belle took her hand and got up, shaking her head a little. "Ugh. I hate getting run over." She brushed herself off.

"At least there wasn't a dragon this time," Lucifer said helpfully, pulling her hair back automatically and braiding it for her.

"Any idea what territory we're in?" Andy asked, looking around. "Maybe we can figure out what that thing was." She couldn't say she wasn't curious now.

Lucifer looked at the map Belle had dropped, flipped it over, and looked again. "Um... Looks like we're between Kenyon's Dark Hunters and Ilona Andrews's Kate Daniels." He shrugged.

"Must have been a Were of some kind then." Belle winced as she poked her stomach. "Heavy Were. With big paws."

"Great, one series I fell out of and another I never touched," Andy said. "I'm probably going to be completely lost until we move on." She looked over at Belle. "You sure you're alright?"

"I'll be fine," Belle said with a shrug. "But, in the meantime..." She held out her arms to Lucifer. "Carry me."

Lucifer sighed shortly but turned around and crouched down so she could jump on his back, and he carried her easily with muttered grumblings.

Andy couldn't help but bite her lip to keep from giggling.

"You're terrible, Belle," she managed to say, mostly with a straight face.

"I know," Belle said with a grin. "But it's so fun! Besides, he doesn't really mind. He just grumbles to keep up appearances."

Lucifer rolled his eyes and swatted her leg, ignoring the little growl from Eclipse behind them. "If anyone tries to run me over I'm going to stab them."

"You know, I could let one of my dragons out," Andy offered, grinning. "Very, very few creatures would want to tangle with a thirty-ton flying lizard, shapeshifters or not."

"This is true," Lucifer admitted, hefting Belle a little higher. "And amusing." He grinned briefly.

"You're imagining the thirty ton flying lizard landing on a shapeshifter aren't you?" Belle asked.

"Yes, yes I am."

"Glad I could be of assistance," Andy said dryly. "My sole purpose in life is to make people laugh." She rolled her eyes, but didn't move to release either of her dragons. It would be more trouble than it was worth.

Lucifer snickered and continued walking. "So, I take it neither of you want to stop at these territories."

"Not really," Belle said. "I've got Ash and D'Alerian, so I'm good. And there's no one in the Kate Daniels series I really want, so." She shrugged and settled her arms loosely around his neck.

"Not particularly," Andy replied. "I never read the Kate Daniels books, and the last Kennyon book I read was a while back."

"Good." Lucifer nodded his satisfaction and kept walking. "Where are we headed?"

Andy checked her map and studied it for a moment.

"A general that-way direction," she finally said, gesturing towards the southeast.

Lucifer grinned suddenly. "On the trail or off?"

"On, you prick." Belle thumped his shoulder. "Don't ask stupid questions."

"Just asking," Lucifer said with a too-innocent grin.

Andy couldn't help but grin a bit.

"It still had to be said, I'm guessing," she said.

Lucifer merely grinned and looked over at Lucivar. "I still think we should make them play strip poker."