”Alright so I might have fudged the times a little but, I think it’s important for the kids to get some experience in the woods that isn’t in their backyard.” Sam said as he kicked out the landing gear. ”I mean when was the last time you two were in the Canadian wilderness?” Sam asked thinking the answer to that was obvious. ”Oh, bears and wolves disclaimer… they be here.”

Sam opened his thermos and drank some of his coffee and stood with a slight stretch, ”Right, so anything we need to check off the list for prepping for a camp full of kids?” Sam asked curiously he didn’t understand the need to prep a spot for everyone. Usually the kids he brought out here didn’t have any prep time or advanced knowledge that they were going to be here. Last time he did this however, didn’t have the best results, which was why the new biology teacher and current student of Sam’s was in attendance. Cora, for obvious reasons, Sam just liked her around and this area had some of the best star gazing around.

”Sun sets a little earlier out here and the nearest town is about forty miles southwest. Got a cabin next to a river. Should have enough wood to heat the place for a few days but we probably won’t be here that long… unless you two are fine staying longer?” it was rare he got to make it out this way. There was always a million things to do. Maybe when he had a full jet full of kids they could knock some of the chores out?

Not waiting for a response he walked down the ramp into the cold and grinned. ”Never get enough time to come out this way anymore.” he said practically sliding down the ramp and into a pile of snow. There was less than before around this time. He reached down and picked up a small log and moved it closer to the ramp. ”Bruno always gets mad if I don’t bring him back something to chew on.” he said aloud.

“First time in Canada for me,” Elizabeth said as she popped the clasp of her seatbelt and pulled herself to her feet. She grabbed her duffle bag from the passenger seat beside her and slung it over her shoulder. “But it’s not so much the bears and wolves I’m worried about.” Even if the blonde hadn’t been fully confident in her abilities to pacify any of the local beasties, she always had the option of possessing them. No, what drew her concerns was the fact that Sam was going to end up being the other teacher/chaperone on the trip.

Liz was still fairly new to the faculty, but she’d been there long enough to catch little snippets of gossip and words of warning around the icemancer’s...more notorious exploits. While the allusions and potentially exaggerated stories made her more confident in her decision to choose Sam as her self defense teacher, it was starting to give her a mild panic attack at the thought of him having a bunch of kids alone in a wilderness. The fact that he didn’t have a clue what prepping a campsite involved just made Liz’ blood pressure continually increase.

Liz masked her alarm by pulling her fur-lined coat tighter on her. “Why don’t we check the cabin first and see what condition it’s in,” she suggested. “Then we can go ahead and start making an inventory of any supplies needed or repairs and such to be made. We’ll need to make sure there’s a good bathroom situation as well.” There were about a hundred things Liz could think of off the top of her head to do, but she figured they should just start with the most obvious and work their way from there. And fortunately Sam’s girlfriend, Cora, was there as well, at least for this trip, so it probably wouldn’t take too long to get everything sorted out.

She was far more cautious than Sam as she made her way down the ramp - she didn’t have a preternatural resistance to the cold after all. And she didn’t want to get soaked before even getting to the site. “I’m sure Bruno will find it within himself to forgive you,” she said with a genuine smile. Bruno was a pretty good dog. Even disregarding her soft spot for german shepherds. “But why do you have a random cabin in the Canadian woods again?”

Cora had mixed emotions being invited on an adventure to the wilderness. It was with Sam, so that was a positive, but there was another female teacher, which crawled faint threats of jealousy she had to subdue. Jealously was a...strange feeling for Cora. It took a lot for her to accept a relationship in general, let along come to terms with emotions like possessiveness that could come with it.

The thing that kept everything at bay was the threads being able to see Sam had no interest in his fellow teacher was good. Being able to see her own solid red thread made her relax. All she had to focus on was the cabin, the woods, and imagining what a bunch of kids could do out here.

Survival, but in a more humane way. Cora has some experience from running the rock climbing gym, but this would probably involve less legal safety wavers and more risk. ”How much of the surrounding area have you mapped out? Any poison ivy, toxic plants? If one of the kids tried to run off are we talking snakes as well as big game? Maybe I’m a pessimist but I like to sort out the first aid resources quickly.”

”Right…. Bathroom.” Sam said trying not to laugh; there was an outhouse and the woods. Unfortunately it got so cold out here any sign of plumbing would freeze instantly in the winter meaning more trouble than it’s worth. Sam did have a propane tank for heat though which he thought was a waste but glad he had it now. If they were worried about plumbing they’d probably be concerned for heat. The solar grid he had on the property was good at giving them whatever electrical needed as well.

>>> “But why do you have a random cabin in the Canadian woods again?”

”Good hiding spot if I need to lay low for a while. Natural resources, and in the winter it’s essentially impossible to get to meaning I don’t have to worry about anyone knocking on my door. “ his answer didn’t give much other than he was paranoid. Sam preferred prepared.

The ground was still partially frozen over. He was tempted to freeze it completely but didn’t. Any vegetation or animals in the area would probably not be a fan. Sam started to walk towards the cabin, which was hidden in a growth of large pines and some shrubbery some had berries others didn’t.

>>>”How much of the surrounding area have you mapped out? Any poison ivy, toxic plants? If one of the kids tried to run off are we talking snakes as well as big game? Maybe I’m a pessimist but I like to sort out the first aid resources quickly.”

The icemancer looked to his girlfriend and smirked, ”This is supposed to be a vacation for you.” he shook his head and laughed, ”Well hopefully they will have enough sense not to run off. Snakes we don’t have to really worry about this time of year, unless we find a cave. They try to stick to them. Bears, wolves are a given but Moose are a pretty big pain out here. When I was installing the solar grid I had to have a stand off with a family of one.”

While Sam didn’t want to mess with any animals or vegetation his ice powers quickly effected the overgrowth to the path that lead to his cabin. As he brushed past the growth of plants they quickly broke apart and fell till they were no longer on the path. He wanted to make it easy to tell how to get back to the jet if needed.

”Poison Ivy yes, but that’s one of the reasons we got them coming out here right? Sumac as well, I might have done more clearing of that stuff around the cabin though. I’ll have to give it a once over and about 70% of the property.” Sam said trying to answer most of his girlfriend’s questions. ”Good thing we are dating, I’m an optimist.” he said trying to laugh at his joke. He was a realist more than anything which was often sided with pessimism.

The last big bush froze and broke away revealing a cabin, well a cabin was more of an understatement. This was definitely one of the larger cabins he had. It resembled more of a small hunting lodge than anything. It was a log cabin; cedar planks wrapped the few windows large rocks made the foundation. The large Oak doors were a welcoming site. ”I bought this place before I was on a teachers salary.” Sam clarified as he opened the doors and entered.

Liz wasn’t sure if she was mollified or wary by Sam’s response. Who kept a hiding spot in the middle of nowhere in another country? Granted, it was nice to get away every now and then, but this seemed fairly overkill. The blonde added it to her mental list of odd things about her coworker. There was a picture there she wasn’t seeing, but it didn’t seem right to ask about, at least not yet.

She also wasn’t entirely sure what to make of Sam’s response to her bathroom remark, but she suspected she wasn’t going to be thrilled with the reality. “Note to self: bring toilet paper. Lots of it.” Roughing it indeed!

As Cora brought up her own concerns, Liz took the opportunity to get familiar with the ambient fauna herself. There was a quick catch in her breathing as she lowered her mental floodwalls, allowing the local moods to wash over her, suddenly feeling a dozen different things at the same time. But she didn’t miss a step in following along behind Sam as he began walking toward (presumably) the cabin. Although she made sure to keep a bit of distance when she realized what he was doing to all the plants that got in his way.

Liz smiled in pleasant surprise upon seeing the cabin. “Oh this will do nicely!” she said. It was bigger than she had expected, for sure. She’d been assuming that all the kids would have to bring tents, which probably wouldn’t be a bad back-up idea. The smile turned wry as she trudged into the place itself. “I should’ve figured this would be too good to be true. Well there go my plans for investing in Canadian real estate! Looks like we’re not going to be neighbors any time soon,” she joked. Although it did bring up questions as to what he did before he taught at the mansion….

She set her duffle down on a nearby chair and was pleased that only some dust plumed up from it. “I gotta say, this is a really nice place, Sam. Even if you do have some mice.” Well, they might’ve been rats or even squirrels. But somethings were feeling frantic and suddenly alarmed.

Cora wondered what it said about her that she hadn't been as concerned about bathrooms and plumbing. Maybe she spent too much time outdoors and scrambling across mountains with her dad. But, kids were a little more mortified if you told them to go find a bush to go behind. Although, that was a life lesson they could use.

Vacation. Cora laughed and rolled her eyes as she found a spot for her own bag. She didn't have the ability to sense wildlife, which was probably for the best. Knowing a ton of mice were monitoring them and sharing their feelings with Liz would have been a bit much for her brain to handle. Cora was doing her best just to remain cool about this whole thing. Because she had that jealousy thing under control! Right!

"You guys teaching fire skills? Is the log cabin insured?" Cora mused, only somewhat joking. "Although, I'm sure the ice can handle a few misplaced flames. Optimism?" she concluded.

The icemancer smirked at the response, ”Enough foliage. You’ll learn real quick.” he had toilet paper in the cabin, the girls however didn’t know that yet. Even when he went someone in the wild he usually had a roll or two. Sam was too used to comfort.

”For now.” he corrected as he sent a wave of cold to focus on where they mice were located. He’d seal the area with ice till he could find the holes on the outside to fill. He thought he got all of the entrances last time. Maybe he needed some cats up here.

The place had enough windows for some natural light but that also meant it got colder faster when it got dark. While there were some candles scattered throughout the majority of them were closest to the large wood-burning stove. Enough wood lay next to it. Sam went to work as soon as he entered filling the thing. If he could keep the thing going all weekend they probably wouldn’t need to use the propane and with the grid running hopefully they wouldn’t need any of the candles.

”Yes. No, and this place will never burn down if I’m around. Kinda attached to the place.” the icemancer said hefting a few logs and dropping them into the fireplace before finding a box of matches. ”Got a few methods the kids could make fires with. I’m more partial to the friction method.” Sam laughed at the comment and then added, ”Steel wool is a good one and then they can always try with a small magnifying glass, flint obviously right?” Sam asked striking the match and lighting the small pieces of bark under the pile. The fire lit instantly. ”Optimism” Sam agreed.

”Got two bedrooms and some space in the loft for sleeping bags so there is plenty of space inside. Though if there is a big enough fire outside it’s pretty nice out there as well just got to watch out for the wild life.” the icemancer said with a smirk. He was pretty sure he’d be the only one willing to sleep out there.

Walking over to each bedroom he kicked the lights on. There were a few things in the closest that he’d probably have to lock up and now that he thought about it. ”There is also a safe room in the basement. Probably best if we keep that place locked when the kids are here.” Sam said nodding to the basement door. He was kind of hoping he didn’t have to explain too much.

”I’m pushing for some fishing lessons and some shelter making as well.” he said smirking. ”Might also be a nice little waterfall. You know for the rock climbers.” he directed his gaze towards Cora and raised his eyebrow.

The cold swept across the mice and Liz shivered. The mice would be dealt with one way or another by the time they left. If Sam didn’t have a hundred or so ways of dealing with them, Liz was willing to remove them herself. But that was way down on her list of priorities.

Cora brought up a very good point indeed. As Sam started a fire, Liz added to her mental checklist to look for a fire extinguisher. Granted, Sam was an expert in filling in that role, but Liz wanted a backup just in case the elemental wasn’t around. Just like she had to remind herself it was still wise for others to be watchful for wild animals, even if she herself didn’t have problems with them.

“I nominate you as fire master, then. Which reminds me, I’m thinking we could do a bonfire the first night. Make some smores, toast hot dogs, make kebabs, etc.” Liz had an entirely separate list of potential activities planned, everything from examining water samples and testing oxygen, chlorophyll, and pollution levels all the way to local plant scavenger hunts and finding constellations. A lot of it had the potential to be boring, but she found most kids enjoyed playing with fire.

Liz followed behind Sam as he poked around in the bedrooms. Sleeping arrangements were another thing that would have to be sorted out. The current plan for the trip was for around a dozen students, which would be manageable, particularly if the group included some of the more responsible students like Aoi. “Sounds like a plan,” she said regarding the sleeping outdoors bit. Personally, she’d prefer to sleep indoors, but the camping aspect was meant to be a huge part of the field trip.

She shot a quick glance at Sam. A safe room? In a cabin in the middle of nowhere? She quickly smiled though. “Probably, yeah. Wouldn’t be a good idea to just let everything get up to who-knows-what or mess anything up.”

Liz pulled out her phone as Sam kept talking and opened one of her many preparation lists. This one was filled with potential activities. “I reckon we’re going to need to take a bit of time, if not here then back at the mansion, to sort out exactly what all we plan to do with the kids. Or maybe have a couple of options going at any one point.” But Liz was getting pretty excited, especially now that she was actually at the cabin. She wasn’t much a camper or a super outdoorsy person, but this was just one more comfort zone to expand the boundaries of.

Stepping over to the quaint kitchen area, Liz started rifling through drawers and cabinets to take stock of what was already there. An off-the-grid cabin in the Canadian wilderness and owned by a bachelor who’s mutation allowed him to transcend some of the basic needs other people had made Liz suspect she was highly unlikely to find many of the basic kitchen supplies (or even cleaning supplies) that she was used to. But she had an entirely separate list for that.

Cora found it amusing at this point that the two coworkers were trying to figure out this trip together. From what she had seen, Liz was a much more professional teacher, using this as a genuine educational outing. Sam was, well, Sam. It was a classic case of book smarts vs street smarts and she wasn’t sure the kids would survive this in the ling run. Some would come out knowing how to throw knives and the other how to pick flowers and befriend animals. Or something. Cora doubted there were any s’mores on previous trips to this location.

”Narrowing down a lesson plan Seems smart. Give the kids a few options. Some may be excited to learn to fish and clean their catch and others would probably prefer not having that experience. And heck yes to any good rock climbing!” Cora grinned. She had to shake the mental image of some poor traumatized child seeing a fish gutted for the first time. Then she wondered if Evelyn would be like that. Oh, Evelyn would be the first to mope out of fitting anything...

”Most camps seem to have age ranges for reasons. Keep similar kids together to avoid too many conflicting activities,” she noted.

Sam smirked teasing Liz for her choice of words, ”Ya reckon?” he was wondering if she was going to suggest panning for gold at some point. He knew a few people in town did pan the river however Sam didn’t really have much interest in it. The property was beautiful as it was. Last thing he needed was a bunch of people looking for gold.

”Might be a lot of kids.” Sam replied. ”You sure you can handle having multiple groups?” it wasn’t that he didn’t trust Liz with students. She was a staff member at the mansion meaning they trusted her to handle herself with the minds she was hired to help mold. No Sam was more concerned about the kids taking advantage of the situation. The woods were dangerous to those who weren’t prepared.

”Usually the kids that come out here are trouble or prepping for the X-men. By the end of it I’m pretty confident they could survive in the woods on their own. Powers or no, can’t tell you how many times I saved my *** from trouble by disappearing into the woods. I know we are past the camps now but I’d sleep better knowing I at least gave the kids the smarts to survive out here. If anything happened again.” he folded his arms watching Liz rummage through the drawers then shifted his attention back to Cora.

”Never climbed the water fall though. Maybe we could check it out tomorrow make sure it’s safe to climb?” Sam asked with a smile. ”I can spot ya.”

Liz rolled her eyes at Sam’s remark, but she declined to encourage him. Lord knew he didn’t need any more of that. Still, it brought a bit of a smile to her face because even such jabs helped reduce the tension. Well, that probably wasn’t the best word for it. Awkwardness was more accurate. At least, Liz felt pretty awkward about the whole situation. She had been getting to know Sam on a professional level and from a student/teacher angle, but this was the first time she’d actually spent hours with him, out-of-the-office, so to speak.

And now she was in another country with him and she was seeing some different sides to him. And Cora? The woman was still virtually a complete stranger to Liz and she still tended to take a while to warm up to new people. And then it was made trickier by the fact that Sam and Cora were an item and….yeah, it was all just weird. Liz was severely regretting her choice to not bring Zorro. She was not regretting her choice to leave Nico behind - he probably would’ve been squawking Irish curses every few seconds from the plane ride and cold alone.

After finding a worrying amount of knives and types of chili powder and an even more worryingly lack of many other common kitchen items, glanced back at Cora. “That’s a pretty good idea, actually,” Liz said with a thoughtful head tilt. “I never actually went to any camps as a kid, so I think I’m missing out on a lot of pre-established procedures to draw upon.”

She turned back to her inventorying, which was going pretty fast since there wasn’t a ton of stuff. Now, while Elizabeth’s powerset opened her up solely to animal emotions, she was still able to feel the mood turn heavy. Right. The buried heart of the field trip. The bottom line that wasn’t pleasant to discuss. One of the main reasons Sam was on the trip and Liz was mostly just filling a space. Not many other high schools had a continued need for a full-time self-defense instructor.

But she refused to stay dark about it. “Well, if anyone gets out of hand, I’ll just tell them I’ll make slugs crawl all over them while they sleep.”

Cora never thought of herself as a kid person, but she had dealt with her share of them at the gym. While that was a bit more of a commercial venue verses what the mansion offered, there were some procedures she could fall back on. True, she was here to sort of balance what could have been an awkward amount of alone time between the two teachers, there was the risk of it being just as awkward with Cora and Sam having their uh, time.

They needed a fourth wheel. They really should have made this more of a group outting to stop all the strange tension in the air.

Focus on the tasks. Right. "I can give you the number of my activity director back at the rock-climbing gym. She has a couple of books on camps and stuff. She always kept a notebook for each camp with activities and stuff." when in doubt, turn to someone with experience. She had experience with climbing and business, not necessarily with kids.

She grinned at Sam, making a note to at least enjoy some of the time out here.

The icemancer scrunched his nose at Liz when she offered up the slug treatment. ”Gross.” he chuckled. Not his preferred method to torture someone but it was good to know he could outsource to some slugs if the situation ever arise.

Unfolding his arms and grinning to Cora, ”I’m pumped, be the most people the place has ever seen. Well, since I got it. They tried logging and mining the place in the 60’s.” most of the trees had been replanted since then a point he was pretty proud of and the two mines he had found were more like caves than anything else.

”You two need anything else from the jet?” Sam asked as the Cabin started to get a little warmer from the fire in the wood-burning stove. ”Make yourselves at home. Just be careful.” he said as he walked over to the door opened it and went outside into the night. It was dark now and cold, very cold. Without the sun the temperature must have dropped fifteen to twenty degrees. He could see his breath, without trying to.

The icemancer walked along the familiar path back to the jet and slowed down. Something was wrong. The icemancer ducked off the path and waited for a second to see if there was any movement. The moonlight was enough to illuminate the path he was walking and with it being so cold everything that gave off heat even a few degrees difference became clear to him. Sam was being followed.

Liz liked the sound of that! “That would be fantastic,” she told Cora. A consultant was almost always more useful than just reading articles on the internet that just said the same thing as all the others. And it was always possible the activity director would have additional insights into running a camp and such. Liz was absolutely confident that taking high school students camping in another country wasn’t going to be anything like the classroom experience.

But they could probably exchange that number later, because at the moment, it seemed as if Cora and Sam were having a moment.

Liz pretended to whistle and that there wasn’t anything going on as she finished her rummaging. She began adding to the list of things they’d need to bring (or at least keep stocked in the jet for very unique emergencies or events or whatever) because she needed to and because the third wheel was an uncomfortable position.

“I think I’m good here,” Liz said without turning from her phone. “Don’t talk to strangers!” Liz was fantastic at packing and had managed to cram everything she needed and more in her (surprisingly heavy) duffle bag.

And then it was just Liz and Cora.

“Alright!” Liz said, clapping her hands together. “I think I’m going to snag one of the bedrooms and get my stuff in order before continuing with looking over the rest of the place. I figure we can explore the outdoors when the sun is up, yeah?” she said, leaving plenty of room for Cora to add input. They really didn’t have set plans, after all.

The blonde grabbed her duffle and headed into the far bedroom.