A/N: So close to the end, huh? Tomorrow, we are getting the last chapter. Only one day to find what I'll be doing after this. The snow had not stopped here at all; I guess the weather is telling me to keep writing winter stories, huh?
Fast. Sawyer's skates barely touched the lake, almost flying. Faster. As soon he stepped, he lifted the foot, the other one already on the ice. The fastest. He dashed and dashed. Further and further and further. Faster and faster and faster. No stop; he had no choice to stop. Stopping meant slowing down. He could not slow down.
"Still running away?" Erik quipped. The thick scarf he wore muffled his voice. "Didn't you say you were going to change?"
"Some people don't like having their thoughts heard." Sawyer skated even faster. Beyond the limits. "Have you heard about something called privacy?" He turned his left skate sideways, stopping with a loud creaking sound.
Erik shut his ears with hands. "You did it on purpose, right? Didn't you say you weren't going to stop?"
Even before hearing his question, Sawyer had skated away. So fast that he had already covered a few meters in the span of seconds. "Do I look like I have stopped?" he asked, not bothering to shout. Erik heard everything, anyway.
"Some people don't like holding conversations over distance. Haven't you heard of a thing called politeness?"
Sawyer dashed back to Erik. "I might have caught that word somewhere," said he so fast that only Erik could understand. Then he propelled himself away again.
"You've gotten better at the magic," Erik's shout reached Sawyer at the other side of the lake. "Now I can't sense you slowing things at all even when you are so far. How much has your range expanded?"
"Can't tell." Again Sawyer stood by Erik's side. "I'm not using it now. This is just me. I can't be the fastest if I only slow things down, can I?"
"Amazing," said Erik to the empty air. "But still doesn't answer me. I remember you saying" - Erik made finger quotes - "I refuse to run away any more."
"I'm not." Sawyer stood behind Erik. "Can't you see the difference? I'm not running away."
"Why I don't believe you…" Erik turned to where Sawyer used to stand; he had already disappeared. "If you aren't running away, why don't you stop?"
"Like all of us - I have made a promise. I'm not going to run away anymore. Now I'm running towards something - future, some goal, anything. I have a direction, why should I stop?"
"Huh," Erik laughed. "That I didn't expect from you. Welcome to the club, then. Who's the person for you?"
"Does it have to be someone else?" Sawyer once again disappeared and moved somewhere else. "Can't I have made the promise to myself?"
Fast. He could not stop. Faster. He could not look back. The fastest. Because he had to aim for the future.
"I guess you can," Erik's voice comes from somewhere. "But don't forget I hear lairs."
Trips on that journey were expected.
