In Which the Kid Wakes Up.
Leo had been skating for ages, his maniacal laughter had stopped after a while, a cold wind in to the face generally put a halt on humour. Of course Leo was an expert on humour in difficult situations, but he was smart enough to realise that having his mouth open while skating into a wind was going to dry his mouth out, and he didn't have any water. Or food as it happened; he wasn't prepared for a long journey, and had underestimated how large Narnia was, smart maybe, but wise, not so much.
Leo was also working under the assumption that what the wolf had told him was correct, which might be stupid of him, but he was pretty certain the wolf was telling the truth, a fact that he was probably kicking himself over now. What was it again? Down the river to the waterfall. Right. Well he wasn't likely to miss that, it was kind of hard to miss a waterfall when you were on the river.
Trouble was, the boy was waking up, not that that was a bad thing necessarily, he had been waiting for the boy to wake up for ages, but having him wake up, and move around while he was tied to Leo's back, having been in a hostile situation, would likely result in some panic. Panic and ice skating, were not a good match at the best of times, and certainly not when you were travelling at high speeds and looking out for a waterfall while being hunted by wolves.
So, that meant Leo had to pull over while the kid was unconscious and walk the rest of the way, or speed up, and try to reach the waterfall before the kid woke up.
Hang on, was it just Leo, or did he hear running water? Leo glanced behind him, where the ice he had just been skating on was cut in two by his tracks, and was breaking apart. Great. So the only reason the two of them hadn't fallen into the water yet was that they were going so fast they were out of the way before the ice cracked. Well, if the river was cracking, the waterfall was probably the running water he could hear, meaning it wasn't far away at all. So he should skate toward the bank. Except if he slowed down... They'd fall in.
Full speed toward the bank and breaking your momentum by landing in a holly bush wasn't fun. Leo hadn't imagined it would be. What made it even worse was the kid on his back was forcing him down further into the bush. Not Fun. He was fairly sure he had branches imbedded in his arms, and he could feel blood trickling down his legs. Least it was him not the kid.
No Leo wasn't being heroic when he said that, well he kind of was, he was a hero- everything he did was heroic, but the kid was twelve, and looked pretty weak, whereas Leo was used to travelling with injuries. He didn't like it, but he was used to it. But his blood was over the bush, and the wolves would easily be able to smell that when they got here, and could track him with it. And he really should get out of this bush now.
Leo struggled backwards, and finally made it out of the bush, it took a while, hey the kid was twelve- he was only sixteen, and it wasn't like he was Jason. He was the mechanic, not the superhero. Leo stood up, and then remembered he was wearing ice skates. Right. Well there wasn't really enough time to defuse the metal from his shoes, there were wolves after them, and he would already be going fairly slowly because of his human backpack. Right then, quick blasts to each shoe to melt the blade off, and he'd be away. Man the kid better wake up soon.
This was not soon. This was five hours later, sun actually going down, where was the dancing lawn the wolf had mentioned Zeus dam it. Leo was tired, he was fairly lost, and although he was pretty sure he was still going in the right direction, it was getting to dark to actually see, without setting part of his body on fire, and he didn't want the kid to be traumatised upon waking. The kid had stirred a few times, groaning, but he still hadn't woken up, and Leo was getting frustrated.
Well, he had no idea where he was, but that was a big tree, and he was fairly certain wolves couldn't climb trees. If he got the kid up there then they could both get some sleep before they had to carry on the escape the wolves.
How did you get an unconscious kid up a tree?...
It was properly dark now. Leo was in the tree, the cable that tied the kid to his back was handing down as he pulled the kid up by it. There came another bang.
"Forth branch- really hope you don't have a broken skull when you finally get up here kid."...
Leo had his hand on fire as he tried to cook breath mints, would they be better hot? The kid was lying beside him in the tree, and the moon, which was almost full, was looking down through the leaves, he could see alright without the flames, but he was so bored! He considered going to sleep- it's not like he had to wait for the kid to wake up- he could explain things in the morning, and he was tired.
The kid has started groaning again, he was wrapped in a old sheet that had somehow come out of Leo's tool belt- he guessed sometimes you had old blankets to use as rags in a workshop- but it wasn't really a tool was it? Well, neither were breath mints.
Leo looked over at the kid, the groans had stopped, so either the kid was unconscious again, or had woken up by a stranger, in a tree, wrapped in a blanket that had questionable marks on it; (hey Leo knew it was paint, but there was no way that the kid could) and had decided the wisest thing to do would be to shut up.
The kid was sitting up, his eyes fixed on Leo, and although it was dark, Leo could see how stiffly he was sitting, fear or pain?
"Hey kid you hurt?" The kid didn't say anything for a while, only stared at him, and then, in the most English accent he had ever heard.
"You're American. How did you get to Narnia?"