Chapter 10. Sleeping With the Fishes

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"I spy with my little eye..."

"A tree." Ren said finishing Larry's sentence in a bored tone.

"Geez. I just thought I'd try and cheer ya up a little." Larry said sticking his hands into his pockets.

"Larry, we've been walking for about a week now and we haven't found any trace of them. I mean, how do we know we're even going in the right direction?" Ren said resting her head on Larry's shoulder.

"Is this the Ren Stevens, THE Ren Stevens, the Ren Stevens that is now official permanent student of the month, the Ren Stevens that has had strait A's since she learned how to read, the Ren Stevens who is bave enough to admit that she can't ride a bicycle, about to give up on her brother?" Larry said getting up in her face in mock anger which lit up her face with laughter in seconds.

"Alright! You got me! We'll keep going! But you didn't have to take it that far!" Ren said as they started walking again."Actually, it's kinda hard to believe that I'm all those things now. I mean look at me. I'm walking through the woods with no clue where I'm going to find my brother and his friends that we have no clue where they are!"

"Your right. You haven't really been acting like your self lately. I guess this whole Louis ordeal has really gotten to your head." Larry said. After that they walked in silence until they came to a river that ran right in there path.

"How are we gonna' get across there?" Ren said walking to the river's edge.

After seeing that the current was obviously to strong where they were they walked down the river a couple hundred yard to where the current was still rough, but not as bad as before.

"Start looking around for a log or some rocks we could walk across on." Larry said scanning the river for any of the things he mentioned .

"I found some rocks over here. The current is stronger, but we can make it." Ren shouted a little ways up the river.

"Cool. We can use those." Larry said making his way over to the rocks.

"I'm not to sure about it now that I think about it." Ren said once Larry was over there and had started across.

"Come on Ren! Don't go normal on me now! Here, I'll go first to show you how easy it is." Larry said making his way across.

As soon as he was across he motioned for Ren to start across. With a little reassuring Ren finally started across. By the time she was half way across she looked like she was going to make it. But when she stepped onto the last rock she lost her footing and fell into the river. Larry ran over quicker that a cat and dove into the icy water after her. When he opened his eyes under water he could see that she had probably hit her head on a rock and was uncontious. He swam over to her and lifted her out of the water with all the strength he had left. When he got her on land he started to take off her coat and boots. All the while trying to wake her up. Then, as if by a miracle, she did wake up.

"Ren. Are you ok?" Larry asked hugging her.

"Yeah. My head hurts, but I'm ok. Just lost my footing there for a minuet." Ren said hugging Larry even tighter.

"Well now that your awake we can start getting dried off. I guess we're making camp here tonight." Larry said standing up and getting an area ready for a fire.

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By the time they had a fire stared and there clothes mostly dried off, the sun had gone down and they we're ready to go to sleep.

"Larry?" Ren said looking at him laying beside her.

"Yeah?" Larry said looking back.

"Thanks for saving me today."

"Hey, What are friends for! You didn't think that I would just leave you in there did you?" Larry said putting his arm around Ren.

After that they were silent for a while, just listening to the silence of the forest.

"Hey Larry, is there any more to that song that you told me about?" Ren said breaking the silence.

"Yeah. There is"

The river bank makes a very good road.

The dead trees will mark the way.

Left foot, right foot, traveling on.

To follow the drinking gourd.

"Thanks Larry." Ren said settling back beside Larry.

"No problem Ren." Larry said looking at the sky with a mile wide smile.

"Thanks for coming with me Larry." Ren said turning her head toward Larry.

"Like I said, no problem." Larry said also turning his head toward Ren.

For the first time they noticed how close they were. Soon the distance closed until they were only a few centimeters apart. As an owl called in the distance, there lips met. When they parted Ren leaned her head against Larry's chest once again they fell asleep under the smiling stars.