An Awfully Big Adventure

Chapter 14: The Quarry

Louis landed again and kicked a tree in frustration. He had repeatedly taken to the skies and seen absolutely nothing of the men, and he was getting increasingly frustrated. Tracking them by foot was a very slow endeavour which involved no small amount of chance.

Sure he was probably on the right trail, with the occasional footprint or drag mark or blood drop, but they could all be from other things. Maybe some of the Lost Boys and some animals, and Louis was just following it all to nowhere. And he didn't even know how far ahead of him the men were. Tracking was awful boring work.

He tried not to think about how it probably would've been plenty entertaining with Harry along with him. Ugh. He knew he wasn't supposed to worry, because it was Hook, but Louis couldn't help but hope things were alright. The last time Louis had died it had been truly horrible. And Harry had helped him through it. Shit.

Harry had nobody to help him through now. He would be fine, though. He was Hook, it was fine, Neverland would bring him back. Unless...

No. Louis hadn't wanted to believe it when Harry was saying it, and he certainly didn't want to believe it now. All the same, he couldn't really stop his mind from thinking it. What if these men really were meant to be the new Hook and crew?

What if Harry didn't wake up? What if he was nothing more than another Lost Boy now, and this awful new Hook wouldn't die?

No. No. That would be...fine. He was supposed to want to kill Hook, and other people died and that was fine ⁠— just as he'd told Harry, he'd never particularly cared before. People died, that's what they did.

But Harry wasn't supposed to.

Louis shook his head. That was no way to think. If he was supposed to die then he would and that was that. Louis couldn't let himself care, he wouldn't allow himself to. He wouldn't allow this to be yet another thing that he had changed about Louis. He wouldn't.

He still worried.

~*~

Harry stopped for yet another rest. He hardly could have gotten far, but he was moving (even if it was at the pace of a particularly exhausted slug). From the leaves under his hands, he had at least gathered that he'd made it out of the pixie clearing and into the woods, which hopefully meant he was on his way to the lagoon. Or he'd crawl right off of the cliffs, or get lost deep in the jungle.

A tinkling like broken glass sounded next to his ear, and he jerked his face toward it.

"Wha⁠—" More tinkling sounded above him at different pitches ⁠— the pixies! Of course!

"Hello?" he asked, tentatively. "I'm not...I don't know if you can understand me like this, I'm afraid I don't understand you, but if you could help me get to the lagoon I would appreciate it a lot."

There was more soft ringing, and then a gentle tug on the top of his ear. He turned his face toward it and felt a slight breeze from the fluttering of wings in front of his face, then it disappeared and the chiming sounds came from a bit to his right.

"Is that...are you leading me?"

The sound repeated from the same place. Well, following along it was, then.

It was slow going, and Harry still had to stop for a good many breaks, but he had confidence now that he was being led in the right direction, and he regained strength as he went along.

Finally, after much more time than he would have liked, Harry's hand slapped into mud. He rushed forward eagerly, and nearly tipped himself straight into the lagoon, tripping over his hands in his haste.