So.

Yeah.

I realized abruptly that I was being carried by James.

I mean...up close he didn't look too much like Rock Lee. I mean, he did have the dark hair and...bowl inspired hair cut. But he did not look like a cartoon character.

If not for the barneys we where leading around, and James running and jumping like a ninja while I just was carried like a sack of potatoes, it could have been...

Almost sweet.

Like a date.

I felt my stupid face burn just a little red. Stupid face.

Then Rock Lee almost dropped me over into the air, as he stopped too quickly but didn't let me know and I almost was thrown. He tossed me over to his other shoulder like the sack of potatoes I was.

"Sorry, you are heavier than you look. I need to switch sides." He apologized, but didn't sound too guilty.

"Muscle is heavier than fat." I clenched my fist. "I have the part to fix the train. You can't drop me."

"I don't need the train to survive in the Forest. Hence I am a Forester." He said, sounding too self satisfied.

He was stupid. I hate his guts.

Hating myself for even harboring the idea of a crush, and I removed another canister of my rapidly dwindling stash, and chucked it.

The barneys were following us, and they were pretty fast.

It was hard to believe Prattalike would be okay...

But what else was I to do?

"Let's hurry up."

So we flew through the trees. See, that's a simile. We didn't literally fly. I was just being carried by a ninja wanna be to divert barney like predators.

"Up. Good idea." And then Rock Lee kicked off the branch we were standing on, flying toward another trunk, kicked that branch, angling upward, in an anime like vertical jump.

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I can now officially say that physics is broken here, everyone.

So. Remember when I said I have motion sickness?

My stomach remembered.

I did not throw up.

But I really wanted to.

Then we were through the trees, just for a moment. We soared, and I could see the train tracks to the left. I was too busy trying not to freak out (or vomit) to really see the details of the train. I could see smoke though.

We had less than five minutes. And we still weren't ready to head back.

Stupid countdown.

Then Rock Lee's nearly vertical leap reached its apogee, and we started rushing back into the madness of the trees.

I may have said some bad words.

Hawthorn must have been a bad influence on me, I guess. I am otherwise the very image of polite civility.

The trees were rushing at us in a monotone of dreary greens, then James twisted and pulled me, and somehow he translated the downward momentum into forward momentum without me dying.

Yay!

"You are hurting me." James said.

I realized my hands had secured death gripes on his back as my 'don't drop me' reflex activated.

I loosened my hands, because I had to throw another canister of steam.

There were several more dinosaurs joining the chase. They weren't all barneys. I would have to ask Prattalike more about the other kinds when I saw him. "We are drawing another herd." I said.

"Good. That is one less."

Then we were back at the shelter. Honestly, the whole situation had barely taken a minute, because while I had run like a crazy person for a couple of minutes, James and Prattalike had their own jobs, then James came and got me.

"We're back!"

Chris Prattalike had...

Done a lot of damage in the minutes I'd been gone. I was beginning to wonder if I would get arrested again...I mean, destroying one of the same spaces in a forest filled with steam-starved dinosaurs felt like a dangerous and illegal move.

The protective thing around it was destroyed. Not completely, but now there was a very big hole.

Rock Lee gripped me tighter, like I was a stress ball. "You have to dump all of the canisters."

"I remember the plan." I said.

The dinos were right behind us.

"Don't get any one me." He flexed his hand nervously. "My britt score is...a little low."

I wonder what would happen to a normal, non-iseikaied-college-student.

Rock Lee went around the line of trees encircling the former shelter, lining up. The dinosuars were under us, and there seemed to be even more than before.

"James!" Prattalike was coming in from the other direction, another herd following him. "You go first, then head straight to the train!" He had really good projection. "I'll be right after you!"

Rock Lee nodded. "I can do it. I can do it."

I did not enjoy the idea that he had some doubts. The plan was to leap over the shelter, dumping the final canisters of steam. However, that was a wide gap. I could feel him beginning to get slower. Oh no. What if I was really heavier than what he could handle? I knew I should have skipped leg day! And pizza day.

He stopped moving for the first time, and popped me over again to his other shoulder.

"You got this!" He said, to himself. "Stronger than yesterday."

I really hope this was just a Rock Lee lookalike and not somehow intrinsically tied to the Naruto character. It'd been a while since I had seen it, but I remember Rock Lee losing. A lot.