"A turn of phrase," he says as he walks behind the leaf, then he pushes it and it's going right down towards the river and he jumps onto it and whoof it falls onto the water and now they're on the river.

Eeeeeeeee she's on a leaf boat it's so quaint and charming and wow shouldn't this thing be an absolute pain to balance, how stable is this thing? They don't exactly have buckets on hand if their leaf springs a leak.

Seems to be stable enough, approximately like a raft but a bit more concave.

"Now to find some salmon!"

Oh, good.

"Is there some fancy trick to finding salmon?" She looks down at her pointy stick. "And is this supposed to double as an oar, because otherwise I'm not seeing how we'll steer this thing."

"Oh we're not steering," he explains. "Salmon swim upriver, so if we go downstream we will eventually find one. Probably. They are not yet all nocturnal, it's not winter, but there are always some that switch sleep cycles earlier."

"Oh. Not steering. Great." She's going to get drenched, isn't she. This is a natural result of her choices, but she doesn't have to be happy about it, okay.

Well, for now the river is calm and tranquil, slowly leading them down in an approximately random zigzag of the leaf.

It's very pretty. She looks at the giant moonlit scenery and smiles fondly at it. Then something occurs to her.

Wait, how big is a salmon in comparison to them? Uh. She picked this one because it sounded like the most ridiculous, but now that she's actually here, on a leaf, doing battle with salmon sounds... rather like doing battle with a whale. That. That sounds like a lot. Especially in a dress. She's not taking it back now, because that would be admitting weakness, but she is perhaps regretting some of her life choices right now.

"Something on your mind?"

"I decline to answer that question! Also, I know you can't lie, but what happens if I do?"

"You become more in my debt."

"Great! Then I won't tell you pretty, pretty lies."

"Tell the truth instead."

"I do not see how that is in my best interests," she teases.

"Staving off the boredom of spending however long without talking?"

"Are you going to refuse any and all conversation unless I tell you precisely what was on my mind the moment before you asked?"

"I did not say you had to tell the truth about that."

"That's true! But it feels like it'd be unsporting to dodge the same way twice so soon after the last time I did it. I want to keep you on your proverbial conversation toes."

"Oh, bother."

She giggles. If nothing else, the banter helped her nerves.

Reverie would never admit to that being a goal.

"Come on, salmie salmie, it's time to show uuuuup," he singsongs.

"I don't think the salmon are likely to follow orders, you know. They're just salmon."

"Sshhhhh, they don't know that."

"That's. Technically true, I suppose..."

"Exactly."

Then he flops down onto his back (the leaf-boat sways but not too much), both hands resting on his stomach, and looks at the stars.