The Cinders of Dezu

6th: Keeping Dark (4)

Julian scoffed.

"Fog Norton."

Cairo's eyes widened and opened his hands in questioning.

"What about him?"

Julian readjusted his feet on the floor.

"Okay, remember how I always stole his mechanical pencil lead and I used to joke about how dumb he was and how he'd never find out?"

Cairo nodded.

"Yeah, and I remember you were WAY too small to be risking your life like that. Fog was some kind of middle school size aberration. Also he wasn't nice. Like, at all."

"Right, I was dumb," he said, "but remember how you got me out of it when he found out?"

"I paid him three dollars for missing pencil lead... which you never spotted me for..." said Cairo with his eyebrows lowered.

"Yeah! But he still didn't let it go. And then I was walking home and he found me and was about to jump me. But then you were there."

"Dude, what does this have to do with anything?"

"You said you knew he was going to beat me up because it didn't sit right, his reaction when you paid him. So you followed him and found out what he was going to do. You never skipped class. But this one time you skipped your after school workshop to walk me home instead just so I would have back up."

"I'm still at a loss as to why you're bringing this up."

Julian put his hands out.

"I thought I was gonna die that day!"

"You definitely would have. Fog was out of his mind. His older brothers were psychos. That kid did not grow up well."

"My point is," Julian said, "I got into something stupid, you got me out of it. You've done it over and over. I'd follow you to the ends of the Earth, and I'd be sure you'd get us out of anything."

"If all of this is true, then we already reached the ends of the Earth," Cairo said.

Julian put his arms out to present himself.

"And here I am."

Cairo faintly smiled. Then he chewed on his lip and sighed.

"Does it say where to find food? These crackers, or whatever, aren't gonna last long."

Julian raised his eyebrow and snatched his book off the table. He mumbled as he leafed through some pages.

"You were supposed to be giving me the cliff notes but since you havin' some kinda existential crisis..."

He finally found a section marked food and scavenging.

"Alright, have you ever foraged before?"

"Oh no..."

"Done any trappin' or huntin' lately?"

"Ugh!"

"That's apparently where we're at, unless we go into town. But it says to follow the manifestation rule before contact with the locals."

"What's that?"

"I don't know! I don't do homework, remember?" he said, giving the books pages a flip with his thumb.

"We don't have time for this. I don't care what he said, we are finding a way home. But first I'm finding my cousin."

"There he is!" Julian said with a smile.

"Is there a section in there on how to reach someone for help? Can we contact Harper again? We don't even have a phone in here!"

Julian started looking through the pages again. He stopped and scanned a section for a moment.

"'In case of an emergency, contact Talia The Night Huntress.'"

"Night Huntress?" Cairo repeated.

Julian's eyebrows slowly raised as he continued to read in silence.

"What is it?" Cairo said.

"It tells you how to contact her... and it's... very weird."

"What, man? Come on!"

Julian closed his eyes and shook his head. He handed Cairo the guidebook, opened to the page he was reading. Cairo scanned it.

"... Huh..."