The Cinders of Dezu

20th: The Taffertys (4)

Julian turned over and looked at his friend.

"Isn't it super weird," he whispered, "that we spent a whole day moving some random family?"

Cairo frowned.

"Umm... I mean... kinda, I guess."

"Shouldn't we be on our way to get Raina? She's wasting our time! I can fly us there now! She just has to tell us where to go. She made us come here and do superhero U-Haul."

Cairo's eyebrows lowered.

"Dude, that's pretty messed up. Corliss just lost his dad."

"You didn't even know Corliss until a half a day ago! So why are we helping him instead of your cousin?"

Cairo frowned again but didn't say anything.

"Just keep an eye on her man," Julian whispered, "I know you're into her. But we don't know what her deal is."

Cairo scoffed before shooting a look in the direction of Talia to see if she heard. She was busy fiddling with something on her hammock in the dark. He looked back at Julian.

"I am not- I mean I'm-"

"Bro, you know I know every girl you're into. You're into her."

Julian started to adjust to lay on his side.

"Just don't let it blind you," he said as he turned over and away from him.

Cairo sat looking at the back of his friends head. He thought about his words. He had grown accustomed to the dark being lit by only the moon and the stars so when he saw a yellow light begin to glow over his shoulder he was startled. He turned around to see Talia with a flickering flame floating just above her between her face and her hands, which were actively working on something. Cairo squinted.

"What is that?" he asked.

Talia stopped and looked over at him. She raised her eyebrows and then lifted it for him to see. It was a face mask. It was hard to make out it's colors in the dark but it looked to reflect the colors of the flame that lit it. It was shaped like the face of a cat, and along with the color of flames, it also had the artistic flourish of fire. Cairo couldn't be sure, but it looked like it also had spots.

"You going to a fancy ball or something?" Cairo said.

It came out as a joke but then he realized he didn't know anything about this place. Perhaps they actually did have masquerade balls.

"No," Talia said with a smile as she went back to messing with it, "it's a my Night Dweller mask. The strap on it is giving me trouble again."

Cairo raised his eyebrow.

"Night Dweller?"

Talia nodded, still focused on the strap.

"They were old heroes. People who risked their lives in the night to take care of travelers on the roads before the torches and the walls of the cities went up."

She shrugged.

"They were warriors during certain conflicts too but I lean more toward the life saving variety."

"Hmm," said Cairo, "so you're saying you protect people at night?"

"Yeah, if I see them," she said, "There's certain spots I patrol some nights. Long stretches between towns where travelers sometimes get lost or stuck. I just make sure they don't get overtaken in the dark."

"Wow," said Cairo, "you're actually playing superhero."

"Playing what?" she asked.

"A superhero, like a..."

Cairo could see she was focused and stuck trying thread something that was particularly stubborn.

"Do uuumm... so did Night Dwellers wear masks?"

Talia smiled and gave a small chuckle.

"No no, that's just me. I cause too much trouble to show my face. If I'm saving people I don't want them to be able to point me out at the markets. It gets to be pretty obvious you're a Vincarsee when you start fighting off shadow dogs in the dark."

Cairo nodded.

"So why a cat?"

Talia put the mask down and gave him a curious look.

"Why do you want to know all this?"

Cairo shrugged.

"I mean how could I not? You're incredibly interesting."

Talia gave him a soft smile embedded in steadily reddening cheeks.

"I'm really not."

Cairo looked skeptical.

"How can you say that? You're a fire powered, travel guide, night watcher or whatever. It doesn't get more interesting than that."

Talia shook her head.

"Things here have me beat. This world is full of far more interesting things to explore."

Cairo leaned his head to the side.

"Well, right now, I'm exploring you."

Talia looked at him a moment, her soft smile still on her face before turning back to work on the mask.

"It's from an old story my mother used to tell me. A true story from our history. It's about a knight and a maiden far away. There was a flaming fire cat that was burning the maidens village. The knight came to stop it."

"Oh?" said Cairo, "How does it go?"

Talia shook her head as she seemed to finish her work on the mask. She leaned forward and started to open up the a cloth bag she had hanging on a branch at the end of her hammock.

"My mom always told it better. And we need to sleep tonight if we want to travel tomorrow."

She slipped it in and laid back down.

"But suffice it to say, I relate to the cat. I'm burning this place down. And I'm not letting anyone stop me."

The hovering flame above her bed went out with a sweep of her hand.

"Goodnight, Cairo," she said, before turning over and settling.

Cairo had trouble sleeping that night. And it wasn't just the scurrying of what he knew must have been several very hungry shadow dogs on the ground below him. He was adding up a few things in his head. Julian had told him not to be blind. He was trying to keep his eyes and ears open when it came to Talia. And he couldn't get one of the last things she had said out of his mind. Why did she call it "our history"? And why was a mother from Earth telling her daughter stories from Dezu?