When the Dawn Breaks [TBAU]

☆ Chapter 8 ☆

"And this is Joe's library!" Tango announced, opening the building's grand doors. Impulse smiled tiredly and followed him in.

Tango had insisted on continuing the tour, because apparently they still hadn't seen everything. What the town lacked in size, it made up for in density. It seemed there were stories in every pane of glass and each pebble in the road. And Tango wanted to tell him all of them.

He was incredibly thorough with his tour. Yesterday he'd gone on the longest tangents about the littlest things. Like the missing railing on the bridge from where Cleo had leaned a little too much and fallen into the stream below, or the random but suspicious sink hole that Scar had fallen into about 23 times at this point. Apparently Stress really wanted to plant a tree or something there so that Scar would stop ending up in the infirmary due to hole related injuries.

Oh, and don't even get him started on the random barrels of tomatoes that were scattered around the place. They weren't for consumption, no no no, they were to throw at Ren in case he got a bit too far into his "acting." Impulse wondered what must've happened to cause them to even need to add those in the first place.

Hermit village was a spectacle, with each little thing making it odder and odder still. And Joe's library was no different. It was gorgeous and grand.

"Tango," came a disgruntled sigh from next to him. Both Impulse and Tango spun around to see Joe themselves, and hand on their hip and irritation in their face. "What did I say about yelling in my library?"

Tango gave his own sigh in response. "Only if there's an emergency, I light your books on fire again, or if Cleo decides to try and end the world," he recounted as if he'd said the phrase several times before.

"Thank you." Joe said sarcastically, shooting Tango a thumbs up.

Impulse glanced across the library, taking in the place. He noticed Bdubs scurrying around in the back corner and subconsciously took a small step back. He still felt wary around the man, considering he could spill Impulse's secret at any time.

Bdubs was putting books back up on the shelves in a hurry, though he kept one under his arm. Once he was finished, he made his way to the front, where Joe, Tango, and Impulse were still standing.

"Hey Joe, can I borrow this one?" Bdubs stuttered out, holding out an ominous looking thick black book.

Before Joe could answer him, Tango leaned in close, reading the book's cover. "Ooh, Demons! Another new niche interest?" Bdubs nodded slowly in response.

Impulse felt his breath catch in his throat. Of course Bdubs, the only one who knew he wasn't human, was reading a book about what he truly was. Bdubs shot him a weird, wide eyed look, and the two held each other's gazes in what felt like a standoff. Impulse didn't know what was going to happen, and he was terrified.

Tango nudged him with an elbow, somewhat breaking him out of his stupor. "Don't think I didn't hear that gasp. But never fear! Demons are nothing to be afraid of! If there was ever a demon in town, I'd beat em up, Bam bam!" Tango cackled, throwing his fists at empty air. Tiny flames licked across his knuckles.

Impulse felt himself internally deflate, but bit his tongue and said nothing.

"Ugh," Bdubs frowned and stopped staring at Impulse. "There's no way you could defeat a demon, Tango."

"Hey! I totally could." Tango protested. "You know I grew up in the same place as demons. I was practically sparring with them daily."

"No you didn't Tango." Bdubs rolled his eyes and flipped open the demon book. He searched for a specific page for a moment, and when he found it, he turned the book towards Tango. "Look, you didn't at all. There's three layers of the nether. You grew up in the second, where all the structures and hostile creatures are. Demons are in the lowest one, the third, and only they can go to that layer. Plus," Bdubs flipped to another page in the book, "demons are crazy powerful, there's no way you could fight one."