Turas

Colorado

Coo leaned up from the back seat, his reddened elbows resting on Fionn and Osheen's seats.

"Where are we going?"

"I've been asking that for a while, now," Osheen said pointedly.

"Esht, both of you," Fionn said around his thumb. He looked from exit to exit.

Coo had found the food, and was busy making sandwiches, scooping out the peanut butter with his fingers to quickly devour. Osheen held his hand out, and Coo passed him one before tearing savagely into his own sandwich.

Osheen watched Coo in the rearview mirror. He'd gotten some peanut butter in his blond hair, but there was no chance of laughing. Even Bran looked slightly wary of the young man. Sceolan chewed his paw before snuffling at Coo's hair. The young man didn't even look up as Sceolan began to lick at the clump, somehow looking both sneaky and emboldened.

"How'd you pay for everything?" Coo asked between his fourth and fifth sandwich. Osheen stuck a hand out for his fourth.

"We found these in our pockets," Osheen showed him the little plastic cards. "Everybody seems happy enough with these. Didn't you find one?"

"Yeah, but some bastard stole from me," Coo growled. Osheen felt the hair stand up on the back of his neck. "Emptied my pockets. He got away in a crowd, couldn't catch him."

"Where are we now?" Osheen asked quickly.

Fionn veered across two lanes of traffic, shot down an exit. He'd seemed to have gotten over being a cautious driver, after their stint through the mountains. "Colorado in a few minutes." he muttered.

Coo licked peanut butter from his fingers, reached for another slice of bread.

"When will you stop eating?" Bran sniffed, on guard.

"When I'm not hungry anymore." Coo said, grabbed another scoop of peanut butter out of the jar.

Bran bared his teeth. Sceolan kept lapping noisily at the clump of peanut butter in Coo's hair.

"Settle down back there," Fionn said tiredly, not looking around. "Show some hospitality, let the man eat. You, don't threaten my dogs. And stop that licking!"

They slept all crowded together, Fionn in the middle, with the dogs crowded on the opposite side from Coo. Between the two of them, Coo and Osheen had finished off the peanut butter sandwich makings, so they'd eaten hot dogs and apples, passing the last oreo package between them.

More entries, supplied by Coo, had been entered into the yellow notebook. Coo looked over his own messy scrawl, as if forgetting he'd even written it.

"Where are we now?" Osheen asked as they ate. Fionn put his thumb in his mouth.

"Fort Morgan." he answered after a second.

"Where's that?"

"Colorado."

They all looked between each other, hoping that recognition would light up someone's face.

"Colorado." Coo repeated. "I don't think we're from here."

"Well no shit," Fionn said tiredly.

"I mean, I don't think the things we're remembering came from here. I don't think we spoke this language."

"What makes you say that?" Osheen asked.

"Sometimes, I remember pieces of land. Places I saw. I see them in my dreams, but only for a moment. It doesn't look like anything I've seen so far." Coo was peeling the skin off a hot dog. "And the words. People will talk to me, and I understand, but I feel like I've never heard anything they've ever said before."

Fionn nodded. "Yeah. I've gotten that feeling before myself."

They were silent for a moment. Sceolan was chewing his tail. He gnawed harder and harder, until he'd prodded himself to his feet, and he chased his own tail while Bran looked on witheringly. Coo laughed.

It was a strange sound, and Osheen looked over. The strangeness came from its normalcy. It was like any other young man's laugh. Osheen couldn't help but smile.