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Cornibuster paces by the edge of the overhang, snorting whenever the rain drips on his snout. Beside him, Xefros pats his flank with shaking hands. You glance back at the cave looming behind you, the overlapping cliffs folding themselves into rather convenient little clefts to wait out the storm in.
"Good thing we found these cliffs when we did, right?" you say, and lean back against the wall. Xefros mumbles something and shuffles over to your side.
"What was that?"
He plops into a sitting position, and you follow his suit.
"...did you remember to bring any food?"
You groan through your teeth. "Dang. I, uh, I have some pet treats," you say, and pull it from your sylladex with a crinkle, "but I think that's kind of a last resort."
Xefros glances at you. The bags under his eyes are pronounced. "What's...a pet?"
"Kind of like...your lusus. Except smaller, I guess. And you take care of them instead of the other way around."
"And so grown-up humans take care of you?"
"Yup."
Xefros hums under his breath, tracing shapes into the dust with his fingers. You rub your arms and watch Cornibuster patrol the entrance, muscles rippling under the snowy fur.
Finally, he turns to you and says, "Is it nice?"
"Is what nice?"
"Having adult humans."
"I wouldn't know," you say, and it comes out more bitter than you expect. "I mean, sorry. My mom died when I was young. Right after Jude was born. And my pa is always out 'adventuring'...it's mostly just me and Jude and sometimes my babysitter, who is nice but drinks too much."
"...okay."
His eyes glow with curiosity, but you're busy watching the rain. Too busy to notice.
When he speaks again, there's a thin wail to his voice. "...do you have an absorbance sheet?"
"A--a what?" You turn to him and your eyes widen. He pulls a hand from the back of his neck, and it's stained with blood, strangely dark, strangely matte. "Oh, gosh. Uh." There's gotta be something buried in your pockets--nothing in your sylladex (the thought of using Byers flashes through your train of thought. You shake your head and grimace). Finally, you pull out a crumpled napkin and shake off the lint, handing it to him. He scrabbles at it, mumbling an apology through a strained smile, and presses it to the nape of his neck.
"What happened?"
"I guess a scratch reopened when I rubbed my head on the rock."
You chew on the inside of your cheek and lean against the wall in solidarity. "Geez. Are you alright?"
"I, uh, do you mean like the blood? Or just in general, or…?"
You shrug and blow air through your teeth. "I guess the blood, but anything is fair game. It's been a rough night."
"Yeah…"
The wind picks up, and he shivers.
Finally, he says, "I, I dunno Joey. Everything's different," he says, and his voice wavers in a way that makes you wince a bit, gosh, what'll you do if he starts crying , but he twists his heels into the dirt and pushes on. "We were always rebelling and I thought I understood that but now half our neighborhood has been snatched by drones and someone shot a missile at my hive and now the Heiress is after us, like the actual Heiress, and--" he gulps in air. "And Dammek is gone. And we always had each other." He cups his chin in his hands, elbows resting on his knees. "I always had him."
The rain smatters onto the stone.
"Sorry," he says.
"S--why?" you say.
"Y-you don't need to hear this. It's not your fault he's not here."
You think of your mom's heirloom, and the machine in the attic, and something in your gut twinges a little.
"Well, even if it's not," you say, "I think it's okay that you're letting it out. Did...did Dammek ever let you do this?"
Xefros nodded vigorously, then caught himself and nodded a bit more slowly, tissue stuck against the back of his head. "Yeah, I mean, of course! Well, not just like this...usually whenever it was time for me to tell him about what was bothering me, I ended up listening more. Like, to his advice. It was usually great."
You sigh slowly, air ballooning out of your cheeks. "I, uh, I don't know if that's normal here, but usually when you tell people your problems, you're the one that's talking."
"Hm," he says, and you can't quite grasp the meaning behind it but it's soft and low, and you pat him on the shoulder.
"Well, just...talk to me whenever you need to."
"Thanks, Joey," he says, and there's a glow in his eyes that strikes you as familiar--the same glow that comes from those rare-sober-Roxy smiles where she runs a hand through your hair, the same glow that hums behind the sparking mania when Jude spouts some of his wilder theories at you. Something that you wouldn't mind holding on to.
"No problem."
You keep on murmuring to each other, about Alternia and Earth, and you tell him about ballet and taxidermy and he tells you about grubloaf and silverware, and at some point you are both slipping into sleep, beside each other, while the rain spatters along the walls.
You wake up with your eyes closed. The curve of Xefros's back is warm against yours, and you keep from flinching when you realize it. It's a nice departure from the cold hard cave floor, anyways.
Cornibuster huffs somewhere near you, and it's enough to stir Xefros from sleep. A half-asleep sigh--and a squeak and a flinch when he realizes he's pressed up against you. His horn nudges the blade of your shoulder as he scrambles to his feet. A moment later, his hand is on your shoulder, shaking you gently.
"Joey--Joey, psst! It's stopped raining." You stretch and push yourself upright. His eyes are still bleary, and so are yours, but Cornibuster seems raring to go--his claws scrape at the stone as he paces.
"Mm--yeah." You stretch, groaning through gritted teeth. It's kind of amazing, actually, how fast you got acclimated to...this. If someone had told you yesterday that you'd be riding a huge deercat that you had just befriended on account of you practicing amateur veterinary medicine on it, you... probably wouldn't have believed them. But it'd be fun to imagine. Now you're just thinking of the chafing.
Xefros is already standing by Cornibuster when you struggle to your feet.
"Ready?"
You nod. "Ready." As you approach, Cornibuster snorts and lowers his neck. You swing a leg over his shoulders, hooking your heels over his belly, and help Xefros clamber up.
The sky is dusky and clear when you peek outside, both of clouds and of drones.
"Not for long," says Xefros, when you tell him so. "I'm a rustblood, and you're...also warm. We have to be quick." You don't know quite what that means, but you assume from his tone that being warm isn't exactly conducive to your survival.
"OK." You turn forwards, tracing the thin road winding through the cliffs. Cornibuster's muscles tense in anticipation. Then Xefros's hand claps your shoulder, and you jump.
"Oh--sorry."
"No prob. What is it?"
He doesn't respond for a second, and you start to turn back before he blurts out, "Thank you."
"What? Why?"
"Just. Thanks. For listening." He rubs his thumb in a circle over his knee and gives you a weak smile.
You turn around, swinging one leg over to press your knees together, and hug him with one arm, quick and tight. You hear him squeak, and, after a moment, he reaches over and awkwardly hugs you back.
You turn back around and clasp your fingers around the saddle. "Ready?"
"L-let's go."
Cornibuster snorts and leaps out from the overhang, paws pounding on the dusty road. The stars are bright, the crags blur past you, and you gulp in the cold air, hoping that wherever you go, a way home awaits you.