"Again! Again!"

I threw my arms into the air with joy, and Birthday laughed as he plucked random strings on his old guitar.

"Man, you act just like a little kid sometimes, you know? You're almost 13 now, and look at you!"

"I don't care, B-Day, you have to play our song again! Please?"

He sighed and shifted on the floor to make himself comfortable. "Alright. It is pretty good, right?"

"Well, you're not allowed to say that. You're the one who wrote it."

"Shh," Birthday shushed me and held a finger to his lips. He slowly began to strum, with his capo on the sixth fret. I sat and listened to him sing even softer than before,

"Don't struggle, pinky kid, I'll be right there for you.

"Don't smile if it hurts, you need some resting too.

"Be braver than those guys who need their blue to stand.

"You're so remarkable, and—"

"Is that Birthday's guitar I hear?"

He stopped playing immediately, and I saw a trace of panic in his features before he realized Anniversary was just visiting our room.

"Hey, Anni," I said, grinning and pushing Birthday's shoulder to signal him to keep playing. He didn't just yet, though.

"What brings you here to the cavern of awesomeness?" He asked, gesturing around himself like a king. I giggled, while Anni just scoffed and shook her head.

"You better not be playing that stupid song without me again."

"Masquie likes it, you know that."

"Still! Wait for me to get off patrol before you start fooling around, huh? Now." She sat down on the ground in front of us, completing the circle. "How about that clever girl bit that you said was just for me." She flashed a smug grin and rested her head in her hand. Birthday clicked his tongue and rearranged his fingers to play the second verse.

"Don't stifle, clever girl, your words can make you strong.

"Don't step back from success, those adults are a'thinking wrong."

I shifted closer to both of them and joined in.

"Be angry so they know, they're picking stupid fights!

"You're so unstoppable, and you can reach those unknown..."

"Heiiiiights!" We all finished, holding out the note for as long as we could. Anni and I laughed, and Birthday leaned back and placed his guitar on the ground beside him. Anni picked it up.

"Where'd you learn to play this thing, anyway? It's so weird."

"Yeah, my imposters were crazy rich. I was just delivering this back to some dude for them when the Elder found me, and it turned out one of the guards knew how to play. Taught me everything I know. I can never find him now." He sat up again, fiddling with the little tuning knobs at the end. "It's pretty cool, though, right?"

"I guess."

"Yeah!" I agreed, flopping back onto the floor and stretching. "Hey, do either of you think I'll get assigned something anytime soon? Like guard, or scouting, or naming?"

"Uh, Masquie, I think only the Elder gets to name people."

"That's not true. I saw someone tell the new kid that her name was Xylophone."

Anni flicked my nose. "That's not a real naming, dummy. Was it Event?"

"...maybe."

She sighed and chuckled. "He's always doing stuff like that. It's an inside joke. Remember when Birthday tricked you into thinking he was named Xylophone when you first came here?"

"Oh, yeah. I guess you're right."

The two of them laughed, and eventually, I did too.

—

I woke up with a heavy head and one numb wrist. Trying to ground myself, I took a quick glance around and realized Hodek had been resting an arm on me in waiting. When I reached up to rub my eyes, he started and got up immediately.

"Oh. You're up."

"I think we're getting closer," I said, mostly to myself. That didn't stop him from catching it. He raised an eyebrow, and just from looking I could tell he'd been up way earlier than he intended to let on. "Why would you think that? Do you recognize anything about this place?"

It struck me suddenly that I'd forgotten where we even were right now. We had just picked a random secluded area and settled there for a night. I tried to make out what I'd been sleeping on this entire time, which is difficult when only one of your arms is strong enough to lift you off the ground. Must've slept on the other funny.

"...no," I admitted. "I just have a feeling."

"Was it one of those dreams?"

My head snapped up. Hodek didn't look annoyed, or even like he was making fun of me. His face was a blank slate, waiting until my answer to show any real emotion. I narrowed my eyes. "How did you know...?"

"Because I'm not stupid. Also, you talk in your sleep. Kind of a lot. I-It's fine." He stuffed his hands in his pockets and looked away like it pained him to ask this. "So what happened in there that gives you that 'feeling'?"

I hesitated. Usually, given the choice I would have kept my dreams to myself. Who could understand, anyways? But this time it was different. This was a matter of helping myself. If it meant telling him more about my family...

Alright. So be it.

"I don't really know how close we are, to tell you the truth. But I was in my room with my brother and sister...it was all some old memory, I know it was. We were just laughing and having a good time. It was so much more vivid than everything else I've seen in my sleep, I really thought I was back there with them again." I blinked and looked down once more, recognizing asphalt below me. It seemed we were in some sort of empty lot; a new low for us. I took a shaky breath.

"It's a sign, I know it is. These visions, dreams, whatever you want to call them...they've just been getting clearer and clearer. We're heading in the right direction."

He didn't seem to know what to say other than "okay." After a short silence, he sighed, crouched down and pat me on the shoulder. "We'd better get going, then. I'll let you carry the books, if you want." He gave a half-assed attempt at an encouraging smile. It didn't make me feel a whole lot better, but I appreciated that he was at least trying. I nodded and stood up, gathering our resources and tying the cloth in a kind of sling on my shoulder. Put together, they were a lot lighter than I remembered. I looked to Hodek with an eyebrow raised, and he reluctantly took When All Hell Breaks Loose out of his front sweater pocket.

"Yeah, I'm keeping this. Besides, even if we lose it, we still have most of the important stuff down on the map. So no worries." The way his voice wavered on that last sentence successfully assured me that there were, indeed, worries. But I tried my best to dismiss it. "Sure." I noticed now that I was upright, I felt much colder than when I'd been curled up on the ground. I cursed in my head. Throughout all these years, I'd never even thought to steal a jacket or anything. Now I just had to stand the chilliness until we found some other refuge. I tried not to let it show how uncomfortable I really was and pushed on. I started shivering after a short while on the move, though, and eventually Hodek muttered something about biting off more than I could chew and took the bag off my hands. I would have justified it with the fact that he probably—no, definitely had more physical stamina than me. But he didn't seem to be having a very good time walking this much with a load, either. We came to a stop at a large fork in the road. Hodek's face fell, and he looked nervously back and forth between me and the two paths.

"Now would be a real good time to fall asleep and get some more directions."

"I don't think you know exactly how this works."

"Well, at least guess. Go with your gut, I don't know." He crossed his arms and let out a shudder disguised as a cough. I noticed after a few seconds that he was almost clutching to himself, like at any moment something would go horribly wrong.

"Hodek."

He attempted to narrow his eyes. "What."

"Are you okay?"

A good two minutes passed before he could put his thoughts into words.

"...it's been a long time since Angus tried to ruin things for us, hasn't it."

My blood ran cold at that name. I wasn't sure why now; we'd run into him more than once. Right this moment was arguably the worst time to be thinking about these things. I shook my head and began walking down the left path, but Hodek grabbed my arm.

"Max, what if this is exactly where he wants us to go?"

"What, to the left?"

"No. To your...you know."

His eyes were filled with immeasurable fear, something I never thought I'd see in him of all people. I considered shaking off his grip, but instead just covered his hand with my own.

"If we keep worrying about what that thing wants of us, then we'll be standing here forever. Let's go this way. We're going to be fine."