Sky slept most of the day away after the hotdog incident. It wasn't in a bed but rather on a bench in another alleyway they had moved to. Cerra and Darius passed the time by playing a card game with a deck of cards they had found in the alleyway. There were only twenty-seven cards, so it was difficult. As they were playing a round of Go Fish, Darius decided that it was much too quiet and that he wanted to talk.

"So, Cerra, right?" He asked as he made a pair of eights and put it down on his side of the cardboard box they'd pulled over from the corner.

"Mhm. And Darius, right? Do you have a nine?"
"No, go fish."

Cerra huffed and drew a card, shifting carefully so as not to send him and the trash can he was sitting on toppling to the side. Darius was crouched down since the only other option was to sit on another cardboard box with mysterious stains. "Have you and Sky been together for long?"

Cerra grunted. "Nah. Only a few days now." Darius blinked.

"Really? I would've never guessed with the way you two talk to each other! Do you have a five?" Cerra raised an eyebrow at him as he forked over a five. "How'd you meet?"

"I woke him up in his coffin," Cerra said, dropping his eyes back down to his cards. "I would've left him, but then he offered to help me find my dagger. It'd be certain death if I went alone, so..."

"Aw, that's sweet!" Darius smiled. Cerra shrugged and sipped some water out of a bottle he had had Darius buy him at a gas station on the corner.

"I guess I didn't have much a choice but to let him come with me." He glanced at the sleeping man. "What do you think about this whole... prophecy thing? I mean, it seems pretty outlandish if you ask me." Darius hesitated.

"Well... That doesn't mean it's impossible!" Cerra furrowed his eyebrows at him. "I suppose it's just easier for me though since I grew up with that book of mine!"

"Tell me about that book," Cerra said, then glanced down at his cards. "Do you have an ace?"

"Nope! We only have one ace, remember?" Cerra grumbled and tossed the card over his shoulder. "But, my book... Well, to be honest with you, it's laid out like a fairy tale. The illustrations are absolutely beautiful though!" Darius smiled. "There are two parts, one for the Wardens and another for the Quidill forces!"

"There's a section for the bad guys?" Cerra asked. Darius crinkled his nose.

"There aren't really 'bad guys' in war. Each side is fighting for their own thing." He shrugged. "I suppose the Quidills could be considered the bad guys to us since they were trying to take our land, but they really did need it."

"So why not just, sit down and talk about it or something?" Cerra asked, taking another sip from his bottle. "I mean, people do that all the time. Laverdure does it all the time actually, that's how we've avoided war."

"Well, the Quidills were really oppressed back then," Darius said. "Besides, the only way we were able to avoid war for all these years is because of Sky and his forcefield!"

"Forcefield?" Cerra grunted. "He mentioned something about a forcefield, but he never explained it to me."

"Yeah! It explained it all in the book. When Sky went into his, well, coma, a forcefield wrapped around Laverdure. It fed off his lifeforce and kept him from aging as he slept. The only way someone could enter Laverdure is if they didn't have any ill intentions. So war never started because no one could ever come in!"

"That didn't do much good, did it?" Cerra asked bitterly. Darius blinked at him. "I mean, Laverdure just ended up tearing itself apart from the inside." He sighed and leaned back against the brick wall behind the trash can. "New Byrne is a prime example." He snorted. "I always hated the name." He glanced around. "Ain't nothing new about this place." Darius's eyes saddened.

"Hey, cheer up!" He said, reaching over their cards as he nudged Cerra's arm. Their game had been forgotten now. "Sky's here! He'll fix this all up!"

"No one remembers him, Darius." Cerra looked at him. "You're the only person I've met in my entire life that actually knows his name. How do we know you're the only one?" Darius made a soft noise of protest.

"I'm sure there are plenty of other copies of my book..." He smiled gently. "Fate led you to Sky. That means she's ready for him to come back. That means Laverdure needs for him to come back." Cerra huffed and didn't respond. "Have some faith, Cerra! After all, you were the one who woke him up!" He smiled. Cerra shrugged and sipped his water. "Actually, I'm surprised you two have started dating after only knowing each other for a few days!"

Cerra spat out his water, coughing and sputtering as he grabbed at his chest. He slammed his cards down in favor of grabbing at his chest, hopping down from the trash can. Darius blinked in surprise before he stood up quickly. "Whoa, did it go down the right pipe-?"

"Dating?!" Cerra sputtered out, waving away Darius's concerned hands. Darius blinked at him.

"Y... Yeah! With the way you two talk, you sound like an old married couple!" He laughed. Cerra stared at him with wide eyes.

"We- We're not-" He was cut off by Sky's groan as he sat up on the bench, stretching and popping his back multiple times.

"Can you two be any louder?" He grunted as he stood up, twisting his upper body back and forth to get a few more pops.

"Oh, sorry!" Darius chuckled. Cerra, refusing to even glance at Sky, straightened up and tossed his water bottle to Darius.

"Sun's setting," He stated, looking at the horizon. "We need to head out." He pushed his hands into his pockets and turned towards the other two. He gave a wry grin. "Time to get my dagger."