Day and Dusk— as it was originally called— started as a father-son cart team who made their name by running their carts with two drivers on opposite shifts. As the name suggested, if the journey demanded it they would run all the way into the night. At the time Yarlit and his son Yunig were the only ones who organized long haul driver-exchange caravans, so for some time the pair were the only one capable of accommodating certain requests. This led to the family turning into a company large enough to headquarter in a capital city.

But the choice of which, wasn’t one that could be made lightly. Their business had already slowed due to the emergence of the massive multi-country trade organizations, their benefit had been stolen away by groups with reach extending across the continent.

They already stood on shaky ground, with dozens of partners switching to the cheaper option daily, so a bet on a risky city like Irias or Travewin was completely out of the question. A safe option like Gaurdia was the best choice.

Who’d’ve thought in their first eight months in the city they’d see a royal funeral, a coronation, and most significantly, the first ever car crash in history.

A month into their long move to Gaurdia’s Capital while a few staff were left attending to the set-up process. The chairman, who’d once been the son of the duo but had now become the father, was ferrying between their former headquarters in the countryside to bring back the last of their keepsakes and other assorted junk.

His son and daughter had come and were both taking turns at the reins while their father rested.

That is when the lightning struck across the world.

It was different everywhere you saw it but for the two teens seated on a bench behind the elk-like pack animal; it looked like a pair of red taillights appearing out of no-where and cresting a nearby hill to slam at fifty miles an hour into a thick iron-oak tree.

Stupidly being electrified at Third’s request due to his laziness, the Cherry Red late-90’s Mazda Miata instantly burst into flames from underneath when the impact sent shrapnel through the insulated shielding of the battery chamber.

Although the danger of the flames was certainly greater than it would be alternatively, the lack of engine in the direct impact zone reduced the shock of the crash significantly, perhaps even saving his life since he’d had the airbag removed years before.

As the fabric top puckered and curled from the heat of the thick black smoke pouring from the batteries underneath, a knife stabbed nimbly through the corner and a pair of hands began tearing at the canvas tomb holding Third’s unconscious body.

Eventually the two managed to enlarge a hole melted through the back window and struggled to pull Third from the wreckage.

By this point their father had noticed the commotion and came to help. Fortunately, Third’s injuries were minor, and within a few hours he groggily awoke with only a foggy recollection of the crash.

The last any of them had seen the man they’d known as Loo, he was leaving to explore the city after helping rinse the dishes. Yala, even now, occasionally wondered with teary eyes if things would be different if she’d gathered the courage to ask to go exploring with him that morning. Maybe he wouldn’t have disappeared.

Yunig and Lith, her mother, both tried to ease her pain but nothing they said seemed to help, so they simply hoped her feelings would pass eventually, as they didn’t see a high chance of ever seeing him again. Especially after a group of guards had come to question them on the man.

They told little apart from what was necessary, in silent hopes that wherever he’d run off to he was at least safe there.

In time, Yala eventually began to smile again. She’d finally—

*Cling* *Cling*

“Hello?” Thirds voice called through as he peered around the newly built entrance way. It was different from their original set-up, throwing off Thirds senses and causing him to wonder if he’d even gone into the right building. As he considered stepping back to re-check the signboard again, a thunderous clamoring of footsteps veered through a side corridor at the same time as a familiar motherly face stepped into view on the opposite side of the entry hall.

“Loo?!” Lith blooms with a wide grin, motioning him to come the rest of the way inside.

Third struggled to hold back his own smile as he almost instinctively stepped forward intending to be wrapped in the warm hug that was inevitably coming.

“Loo!” Another voice instead intercepted, wrapping him up with a dead-center perfectly executed tackle-of-a-hug.

“Yala?” Third laughed not expecting anything of the sort from the stand-offish girl who he’d last seen.

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“a—” She uttered, catching onto the fact that this wasn’t a dream and she had actually just sent a man toppling to the ground in order to latch onto him. To say it was unlady-like would be an understatement.

She quickly got to her feet and took a careful dozen-and-a-half paces backward.

“Good to see you again.” She quietly muttered in a whisper.

Laughing, Lith pulled Third up and helped him dust off his clothes. After wrapping him in a less violent hug of her own, she led Third further inside to where they could all sit more comfortably.

All the while, Yala kept up her fifteen-foot social-distancing routine.

They had much to catch up on, but it was hard to even know where to begin. Third for one couldn’t even begin to explain everything that’d happen since he was picked up by the guards and eventually escaped the capital all those months ago.

The same was true for Day and Dusk however, they were making out reasonably well in the capital and often Yunig and Yaris were booked so tightly that they only had a matter of hours at home before needing to return to work.

This time however Third’s luck had failed, and they wouldn’t return for the day, but Lith assured him she’d pass on his greetings.

Third tried to explain where he’d been but they couldn’t quite understand what he meant when he told them, ‘the buildings moved’. They seemed to be imagining a house with legs like something out of an anime, and Third had trouble removing that image from their heads.

Eventually he resorted to showing them some various pictures he’d taken over the past few months. But still it was hard to believe. The buildings were obviously unlike anything they’d ever seen so it was extremely hard to fathom even with clear images and videos.

“Oh, and there’s a school…” Third half explained, trailing off as he sent a glance over to Yala from where she’d settled into the furthest chair. Returning his attention to Lith, since it seemed Yala would show no sign of her thoughts with that alone, he continued. “I know you all were trying to figure out how to enroll Yala in the academy here in Gaurdia but if…”

“Are you serious?” Lith shuttered in surprise, sending her own gaze towards her teenage daughter. They had mentioned it months ago but with Yala’s mood and the stress of settling into a new place the thought of it had slowly grown further away. “Do you want to…”

“I wanna go!” Yala confirmed with a quick nod of her head.

“Don’t decide too quickly. You’d be living about four hundred miles away from home. I mean, it’s only a two-hour flight so you could come back on weekends if you wanted, but it’s still far.”

Those words, in that order, only made her want to go more. She sent pleading eyes to her mother as if she weren’t equally as thrilled with the idea herself.

“Of course, you can go if you want. You won’t miss us though?” Lith asked with a pursed lower lip.

“I will!” Yala confirmed weakly with a shrug. “But I’ll be able to fly, so I can just come back. It’s only two hours.”

Third had a strange feeling Yala expected to be taught to literally fly at the academy, but he didn’t have the heart to tell her they unfortunately didn’t have a curriculum in magic.

Lith shared that worry when she detected Third’s subtle smirk as the words came from Yala’s lips.

Both decided to keep silent on it however, even though Yala had already dashed away in order to prepare her belongings ahead of time.

“Thank you.” Lith gratefully said after Yala made her grand exit. She could tell that, even though Third had pretended it was an afterthought, the offer likely wasn’t a simple one to organize.

“She’s already a bright kid, and I think it’s so wild that getting an education is such a restrictive matter, so the thought of that wasted potential… well yeah, it’s the least I can do. They saved my life.”

“I think you’ve repaid them plenty.” Lith chuckled between a sip of lukewarm tea. “How many of each of their chores did you end up managing before you had to leave?”

“Ah, that was just staving off my boredom. I’d need to do a lot more to make-up for my life, trust me.”

“Well I won’t argue.” Lith relented without much pressing. “Will you be staying for dinner?”

“I’ll have to start heading out soon unfortunately.” Third explained with a pained look. “We’ll see each other more often now though. Hopefully you all can get a chance to come visit my place.”

“I’d like that.” Lith said, catching the sound of Yala stamping back down the stairway from beside her. “I’m sure the boys would enjoy a short vacation too.”

“I’m ready!” Yala reported with her bare essential strapped haphazardly to her back.

Lith and Third both looked at each other with widened eyes before both spurting with stifled laughter. “You wanna go today?”

“Can I not?” Yala asked, turning to Third for permission rather than her mother this time.

Shrugging, Third looked to Lith who this time seemed a tad more hesitant than before. “It really is only a two-hour flight. She could come back tomorrow if she doesn’t like it.”

“You can go today if you really want.” Lith relented a bit more hesitantly than before. When it wasn’t so concrete, it was much easier to let her go. She felt the same churning in her stomach as she did when ever her husband would leave on long hauls.

“Yes!” Yala cheered with struggled leaps of joy.

Third expected her to enroll next semester, or at least wait until after her father and brother returned home. She seemed much more excited to go to school than Third had expected. He was glad she was so excited to learn.

“Here,” Third said, stepping around behind Yala and pulling on the handle of her bag. “Let me carry this so you don’t collapse before we even get to the airfield.”

Chirping out a quietly affirmative response, Yala with blushing cheeks slithered out of the backpack allow the weight of it to burden Third instead.

The bag was heavier than Third expected, so while Yala and Lith were distracted by a quiet conversation and a long hug, Third carefully lowered it to the ground to prevent his arm detaching.

With Yala ending the conversation with an alarmed gasp and expression of shock. She turned another look to Third before tilting her head back and forth in an unsure manner. Squinting her eyes she looked to her mother before shrugging and sprinting for the hallway leading outside.

“Well, that seemed like a lot happened in a little time?” Third asked, being unsure how to take the series of looks he’d gotten after the short conversation the two had in silence.

“You could say.” Lith simply laughed. “Probably too late, I’m sure all I did was prove some theories. Better keep an eye out.”

“Shouldn’t have asked I guess.” Third muttered following Yala’s lead down the hall with no more answer than before.

Seeing the two off, Lith said a final farewell with an attached hug to each and sent them off without revealing a single tear.

After they left earshot, she was a mess but that’s to be expected and excused.