Lucas and Mrei slept in his grandmother's house. There was plenty of room as it was the house where his mother and uncle had grown up. In a sense it felt a little too big for just one person. Lucas's grandfather had died to a difficult illness a few years after his mother and sister had been taken.

In the morning they helped with making breakfast and cleaning up, then returned to Rolan's house. Kress was genuinely relieved to be reunited with the two of them. Being left alone with Lucas's uncle was already freaking him out. He was just...too direct. Too straight with his words and too eager to get close to him. Whereas Lucas was content to just have Kress accompany him on their shared quest, Rolan wanted to know who he was and what he thought. He wasn't comfortable with that.

Both Lucas and Mrei got their hair ruffled almost as soon as they entered, Rolan welcoming them home and explaining with a happy smile what he and Kress had decided the last night. That was another thing Kress disliked: too much touching.

Mrei seemed to like it a lot, he noted. Maybe she missed her own family. Yes, that had to be it. She had said her father was sick. To leave her home at the palace for a wild goose chase, she really had to love him.

"What are you frowning about? Still feeling sick?" Lucas's voice interrupted his musings.

"I'm fine." Kress swung his legs over the side of the couch and to the floor, sitting up.

Lucas smiled. "That's great. Rolan said that we shall leave in the afternoon."

"Leave for where?"

"To get the rest of the keys, of course," the man in question joined their discussion. "I know one is in Jenlen - that's another harbor town about two or three days by car from here. And I met another keeper about five years ago during a tribal meeting in Taora. No idea if the key has changed hands or if she has moved to another town during this time, but it's a place to start."

"I'm helping in packing all the stuff in the car!" Mrei announced.

"That's right," Rolan smiled at her. "And the boys will do the shopping, right?"

"Uh huh," she nodded.

"What are we supposed to buy?" Kress asked.

"Food and drink for the journey. I'll make you a list. The shopkeeper is an old friend of mine, so just tell him to add it to my tab. I'll pay at the end of month as usual." He leaned closer to Kress and stage-whispered, "You're the oldest, so watch after Lucas and make sure he doesn't get all sweets."

Mrei giggled. Rolan was funny.

Kress almost rolled his eyes. What was he in now, a kindergarten show?

~*~*~

A little after noon they were all ready to go. Like by some unspoken agreement Lucas took the front seat and Kress and Mrei slipped to the back, just like when traveling with Ena.

They left the city along the road, but almost as soon as they were out of it Rolan turned the car sharply and started following the coastline.

Mrei shrieked in surprise as the ride turned suddenly bumpier, and Kress grabbed hold of his seat instinctively. Lucas was completely unaffected.

"Something wrong, kids?" Rolan called to the back seat.

"D- Did we just fall off the road?" Mrei stammered.

"No, we left the road. We'll reach Jenlen a lot faster if we go straight along the coast."

"But..."

"It's fine, lass. My car runs just as well on rough terrain as the finest roads."

All was quiet for a moment. But only for a moment.

"I feel sick," Mrei whimpered. She had never gotten carsick before, but neither had she ever traveled outside well-maintained roads. Even Ena hadn't tried to shortcut like this with her cargo truck.

"Just deal with it," Kress commented. In a very heartless tone in Mrei's opinion.

"Why are you always so mean?!"

"I'm not mean. You're just spoiled. In the ordinary world people often have no other choice than to deal with the circumstances they're given."

"I'm not spoiled!"

Rolan sighed. Kids. "Let's just stay calm, okay? Don't take everything so personally, lass."

That just made Mrei mad. "Why are you on his side?!"

Rolan cringed. Somehow he had just made the situation worse. "I'm not on anyone's side."

"Yes you are!"

"You're not the center of the world, princess. Not everything is about you," Kress commented.

Lucas squirmed to kneel on his seat the best his seatbelt allowed and look at his companions over the backrest. "Please stop. What happened to us being friends?"

"But Kress is being mean to me," Mrei protested.

"I'm not. I'm just realistic."

Lucas just looked at him with sad eyes.

Ugh. "Alright, alright, I'm sorry. I could have been nicer about it." He held out his hand to the other two. "Friends again?"

Mrei waited until Lucas took Kress's hand, but then nodded and laid hers on top of theirs. "I'm sorry for yelling at you. You too, uncle Rolan."

Rolan smiled. "Don't worry about it, lass. Here," he tossed a small package of pills to the back seat. "That's medicine for car sickness. Check the side of the package for the dosage."

"Thank you."

Kress took it before Mrei could and carefully read the instructions before giving her half a pill. This stuff was meant for adults, and a whole one might have been too much.

Either Mrei started feeling better or was determined not to show the truth, as she remained quiet.

It was actually Lucas who spoke next. "This is so boring. How much longer?"

"Hey, we just started," Rolan countered. "Two days at least."

"We've done almost nothing else than travel in cars for closer to a week."

There were echoing agreements to his statement from the back. Rolan almost groaned. If he didn't do something, this would be a very long trip. "Let's play a game, kids."

"What kind of game?" Lucas asked.

"I'll think of something I see, and you will try to guess what it is. For every guess I'll tell you if it's right or wrong. Sounds simple enough?"

Lucas nodded. "Yeah."

"I see...something that soars through the sky," Rolan started.

"A bird?" Mrei quickly suggested.

"No, not a bird."

"A cerro?"

"It's not an animal at all."

"An airship?" Lucas guessed.

"Not that either."

Both had to stop to think. If it wasn't an animal or an airship, what else could it be?

"...Clouds," Kress said.

Rolan grinned. "Exactly. Your turn. Just think of something you see around you."

The kids seemed content with the game and once they ran out of things to name, they quieted down. But with all nice and quiet Rolan realized he was getting tired. He didn't want to stop yet, though - they could still cover a good distance today.

"Kress, do you want to drive for a change?" he called to the back seat.

"I don't know how to drive."

"I do," Lucas put in.

Rolan pulled to a stop. "Alright, your turn then."

"You can already drive a car?" Mrei asked, peeking around the front seat to look at Lucas. "That's so awesome! I have to wait till I'm 16."

Rolan laughed. "Heh, we're not that strict about that here in the borderlands, lass."

He quickly moved out of the car to let Lucas take his place and adjusted the driver's seat a little. "Can you reach the brake pedal?"

"Yep."

"All comfortable?"

"Yep."

"Good. You can adjust the speed with that switch."

Rolan took the other front seat, fastened his seatbelt, leaned back and pulled his hat over his eyes. "Wake me up when you get tired."

"...Are you sure this is safe?" Kress asked, not convinced at all that this was a good idea.

Rolan gave him a sideways look. "We're in the middle of nowhere. Animals generally move away from solar cars. And if they don't..." He pushed the middle of the steering wheel, resulting in the loud noise of the horn. "...that should get them out of the way. I trust Lucas to be good enough driver not to run into trees, and anything smaller should not be an obstacle for this car."

Kress remained quiet.

"We'll be fine. Trust me," Rolan assured him. "Now, let's continue, Lucas. Just follow the compass."

~*~*~

They drove all afternoon without incident, but as the sky darkened with dusk the car suddenly stopped. Very jerkily in fact.

"What happened?" Rolan asked, startled out of his sleep. "Did you hit something?"

"No." Lucas tried to move the speed switch a few times, but nothing happened. Then the driving lights shut down.

Rolan sighed. "Must be something wrong with the car. Would one of you hand me the flashlight?" he asked the back-seat passengers. "It should be somewhere at your feet."

After a moment of groping around blindly Mrei found the said object and passed it to him.

Rolan left the car, Lucas following at his heels, and opened the engine compartment at the front of the vehicle. Nothing apparent looked broken. Without a word he closed the lid again and opened the back-seat door. "Probably either the solar battery isn't charging or it's not connecting to the engine. Let's camp here for the night." During daylight they could drive with power directly from the solar panels, and he could most likely fix the problem once he could see something. Repairs by flashlight sucked.

"Well?" he asked as neither Kress nor Mrei moved. "Are you two going to sleep in the car? If not, help set up the tent."

In the end Lucas and Rolan had to set up the tent together, as the other two were more in the way than anything, with no prior experience in camping at all. It was a large dome-shaped tent, green in color and with space for at least six people inside.

Mrei enthusiastically dragged the thin, rolled-up mattresses from the trunk of the car into the tent and spread them on the cloth floor, happy to be able to help with something. Rolan adjusted them a little to the sides of the tent, leaving the middle empty, while she went to get the sleeping bags.

They ate some canned food and bread - heating anything was out of question without the car's solar battery. Then Rolan just switched off the small lamp they had. "Good night, kids."

There was some fumbling around in the sudden darkness, but soon enough everybody was settled in their sleeping bags. Mrei had stealthily secured herself the spot next to Lucas, leaving Kress and Rolan to the other side of the tent.

Kress lay awake for a good while, listening to the breathing of his companions. For some reason he was too nervous to sleep. He had given up so long ago, resigned himself to whatever his fate would bring. But now...he wanted Lucas to succeed. And he wanted to be there with him to see this land beyond the clouds. Yet some part of him was terrified that the other boy would just disappear from his life any moment. Just like...she had. Not feeling anything would have been better than feeling that pain again.

Everybody else was fast asleep. He could return to his own mattress before morning. And with Lucas and Mrei snuggled close together, he could take over that remaining space without being noticed.

Carefully he moved to the other side of the tent like a giant caterpillar - sleeping bags definitely weren't made for walking in them - and settled next to the other boy. Like sensing his presence, Lucas rolled over to his back, groping around blindly in his sleep.

Kress smiled faintly and took his hand. He had only meant to stay there for a little while, but ended up falling into deep sleep.

Rolan laughed when he woke up in the morning and saw the trio of kids all bundled together.

Lucas sat up, woken by the sound, and rubbed his eyes. "Morning, uncle."

"Aren't you three cute. Like a bunch of cerro pups," Rolan said, still smiling.

Kress quickly backed away, his cheeks burning. Or at least tried to. The sleeping bag made it somewhat difficult.

Rolan unzipped his sleeping bag and pulled on his shoes. "I'll see if I can fix that car now. Take your time getting up."

"Kress, why are you all red?" Mrei asked.

Kress looked away. "No reason."

"Are you ill?"

"No." Just embarrassed. He quickly freed himself from the cloth trapping him, donned his coat, grabbed his socks and boots and made a hasty exit.

Rolan hid a smile as Kress hurried to the car without a word, opened the door to the back and sat down to pull on and lace his boots.

"You know, kid," he spoke without looking directly at Kress. "There's no shame in needing other people. If you really care about them so much, why not tell them?"

Kress shook his head. "I can't."

"Why not?"

"I just can't."

"Can't tell them or can't need others?"

Rolan was way too sharp despite saying he was not. "Leave me alone. I don't want to talk about it."

The man abandoned studying the car engine and walked up to Kress. "Look...Kress. What is your story really about?"

"That is none of your business. I only agreed to you coming along to help. Not snoop into my past."

"Touchy, touchy." Rolan shook his head. Kress was retreating into his shell again. "Alright. But if you decide you want to talk, just let me know."