following a star

by Lise

"That starlight doesn't look quite right, does it?"

Domino squinted up, following Patrick's finger. There were shooting stars everywhere, all different colors, trailing through the night sky. Tiny little rainbows left tracers on the blackness above them. She shrugged. "It's kind of pretty."

"True enough." Their campfire crackled and spat, and Patrick stuffed another log into the center of it, wincing as sparks flew. He sat back on his bedroll, face outlined with light from the flames. Domino figured he looked reflective. "You think we'll come back with anything useful, this time around?"

She tied her hair back quickly, getting comfortable on her own sleeping bag. "Good chance of it. To the east, tomorrow, I think."

Patrick only nodded. Today's trip had been an impromptu outing; a need for some space, peace and quiet. They'd left early, before anyone had got up and had had a long hike yesterday, trying to find any sign of civilisation, and when nothing presented itself, trying to find a decent place to camp. Thankfully, Domino's luck held out long enough to find a world that was stable. Stable enough.

She laid down, untying her boots but not taking them off. That was the first rule they taught anyone who wanted to go off on their own: don't ever take your boots off, in case you have to run. Anyone who forgot wouldn't have to worry long enough to care. Patrick copied her, and made a face. He said wryly, "Not very comfortable."

The ground was hard, and lumpy no matter how she shifted. Domino winked at him. "You could always come over here, be my mattress."

He grinned at her. "I'd never survive."

"You wound me," she quipped, with a toss of her head. Patrick and her had shared enough nights out, just the two of them, that the proposition was more formality than anything else. If, one night, she failed to ask him to bed, or if he didn't play along to a point, they'd both have been concerned.

Their fire crackled again, and just then all the hair on Domino's arms stood straight up. She said urgently, "Patrick--" but was cut off when three men walked into their circle of light.

Patrick sat bolt upright, as did she. Neither of them had even heard them coming. The strangers, however, seemed relaxed, non-threatening. Domino wasn't convinced, but instead of jumping up to attack, she stayed on the ground, asking warily, "And what can we do for you?"

The man in front, that appeared the leader, nodded to her. He said, "I wonder if we might share your fire for the night."

Domino glanced at Patrick, who was obviously at the ready, tense. She reasoned that between the two of them, they could probably take the three guys, if they tried anything, but there was no chance. She answered carefully, "It's mostly embers, now..."

The man hunkered down in front of it, beside her sleeping bag. He looked tired, very tired, she suddenly realised. He said, "All the better for cooking with."

Patrick relaxed, suddenly, and sat cross-legged on his blankets. "Why don't you pull up a stump, have a seat."

The other two sat down beside each other, near to Patrick, and put their packs down. Domino didn't miss the weaponry they were carrying, but it looked harmless enough -- knives that anyone would be carrying, and a strange looking skinning knife. Deadly, but not alarming. One of them, a blond, murmured a quiet "Thank you," and Patrick nodded to him courteously.

Domino couldn't figure out what had prompted Patrick to change his mind about them so quickly, until he grinned at her, pointing at the design on the blonde's pack. He said, by way of explanation, "It's a gypsy mark. I worked with them once. You trust them until you can't anymore."

Domino raised an eyebrow, but the blond chuckled. "Not much of a glowing recommendation, is it Victor?"

The leader didn't look upset, holding his hands up to the fire. "The Zefiro are honorable."

Patrick looked at the two other men. He finally shrugged, comically, and said, "Patrick."

The blond nodded to him and Domino. "Van. That's Kurt; he doesn't speak anymore."

The man -- Victor, Domino thought -- in charge, had brown hair with some grey, but not enough to show his age, and brown eyes. She asked, "So you guys are gypsies?"

Van answered, "Traders. Used to be." He gestured around. "Not much to trade, lately."

"No." She glanced at Victor, who was still hunkered down. "Where'd you come from?"

Van shrugged. "Around. We've been travelling through whatever's going on for... how long, Kurt?" Kurt, a thinner, pale man, looked at his hands, and then at Van. Van continued, "A year or so. Most of our -- most of us were lost, or got separated."

Domino nodded. Victor frowned a little, saying to Domino, "I'm sorry, I didn't catch your name."

Domino glanced at Patrick again, and Patrick gave her a minuscule shrug -- up to you, it meant. She stared up at the sky again, trying to figure out why the feeling that something was odd, out of place. She answered, "Domino--"

Victor turned to her, nodding quietly to himself. "Ahhh."

She suddenly realized why this Victor seemed familiar. "von Doom? You're." She laughed, shaking her head in amazement when he didn't dispute the claim. She held her hands up, in bemusement, almost talking to herself. "Wow. Small world, huh. Sorcerer? Well, of course."

Victor didn't refute her mumbling. Van and Patrick looked at each other, and shrugged. Van started rooting through his pack, and finally came up with a bent frying pan, and some flour. Patrick watched while Van started mixing flour with water, and a handful of what smelled like icing sugar, into rolls on a piece of wood. He then put the frying pan on the embers, and poured a little lard into the pan. It sizzled, and he slapped the first cake into the oil.

Kurt leaned over, gesturing with his hand, and Van said, annoyed, "I'm getting to that. Kurt wants me to make sure I'm hospitable and offer some to both of you, in return for the fire."

Domino leaned over, sniffing. It smelled fine, even sweet. "Sure. Thanks."

Van pulled the frying pan out of the fire, and offered it to Domino, who fished the deep fried cake out with her boot knife. Blowing on it, she took a bite, and then gulped it down. "That's amazing."

Victor took the frying pan from Van, as Van slapped two more of the weird pancakes into the grease. "An old trick."

Van passed the cakes around, and Domino got to eat two more before the batter was all gone. Everyone else seemed as hungry as she was-- she asked, "Have you guys been living on this stuff?"

Kurt looked at his hands. Victor answered softly, "Mostly. It's been, difficult, to say the least. But we're doing fine."

Patrick said, "You could come back with us."

Domino hissed, "Patrick..."

He looked at her, a little angry. "There's a place that the shifts don't reach."

Van looked hopefully at both of them. "There is?"

Domino shot Patrick a dirty look, but nodded. "Yeah. Franklin Ri--" She eyed Victor, and though he didn't seem to react at the name, she amended it to, "Franklin has managed to build a small pocket of reality. Just a few square miles, but it's enough."

"And yet," Victor said blandly, "the two of you are out in the wilds."

Domino stared. Patrick looked around, uncomfortable for a minute, and then glanced up at the sky. The light show didn't seem to show any signs of stopping. He said, "Let's just. Let's sleep." To illustrate his point, he laid down, resolutely closing his eyes.

Domino did too, but couldn't sleep, wary of the three men. Though they seemed asleep almost immediately, she couldn't help it. Something was off about Victor.

~

The next morning, Patrick woke first, and looked around himself. "Wasn't this a forest last night?"

Domino was already stirring life back into their fire, one of the only things that hadn't changed during the long night. Where there were once trees, now stunted little rocks and lichen surrounded them. The only two things that stayed consistent were the dark, rainbow'ed sky above them, and their fire, glowing orange and heating up some water for morning sludge.

She answered, "It was. It's tundra now, except that it's not freezing."

Patrick threw off his blanket carefully, and then shivered. "Practically balmy."

"Well, we can always warm up later," she said with a coy smile. He rolled his eyes at her, and then Victor awoke. Domino looked down at him. "Coffee? Or, well. Something that pretends it's coffee?"

He took the mug which she poured him, and looked at it. "Is it, green?"

"Yep."

He took a sip, and winced. "Not the best. But warm. Thank you."

"Not the best," Domino agreed amicably. She poured Patrick some, too, and passed it over. Van and Kurt were already blinking, sleepy eyes peering out of their sleeping bag. Kurt looked around, and Van said, "Things changed in the night, didn't they? Or is it still night?"

Domino shrugged. "I felt the shift pass us, but I don't know what's up with the sky. It's still rainbow colored."

Patrick stood up, tucking the laces of his boots inside the toes, and stretched. "I'll be back."

He wandered behind a rock, and Domino snickered, considering following him. He probably wouldn't be bothered, just make some quip about Nate and brush her off, do his business anyway.

Kurt -- his eyes seemed kind of vacant, for Domino's taste -- gestured to the pot, and she waved her hand. "Yeah, sure. It tastes like shit, but have all you want. Comes from this weed we found a few shifts back. Feels like we dried acres of the stuff."

"Thank you," Van said. He grabbed mugs from his bag, and poured them both a cup.

Domino sat back, licking her teeth to try and rid herself some of morning breath. It seemed, odd, to be doing domestic things with Victor von Doom and two of his companions, and yet things were so normal. That was what made her uneasy, she realized-- the fact that things were normal. As normal as they'd ever be in a place where the sky never got light, and multi-colored shooting stars made you feel like you were in a bad drug trip every time you looked up.

Patrick jogged back to the fire, face excited. "You'll never guess what I found, Dom."

Domino snickered. "Is it that hard to find?"

Patrick rolled his eyes, and grabbed her hand. "Come look." She complained, but he pulled her up with a yelp and pulled her around some of the bigger boulders, in a weaving path that suddenly found them...

"It's a tree, Patrick."

He nodded, beaming. "It's a pomegranate tree."

Domino frowned. Victor, Van and Kurt had followed them, luckily, so she didn't have to worry about anyone stealing their stuff. "Patrick, it's just a tree. What's so special about it?"

Patrick gestured. "Have you ever eaten a pomegranate, before?"

The three other men were watching this quietly, and privately, Domino figured they probably thought that Patrick was nuts. She would have been inclined to believe them. She tried again, patiently. Patrick was usually so normal. "What?"

He was leaning over, muttering to himself. "You think we could take it with us? It'd be a nice addition to the garden."

She looked at Victor, shrugged, but leaned down to take a look. The tree, however, seemed firmly rooted in pebbles. A quick brushing away of the pebbles showed that underneath was solid rock, the roots worming their way through as if by magic. "Patrick, how in gods' name are we going to get that out of the ground?"

He sighed. "I guess we're not. Well, pick as much as you can. They'll make a great breakfast."

Van and Kurt glanced at each other, and then did as they were told. Domino turned on her heel and went back to her sleeping bag. Let them deal with the insane man. She thought to herself, I thought Nate did crazy things.

Victor followed her back to the fire. Domino started rolling up her sleeping bag, and putting away the few things she'd taken out of her pack. Victor stared off into the distance. He asked her, "You are going home, now?"

She shrugged. "Maybe. We're probably going to keep scavenging for a day or so. Head east." She grinned. "Or, that way. Which I think is east."

Victor nodded, and somberly packed away his things too. Domino kicked some dirt -- rocks and dirt -- over their embers, and stamped out the glowing hunks of wood. Patrick and the other two came back, arms laden with pomegranates, and packed their things away, along with most of the red fruit.

Patrick handed Domino one, already pried open. "There you go, my dear."

Domino laughed. "Jackass. You ready to head out?"

He grinned, not the least bit remorseful. "Sure you don't want to stick around a little longer?" He glanced over at the other three, who were ignoring them in favor of getting ready to break camp. His voice lowered. "I could make it worth your while..."

She murmured into his ear, "If Nate could see you now," and picked up her pack. "Now let's go."

He looked mournful. "I'm never going to steal you away from Nate, am I."

Domino grinned, eating a seed. "I might let you play with him, though."

Patrick considered it for a moment. "But he'd get attached, and I'd break his heart-- it would just be too messy."

Domino threw a pink seed at Patrick, getting a red stain on his shirt. "Let's go, already." She called out, "Victor, we're leaving."

The three gypsies came over. Van bowed casually, and Kurt followed. Van said, "Of course. Good luck to you." Victor nodded more sedately, and didn't say anything.

Patrick asked, "You won't consider coming with us? We could use people with your skills."

Victor answered, "We are most at home as travellers. What would we do, hemmed in by walls?"

Domino gulped. He seemed to echo what had been in her mind when her and Patrick had left, and it stung a little. After a minute, she nodded. Victor waved his hand, and procured a compass from thin air. With a grave face, he presented it to Domino. "Head east."

She took it. Van added, "Maybe we'll run into you again."

Patrick grasped Van's shoulder. "Keep your head down."

He and Domino started walking away from the campsite. Once, Domino looked back, and saw the faint outline of three figures, moving in the opposite direction. Domino asked Patrick, "You think we should have tried harder to convince them to come?"

Patrick shrugged. "They didn't want to. We're not Nate."

She sighed. "No, we're not. So, where does that compass say we go?"

Patrick looked at it, and then pointed to the shift line about half a mile off. "That way."

It seemed lighter on the other side of the shift, which Domino was grateful for. All this night hiking was depressing. She answered, "Right, well, let's go," and put the compass in her pocket. It might come in handy, after all.

~end~

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