Hazel Quickpaw's Arc

Chapter 2 of 5

The cart smelled like old rope and whatever herb the mouse-kin had packed in cloth bundles. Hazel sat with his back against a crate, watching the road disappear behind them. The badger-kin walked ahead, silent as stone. The mouse-kin hadn't asked about the dice yet, but Hazel could feel the question coming. They stopped at a flowerpot gazebo just past the last settlement. The mouse-kin spread a worn poster on the ground between them. The warning showed a paw-print twisted with red symbols Hazel recognized from quarantine zones. Feral creatures. The Red. The mouse-kin's name was Caius, and he wanted Hazel to come to Nor. He said there was a cure there. He said the journey would pay well. He didn't say how many people had died trying to reach it. Hazel looked at the poster and thought about debt. About how every choice was just another gamble. Caius was betting Hazel would say yes. The problem was, he was right. Beyond the gazebo stood a rubble wall with guards posted on either side. A raven-kin watched from the top. A nervous hound-kin paced near the archway. Past that wall, the safe road ended. Caius explained the route in careful words that left out more than they included. He mentioned supplies. Ancient machines. A functioning factory. He didn't mention how many checkpoints they'd pass or what lived between here and there. Hazel counted the omissions like cards in a crooked deck. He knew what it looked like when someone was bluffing. Hazel stood and walked to the edge of the wall. He looked at the road stretching toward Nor and felt the weighted dice in his pocket. Then he pulled them out and dropped them in the dirt at Caius's feet. "I'm in," he said. "But I'm done running cons for scraps. If we're doing this, you pay me half up front." Caius didn't blink. He reached into his pack and counted out coins that were worth more than Hazel had seen in months. Hazel took them and felt the weight shift. For the first time since his parents left, he wasn't chasing the debt. He was buying his way toward it. The difference felt like winning, even though he knew it wasn't.