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The sleep he had that night was one of the best he had went through since he first ran away - perfect room temperature, perfect lighting, and most importantly, a perfect bed. He had only slept five hours, yet to him it felt like 15. He woke up to birds chirping, and with Diane knocking on the door, reminding him what time it was. He would not be sleeping in like he would have done before school, but instead got up very quickly, put his attire back on, and came out of the room to go down to the first floor.

Diane was already dressed, wearing a simple red T-shirt and a pair of jeans. Judging by the aroma present in the kitchen, she had cooked up coffee and pancakes, which greatly appealed to Eric's growing hunger. A glass of orange juice was poured for the both of them and was set on the table, which also occupied two plates and its matching utensils on it. He was dumbfounded - either she really, really wanted to help him, or something fishy was lurking beneath his view.

When she turned around from her stove, Eric took note of her appearance for the first time. She was short, about as tall as he was, and was not very chubby. She had blond hair and glasses, which went well with her fresh, young face. She was definitely not more than 25 years of age in his opinion. In fact, she actually looked, very nice. She was not married however, and he never bothered to ask why. The size of the house also gave him an idea of how much income she was making as well; he assumed she did not earn more than $35,000 a year, and worked a small job, in an office or something of that sort.

She came over to the table and sat a plate down with five plump pancakes occupying it, before sitting in her seat. She then invited Eric to do so as well, with a quick gesture, before noticing she had forgotten something. While he sat, Diane went to her fridge in order to get some maple syrup, and quickly came back. Setting it down and watching Eric take a sip of his orange juice, she returned to her seat and made herself comfortable. Eric grabbed the maple syrup, poured some, and ate, while Diane did the same. Not one word was spoken by either of them, making the situation very awkward.

About halfway through her first pancake, she asked questions. "So, where are you heading again?"

"New York. I called last night to check the flights, there's one at 8:30. Mind if I ask you what you do for a living?"

"Not at all. I'm a hair stylist at a local beauty shop. Very fun job and I'm glad to have it." She already knew from the news reports he was a student. "So, who was this Matt guy? Was he like your friend or something?"

He swallowed the last bite of his first pancake. "Teacher. We laughed around in class, and when all of this happened, he helped me out. He even got all of the money he could take out from his account and used it for all this. Thing is, I still don't know why he decided to help me in the first place." That was a lie, but she did not need to know about Matt's real reason - the thrill of running away.

"Sounds like a pretty nice guy. I mean, for him to help you out like that. It's pretty thoughtful. What happened?"

He felt uncomfortable all of a sudden. "Umm, well, I don't really want to talk about it. It just happened last night, so it's still sort of, weird to talk about."

"Oh, okay, sorry. Well, you should hurry up with that... third pancake of yours, and come upstairs. I'll fix up your hair and make you look spiffy and unrecognizable."

He remembered; she was a hair stylist. "What a coincidence", he thought. "Alright, sounds good to me."

She nodded and gave him a smile, before rising and making her way upstairs toward the bathroom, where she would prepare her stuff to use on Eric. There was something about her, something he could not quite place his finger on. But, he told himself he would not be seeing her any longer in the few hours to come, so there was no trap, no other thing to worry about. He finished his final pancake and made his way up the stairs, where she had already begun to get her stuff straightened out.

There was a small stool in front of the mirror, and the sink was filled with hot water. Her styling tools - razor, hair scissors, and gel - were in a medium-sized, black plastic box, and they had all been dipped in barbicide. She invited him to sit down, and once he did, she took out a spray bottle, and soaked his hair with water. She then took out her comb, and untangled most of the knots his hair had rapidly formed. Diane followed up by taking her scissors, clipping some of the hair she felt was not needed, and took out some hair gel, which she used to spike his front. He looked completely different, with only a few minutes of work, and only having used scissors, gel, and a comb.

"I like it", Eric remarked, with delight. "It's much different than what I would normally have, but it makes me look rebellious - something no one would expect me to be. Thanks a lot, for this and the food. You've been a great help."

She blushed. "Oh, it's nothing. I'd do it for anyone in your situation. Come on, we should get going, it's almost 7:30 and your flight leaves in an hour. You should actually be there right now."

They both headed down the stairs, with Diane leading him outside towards her car. She did not have much of a lawn, and nor did her neighbors, since it was a low-middle class neighborhood. Her car was also a low-budget 2025 Toyota, small and compact, but did its job and was fuel-efficient. He was about to jump into the passenger's seat, when she stopped him.

"You should probably go in the back seats. It lessens your chances of being seen. I'm sure your hair style would work wonders, but I wouldn't risk it."

Eric let go of the door's handle, in order to grasp the one to the left of it. "Right."

Diane started the car and drove toward the airport. Seen at around ten kilometers, the Hector airport was a small, but simple way for the residents of Fargo to get to various places around the US. It was in the northern side of the city, which required the new duo to cross the downtown area, which was a very "bright" place, in Eric's opinion. There were also many one-way roads, something Eric did not see much of back home, and would have found much more confusing to navigate through. To keep the energy alive, Diane began to ask questions again.

"So, what are you planning to do over in New York? Hopefully not very much; with the amount of people there, you'll be caught for sure."

"Well, I was planning to catch another international flight from JFK or something. Depends how everything goes."

"Oh yeah? Where are you flying to?"

"Well, frankly, I'd rather not say." For one, Eric did not trust her completely. All of the sudden help was still very suspicious to him, and taking more chances was something Matt would have definitely avoided. Secondly, he was not even sure he would be going to Mount Gubit. Matt specifically stated there would be a lot of security, and he was not certain there would be an easy way to go unnoticed. One way or the other, he was not 100% sure there was a dragon colony in the first place. He knew, however, he was going to Europe, only, he did not know where. "It's not that I don't trust you, or anything. I just can't afford the risk."

"It's fine. I didn't even expect you to even tell me you were going to New York. So, what do you think of Fargo?"

"I can't say much about it. It's a different style for a city, and I don't really know if I like it or not."

"Well you'd get used to it. I was actually planning on moving to Seattle, if I can get a job over there. I'd love to stay there, and British Columbia is right above it, so a vacation in their big forests would be pretty cheap. How was it in Ontario?"

"I don't like it all that much. Like you, I wished I was out west. I've been there once, and I was planning to go back when I finish school. Of course, that's not possible anymore." Eric was quite a fan of such scenery. If he would be able to, he'd spent at least a day or two flying across the province, free of everything tugging him back.

Diane spread some optimism into his thoughts. "Well, you never know."

After exiting University Dr., Diane turned left onto the road leading to the airport, before parking into the lot as both of them entered the airport. He was not very sure why she wanted to come inside, but he did not mind the company. He noticed there were not as many people as he thought there would be; it was 8 o'clock in the morning after all. Once inside, Eric made it to the ticket line up, which is where they said their farewells.

"Alright, thanks for all the help", Eric remarked. "I really appreciate it, and I wish I could have paid you back. Especially with all that food I ate."

She laughed. "It's no problem. Take care of yourself."

She left him alone in the lineup, but did not go out of the airport. Instead, she went in the bathrooms on the opposite side of the large waiting room. There were only three people in the lineup, which fortunately meant he did not have to wait very long. Once he got to the front of the line, he noticed the women on the other side of the booth was looking at him in a strange way - probably due to the fact he had no luggage. He asked for a ticket to New York, which he got for 150$, before realizing he did not have as much money as he should have had; 500$ was not very much, which made him doubt if he had enough for the flight to Russia. He forked over the money and in return received his boarding pass, as well as other information. The security check was next, and luckily, thanks to his new hairstyle, no one seemed to have noticed anything unusual about him. He had nothing in his pockets, nothing to create suspicion, and no ID was required either.

Once everything ended after a half an hour or so, he sat down in another waiting room to wait for his flight to be announced. This did not take as long as he expected, because after a mere ten minutes, the first came, allowing him to make his way over to his gate to show his boarding pass. Then, he walked over to the Airstair to finally take his seat inside the plane. There were five compartments numerated from "A" to "E", with his located near the middle of the Boeing 898. He walked over to it, sat down in his seat, and got comfortable. Although he only paid for an economy-class seat, it was quite comfortable to relax in. His flight would leave in seven minutes, and with the low amount of people there was then, he highly doubted that the flight would be crowded. In fact, five minutes before his departure, there was only two men in front of him, another two in the back of him, and a lady on his right side. He knew it would become a very relaxing trip, which is exactly what he needed.

Only a minute and a half before departure, however, he saw someone he thought he would have never seen ever again in his entire life.