“Tiriel, are you sure?” one of the others - a middle-aged woman in brown robes - said cautiously. “We should perhaps listen to what he says.”

“He’s no hero, that’s for sure,” huffed the third woman. She looked around my age, but she looked fearsome, with spikes and sharp blades along her arms and on her shoulders.

“I’ve never seen a hero who slaps himself in the face.” This came from lower down, from a gruff, stocky man. He looked vaguely cartoonish, with a broad, flat head. He was a dwarf, I realized. Right. Varagorn, the sword, the inn. And the pretty woman with the pointy ears was an elf. It made it’s own kind of sense, I guessed, within the dream.

“I’m no hero, that’s right,” I said. “Sorry, sorry. If you’ll excuse me, I will just be on my way here.” I tried to pull my arm away from the elf woman, but her grip with those long, thin fingers was like a vise. Her nails were long and sharp too, almost like claws, and dug into my coat.

“Let me look at you,” she said. She pulled me down and leaned forward to look directly into my eyes. I gulped. I’d never seen eyes like those. They were incredibly alive, and her gaze was intensely curious but also open and trusting. Up close, they were mesmerizing.

“Yes,” she whispered and broke into a wide smile. Something sparkled in her eyes - she was terrifyingly beautiful. “You are our hero. He is our hero! I see it in his eyes!” She let go of me and raised her arms, and began making a strange, keening sound. It didn’t sound sad or anything, but it reminded me of desolate highlands high in the mountains.

“You’re kidding,” the fearsome woman groaned.

“I’m not,” the elf said. “Remember last time we weren’t sure. And besides, I am the sponsor champion of this party! And I say this is our hero!”

“No no no,” I said and held up my hands. I had no idea what they were doing or why they needed a hero, or even what kind of hero they meant. I had no intention getting caught up in something, even if it was in a dream. I needed to figure out how to wake myself up, that’s what I should be doing. Not playing along with the dream.

“Yes yes yes,” the elf said. “Come with us!” I stepped back from the fire in her eyes. She was really intense. She took my arm again in her iron grip and dragged me along with her, across the courtyard.

“Wait, where are you going?” I said, voice quavering.

“We’re going to our party chambers,” she said, “to get acquainted!”

She pushed open a door in the lodgings building, into a hallway, and then on through another door. Only then did she let me go. I rubbed my arm where she’d held me and watched in dismay as the others filed in behind us. This was all going wrong.

“Tell us about yourself!” the elf said as she danced across the floor.

“I, uh, what do you want to know?”

The younger of the human women, the fearsome one, growled and took a quick step up to stand right next to me. I shrank back involuntarily - her eyes were burning.

“Who you are, dumbass,” she said. “Like this. I am Caveria Dragonbane, battle mage and warrior. I killed the dragon Mordrozdha in single combat. Who. Are. You.” She spat out the last words.

I couldn’t speak. I’d never been so scared by a woman in my life. Or by a man, a dog, - by anyone, to be honest.

“Come now, Caveria,” the other woman laughed. “Don’t be so harsh to our guest. Our new member.” She smiled at me. “What kind of impression do you think he’s getting?”

“Bah!” Caveria said, sneering at me. “If he’s half the hero he’s supposed to be he shouldn’t be intimidated by me.”

“No,” the other woman said, still laughing, “but maybe he thinks you’re the rudest battle mage he’s met. Hello - Peter, was it?” She came up to me and held out her hand. I shook it. “I am Serah Derambra, our healer and - seamstress! Those hot-headed youngsters all want to go out fighting dragons, but then they came back half dead and with their clothes in tatters.”

“Nice to meet you,” I croaked. This was fascinating, but completely crazy. What kind of dream was this, where the adventure party needed to worry about torn seams?

“Not just their clothes.” The dwarf stepped forward to shake my hand too. “You should have seen her armor after we met those trolls on the way here. And her sword. Without me she’d have to walk around unarmed and unarmored. I am Thord son of Drord, the party blacksmith. Pleased to meet you.”

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The tall, older man who’d been standing by the door with his arms folded chuckled and came over. “Arndrir Hellagrimsòn,” he said as we shook hands. “Wilderness Ranger and orc hunter. And, on one highly memorable occasion, dragon tracker and, ah, emergency first-aid provider.” He glanced towards Caveria with a faint smile. She glowered back at him, then at me.

“And I am Tiriel!” the elf cried out, spinning gracefully into our midst. She reached up to hold my shoulders and looked into my eyes again. “I am Tiriel of the mountain elves, daughter of eagles and dancer on the wind. I am a servant of the Moon Goddess and princess of the Desolate Mountains!” She let go of me and pirouetted. “My brother is Diwelas the Elven King, and it is he who sponsors this party. I am his champion.” Her eyes shone like the moon as she grinned at me. “And now our party is complete. We can begin our search!”

“We still don’t know who he is,” Caveria said, sneering at me. “Please introduce yourself, oh great hero!”

They all turned to look at me, Caveria still sneering, the others smiling in at least vaguely friendly ways. I smiled back as I frantically tried to figure out what to say. Hi, I’m Peter, a pretty louse engineer a year out of university, and now stuck in a boring job where there are no dragons, no trolls, not even any - wolves, or whatever these people thought of as everyday dangers. I tried to remember this was just a dream, but it felt way too real.

“Uh,” I said. “I mean, I’m - my name is Peter,” I said. “I am a-a problem solver.” It was true, that’s what engineers do. “Like if you have problems with, uh....”

“Dragons?” the older woman - Serah, that was her name - interjected with a smile.

I laughed, too loudly and nervously. “Yes, yes,” I said and nodded. Caveria snorted derisively and I saw the face she made. Right, she’d called herself Dragonbane. She probably did not appreciate jokes about dragon-hunting. In fact, I wasn’t sure she appreciated any jokes at all. She practically radiated hostility, especially with those crazy spikes and blades

“We can learn more about your problems tomorrow,” Tiriel announced. “It is late, and we are leaving early tomorrow.”

“So... are we really taking him along? This... guy?” Caveria looked at the elf in disbelief.

“Yes!” Tiriel declared. “He will be a wonderful addition to our party!”

“He’ll be dead before lunch tomorrow, more likely,” Caveria muttered.

“Then you won’t have to suffer for so long,” Serah half-whispered to her. I caught her glance at Caveria. Serah’s eyes twinkled with suppressed amusement.

I didn’t find it funny. I found Caveria scary as hell, and I really didn’t like it that she seemed to hate me.

“Where are we heading?” the dwarf said. I’d never been good with names, but I tried to remember now. T something... Thord. That was it. “The sword was found in the Desolate Mountains, was it not?”

“Yes,” the tall ranger guy said. Arnold? Arn - something? Damn. I’d forgot.

“It was found there,” he continued, “by humans working the Ruula mines. They didn’t understand what they’d found, so they brought it back up and then rumors started flying. They sent for their local governor, but before he’d arrived they had their hands full with adventurers and bandits, and half the kingdoms were beginning to mobilize their armies. The sword disappeared, in the confusion, and nobody knows for sure where it went. It hasn’t been used yet; we would have known about that.”

The others nodded in agreement. I wanted to ask what sword, but I didn’t dare. We were obviously supposed to know that, and I didn’t want to push my luck. Caveria obviously didn’t believe for a second I was any kind of hero, but I wasn’t sure what the others thought. They seemed to go along with Tiriel’s decree, though. Why she wanted me to come with them, I couldn't understand. -Maybe she was mad.

I was torn between trying to run away, and actually staying with them for a while. The one reason I could see to stay was that comment from Tiriel, about “dancing with the Moon Goddess”. Maybe she knew something about that weird moonlight path, and maybe I could use that to wake myself up and get out of the dream.

The main reason to run away was that I was a total fraud when it came to being a hero, that whatever these people were planning sounded very dangerous, and that one of the party members apparently was a skilled warrior who just happened to hate my guts. I was beginning to have a very bad feeling about Caveria.

The ranger was still talking - I better listen.

“Instead, we will go around to Ambor. There are hints and whispers that the sword may have been taken there, and there’s enough people on the move in Dimra that we should be able to pick up on the subtlest hints. With the help of our healer.” He smiled ironically at Serah, who smiled un-ironically back.

“If we can’t track it down in or on the way to Ambor, we have another plan that we believe few of our competitors will be able to guess at, and even fewer try to carry out.” Now he smiled at Caveria, and for an instant she relented and actually smiled back. It transformed her face, from terrible to almost kind-of pretty - but then she noticed my gaze and resumed glowering. I looked away.

“Very good!” Tiriel sounded jubilant. I wondered if she always was this happy. She seemed slightly wacky, as if she was on some drug. “Now, let us sleep. We rise at dawn and leave hurriedly.”

Tiriel had called these rooms the party chambers. There were three rooms in addition to the larger room we were in, and the women took one and the men another. There was no bathroom, and I didn’t dare asking about that either. I managed to handle it fairly well, I thought, by following the dwarf as he went out and around the corner, where there was an outhouse.

Next time, I will dream about a place with running water, I decided. And electricity. They had oil lamps, but as the ranger sat down in his bunk bed and extinguished it, the room went completely dark. No streetlights, no cars. Complete darkness. And complete silence. I thought I wouldn’t be able to sleep, but instead I fell asleep right away and slept like a log the whole night.