“Well, don’t blame me,” I told Caveria. “If you hadn’t started shooting at that guy, the whole party might have gotten out of Davorra.”

“That guy,” she scoffed. “He’s one of Lecander’s henchmen. One of his oldest and dumbest.” She kept looking at me, and her frown deepened. “And... I sure hope you had nothing to do with the fact that he showed up right as we were leaving.”

“What!” I stared at her with my mouth open. “Come on!” I said – well, almost shouted. “Don’t give me that crap! I’m not in league with Lecander! Come ON, Caveria!” I glared at her. She glared back, but then looked away.

“Sorry,” she muttered. “I’m a bit tense, right now.” She looked back at me, but her expression was troubled.

I almost said something nasty, but managed to stop myself. She was right. She was tense, and so was I. And it would be really stupid to fight.

“I know,” I said instead. “It’s okay. And... I’m sorry too. I’m supposed to be here to help you somehow, not shout at you.” I tried smiling at her, but I was still seething inside so I wasn’t sure what it looked like.

She smiled back, so it must have come out resembling a smile, at least. “Yeah,” she said. “I’m glad you’re here. I really am. It would have been worse to do this alone.”

I nodded, but I felt more like shaking my head. I really didn’t understand her. I couldn’t even imagine that: going up alone in the mountains, to fight a dragon. She was either very confident, or very crazy. Or very desperate.

Caveria closed her eyes, and took slow, deep breaths. I emulated her, but watched her as she calmed herself. She looked scary, as always, with her hard expression and with those spikes and knives on her armor, but beneath it I thought I saw something else, something I couldn’t read at all.

I didn’t know very much about her, I knew. She’d been nearly as private as Thord during our travels, but he at least had a clear mission from his kingdom. But Caveria – I didn’t really know why she was here. If she was just chasing glory, to be the only person who’s ever killed two dragons?

She let out her breath in a long, slow sigh, and opened her eyes.

“Caveria,” I said on a sudden impulse. “When all this is done, what will you do?”

“What do you mean?” She gave me a suspicious look.

“When we’ve found the sword, gotten it to wherever it should go, and put an end to the war. What will you do? What do you want to do?”

She looked taken aback. “I... haven’t thought that far.” She frowned and shook her head. “It... it doesn’t matter. We have a clear task. Let’s do it.” She turned away and muttered something under her breath.

“Let’s do it,” she said again. “I think - let’s not go look for a goat,” she said. “We don’t have the time. Although,” she went on after a brief pause, “if no dragon shows up in two days, we’ll go get one.”

“You mean buy one?”

She stared at me blankly. “Buy one? Do you think there’s a market up here?”

I stared back as blankly. “No, I mean buy it from the farmer."

"We can't go back down to find a farm," she said, frowning. "The herd will be up here. We can just pick a goat."

"Pick one? You mean steal one? No way. We can't steal a goat from some poor farmer and give to the dragon!” I glared at her, and thought about Skorra and the poor people I’d seen on the road to Davorra.

Caveria stared at me, mouth open, and shook her head. Then she laughed. “Ha! Listen to yourself, Peter! You’re talking very fine about stopping the war, about your important task that the Goddess Herself sent you to do, but you can’t even steal a goat to do it. Even if it means failing utterly! We’re talking war!”

“Don’t laugh at me,” I snapped. “I don’t think it’s right. Do you really think the ends justify the means?”

“What does that mean?” she said, smiling indulgently at me.

“It means,”I said, “that we’ll be tainted if we start stealing and, and bluffing. I thought we were trying to be the good guys. What will we be if we start stealing? Even if we win it’ll still be a thief’s victory.”

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She didn’t respond, but her eyes narrowed. “That’s not Lecander-speak, at least. I don’t know what it is, but it’s not that.” She snorted. “I already said we don’t have time to find a goat. We’re here to find a dragon. Let’s do that. Rest’s over.”

She got up and started marching away, without looking back. I scrambled to my feet and followed her, shaking my head even if she couldn’t see it. Perhaps I was naive, but I really didn't think it was right.

We trudged up the slope in silence. It had looked gentle from below, but that was deceptive. The slope went on and on, and made me nearly as tired as the climb had. When we reached the first of the rocky crags thrusting out of the grassy slope, Caveria stopped and I hoped we might rest. She just shook her head and continued, without a word.

It wasn’t until we’d passed a few more crags, and had reached rockier ground again, that she went up to one of the crags and put down her backpack.

“Here,” she said. “Let’s make camp here. Such as we can.” She glanced at the sky, which was now covered by dark gray, compact clouds. “Looks like rain’s on the way. We can get some shelter by the rocky tongue over there.”

“At least it’ll reduce the fire hazard,” I said as I lowered my pack and sank down decide it.

I closed my eyes. I was so very tired. I thought I’d gotten stronger during the time I’d been in Lumaria - we had been walking a lot - but this was another level entirely.

“How are you feeling?” she asked. I opened my eyes and found her watching me with a small frown. “You don’t look great.”

“I’m really tired,” I said. “This is very tough.”

She nodded. “I’m surprised that you’ve kept up. I set a very high pace. I can draw on my magic to get extra strength and energy, but you can’t.” She pursed her lips, then opened her backpack and dug through it.

“Here,” she said and threw a small, round item wrapped in paper to me. I caught it and raised my eyebrows.

“It’s from Serah,” she said. “It’s a - healing cake, I think you could call it. It gives energy and helps the body heal and regain strength. I’ve got a few of those, but you need them more right now, I think.”

I bit into it. “Wow,” I said. “This is good.” It was - sweet and soft, but with a complex taste beneath the sweetness. I wolfed it down, while Caveria rummaged through her backpack some more.

“Thanks,” I said, but she waved it away. At least she didn’t seem angry any more. Neither was I, and not just because I was too tired to be angry. The anger had faded as we'd walked, as the crags rose around and reality sank in. It was happening; we were really going into a fight with a dragon.

“I think we can risk a fire tonight,” she said. “There’s nobody following us, and it’s no use being hidden if we get too cold. Besides, it might be our last night in life. It would be nice to have a fire.”

“How?” I said. “I don’t see any firewood.” She’d said it herself, she wanted to be above the treeline.

“Look again,” she said, and pulled out some things that looked like petrified wood from the bottom of her pack.

“What’s that?”

“Something thing the dwarves do. It’s heavy, dense wood. These two pieces can burn for hours. If, that is, you can light them. Which you can’t, but fortunately for you, you have a battle mage for company.”

She arranged the rock-wood on the ground, lit a match, and held it against the wood. Her hand flashed red, and the dry, hard branches caught fire and burned merrily.

I moved in closer. The warmth felt good.

“So the fight will be tomorrow, then?” I said. She nodded.

“Yes. I’ll get a few hours of sleep, then I’ll get up and start preparing. Mostly meditation,” she added at my questioning look.

“At dawn I will go out there and call the dragon. After that, we’ll wait. I’ll repeat the call every hour. And if a dragon comes, it comes.” She shrugged.

“What do I do?”

She sighed. “Not much, during the fight. Hide. Try not to get killed. But... can we talk about that tomorrow? I’ll wake you an hour before dawn.”

“Sure,” I said. “What do you want to talk about now, then? If you want to talk at all?”

“I don’t know,” she said.

“No, I want to talk,” she added, after a moment’s silence. “Tell me stories, from your world. Do you have stories about dragons? Dragons and gods, and - well, whatever else?”

“Yes,” I said, and tried to think of all the myths I’d ever read or heard about. Which didn’t have to be real – after all, I’d been at a party with the Tolkien Society when I fell into the lake and arrived in Lumaria, what felt like a lifetime ago. Those myths weren’t real, but they were really good.

I glanced at her. She was looking out towards the dark clouds. “I want to say something else,” I said. She looked at me and raised her eyebrows at me. “If this is our last night in life... I want to say that when we first met, you scared the heck out of me. You were awful, I thought.” She smiled and looked into the fire. “I still think you’re - a bit scary. And difficult. And I know I’ve been a useless hero and a terrible party member, and that you’ve saved my life again and again. Thanks for that.”

I gave her an uncertain smile. She smiled back. “I’m still happy I met you,” I went on. “You, and the others, but - you. You’re scary, but you’re - inspiring. And I don’t know how to say this, but... you’re funny too. Sometimes,” I added as she looked surprised. “Funny, and nice, and… yeah.” .” I felt my face redden as I rambled on.

“Sorry,” I mumbled. “I don’t mean to blather. I just wanted to say I’m happy I met you, and I really hope we can walk down this mountain tomorrow, carrying the dragon’s heart between us.”

“Thank you,” she said. “I’m - I’m happy we met, too. I thought you were worse than useless at first, and you’re still…” She snorted, but smiled. “You’ve kind of grown on me, though. Like an annoying little brother.” She gave me a sardonic smile, but reached out and touched my hand.

I didn’t know what to say, but reached out and took her hand. It felt good, to have some human companionship, under the dark towering mountains and the thick, nearly black clouds.

We huddled together under the rocky crag, with our little fire, and I told her what I remembered from the myths and legends of Earth, and of Middle-Earth, while night fell on the mountain.