Caveria advanced towards me, moving very deliberately, one slow step at a time. I thought I would faint. She was scarier than the bandit had been, despite not showing any weapon. But those glowing eyes...

“What. Did. You. Think. You. Were. Doing.” She was hissing through bared teeth, and I stepped back. “What kind of a hero are you? That was the dumbest attack I’ve ever seen. A child would do better. Have you even seen a sword before?”

I couldn’t help it. I closed my eyes. It was childish too, of course, and I heard her curse. I opened them again, and wished I hadn’t. She was standing right in front of me, her red eyes boring into mine.

“I-I’m sorry,” I stammered. “I was unprepared. I will do b-better next time.”

“Caveria.” It was Serah, quietly.

Caveria kept staring at me, and I wondered if she was actually going to kill me.

Then she spun around, without a word, and marched back, picked up her backpack, and began walking along the road.

“We’re losing time,” she said. “Let’s go.”

Someone chuckled. I felt like I was about to cry. Arn and Thord followed Caveria, and so did Serah, after a look at me. She smiled and nodded, in what looked like a friendly way.

Tiriel, though, gazed after the others, and then came over to me, in her half-dancing way. She took my hands and looked up at my face.

“Caveria can be harsh,” she said, in a much more serious voice than she’d used before. “She will come around. When she sees.” Then she clapped her hands together and grinned happily again. “I know you are our hero. You are the one we need. The Moon Goddess sent you. She wanted us to have you. I know you will save us!”

She said it with such conviction I almost believed her. “Come on!” she said, and ran off after the others. I laughed to myself. It came out almost like a sob. The elf was crazy. So was the warrior woman. So was the whole thing. What kind of mad dream was this? Not quite a full-on nightmare, but it made no sense, and it was no fun.

I took a deep breath and walked after the rest of the party.

The atmosphere was chilly for the rest of the day. We walked on, with Tiriel running back and forth across the road and disappearing into the forest, constantly singing to herself. Arn and Thord talked, with Serah joining in occasionally. Caveria marched on in the front, not once looking back to see if we were keeping up. I walked last, feeling gloomy and useless.

When we stopped for the night I didn’t understand why at first. We were right out in the forest. Tiriel led us up to another old ruin, and Thord set about making fires - two of them - and cooking dinner. I sat down on a broken stone slab and felt like crying again. I was homesick, I realized. I wanted to go home. I wanted to wake up. I was tired of this stupid dream, of walking and walking with a bunch of homicidal maniacs who didn’t speak to me. Now they wanted me to sleep on cold, hard stone as well.

“Hi.” Serah stood a few feet away. “Can I join you?”

“Sure,” I said. She sat down beside me.

“How are you feeling?” She sounded sincere, as if she really wondered. I hesitated, but decided I might as well try telling her the truth. Part of it. It couldn’t get much worse. And Caveria was right - I’d be dead soon anyway, if today was any guide.

“Not too well,” I admitted. “I... really screwed up back there.”

“Mm,” she said. “I know we’re just starting out here, and it always takes a few days for the party to settle in and start talking, but - if you don’t mind, I would like to hear how you ended up joining us. I know Tiriel says it’s the Moon Goddess, but...” She smiled at my sharp laugh. “Oh, I know She can do that. If She wants to. I just... I’ve never seen it. So how did you hear about us?”

I stared at her. She believed in the Moon Goddess too? Oh no. To heck with it, I thought. This dream is crazy. Let’s be crazy then.

“Actually,” I said in a shaky voice, “it’s true. Sort of. I - stepped on a moon path.” I gave her a false smile and hoped she wouldn’t be angry.

“Oh! Really?” She sat up, but she looked awed rather than angry. “So it is true,” she said, staring at me intently. “Tiriel did get you here. That explains... Why didn’t you bring your things? Where did you think the path would take you?”

I began to laugh then, quietly, but it grew, and mixed with tears. Serah put her hand on my shoulder, but didn’t say anything until my laughter died down. I glanced up and saw Tiriel beaming at me, as always. The others were busy making dinner. Except Caveria, who was standing with her back towards us just beyond the flickering firelight. Even her back glowered at me.

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Serah followed my gaze. “She can be very difficult. She’s proud, and she is an amazing warrior and battle mage. I... you’re not from around here, then?” I shook my head. “Caveria did kill a dragon, on her own. There were witnesses - Arndrir was there. There are songs about it . The bards sing them in all the kingdoms, and they play it out on the carnivals. I think there are six or seven people, of all the races, that have ever killed a dragon single-handedly.”

“So she’s a real hero,” I said bitterly.

“Yes,” Serah said. “Tiriel was adamant that we needed a hero. Caveria... was not. She didn’t say we already had one, but she clearly thought so.”

“Then you got me.” Tears were streaming down my face. I was so completely screwed.

“Yes,” Serah said. I looked up at her. She was smiling at me warmly. “We got you. I have no idea how Tiriel did it, or why the Moon Goddess decided to send you, but Her ways are mysterious at the best of times.”

“Peter,” she said, gently. “I can see you feel lost and confused. I... don’t know where you came from, and you don’t need to tell me, but I can say this. I trust Tiriel. She can seem flighty, but she is wiser than she looks, and if she says you’re the one we need, I trust her.”

I wiped my tears and smiled weakly at her. “Thank you.”

“I will talk to Arndrir,” she said. “He will be happy to help you refresh your swordfighting skills.”

I just nodded. Refresh. Ha.

“Let’s get your quarters in order. Look in your backpack.”

I followed her guidance and took out a sheep-fur bedroll, a woolen blanket, and various other things that she’d put there in the morning. A couple of knives and a cup, among other things. She helped me arrange the roll, pack and blanket into something resembling a bed.

“Food is ready!” Thord called.

“Great!” Serah called back. “I’m starving. Come on, let’s eat!”

After eating I went back to my bed and kept to myself. It took time to get to sleep. Despite Serah’s pep talk, I felt downright depressed. Partly from Caveria’s reaction, but mostly from my own. It really had been a lousy fight. Even I could tell that. Without Tiriel, I would have been dead by now.

Unless, of course, I would have been awake by now? That was a cheerful thought. Maybe dying would make me wake up? Or maybe dying would make me... die.

There was an uncomfortable little voice whispering in the back of my mind. It had started earlier, but it was getting more insistent. What if this isn’t a dream, it said. What if it’s real? What if you actually went somewhere when you fell on the moon path?

Yeah, sure, except that was completely impossible. There were no moon paths. It had to be a dream, or I was - insane. Or living in an insane world. How do you even tell them apart?

I spent a long time staring up at the cloudy sky before I fell asleep.

Dawn came far too early. As before, nobody talked much but we had a quick breakfast, packed, and were on our way. It felt better to be on the move, and Serah seemed to make a point of helping me out and giving me little tips and comments. That was nice, to have somebody care, even though it was because I was lost and helpless. On the other hand, I was lost and helpless. Perhaps it was better to be treated that way, instead of expected to be a hero.

Caveria ignored me completely. Her eyes had thankfully gone back to normal, but they just swept past me as if I wasn’t there. That was also an improvement to be honest, compared to when she seemed about to kill me.

We stopped for coffee a few hours later, and Arndrir - thanks, Serah, for the name and for the word - came up to me.

“I heard you feel your swordfighting skills are a bit rusty. If you’d like, I can help you practice.”

“Thank you,” I said. “It would be... helpful. I should mention I am very rusty.”

“That is no problem. I have long experience teaching even complete beginners.”

I tried to see if he was ironic or sarcastic, but I couldn’t. He looked sincere.

“Shall we start right away?”

Well... why not? I nodded. “Could we... go somewhere else? Just a short bit.”

“As you wish.”

He led me into the forest, just twenty meters or so away from the others, but behind a dense thicket of spiky shrubs.

“Let us start with some initial practices, so I can gauge your skill. Take off your sword and put it on the ground.”

He guided me through something that seemed like simple martial arts exercises. Stances and movements. I’d never practiced anything like that, but I’d seen enough in movies and games. I didn’t recognize Arndrir’s moves.

“That will be enough,” he said after a short while. “We will continue on this level. Let me have a look at your sword.”

I fumbled it out of the sheath and handed it to him. I couldn’t hide the fact that I was completely unused to handling a real sword - it was so heavy, and so long. He didn’t say anything, he just nodded and accepted it.

“This is very fine,” he said, weighing it in his hand. He sighted along it, looked along the edge - and then he did a few of those martial arts moves, slashing and swinging the sword through the air so fast it blurred. He finished by running it through a thin branch from a tree.

“Very fine.” He handed it back to me, along with the branch. It was cut cleanly.

“We will continue with the fundamental exercises and with sword awareness,” he said, and led the way back to the others.

The rest of the day was uneventful. I decided to pay some more attention to our surroundings, in the unlikely event this wasn’t a dream. Unfortunately, we were in a dark pine forest now, so there wasn’t much to see. I tried anyway, and began asking Serah about trees, shrubs and flowers along the way.

We made camp in another old ruin. There was risk of rain, Arndrir said, and he and Thord put up a large slanted tarp. We put our beds under it, except for Caveria who stomped off and made her bed at the far side of the ruin.

“Won’t it rain on her?” I asked Serah, who shook her head and smiled.

“She will make a rainblock with magic. It will keep her dry.”

It wasn’t just the moon path and this moon goddess they had. It was the magic too that was impossible.

This night I fell asleep quickly. Arndrir had done a few more practice sessions, including a long one before dinner, and my body ached. I woke up in the middle of the night from the sound of rain on the tarp, and glanced over towards Caveria. Sure enough, she was curled up on her bedroll, all dry. The rain seemed to hit something invisible just above her, and pour off on the sides. Like a glass bubble around her. I watched for a while, feeling uneasy, but then lay back down and promptly went back to sleep.