“Okay, I’ll start. My name is Kayden Almerth, and I’m, uh… about 233 years old.”

Kayden stood in the midst of the circle as if presenting himself at a new school, with Tham, the Mimicker, the new guy, the new dragon, and the new girl settled around him. This forest clearing, far from Unbadda and into the countryside, was actually a pretty nice stop, to catch their breath and plan their next move.

“I don’t really remember my life because I lost my memories due to my constant time regression on myself to keep myself alive through an eternal imprisonment,” he continued. “...Therefore my age. But what I do know is that I was part of the Skyguard of old. I’m the Timeless. I’m currently on a quest with Tham and the Mimicker here to save his –um, our– village from the Skyfall Empire. Oh, and topple it as well. The Empire, I mean.” He winced. “…That’s the plan, at least. I’m a Timebender, by the way.”

Silence. He sat back down.

Apart from Tham and the expresionless Mimicker, the new guy, lying on the grass, seemed interested but not impressed and the new dragon, his massive serpentine body struggling to find a comfortable spot among the trees, just nodded slowly, but the new girl’s emerald eyes showed a curiosity and wonder Kayden admired.

Tham got to his feet, clearing his throat.

“Cool. I’m Thamlar, but everyone calls me Tham,” he started. “I’m fifteen years old, and I was a carpenter’s apprentice until Kayden fell from the sky near our village and turned everything upside down.” Tham let out a slight smile. “It’s kinda strange. I know my whole village will… suffer… if we don’t succeed, but it’s like I’m sorta enjoying some aspects of all this. This big adventure. I’ve been to strange places, I’ve met new people, and I’ve done stuff I would’ve never thought possible. I will get my village back, safe and sound, and I will get them home, but after that’s done…” he looked over at Kayden. “I think I could actually get used to this adventuring thing. Oh, and I’m a Spacebender now.”

Kayden smiled. He made a thumbs-up gesture to Tham as he sat back down and the blond guy with black coat whose name Kayden didn’t remember got up and stepped to the center.

“All right,” the guy said, shrugging. “I’d actually been thinking about how to explain to you guys the mess I’m in right now. The name’s Merdilen Arthenmon, I’m about twenty-three years old, and… I seem to be from another world. Like, another universe or something. I remember dying back there, but I’m alive here. I started thinking this was an afterlife of sorts, but that seems unlikely now. I don’t think my backstory matters anymore –you wouldn’t recognize any of it. I’m a Transmutator. I transform solid matter. I was way stronger in my world, but this place seems to have… sapped me of my power, somehow.” He winced. “I did a lot of horrible things back there. If this really is a brave new world, then… I promise I won’t let it fall to ruin like mine did.”

The dragon spoke with its massively deep voice. “We’ve got some big shots here, it seems.”

“This is so cool,” the girl said as if in a daze. “I can’t believe this is happening.”

Tham smiled, looking at her. “You haven’t heard the half of it.”

She smiled back.

“Haroken, at your service,” the dragon then said from his spot. “I’m thousands of years old, I believe. I used to be great. But, since the calamity that killed my people took my wings, I’ve been forced to live in hiding. I inhabited the Valley of Broken Statues in shame until Kayden, Tham, and the Mimicker saved me from my self-exile. For that I’ll be eternally grateful. I’ll help them in whatever quest they may have. And if the calamity strikes again, I’ll fight back.”

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“Hey, I’m about that old too!” the Mimicker, in sword form, said.

The girl flinched. “You can talk?! I thought you were a sword.”

“I’m a Sword,” the Mimicker corrected. “Capital ‘S.’ A Capital Sword, as we’re called. I’m the Mimicker, and I’ve been through a lot. I’ve had hundreds of owners –even though I don’t like the word– and was kept for centuries in a secret vault under the prison where Kayden was. He saved me, and even before I went mad! I couldn’t believe it. He’s actually a pretty cool guy! Even though he didn’t really care about me in the beginning. He’s gotta be one of the Top 10 adventurers that have ever owned me, that’s for sure.”

Kayden grinned. “Let’s make it up to Number 1.”

“...Wow,” the girl said.

“What about you?” Tham asked her.

She stood up. Only now did Tham notice how ragged her clothing was, how malnourished and poor she looked. His heart sank. Even so, she looked happy.

“My name is Hassah, and I’m sixteen,” she said. “I’m a Soundbender, though before I helped you with the distraction, I hadn’t used my powers in years. It was too risky. But I now regret I didn’t fight back. My home, the village of Madron, was ransacked by a marching Imperial army about a year ago now. They were short of slaves for their Unbound air mines, so they took us.” She winced at the memories. “...The past year, I managed to sneak two Unbound air vials out into the camps, wishing to one day use them to save my family. One I gave to Tham, and one I used myself for the distraction. And I don’t regret it.” She looked around at the group. “Because you all will save everyone, right? The whole Unbadda slave site will be set free. I believe in you.”

Kayden got to his feet. “That’s right. We’re gonna save everyone.” He believed that too. “But for that, we need a plan.”

The next hour or so they spent compiling everything they knew about everything, keeping themselves busy. Kayden couldn’t help but noticing how willing everyone was to trust in each other –who knew how long had passed since each of them had last been able to believe?

They were all exhausted –most of them hadn’t slept at all last night. But their discussion didn’t for one moment mention any sort of rest, instead focusing on what to do next. They weren’t ones to give up anymore. They were the Skyguard now.

“...All right,” Kayden finally said, pointing with a stick at the labyrinth of drawings and words on the dirt. “So, to summarize. As of now, we have no external help.” He looked up at the rest of them. “It’s us against the world. But that won’t be enough for what we need to do. So there are two possible paths we may take. One; we head south, for the land of Anthal. We get as much information as possible –about how the air mines actually work, about the mentioned Oath of Megalo, and with what we learn, strike back. Two; we head north, in the search for the rebel cell we’ve all heard of: the Libertatum Brotherhood. We get their help to attack the air mines, and then somehow work with them to keep everyone safe and do whatever we need to do next.”

“So, I think it’s pretty obvious,” Merdilen shrugged. “There’s no way we’ll be able to achieve anything without–”

“Help,” Hassah said.

“–information,” Merdilen finished.

Awkward silence.

“We need information,” Merdilen explained, “to know what we’re fighting and what help we need. We need details, not ideas.”

“But we need help,” Hassah replied, “because we can’t do any of this alone. We need all we can get on our side.”

“...Okay,” Kayden said. “Maybe the best move would be to split the party, and–”

“No,” Tham shook his head. “We’re not splitting up.”

Kayden looked at him with curiosity.

“We just barely joined up,” Tham continued. “We need to be strong together. We need to build our trust as much as we can before we split up. We need to do this together, because we need each other.”

“The kid’s got a point,” Haroken the dragon said.

“We need to do both!” the Mimicker then called out. “We need the information to get the Libertatum Brotherhood to help us.”

Everyone looked at it, now in the shape of a sword half-buried in the ground.

“Haroken,” Kayden then said. “How fast do you think it would take you to reach Anthalopus, the capital of Anthal?”

Haroken grinned with a full display of his draconic teeth. “How fast can you stand?”

“...Well,” Kayden said, “there we are. We’ll leave for Anthalopus in the morning. Today, we get supplies, plan ahead, and rest. Get ready, you all.” He grinned too. “There’s no stopping us now.”