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"Yeah... yeah, they'd be the ones."

He looked at the man curiously. Curiosity, growing into worry, shaking him more awake again. Not free of the haze of his sheer exhaustion, but it was better, at least. He was going to collapse after this, maybe before he even got off the plains, not that he thought he would get a great deal of rest out of it. It wasn't entirely pleasant that he had to run into some fan, some guy who was going to go and get ideas about him out of nowhere and make a big deal of him- recognition was such a hassle. He hated to think what'd be like to step that up a notch to actual fame. It just wasn't something he could take year round, sometimes just putting up with it during the tournament was a pain.

Leo didn't look like he wanted an autograph though.

"Yes...?"

Kael responded to his name, though it was an incredulous look he gave Leonard when he told him he had some huge surprise for him. Not that his curiosity would let him leave it be now that he'd heard there was something, but he didn't seem as though he was terribly expectant as he started to pick across the uneven ground after the magician, hindered slightly by his unfamiliarity with the terrain.

I've been growing a bit more open minded of late...

He held his tongue but adapted the grimace he might have presented the sarcasm with as he slowed, approaching the marker and letting his tired eyes slowly adjust.

A memorial... a very old one, to...

He took a slow step forward, and another, until he could rest his hand on the carving, just below that name. His eyes stayed, uncomprehending as his mind jumped a quick circle to a fearful conclusion, echoes of the voice in his head bounding up before he denied that possibility, and realized just whose this was.

"Kael..."

More irony today than I can take. If I believed in 'fate'...

And gave a sharp laugh.

"No, no this is not mine. This is..."

His eyes drifted away, downward, growing solemn and distant.

"This is..."

Something was there. Though his mind did not move to question what it was, he felt curious, drawn in absently.

"...someone else's."

Kael knelt and reached out.

In a moment, everything was there.

And in the next, none of it mattered, blurring aside as suited the sleep deprived state of mind he was in. That didn't matter though. What mattered was where his eyes went wide and his heart jumped several paces, pattering away, as suddenly, with all the clarity of mind and sense he'd ever possessed he found himself looking at a dead man's face.

He froze, and even when he was greeted his throat stuck. Closing his mouth as not to gape, he nodded rather than speak and watched the other man, half enraptured. It had been caught in his mind for so long, and while at this time he might not have been logically able to be more sure that this was truly there, and not a dream or delusion brought on by his deteriorating mind, it felt real. He didn't doubt. Rather, he was more excited and scared than anything else.

"Sorry I'm late."

For a moment, Rayner was unsure even that it was his voice. Despite that they were nearly strangers after the time sharing the same body, even in a dream, rather than the repulsion and enmity thought of the Dead Knight brought on he felt as though he were looking at a close friend. A smile cracked his frozen face, and the shocked numbness washed away.

"Lotta ground out there. Finally got lucky."

That wasn't right though, something in the back of his mind protested.

No, not lucky. I was led...

But already the dream seemed to wash over the newfound clarity, imposing an image of something long past. Wonder sprung up as with sorrowful curiosity he watched the dedicated figure labor, line by line, letter by letter, brick by brick, through the sprawling memorial. By the end though he knew whom it had to be. The implications of that, those escaped him for the moment.

The voice brought him back sharply, once more slightly shaken by the vision.

The worst had not yet come though. His mind barely had time to protest as he could almost feel some force possessing, or at least inspiring, his friend to deliver the speech. Normally, beyond that, Rayner might have laughed, he might have doubted, he would have picked it apart and tried to piece out the reality beyond the fancy words. He could no longer be the skeptic however; he'd been stripped of that leisure. And so, words of doubt in purpose and future fell over him, a path set with uncertain ends except that he should face an insurmountable force and carry a dreadful weight with him. Destiny. Reality. The future, the past. Life and death and everything that defined anything was at question here, at stake. The fight was not only for everything, but for anything. A charge truly meant for a hero, a demand to take the future into ones hands and struggle, perhaps give up everything. There were any number of heroes on Gaia, and Rayner was no stranger to any number of them, who had likely been faced with such decisions themselves in the past. A point for decisiveness. Now, Rayner stood where they had.

...but...

I'm no hero.

And faltered.

The immensity of it grew over him. The same fear he'd been given of helplessness in the face of the power of something like the Forgotten even existing, only to be handed uncertainty and asked to wield it against it. It wasn't a fight he could possibly win. His pulse raced, body shook and sweat, his hand crept back. This was crazy, and while he'd been living feeling like there was nothing, to suddenly be given this he saw just how much he had. His throat felt dry, almost unable to form words as his eyes lost focus, and he could very well see it all. All the hours he'd put in to work, to school, to his body and his friends, and just sitting with music. The pain and pleasure he'd been given as a testament that he was there. He saw his parents faces, and the spectres of what he'd imagined his biological parents might have looked like. Rayner saw Celeste leaning over him, and Owle snoozing beside him with blue hair splayed about the pillow. He saw his own blood over stone and steel, and that he'd drawn, the big guy Athan he wasn't sure how he was so close yet so distant to, that b*****d Fah he couldn't help but respect, Owle's hard-headed brother who he almost wished he could be, Flare, and that other fierce, red haired little girl he regretted that he'd lost before he'd ever come to know. His friends, from birth right on up, and the strangers, his enemies, and all the battles and good times and throes of passion. He had the world around him, and memories he held onto fiercely. Everything he could have if he just turned away...

...because it was there. Everything he'd been given. Memories as proof that he, that the world, had existed.

As long as it was there.

...I know.

His eyes drifted slowly up to Kael. Stopped and steadied themselves there. It was not just his friends face he saw though. His father, Owle, and for some reason Rage, intruded persistently, looking back at him. Challenging him, trusting him, feeding him strength.

I'm a damned coward.

Strength enough to find his own.

But I don't have to let it end like that.

His hand stretched out, spreading over the mysterious object subconsciously, that had started the vision though he'd lost any attention for it since, and gripped tight.

"-yeah."

Rayner's body drew up and his red eyes steeled, turning stubborn, hot and strong.

He lived in irony, and might as well have lived for irony. But it seemed incredibly suiting that he should fight, rather than for some absolute good, for uncertainty. Fighting for the future, and the past, for the wills of all the people that had been just as he finally found the resolve to fight for himself as well. One more will to the great tide. Perhaps the very last drop needed to fell the great, dark mountain they threw themselves against.

His body tensed and Rayner pushed himself to his feet, drawing up the object with him to face Kael. Not uncertain. Not excited or scared anymore, but filled with a slow, steady steel passion of resolve.

"I accept."

[Apocalyptica - Resurrection]

His lips split in a grin.

He could almost feel Kael spreading over him, his friend's strength coming into him. Whatever the mystical force settling over him really was, he simply couldn't fear it. In his mind, he knew it well. It was a boon.

He almost didn't even feel the forces solidifying in his hands, drawing up from the ground where he'd reached after the phantom light to begin with, but as he stood his hands moved across it with a certainty beyond that he'd ever felt with a blade, playing across his own experiences and reflecting on the Dead Knight's lingering memories. His hand went to the pommel, flourishing the blade military style, righting the tip, shining steel turned up into the air for all to see. More importantly, giving him a chance to take a good look across the craftsmanship, flawless, but nothing more than that, not unnatural or magical. Simply made for his hand. His own reflection stared back at him, and for once he saw the sharp red of his eyes didn't make his eyes slide warily away or give him the slightest sense of unease. Today, they looked like his. They looked strong.

The red flashed upward across the sheening surface of the sword.

He lowered the blade, holding it warily, not quite aggressive nor defensive, as he turned his head up to... something. Kael's eyes narrowed on the roc. It was a sharp, sudden intruder as he'd returned to the world, something so absolutely foreign bringing him back from the familiarity of the man from the repeating dream.

Understand?

He wasn't sure he agreed. He wasn't sure he had even started to grasp anything yet. But there were no questions to ask of the shifting phantom. It had said it's piece, and now nothing perched atop the gravemarker.

"..."

Whatever it is I understand, I'm neck deep and sinking in it now. A part of... something... big.

He stared at the sky, as if trying to etch the roc back into the sky with his eyes, memorizing the memory of the strange thing that had been there. He was going to have a lot to ponder over after this. A lot to think about. He could almost feel the headache coming already, while he turned his sword down, gingerly, without looking down, winding the tip of the blade under his belt and sliding it through, tucking the crossguard past his knife to anchor it safely there. Something was certainly watching him now, if it hadn't been before. Something cold and unfriendly, totally unalike his friend. He hadn't really felt threatened either. It simply didn't seem like the Forgotten. It was...

...an anomaly.

He turned around sharply, and blinked almost in surprise to find Leo there, and looking so pale and confused. Kael was certainly puzzled himself, but at the moment doubt had been washed right out of him. He had no idea his own face was going at least as pale, returning the contrast of the black rings around his eyes sharply to his face again.

"Don't 'spose you've seen one of those before eithe-?"

He stepped back toward him with a confidence to match the sudden spark that'd shot over him, and as his foot slipped on an uneven stone, his body struggled vainly, inadeptly, barely keeping him from turning over with none of the usual grace one would have expected any swordsman on the skillful side of Athan to display. He froze, staring at the ground in near shock as it suddenly started to blur slightly and shake. Or he was shaking. A great deal seemed to be bobbing around and acting out on his eyes, in any case.

Wavering slightly, looking almost quietly puzzled at his exhaustion suddenly returning with a vengeance, he charted several slow, cautious steps forward, setting his arm over a raised stone to balance himself against.

"...huh."

That young mage would be a little shocked when he saw a moose sitting there. It wasn't just any moose, no, this one was definitely special. There wasn't anything ordinary about her.

It was most definitely a woman with moose attributes, not to mention that she was albino. She had the white hair, skin, and red eyes. Even her hooves, which were on both hands and feet, were white, along with small white antlers that sprouted out of her hair and just behind those were huge white moose ears, and no she didn't have human ears there, just moose ears. The only clothing she wore was something constructed of leaves or some sort of leafy greens.

She was crouched down, chewing on some grass. There were pieces sticking out of her mouth every which way. When she looked up at the mage she had a bemused look on her face.

The woman sat there with a perplexed look on her face. The man seemed very shocked to see her. Rightly so, too. Who wouldn't be shocked to see a woman that had a whole lot of moose parts on her?

Her tall, rounded ears stuck up as he spoke.

"What's this miscalculation?"

She wasn't that great with understanding words. Most of her life had been spent in the wilderness, so she continued to stare at him with a confused expression.

What school did he come from? Couldn't he see that she was a moose?

"I'm Moose.."

Was he asking her to repeat herself?

"...I'm a moose."

She could scream out her name and what she was, but she had a feeling this man wasn't going to believe her.

"Why are you on my land?"

Time to make him answer questions.

"I'm a moose."

And Moose stated that as matter-of-factly. It was not anything open for debate. She thought of herself as a moose.

She didn't know what to think of what the man was saying. She picked up some more grass to chew on.

"What's an-" She would grunt between her words. "--animal guardian?"

"I'm a helper?"

No, she still didn't get it.

"Why me? I don't..know you."

Yes, this really did just get awkward. Why would Moose be going on a journey with some man? This didn't make sense to her. She didn't feel as though she had any sole purpose with this man.

There was one thing for sure. She did love adventures.

"To Latent?"

She had never heard of this town, but the idea of visiting a new place seemed appealing.