Chapter 3

"Hey wake up lazy bones, we've got to move!" A girl that could only be Mist cried.

"Really what's going on? Are we being ambushed?" I asked quickly entering a state of hyper alertness.

"What no, we're just breaking camp for the day silly." Mist replied clearly amused with my antics.

"Oh, okay than, you could've just led with that you know." I said forcing myself to calm down.

"Yeah well, you can't argue with the results that my choice got me, can you?" Mist asked rhetorically.

"No I suppose not." I said in agreement.

"Oh and before I forget, your supposed to report to the command tent before we finish breaking camp. But if I were you I'd grab something to eat first, just so you don't miss breakfast." Mist explained politely.

"Right I'll do that than, and thanks for the message." I replied trying to not seem exhausted, which was hard if you spend all of the previous night having a recurring nightmare, and therefore didn't get a lot of sleep.

"Great, but won't you need help getting to the mess tent?" Mist questioned in a knowing manner.

"I suppose I could use a guide until I get my bearings." I replied sheepishly.

"Great, than if you'll follow me I'll show you around camp." Mist said enthusiastically.

…

"Alright here we are, the mess tent!" Mist exclaimed.

"Thanks Mist, are you going to want to grab anything to eat while we're in here?" I asked her in response.

"Nah I'm good, thanks for asking though, but how about I get my big brother and Soren for you while you eat?" Mist replied nonchalantly.

"Sure that would be great thank you Mist." I answered happily.

"Okay wait right here, I'll be right back." Mist said as she ran off to find Ike.

I was about to dig in when I felt something off about my surroundings, like I was being watched or something.

"Whoever s watching me can come out now, you've been found out so there's no point in continuing to hide." I said to whoever it was that had been trying to spy on me.

"Well this is a welcome surprise, I wasn't expecting you to be quite so perceptive." Came an unfamiliar female voice.

"My name's Erin and you must be Dylan, am I right?" Erin said as she sat down next to me in the tent.

"And if I am?" I replied between mouthfuls of food.

"Well, if you were the man I'm looking for than I'd be able to help you get your hands on a survival bag, but since your not him I guess I'll just be on my way." Erin replied wryly.

"Okay let's get something straight here, I am the person your looking for, and I never said I wasn't I just wanted to know what you needed me for. Got it?" I shot back aggressively.

"Well in that case I'll have your survival pack for you before we reach Port Toha." Erin replied.

"Thanks now can I get back to my meal please?" I asked crankily.

"Uh, sure no problem, jerk face." She shot back with a little surprise in her voice.

"Sorry, Mist just got me up a little earlier than what I'm used to, so for that I apologize." I said before she could walk away on me.

"Really 'cause it seems to me like you didn't get any sleep at all last night." Erin replied.

"Is it that obvious?" I asked without thinking.

"Yes." Erin retorted bluntly.

"So what is a survival bag any way?" I finally asked after a long, drawn out and down right awkward silence.

"I'm glad you asked, you see your basic survival survival bag comes with everything you need to survive in this world like weapons, healing items, gold, a skill, the point is if you can name it than you can probably find it in a survival bag." Erin explained.

"Great, so where's mine?" I asked irritably.

"I'm having a couple of friends meet us with it on the way to Port Toha." Erin replied patiently.

And we're back to not talking again. Great, just great.

"So is there anything else you'd like to know, or are we just going to sit here and pretend that we're not in the same boat?" Erin asked clearly uncomfortable with the silence. Needless to say she now had my full attention.

"What do you mean by that?" I asked suspiciously.

"You know someone that was doing something on earth when that Janus guy supposedly saves you and brings you here for some reason or another." Erin explained helpfully.

"So, this has happened before to other people?" I asked mystified by our shared predicament, though also trying very hard not to panic since I was no longer dealing with a dream based reality like I had originally thought.

"Oh yeah, apparently loads of times at least as far as I can tell anyway." Erin retorted darkly.

"Has anyone found a way home?" I asked hoping against hope that there would be someway out of this world.

"Do you think you'd have me if that were the case?" She responded with equal darkness.

"Has anyone even tried to find one? Or figure out why we're here for that matter?" I asked with a growing sense of panic.

"Not as far as I'm aware. Why you want out already?"

"I don't want to die if that's what your asking." I retorted bluntly.

"Well to be fair no one wants to die, but that's no reason not to live your life the way you want to live it."

"Commander! What are you doing here? Is there something that I can assist you with?" Erin asked in what I assume was a desperate attempt to keep Ike at an arms length with our shared predicament. However the fact that he was able to get in here with out either one of us noticing was troubling not to mention worth noting since it meant that he'd be able to sneak up on one of or both of us in the future, and likely overhear things about our respective homes which aren't on this continent.

"First of all, we're behind schedule. So we need to get this tent dismantled like the rest of camp is already." Ike retorted.

"Right, we'll get out of the way than, but was there something else you needed, Commander?" Erin responded likely choosing to ignore our commanding officers tone.

"Yeah there is, Dylan, I need you to find Muston and tell him you need weapons and armor, and I trust you can decide what weapons to get on your own just keep in mind that whatever you spend here today will be coming out of your pay." Ike ordered sternly.

"By your leave Ike." I replied, choosing to forgo being a wise ass.

"Dismissed." Ike grunted as he turned and walked away leaving me to wonder what was eating him only to remember that his dad had been quite recently murdered, and that he was usually like this.

"Hey, is your name Dylan?" Someone gruffly asked from behind me, causing me to turn on my heels as my heart nearly jumped out of my chest and straight into the hulking behemoth that was Muston.

"Yeah, is your name Muston?" I asked back in an attempt to keep up appearances after getting over just how big he was and how he'd managed to sneak up on me.

"Sure is. Now come with me I've got something for you at the wagon." He grunted whilst motioning for me to follow him to the convoy which thankfully wasn't very far.

"Here. These are for you." Muston said as he thrust a series bags into my arms after a few moments of digging in the back of the wagon.

"Right so, how much is all this setting back the company?"

"Not a thing."

"What! Why not?" I asked in astonishment.

"Cause someone else has already paid for all of that stuff in full and then some, and asked that we give it all to someone named Dylan. They were talking about you weren't they?" Muston explained wearily.

"Yeah. They were, I mean who else could they have meant?" I answered hastily.

"Well if that's the case and there's nothing else you need from us, than we'll see you in Port Toha."

"Actually there is one thing you could do for me." I replied nervously.

"Oh. And what might that be?" Muston asked curious as to what it was that I could possibly need.

"Well I could use some privacy, if it's not too much trouble that is." I answered hesitantly.

"It's no trouble at all," Muston chuckled heartily, "Just let me clear Aimee out of the back for you." He said before climbing into the back of the wagon, and a few moments and one warning from Aimee later, I was able to get acquainted with the contents of my survival bags with relative privacy.

"Huh, I guess I'm some kind of mage than." I muttered quietly as I pulled out a set of darkly colored robes that were reminiscent of Sorens in design only as the color scheme was more of a steel gray with blue accents going vertically down its sides with a brown cloth belt and matching steel gray pants to complete the outfit.

"Alright so if I'm a mage, and these really are my survival bags than that means that there should be some tomes in at least one of these bags of mine." I thought aloud after dressing myself in the mages clothes.

"Well this one feels promising." I said as I reached back inside the pack I had gotten the clothes from and pulled out a large brown paper wrapped package that heavily resembled a rectangular prism. However upon opening the package I was only given more questions and what appeared to be an instructional tome and leaflets.

"Well these must be important somehow, so I'll just have to come back to them when I have more information." I muttered as I set the tome aside and placed the leaflets inside one of the empty adventure pouches on my belt, which was actually the second one that I opened since the first one I tried was housing a vulnerary.

"Huh, I wonder if there's anything else in these pouches, or if this has anymore pockets that I need to know about?" I questioned aloud.

…

"Alright, so I don't have anymore pockets sewn into this outfit. I guess that's one mystery solved, and it wasn't a complete waste of time since I was able to get all of those pamphlets into their own pocket." I said after taking a moment to thoroughly pat myself down for any sort of concealed compartments within the garments I was wearing.

"So I guess that means that this last one must have at least one tome that I can use as a weapon." I said as I pulled out what felt like the final package from the pack in front of me.

…

"Oh, no way!"