Of Lies and Fantasies

Chapter 12: Change Your Fate

It was the middle of the night and everyone else was asleep. I could see Vivi and Zidane sleeping on their sides near the remains of our fire, the egg from the lady sitting between their heads. Steiner was silently snoring as he stood at the entrance of the tent like the good soldier he is. I'm sure Alyssa and Dagger were having a peaceful slumber in the tent.

That meant I was the only one still awake.

I couldn't really do this when everyone around me was up, but I needed to make sure my things were in order. I need to take note of what I have.

I fished around my pockets and pulled out my remaining potions as well as the sleeping potions I gathered from the Cave Imps. I had enough to count with two hands, a very useful item in case I needed someone or something off my back. Just break it on them and they should be snoring in a few seconds.

Speaking of Cave Imps, the jackets I borrowed from them should still be in the tent bag we have. I can sell that off easily for a lot of gill. I can have a spending budget once I'm done getting rid of them.

After that is the knife. My current go-to weapon. Unless I can get a short sword that doesn't make my arms shake as if I was trying to lift a chair then I'll have to stick with this thing. Either that or get a dagger set for myself. I can always just have a back-up weapon tied around my leg in case I get captured or disarmed. Catch your enemy off-guard with something clever like that.

Alongside my pocket items was my wallet. There's nothing of use in here. Just some 1x1 and 2x2 pictures of myself, IDs from my school, and some cash. It's the only reminder of the real world I have right now. If I somehow die in this journey then they can use my ID to identify the body, unless they get curious as to where my school is located. Ask too many questions about it and I'll only provide more of those than answers.

As I was putting things back to where they were, I noticed that I missed something where I out my wallet. It felt like a piece of paper. After pulling it out, it didn't look like any money I had or notes I've jotted down. The last thing I could remember about having a piece of paper on me was the ticket to the play in Alexandria. I Want to be Your Canary. An odd title for a play, but to me all plays were odd.

I unfurled the paper to expect some reading details about the play or something about Dagger's birthday being celebrated. That was not the one I see. These small paragraphs were no longer on the ticket, not even the title of the play or the date it was issued. No word about Alexandria or the princess. All of it was replaced by three words.

"Change your fate."

"Wh-wh-what?" I stammered. As hard as my eyes would want to stare at it, it didn't force the piece of paper that was supposed to be my ticket to change back to a plain old ticket. I even flipped it back and forth, hoping it would have been just an illusion like some trick cards I had when I was younger, but it didn't.

I felt a chill go down my spine. My hand felt clammy and I didn't know when my forehead had begun being covered in sweat. It wasn't the fact that the ticket was no longer a ticket was what scared me, but that it had become a faint reminder of something familiar.

It had taken me a few minutes to make an attempt to shake of the shock to think about this phrase. Someone probably switched it with my ticket. But who in the world would even want to do that? Why go to such lengths for a little trick like this?

I had to look around. Only the darkness under the silent trees and unmoving bushes from the nearby woodlands greeted my eyes. Aside from that there was no one out there snickering to themselves.

Wait a second. I've heard this before. Where did I hear this before…where…where…?

"Change your fate…"

A light bulb went off in my brain. It was that dream I had in the Cavern! The part where things went differently than what I remembered!

Goddamnit, I'm gonna go crazy…

My head snapped up at the noise I heard. It wasn't anything worth grabbing my knife, but I still did, when I noticed Vivi moving. He scratched at his eyes, sleep still framing his glowing yellow eyes.

"Blake? You're still up?" He asked softly, not wanting to wake up the others.

"Sorry for the ruckus." I replied, trying to put away some of my belongings. "I was just checking on my things. Don't worry about me, you keep on sleeping. I'll be unconscious in a minute."

The black mage looked at me for a second, his mind probably still lagging a bit due to being woken up, before he nodded and settled back down. "Okay. Good night."

"Night." I said. It didn't even take a minute for him to get back to sleep.

I lied down on my back, eyes staring out into the vast space in the sky, as my mind swam with questions. Lying to them with fake backstories and trying to find a way home is proving to be more annoying and troublesome than I expected. Maybe jumping on the Prima Vista was a mistake. And this mistake is giving me more questions about my being here than answers.

Looking for answers is really difficult. The bigger problem is, where do you start looking for answers when you don't fully understand the question itself?

- FF FF FF -

Most of my days would not start at the morning, instead I would wake up somewhere around noon and usually end in the middle of a sunrise. Since I'm not in the real world anymore I should have expected that same routine to change. Especially when I thought I would wake up on my own accord, even more especially with what I found out what happened to my play ticket.

What I didn't expect was to be woken up by being poked in the forehead. I could feel my irritation building up, my eyebrows just knitting together with each poke. My throat may have started off dry this morning but that still didn't stop me from snarling at whoever is trying to wake me up. You really cannot blame me from being mad at this early in the day when I could barely feel the sun grace me with its presence.

"Zidane…" I spoke up, feeling that I have the right person to blame since he's the kind of person to play this kind of trick. "If I open my eyes and see your cocky face trying to wake me up, I will cut you."

I hoped that would stop him from poking me awake. It didn't.

"…What?" I heard him reply groggily. And his voice was definitely farther than what I thought. My threat definitely fell off the wayside. Realizing this, I went for another guess.

"Vivi?" That was met with a slight snore to my left. The black mage sounded like he was still asleep.

"Alyssa?" No response. She must still be in the tent. My last two guesses were Steiner and Dagger, but I knew they are not the kind of people to do this. With my list of suspects completely emptied, I had to resort to the most obvious tactic I should have done just a minute ago.

I opened my eyes.

It still wasn't that bright at this time of day, the sky still somewhat dim and if I had to guess it was about 5 o'clock. I could barely see a figure at the edge of my right eye standing there right by my head. It was so close that it took me a while to realize that it was staring back at me, a pair of dead, beady eyes piercing through my soul. And suddenly and silently it poked me again.

One moment later after contact, my voice filled the whole valley.

I had already scrambled fifteen feet away from the thing attacking me in my sleep. Everyone else was wide awake and alert, brandishing their respective weapons and trying to find the source of the noise, like Steiner nearly fell from his standing slumber while Alyssa and Dagger ran out of the tent, sword and rod in their hands.

"Who's there!?" Steiner cried, eyes sweeping the whole area.

"That sounded like a girl is in trouble!" Alyssa added as she stood beside the knight. Then she found me cowering way past the tent. "Blake?"

I was frantically pointing to the spot I was sleeping in earlier. "I was being attacked in my sleep! It was terrible! I'm lucky to be alive! Please kill it!"

I was looking through the gaps between my fingers on my cast-encased arm as they all turned their heads where my finger is pointed. I heard them ready their weapons once they all had their target in sight, but I was dumbfounded when I didn't hear battle cries and weapons clashing. All they did there, as I saw through my fingers, was look back at me with what seemed like shame before dropping their fighting stances.

"What? Did it kill itself when it saw how many you were?" I asked, utterly confused why there wasn't any fighting happening.

"I don't know what's really scary with something so little…" Vivi said. It was when my brain registered that last part of that sentence did I ever begin thinking for the first time today.

My eyes focused on the spot where I slept near the burned out pile of ashes which was our camp fire and saw something particularly odd. The egg that the Chocobo Lady gave us was not a whole round object anymore. It was already broken apart by half with the other half was on the ground in smaller pieces. Near said smaller pieces was this small creature about the size of my palm looking like it had just walked out of a sauna due to its black feathers being so flat and thin and soiled. And it barely could even stand with its thin baby legs.

So it took about five minutes after waking up in shock for my brain to properly load up and realize that I panicked over something that was as threatening as a rock. It was merely a baby chocobo that hatched sometime early in the day. The shame came rising in a furious blush followed by an incredulous glare I aimed at Alyssa.

"I did not sound like a girl!" I rushed to my feet and stomped over to my former sleeping place.

"No shame in being scared, Blake," Zidane tried to calm me down. "You were taken by surprise. Big deal." I was seriously considering cutting him.

Dagger was actually knelt near the baby and was observing it alongside Vivi. "Are they normal?" He asked the princess. "My grandpa's only shown me chocobos with yellow feathers."

"There is not much information about the various types of chocobos that live in the land," Dagger responded. "But from what I've learned from my books is that dark feathered ones are very rare."

"Strange that we came upon two of them in two days," Steiner observed our luck with this kind of chocobo.

As they were conversing and wondering about some other factoids relating to chocobos, Alyssa fawning over the little thing like it was cute or Vivi wondering what could be used to help it get dry or Zidane musing how soon chocobo eggs were supposed to hatch, I was angry that I had gotten a less satisfying sleep than it did have a satisfactory hatching. I would normally be okay with only a bit of sleep, but after yesterday I feel like I've exerted myself too much that my limbs had started to ache.

Besides, after finding out that my ticket was nothing but a piece of paper with a mystery message on it really did not do me any good sleeping. Discovering that was not part of the agenda and it caused me to have this weird mix of a nightmare/flashback to that basketball game again. It was almost the same game, but the walls had that message all over the place. Not the best dream, easily topping my worst list.

But back to my lousy morning. I am not going to get involved in their conversation because I knew what a chocobo is, well general knowledge of it anyway, the only thought I had in mind was getting this thing over with and get to Dali since we're already up.

"The scoundrel is right. We should depart now while we are wide awake." I hear Steiner say. Then I noticed him standing right beside me. Damn, got caught talking to myself again. Everyone agreed and started to get their things. Alyssa pulled one of the jackets we stored in our tent bag and used it to wipe the baby chocobo's gross feathers.

"So what are we going to do with it?" Vivi asked Zidane as they watched Alyssa take care of the hatchling.

"Guess we'll have to take care of it now," he replied, a smile forming on his lips. "That lady did give it to us. Might as well make it our mascot."

"Yeah. Mascot. Maybe we should make up a team name as well and make uniforms." I added.

"That doesn't sound like a bad idea." Alyssa, please. I was being sarcastic. "I know. That doesn't mean I'm gonna let your foul mood ruin this." Ruin what? "The baby chocobo's birth! Hatching! Er…you know what I mean!"

Then I heard my stomach growl in the worst possible time. I'm already sleep deprived and now hungry. "Breakfast sounds good right about now." My eyes couldn't help but focus on the chocobo in the jacket in her arms when it chirped at me. I heard Alyssa gasp and take a step back. Then I noticed Zidane and Dagger look at me like as if I was insane. "What?"

- FF FF FF -

"Come on! Stop looking at me like that. I was only joking."

We had already started to move from our camping spot, put out the fire and put the tent back in its bag as we continued towards the village of Dali. We had spent most of the day walking and keeping an eye out for any monsters that planned to harm us. While doing so, we talked. Though I didn't expect it to be about what I had brought up at camp.

That previous statement was directed at Alyssa, who was still looking at me as if I planned a murder in front of her and insisted it would be for the betterment of mankind, like those insane villains in videogames.

"That's because you did plan to murder this poor little thing and wanted to eat him." Alyssa told me as she looked over her shoulder. I stayed all the way back of the group as they all presumed I was crazy. Well, Alyssa did. She had cradled the chocobo chick in her arms, 'protecting' it from me, as she says. She and the others managed to get that sticky layer on it with an extra rag, making it okay for us to touch it.

"That is beside the point." I replied to the girl, blocking a yawn with my cast. "Don't you know sarcasm when you hear it? I would never murder a poor, innocent, irrelevant chick."

"Then why did you push that soldier off the Prima Vista?" She interjected, trying to change the topic accidentally and bringing up something that was starting to annoy me.

"This is not a good time to be arguing about that thing." I said with a hint of irritation I was trying to hide. "Besides, she was threatening to torture me. Don't you guys understand how bad it would have been if I did not get rid of that girl. It would have been horrific. Plus, I bet she wouldn't last one second in the Evil Forest."

"The soldiers of Alexandria are trained by the land's greatest for if they didn't then they wouldn't be serving under General Beatrix." Steiner said with his serious voice.

"Alright, alright." I said, motioning for the two Alexandrians to calm down, especially Steiner before he loses his top again. "If I see that girl again, which would be never, I will apologize to her and to General Beatrix for pushing off one of her troops into a body of water. And who knows, I might even confess my love for her."

"Is that sarcasm?" Vivi asked innocently.

"Yes, that was sarcasm." I stated in the most deadpan tone I could ever do. "I'd never do what I just said."

"I bet a hundred gil Dagger's gonna force you to do it if you happen to find yourself on Alexandria." Zidane said as he nodded over to the princess.

"I'll take your bet, Zidane." I called over to him. "Hell, I'd even raise you a hundred more just because I'm quite confident it'll never happen, right princess?"

"No promises," said by the lovely princess with the eye contact she gave me was less than lovely. "And please avoid calling me 'princess'. It will blow my cover."

"Yes, ma'am." I slinked to the back of our group at Dagger's surprising glare. How come she doesn't glare at Steiner like that for continuously calling her 'princess'?

Anyway, the six of us continued our journey to the little village mentioned earlier. We had been walking for about two hours in a fragile formation due to our bantering about the baby chocobo, which worried me because a monster would probably attack any moment and we would be scrambling for our fighting formation. It's probably a good thing that we didn't catch sight of any monster with deadly intentions towards us, so that's a plus.

You know, all this talk about the chick just gave me a curious little thought that nobody has yet to ask: what is the chick's gender? Hard to believe that it took me hours to formulate that question. I wonder if Alyssa wondered over that same thought as she's petting the darn thing in her arms, cooing over it like it was a cute puppy she picked off the side of the road. Maybe I'll ask later. Dagger's my best bet to know since she's read up about chocobos.

And finally, after nearly half a day spent just around lunch time, we had finally arrived. I only felt excited due to the fact that I'm near a bed.

We walked into Dali welcomed by the sight of small, one-story buildings each with a curved roof and all having a white paint with only a few important ones being a little bigger, a stone arch for every doorway into said white buildings, a small road composed of flat stones for everyone to walk on and its signature windmill in the background as a beautiful and distracting set piece alongside a very tall and healthy tree with yellow fruit (mangoes?) hanging low from its branches. It was really THE epitome of a small, quiet village. Well, except for its well-guarded secret.

The windmill wasn't like the usual three or four bladed one that spins clockwise when it's being moved by the air. No, this one is different. Instead, it had five wind sails on the top of the structure and it would still move because of the wind. It's just an odd variation of the usual windmills I have been used to seeing back on Earth.

We saw a couple of small children playing around, laughing together and chasing each other as we entered the village's premises. Birds, pigeons or Gaia's version of pigeons flew above us and perched on the edges of the stone arches, looking at us like surveillance cameras. Vivi stared at the windmill as it distracted him as it spun around while the others were looking around. Steiner volunteered to look around the town for any sort of thing worth noting, such as the inn or the shop. He would have not volunteered if he knew that those two were already within reach upon entering the village, but we still let him look around. He came back a few seconds later.

"Vivi, the inn is this way!" Zidane called out to the distracted black mage.

"Aw, do we have to?" Vivi asked, to which Zidane nodded as a response. "…But I wanna go and see the windmill." He sure likes that windmill. I thought he only liked looking at it because he was only a kid, and like most kids they would have a short attention span. But from how he sounded like, he really wanted to look at it a little longer.

"I know. But let's get some rest first." He said, pointing to the inn, which was like any building in Dali, except it had a sign of a bed with a crescent moon and some stars on it. "We also need to decide what to do next." He's tired, we get it. He fought a custom made black mage with its friendly and charming Sealion alongside Alyssa and I know he deserves some rest, but did he even think about how much rest the others, including me, had while they were fighting? I think not. Steiner and Garnet even looked at each other, then me and Vivi, until they decided on a decision, and I knew what that would be.

"You guys go on ahead. I just need to conduct some…business." I pointed to the tent bag I had carried for the group after we departed from our campsite. My concern was trying to solve one dilemma I would surely have in the future. Might as well fix that now. Besides, I didn't feel tired. A bit disturbed because of my dreams, but not tired. I guess that chocobo chick scared the fatigue out of me.

"Okay, Blake's not sleeping yet." Zidane said as he approached the door.

"But please save me a bed." The thief shrugged at my statement as they filed into the inn. Alyssa had to snap Vivi back to reality, or my dream reality as my previous theory states, before they were left behind.

So with them trying to arrange our sleeping quarters, I decided to walk into the shop right next door, forcing down a yawn before I could open it. The lady there greeted briefly when I stepped inside, getting a polite greeting back with a similarly polite smile to go along with it. I immediately asked her if the winter weather was harsh for the farmers in the village or if they happen to experience really cold months near the end of the year. I bartered with her for a while, trying to sell the jackets I procured from the cave. Seeing as they only have simple clothing in supply and such jackets were not that common in the area, she gladly accepted my five jackets for 400 gil. Why only five? Well, the last one is being used by the baby chocobo. Plus, it had that hatchling goo on it and I doubt she'd want to get that from me.

Now that I have some money on my hands, I bid the lady behind the counter my thanks and farewell before joining with the others. All I can say about the inside of the inn was that it's basically like the game, but with bigger space. The walls were also painted white, but you would be hard pressed to notice that with all of the plants and decorations put in here. The floor consisted of stone formed into small stepping patterns with green to cover the parts that aren't stone. A fireplace warmed the room with a small fire with a cat resting above said fireplace, spectating over us with its head on its paws. A wooden desk stood before what I think was a door, and behind that desk sat a man who was wandering the streets of dreamland. Guess the conversation with the others didn't wake him up hard enough. I let him sleep and just entered the only room available.

"Wait just a minute." Alyssa spoke up, making everyone look at her. Oh, I guess I walked in on that very important conversation about Dagger's motives. "So Dagger wasn't kidnapped against her own will, but she actually joined up with you guys because she wanted to get kidnapped?" The girl in question could only nod. "Why?"

Her 'being like an ordinary civilian' act is kind of off putting when she does it. She says she can't lie, but what she's doing right now is just asking questions she already knows the answers to, yet it is still lying. Is it just her own method of avoiding situations that demand her to outright lie? Well, one positive I can get from this is getting a summary of what they've been discussing while I was away. Surely it wasn't much.

"Everyone, please listen." Dagger spoke carefully. "There is a reason I must leave this kingdom I cannot tell you why… But… please…" All Zidane did was nod understandingly.

"I'll get you to Lindblum somehow." He promised. That was when Steiner decided to blow his top off for the sake of Alexandria.

"I've heard enough!" He shouted.

"Shhh!" I went over to the knight and hissed. "Do you want to be heard by everyone? Do you even know how much this kind of information will cost to the right people? It could be a fortune, so control yourself from letting everyone know!" I told him in the lowest whispering voice I had, but apparently he had other things to worry about.

"Princess, you cannot trust the words of a thief!" He said to Her Royal Highness. "He may expose you to even more danger, like he did in Evil Forest. I beg of you, Princess. Please return with me to the castle."

"He has a point there." I remarked offhandedly. Zidane stepped in, trying to defend himself from the captain's accusations. Well, not much of an accusation, but more of a fact.

"I know I screwed up in Evil Forest. But there's no doubt in my mind now. I'll protect Dagger with my life." Zidane said to the knight.

"Aw, that sounds so romantic." Alyssa said as she pet the chocobo in her hands, but Steiner disagreed vehemently.

"Don't be ridiculous! It is I who protect the princess, now and forever!"

"Then tell me. How do you intend to take her back to the castle?" Zidane countered.

"I-I will think of a way…" The armored man trailed off, trying to think of a way, making Zidane shake his head. They were going to go at it again, but they heard something that made them stop. Even Steiner had to stop himself from blowing a gasket when he saw where this noise they were hearing came from.

It was Vivi, dozing off on one of the beds.

"Master Vivi…" I heard Steiner sigh. Yes Steiner, Vivi might be a child, but he's mature enough to know that arguing with each other is useless and will not bring any resolution to our current problem. Though he is still baffled by mortality, war, and manipulation, but that's the norm around here.

"He was tired. But you had to go on a tirade." Yeah, shift the blame to someone else. You're as guilty as Steiner is, and you know it. Before Steiner could even respond, he was cut off and left steaming by himself.

The rest of us who weren't tired yet then started talking about something else unrelated to the castle or Dagger's reason for leaving said castle. Zidane and Dagger were talking more about on how to act like an average citizen of the continent while Steiner looked on, keeping an eye on the thief in case he made an unnecessary move on the princess. Alyssa and I, on the other hand, focused on the oversized chick that was now stuck with us. She's probably forgiven me for saying what I said earlier.

She sat down on the stool while I positioned myself on one of the vacant beds near her. I could easily see the chocobo's wandering eyes searching for something. I busy trying to stifle a yawn behind my cast when I heard it chirp, its head turned at me as I thought about going to sleep. It was like it was trying to get my attention with its constant twittering, but the only thing it was doing was making noise. As if on instinct I put up a finger and hissed at it, telling it to shut up. Of course it didn't since it did not have any formal training in understanding human body language and gestures.

"I think it's calling for you," Alyssa told me, trying to calm down the little thing by running a finger down its neck. "Wanna hold it?"

"Are you sure you want the guy who wanted to eat it for breakfast?" I countered to her, remembering how off-put she was with my comment. She frowned at me and pointed at me as if warning me. "Fine, I'll avoid making jokes about it so it'll finally pipe down. Hand it over."

Alyssa gently placed the jacket in my arms and my mind instantly went to thinking like handling it like a newborn. Technically it was anyway, but not of human birth but still a baby nonetheless. The moment it realized it was in my arms that it started to tone down on the chirping. Thank goodness with that. We didn't want to wake up Vivi. He needed all the rest he could get for the following day.

Zidane's conversation with Dagger eventually wavered until both of them yawned. "I think that's for it today. I'm gonna go to sleep." I looked over and Dagger looked equally tired while our resident knight was too busy standing in one place and eyeing the thief that he didn't even notice the fatigue clearly written on his face.

"Yeah, you guys get some rest. I'll be taking a look at the village." I said on my way out as everyone except Alyssa was yawning. Zidane, Dagger, and Steiner, who followed the two's lead hesitantly and kept an eye on the suave thief, each went to their respective beds and lied down.

"Hey wait!" Alyssa called out in a low voice when she came after me. We passed the unconscious innkeeper and exited the building and were greeted by a sky transitioning from orange to dark blue. The chocobo in my arms made a soft sound as it watched the sky. Both of us looked at the windmill that was still spinning at a time like this.

We didn't say a word for a while. We just stood there and looked at the horizon as the sun was winding down with the occasional chirp being added to the background. Nobody was around, probably in their respective houses trying to sleep through the night. Alyssa looked like she's enjoying the view of videogame world made reality, not sure if she is actually doing that, but I was thinking.

I may think of this entire sequence of events as one long lucid dream, but it's beginning to feel real enough for me to consider my theory wrong. Am I wrong? Maybe. That still needs to be proven. Does Alyssa believe that this is just a dream just like me? I don't know. I haven't asked her yet. Oh, speaking of things needed to be asked…

"You know, I have been wondering about this since you mentioned about your 'mentor' some time ago," I used air quotes because I believe her mentor is an old coot, not an actual capable trainer. "Why did you actually want to know self-defense?"

Alyssa petted the chocobo as she answered, "We live in a dangerous world. You really don't know when you're gonna get mugged or attacked. So, I trained in karate and other self-defense arts. I already told you that I studied with a guy who had a brother in a wheelchair, remember?"

Yeah, that sounds like ages ago. "And you happened to know how to swing a sword because of your self-defense classes?"

"Actually, my parents wanted me to learn fencing since I was little." She replied, looking down on the chick in her hands. "I'm not a clear-cut expert, but I know enough."

"That just sounds like a whole lot of coincidence." I said to her. "Aren't fencing swords like tons lighter than a normal sword? How did swinging a tinfoil stick give you the endurance to wield a sword?" She just chuckled, probably thinking of my ignorance to weapon handling somewhat stupid.

"I tried branching out after I gave fencing a try. Didn't really catch my interest. Besides, swords aren't really that modern and useful in our time."

"Ah, maybe you should have trained with a gun instead." I felt her shiver at my attempt of a joke. "Something wrong?"

"Nothing," she simply answered, shaking her head fast.

I hummed, thinking of our current predicament. My mind went back to my thoughts of lucid dreaming. "Do you think this is just a dream?"

My expected answer from her was to ask why I thought this was a dream, yet I earned a pinch on the arm. After I nearly dropped the baby chocobo and yelled in pain, she could only give me a goofy smile. "Sorry, but if this was a dream you would have woken up by now."

I frowned at her attempt at an apology, but did concede her point. I've been thinking about it for a while now. If this was a dream I thought I would be the prime host for the dream. Let's face it, I have the most experience with the game, gone through most of it than her combined three playthroughs. Sure it is impressive to completely finish the game like she did, but I had more experience with the game. That gave me a right to think that I would be the one dreaming and she's only along for the ride. Maybe we were hooked up in an Inception-esque briefcase that's allowing us to dream like this.

But it was easy to think of it that way because you can wake up from dreams. If I didn't like our current situation and realized this was a dream, I could easily simulate a 'jump' like in Inception and wake up. But you really can't wake up when something horrible happens in real life.

And that's the worst case scenario: Something terrible happening and being unable to escape it in this new reality.

"I think we're not dreaming." The girl finally responded. "I'm sure of it. This just feels too real for a lucid dream. I think we've been transported to another dimension or something."

"Oh, sci-fi. Lovely." I remarked. I'm not a big fan of sci-fi all in all, though I consider science as a big part of the human race. Some people are aiming at making hover boards, time machines, and long term space travel because of that genre. I'm just not a fan of the genre, but that does not mean I hate it.

"It may be too farfetched, but at least it's an idea." She continues. "Even if it's still not yet technologically possible –"

"Maybe you should switch technology with magic if you're going to continue down that path." I told her with a joking tone. She ignored my statement and went on with her explanation.

"Even if it's not yet technologically possible, there could've been a number of factors that could have enabled this. I mean, what are the chances of lightning hitting us, right? If that can happen, inter-dimensional travel can be possible too."

"A lot of people get struck by lightning all the time. Hell, the chances of someone getting struck by lightning and dying is less than someone dying because of a vending machine." I argued a point that I knew was a fact. She could only give me a reaction that read 'Really?' "But we're veering off topic here. So we have varying theories: A very lucid dream and inter-dimensional travel." I pointed to me and her respectively as I stated our theories. "We're going to need something to prove it."

"If only we could prove it…" Alyssa sighed. Both of us don't know how we ended up in this world. We just agreed to disagree at that point. No use shoving my theory down her throat if she keeps resisting, right? That would be torture and I know torture is certainly illegal in some continents.

Then I just remembered something. There is a single object in my belongings that don't actually fit with my mental inventory, which was something I discovered last night. The ticket I received for the play! It's not a ticket anymore but a mysterious message. This might be connected with our being here in this world. Definitely no coincidence!

Okay so that's one thing down. This feels like I'm starting my own wall of newspaper clippings and threads linking to various hints and objects. A conspiracy wall, my string theories. This is going to make me sound like an exceptional lunatic if this is actually true. But at least that's a lead, right?

"Hey Blake, you've been changing faces there for nearly a minute." Alyssa was waving a hand in front of my face, which was accompanied by the chocobo making noise once again. "I know what could relieve that tension! Dinner!" Her enthusiasm was reduced when she remembered one little fact. "Oh yeah, we don't have any money…"

"Actually, I do." I said nonchalantly. "Sold all those jackets save for this one. Got quite a bit that we can eat."

She was instantly elated to hear that we have money, but as fast as that came it was stopped by hesitation. "Are you sure? You look really out of it, like you need to sleep so much."

The moment she said 'sleep' my body forced a yawn out. Damn me for not being able to resist yawning. "It's fine. Think of it as my way of apologizing for the last few days."

Upon learning that I'm okay to have our combined budget and spend some of it, she shrugged and led me to the nearest food supplying building. So we stepped inside the building with the skull ornament – I think it looks like a skull ornament of an animal – and see two little girls working, busy with their current objective to even look at us. The place was tidier than my closet and that thing is three times smaller than this. There was a set of tables and chairs to the left and the right that were in the process of being set up as if they were closing up for the night. Purple and teal lanterns lit up the place quite nicely, though I think it is a strange decision to use those colors.

I went up to the counter and knocked on the surface loud enough to attract the attention of the girl working behind it, who was wearing a light blue hat. "Excuse me, are you closing? I'm looking for a place to eat and someone said this place would be appropriate."

The girl looked over her shoulder as she worked dutifully and said, "I think we can spare one more." Then we heard someone groan loudly at this statement.

"Ugh…Slai, we're supposed to be closing." The red hated girl complained as she put one of the chairs on the table.

"A bit more money will help us, Marin. Don't be selfish." The girl behind the counter, Slai, told her. She straightened herself as she came up to the counter with a pencil and a piece of paper. "What will you have?"

I first asked what they had available so that we may be familiar with the food we could possibly get without experiencing food poisoning. Slai described each dish they had on the menu as if she was trying to sell the newest car on the lot to possible buyers. She did her job well, that's all I could say about it. Eventually, I stopped her before Alyssa could drool over the food she was dreaming up in her head. We ordered a vegetable stir-fry and a pumpkin salad.

After being told that our food will be served in fifteen minutes, we were directed to her sister so we could take a seat. Despite her grumbling, Marin set us up a table and gave us a glass of water so we don't die of thirst while we waited.

I set down the jacket with the chocobo at the center of the table between our glasses, basically making the black feathered hatchling into a good piece of decoration. The thing looked around, somewhat enamored by the small building, yet its attention was easily taken away from our environment when it set its eyes on me. That made it start making noises again.

My first thought was it was hungry and that we should have asked for something easy to chew and swallow for a baby bird, which I could probably do with my own food. Alyssa's petting of it did calm it a bit but still made a few odd sounds. She encouraged me to do it since she's been doing it a lot, actually most of the day since she took it under her wing, no pun intended. And when I did it the baby chocobo got surprisingly silent. At least that gave my brain time to think.

"So what's been eating at you?" Alyssa suddenly asked. I had to stop touching the chocobo and started staring at her blankly. "It's very obvious. You're either yawning from lack of sleep or staring at the distance."

"Today isn't just my day." I groaned. "Or yesterday."

"What are you talking about? You stepped up and actively fought for the first time. We have a mascot because of you and learned that birds like you."

"It's a one-sided relationship…"

"Not for long." That was surprising statement. She pulled the jacket being used as an impromptu nest away from my grasp and prompted a noisy reaction from the bird, but she pushed it back towards me and it effectively silenced it. To prove a point, she did this a bunch of times and it got annoying the more she did it. I had to hold her arms so she can stop it.

"Okay, the bird likes me. Whoopie…"

Alyssa's shoulders slumped for a moment after my remark. "I thought you learning that you're a parent to a small chocobo might cheer you up."

It might have taken my brain almost a minute to even comprehend what she just said. I initially thought she was mocking me, but then my brain focused on the word 'parent', resulting in a double take between her and the bird. I had to put my face in my hand and groaned. Our food did arrive at that very moment with the little girl serving our respective plates in front of us. Alyssa thanked her and I just added a hum as she slinked away to the back room.

Things just keep get weirder and weirder since I got here. Realities changing, always making sure that I have my story straight, alternating dreams, tickets becoming ominous messages, suddenly becoming a parent to a newly-hatched chocobo…These things are starting to pile up and I'm sure something will eventually screw me over.

"Ominous messages?" I hear Alyssa ask about. I hissed and cursed under my breath. Why do I keep doing this to myself?

I sighed dejectedly. "I guess it's too late to take that back." She nodded. "Alright, let me briefly explain before I prove to you that I'm slowly going crazy…"

So I tried to summarize by beginning with my almost realistic dream flashback back at the cavern that had me very jumpy when I woke up, how it had a different ending to what actually happened. It was still painful to remember that event, and even when I think about it now sends a slight ache up my arm, but the final moments of that dream just confuses me when a certain phrase gets repeated by a foreign voice, one that doesn't belong in the dream. I tell her about the phrase, "Change your fate", which gives me no insight to my current situation or offer no comfort. Which then catches us up to current events…

"And now the crazy part." I start digging in to my pockets. It didn't take long for me to pull out the piece of paper that was formerly my ticket to the Alexandrian play. I look at it briefly, the phrase appearing in bold lettering right before me, before I hand it over to her. "That used to be a detailed invitation about I Want You to be My Canary. You know how tickets are, right? It should have the date, the time, and place. I even remember this one great picture at the back. But now, for some mystifying reason, all of that vanished and was replaced by three words. 'Change your fate'. Everything's been replaced! Was it magic? Is this like the Marauder's Map in Harry Potter? Who knows by now? I have a mystery in my hands and I don't have a suspect or any leads."

As I was busy explaining my side of the story, I didn't notice Alyssa making this very confused expression, her eyes not able to decide whether to stare at me as I made exaggerated gestures or keep looking at the paper she had on hand. When I finally caught myself and saw her making this face, I got concerned.

"What?"

"I don't see what the problem is with this ticket," Alyssa sheepishly said as she presented the paper.

"What do you mean!? What's so hard about seeing a blank piece of paper with only three words—" I grabbed it from her hands in anger and was about to angrily point out the obvious when it was the obvious was pointed out to me.

Instead of only three words, I see that the paper was filled with words I thought have disappeared last night. All I could do was stare at the invitation telling me about the princess' birthday and how it would be an excellent day being topped off by the play and a fireworks display. I turned it around and saw no trace of the enigmatic phrase that haunted my dream.

I shook my head as I slumped against my own chair. "That's it, I am officially insane. Maybe this is my punishment for tricking that noble during the play or for using you as a shield or pushing that soldier off the airship. If I knew insanity was going to be my reward for doing that then I should have never done it…"

"Look," Alyssa reaches over and puts a hand on my cast. "You don't need to show me anything. I believe you. If this paper is showing you some scary message that's threatening you then we'll try to find the source!"

"I would feel better if I have hard evidence." I waved the ticket around, hoping it would change back, but it did not.

"Don't worry. If you can figure out anything about the ticket then that would be your first clue as to why it changed or why you have it."

I shrugged. My other hand started to scoop up some of my food and eat it in an attempt to help my brain think. The hunger was only there to distract me from how stressful this little journey has become. It only made me realize that I was never hungry to begin with, but I did order it and it looks quite healthy. Besides, the chocobo was leaning into the plate I had in front of me so I was somewhat obligated to cut it little pieces of my own food. I would alternate feeding myself and the chocobo with looking back at the ticket, hoping it would prove that I'm not being crazy. Alas, it did not and I only realized it wouldn't when we were already done with our food.

We thanked the two girls for their services, well Alyssa mostly, before we went back to the inn. The little village was silent save for the atmospheric noises the crickets made as well as the occasional breeze and chocobo chirp. Alyssa carried our mascot and its impromptu nest since I didn't have the energy to carry it right now. Who would even have the energy to do anything after what I just saw?

We actually bumped into the innkeeper as he was on his way out. Weird that he's up and about during the night and napping all day. The explanation about his current activity is that he just remembered, after like an hour or so Alyssa and I left for dinner, that all of the beds have been occupied, which was no surprise to me. That's my fault because I didn't reserve a bed. The innkeeper gave us a back-up sleeping bag he had as a way of apologizing for the lack of rooming.

Of course, that leaves us with the incoming traditional argument on who should get the thing we want to use. I have an older sister and I have been through this argument too many times to count. To avoid spending a certain amount of time on a useless argument, I just waved off the innkeeper, thanking him for thinking about his customers and what-not, and went on inside. I was sure I noticed this remorseful look from Alyssa as I passed her.

Everyone in our party was sleeping peacefully, light snores and steady breathing filling our inn room. With no bed and no desire to find a suitable resting spot, I opted for what was the only thing available in the room: the desk at the left with the stool. I silently plopped down on the stool and rested my head on the wooden surface beside what looked like a crystal ball. I stared into it briefly, wondering why this madness was happening to me. It didn't take long for Alyssa to come in into the room.

She walked over to me and placed something in front of my face: A white pillow. It was enough to soften my impromptu sleeping spot. I muttered my thanks to her as she placed the jacket-nest near my head, the hatchling looking over to me as I stared back at it, while she set up her borrowed sleeping bag.

"Are you sure you don't want to use this?" She asked in a low whisper. I grunted in the negative. "You're gonna have some neck problems tomorrow." I made a noise that sounded like 'I know'. "We can share if you want?" Now that I didn't make a noise because I just turned my head to the other side of the room. I heard her sigh and start getting inside the bag.

"Just don't worry too much about the ticket. We'll find answers to it eventually." Alyssa tried to assure me.

"I hope the answers come tomorrow," I replied. She shared the sentiment with a hum.

"Well good night and sweet dreams."

I wrapped my arms around the pillow and groaned silently. "I wish..." I closed my eyes and hoped I would have a dreamless sleep.

A/N: Hey there guys! I hope you liked the last chapter as well as this one. Chapter 12 actually went through a lot of editing because I was unhappy with way it came out after I was done with it. Let's just say that the first version didn't fit with the rest of the story looking back on it. So I heavily revised it almost completely, starting with the dream about how he broke his wrist. The first version actually had Blake fighting alone and learning he can't stand by on the side lines all the time and conduct 'strategy'. In the last chapter he readily inserts himself into the fight after thinking about what happened with Andrew in his dream and being a hero while journeying with future heroes.

In this chapter, I also made some revisions. The beginning portion was supposed to end the last chapter, but I thought it would fit this chapter the more I thought of it. So I made a few changes to fit that part as well to match the tone of Blake after the previous chapter. At least this one still had some of the parts of the original version, which were the egg hatching, the joke about using it for breakfast and the conversation afterwards, as well as their arrival and the dinner. The last parts of the dinner up to the ending of the chapter were edited as well to have that ticket change. I thought it would be an intriguing thing to have that happen and have Blake question what was happening to him. All that luck is starting to run out!

Anyways, hopefully you guys and girls enjoyed this one. I should be able to put up the next chapter soon with minimal edits to the original version. Thanks for following, reviewing, and favoriting!