{-Sharena-}
Iztali bounded up to her. "You're up! Can you take me outside?"
"It snowed last night, didn't it? It's going to be cold," she warned. She didn't really think to take it too seriously without any good reason to.
Then, once again, he gave her a perfect reason to. "I felt her coming. She's coming to see us so I think it'll be nice if we met her instead!"
"Who are you talking about?" Sharena and Lekra both knew the answer already; she chose to not make it obvious, however, since there were plenty of Heroes that she didn't want to question her.
"Your ljósálfar," Iztali replied casually, "Peony. I'm pretty sure the other álfar's here too but I don't really know."
That seemed to settle it. She agreed to walk with him and told Anna their plan, excluding the parts about meeting with someone and who that someone was.
Iztali almost made it seem like he knew where he was going—though from the sounds of it, he at least had an idea. Lekra grew more anxious after a certain point as well. Sharena didn't bother asking either of them about it, knowing neither of them would give her an answer that actually made sense.
They all stopped when they heard a thunk.
"Mirabilis, couldn't you have told me there was a tree here?" It really was her, the voice Sharena had probably heard the most in her dreams. Peony. "Mirabilis..? Oh, you must've fallen asleep… Wait, Peony, remember you have a mission. If that's what I think it is, then they've got to be…"
A little bit of rustling bushes later and she appeared from the forest. She beamed. "Right here! And all three of you are here! I wasn't expecting that." Peony rushed in front of Sharena and gave her a quick hug. "It's so good to see you again! I know Freyr told me not to do any more than I have to but I can't help it! Do you remember me, Sharena? I mean you've got to remember something if I'm here. What about Triandra or Mirabilis? Freyr and Freyja? Oooh, what's that face for? That's not a 'who is this random weirdo' face, is it?"
Lekra had bothered her a little up until this point but it was mostly something she could ignore. Now, with Peony in front of them, their worries and anxiety was enough to make Sharena dizzy and a bit nauseous.
"I remember you," Sharena assured her slowly, "and everyone else you mentioned. I… I just need a minute to think…"
"Right, Freyr mentioned the kind of connection you and Lekra have." Peony respectfully stepped back. "I bet they're not really comfortable being so close to a ljósálfar like me, huh..?"
It was when she looked directly at Lekra that something dawned on Sharena. "Can you see them?"
"Of course I can." Peony shrugged. "We all come from the dream realm. Wouldn't really make sense for dream-related things to not be able to see each other, would it?"
"So can normal people see you or would anyone passing by think I'm talking to myself..?"
"Everyone can see me. As far as I know nightmares are the only dream-beings that only other dream-related beings can see. Although it's probably better if no more people than necessary see me. Freyr doesn't really want a lot of people to acknowledge álfar exist. We're more of a target that way and I think there's something else about blurring lines…"
"Can you tell me more about why you're here?"
"Well, it's kind of a really long story and you're not the only one I have to tell it to so I should probably save most of it for when you're all together. For now, all you really need to know is that Dream-King Freyr sent me to find you. There's something really important that we need to do but it more or less involves stealing you so I need to talk with the rest of your friends. Or at least your brother."
Sharena nodded. "I'll take you to them. Someone else will need to get Alfonse, but it shouldn't take him long to get there if he knows it's important…"
"Great! Lead the way." Peony began following Sharena back to the castle.
"Please stay far away from me," Lekra mumbled. "I've only interacted with you once before and I have no idea what the Dream-King was thinking in sending you to do this. I certainly don't trust that you won't kill me."
"You're perfectly comfortable around the dream," Peony pointed out, gesturing to Iztali. "He could do the same thing as I can."
"Iztali hardly acknowledges that he has powers, let alone knows how to use them. He can't even see me."
"Really?"
Sharena decided to be the one to explain it after glancing at the boy (who was running ahead without any care about what they were talking about). "Something happened before he found me, but he hasn't told anyone what exactly it is yet. We're pretty sure that's why he looks and acts a lot more like a normal human than a dream."
"Aw, the poor thing!" Peony said sympathetically. "I wonder if it had anything to do with the fact that he didn't naturally come to Ljósálfheimer like Lekra did. I think that was something Freyr and Freyja made a big deal over…"
That only made Sharena more curious, both about Peony and Iztali.
((A/N: I told my friend about Peony walking into a tree and for a while "Tree, the ultimate opponent! The new April Fool's Feh!" was my good-luck chant whenever I summoned. Out of the three recruited characters up to this point, Peony is the only one who wasn't supposed to be found in a battle (Eir was running away from Líf and Thrasir and Fjorm had recently been beaten by Laegjarn and Laevatein but the group just found her unconscious in the snow). Of course this changes later, but she still maintains the spot as the least-seriously introduced recruited character of the series.
In case anyone's confused: Lekra, before finding Sharena several months prior to this story, appeared in Ljósálfheimer. There they properly meet Peony and Freyr.))
