Dart walked away from his friends as the darkness swallowed him. He struggled to breathe. A deep-seated fear rumbled through his chest, and he clenched his fists in a paltry attempt to stay his own emotions. He heard Shana call for him, but he did not turn. His distress carried him far away from camp, and almost an hour passed before he stopped.

The chilly night air surrounded him, but he did not mind it so much; he could keep himself warm now. What was more irksome was the dew that had climbed all over his boots and seeped into them, wetting his feet. He had always hated that feeling, that squishing sensation with every step, but now the fire inside him burned hot in resistance. He impressed even himself as he focused his abilities on his feet to dry them out as he walked.

As he came alongside a layer of black rock jutting out into the valley, he stopped and felt it with his hand. Recoiling from the dew, he produced a small flame and burned the water away before sitting on the rock with his legs dangling slightly above the ground. The darkness was complete except for the ever-present moonlight filtering through the needles of the pines. Looking up, he was just able to catch a glimpse of the Moon That Never Sets as the trees swayed in the breeze.

Sitting still, he was no longer able to focus on his own movement, and all at once, all the emotions he had been avoiding came flooding back to him. His walk had far from exhausted him, but he panted heavily, gripping the edges of the stone until his knuckles turned white.

"I don't want to deal with this," he muttered to himself.

He stared down at the ground before him, watching the rays of moonlight dance back and forth over the moss-covered earth. He wanted to be home. He wanted to leave this accursed forest, this mountain range, and all the danger, and go home. He mourned not having been able to spend more time in Seles before leaving again with Shana, or just simply returning after delivering Lavitz safely to Bale. Effortlessly, he recalled the layout of the small town – the town hall, his old house, Shana's home, the creek where they used to play, and the nearby fields. He and Shana used to spend all day roaming the wilderness, intrigued with every frog and tree and blade of grass. Once, they had even tried to make a map of the area around Seles. He chuckled as he remembered the crude drawing, widely disproportionate and skewed.

He'd hated getting a job, but as soon as he was old enough, his adopted parents had all but forced him into working the fields for one of the farmers in town. Instead of running free with Shana, he had wasted away his days tilling earth, spreading fertilizer, and hulling wheat. It had made him strong, and he had earned his keep, but not a day went by when he hadn't thought of her.

That's all he really wanted now – to go back to the days when it was just the two of them, with no worries and no danger, no virage and no dragons.

Dragons.

He sighed. Was there really any hope for them?

Propping his elbows on his knees, he rubbed his face. He was tired, partly from the virage and partly because of the intense stress weighing on him. He rolled his shoulders to alleviate it, but it did little good.

He just couldn't stand the idea of Shana and Lavitz being thrown at a dragon in the way that Rose had proposed. The thought made him cringe over and over. A million scenarios ran through his mind, each showing him a different ways that the battle could go awry. Although he had faced the beast before, he'd barely escaped it, and now the danger would be much greater there in the heart of its nesting grounds.

In the end, all Dart could do was hope to kill the dragon before it killed his friends.

Dart cursed his situation. He felt overwhelmed by the fantastic events that had sprung to life around him since his return to Serdio. A kind moment of distant peace had been interrupted by the very same dragon they now hunted, and then everything else had rushed by afterward.

An owl hooted nearby, startling him. He shook his head at his reaction, irritated that he was now jumping at bird calls. Dragged back to the physical world, he turned his attention to the sounds around him. One of his favorite things to do while traveling the wilderness had been simply listening to nature in the late-night hours. Several times in the east, he had met a stray creature – a fox or a deer – and watched it silently until it shuffled away into the darkness. Now, he could hear nothing but that lonely owl. The night was far too cold for any insects to be out, and it seemed the other animals were avoiding his negativity.

Sighing heavily, he spoke aloud to himself.

"You can't change Rose's mind. Or Shana's. Or Lavitz's. So just… deal with it."

How he wished he could! But no matter how many times he told himself to ignore his fears or believe that it was for the best, he could not. Still, he was thankful for the silence and solitude that he had managed to find. It had been his first fully solitary moment since their stay in Bale, and something about it had refreshed him, calmed him.

Be grateful for it, he told himself.

Groaning in frustration, he reached up and rubbed his eyes. What if he had just stayed in Bale? He could have become a palace guard and found a place for him and Shana to live. Life would have been simpler. But what would have happened then?

If he'd stayed in Bale, Lavitz would have gone to Hoax alone and faced the battle alone. It seemed unlikely that he would have been able to defeat the giganto without the dragoons that had turned the tide. Perhaps Lavitz would have died then and there, and the dragon would have continued its rampage throughout Serdio until it reached Bale, where Dart would have been unprepared to fight against it.

This realization startled him. Perhaps it was as Lavitz had said; perhaps there was a greater force working to orchestrate their chaotic lives. Maybe it was not mere chance that he'd met Lavitz, who had guided him into this war and to the awakening of his dragoon spirit.

Dart's breath quickened as he considered this possibility. Maybe, just maybe, something greater really was at work here. Some sort of fate had reeled him in for a greater purpose. Rose had said that the last time dragoons had appeared, the world had been changed in their wake.

The implications were staggering. If this were true, it would mean that Shana, too, was meant to be here with them, and perhaps his outlook on tomorrow need not be so grim. It would mean that he would prove himself capable of defeating the dragon so that he could save the people of Serdio. Perhaps fate had brought him to this moment so that he could end a bloody war.

He scoffed and shook his head.

Fate? he scorned. Come on, Dart.

And yet, something inside him clung to the idea that whatever had led him, Lavitz, and Shana here would get them through the battle the next day.

In defiance of his own logic, his spirit rose with a sense of purpose and determination before crashing under the weight of responsibility. How could it be possible that he would be the one chosen for this task? He was nothing special. He was an orphan that had inherited a dragoon spirit. If fate had guided him here, he had still made the choices to follow it. What if he made the wrong choice next and caused the downfall of a generation?

He cringed at the prospect, holding his head in his hands once again, struggling to fight off his fears. If something he did or failed to do caused harm to Shana or Lavitz, he would never be able to forgive himself. He cursed as tears slid down his cheeks, and he hurriedly wiped them away and breathed deeply, trying to stifle his emotions. Closing his eyes, he tried to clear his mind, but images of his friends, injured or dead, kept surfacing. His breathing became more and more labored, and he clutched his head to block out the negative thoughts.

Suddenly he heard a strange sizzling sound, and his heart skipped a beat. Bewildered, he glanced down and saw the dew boiling on the black rock in a circle around him. He chuckled as he realized what had happened, and he lessened the heat emanating from his chest, and he reminded himself: he was a dragoon. He controlled fire itself. Had he not destroyed the virage with Rose's help? They had already disposed of one legendary beast, and they could defeat another. As if to prove it to himself, he swung his hand up and conjured a flame that illuminated the rock and nearby trees. He watched it flicker about for several moments, trying to convince himself of its potency. At last, he let it die.

Feeling slightly more stable, his breathing leveled.

He thought of Rose and her strange desire to help them succeed. He thought of Lavitz's high principles and his intense sense of duty toward his country and his friends. And he thought of Shana and her drive not only to be with him, but also to fight with him. Dart was firmly confident that Shana could never fathom how much strength her mere presence brought him every day. He knew that she would never be safe when there was a dragon being used in war, no matter where she was, and he knew that Lavitz would never stop fighting to protect his country.

Standing suddenly, Dart looked intently in the direction of the camp. He wasn't sure if he could succeed, but he was finally sure of one thing: he would try.