Notes: Well here's part three...guess it's time for a plot device...^^;;

On an additional note- I'm not too great at fight scenes- so I sorta gloss on them where the obvious winner is concerned, particuarly when the actual battle isn't that important to the story. This chapter is a little slow..sorry about that.

Once again, dreams are strange things- but they usually make some sense. Thus I do not know what to make of this one.

I stand on a mountain path, turned to look at the world below me. I have seen this view before- though always from the deck of an airship. Baron lays in the distance, the ocean glittering beyond it. It is different now however- there is a brightness to it that has nothing to do with the light of the moon reflecting from the castle walls and moat.

No surprise. My brother is there after all. The Paladin rules as king thus Baron is at peace. So what? I start to look away- but something in the night sky above the castle draws my gaze upwards. The moon gleams brightly- but there is a second. I think....it's difficult to see. I cannot so much see this second moon as the lack of stars where it drifts...

It is not the Lunarian moon. Even before it had awakened- the moon had not seemed so ominous. And the longer I behold it, the colder the wind around me becomes...soon feeling as sharp razors against the skin. I cast my gaze down again- to a very different scene.

Baron stands clad in ice, the castle walls broken and tumbled. Snow covers once green fields..a sight that would not be alarming if not for the suddeness of it. I step from the path, the dream taking me to the castle itself. The town beyond it is dead- the castle itself is buried in snow and shards of ice...As are the inhabitants. I walk past a gate guard, frozen in mockery of the post he had been asigned to. I can't see his face through the ice. Perhaps I should be grateful.

Standing in the courtyard are more ice statues- including one I know well. He had obeyed my commands for a time after all. Kain Highwind, ready to fight...frozen before he could act. How pathetic...

My steps lead me to the throne room...this place is not like the rest of the castle. Rosa and Cecil are here- frozen yes- but so are two others, sitting at a table beside a bonfire burning in the middle of the room. They are alive and unfrozen...and as my footsteps echo in the emptiness, one stands and turns towards me, cold violet eyes gleaming from the darkness of the hood he wears as he speaks...

"I was wondering when I would get here...I am usually much more punctual than this."

"Who are you?"

The other pulls the hood down....revealing pale skin and long, milky hair......I might as well be looking in a mirror. I can feel my eyes widening- even as a smirk spreads on his lips.

"How unbecoming. Close your mouth, would you? I've been trying to call you here for some time. Come, sit- we have much to discuss."

Now I'm completely lost. A black moon, a ruined, frozen Baron, another me- when will this start to make sense...? I start to follow, then grimace....

"What are you burning?"

Both figures look at me- no response forth coming. The other me begins to speak- but it's becoming faint and indisctinct as the reek becomes stronger.........

I awaken to the scent of burning wood and meat- my opens open to take in the sight of Palom attempting to cook some fish on a stick over the small campfire he'd made- with some considerable lack of success. Interesting observation....fish make very bright- if rank- torches.

"Is your intention to kill me while I slept with that reek?"

The wizard jumps- and the fish falls completely into the fire, burned from it's stick. Palom stares down at it a long moment- then gives me a look that all but declares he'd rather it'd been me falling in that fire rather than his lost breakfast. I personally think I've done him a favor. He likely would've taken ill eating such a poorly cooked fish.

"Hey, give a guy some warning that you're up!! now that you ARE up though-tell me who the hell you are!"

"I don't really see what business of yours it is."

I stand and sweep my hair back over my shoulder, wincing slightly at the leaves that fall from it. I was most certainly not accustomed to simply walking where I wished to go...perhaps this boy of a wizard could be useful after all.....though I think I will sooner trust my OWN cooking to his...

He seems to have other ideas however. Palom stands, redonning that ridiculous yellow hat and glaring at me as he dusts his robe off, then steps around the fire to attempt to glare imposingly at me. Perhaps I should inform him that works better when you're taller than the one you're trying to intimidate and aren't wearing something that looks like a giant piece of candycorn glued to a dish.

"Tell me who you ARE. Why are you dressed like a Lunarian? Why do you look so much like Cecil? Are you who I THINK you are?"

I simply look down at him for a moment, meeting his eyes- though to the boy's credit he doesn't flinch back or look away. Cecil's friends-well save for a particular one- had always been a courageous bunch- sometimes a little too much so. He does seem rather uneasy though when I merely smirk for a moment before replying...

"If you think you know who I am- why should I answer? Why don't you TELL me who I am?"

Now the wizard balks, stepping back slightly...as if wondering if he had crossed some invisible line he hadn't been aware of. He doesn't seem too eager to say my name. Amusing, isn't it? Even after all this time and the revelations of my ties to Cecil- I still terrify people of this world.... Lets see just how badly he wants that answer, eh? Cecil's friends had always been quite powerful once they joined forces...How would one fair alone?

"Since the cat has finally chosen to catch your tongue- perhaps another game will be more fitting to your liking. A duel."

Now isn't that interesting. I wasn't aware humans could get that pale unless dead. Maybe he's not so courageous as I'd given him credit for..

"Fine!"

I blink at that. Color has returned to the boy's face and a determined light was in his eyes. Had he looked less serious- I probably would have laughed. I'm still considering it. The idea that any mysidian wizardLING- for what else could he be considered at such a young age- thought to take me seriously on that challenge was just too amusing. Something of my thoughts must have shown however, for the boy was hastily adding onto his reply...

"We fight by Mysidian Law though! No killing, just fight until exhaustion or one of us gives up!"

"Quite fine by me. Shall we find an open area to have our little duel in? Otherwise, I think Totoria's forests are going to be a thing of the past."

The boy nods his acceptance- and the next couple of hours are spent in blessed silence. Quite a change from yesterday's endless stream of commentary. When we finally reach the shore however, Palom promptly marches himself well away from me and turns, hands poised to cast. He walked all that time and wants to fight right away? Definately one of Cecil's bullheaded friends....Now for the important question. Do I toy with him or flat out show him the difference between his lessons and mine? I won't even go into power....he might be something to take note of eventually, but right now, he was hardly anything special.

Palom doesn't say anything- he merely goes straight to attacking. An Ice spell- easily countered with a Fire one before it even touches me. I certianly hope he has better tricks than that, or I'm going to be severely disappointed in him....

The supposed fight goes on for some time. Until Palom, at last, stands panting, hands resting against his legs to keep from sitting- or falling- down, just staring at me. I, on the other hand, haven't even begun to feel the strain. Well, not that I'm letting HIM see anyway. If nothing else, it gave me a good idea of just how strong this boy was. Good potential-but he needs to pay more attention to his training. He wasted far too much power in those spells.

"Are we done already?"

"You didn't....even fight...back...."

And he's raising his hands again. Stubborn little fool. I don't give him time to decide on a spell. There is no showy flare on my part- I simply gesture to the sand at our feet, blasted, scorched and half frozen as it is from Palom's rather laughable attempts. The sand blasts up in a fountain of grains and sweeps over the wizard, knocking him flat and pulling him down into the beach some...Enough to convince him to give up on the spell evidently.

"Allow me to point out some differences between us, Palom. You are nothing but a wizard, and not even an outstanding one at that. Without your twin around, there is little you can do that most wizards cannot- if anything. I am-"

"Golbez!"

"Is THIS what it took to get you to finally say it?"

I had thought Palom had turned pale before. One would think I had just cast a death-spell on him with the way he's looking NOW.

"Y..you mean you really-"

"Do you second guess yourself often, Palom?"

A simple gesture and the sand-binding is removed. I can understand some fear- I had certainly made a far from personable impression on the people of this world after all- but since when did any of Cecil's little band of fools stammer in fear? Well, beyond the bard. He had an eternal stutter whenever fear entered the picture.... The wizard gets to his feet, eyes locked on me.

"So it's true- you really DID come back for the crystals...."

Well now. This is news to ME...I walk up the beach to take a seat on a stone there, just watching the boy curiously.

"Actualy I didn't come back for anything."

"Liar!! Cecil was talking about it awhile ago! He said he had a dream about Baron being frozen and-"

"A black moon in the sky, with myself and one other sitting in the throne room? Don't give me that look, even if it gives me all the answer I needed. I had the same dream last night."

"Why should I believe you?!"

At that I just have to smile. Why should he indeed? All I can offer him in reply is just this.

"If you won't believe me- then why don't you ensure Cecil knows I'm here by helping me find one of those damnable chocobos and going to Baron with me?"

Shock value had it's uses evidently. Palom's jaw just swings open slightly while I look up at the sky... Kain had told me once, when Rosa had been held in Zot, of a chocobo forest far to the north of Totoria. It would take us all night to get there. I cast my gaze back down at the gaping wizard- make that all day tomarrow. I was not dragging an exhausted child all over Totoria's forests with me.

"Sleep now- we've a long day tomarrow."

Magic is a wonderful thing- you could even weave it into the simplest sentences. The wizard collapses in the sand, snoring loudly- how had I slept through sharing a campfire with THAT?- and I turn my thoughts to more important matters. My brother was having the same dream was he?

(Continued in Dark Moon-Fading Light)