What on earth was the furry brown creature? Brendan wondered. The gods only took forms of real animals, according to the mythology of his people. But what did they really know about the gods? They seemed to have miscommunicated with them as far as his Ceremony was concerned, considering that this creature, obviously sent by the gods, kept changing things they were doing.

Whose side was he on, anyway? He had lived in the village all his life, sure, but he never really thought of it as a home. Just a sort of temporary stopover.

He sat up and looked around. Everyone was gone!

Arianne appeared next to him, in humanoid form. He blinked, then rubbed his eyes to make sure he wasn’t seeing things; something about her just didn’t seem… human. “Hello, I am Arianne. You are Brendan, correct?â€