“This should do.” Avery sighed, guiding Noah’s hand to what felt like a wooden bench.

He sank onto it and leaned back. Almost immediately, he felt soreness in his legs. “What time is it?” He was starting to feel sleepy.

Avery sat down beside him. “Almost eight.” She started rummaging in her backpack. “The sun’s already set.”

“Oh.” Noah started to laugh, but it turned into a yawn. Even though he couldn’t see it, his body somehow always knew when the sun rose and set. Avery used to tease him because he would wake up at sunrise and fall asleep at sunset.

“Here.” Avery passed him a blanket. Then she stood up again. “I saw a water fountain when we entered the park. I’m going to fill our water bottles there.”

“Okay.” Noah yawned again. “I’ll be fine here while you’re gone.”

She was silent for a moment. Then she squeezed his shoulder. “If anything happens--”

“Scream like a banshee.” Noah finished for her. “Because even going back to mom is better than getting kidnapped.”

Avery gave him a hug. “I won’t be long.”

Noah listened to her footsteps retreating. It was a familiar, comforting sound. He knew he would be able to pick out her footsteps anywhere. All he had to do was listen.

He yawned again and wrapped the blanket around himself. Avery would be back soon, but he couldn’t stay awake a moment longer.

Noah guessed he was dreaming when he opened his eyes to trees. He looked around and found himself on a dirt road that wove its way through a forest. He started to follow it.

Avery had read an article to him once about blind people and dreaming. Apparently, if someone was born with sight and went blind during life, they would still see in their dreams. But people who were born blind – people like him – were still blind when they were dreaming. It had something to do with their brains not being able to manufacture what things looked like.

And yet, every so often, Noah opened his eyes to a visible world while he slept.

He turned a corner in the road and was suddenly in an open field. There was a large brick building in the distance. It had five levels of windows, but was still much wider than it was tall.

He heard fighting and spun around. He suddenly wasn’t the only one in the field. What looked like a serious battle was raging around him. It must have been one of those battle re-enactments, because the people around him were swinging swords and carrying shields.

The combatants were moving quickly, and Noah couldn’t focus on any one of them in particular. The only detail he was sure of was that they were all young. He could have sworn that some were even younger than he was.

To his left, someone’s feet got knocked out form under them. They fell on their back and groaned.

“You have to watch your feet.” Someone else chided. “If a serpent knocks you off them, it’s all over. Let’s try again.” They offered a hand to the fallen fighter and the two of them disappeared into the fighting again.

The sounds around Noah started to grow louder. At the same time, his vision was fading. He sighed and closed his eyes. It was time to wake up.