“Huh…. weird… so that was all just a dream, I was having man what a dream it was I was dreaming about,” Cory says, talking to himself.

His eyes open to see that the sky is nighttime, and he slowly sits up to see that the park Cory took the time to nape at is still here and himself as well.

“So, nighttime it is, I don’t know what to feel about that dream. It felt real like something that can't be fake, but oh well guess it's a matter to care about later best to get home now.” Cory thought.

He gets up from the grass ground and heads home going about the normal routine with his parents and two siblings as they talk and eat at the family dinner table.

The next day Cory goes to school like every day of the week and so, he sits down at the seat near the window like always. Listening to the teacher go about their lesson that everyone in the classroom has taken into their heads for the use of an upcoming test they will be taking.

He watches as the teacher writes on the chalkboard for a few minutes, moving his attention to stare out the side window seeing the reflection of himself looking back right at him.

“Is this the life you wish to keep on living as is?” The reflection of himself says these words.

Cory was greatly shocked that it happened as he jumped out of his seat to get a distance away from the window. At the same time, he noticed that everyone in the classroom was gone by a second causing the situation to be questioned.

“What…. What is happening… Am I still dreaming?” Cory asked the question only he was to hear.

Looking around in this empty classroom, he was standing to worry till the sound of his face was heard again throughout the room.

“Do you truly want to go back to a normal life like this?” his voice asked which Cory wasn’t really in the mood to answer.

Then there was the feeling of someone or something right behind him as Cory turned to see Preston the humanoid Bear staring right back at him in a more wild-like way having a drool coming out the side of the mouth.

Cory's reaction was to just have both arms in front of his face out of fear, but before anything could happen darkness came and his eyes opened again the next moment, he was sitting up breathing at a fast and heavy pace with bits of sweat coming down the forehead.

“What!?... I’m not back home…. Still at Glenda tavern.” Cory says out loud noticing the next thing is a bright sun as if a new day has already started.

Even more so to feel something on his hand right looking to see there was another hand holding onto it. Following this hand belongs to the female humanoid fox Estela whose face looks to be so exhausted from the lack of sleep that at some point she could no longer keep herself up further.

“Why is Estela in my room?” A question he asked no one else there.

The answer comes right after the question asked from his mouth in a quick sense of flashes of the other night. Remembering that he went up against Preston, well in a sense did what he could to attack the humanoid bear beast's kin.

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Only able to do one damage when using the Arming sword to do the best cut to the bear whatever strength there was to make it happen.

When Cory comes to realize the bandages wrap around his whole chest area covering the claw mark wound left behind by Preston, a way to remember him for a while.

“So, the wound was taken care of, and I was able to stay alive.” Cory let out a sigh of being glad to be alive and not dead.

He takes the moment of just relaxing in the bed while sitting up and that is when it hits Cory about something he could not just let pass by.

“Why… Did I have that strange dream then…. What was I saying?” Cory thought.

Such a dream would have been let go without a second thought, but how can one not care when you are talking to you in the dream? He doesn’t know what to think of the meaning behind it.

“Did I find living my life on earth to be a boring thing? Was it myself telling me my true feelings or was it just something random to dream about?” Cory thought.

At that moment the sleeping Estela starts to wake slowly, rising and rubbing her two eyes, soon seeing a set-up human Cory looking right back at her.

“Cory…. CORY! You're awake, you're awake and alive.” Estela doesn’t hold herself to jump onto him.

Not thinking for a second about the consideration of the wound right away the pain comes rushing in.

“ESTELA WAIT! Ow, your hug is tight, and it makes me feel the pain of my wound.” Cory let her know fast as he wanted this fox girl to stop hugging him.

“Oh shit!... my bad, I was really happy to see you up and should have thought about hugging you more easily.”

“It… fine, just need to hug me more gently, so I don’t come to feel pain please.”

Estela does that by giving a gentler hug to Cory, who enjoys this version much more than the last.

After it was done the kind pass where the hurting comes next as she hits him hard on the head with a fist coming down.

“OW! What was that for Estela that hurt as well.” Cory complains rubbing his head which is now in pain.

“That is the other part for acting like a complete idiot risking your life like that, playing the hero. Which is a mistake when you haven't been used to the Buckler shield and Arming sword to fight against someone.”

“I wasn’t acting as a hero just doing what I can to help and that it is the right thing to do too.”

“I know, but still you put yourself now in danger going up against a gang boss who is going to remember you. Thanks to that cut he has on his face something to look at in the mirror.”

“Oh, come on, nothing compasses to the claw mark on my body here.”

Cory points to it having to remind her about the bear using his sharp claws to tear into his body flesh.

“Even so, you are going to be more careful in this town, making an enemy of someone who doesn't mind doing dirty things to another. Better ready yourself for anything. So be sure to go to that training ground here in Holsworthy.”

Cory sees Estela move towards the end of the bed, stopping there to grab something that was on the end of the bed he is sitting up on and throwing it to him looking to be the same shirt that seems to be undamaged.

“Come on, put the shirt back on everyone else would be happy to know you are ok,” Estela says.

“Whoa wait a minute who did a great job at fixing my shirt it looks as if nothing ever happened to it.”

“It was me, don’t think my brother is the only one who knows how to be good with their hands with swing.”

“I’m grateful for you fixing it since I am really poor at not having any money at all to get a new one.”

Estela didn’t speak back just taking a look at Cory's face seeing the expression one to be grateful towards something not that special. It was making her feel warm, she had to stop looking and just let him put on his shirt before having that urge to jump there and then on the bed.

“Let's just head downstairs and also see if Glenda could make us some food since both of us haven't eaten since noon already today.”

<><><><><>

{downstairs}

Cory and Estela come down the stairs to see three people there two of them are Dolly and Glenda and another Hog-type pig is muscular and built with a golden yellow-like mohawk as the side on the head is fully clean.

This person was talking to the two of them in a way to be very familiar with the two.

“Hey Estela, that guy talking to Glenda and Dolly who is he,” Cory asked the fox, seeing if she got an idea.

“That Glenda son and brother to Dolly.”

“What!? That guy is related to the two of them but look at the size of him compared to them.”

“Well, he got that from his late father, he was a large Hog, but not in the sense of like that. All that was shaped thanks to the hard work that guy does at his job. Anyway, let's say hi.”

Estela grabs his hand dragging him with her as she comes up to the three of them turning their attention away from each other and on her.

“Guess who I have with me right now after sleeping so long.” Estela then shows them Cory right after saying that to them.

Dolly was overjoyed to see Cory at the moment the pig girl was able to run and hug him, but another had that same thought to do the same thing. Taking a hasty action in charging at him.

‘CORY!”