“Hurry up,” Marcie said as she practically jumped from the car as soon as Axel pulled to a stop. “If we’re here this early, then Mom’s gonna make French toast!”
“It’ll probably be waffles after I talk with her,” Axel said quietly in the empty car before sighing and grabbing the empty container from the ice cream he and his sister had eaten on the way. Stepping out of the car, he looked up at the modest two-story house that his mother and father lived in and picked out his old room’s window before smiling to himself and starting toward the still open front door his sister had practically run through.
As he stepped into the tiled foyer, Axel’s mother’s voice reached him from the kitchen as she spoke with Marcie before she stepped out of the kitchen, talking over her shoulder as she scolded her daughter.
“- shut the door when you come in! You don’t know if someone’s right behind you or not!” Jennifer, his mother, said, head turned back toward the kitchen as she walked to the front door.
“It’s fine Mom,” Axel assured her, giving a smile as she turned to look at him. “I wasn’t too much longer outside, so I closed it on the way in.”
“What’s wrong, honey?” his mother demanded as she studied his face and concern crossed hers. “What happened?”
“I just needed to see you,” Axel told her as he stepped forward and swept the shorter woman into a hug. “Is that so bad?”
“No, I wish you’d visit me more often,” Jennifer said as she returned his hug and gripped him tightly. “It’s just that you sounded so upset on the phone, and now you look so sad. What happened?”
“It’s stupid,” Axel said.
“No it isn’t,” his mother said firmly as she stepped back and looked up at him. “It’s important to you and that means it’s not stupid. What happened?”
“You know she’s not gonna leave it alone,” Marcie told him as she leaned out the doorway. “Just tell her and get it over with. I want French toast!”
“Okay,” Axel said, suddenly feeling embarrassed as he cleared his throat and readied himself. “I met someone in my game, Astrana, and she reminded me a lot of you, Mom. The quest that I was doing when I met her ended up having something come up in it and she ended up dying helping me finish it.”
“Well, can’t she just come back?” Jennifer asked in confusion as Marcie hid a snicker.
“She was an NPC of sorts,” Axel explained. “Astrana isn’t like other games where if an NPC dies then they respawn. If they die, then they’re dead; no coming back from that.”
“Oh honey, I’m sorry you lost your friend,” Jennifer said in sympathy.
“I could get over that,” Axel said, “but she meant a lot more than that to me. She was called the Matriarch of the Mountain and she was a bear. Huge, brown fur, sharp claws, the whole thing. She made me feel like I was standing next to you on my first day of school, all nervous and scared to leave you, and she made me feel like you did when I actually went to class; like I was on top of the world and everyone would be my friend.”
“When she died, it was like I lost you,” Axel said, his voice falling to a quiet whisper. “She was a mother to everyone that crossed her path and she wanted what was best for all of them, including me. When she died, it felt like I wouldn’t be able to see you again and that scared me.”
As Jennifer pulled her son into another hug, neither of them noticed the tears that had begun to gather at his eyes and fall as she gripped him tightly and held him.
“It’s okay,” she told him as he pulled her closer and began to quietly shake as a fresh wave of grief overcame him. “It’s okay. I’m here and I’m not going anywhere.”
“Mom, I miss you everyday,” Axel blurted through his tears as he squeezed as tight as he could. “I don’t want to lose you.”
“You won’t lose me,” she assured him. “I’ll be right here anytime you need me. That’s a mother’s promise.”
“Thank you,” Axel whispered. “One more thing, Mom?”
“Anything,” she said immediately.
“Can you make me waffles? With blueberries and blackberry jam on top?” he asked.
“Of course,” Jennifer said as Marcie made a choking noise and squeezed her hands together in mock fury.
Materializing in Cain’s cabin, Axel noticed that a small stone replica of the Kobold Shaman, trapped in a pose as though he’d been dancing, stood in a small cubby on the wall as Cain looked over it proudly.
“Hey, Kiddo,” Cain said without turning toward him.”Feeling better?”
“Much,” Axel said with a grin. “Thanks for telling me to take a minute.”
“No problem,” Cain said with a wave of his hand. “I can’t pull you out in the middle of stuff, but if you’re at a point where I can reasonably say that nothing major is going to happen, then I can get you up here and tell you to cool your heels or get some fresh air. I’m supposed to make sure that you don’t have some sort of mental break, you know.”
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“Yeah, Jim mentioned something about that,” Axel said with a nod. “So anyway, I’m good to go?”
“One more thing before you do,” Cain said, turning to face him. “This little guy.”
Looking past his AI helper to the model of the Shaman that he’d hiked his thumb toward, Axel felt his curiosity bubble upward.
“This is the first one to show up,” Cain said. “Get more of them and you win the company’s little incentive contest.”
“How many more?” Axel asked.
“No idea,” Cain said with a shrug. “Could be a simple number like five, could be closer to a hundred, could even be that the number of them means nothing when you compare other criteria about them. I’m just a watcher, I don’t make the big decisions.”
“You also can’t tell anyone else about it,” Cain said seriously as light began to outline Axel. “Tell people you fought the Shaman, just don’t tell them that it got you a little statue. We don’t want people comparing that stuff.”
“I think I can do that,” Axel nodded as the light around him grew brighter and darkness overtook his vision.
Blinking at the morning sun that streamed through the thin, thatched roof above him, Axel sat up with a slight groan.
“You’re awake,” a soft, feminine voice observed, prompting Axel to look around the sparse room and see the kind woman from before that had healed him and his Tamed Creatures. “That’s good. We were beginning to worry about you.”
“Sorry about that,” Axel said. “Everything that had happened took it all out of me and I had to take a break.”
“Ah, being a Last Star and able to move between worlds,” the Human woman said with a nod as though that explained everything. “I do not believe we’ve been properly introduced; I am Myn, I work with herbs and Life magic to heal those that find themselves sick and injured. I am hoping to become a true Mystic of Nature as Harn and the others have.”
“I’m Axel,” Axel introduced himself. “I want to tame as many animals as I can and go on adventures with them.”
“A future Beast Lord in the making,” Myn said teasingly as she came closer and cupped his face in her hands before turning his head side to side and examining him. “A difficult pursuit.”
“I think I’ve got a good start,” Axel said with a grin as she bent his head down and examined the furry wolf ears that poked out of his hair. “I’ve got Drago and Ember and Stuart.”
“And fine companions they are for you,” Myn said as she finished her examination of his head and began to probe his chest and arms for lingering pain. “Each of them stayed with you as you slept. It was only recently that I was able to shoo them away from you. Though I’m not certain that I managed to get the mouse away from you. That one was very protective of you.”
“Stuart’s a big softy,” Axel assured her as she took a step back from him. “You’d have been fine.”
“I would have,” Myn agreed, “but would he have been?”
“Now that you’re awake and I’ve determined that you are in good health,” she continued before Axel could speak, “it is time that you go to see Regis, he is most eager to speak with you.”
“I need to see Drago and the others first,” Axel said. “You said that they were with me, but I need to make sure that they’re fine now. I can’t let them be neglected, it’s not right.”
Quirking an eyebrow, Myn studied him for a moment before nodding and turning away.
“Be sure and put on some clothes before you step out,” she said as she walked to the door. “There are children here and it would be improper to be seen in a state of undress.”
Looking down at himself, Axel swore quietly and clutched the blanket closer to himself as he realized that he was naked beneath the thin blanket that had covered him.
Dressing quickly and trying not to swear when he fell over putting his pants on, Axel made himself presentable before stepping to the door and exiting the room and looking around at the roughly constructed but bustling village that he stepped out into. Children ran laughing through the dirt streets as dogs bounded merrily beside them, playing while the adults that could be seen went about their days with the single-minded determination of people that knew what needed to be done. Each of the houses that he could see were more huts than anything, but Axel decided not to comment on that as he noticed more that a few of those huts were attached to trees that towered into the air throughout the village and were connected with rope bridges that criss-crossed the air in a dizzying spider-web overhead.
“Are you ready?” Myn’s voice distracted Axel from his study of the village and drew his eyes toward her.
As the sunlight streamed through the canopy overhead, Axel was able to study the Human woman more closely in her oddly tribal clothing that hung loosely about her. Her light brown hair was pulled back from her circular face in a loose braid and her dark brown eyes studied him critically as she looked him up and down.
“Good, Illa was worried that they wouldn’t fit you,” Myn said with a small smile. “Your beasts are this way.”
Turning and striding away from him, Myn began to lead Axel through the village’s disordered streets at a brisk pace. As they moved through the village, Axel took the opportunity to study the people that lived there and noticed that they were a mix of all the races with Beastkin like him making up the majority of the population.
“This village is called Alwyn,” Myn said. “It is one of the few known villages that Beastkin have allowed outsiders to permanently settle in. Regis and Gallex made it their home several years ago and since then, we have used it as a place to gather when we need supplies or healing.”
“This is all really cool,” Axel said, unable to keep his grin from his voice as he looked around. “Are there any other Last Stars here?”
“None that I know of,” Myn told him as they approached a larger building that smelled strongly of blood. “Last Stars typically prefer to make their homes in villages and towns with some sort of altar or place of worship. Alwyn and other villages like it, being predominantly home to Beastkin, do not often worship the Pantheons or the Gods that make them up. This butcher is known to allow beasts and pets to search for food amongst the scraps leftover from his work.
“Thanks for the info and for leading me here,” Axel said with a smile toward her before he approached the door and entered the butcher’s shop.
“How can I help you?” the gruff Orc using a cleaver to divide meat behind the counter demanded as a small bell on the door announced Axel’s entrance.
“I’m looking for my Tamed Creatures,” Axel explained. “A Rockwolf, a Burning Windy Hawk, and a Seeker Mouse. I was told they might be here.”
“You saying that I’d take them and slice them up?” the Orc demanded angrily.
“No, no,” Axel said quickly, trying not to back away as the light glinted off the cleaver’s edge. “I was just told that you might let them go through the leftovers that you won’t sell. They were probably hungry.”
“Oh,” the Orc grunted. “They’d be around back then. Go on through the counter and straight out the back door.”
“Thank you so much,” Axel said. “Do I owe you anything for whatever they might have eaten?”
“Nah,” the Orc said with a wave of the hand holding his cleaver. “The stuff they’d be getting into is scraps. Not good for us to eat, but they’d love it.”
“Thanks again,” Axel said as he lifted the counter’s hinged top and stepped through the back of the shop as the sound of the cleaver thudding onto the chopping block began to rhythmically sound behind him.