-Break-
Φ Staring at the block of ice in front of me, I say, “Orb please come out.”
“SHUT UP YOU TRAITOR.”
The twins called Anto says, “Orb this isn’t that big a deal, so your best friend got married to your sister. What does that matter.”
“IT MATTERS A LOT.”
The strange boy called Iancu says, “If anything Orb, isn’t it nice to have your sister move on? Some of us would wish to have our sisters shipped off to marry someone.”
Grabbing his cheeks, the nice girl Elia says, “Iancu who might you ever be talking about?”
Looking at them I freeze for a second; They’re siblings!!!
Atalanta says, “But we all knew Maple and Willow were already in love with each other so what difference does this make?”
“IT MAKES A BIG DIFFERENCE. I wanted to go to their wedding and have fun talking to everyone, I wanted to plan a whole lot of events to make it fun and memorable and now I will never get to do that!!!!”
Atalanta says, “Orb are you crying?”
With a shaky voice, Orb says, “No I’m.”
Walking up to the ice block, my wife says, “Orb please come out, I’m sorry!!”
“GO AWAY!!!”
Breaking down in tears, my drunken wife cries, “Why Orb? I miss you so much, why are you abandoning me!!!!”
Suddenly the girl named Suzuka breaks Orb’s ice block into pieces and picks up Orb by the collar. “HEY, YOU DUMB LITTLE DOG HOW DARE YOU MAKE MY FRIEND CRY!!!”
“Wait, Suzuka, I didn’t mean t-.”
She smashes Orb into the ground repeatedly then places him in front of all of us. “NOW SPEAK.”
Maple drunkenly grabs Orb’s head and shakes it saying, “WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!”
As she stops Orb looks away and says, “Now that you two are married I am going to be left all alone forever!!!”
I say, “But you have other friends?”
“Yeah, but look how mean they can be to me, did you not just see Suzuka manhandle me, and look at Iancu he is always playing coy with my affection.”
“Hey, don’t drag me into this.”
Atalanta moving in for a hug, says, “I will show you affection.”
Shielding himself, Orb says “NO!!! Not from you.”
Hearing this I walk over to Orb, and kneel down then say, “I see where you’re coming from.”
“So then!”
“BUT SUCK IT UP. I am finally married to my dream girl so of course I wouldn’t have as much time to spend together.”
In front of me, I see Orb’s spirit break as he curls up into a ball.
Suddenly Maple hugs me and says, “Orb we are spending every day together from now on, so I can’t do anything about that I am now Maple Berk. But still, I don’t want my father's name to die out so will you please be Orb Rian, big brother?”
Shyly Orb says, “Are you sure you want me to do that?”
“Of course, I do, outside of Willow you're my only family Orb.”
Still in a ball, he says, “Then I will do it.”
Picking both the sad Orb and a drunk Maple up, I say, “You hear that, from this moment Orb is officially part of the Rian family!!”
A crowd of people cheer then moments later reinvigorated Orb says, “LET THIS PARTY RAGE ON TILL WE ARE ALL PASSED OUT!”
“YEAH!!!”
-Break-
Φ Rubbing the feathers of the Zterytavis, I say, “Are you guys doing alright, it must be strange being in such unfamiliar environments for so long. Sorry, I couldn’t do better to save your home.”
As I stare into the Tavis’s face it opens its mouth then I hear, “Is that really bothering you?”
Hearing this I fall back and land on my but. “Did you just speak?”
“No one will ever believe you, CAAAW.”
Recognizing the voice, I say, “Wait. WILLOW!”
Hopping out, Willow says, “Aww, I wanted to see how long I could keep up the ruse.”
“That wasn’t funny.”
Giggling he says, “Yes it was!”
“Yeah, it was.”
Rubbing the Tavis’s, Willow says, “Now would you mind introducing me to this majestic creature.”
“It is a flying wonderbeast that was used to send goods all across the world.”
“That would mean this girl has seen countless different people and villages.”
“I would assume so, and how did you even know this beast was a girl?”
“Once you reach my level of animal understanding you can tell such minor things instantly.”
“Oh, great master teach me your ways.”
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“It will cost you.”
“Don’t worry I have quite a few new wonderbeasts under my belt. I am sure I can pay for whatever lesson.”
“While that does sound tantalizing the payment, what I want is something a bit different.”
“Sorry, I’m not your wife I can’t do such favours for you.”
“Orb what I want is for you to tell me what happened during your journey.”
Laughing, I say, “You choose that over getting to learn about new animals, you really must be obsessed with me!”
“Orb,” Willow says with a concerned expression.
Staring at his face, I say, “It really isn’t that interesting.”
“But I still want to hear it.”
“Ok then, well where should I begin? Oh yeah, Sparrow puked all over himself.”
-Break-
Staring down from the top of the valley with Willow sitting beside, I say, “And that’s about it, we left Jedidiah came here and you know the rest. So, what do you think?”
“All the wonderbeasts you named sound adorable.”
“Is that what you took from my story!!!”
“I’m just trying to lighten the mood since you were being a downer. But it must suck to have your senses messed up by that pain.”
“It really does. I spent all this time sharpening the use of my senses and now they are all being dulled by the pain. It is like someone is deriving pleasure from my suffering.”
“But still, you can use that advent thing, so it must be a far trade-off.”
Smugly, I say, “Well it seems I have changed just like you.”
“Keep lying to yourself shorty.”
“HEY, I AM GOING TO GO THROUGH A GROWTH SPURT ONE DAY. You will see!”
“If you say so. Also, regarding change, is there a reason your hair is more silver now?”
Creating a thin square of ice, I look at my reflection and say, “That’s weird, I didn’t even notice that, must be something out of my control.”
“Is it just your hair up there that is multicoloured or is it in other places?”
“I know the question you're asking, and the answer is yes. Also, if we are answering each other questions, I have some questions on the female form I have always wanted answe-.”
“I am going to stop you right there; I will not speak about my wife’s nakedness.”
“Boo.”
“And do you really want to know about your new sister’s naked body?”
Thinking about it, I say, “That’s gross.”
“No, Maple’s body is actually qui-.”
Putting my fingers in my ears, I say, “LALALALALALA!”
“Looks like someone is still a child.”
“I am fine with being a child forever if being an adult means I have to hear that. But now since we have nothing to talk about, I have a question I would like you to answer.”
“Go ahead, whatever you want answered I will give you.”
“Willow, what is the point of life?” Looking at Willow I see he is making an annoyed face. “What’s with that face, didn’t you say you will answer whatever I wanted!?
“I thought it was going to be about how to get an amazing wife, not what is the meaning of life! Is something wrong with your head? How would I even know that I’m 15 years old!”
Faining being upset, I turn my head to the side and say, “And here I thought Willow was a man of his word, but it seems this newly married man has already started lying, Oh how I worry for Maple’s fate.”
Rubbing his head, Willow says, “I am a man of my word!”
Holding back a giggle, I say, “Really that worked?”
“Yes, it did, now expand on that point you just made so I can answer it.”
“Alright, alright.” Tucking my knees in between my arms, I say, “While I was outside I learned that people really are living their lives much differently than I am, but I’m not so sure I agree with the ways they live their lives.
But one thing I can say for sure is that the people of Jedidiah focused more on the afterlife rather than the present, and all of you guys in Aplos were happy. Yet I intervened and tried to make things better, but I don’t know if what I did was worth destroying their current happiness for the unsure future, I gave them is truly the best option.
Even now I have ripped Suzuka away from her execution to try and give her a better life but will the life I give her be better than the solace she could have had in her execution. I am the man who allowed Cyrus’s sister to die, and then almost allowed the same to happen to Anto, Atalanta and Cyrus. I just don’t know, so tell me Willow what the meaning of life is?”
Φ I say, “Orb if you had never come to the village, I would have gone down one of two paths in life. First, I become a warrior, hunt with everyone else, marry Maple, become a father and die happy never seeing the outside world.
Or I give up on becoming a warrior, continue my love for animals, use my knowledge to teach the next generation strategies against wonderbeasts, marry Maple, become a father and die happy never seeing the outside world.”
Orb’s hair changes to green, so I say, “Two completely separate paths that would have given me happiness, so in a way Orb your right I would have lived a happy life if you had never come to Aplos.”
As Orb’s hair changes from green to brown, then to black. “But the person standing in front of you is someone who is also a warrior and who also loves animals whilst teaching the younger generation. The two versions of me who would have gone down separate unconnected paths have now fused into one and that is thanks to you always wishing the very best for people.”
Orb hair turns Pink, so I say, “I have also become much more talkative and a lot more competitive and thanks to this which wouldn’t have happened had I gone down one path. I have discovered so much happiness I wouldn’t have, and I am sure there are countless different paths which could give me happiness and I intend to fuse with as many of them as possible so that my own happiness and the happiness I can spread will grow, I owe it to myself to try that.”
With red hair, Orbs says, “But you won’t ever be able to see all those paths.”
“That simply means I can still keep growing till I die doesn’t that sound fun!”
“But what if you die on your search for this happiness, it is a dangerous gamble.”
“You can die living as safely as possible, so if I am going to die, NO, if I am going to live, I will do it the best I possibly can.”
“That might be how you see it, but you do have a much higher chance of facing disaster, the more happiness you try to covet the more danger you face. I have too many lives to take care of to base my decisions on such things.”
“Then let me be your living example!”
With grey hair, Orbs says, “What?”
“We can never truly know whether this path is good or not until someone walked it. So, keep being you and I will be the living example of whether the words you say carry weight or not, since unlike you I am rather normal.”
Orb’s hair, changes from grey to red to orange to blue, to green then he laughs and says, “You really want to waste your life on such stupidity?”
“Of course, I do. You’ve saved this life so I will allow you to mess with it somewhat.”
Standing up, Orb says, “Ok then fool, let’s walk down this path to find the answer, you fool.”
“You call me a fool, but you came and asked for my counsel.”
“Because all you have on your brain is animals and Maple, so I decided to use all of that unused mental energy towards a purpose.”
“Hey, are you forgetting I organized a prison break!”
“Yes, but it only succeeded thanks to my awesome strength.”
Pulling out my sword, I say, “You want to test that?”
Φ Activating my legacy, I say, “I still have some leftover resentment so I would like to take that out on you. Don’t worry I will hold back.”
“I won’t, I will be aiming for all your weak stops, and using my secret weapon.” Willow whistles and moments later Willow the 2nd comes running up the sloped hill. “This is the double Willow combo!”
Laughing, I say, “When I defeat you know it will be more embarrassing.”
“TRY ME!”
“YOU'RE ON!”
-Break-
Φ Hoping off of Maple the 2nd, I say, “Now where could my family be?”
Feeling a tap on my shoulder, I see Maple the 2nd tapping me with her tail, So I say, “What is it, girl?”
She points with her tail to the top of the cliff, so I say, “Let’s go check over there then.”
Hopping on her back, she runs directly to the top. “You're way faster than Willow the 2nd, is it because you only have 2 legs.” As she roars, I rub her head and say, “You're such a good girl!”
When we reach the top, I see Orb, Willow, and Willow the 2nd lying on the ground beaten and bruised, so I hop off and say, “What are you three doing?”
Willow says, “Man stuff.”
Orb says, “Nothing you will understand.”
“Well, I would like it if my husband and brother didn’t fight, since you guys are brothers now two. That goes for you two Willow the 2nd!”
Suddenly Orb says, “I guess we are brothers now Willow.”
Laughing Willow says, “Then this was our first brotherly spat.”
Hugging my husband, I say, “Don’t scare me.”
“Sorry honey.”
Sitting up, Orb says, “Oh look at the happy couple.”
“Do you want to get executed Orb!?”
“Ok, Ok, I won’t make jokes, but now we do have some work to get to.”
“What is that?”
“I told you guys earlier this year, I have found a place for all of us, and we are going there.”