A Cracked Star

[Stella]

 

We're back on the couch again, only this time Dawn is hugging a giant wolf and won't let go. Having continued to cry since the moment she saw the wolf. His name, well, her name is Rosco, and she is able to communicate with all both of us like the Alpha wolf but just not limited to one of us. 

 

"Rosco, do you know how you managed to get here?" I say, still stuck on the how, and not the why. I doubt Dawn is going to care with how much of an emotional wreck she is, on top of her seeming to have issues sleeping.

 

"Rosco was sleeping in a warm embrace, the embrace was gentle and protected me from all the pain, and next thing I know I'm here." She says, her tail wagging happily. 

 

Fighting the urge to facepalm I think of a few different questions to ask that aren't difficult for Rosco to answer. "Besides the last place you slept, do you remember anything before that?" 

 

"Oh yes, Rosco was waiting for Dawn and Pops at home like a good boy. But only Pops came home." Rosco says.

 

"Rosco, why do you call Dawn and Pops by name? Wouldn't master be more appropriate?" Hearing that is confusing, from what I've heard about familiar spells, the familiar always calls them summoner master.

 

Rosco seems confused by my words, "Why would I, that's not their names and I've never heard them call each other that before. Anyways, about Pops, at first he was fine but as the day went by he started moving a lot around our territory more than usual." 

 

At the mention of their pops, Dawn looks up quickly, "What about pops? Is he alright?" 

 

"Pops was fine but he seemed more restless after a while. At some point a bunch of men in uniforms came after Pops made a phone call." Rosco says, before her ears start to fall, "It got lonely after that, the last thing pops did was hug me and apologize before he left." 

 

"What?" Dawn said, shocked at her words. "But why would he?" 

 

"Oh right." Rosco's voice grew louder, "Pop's hand was very warm when he gave me headpats before leaving, I think his hand was glowing too, I don't remember exactly. But he said to me <You'll see Dawn again, I promise.>" She said, "Will we see him again? I miss pop too." 

 

Dawn seems to clench up at that, "I hope so, I really do and getting you back to me has given me new hope." She says, while giving Rosco a bunch of scratches by her ears. "Hey Rosco, do you want a new name? You're no longer male so I feel it could work as a new beginning sort of way. Not that I hate your old name, it just doesn't fit now." 

 

"Yeah" She says, all excitedly. 

 

"There is a name I used a lot when playing my online games but I feel it's fitting now, so how does Rosa sound?" She says, hugging her tighter. 

 

"Rosa . . .Rosa, I like it. And it's even better because you gave it to me, just like before." Rosa says, giving Dawn a few licks on her face causing her to giggle. 

 

"You have no idea how happy I am to have you back." Dawn mumbles, her tail being extremely expressive behind her.

 

I'm glad she's starting to cheer up, I need to go check up on Arya though, get away from the emotions I'm feeling from Dawn, they're much stronger than normal and keep going all over the place. "Dawn, I'm gonna go check up on Arya now, it should be almost time for us to leave these ruins." 

 

She nods, before turning her head towards me, "Sounds good, and Stella." She pauses, "Thanks for listening earlier, I know I didn't say everything you might have wanted to hear but you listened nonetheless." 

 

"No problem." I hugged the two of them before looking at Rosa, "Take care of her, she's a little unstable right now even if she doesn’t admit to it." 

 

"Of course." She says.

 

~~~~~

 

Leaving our soul space, I find Arya climbing up a tree, keeping a watch with her staff at the ready as her ears twitch to any source of sound. 

 

"Hey Arya, any trouble yet?" I ask

 

"Not at the moment, it's been quiet and those creatures we fought have stayed away from us. But the area they are in is starting to turn lifeless." Arya said as she continued to keep watch. "Something has to be done about them soon, otherwise I feel the forest will be drained by them." 

 

Climbing down the tree, she starts making her way towards the entrance. "We have less than an hour now. We got to hurry and tell Taleah about what happened." Arya says, "Also, what did Dawn do? I know I asked her to try some things out but I could feel our mana being drained in huge waves. I’ve had to stop and meditate to regain mana."

 

"Do you want the insane reason or the strange reason?" I ask.

 

"Insane? Now you have me worried." She says. 

 

"Well, long story short, Dawn used your ideas and went further with them. Meaning our white space is no longer a white space."

 

Arya stops at that to look at me. "What?"

 

"Yup."

 

"And the strange reason?" 

 

"She summoned her pet dog from her world who is now a wolf that reaches up to our waist." I said.

 

". . . Are you sure it was her dog?" She asked.

 

"I wish I was joking, or dreaming, but not only the dog recognized her, somehow Dawn did too even though it looked nothing like a dog that I know of. Only guess is that they might have a link of some sort."

 

"I'll have to check in with her later." Aray said as she pinched the top of her nose.

 

"Don't, she needs her space I think." I say, "When we were talking, I tried bringing up her family, and while she wasn’t explaining too much, I know she was agitated about something. Her ears kept slapping me in the face."

 

Arya laughs as she pictures Dawn hitting my face with her ears before making her way towards the entrance. "Oh well, she'll come out when she is ready."

 

~~~~~

 

Eventually the time for the exit to open happens, allowing for Arya to exit the place quickly. She takes the time to watch the entrance to wait for it to seal up before creating multiple walls of hardened rock over top of the already sealed entrance. 

 

"We can't take any chances for them to get out."

 

"Yeah, if they’re linked to the thing causing the corruption in the forest then we need to stop them." 

 

"Now to find Turgis, he said he'd be back once it opens up."

 

"I'm right here." Turgis says, a little off to the right through the link he created. Causing Arya to jump from the sudden voice.

 

"Don't . . don't do that, why are you so silent." 

 

"It's kind of my thing." Turgis replied, "Got to hunt, got to hunt somehow."

 

"We need to head back, something urgent to report to Taleah." Arya said.

 

"Does it have something to do with you putting more walls on the entrance?" He asks.

 

"Yes, now let's head back." Saying so, Arya leads the way back with Turgis right beside her, keeping up quite easily as they head back to the cave.. 

 

"I wanted to ask, but I feel like you're closer to my kind than before, what changed?" He says.

 

"I don't understand everything that happened to us over the last day. We learned enough that it feels like the world's playing tricks on us." Arya replies while showing the dual staffs she has.

 

"That still doesn't answer me."

 

"My last sister woke up, and whatever she did when waking up, it caused all of us to change. Empowering us in the process." Arya says.

 

"Last sister? I only see you." Turgis says, confused by Arya's statement.

 

"Because you can't see them, unless you can sense or see souls. There's three of us, including me, within our body. We can swap who is in control at any given moment." She says.

 

"That explains the sudden shifts in demeanor then. And the fact your eye color changes every once in a while is also to blame huh.“ Turgis said.

 

I keep forgetting our eye color changes depending on who is in control. That’s going to pose a problem in future probably. Though, we could play it as the triplets for the people who don't know, though it might bring up questions like why are we never with the other one. I'll have to ask Arya and Dawn what they want to do about it. 

 

~~~~~

 

It doesn't take long to get back to the wolves home, making small talk along the way. Turgis told us how the pups were behaving while we were gone. Mostly meant they were bugging him about where we were or when we're coming back. Leaving our body to gain some distance, that way I can watch in full glory as Arya gets tackled by the group of wolf puppies excited to see us.

 

Turgis just shakes his head before going into the cave. I swear from the look on his face that he would be laughing if he could. "I'll go let the guardian know you're back."

 

"Ahaha, you guys, I was only gone for a day." Arya says, while trying to pick up as many pups as she can along with her staffs, proving difficult. "Come on, let's go inside."

 

They follow her inside as we see the adult wolves look fondly at us as they eat. Getting them back to their respective parents, I turn to see Taleah walk into the room with Alpha, she seems shocked looking back and forth from me and Arya as I float in place. 

 

"Wait, you're the other sister. How are you out of your body? I know spells exist that have similar effects but that means your entire soul is out, and clearly, yours is not." Taleah says pointing at Arya. 

 

"Can you hear me?" I ask, only to get a confused expression from the moon elf. I call out to Arya, "Arya you gotta talk for the both of us. She can't hear me, though she can see me, so it's a step in the right direction I guess."

 

"I'll be right there." She says as she puts down the last few pups. Making her way over, she sees the confused expression on Taleah. "Thanks for confirming a question I had about our new state." 

 

"We'll get to that later, I just want to ask. The arcane focus you wanted us to grab, it was a jewel about the size of my two fingers, yes?" Arya asks. 

 

Taleah's eyes light up as she understands what we're asking. "So you have it then?"

 

"Sort of." Arya starts to scratch behind her ears. "Eheh." 

 

"What do you mean, sort of?" Taleah asks. 

 

"See, we had it in hand, and it kind of just uhhh . . . shot into our body." Arya says with a shy grin, making me facepalm, catching Taleah's attention.

 

"And that's how you two are able to be connected and separated?"

 

"Maybe? Honestly you'd have to ask Dawn. She woke up shortly after the focus was absorbed into our body." Arya says.

 

"Dawn?" At her words, I nod while holding up three fingers.

 

"Our third sister, the one I mentioned before, who was still asleep." Arya says. "I mean, Stella could go grab her for answers but she's kind of . . . unstable." I just stare at Arya for not hiding anything. Sighing, I motion for Taleah to wait before I go back into our soul space to grab Dawn.