Chapter one: the family reunites.
It was an ordinary looking day, not too much to make it memorable, aside from Holly bringing us to this clearing to… do… something? I don’t know. When I asked my aunt, she just smiled and reclined in mid air, saying “I just had a feeling we would like what happens here.”
I looked around, seeing that I was not the only one brought here, there was Anarchy, Eris and Bobs wolf like daughter, and her pony half sister Screwball, who was Bob and Jinxs daughter.
Then there was Bob himself, who was looking much different lately, his body looking more Deer like as of late, he apparently has been doing this as a way to honor my father, who had sacrificed himself to save my kingdom and my people when I was a baby, he had even taken on the use of a bow, which was a very common deer weapon, as a way to complete his homage.
Near us, or I should say above us, was my aunt Holly. She seemed… off about her looks. Mostly it was that she was purple.
Near her was my other aunt, though I really don’t know if she was my aunt, Telyn. Her long black hair was braided behind her back and wore loose, silk clothes as she stayed under the shade of the trees. She was kind to me and taught me magic but her eyes always freaked me out, they were clouded which showed she’s blind, yet she seemed to see me.
Next to Bob was Eris, who was looking decidedly more human lately, she even had an hourglass figure, instead of a serpentine one.
I looked around for a bit before I saw Bob look to me happily “Hey there, Arvir! How’s my one and only nephew?”
Eris hugged me close,good thing she wears a sweater now... “Ooh! You’ve grown up so much! I remember when you were just a baby!”
Anarchy smiled and hugged me as well, noogying me hard “Yeah, cus! We sure have grown up, huh? Remember that time when we pranked old Praxy?”
I smiled and nodded after breaking free “Yeah, we reprogrammed one of the golems into thinking he was a baby to feed.”
Anarchy laughed loudly “Yeah, I still can’t believe how much he freaked out, or how funny he looked in baby clothes and a diaper!”
I then smiled and chuckled as Eris summoned up a mirror “I mean, look at you! Your white fur has grown in so soft and full, and you have your first set of antlers! Not to mention you're now a whopping six foot five! And so ripped!” She smiled and nudged Anarchy “If only he wasn’t your cousin, huh?”
Anarchy made a gagging motion with her green wolf paw like hand, waving Eris away with her lupine paw/hand.“Nah, I can’t imagine him as anything but family, but I can say he is handsome. For a Deer.”
I smiled as I waved at my uncle “Good, you have any idea why we are here?”
Arvir shook his head “Not a clue, but if Holly says it’ll be good, I trust her.” He then looked to Holly “So… how are things with my big sister?”
Holly smiled “Well, me and Telyn are still friends, so that’s nice, I was worried that we’d drift apart after I left, but we still talk and have fun sometimes.”
“Liar.” Telyn said, appearing near me. I jumped as I looked at where she was before. “How did you leave if you never left?”
Holly blushed “I did leave! I just live next door to you, that’s all.”
“Yeah, after I told you to move from off my front step.” Telyn said bluntly. Comically, Holly turned into ice and fell to the ground. “Arvir know this, if you get a girlfriend, don’t be like your aunt and be clingy.”
Holly created a corner out of wood and sulked in it, starting a little mushroom farm as she did so. “I’ll just be here, making a mushroom house.”
I nodded “I think I’d rather be like my mom and dad, they were truly in love, I mean, he sacrificed himself for her and her kingdom.” As I said that, I sighed “Man, I wish I could of known him…”
All of a sudden, I hear the sound of... a train whistle?
I then looked around to see where the sound was coming from “Hey, you guys hear that? I hear a train…”
Holly looked around for a moment before going back to her mushrooms, Bob took out his bow, and Eris readied her talons and claws I looked to Telyn and smiled “Be ready for a fight, auntie, last thing we need is to be caught off guard.” I then walked over to Holly and tapped her shoulder “Now is not sulking time.”
Holly nodded and floated up, now ready with a Twili spear and the fused shadow on her head now, as the twili energy coated her body. Some shadow vines wrapped around her arms as she got ready for whatever was coming.
Bob laughed grimly “Between us, we can take on anything! Ready, honey?”
Before his wife could say anything, a black portal opened and a large, fortress like train burst out of it with shadowy flames around it. I watched it flew over our heads.
“How about that?” Telyn asked Bob.
Bob raised a brow “You took on an army of Dragons that dwarfed that thing, I’m sure you could handle it, at least.” He then smiled widely “And that’s not counting us helping you!”
“Yeah, no.” Telyn looked over at me. “Tell me, what do you sense?”
I frowned as I looked at the train and reached with my magic sense. What I found made me shudder. “I sense… that thing alone could take out a world.”
Bob looked to me hopefully “Well… what do we do? Do we see who comes off of the train? Did you sense who was on it?”
I shook my head as the train soon slowed down to a stop near us. We all looked at one another before we heard someone yelling.
“All right, final stop, move it or lose it, this is your stop, GET OFF!” a young voice yelled as a door opened and someone got kicked off. “Thank you for taking Train death, please don’t call us or we’ll run you over, bye bye.”
With that the door closed and just like it came, it went into the black portal. We all stood there wondering what just happened.
Screwball was the first one to speak “What in the name of canned cheese just happened?”
“That, my cute girl, is something called random shit.” a voice said. We turned and saw a young man with yellow hair and eyes. He looked at Screwball with a smile. “Hows it going good looking?”
Screwball smiled “Hopefully somewhere you are going, handsome.”
Eris and Bob grabbed Screwball in a second “Nope! My daughter will not be deflowered yet!” Shouted Bob and Eris in unison.
“I don’t know, she’s quite a lo-”
“BROTHER GET BACK IN HERE!” a voice yelled as another arm reach up and grabbed him. “THE FATHER WILL GET MAD AT US!”
“Spoil sport…” he looked at Screwball and toss her something. “Call me~.” and with that he was gone.
Screwball caught it and looked at it, it was a piece of paper with his phone number on it, strangely normal, no weird power signature or anything.
It was then that the man who was kicked out of the train got up. He was strangely familiar, although I could not place where I had seen this strange human before. It was then that he disappeared and was right in front of Bob, hugging him “I thought I would never see you again…” As he said this, Bob froze, as if he could not believe what he was seeing.
Holly looked to the strange man and Bob, before dropping her spear to the ground and falling to her feet, running to them and joining the hug.
I looked around and tried to keep calm “What is going on? Who is this?”
“I think the three of them are going to tell you.” Telyn said as Bob and Holly dragged the new man over.
The man looked to me in shock “A-Arvir? Is...is that you?”
I nodded slowly “Yeah? Who are you?”
He smiled as tears formed in his eyes. “It’s me, Arvir, it’s Greg! I’m your dad!” He hugged me and I froze as I realised he was telling the truth. This aura, this feeling, I remember it...this is my dad, who gave up everything to ensure the safety of me and his people… “Dad, we need to talk…”
Dad looked to me happily “Whatever you want, son, I’m just so happy to see you!” He then looked around “Ah, Telyn! I see you held true to your promise! Arvir is a healthy young man, and he seems to be quite well off magically as well! I can feel the magical energy pouring off of him!” He then looked around “Wait… where is Rose? I was hoping she’d be here…”
I looked to my father sadly “We need to see Prax about that.”
At Prax’s lab
Prax looked to Greg, who was now in the form of a slendersapien, as he called it. “How are you even alive?!” Prax cried out, his cybernetic eye looking to him in awe “I cannot believe it! You… you aren’t just alive, but you are stronger than ever! How is this possible?!”
Greg held out his hands placatingly “I myself don’t know, only that the people are responsible far outmatched me and Zalgo.”
Prax winced as he heard the name “S-sorry… old habits, everyone flinches at that name now...wait…” he looked to dad “What do you mean, outmatched?”
Dad chuckled darkly “I’m pretty sure they could've killed us just by thinking about it…”
He then gestured to Prax “But what happened here? I barely recognized you!”
It was true, he looked extremely different, he had recently melded his body with a mark 5 Golem, the most powerful series yet. Even stronger than The Father Ash Body, which was legendary at this point. Sadly, Father Ash had passed on about a month ago. He had every Manonic weapon imaginable added into the body, as well as orichalcum and adamant alloy metal paired with wood from branches fallen from the Great Oak, in a word, he was a powerhouse. His only part of him that was still Biological was his face, the rest of him now manonic.
Prax smiled “Well, I had to stop my soul from degrading, this was the only way I could, without contacting the monsters. It… didn’t feel right, talking to them without you.”
Dad nodded “Well, where is Rose? I heard that I should talk to you about it?”
Prax paused, before sighing, his entire demeanor becoming… tired. “Follow me.”
I followed Dad, Aunt Holly and Eris following me, with Bob next to my Dad, Anarchy and Screwball were looking to me with worry, to which I waved off their concerned looks.
We eventually came upon a pair of trees, them growing around each other into one larger tree, one Birch, one ash, both enchanted to take the shape of my parents respectively, and made so that it looked like they were embracing each other, a beautiful garden growing around it as well.
I smiled sadly as I looked to my dad, who had fallen to his knees “I know this place… it’s the memorial garden… every plant represents a great hero to the Deer… we… she… she’s gone?”
Prax nodded “She had me make a portal that linked to you shortly after the Great Oak moved… she walked in, and the portal exploded, we found no trace of her, and I was crippled by my wounds… that is why I had to build myself a new body.”
He sat down and buried his face in his hands “Why? Why, why, why?!” He grasped the tree as his power surged, the tree growing lush as he did so. “Why did she have to follow me?! I did it for her! Why couldn’t she just live with her family?!”
I placed a hand on my father's shoulder “Because it was not complete without you… We all knew it. Bob wept when he couldn’t sense you anymore, so did Holly… I cried almost every night for a year, apparently, because you were no longer there to rock me to sleep.”
Dad looked to me and hugged me before he stood up, rubbing the tears from his eyes. “Come on, let’s see how the world is now, huh?”
I smiled “Gladly.”