Epilogue

The rest of my dream is full of simple visions and a lingering silence. The quiet however, is not the haunting void it once was. Instead, it’s a gentle pool with an easy current that lulls me back into the world. A familiar voice breaks the silence.

“Hiya June! Mind if we join you?”

I open my eyes groggily, unsure of what I heard at the moment. Rubbing my fingers against my closed eyelids to gentle massage them awake reveals a person in front of me that I thought I would never see again. How lucky you are Azuki to be a cat with nine lives.

She steps out of a wagon with Jet right beside her.

“Azuki!” I cry out and give her a big hug. I’m sure she hates it, but I need it. I need to be selfish for a bit. I never had someone so infuriating to me grow to become one of my best friends. Although, to my surprise she doesn’t pull back. She doesn’t resist in the slightest. I get the feeling that Azuki needed this moment too.

“Aww did you miss me that much Miss June?” Azuki says with a playful grin. She tilts her head and I can see a small tear roll down her cheek. She must have been so scared to be left alone in that temple for so long. It was dark and she could have been hurt.

“...how?” I let out with a sniffle. I have to know how she got out.

“Remember those horses we had at the beginning of our journey?” Azuki asks.

Yeah we had two horses. One got eaten by a giant sand wyrm. Rest in peace Chestnut. The other one though… yeah, whatever happened to Maple?

“Well it turns out, the one you called a coward, Lady Maple, ran away all the way back to Tauwren. Because of her, some of the townies formed a search party to find us just in case. They took a resonance stone with them to call back to the town if need be. When you called Minerva when you were stuck in that cave, she called the search party who was already in the Syla Desert to give them directions to the Sphinx temple.”

Wow. I take back everything I said about you Maple. She is a smart horse.

Still, even though there were a bunch of people to help, it couldn’t have been easy. That stone pillar was incredibly heavy. Even if they stopped to recruit help in Fodder, she still could have been stuck in there for days. Injured. Left alone in the dark. And I was the one who foolishly tricked Xaban into knocking down the temple in the first place. A wave of overwhelming guilt rushes over me.

“I’m so sorry Azuki!” I bawl my eyes out, sobbing like how the little kindergarten June did when bullies stole her precious fairytale books.

“I should have stayed behind to help you! It was all my fault. It should have been me stuck in that temple, not you…”

“Whoa whoa hey. It’s okay. I’m here, I made it! I’m not dying on you anytime soon. Besides, you made a promise to me to treat me to grilled salmon at your place, remember?” Azuki says in a gentle tone, still holding on to our hug.

I try to wipe the tears from my eyes, but as soon as one is clear, another comes rolling down out of nowhere. God I’m such a mess! I must look awful. Oh and if I didn’t look bad enough Azuki comes in and drops this line:

“Thank you for showing love to a stray June…”

Seriously?! The town will be flooded if I keep crying like this! She is so frustrating, albeit in the best way possible. I looked her up and down and quickly realized that while her tail was swooshing happily side to side, I was hugging her much too roughly. She looks a bit frail. Her arms are battered and bruised and her right leg is in a makeshift cast.

“Aah I’m sorry!” I say as I quickly pull my arms away.

“Don’t be. It felt nice…” Azuki mutters before gently pulling me in for one more embrace. She ruffles my bushy hair before letting me go.

I apologize to Azuki again before helping her down to the grass to join Spector and myself. She could use a good rest on the ground. Jet stays standing for a bit. I feel bad, but I totally forgot he was there. I think he feels a little awkward.

“Jet, if you want there’s a big celebration for the heroes in the town center! I’m sure everyone would be happy to see you!” Hopefully this will give him the encouragement he needs to go out there. He’s a hero and he deserves that recognition.

“Why would I be there when I can celebrate with you guys?” Jet’s eyes linger ahead towards the place where the statue of Fern the Fearless stands. If anyone here is as brave and selfless as the protagonist from Emperor of the Lantern, it’s Jet.

“But don’t you at least want to check it out?” I question him once more.

His eyes look back and forth between each of us. He clearly wants to go to the party and his efforts to hide his excitement are absolutely in vain. Honestly though, the fact that he could contain his energy for so long is a feat in and of itself. He’s like a puppy who heard the word “treat”.

“It’s okay buddy you can go, we’ll be fine here!” Spector reassures him. It’s sweet that Jet didn’t want to leave his friends behind, but I think he could use some stimulus right now. As for the rest of us, we’ll just enjoy the nice weather.

“Okay, but I’ll only be gone for a bit!” Jet shouts behind him as he takes off.

“Bring us back some food then!” Azuki calls out.

“Will do!”

Jet steps backwards and gives a charismatic salute. He then runs off with an enormous smile on his face. In the distance, you can hear the crowd at the town center erupt in cheers at Jet’s arrival. Classic hero type.

Eventually the townsfolk quiet down again leaving Azuki the time to ask a rather strange question.

“So y’know how I was trapped in that Sphinx temple for a while?”

How could I forget?!

“Well when I got out, Jet and I were talking to the blacksmith. It turns out, he wasn’t the one who brought Xaban back to life like we initially thought. Xaban brought his resurrector to the temple once and the blacksmith heard them talk about strange things like ‘refrigerators’ and ‘snow cones’. You know what that means?”

Snow cones and refrigerators. I guess the guy really wanted something cold to eat? Wait a minute though, we don’t have modern refrigerators in this world and no one has made a snow cone that I’m aware of. The person who did this is from the real world?

“That means, whoever brought Xaban back to life is an isekai." I pause trying to think of a unique one-liner to end this chapter. "And we’re going to finish them like leftovers.”