A Boy, a Dog Girl and Honey's Revelation: Part One

Chistos sat in his favorite chair, trying to read the news scroll being projected from the orb. It was a futile task. He kept thinking of his two new wards and their career revelations.

Zack had been overjoyed with his results, immediately going to the orb set up in his room and reading sites about runeball, pointing out plays to Honey.

“This is my future! I’ve got the skills, I’ve got the drive, I’ve got minor magical aptitude, I’ve got so many videos saved to this glowing ball…”

“You have the hang of using an orb yet?” Chista asked, poking her head in.

“Of course I do!” Zack said, clicking a video without looking.

“Hey, big boy! So, you like short little goblin girls with huge…”

Zack quickly threw his blanket over the orb, hiding it and muting it from Honey and Chista as the blue haired girl smugly smirked at him and the dog girl tilted her head quizzically.

“Research. Pure research. Go away. Never speak to me again,” Zack said, doing his best to ignore the redness spreading all over his face.

The real challenge had been the girls. To say he was shocked over Honey’s wizard rank would be a severe understatement. Chistos calmly sat Honey and Zack down over dinner.

“You have to understand, an S rank wizard could be…well, world changing if they spent the time to reach their full potential. I’m only an A rank.”

“So I’m stronger than you?” Honey asked. Chistos noted the twitch in his daughter’s face when she said it.

“No. Not only do you have the vast majority of your power locked behind whatever this transformation is, but you are a young girl. The rank is only your power’s ceiling.”

“Still, it’s a pretty bad ass ceiling. Only the elite of the elite can get there, right Chista?” Zack asked. She stood up then, her dinner half eaten.

“Right. It’s been a long day. I’m going to bed,” Chista said. As she made her way to her room, Chistos heard her mutter, “A freaking dog…”

“I guess she wasn’t hungry. I think the four winged chicken is good!” Honey said innocently. Zack, however, watched her walk away with a tight little knot in his stomach. The hidden sniping felt too much like how his home had been when his dad lived there.

So Chistos sat late into the night, thinking about the headstrong boy, the innocent yet powerful dog girl, and his daughter. His sweet daughter who tried so hard…

“Got something to ask you.”

Chistos was startled from his deep thinking by Zack sitting down on the couch across from him. His face was much more serious than the old man was used to.

“Ask away. I’m here to guide you.”

“Then tell me why people call Chista a failure.”

The room was so quiet they could swear they heard a dripping faucet from the apartment downstairs. Chistos heavy sigh practically rumbled his chair.

“I am far older than I look.”

“How old? I mean, I would say you look forty five, forty seven, so are you saying you’re, what, sixty or…”

“Last year I celebrated my five hundred and fourth birthday.”

The dripping from the lower apartment got much louder. Zack had to mentally reboot so he could close his mouth after the revelation.

“Well…your hairline is impressive for your age.”

Chistos snorted out a short laugh, trying to disguise it as a cough.

“Yes…thank you. However, I bring this up because it leads me to Chista’s problem. I have seen and done many things. I fought in three of the five great magic wars, was among the heroes who killed the dark lord during one and trained the heroes in another. Yet a family, love, these things escaped me.”

“And then you met Chista’s mom, right?”

“Chista has no mother.”

A third aching silence. Zack was starting to get pissed at the dripping.

“Say what now?”

“A decade and a half ago, an old friend of mine discovered an ancient artifact which allowed…how do I put this? A kind of cloning. More of a rebirth. I could recreate myself to leave a legacy more in my control behind. This was the devices purpose. It worked exactly once before detonating. From it came Chista.”

“Um, not to pry, but Chista is a girl.”

Chistos gave a small, sly smile. “I don’t have so much ego where I wanted to leave an exact copy of myself. Her mind is hers, but physically, she is a copy of me other than her second X chromosome.”

“So…why the failure talk, Mister A Rank Wizard?”

“When Chista was ten, she entered Madam VanVeer’s Academy. She took her test. Wizard career path, obviously. I don’t know if she’s mentioned it, but she wants to be a healer one day. Her ambitions are grand. But her talent…she’s a C rank, Zack.”

“Wait, are you telling me she’s weak? But she helped save us in the woods and brought us back after what happened on Earth…”

“She brought you back all mixed up with each other. Hence your animal like athletic ability and Honey’s humanoid form. The truth is, Chista shouldn’t have even been on Earth. Only expert wizards like myself go solo for our research. But my daughter wanted to prove herself…”

It suddenly made sense to him. Zack leaned back into the couch, his mind reliving interactions with Chista. The hidden guilt he saw on her face. “Shouldn’t have even been there…”

“Worse, Honey is now an S rank wizard. She created a creature which has the potential to end the world.”

“And she’s living in a house where a pet dog has become a better wizard overnight than her. Man…” Zack let out a bitter laugh. “And I thought my Earth home life was complicated.”

From the hall, a pair of eyes watched this conversation. “I’m so sorry, Chista…” Honey whined softly, her new power suddenly feeling like a heavy burden.