The Star

When I woke up I was in the children's room of the house we’d been staying at. Indena was at my bedside, watching me closely with a stern gaze.

“I knew you’d pull through.” She put her head down on the bed and breathed out a sigh. “I don’t know what you did, but you got us back here in one piece.”

She was wrong about that. All I did was shoot the Reaper. I thought she was the one that got us back here.

“No. Didn’t you bring us back?”

Her face popped with confusion, then she tapped her hand on the bed.

“Then if it wasn’t you, who was it?”

I heard a voice just before I passed out. Whoever it was I figured it had to have been our mysterious saviour. I vaguely remember it sounding like a woman. My head was so hazy that I couldn’t recall well enough.

"I think there was someone else with us." I suggested.

"Then why didn't they help before?" Indena shook her head.

Maybe they did? Who knows what they might have been doing for us in the background.

“Well, whatever got us back here, I’ll have to thank it later," she said. "I think they healed my wounds, because I feel great.”

Me too, actually. Whoever they were, they might have had healing magic or something. You know, did this world have healing potions at all? What RPG wouldn’t? If it did we might want to get a few. We could definitely use them in a pinch.

"Indena, have you ever heard of health potions?"

"Hmm…" She considered my question. "Yeah. Never used one before. They're not as powerful as healing magic, but you won't age from using it. Downside is that you need blood to make it."

Blood? Yuck. Nevermind trying to get a potion.

"The more powerful a mage you take blood from, the more potent the potion is. They're super expensive, so we won't see those anytime soon." She stood up, then got me out of bed and we started walking to the door. “Um…by the way, while you were sleeping something really weird happened…”

“Hmm?” I cocked my head like a curious bird. “What happened?”

~☆☆☆~

Let me sum up the events that unfolded while I was resting.

About three hours ago Indena woke up to the sound of a loud crash outside.

“Was that a car crash? What the fu–...” She said a really nasty word I’m not allowed to repeat.

Thinking it was a threat, she went to investigate the issue. When she got outside she did indeed see a car broken down in the front yard.

Two people were in the car, both were unconscious but alive. Luckily the snow was melting from the sun peeking down every so often, so she dragged them back in and started treating their wounds quickly. Both were stabilized, but they still needed more treatment.

She wanted me to use healing magic on them, but I was still out cold.

I forgot to mention something. In all that mess with the Reaper I leveled up a lot. My Incantation Points went up a lot too, so I could use support magic more, including Lesser Heal.

Not wanting to waste any more time I jumped out of bed and raced downstairs to heal the two people laying on the sleeping bags next to each other.

“Pat-a-cake, pat-a-cake, baker's man! I’ll heal you up as fast as I can!”

One of them was a woman, probably just a bit older than Indena. She had short cinnamon coloured hair and what looked like a school uniform and skirt. She had a little shield looking necklace with a blue star at the center. Seven other stars were engraved on the edge of this shield.

The strangest part of her was that she had a manona crest on her arm bracelet. That could explain how they got here, but where'd she get that?

The other person was a man, probably just a little older than the woman. He had a really fancy looking blue coat but it was covered in dirt and cuts all over. A little dried blood too.

“I think this one’s named Yamin.” She pointed to the girl. “Then this one’s name is Marek.”

“How do you know?”

Indena whipped out two red looking crystal cards. Each had words written on them in the Euron language. That was what we were speaking right now, by the way.

“These are identification cards. Found them in their pockets.”

I felt like pulling those out was a bit of a violation of personal belongings, but at least we had more info on them now.

“You took those cards from them?”

“Hey, I gotta’ make sure these guys aren’t freaks.” She glared down at Yamin with a distasteful look. “That one especially.”

Yamin didn’t look all that bad. Why did we need to watch her "especially?"

“What’s wrong with her?”

“Don’t worry about it.” Indena tossed the ID cards on the table. “Just keep watching them. Maybe use that healing magic on em'. They’re gonna’ be hungary, so I gotta’ make some food.”

Now that they were healed, was I just supposed to stare at them now? I mean, I could do it, but that sounded so boring to watch someone sleep.

Ahh, you know what? I needed to make sure they would be okay. Watching them wasn’t an issue at all. To keep me busy I found a book on one of the shelves and started reading it.

It was all about this guy who woke up one day and learned he was reincarnated into another world. It felt oddly relatable...

~☆☆☆~

I finished the book after about two hours of reading. It was pretty short, but part of a series. There was much more to check out if I had the time.

Neither of the people were awake yet, so I decided to go check up on Indena in the kitchen. With all that time she was probably…

Oh, she was sleeping in one of the kitchen chairs…you know, she deserved a little rest after all this. There was some food in a pot, so she must have finished cooking.

I went back and got her a blanket and pillow. I put the pillow behind her head, and then covered her in a blanket. She looked all cozy.

Since I had a little freetime I decided to mess around and check out my stats from leveling up. I shot from level 16 all the way to level 20 in that whole mess! The HELP menu wasn’t kidding when it said the quickest way to level was killing monsters. Demons, in this case.

In my stats screen there was a little dialog box that popped up. The diolog box asked me if I wanted to add Indena to my party.

There was a party system here too? Wow, that might be pretty handy. I selected 'yes' and her name and level appeared at the bottom left corner of my FOV.

Oh my gosh, she was a high level! Much higher than me. I was currently level 20, which happened during the Reaper fight. She was level 46! More than double what I had.

With how these worked though I had a feeling we were both pretty low leveled as far as this system was concerned. But I only had the two of us to go off of, so I’d wanna’ see more before I made that call.

She also had a class as well. Here's what I saw on her stats screen...

-Indena Taioshi :: Level 46 Battle Mage :: Human :: Female-

-Age : 14 :: DOB - 502/08/26 (ED) ::-

-:: Homeworld = Eden ::-

Indena was only 14 years old? *Snicker…*

Battle Mage sounded like an awesome class. It fit her really well. Her stats were pretty good too I think. Like I said, I only had the two of us to go off of.

It was entirely possible that this whole system was superfishy…‘superficial,’ I mean. (Second time I got that word wrong) But looking at her stats gave me a rough idea of what I could expect from leveling up.

You know, I didn’t even know my own class. What was it? Did I even have one? I took a closer look at my own stats screen and found…

-Yalda Asamo :: Level 20 Arch-Exceed :: Type 3 Exceed :: Female-

Age : 7 :: DOB - 509/09/05 (ED) ::

:: Homeworld = Eden ::

Serial Number : 282-475-249

Theta Level : Theta (normal form)

“Wooooow! Arch-Exceed sounds so cool!” I announced with all the excitement of a popping balloon.

I didn’t notice this before. It might have just appeared since I hit level 20. That must have been one of those really special classes, since it sounded so cool. I think they're called prestige classes?

My help menu didn’t give me much info on what it was though, but so far it was looking to be a support class since I was mostly getting spells that healed people and gave those buffs and stuff. You’d think with a class called Arch-Exceed it would be more about fighting, but I guess not. At least, not yet. But who knows what I might get from it later?

I saw the woman named Yamin start to justle around a little, possibly disturbed by my sudden shout. Her eyes were tightly pressed together and she was grinding her teeth.

“No, stop…” she mumbled. “I don’t wanna’ help you.”

She must have been having a bad dream. I wonder what it was. From the sounds of it she might have been dealing with a bad guy.

Her hand started to slap the face of Marek next to her, which caused him to roll around now. She definitely wasn't doing it on purpose, but he started to open his eyes.

“I’m awake…mother!” Marek shot up to a sitting position, his eyes were wide as saucers. “Err, mother?” He looked around, then down at the sleeping Yamin. His cheeks blushed. “No, not again!” He put his hand up to his face and grunted in disapproval.

I guess he was the first to wake up. It didn’t take him long to see me sitting on the sofa.

“Hello,” I smiled and waved.

“Uh…” He nervously smiled and waved back. “I see, we have died. You are an angel, no?”

“No, I’m an Exceed.”

He didn’t understand. His face tilted with confusion, then he turned back to Yamin.

“Is she alright? Where are we?”

I told him that Yamin was going to be fine, she just seemed to be having a bad dream. As for our location I explained that we were near the North Pole, Esma.

“Bu bu bu…but, Esma is so far up north!” He shouted in shock. “How did we…”

“You two probably teleported here.” I stood up and pointed to the Manona crest on Yamin’s arm. “This is what did it.”

I tried to explain the process of teleportation, but his facial expressions told me he was just getting more confused.

“I am a modern man, not a magician. I’m not very smart.”

So, he just needed the short and sweet explanations. I’d have to keep that in mind.

Were magicians smarter than modern people? I wonder what he meant by that. Indena was a mage, but not a brainiac.

"My name is Yalda Asamo by the way. It's nice to meet you."

He suddenly looked deeply offended. Not at me, at himself.

His fist clenched and he stood to his feet.

“It is a pleasure to meet you, Yalda Asamo. I am Marek Le Verren.” He did a very cordial bow, the kind a true gentleman would do to a noble lady. I felt so dignified that he did that for me!

Marek was a good person, I could tell. We were going to be good friends.

Just as we finished our introductions, Indena walked into the room holding a soup ladle in one hand, and a hammer in another.

“Hey, I saved your life. Now fix the window.” She tossed the hammer at him!

He caught it with a frantic motion.

Was she crazy!? Throwing hammers was a really bad idea! Especially for someone who just woke up.

Yamin was right under him. Wasn't she worried it would land on her?!

"Indena, don't throw hammers!" I shouted.

"Ohh, sorry." She facetiously covered her mouth. "How about you hold the thing and tell me that again."

I felt the hammer in Marek's hand, it felt unusual light. Taking hold of it I discovered it was light as a feather!

"I'm not stupid, alright. I’m just a bitch."

"Uh…" Marek took back the hammer. "Wha...where is this broken window?"

Indena showed him into the kitchen, then pointed to where the window had been broken by the demons.

He took some wooden planks from the backyard and started nailing them over both sides of the window, then he covered it up with a tarp to prevent a draft.

"All done." He smiled.

"Huh, a man who gets the job done right." She shrugged. "Keep that up and you won't be as useless as your wife in there."

“Waa...wife?!" He blushed. "No no no…"

Marek’s hand clenched the hammer tightly.

"Can it. I was just kidding. Who’d marry a girl like that?"

Yamin might not have been his wife, but why was Indena saying she was useless? That wasn't very nice. We didn’t even know what Yamin’s personality was yet and she was already judging her.

Honestly, why was she acting more grouchy than usual? She was in a good mood when I woke up. Well, not good, but not this bad.

"Indena, you're being mean again."

"What are you…?"

"Yamin isn't able to defend herself, and you're calling her useless."

She glared down on me like a lion staring down a cub. But I'd faced death before, she wasn't so scary anymore.

"You've got some nerve talking to me like that." She growled, putting her hands on her hips.

"Tushy!" I retorted.

"Touché." Marek corrected me. He sounded so natural saying it too…

"Tha...um...What he said!" I pouted as I pointed to him.

Indena didn't respond. She looked at me like this was a challenge to see who would avert their eyes first.

Finally, she rolled her eyes and turned to the other room.

"Just...I…leave me alone." She stomped upstairs.

"My goodness." Marek sighed. "What is wrong with her?"

I explained that she was always like this, but something was upsetting her more than usual. She was actually nicer than she acted.

SLAM!

A door upstairs slammed hard! Then I heard the springy sound of a bed, and then silence above. She must have been sulking pretty hard up there.

Marek and I left to head upstairs and check on her, but we both saw Yamin sitting up on the floor, holding her hands over her eyes and crying.

"Madam!" Marek rushed over, kneeled down and put a hand over her shoulder. "Are you alright?"

"I don't know what's going on! I woke up to a door slamming!"

"It is alright." Marek had a soft and gentle voice. He was patting her shoulder and keeping her comforted.

"Thanks." Yamin sniffled, then tightly gripping her shield looking necklace. "Oh God, please save us from this chaos in our souls."

*Gasp!* She must have believed in God too!

I excitedly sat next to her with puppy eyes, watching her pray. But she just looked at me with a shocked expression.

"Sa...Saint Pireel?"

"Who?" My head tilted.

"Are you an angel?"

Everyone thinks I'm an angel. I didn't even have my wings deployed!

"No. I'm Yalda, an Exceed."

Yamin was still looking at me confused, but then she sighed with relief. Or was that a sigh of disappointment?

"For a second there, I thought you were my guardian angel." She shrugged. "Oh well. My name is Yamin, by the way."

She stood up, all prim and proper, then took a look at my dress and noticed it had mud and dust all over it.

“Oh, sweetheart, we need to clean you up. You'll catch a cold like that.”

We just met, and that's the first thing she worried about? I must have looked pretty dingy...my dress was pretty filthy from all the hiking we did, as well as the battles.

There was also a lot of dried mud on my feet and legs too. That was one of the unfortunate parts about not wearing pants or shoes. But hey, at least mud kinda’ blended with my armour skin colour...not really.

Yamin started looking around the house for any sort of clothes that would fit me, she came back with a cute little dress and undergarments. I was about to swap my dress for the new one, but Yamin stopped me.

“Hon, you need to take off that dirty undersuit too.”

“No, this is my skin. I can’t take it off.”

Both of them were very confused by my statement. I’m starting to think this is going to be a common reaction.

“Are you a robot?” Yamin asked me, tapping a finger on my crystal heart.

“No. I’m a person, like you guys.”

“I see…” she had a funny look on her face, but nodded accordingly. “Alright then, go get in the bath missy. You smell like dirt.”

That wasn’t very nice! But to be honest, I did smell bad. It wasn’t like I produced body odour, but we’d been in the forest for a few days. Even synthetic life forms get a little stinky from that.

Did this place have a bath tub? I found a big bucket and a scrub brush…

Oh! I found the master bathroom. The floors were a cold looking marble, and everything was a shiny porcelain. Why was it so fancy compared to the rest of the house?

The water sure was smelly, but that’s well water for you.

Knock knock!

“Hon! Are you okay in there?”

“Yeah, I know how to clean myself.” I shouted from in the water. Dad made me waterproof, which was a very helpful thing.

I liked how Yamin acted a lot more mature than Indena. She was super nice, humble, but also stern. She was like an older sister on the cusp of motherhood.

Indena was like an older sister who hated children, but played with them anyways because she didn't want them on the streets.

Scrub scrub scrub!

“Rubber ducky, you're the…”