Astral's Adventures

An hour of silence passed as he wondered if he had ever explored the stars. Maybe he had, maybe he hadn't. Some of his things felt like he would have a history about these things. Astral went over to the dead hybrids bodies, each wolf had to have a family of sorts. He took a moment of silence for them as he had killed each of them as he worked on a burial hole for them.

Another hour passed as he buried them each one had their own slot in the ground as he hung small necklaces on each cross, the ones that belonged to each of them as Astral looked back over to the camp. The fire was running low as he added another log to it. The cackling of the fire allowed for him to enjoy the quiet sounds of the woods. He looked to the east as the sun wasn't close to cresting on the horizon. 

He took this time to dig deep into himself, what does he remember? 'All I see is a gray blob of a man standing still laughing.' He shook his head as he started to feel sick to himself. "It all feels wrong." He leaned his back onto the tree next to him. "Even if once I was the mightiest of the land, it does not feel so." Tina crawled out of the tent and sat down onto his lap as he was surprised to see her moving at this time of morning.

"The only place I feel safe is with you." She curled into a small ball as Astral rubbed her back. He felt so responsible for her as Sora was passed out across from them. "You will not leave me?" She looked up at him starry eyed.

"Never in this lifetime, I will always be here to try and protect you." Astral ruffled her hair gently as she buried her face into her chest. Slowly climbing up his body. "If it doesn't dig too deep, why were you with your grandpa?" She paused for a moment as she pulled back and looked up at him.

Her eyes said it all, she never chose for anything to happen to her, it was just what was happening. Her life crumbled down around her and she has had to live through all of it. "I see the stress from it, and not to say that ours are similar lives, but, it will let you reflect and see how the good times are." Astral paused. "Well, good times."

"It was to protect me from my own powers. Being on the countryside, I always traveled into the city and the forests with my mother, then when I started to become magical they shunned me." Tina felt like she was shrinking by the second as Astral rested his hand on her back and pulled her in to comfort her. "My parents didn't want to disown me, and for a few weeks, they didn't. Then I was spotted by a patrol with a magical spell."

She paused as tears slowly went down her face. "Then they took me away, and my parents got punished. They had to pay severe taxes to the kingdom from their farm. I escaped the cell they had for me, Tina isn't even my real name, just the one I remember the old man giving me. I've been caring for him ever since. They don't recognize me because I stay so dirty. This filth is awful and I hate it."

She was pouting in the rage that filled her body. "I wish they didn't hate magic."

"That's not your fault." Astral ran his hand through her hair. "I will do whatever it takes to not only protect you, but have you live your best life ever." She hugged him as Sora stretched his arms. "Hey, Sora, wake up for a second."

"Yeah?" He grumbled through his stretch.

"Tell me more about these leaders. How many are there? What are their abilities and why did they take over?" Astral asked as Tina looked teary eyed up at her savior.

"Well, they are commonly referred to as the Queens, there are four of them, and each of them possess a separate crown jewel. These jewels enhance not just their magic, but an element that matches the gem." Sora sat up as the three looked to the sunrise. "They tried to torture me for more information. But what I don't know I can't tell."

Astral stared at the rising sun as he felt like it was speaking directly to him. Losing all other senses of thought as Sora droned on about how the Queens were evil and had no right with the planet. 'Your path awaits you.' Astral heard in his mind, was that the sun speaking to him? He shook his head as Sora noticed it.

"Did you hear a single thing that I said?" Astral nodded his head no as Sora rolled his eyes. "These Queens do nothing but invade, despite severe resistance from all the kingdoms outside of the humans. They kinda rule the planet. All they say to their high ups is they are looking for you to kill you."

"Something led them here to get to that point. Which means wherever I came from must have been pretty important." Astral blurted out as the two nod in sync. Both realizing that their paths connected for a reason. Sora slid over next to Astral as they looked at what they grabbed from the demon camp.

Inside the bag was a bunch of spare clothes, armor, and knives. With a map. The two looked at each other and back to the map as they both didn't know what this would lead to. They eerily peeled open the map with Tina in between them looking at it. There were red dots all over the map as there were the major cities colored over with gray. "What would those dots be?" Astral asked as Tina read the top right.

"Death to all humans, we shall converge on the midsummer's night at the moon's peak." Tina skipped to the next line. "Each dot is the human villages, we shall crush them all in one smashing attack, our numbers are greater by tenfold."