“We're sowwy."

"… sorry."

Elrhain and Agwyn had their heads lowered as they whimpered out apologies.

Eluned had been scolding the two children until the wooden floor started cracking after their little stunt. In the end, it was Bromwyn who calmed her down with a hurried, 'We'll be late for the ritual.'

After a lengthy, drawn-out sigh, Eluned relented at last and brought out a fresh pair of robes and trousers from one bag. These new ones weren't obviously matching in style like the previous pair and had a different colour scheme altogether.

Beige, Teal, and Grey.

Elrhain recognized them as two of the experiments from his mother's many trials and errors. Now he felt horrible for ruining her hard work.

She spent nights awake just to make the perfect ceremonial dresses for them, and they had selfishly ruined her heartfelt work in a soap opera drama sketch.

'I have to do something nice for her.' Elrhain decided.

Thirty minutes later, Agwyn and Elrhain left their courtyard with the adults for the first time in their second lives. The three long cycles of mind-numbing captivity were at last over.

In a clearing, some minutes of walking away, a few beasts of burden were grazing around eating grass with what looked to be baggage full of meat, wild fruits, and herbs tied to them. Agwyn being the hyper-excited chipmunk she was, excitedly ran towards the herd as though they owed her hugs and cuddles.

And one of the more enormous beasts snapped up with a jolt.

It snorted hot air out of its nostrils and raised its horns towards the stunned girl, its front feet stomping the ground in challenge as it raised a beastly roar.

Agwyn stepped back in fear and tripped on her legs.

"It's dangerous, my little gremlin." Bromwyn picked her up before her bottom hit the ground and placed her on his shoulder. The little lady, still unsure of her safety, kept a suspicious glare in the beast's direction.

Elrhain shook his head, watching the monkeyshines. Suddenly, his eyes met Agwyn’s, and his face froze like someone hit the pause button. He awkwardly tried to smile at her, but his facial muscles cramped. And Agwyn hid her own blushing face behind Bromwyn's braided hair. She then started peeking at him like a timid kitten.

'It's soooo awkward!' Elrhain cringed.

"Rhain dear, let’s follow the chief to his Pengyte." Eluned patted his head tenderly as he was anguishing within, not knowing how to address this headache.

After a while, the Dhionne boy managed to distract his mind with all the exotic fauna and flora around.

He scanned the herd of beasts. 'Are these creatures called Pengytes?'

They had white striped green coats that matched well with the nearby forest. The square pupils seemed to peer into the void itself as they continuously chewed on grass and leaves.

Elrhain shuddered as he evaded direct eye contact with those creepy soul-less eyes. A little upward, he noticed their dual horns. They formed a peculiar shape unseen on Bovidae creatures on Earth.

The horn roots left the skull at a 90 degree-ish angle. After ten centimetres out, they bent inward towards each other, the tips gradually nearing. The whole thing would create a pointy end of a triangle if they eventually converged. But they didn't.

'Fantasy indeed.' Elrhain couldn't fathom what kind of environment would produce an evolution like that. However, they were undoubtedly vertebrates.

"But how?" He murmured under his breath. The plants here looked Plantae-like, and that worm over there was obviously an invertebrate.

In the past three cycles, he recalled seeing avians, reptiles, insects, and arachnids too. Every few days, he'd also spotted cooked mushrooms, fish, and shrimp-like crustaceans during their family dinners.

'Statistically impossible, yet here we are.' Elrhain pondered the probabilities, shooing away an odd fly-like insect that buzzed around his ears.

'If life evolved naturally on another world, the chances of it being this similar to Earth's should be near zero.'

And In mathematical terms, that was inconsequential.

'Information pass between the two worlds, somehow.' He believed, 'Or it is natural. And all worlds will inevitably evolve beings that include Monera, Protista, Fungi, Plantae, and Animalia.'

'Earth might not be a special case since it only had these five. Over here, there might be more kingdoms in the biological classification.'

Elrhain didn't have a definitive answer to all these mysteries yet, but he had a theory.

"Magic," he sighed—the only thing noticeably different between Earth and Uorys Diosca on the most fundamental level.

Even if there was magic on Earth, the quantity was either so little that it had no detectable effect in the grand scheme of things. Or, they were seamlessly interwoven with the laws of nature in a way that thirty-first-century science had no means of identifying.

"Aren't the Kaloxen adorable, Rhain?" Eluned said as she pat his head. She must have noticed Elrhain looking at those beasts of burden so intently.

"Mother, these are not Pengytes?" Elrhain indeed found them adorable. But at a much higher and scientific level than Eluned could ever fathom. He still beamed her an adorably scientist-y smile.

"Oh no, Pengytes are great predatory Gheistrums born for carnage." His mother crossed her arms and placed a finger on her chin.

"These Kaloxen are merely tamed Ahnmigheists, only good for ploughing the berry-farms and carrying items of baggage. I suppose their excreta is also useful for farmhand servants. Other than being slightly mean-tempered, they do no harm."

Eluned led her son by the hand towards the back of the herd as she marked out various tidbits on the surrounding beasts.

"That, over there," She pointed her index finger at a prone red shape in the distance, "Is a Red Pengyte. A Gheistrum with Oceanic might. Our clan chief's personal mount and companion beast. I heard from your father many tales and even legends of its feats. He saw it tearing hordes of Gheistrum more powerful than Kaloxen in fewer than a hundred breaths many times throughout the cycles."

"Um, mother, are Anmigheists weaker than Gheistrums?" Elrhain asked, meticulously examining the giant red menace.

It was… overwhelming.

It had a form comparable to a wolf's. Yet the muscles all over were destructively explosive, even on the four limbs. Its body wasn't hulking with muscles, though. The fat gave it a stocky build, like the polar bears back on Earth.

The Pengyte, however, was bigger on all accounts. It was at least three meters high at the shoulders, even when it was lazing on the ground. Its length from snout to tail measured around ten or twelve.

It had obsidian claws the size of swords, and they glinted with similar sharpness. At first, he thought the whole beast was covered in scales because of how it reflected the sunlight.

But closer now, he saw it was all fur. Metallic and flowy. The eyes were ruby red in a black sclera. Two sharp coppery fangs jutted down from its upper jaw, akin to musk deers.

The beast let out a massive yawn as Bromwyn once again had to pick up Agwyn as she bolted towards it.

"Aww, my son is so wise, thinking such tough questions," Eluned lauded with a smile in her eyes.

"It's Ahn-mi-gheist, and they can be just as powerful. Since they too were once Gheistrums tens of generations ago. Gheistrums are simply the direct lineage of the Manna-riogh's creations, which makes them especially dangerous."

"Manna… riogh?" Elrhain asked, pondering over what he had just learned. But his mother shushed him as they approached the giant beast.

This close, and Elrhain saw he could barely reach its folded legs.

But something was wrong. Rather than a polar bear in demeanour, this looked more like a…

"Aha! You are already here, lady Siaglas. Come now, Gwyn, go play with little Rhain while the watches ready the herd. I promise I will let you ride Alleigh soon. So don't climb him on your own under any circumstances. As gallant as he is, he is a sensitive soul, too shy with strangers." Bromwyn reminded her as he let Agwyn down from his shoulder into Eluned's arms.

Agwyn kept glancing at the silky fur in yearning.

The large man then called out to some of the Watches who were minding the preparations as he went back towards the Kaloxen herd. The Watches, hearing his orders, guided the beasts into a rough shape of a convoy, going through the baggage tied to them one last time by the looks of it.

Agwyn, now being carried by Eluned with her chin resting on his mother's shoulder, peered down to meet Elrhain's gaze. They both didn't know what to say to each other.

Elrhain finally could not stand the awkward silence. He gathered up his inner man and shouted,

"Um, hi?"

"H-Hello!"

"Arf!"

"Oh my!"

… when the giant Pengyte beside them barked out a silly woof, completely misreading the atmosphere.

Eluned backed away a few steps while keeping her composer steady. The brave woman shielded the child in her arms away from the stinky breath, while her glare towards the Pengyte turned even more rotten.

Elrhain and Agwyn, on the other hand, snapped towards Alleigh like zombies.

The Pengyte, who had just done what on Earth would be called an oopsie, seemed to cower under their intense gazes, burying his red muzzle under his paws.

They both turned their eyes back towards each other in bewilderment. After a few more awkward seconds of silence, the two broke into giggling laughter.

Eluned didn't know what was going on with the hysteric babies, but joined in nonetheless. The merry mood seemed to give the Pengyte the courage he needed as well. Alleigh warily looked towards them repeatedly; then, judging it safe, flicked its tongue out, followed by another "Arf~."

Elrhain and Agwyn laughed even louder, and all the anxiety of the past hour simply evaporated.