A shimmering haze floated behind the slipstream of the commercial flight that was currently descending through the stormy clouds. The haze moved in an unnatural manner, easily trailing the vessel in a steady flight even as the airliner careened left and right in the turbulent air. The heavens were illuminated as a bolt of lightning materialized and scarred its way towards the airliner and missing the wingtip by a few meters- before terminating on the land down below.

The haze immediately came to a halt mid-air as the airliner struggled on , and eventually broke free of the thunderstorm. “That was not supposed to happen,” spoke the haze in a feminine voice with suppressed anger that echoed to itself. The haze stayed aloft, amidst the storm and added a string of profanities in the same unnerving and echoing voice to the howling gale. Eventually the curses died down and the haze slowly descended.

“Even if I missed out on the chess Grandmaster and the Olympic team it doesn’t mean that it has to be a wasted trip, I did promise Mother a new acolyte,” spoke the haze to itself. “Shame I missed out on the Vet, but as these earthers say, ‘beggars can’t be choosers!’” A string of laughter that was barely audible over the sound of the storm followed as it floated down.

…

Dan swiped across the cracked screen of his phone as he lazily browsed through the front page of Saiddit. There wasn’t much new content since he browsed through it just twenty minutes earlier at the bus stop, or an hour ago in the toilets at school. But honestly, he was just bored on his way home and didn’t see the point in browsing social media nowadays. It was fun to see people’s pretend #amzinglife before but with the pandemic in full swing, it was just depressing. Everyone he knew was just as annoyed with being cooped up and working from home or scared to travel to work as an essential worker.

Looking outside and realizing that he was nearing home, Dan got up from his seat and pressed the stop button with his elbow. He then slowly proceeded to the front of the bus as it slowed down halfway through Larmont Park approaching the bus stop. A series of hacking coughs from the seat beside him caused Dan to turn around in alarm.

Looking down, he noticed that it was a elderly gentleman who wasn’t wearing a face mask and coughing directly into his trousers. “Whoa mate! Cover your mouth!” He shouted at the man in anger as he flinched.

“Sorry sonny,” Said the old man in between bouts of coughing.

The other passengers looked on with worry and concern in their eyes but it was all for their own wellbeing, not the coughing man. Dan quickly exited the bus and into the cool evening drizzle and proceeded to walk to the back of the vehicle as he glared in at the older man.

“Fucking ass, not wearing a facemask,” he grumbled to himself as he rounded the back of the bus and stepped onto the road that was packed with cars slowly undulating through the traffic. He kept on grumbling as he slid between the front of one car and the back of another then looked left and right before crossing the relatively sparser oncoming lane.

As he started to cross the other side of the road a bright blue flash was caught by the corner of his eye and made Dan turn to look at the oncoming truck. “But I checked?” he quickly thought, before the shock and danger kicked in and made him leap forwards in an attempt to save his own life. He flung himself forwards but whilst he was mid-air the front left bumper of the truck smashed into his torso and legs. The car was traveling at a speed that was markedly more than double the twenty mile per hour speed limit in residential zones and inertia from the collision sent Dan rag dolling in a gruesome pirouette through the air. He was flung half a dozen of meters before slamming into the base of the trunk of an oak tree and his momentum came to an abrupt halt.

Dan looked down at his broken body that lay crumbled with his spine curving backwards at the base of the tree with dark blotches of blood seeping into the wet pavement. His satchel lay strewn nearby with the contents flung everywhere. As some papers slowly fluttered down to be soaked in rain and splotches of blood Dan muttered in a wispy rasp “my students homework.”

“Oh well,” spoke an ominous susurration from beside him.

With painful twist, Dan turned over to look at the source of the sound. Beside him was a bright tear in reality itself that seemed to bleed color outwards in a luminescent corona of pure white. He somehow wasn’t shocked at all to see this phenomena and even his concern for the unmarked homework seemed to fade away as people rushed out of cars and over to his prone body a puddle of blood and water.

With a soft whisper he asked “What’s happening?” As his very essence started to dissolve away into inconsequential motes of dimmed nothingness.

“Fate.” Simply replied the impossible radiance in its unnerving voice as a small sliver of it broke off to engulf the specter of Dan’s soul before compressing it and fusing again together with the rest of its main body, all in a speck of a moment. Then, nothing.

As the people cried and gasped in horror at the gruesome accident in the rain that evening, no one was able to catch the make or the plate of the hit and run. The testimonies and witnesses described the incident from different angles but their stories all matched up, especially on the eerie feeling. They all felt this electric charge in the air and a deeply unsettling feeling at the back of their spines that vanished as fast as it came.

…….

From a dark empty place Nosal woke up. The young child blinked his heavy eyelids that had quite a layer of crust. As he lay naked under a thick woolen blanket on a straw filled mattress, he vaguely remembered hazy dreams of a faraway place. Az his eyes slowly adjusted to the soft gloom he looked around the sparse room that was made of a sturdy dark wood and had a small wooden dresser, bedside table and one small window.

My bedroom, he thought.

He then took in the reassuring smell of the earthen loam, old wood, manure and his family’s home musk but there was a sharp acrid tang of ammonia and sweat mixed in. Randomly he noticed that he had a very large nose that took up a large portion of his view and he was hairy, very hairy.

“But it’s always been this way?” the young boy thought to himself in confusion.

Feels abit like dejavu, he thought. “Wait what’s dejavu?” spoke the young child in a weak and squeaky voice. Putting the thoughts aside the boy tried to lift himself off his bed but weakly collapsed back down.

“Sacamin,” the weak little boy whispered quietly to himself, hoping against the worst.

Nothing. Nothing except for the sadness and despair that was welling up inside the young and sickly boy. He released a musk of sorrow and shame for he was classless.

Before he was able to wallow in his despair the soft pitter-patter of feet announced the arrival of a guest to his bedroom. The figure that came into his view in the doorless frame that was the entrance to his room was a small mottled green bulbous monster with two long feelers that was barely the size of his clenched hand. It walked in a weird billowing wobble on its seven small stubs from the side of its round body that ended in tiny paws, one leg lost in a scuffle with a Gildron Nymph last summer by the riverside. It was Dittat, his older brother’s monster partner, a gift from their late mother.

The boy looked at the little monster casually glancing into the room with its beady tiny eyes and drooping antennae.

What are antennae? He wondered at the foreign thought.

At the sight of the boy awake in bed, Dittat’s feelers perked up visibly and it opened its small mouth to chirp in joy as it rushed towards the mattress. The small creature raced across the wooden floor at the pace of a walking Capyban and struggled up onto the mattress. The young boy reached over his small hairy hand and scooped up the adorable little monster and hugged it close to his face as it happily chirped away from its weird circular mouth.

“I’m glad to see you too buddy,” the boy cooed at the creature. “Can you tell Brother I’m awake?” He asked the Dittat, knowing that it would be able to send its thoughts to his brother and communicate over some distance, for his brother had paired up with the little monster using his Monster Companion class.

Dittat waved its feelers up and down in its way of confirmation before it closed its small mouth to concentrate. A short moment later, it went back to chirping and touching his face with its feelers. The young boy spent a few more minutes playing with the small green creature before the sounds of the door downstairs opening and hurried footsteps approaching foretold the coming of his brother. At his companion’s approach, Ditta scuttled off onto the wall and up onto the ceiling to better observe from a vantage.

Coming into view was his brother Kano Brownwhisker with nothing on except for a pair of wore blue suspenders and a straw hat, leaving his hairy torso bare. His brother then bent over and placed one hand on his upper leg and the other on the doorframe to catch his breath, for he was heaving like the bellows stoking the flames in Mr.Lok-Tar the Orchish blacksmith’s forge. Seeing his brother’s black nose between his eyes full of sweat was the sure sign that he ran here.

“Nos -huff- Nosal - -huff huff- -You’re awake!” shouted Kano as he rushed over with a large grin that showed off his impressive incisors and back vegetable plates, not as big as father’s but near enough.

The normally fluttery eyelash and small beady eyes of Capybans everywhere were starting to tear as his brother kneeled down beside the mattress and hugged Nosal in a tight embrace.

Even as weak as he was feeling, Nosal’s fatigue faded away as he smelt the overpowering smell of his brother’s scent glands producing the musk for joy. He smelt of sweat, hay and manure with an underlying musk of sorrow. Nosal then felt slightly saddened by the tiny hint of the sorrow musk he smelled, for he was sure that it was his state that had caused it.

“I’m sorry, brother. I didn’t mean to worry you or father,” he whispered into his older brother’s neck as he released the musk of sadness with his own eyes starting to tear up.

“Little Nose, it’s ok. I’m just glad you woke up from your calling,” spoke his elder brother as he broke the hug to gaze into Nosal’s face with such intensity he never knew his brother to possess. Kano was a carefree and gentle even by Capyban standards. He spent most of his days whispering to the numerous beasts and monsters they had on the ranch and frolicking more than work, to their father’s chagrin.

“I don’t think I even…. Kano I’m not sure if I got a class,” whispered Nosal as he looked down, unable to hold his brother’s sincere gaze. His scent glands betrayed him again and released his musk of shame as he tried to whip away the tears in his eyes. All the days that he had spent training for a Rancher class under father and the times he spent learning to be a Tamer under Mother when she was alive amounted to nothing.

“Don’t be so sure,” Rumbled the voice of Lem Brownwhisker, their Father from the door. He stood there also in bare feet and only in a faded blue suspender just like Kano. The door that was twenty five hands tall was barely big enough for the big frame of Father of the two brothers.

His large black nose was scarred by some beast from past unknowns and the normally stout and long neck of Cabybans looked like a burly trunk on him. Normally, Capybans were pear shaped and hairy all over with robust legs and slightly webbed hands for swimming. But father was pretty much all muscle with the class of Beast rancher at silver along with Journey Guard, at steel ranked as his subclass. Both classes gave him strength in spades, whilst in other Cabybans was a stat that had mediocre growth at best.

Some in the village say that Lem would make for an impressive bout of arm-wrestling against Mr.Tar the Orcish blacksmith due to his seemingly high strength. To these rumours the Brownwhisker boys can only agree for they have witnessed it happen between the two friends many a time when Mr.Tar and Brownwhisker senior have had too much to drink with the Tar family visiting often, being close family friends.

Lem’s two thumbs that were currently looped in the cord of his suspenders looked like banana fruits on the end of his equally proportionally large and hairy arms. When Nosal was younger he remembered accompanying his father to town to buy a new breed of beast to raise for his silver rank up, there was some human that made a jib by saying father must have had an orc as a sire, resulting in a thrashing from father and a nearby orc joining in for the racist remark.

His small beady eyes barely gave away anything but the flickering of his long eyelashes betrayed the emotions broiling inside him as he approached with silent footfalls.

Like a goddamn ninja, Nosal thought. Wait what’s a ninja? I keep getting these weird thoughts since I woke up.

Nosal felt some courage when he smelt his father’s reassuring scent wash over him before the large Capyban stopped just beside the kneeling Kano and laid a firm hand on his kneeling elder brother.

“Saca didn’t work I take it?” His father rumbled in question.

“No,” replied Nosal in a tiny whisper.

“Don’t fret Nosal,” his father answered back in his deep rumble before taking his own hand off Kano and reaching up for Ditta above him, then placing the little scamp on his shoulder.

At this conversation Kano’s head kept whipping back and forth between his younger brother and his father, with Dittat doing the same using his feelers to follow the conversation.

“But the other kids from the village said-,” started Nosal in a whiny voice and once again releasing his musk for sadness.

“Don’t interrupt, pup,” sternly said Lem, before releasing the musk for safety to reassure his sons.

“There’re three ways that the Saca spell didn’t work,” He continued as he walked over to the window without looking back.

“First you have no class ,” He stated, to which Nosal and Kano both visibly deflated at the notion.

Wrinkling his nose at the display, Lem only frowned and turned around suddenly.

“Did me and your late mother, my dear Gowin, raise two idiots?” He growled.

“No, father,” both the brothers replied in unison and releasing the musk of fear, knowing full well that their father suffered no fools.

“You’re damn right! Secondly, it can be because you have not enough ma-nan. You do remember how the spell takes most of it along with your stam, but I don’t recall by how much, so would you be so kind to tell me?” rumbled the large Capyban as he gazed over between his sons.

“Three legs down from four and no more to be seen for a day at least, so heed in case you run in ta trouble, such as Man, Divine or beast!” Both boys chorused the rhyme mother taught them.

“That’s right, and seeing as how we damn near lost you to your calling, then your body must have used up all of your reserves ta bring ya back to us, just like how the Kaholin mares burn up whilst giving birth like I showed yous last summer” softly spoke Lem as he leaned down to kiss his youngest on the forehead whilst releasing the scent for joy.

“So that means little nose couldn’t use Saca because he didn’t have enough,” whispered Kano in revelation.

Lem got up from beside the mattress to the window once more before opening it.

“Rest now pup, your brother will be back with some vegetables so you can eat up and get some sleep and try not to cast the spell before we finish work tonight,” spoke Lem as he nodded at Kano with a glint in his eye before leaving the room.

With understanding, Kano immediately stood up and followed his father out of Nosal’s bedroom but not before stopping in the doorway.

“I’ll be right back with a nice surprise little nose!” He exclaimed before he disappeared, with his footsteps down the stairs and towards the kitchen below.

Father must have brought me some Honeysuckle fruits to celebrate, Nosal thought with some joy. It’s not like we couldn’t afford to buy the delicious bronze rank fruits from Malekahn more often. We make a decent living and grandfather always gave me a lot of bronze coins whenever he visited.

It wasn’t that they couldn’t afford such things, the family grew a lot of their own vegetables with a few duskmetal/bronze ranked crops, but like most things on the ranch it was allocated for the beasts that lived there.

Nosal fondly remembered going into the woods behind the ranch with father and Da’Nittan to dig up a weird berry bush that they planted in the orchard for the Owlmites. This was after father read up on how to rear them from a monster tome that grandfather gifted for Nosal’s birthday. The memories of how some of the Owlmites grew larger and feistier, with Father pointing out the ones that have broken into the bronze ranks still gave him a smile and he released a small musk for joy.

As Nosal was lost in memories his brother had already returned to the bedroom with a bowl full of fruit and veggies and staring at his younger brother daydreaming whilst looking up at the ceiling.

“Little Nose!” He shouted with Nosal weakly flinching in shock at the interruption.

“HAHAHAHAHA you little dreamer, you should have seen your face!” joked Kano as he placed the bowl down beside his irate brother and left the room.

“I hope a Whisperwood wolf eats you!” snarled Nosal weakly as he produced the musk of anger. What an asshole! Wait asshole? What is that? He wondered. I must still be very sick, Fruitworms to it all, let’s see what we have here.

A quick inspection of the fruit bowl left Nosal ecstatic and realising the musk for uncontained Joy. For it contained a cornucopia of bronze ranked fruits and vegetables; Honeysuckle, Armorgrapes, Whisperwood Mellowreeds and even a Petrichor Tuber!

Biting into the large lumpy tuber that smelt of rain but tasted of a sour sweetness left the small boy smiling blissfully as the earthen and wild mana washed down into his stomach and healed the boy from within. The young boy only managed to bite into a few different fruits in gluttony, before he wearily fell back to sleep with a bloated belly and fruit pulp all over himself.

But, just before he did, the boy wondered, wait father never said the third…