Mother 3: Gift of Life

Warmth. Where did that come from? This sensation on the front half of his body was definitely 'warmth'. His back felt cool, however, pressed against something soft yet firm. Lucas slowly opened his eyes. Above him was a yellow canopy supported on green stems all around him. He sat up. A light breeze wafted through the field he awoke in. Dusting the dirt from his back, Lucas witnessed an ocean of sunflowers. Was he back in the sunflower fields adjacent to Tazmily? The climate felt weird and the field was too vast to be the same. This place was different. Was this heaven? His mother always loved sunflowers, but they weren't nearly as interesting to him. This couldn't possibly be the reconstructed world... could it?!

Lucas: "Letum!!"

Lucas called out into the empty field. He was surprised to hear that his own voice had changed. He looked down. He'd grown taller. His clothes fit, but he was definitely older than he remembered. What the hell was going on? Lucas looked around. The field was huge. Were these all wild sunflowers? No one to ask directions or any other questions for that matter. Lucas was stuck, mainly because he was so incredibly confused. No course of action seemed to be particularly correct at the moment.

Lucas: "Shouldn't I... be dead...?"

???: "HEY!"

Lucas: "WAAAH!!"


Lucas fell back as a small face shot into his view. He rubbed his butt and looked up. A familiar reddish snake held its head up in front of him. Its body was wrapped around his waist.


???: "How long are you gonna sit here twiddling your thumbs? I'm hungry and you're probably starving, too!"

The snake berated Lucas before he could even get his bearings. It was Rope Snake. Duster met him on their journey and he helped the group from time to time. After failing to assist in a few situations, he left the group for good. What was he doing here?

Rope Snake: "Okay, yeah. So you've probably got a million questions running through your head. I'll cut to the chase. This isn't our world we're on. This place is called 'Earth Realm' and it's connected to a whole other cluster of worlds. The Dark Dragon dropped you off here. He sent me along for the ride to watch after you. Apparently, there's still some use left for me."

His self derision aside, Rope Snake was determined to help Lucas.

Rope Snake: "Our world is safe, by the way. Everyone's come back to life and living according to your wish. The Dragon wanted me to tell you that."

This news lightened Lucas' heart immensely. Everyone was alive and well. Good...

Rope Snake: "I don't know much about you getting older. Maybe time took its toll on you as you transcended worlds? ...Don't look at me like that. I don't have all the answers. Just the ones given to me. And there wasn't very many. I just know you were sent here because the big guy felt grateful to you and he gave me some knowledge to help out in this world. I can speak quite a few languages now, thanks to that Dark Dragon. What was his name? 'A Tomb?' Eh. Doesn't matter."

Lucas was having a hard time keeping up. The snake was a lot more chatty than he remembered. His silence was starting to rub Rope Snake the wrong way.

Rope Snake: "Hey, are you even listening?! I'm tryin' to help you here!"

Rope Snake knocked his head against Lucas', startling him slightly. Lucas jumped to his feet.

Rope Snake: "That's the spirit. Now start walkin', already! We're not gonna find anything sittin' around here!"

The snake released its grip around Lucas' waist and shrank into his pocket.

Rope Snake: "I'll be in here if you need anything. Try not to get us killed or anything like that, yeah? It's our first day in this world, after all."

Lucas stood in the field, unsure of which way to go. He shrugged off his hesitance and chose a direction as per his guide's order. He wasn't sure what he'd find in this new world, but Lucas wasn't about to waste this second chance. The sunflowers bowed around Lucas as he walked.

He smiled and hummed a tune his mother used to sing when he was smaller. It was good to be alive.

Tala was spending some down time with her daughter, she wasn't quite sure where she and Milana ended up but the place looked peaceful. After both of them were flying around in their dragon forms for a time(Tala allowing Milana to rest on her when she got tired from time to time) they found what seemed to be a huge field of flowers. While she had never seen the place, it was beautiful.

Not detecting any evil beings or dangers, Tala made for a landing, her large Silver Dragon form began to shrink to reveal a beautiful woman with silver hair. Milana was just right behind so she'd likely be reverting back to her human form. Or she'd possibly get distracted by the things in the field. Since there was no apparent danger and no signs of predators, mundane or supernatural it seemed for now the place was safe. So it was fine.

A light breeze filtered through the meadow as Lucas walked. This place was incredibly expansive. He'd been walking for nearly ten minutes without an end in sight. Where the heck was this place? How big could this field be? Lost in thought, he almost didn't hear the approach of flapping wings. Instinctively, Lucas ducked into the cover and surveyed the skies. Two dragon creatures soared overhead and continued on for a short distance before landing. Lucas gasped in a alarm before steeling himself. He reached out his arm, letting psychic energy flow to his fingertips. A silver bat quickly formed in the space he held.

"Hey, hey! Just cool it, would ya?" Rope Snake's emerged from Lucas' pocket along with a hushed warning. "What'd I just tell you?! This world ain't our old one. Animals and creatures aren't going ballistic here. In fact, the odds of someone or something outright attacking you for no reason is pretty slim. So unless you're itching for a fight, I suggest you put that thing away before they notice us?" Lucas nodded after a moment of pause, his weapon disappeared.

He looked back up to find that the dragon had vanished. In its place stood a woman of humanoid features. She could change shape? Was that normal here, too? Lucas would have to ask such questions later. While he trusted his guide's words of safer relations, he didn't want to disturb the traveling pair.

...There were two of them, right? Lucas could only see the woman standing in the distance. He was sure he'd seen two of them land. The slightest of noises sent him whirling around. A small, wide-eyed girl with silver hair stood a short distance from him. She was leaning forward slightly. With her height, if she stood up her head would barely poke above the blanket of sunflowers. Lucas was frozen, unsure of what to do. The girl, Milana, continued to stare at him.

He was strange to be sure. This hair stood upward, he looked like some random mister who'd gotten lost in the meadows. If so, why had he watched them in a hidden manner? As Milana gazed at the boy her attention fell to the shiny silver medal pinned to his shirt. It was so... pretty. She pointed to it and tilted her head questioningly. Lucas was startled by the sudden movement, but didn't quite grasp the girl's gesture.

"O-oh. Um, well, my name is Lucas. It's nice to meet--" Lucas took a slight step forward to extend his hand, an action that frightened Milana into action. She lunged forward, pushing Lucas away and onto his back. She darted away into the flowers as quickly as she could. Lucas stared up at the spots of blue peeking through the yellow pedals.

"Wow... That sucked." The impertinent remark coming from his pocket only served to twist the knife. Lucas sighed and patted his chest where the girl pushed him.

"...?!" Lucas rolled to his feet in surprise. The Franklin Badge was gone! "Hey! Wait a minute!" The boy gave chase. It was hard to pinpoint her location through sound alone and she was too short to see.

Rope Snake stretched from Lucas' pocket and watched over his shoulder as he ran. "A teenager chasing a scared little girl through the wilderness. Your methods of making an impression are unique, I'll give ya that." Another sarcastic quip.

"You're not helping." Lucas admonished as he continued his run.

"I'd split up and give you a hand, but I left my legs at home."

"I didn't mean--!"

"I suppose I could call out to her. Which do you think is better: 'We just want to talk!' or 'We've got candy!'?"

"Be quiet!" Lucas turned and yelled at the snake without ceasing his charge. A stray root caught his foot and he was sent tumbling to the cool earth below once again. It was a soft landing, but also a demeaning face-plant. With a groan, Lucas lifted his head. There before him crouched Milana. She clutched the badge in her tiny, trembling fingers. She had hidden after deeming her distance from the boy far enough. Being found so quickly by the stranger frightened her so much, tears welled within her eyes.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!!! MOMMYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!" A shrill cry of devastating magnitude tore through Lucas' ears. He covered them in attempts to save what was left of his eardrums. Her scream was in no way magical nor empowered. It was simply that of a five-year-old girl who thought herself in danger.

Tala noticed her daughter wasn't with her when she landed as she waited and got a bit worried. There seemed to be nothing else out here as far as she could tell but she didn't want her lost, so he began to track down Milana's scent. In cases like these, she was more then grateful for her sharper then normal senses a average human would have. The scent seemed slightly scattered, which meant she had been moving around. Milana did have a hard time sitting still..

As she got closer to her daughter, she heard a loud cry. On instinct, Tala didn't much think. Her form began to rapidly change, and its place was the silver dragon again as she headed with a surprising and frightening amount of speed for something of her size on the ground. At Twenty nine feet tall and forty seven feet long barreling down in one direction would be enough to scare most people.

A roar sounded through out the area not too long after the little girl's scream, followed by a loud and rapid approaching thumping noise. Soon, Milana was lifted up gently by a long, silver tail and placed behind Tala. A large shadow loomed over Lucas as she postioned herself in front of him, having moved her daughter behind her.

"You have ten seconds." She growled, her voice was deep but still feminine in this form.

Lucas could hear something approaching over the ear-piercing cry of the girl before him. Well, it wasn't so much as hearing as it was feeling. Something big was rushing the two. Oh crap... Lucas pushed himself up to his feet in time to watch the sun disappear behind a very large, and very displeased, dragoness. Oh crap, indeed. He stood before Tala feeling dwarfed in stature and presence. He was aware his psychic powers remained intact and he could maybe defend himself, but he really wasn't looking for a fight. Even so, he found it difficult to move under this pressure. It also didn't help that he appeared to be in the wrong.

Milana stood behind her mother, a good distance away from Lucas. She had begun to calm down from her startled state and stopped shaking. Everything was fine so long as her mother was around.

All thought returned to the boy as Tala's warning shook him back to reality. He frantically waved his arms in front of him in gesture to cease and desist. "Aaah, wait wait! I'm not here to hurt anybody or anything! It's just-- That girl took something from me and I want it back. Um, that's all." Lucas nervously fidgeted his fingers as he ended his explanation hoping and praying things wouldn't turn ugly.

Those words seemed to relax the angry mother somewhat. But she was looking at him closely as if seeing he was lying or not. Then finally, her long head glanced back at her daughter once. She could see Milana clutching something; it wasn't anything she had before which confirmed Lucas' story. She had taken something that wasn't hers.

"..Milana. Do you have something of his?" Her voice was notably calmer now, at least for the moment.

The tenseness gripping the air around Lucas lessened considerably when he realized not all was lost. He exhaled a sigh of relief and relaxed a bit. Milana, on the other hand, hopped a good foot from the ground in surprise in response her mother's question. She knew that tone. The young dragon swiftly brought her hands behind her back to conceal the pilfered badge. She squinted her eyes and roughly shook her head from side to side. Occasionally, her age would misguide her better judgement. Finders, keepers.

Tala sighed deeply at that, her tail coming down to gently snake around her child's waist as it lifted her up and set her down in front of her. "Young lady. You know full well you'd throw a fit or be sad if someone had taken something of yours. You can't take things that aren't yours Milana, how would you feel if someone took your drawings?" She asked her. "Now give it back please." She said gently but firmly in a 'I won't take no for a answer' tone.

Milana struggled a little when she was picked up knowing, of course, it was a futile effort. She couldn't keep something that wasn't hers and her mother's words were all too true. Milana kept her head down as she shuffled her feet toward Lucas. He could tell she wasn't a bad child or anything, she was just... well, a child. He decided to give her a last bit of convincing.

"I'm sorry. I'd let you keep it, but it's very important to me. It used to be my dad's. Since I can't see him anymore, that's all I have left to remember him. Can I please have it back?" Lucas rested a hand on his knee and extended the other hand to the young girl. Her head perked up at the mention of Lucas' father. She couldn't see hers anymore, either... With a sad expression, she placed the pin in Lucas' hand.

"I'm sorry..." Tears of sorrow formed in her eyes. Lucas patted her head gently. He tried to smile away his own tears.

"No harm done." The somber moment was shattered as a sharp pain shot through Lucas' leg. "YEEOOOWWWWW!!" Milana had delivered a swift kick to his shin; she does not like to be touched by strangers. Lucas hopped backwards holding his leg as Milana darted closer to her mother. The boy sighed as the pain dissipated. At least he wasn't thinking about the past anymore. "A-anyway, I'm sorry I bothered you." Still unsure of where he was actually going, he turned to leave.

Tala gave a disapproving sigh to what Milana did. Something they needed to work on. Her daughter was hardly a bad child, she was just a little girl that had some growing up to do but they all had at that age. The stranger, from what little she could tell seemed lost, they also seemed rather young. It was true other races had long life spans but humans were so short, so what his appearance indicated was probably accurate.

After a moment of musing, she called out. "Wait. You seem new to this area, do you need help getting out of here? Consider it a apology for what happened. My name is Tala by the way."

Lucas stopped. He weighed his options, and odds of actually finding his way out of this place. For all he knew, it was some enchanted maze. "Um, th-thank you. I could use a little help. I'm Lucas." He considered introducing the elastic encyclopedia of a snake in his pocket but... it just sounded stupid when he actually thought about it. "Do you know where we are?"

"You're in the lost Fields. It was made by a mage long ago. This is essentially like a pocket realm and something of a maze. Unless you know where you're going, you'll be potentially lost forever. I only came here with my daughter to get away a bit."

Judging by the way Lucas acted, he was new to this area. He wouldn't last on his on.

Her wing was flexed down. "Climb on. Me and Milana will leave this place with you. Just make sure to hold on."

Lucas fidgeted nervously at the sudden realization of where he was. This place was endless? What would have happened if they hadn't chanced upon him? It would be foolish to let this opportunity fly away. "Alright. If it's really okay..." He timidly stepped onto Tala's wing and climbed up to her back.

Milana was a little sad to leave so soon, but didn't complain. She grabbed one of the sunflowers by the root and pulled, taking a souvenir for later. She wanted to draw one of the pretty flowers. Instead of transforming herself, she climbed onto her mother's back so she could hold the flower. She sat a few feet in front of Lucas, wanting to keep some distance from the stranger.

It was noted that Tala didn't go straight off the ground, rather she took some long strides before she got enough momentum to take off into the air. She could do it straight up but it was more tiring to do and more work then what was needed.

"How did you end up in that place Lucas? If you don't mind me asking." She was curious but she wouldn't press if he didn't want to tell. It was his business after all. By her estimation, it was going to be about close to a hour before they got back home.

Lucas considered lying for a moment; not because he didn't want her to know about him, but because he wasn't sure Tala would believe him. If what Rope Snake was true, this world was connected to other worlds, perhaps his situation was normal. "I was teleported here from my old world. I wasn't expecting to be here. It just... happened."

Milana held on tight to her new found treasure. She was having a little trouble holding on to it and her mother, but she was managing.

Tala wasn't able to show any signs visually as far as conversation went because she was focused on flying. As they drifted higher, it stablized and the flight overall became much smoother almost as if they were stationary. This way Milana wouldn't have a hard time sitting, and neither would Lucas.

"This world has a lot of..immigrants from other realms. Me and Milana aren't from earth either. It's different, and the technology is more advance then I'm used to but I enjoy it. So many amusing trinkets these people come up with. I would have never thought of something like a 'Camera' or these airplane devices."

She dipped down slightly, but a only slowly and gradually so it was barely notable before she addressed Milana. "How have you been in class with Elise Milana?" She knew she enjoyed the class, Elise's mother Melissa was a good teacher and good with children. Went without saying because she was a good mother.

Lucas found it easier to balance and was thankful for the reprieve. The items she mentioned, camera and airplane, they were around in his world. Well, the camera was much more common. Aircraft were harder to find, but some of the technology was far more advanced than the rest of the world knew. If this world was connected to others, what was the technical norm for their society? It was a little intimidating, but he was curious.

Milana regained her balance as her mother leveled out. "Good, Momma. We had a art project yestaday and we made a really pretty ore... mm... origami." The word was a little tough for her to recall. The sunflower she held gave her an idea. "Can we go ta her house, Momma? I wanna play with Ellie."

If Tala could have, she would have smiled. "Mhm. Of course. Melissa doesn't have work on weekends so its no problem. We'll be there soon." It would also be nice just to mingle with company and she adored Ellie. She dipped a bit lower to a cruising height and went from there.

Little did they know, there was going to be something of a detour when they got there.

(To be continued in the Force of Nature)