Heroes of Dreamland, Book 6 1/2: The Last Sakuranoki (OLD)

The End of Tracker's Story and The End of This Story

Heritage Province, early 600's, Early Summer:

Tracker sighed and yawned as he opened the front window of his small cottage and let some of the fresh summer air in. He'd come to live in Heritage Province after he'd fallen in love with a nice Heritage Clan girl toward the end of the war. Thanks to General Solar's- the great general, the first general, and the only general of the Star Warrior Army so far- selfless sacrifice that ended Nightmare, Tracker and the other survivors were able to go home and start a family. He didn't have any family left, but his wife did, so they lived here in Heritage, although he often visited his old home in Reverence.

Many years after they married, they had two twin daughters. Both had grown up to earn Heritage Clan names and marry into Heritage Clan families, so he was the odd Reverence Clan member. But that was all right. This place had come to be home. 

Suiren, the older of the two daughters, had turned out to be a Time Traveler and vanished when her only daughter was only sixteen. Tracker's wife, Hana, had passed away not long after from early old age, quite early for a Star Warrior, but she'd still lived a few hundred years.

So now, he lived alone, except for when his granchildren visited him. His other daughter had moved to Startropolis and married there, but he saw Suiren's only child quite a bit more often. Her name was Heather.

Heather hadn't been around for about six months, but that was to be expected, since only three months ago she'd had her first child after trying for quite some time. Today he was looking forward to getting to meet his great-granddaughter for the first time, as well as seeing his granddaughter again.

With a smile up at the sunlight, he walked out onto the porch with a book and a pen, and started to work on writing about his time in the war again while sitting in his favorite old bamboo chair. After becoming a corporal after helping to deliver the sakuranoki to Popstar (per the good General Solar's orders, of course,) he'd risen through the ranks clear up to being a lieutenant over time, so he had quite a few stories to share.

About an hour later, he heard a familiar light laugh as well an excited, young squeal of "Poko! Poko poko-poko!"

A quiet voice agreed, "Yes, Yuki-chan, it's a mushroom ring. Maybe there's some fairies hiding around here somewhere."

"Poi-koi!" the little one squealed again, sounding even more excited than she had been before.

Grinning, he set his book down with the pen tucked in it and adjusted his glasses a bit. "Heather? That you?"

"Yes, Ojiisan," Heather's voice laughed in reply, and a moment later, the light-gray, sapphire-blue-eyed Star Warrior appeared around the bend in the path that led up to the cottage. Pausing, she turned and tugged a little bit at something. "Come on, Yuki-chan. There's nothing to be afriad of. It's just Jii-chan."

"Jii-chan poko," the little voice replied and allowed herself to be pulled into view. Tracker grinned wider when he saw the little one, who had her mother's face and a snowy-white color.

"I can see from here that she has Charcoal's eyes," he laughed and beckoned the little one to him. She hesitantly waddled closer but didn't get close enough for him to pick her up. "And she's shy like you, isn't she?"

Laughing again, Heather stepped over and glanced at the little one with a deep, pure, motherly love in her eyes. "Only around new people. Once she gets to like you, you'll never shut her up. And they're definitely Charcoal's eyes- he has yet to quit rejoicing over that."

Yuki waddled off to look at something, making Tracker notice that she was wearing two large leaves on her back like wings. "What's that?" he chuckled as he leaned against the railing of the porch and looked over at Heather, who was standing on the ground a few steps down, keeping an eye on the baby.