Endless Sky ~New Beginning~

Chapter Seventeen

After deciding to forget about those papers, the dream faded away and OStar found the rest of her night dreamless and silent. Neither Pargenti nor the other came to speak to her, or perhaps OStar was in too deep of a sleep to hear them.
The next day came quickly but started off slow. It was normal. OStar woke up at a reasonable time, ate breakfast, and went off to find something to do.
Apparently Estella and Roxxan were meeting up with someone today, a deer. They had met him when they were out meeting new people not too long ago, but he wasn't ready at that time to talk and wanted to wait a bit. She didn't know why, but OStar decided to tag along and find out what his story was. Based on what Estella said, he was an odd deer. Not a normal appearing one, this one looked to be made mostly of glass or some other hard material rather than flesh and fur.
None of the others, like Charlotte or Lucerne, were allowed to come.
"We are only bringing OStar. If we bring a whole group of strangers, we'll scare him off," Roxxan explained when Avaro tried to join.
The dragon just huffed and walked off. OStar was convinced that later he was going to do something stupid to irritate the robot.
Around one or two PM, after lunch had been eaten, Estella called OStar over to head out to meet the deer.
Small conversations happened on the walk. Actually, it was more Estella talking at an extremely fast speed about how many people she met in a day.
It was strange to listen to the princess describe each person and creature she'd met with shocking accuracy.
You have a small scar on your shoulder? She noticed it. A pale blond streak of hair mixed into brown? Noticed. Those small, sealed holes in your ears from earrings you wore many years ago? Yeah, she spotted it, and will remember it.
In addition to each accurate description, Estella also knew each one of their names and didn't get a single one of them mixed up. She knew each person she met in a day and talked to for as little as ten minutes. OStar could forget someone's name seconds after they had said it, she was sure many people were like that. She was sure there were not many like Estella. She seemed to remember a little too well for someone who had lost her memory at some point in her life.
OStar knew she would forget each one of the people Estella described by the time they met the deer, maybe even sooner. For someone who acted so childish, she was shockingly smart. It wouldn't be hard to show Estella how to do something once and have her perfect it, at least that's what OStar assumed. Maybe the princess was only good at memorizing people and not things. She never asked. She didn't really have the chance to ask anything since Estella didn't stop talking for the entire walk.
The meet-up was on the forest side of OCTown, outside both the trees and the town, but still inside the peace-keeping force field.
It wasn't hard to spot a blue and purple figure sitting and waiting for them in the distance, his antlers glittering as they reflected the light from the sun above.
"What's his name?" OStar asked.
"I have no idea," Estella replied, "he never told us."
"He'll tell us soon, this is a meet-up, not some shady business deal," Roxxan added. OStar nodded her understanding as she watched the figure get larger as they got closer.
He got up, almost on alert, but didn't run. Estella padded ahead, practically bouncing with excitement as she went over to greet her new friend.
"Hey! Good to see you again! Remember my name? Estella?" the princess purred as Roxxan and OStar joined her.
The deer was silent, didn't speak a word.
"Oh her? That's OStar! She showed up around a week ago and we decided to bring her along to give her something to do," Estella suddenly answered an unspoken question. "She's settled well but it's still risky to let her go off on her own without someone to make sure she won't get lost,"
More silence as OStar's fur starting to prick with unease.
"She lost her memory somehow, so we are keeping her with us until she can figure out what to do. Stay or not it's her decision!" she continued to talk, almost to herself.
Roxxan seemed to have noticed the unease on OStar's face and nudged her for attention.
"He doesn't speak normally, he uses telepathy. You know, speaks into your mind," she whispered, "I can hear him, but I don't think he's comfortable with speaking to you just yet."
OStar made a small nod, mostly understanding as Estella continued to chat with the deer.
Now that she was closer to the deer and could actually see him, OStar could tell what they meant by describing him as not a normal deer. His fur was purple with lighter purple diamonds on his flanks and shoulders, and he even had light purple diamonds over his eyes like a mask and one on the top of his tail. His eyes were white with black diamond pupils, no color. His eyes even looked fake, in fact...
OStar squinted, uncertain.
Even the fur didn't look real, but looked manufactured in some way. She was sure if she touched his fur, it would feel cold rather than warm.
But that wasn't the oddest part. What was really odd were the glass-like parts of him. His chest and underbelly, bottom of his tail, chin, antlers, and hooves were smooth and shiny like glass or polished crystal. Maybe they were hollow because inside was movement, not organs, but electricity. The way lights jerked around and danced made OStar sure it wasn't anything else besides some kind of trapped electricity. It was kind of memorizing watching it dance around. Almost made her think of a plasma ball.
"You're OStar? Correct?" a quiet voice spoke into her head, making her flinch. The deer flinched as well from her sudden movement.
"Sorry for startling you!" it apologized. "It's just me, the deer,"
OStar blinked, realizing he, along with Estella and Roxxan, were staring right at her with wide eyes.
"Oh, sorry, I was just caught a little off-guard," OStar meowed, trying to bury her embarrassment.
The deer's ear twitched as he talked without speaking.
"Name's Fatink, I was just looking for someone..." he said, directing his attention back to all three of the cats and not just OStar.
"Who? I know practically everyone who normally visits here or actually lives here, I'm sure I would know if I met them," Estella purred, ruffling her wings with certainty.
Fatink looked hopeful, but it was either quickly hidden or faded away. "Really? You think she passed through here? Or one of her kids?"
"Just tell me their names and some description! I should know if I met them!"
Roxxan sat and yawned, letting Estella do all of the talking and remembering while OStar watched.
"Okay, I can do that... I'm looking for Nozomi, a short human with red eyes and long dark grey almost black hair with a small green streak in it. Quite sure she had diamond shaped pupils like me and her kids," he described quickly, the hope in his face constantly flickering back.
Estella looked up as she thought for a moment, but gradually drooped, clearly not remembering anything.
"And the kids?" she asked.
The hope in his face didn't flicker back this time.
"Gibby, also short with grey animal ears and dark green hair. His eyes are bright green," Fatink continued, "and... Darlene. The shortest but has the longest hair that starts blue and goes purple at the bottom. She also has one blue eye and one purple."
Estella focused hard, but in the end looked defeated. "I'm... Sorry, but I don't remember any of them. Either they never passed here, or I missed them when they did," she said sadly, ears flattened as her tail laid on the ground limply.
Fatink looked normal or was hiding his disappointment inside. "It's fine... It's been quite a while since I have seen them, there's still one more but I don't remember his name," he spoke, sitting down on the grass.
Estella perked back up, glad to have another chance to help after her other failure.
"He is...maybe human-shaped but looks snake-like? He has a long rattle tail, wings, burgundy or maroon scales, and pale-yellow hair,"
"K?" OStar asked without thinking.
Everyone turned to her in confusion except Fatink who looked thoughtful.
"Kay? Okay? What do you mean?" Roxxan questioned.
"K, the letter, isn't... isn't that his name...?" OStar replied, the unease coming back as she clearly had no idea who she was talking about but somehow knew his name.
"...Yes, that's his name, K," Fatink finally said, an edge to his voice as if he wasn't really fond of whoever this snake creature was.
"Really??" Estella exclaimed, "You know who he is?"
"N-No, not really, I don't remember anything, but the description made me think of that name,'' OStar explained, trying to dig deeper into her clogged memory for answers, but only the name came up and nothing more.
"So he's still alive?" the deer asked, seemingly only to OStar as Roxxan and Estella didn't seem to react or expect a reply.
OStar looked at Fatink and made a small nod. She didn't know how she knew, but he was definitely still alive.
Fatink got back up, taking the attention back from OStar.
"I think I have enough information, thank all three of you for your help. It's about time I finally got a lead rather than aimlessly traveling," he announced, bowing his head.
"How long have you been travelling?" OStar tried to ask but Estella was already speaking. "Aw, so soon? Alright, sorry I couldn't remember anyone, but I will keep an eye out!" she promised. "I'll make sure if I see them, I will tell them 'Fatink is looking for you!' "
Fatink made a small smile. "Then I will come here often to see how things are going."
Estella seemed overjoyed to hear that as the deer turned and started to walk away.
He stopped and turned his head back and looked at OStar.
"It's been over five hundred million years, if that answers your question," Fatink said only to her before continuing to walk.
OStar was baffled, she'd had no idea things could live that long. Lucerne was already shockingly old, being over ten thousand years old, but five hundred million? Ten thousand is still an infant compared to that!
"Well, good to know he will come back!" Estella purred, pleased to have made a new friend. "Makes me wonder when, a few days from now? weeks? months? Hopefully just a few days,"
Roxxan huffed and waved her tail to get attention. "Let's head back now, we can talk on the way," she meowed before padding back in the direction of the town.
"Okay! Let's go, OStar! Maybe you can tell us how you knew who K was!" the princess laughed as she quickly followed her partner.
"But I don't-" OStar tried to say, but Estella clearly wasn't going to listen to anything. She sighed and padded after the two, wishing Estella would talk the entire time again instead of trying to get OStar to talk. She wanted to focus on K quietly to see if she could figure out who he was. A part of her was sure she knew him, but not as a friend. She thought he was more like a neighbor you see occasionally and with whom you might make small talk from time to time.
Was K also five hundred million years old? Just like Fatink? Had that poor deer wandered looking for his friends for that long with no information or leads on where they were?
OStar winced. "Five hundred million years is a long time... Maybe his friends are..." she shook her head at the thought. If Fatink could live that long, so could they.
"But he said they were human, humans die. He didn't even look like a living deer... Maybe his search has lasted so long... was it because of the fact they are dead..."
OStar felt bad, if they were really dead, then Fatink's search has been all for nothing. Five hundred million years wasted.
"But what about K?"
K wasn't a friend. Fatink looked and sounded like he hated him. K wasn't human either, so maybe he was able to live that long unlike Nozomi or Darlene.
"I'm thinking too much again... I wish it was a week ago, it was much more peaceful then. It seems like now each day there is something new and confusing," OStar thought with a small huff as she looked back up at Roxxan and Estella ahead of her.
"I think it's a nice name!" Estella was protesting to her partner. "No, it's stupid, who names their son Gibby? I wouldn't. that's for sure," Roxxan replied simply.
OStar made a small mental laugh.
"I'll leave them be," she thought as she stayed behind the entire way back to the mansion.