Endless Sky ~New Beginning~

Chapter Eighteen

Estella luckily didn't ask OStar about K. Ironically, it seemed like she forgot, or at least got distracted talking to Roxxan about the name Gibby. OStar didn't mind, though. She wanted to have time to figure things out alone in silence, not when someone was trying to force it.
So, when they got home, she quickly slid away to her room before anyone could stop her and crawled into bed. OStar found herself wanting to sleep much more often these past few days, not because she was tired, but because she was looking for answers.
It seemed that when she was asleep, she was able to go deeper into her mind and drag out some memories. It was almost like diving into some prize pit, with only a few moments to grab what you could before being pulled out.
Curling up, OStar closed her eyes to sleep, only to be interrupted by a knock on the door.
"Who is it now?" she thought with irritation. Her first guess was Estella, but that was a knock from knuckles. No cat would be able to make a knock like that.
Padding to the door and opening it, she looked up to see Charlotte.
"Oh, hey Charlotte," OStar greeted her with a flick of her ear.
"Heya, sorry for interrupting, but Avaro is demanding to play Monopoly; I was wondering if you wanted to join," her friend asked, looking hopeful.
OStar really wanted to say no, but the look on Charlotte's face kept her from doing so. "What's Monopoly?"
The teen held back a snort.
"It's a game to buy property and stuff. It's easier playing it out than trying to explain it all right now," Charlotte answered, motioning down the hall in the direction of the main room.
OStar stifled a sigh, not wanting to look as if she didn't want to join.
"I guess I will have to sleep later..." she thought, nodding to Charlotte. "All right, take me to this game."

Right off the bat, OStar knew she was going to regret accepting the offer.
Even with a small explanation, this game looked to be a long-lasting one as opposed to a game of Uno. She might find herself playing for hours, maybe even for the rest of the day.
Avaro, Lucerne, and Rual had joined. Afina came to watch while Estella seemed busy with Roxxan somewhere else. That left a total of five people playing the game.
Each one rolled to see who would go first, OStar having practically thrown the dice on her turn.
"I can't cup my paws!" she exclaimed at Avaro as he laughed. "But you didn't have to throw it!" he snickered. OStar replied by throwing one of the dice at him, making him yelp as it bounced off his head.
Rual interrupted the two before the game turned into a mini snowball fight, but instead of snowballs it was mini hard game pieces. It wouldn't feel good to have one of those smack you in the eye.
Although she wanted to sleep, OStar did find herself enjoying the game. It was a calming break from all the frustration with her memories, a chance to just laugh for hours and talk with her friends. Not even the occasional yelling from Avaro when he was sent to jail made the game unenjoyable. At some point Roxxan and Estella came to watch, joining in on the conversation even if they weren't a part of the game.
As OStar expected, the game took hours to play. Lucerne went bankrupt first, then Avaro, then OStar, leaving Rual and Charlotte left on the board with houses on almost all the properties. One wrong dice roll, and one could find half, if not more, of their money gone to the other player. It had been pretty intense on OStar's part, each dice roll could be the end. She'd even forgotten what time it was when Roxxan called them for dinner.
"Oh, guess we are calling for a break," Charlotte laughed, setting her money half under the board on her side. Rual nodded and did the same on his side.
"Who do you think is going to win?" Afina meowed as Charlotte picked her up. "Rual," Avaro replied.
"Oh come on, I know you went bankrupt because of me, but that doesn't mean you get to be all salty," Charlotte said, looking at the dragon.
"Meh, meh, meh, meh," he mocked in return with an eye roll.
"Let's just go," OStar chuckled, turning toward the kitchen. "He won't listen,"
Avaro hissed back at her.
Charlotte shrugged and followed OStar. It didn't take long for everyone else to join, Avaro last of all.
All was normal as everyone ate and chatted amicably, up until Estella decided to speak about what had happened in the early morning.
"We spoke to someone called Fatink today, OStar seemed to have known someone he was looking for, K, I believe?" she purred, looking at the white and silver cat.
OStar blinked, mouth full and caught off guard.
"Who?" Avaro asked, "K" the princess answered.
"Kay? Like, okay? What kind of name is that?" he continued with a dumbfounded expression.
OStar swallowed and shook her head, "K, just the letter. It's probably not his real name, just a nickname," she explained, looking over at the albino dragon. He still looked skeptical. "Stupid nickname then," he said.
"You called Lucerne, Lucy, before. Isn't that a girl's name?" Charlotte intervened, making Lucerne look confused about why his name was suddenly in the conversation.
"Well, if I'm going to dominate him in bed, he might as well have a cute little name," Avaro snapped back with a malicious grin. Lucerne practically choked on his food and started coughing. Roxxan, on the other hand, threw a crescent roll at Avaro's head with a hiss. "KEEP THAT TO YOURSELF, NOT AT THE DINNER TABLE!"
The dragon just cackled, not caring about the roll that went flying. Afina leaned toward Charlotte and whispered. "What did he mean by that?"
"Don't worry about it," Charlotte wheezed back, trying hard not to laugh. The little cat frowned and sat back with a pout, continuing to eat her food.
During the entire event, Estella sat and ate with a smile. Waiting patiently for everyone to calm down before she tried to speak again. OStar could swear she was humming to herself.
Lucerne managed to stop coughing and get a drink, looking away from Avaro and trying to pretend he didn't hear anything.
Charlotte nudged OStar. "K, you know that person?" she questioned, having no plate of food, but didn't want to be left out and alone.
"Kind of, why do you ask? Heard of him before?" OStar replied, a little hopeful on learning more about K.
Sadly, Charlotte shook her head.
"No, never heard of him. I just thought you lost all of your memory," she explained.
"Crud, I don't want her knowing too much," OStar thought, flicking an ear.
"I did, but things seem to be slowly coming back. But only if there is something to trigger it."
Charlotte nodded, seeming to understand. "Ah, so when K was mentioned, you remembered him?"
"Kind of, Fatink described him first. That seemed to have been enough for me to remember a name,"
"Oh, is that all you remember?"
OStar hesitated, then slowly nodded.
Charlotte noticed the hesitation and frowned, knowing that she was lying.
There was a short awkward silence between the two, the teen looking like she was close to calling OStar out on her lie.
"T-There's other parts, but they are so fuzzy that it's hard to put them into words. Sorry if it seemed like I was lying..." she quickly said, trying to cover her tracks before her friend managed to follow them.
The frown and doubt in Charlotte's eye faded as she made a small smile, reaching out a hand to pat OStar's head. "Alright, it's okay. Just know that- if you need any help or want to talk to me, I'm right here," she said.
OStar blinked.
"Not now... After I come back from visiting my home, I will tell you everything," she promised silently, watching her friend move her attention back to the others.

The rest of the meal was quick, the topic of K forgotten. Monopoly wasn't.
The game was resumed and after about twenty minutes, finished, ending with Rual as victor and Avaro practically laughing at Charlotte.
"You still lost before me," she pointed out, looking as if she was going to throw the board at him.
Avaro wanted to reply but Lucerne poked his wing to stop him. The dragon yelped and glared at his friend before huffing. "Fine, I'm heading to bed then, come on Lucerne," he said before walking off, his celestial partner trailing behind him.
"I'm going to clean up the game, you can go if you want, OStar," Charlotte said, plucking little red houses off the board.
"All right, see you in the morning, goodnight," OStar replied with a purr, padding off to her room.
"Finally, I can be alone," she thought. "But the game was still fun, and it would've sucked if I missed it..." OStar added honestly to herself, crawling up on her bed and flopping on her side.
Slowly dozing off, she watched the world around her start to darken before being engulfed by sleep.

"Honestly, who cares about him?" a voice was speaking, "He isn't our problem. If we worry about him now, she could get lost in something that might get her killed!"
"But what if it doesn't? Maybe it's important!" a smaller voice replied to the first.
OStar's ear twitched. She knew these voices, but stayed quiet, wanting to eavesdrop a little more.
"Trust me, it's not. He was nothing more than a neighbor to her. Sure he looked as if he were something more, but again, that's not our problem," the first one hissed, irritated.
Pargenti pouted, if she had human arms she would most likely have them crossed.
"But-"
"Shush, OStar is listening," the black cat interrupted.
"Well, no point in pretending now," she thought as she opened her eyes.
Instead of waking up in her room, she was in the main room on the couch. Below her was the black and red cat, sitting while Pargenti flapped around her head.
"Am I missing something?" OStar asked, sitting up and stretching before curling her tails around her paws.
"Not at all, only that idiot is trying to make you go down the wrong path," the mean feline answered, Pargenti scoffing.
"Idiot? What idiot?" she thought at first the cat was talking about "the runt", but the cat shook her head.
"No, Fatink, that idiot," she growled.
OStar was a little surprised.
"Fatink? What did he do?" she questioned, confused.
"You're focusing on K too much, he's not important,"
"But he could be!" Pargenti spoke up.
"HE'S NOT!" she bristled, turning to Pargenti who yelped and fled to OStar.
"WE'VE DISCUSSED THIS ALREADY!"
OStar let the little cat tuck herself safely under one of her silver wings, turning slightly away from her other part just in case she tried to attack Pargenti.
"Calm down and explain to me, why isn't K important?" she demanded in a stern voice, making the other force her fur to lie flat and answer.
"He's probably important to someone else, but every time I focused on your memories with him. I found nothing interesting. I even tried asking that runt, but of course she had nothing," the cat explained. "Even when we managed small snips of conversations or glimpses of him, all was normal. K walking past, saying hi. The only solid memory we have is-"
"The one with that lady. The day I left to go to OCTown," OStar cut in, remembering his slithery voice.
"...Yes," her other part said, ruffling her red wings. "He seems to just be a portal keeper to us, nothing more."
Pargenti made a small pouty noise but didn't say anything.
"You sure he's really not worth our time...?" OStar questioned, still uncertain. The look on Fatink's face had a lot of emotions; K wasn't just a normal portal keeper.
"OStar, idiot, listen,"
"Rude,"
"I don't care. K is nothing more than a literal side quest. The main goal is your memories, your purpose," she snarled, lashing her tail.
"My purpose?" OStar frowned, never having thought of it like that.
"What is my purpose anyways...?"
"You see? K is not likely to answer that, there are other people and things that can. Such as your home, remember?"
OStar slowly nodded, hadn't forgotten, never would.
It was only a day away anyways, tomorrow at midnight she would leave.
"So, focus on the task at hand, maybe you can worry about K some other time. If he really is a portal keeper, he won't be leaving his home anytime soon," she turned to glare at Pargenti. "That goes for you as well, fluff for brains. If OStar passes by him, maybe she can ask some questions, but she isn't going to put all her time into finding him."
"Alright, alright, fine. I'll forget about it," Pargenti hissed, turning and hiding deeper under the wing.
"Do I even get a say in this?" OStar protested, feeling like a little kid.
"No," the black cat responded before walking off.
OStar watched with a frown as she left before laying back down on her belly, tucking in her paws and sighing.
"I hope she's right about K being unimportant..."