What Side Didn’t Know Vol.2 – Arc 3, Unknown Perspective: A Journey’s End is Another’s Beginning;C1. Lucid

Whew, so sleepy.  The impending dusk isn’t helping… I really don’t want to be awake right now.  I’d rather still be resting.

There is an interesting glow coming from the entrance to the Gaia Tree.  It must be that hume these little folk keep calling ‘husband.’ Since he is to determine my fate, it can’t be helped that sleeping isn’t an option right now.

Honestly, these bearfolk can just shove off.  They act all haughty, but the only reason we’re all here right now is because of that troublesome dryad.  Why isn’t she monitoring her Gaia Tree? Last I knew, Gaia had stopped the rain to prevent those monsters from leaving their posts…

That glow, though… it’s odd.  This ‘husband’ is he a hume? That is a lot of runes on his skin.  His control of runes surely rivals a dragonfolk with a body like that.  What happened to cause such a person?

“Hello girls, I’m back!”  He… speaks oddly. I can’t quite place why I feel that way though.  I need to think about this some more.

“Husband!  Uh… um…” What is that bearfolk stuttering for?  Just greet him already.

“Hi daddy!”  The smart little dryadite hops off the female? Dryad, and… slithers? Over to the hume male.  I didn’t know dryads could use their appendages like that. The other dryadite stayed put.  I wonder why there is such a discrepancy between the two? Something to wonder upon in my dreams… I wish I could get back to them.

“Oh!”  The hume picks the dryadite up, and hugs it.  “Aren’t you a cute one? What has your mother named you?”

“Name?”  It cutely tilts its head.  So. Cute. If I was smaller, I would definitely cuddle it while I slept.

“Huh?”  He looks to the dryad.

“Ah, Food Source Tristain, all of the children were born today, we haven’t named them yet.”  Ah, so this ‘husband’ is… Tristain? Food source? What the…

“What?!  Why aren’t you all resting and recovering?!”  He seems somewhat distressed by this news. Dryads… well, they surely wouldn’t be affected by something so trivial.  And bearfolk are battle ready at all times. There is no concern there. Obviously, if it was a hume, that would be a different story…  Why is he acting so concerned?

“Husband, something like this surely wouldn’t keep us from welcoming you with a feast.”  … I’d like to disagree with the ‘feast’ part. That has yet to be decided.

“Ah, hah hah, if you say so…”

“More importantly, you seem to have… acquired quite the collection of runes there… much more than you came here with.  I thought only the enclave could inscribe runes?” The one named ‘queen’ spoke next. I’d rather not deal with her. She is the coward that liked to smash my head regularly while I was held down.  Violent wench. Lets name her that.

“Uh, yeah… is that so?  Huh. So… apparently the Goddess didn’t know how to get me back into my existing body after using that transmigration tool.  So as a side effect, she needed to grant me some additional runes to keep my body from breaking down when she reinserted me… something about forcibly something something causing an immune reaction.  Anyways… the white ones will disappear over time, and the blue ones stay… Still it’s more than I had to begin with…”

He… talked to the Goddess?  That’s… concerning…

“But that’s not the important bit right now!  I missed so much! How are you Dubhe? How are you Lillia?  How are the children? Tell me about what happened!” How grounded.  He seems to have a good head on his shoulders. Honestly though, he’s totally ignoring me.  Be a bit more concerned! I am an ancient dragonfolk! Where is your respect for your elders?  Can I go back to sleep now?

“R-right.  I’m okay.” So that must be Dubhe, the female bearfolk not named queen.  I know I’ve heard that before… Really though, all of this is happening, and I’m still waking up, a good deal of it just isn’t sticking in my mind properly.  “Uh, here are your bearfolk children… One son, one daughter… we were blessed with a bearfolk daughter… Oh! And those over there, with that hume woman… We have two hume sons!  And that is Lillia’s daughter. Then the dryadite in your arms is Lillia’s… And the one with Lillia… Well, we don’t know. We guess that is Lillia’s and mine?”

“They are all so wonderful… and this is an amazing number of children… Wait, did you just say that was your’s and Lillia’s?”

That’s what I want to know.  Surely I heard that wrong. Honestly, I didn’t know the races could interbreed anyways.  Let alone, have children from same gender parents.

“Uh… we think so.”  You sound so convincing.

“Yep, this is Dubhe’s and my dryadite.”

There is a prolonged silence.  Maybe I could go back to sleep, then wake up when everyone comes back to their senses.  Wait, am I even awake right now? That may explain all of the weird things happening right now…

“Huh.  I didn’t know you two had that sort of relationship.  Can I join in next time?”

Author’s Note:

Thanks for the support!  I am in your care! I really enjoyed writing this perspective.

Editor: DungeonPalmz